Concert Planning - all those interested, please report! on Teppenpaw Commons

Georgia and Kir

February 02, 2019 8:44 AM

Concert Planning - all those interested, please report! by Georgia and Kir

Georgia was actually really excited for the concert. The first time it had happened, she had wanted nothing to do with being on a stage, feeling too fat, too useless and too unwanted. And her dad had been… not exactly disappointed in her, because that was too harsh a word. But he had seemed to think she should have been up there. And when she had joined the school choir, he had been excited, and he and she had binge watched every film and series about show choirs in the holidays, and ‘choir’ and ‘school concert’ were things he could understand and join in with. And now there was a second chance at that - for him to come to her school and be part of something she had done here. And even if the choir wasn’t going to perform, she was basically in charge of Teppenpaw’s performance, which was even better, because it meant she got to make the decisions and she could even sing the songs she wanted to sing. Well, so long as she could justify how they related to Teppenpaw, anyway.

She had checked a suitable time for the meeting with Kir and Eden, and pinned a nice bright notice to the board, inviting those who wanted to be part of Teppenpaw’s performance to meet in the common room one evening after classes.

Kir was already there when she arrived, and she sat down next to him.

“Would you say ‘be yourself’ is a Teppenpaw value?” she asked, “Because if it is, then all the songs I want to do totally fit.”

“Pretty sure this is a democracy not a dictatorship,” came the reply.

Georgia suppressed a sigh. That was a very Kir answer. As in, it was not really an answer and she didn’t actually know what he meant. She wasn’t sure if he did that on purpose to seem smart or just had no clue how obtuse he was (and how up himself he sounded) but either way, it was really irritating.

“Meaning?” she was forced to fish.

“Meaning it might be nice to give the rest of the house a say.”

“They put the prefects in charge. I’m leading.”

“I think we should ask what everyone wants to do. And what they’re good at. We might have more actors than singers, for example.”

“Do you want to run this meeting?” Georgia asked. And it was so obvious it was a rhetorical question. One to remind Kir that she was the senior prefect here. And Kir did know that, but he was also convinced he would do a better job than Georgia, and if she gave him an opening like that…

“Sure,” he shrugged, with a smile, and an air of being as kind and helpful as he could be.

“I was kidding.”

“Ok. But don’t go ramming your agenda down everyone’s throats,” Kir responded, deciding that the Teppenpaw value of ‘diplomacy’ could mean being as blunt as a rusty cleaver when it was necessary. It just meant you had tried and exhausted all polite ways of framing it first. And he was taking an interest in the growth of Georgia by teaching her to be a better leader.

Georgia suppressed another sigh and a glare. This time because not only was Kir being smug and self-righteous but he was probably also right. Or at least, being a better Teppenpaw than she was. She didn’t want to listen to what all the first years wanted to do. She wanted to do what she wanted to do. She wasn’t sure she could work with Kir for however long planning a concert meeting took and not want to strangle him. He was fine, and he was a good person, and all that, but she felt like she could only take him in small doses. It might have been better if she could vent about how working with him was a drag but her best friend happened to be his girlfriend. She supposed she could try complaining to Juniper. It wasn’t like her roommate would tell anyone what she had said.

Once Eden was there, and it seemed like anyone who was interested was assembled they began.

“Right. So, welcome to our first planning meeting for the concert,” Georgia began, “I’m Georgia, this is Kir and Eden, we’re you’re prefects. And…. um. We’re really interested in what everyone would like to do for the concert. Personally, I’m really interested in us doing a selection of songs. Preferably with some choreography. I’ve been involved with the choir for a number of years here and also take vocal lessons,” she added, feeling the need to establish her credentials. “But we’re interested to hear everyone’s ideas.”

“Why don’t we go around and do some introductions?” Kir chipped in, feeling that whilst Georgia was saying she wanted everyone’s ideas she wasn’t exactly going about gathering them. He gave her the benefit of the doubt and chalked this up to not really being sure how to run the meeting rather than being a control freak, for now. She had always seemed quite a chill kind of person, but she’d obviously got particular ideas into her head about what she wanted this to be. “Why don’t we go around and we can all say what we’d like the concert performance to look like, and what skills or talents we have. Oh, and what Teppenpaw means to you - we all know the house values, but we’re probably going to have to interpret those a bit. Anything you’d like to add?” he checked with Georgia, who shook her head with a polite smile.

“Ok. Well, as Georgia said… My name’s Kir. I don’t have particularly strong feelings about what kind of show we put on. I can play a bit of piano, but expect that anyone else here who plays does so better than me. And I think Teppenpaw is about being able to understand others and trying to make the world a better place. Next?” he invited.

13 Georgia and Kir Concert Planning - all those interested, please report! 346 Georgia and Kir 1 5

Jozua Sparks

February 02, 2019 12:07 PM

Why do I keep doing things I don't want to do? by Jozua Sparks

Jozua did not know why he was even here. Last year, it would have been obvious - he'd be there to support Joe - but this year, he didn't have a close friendship with the senior prefect of his house, and while he was getting along with Kir better now than he had initially, Jozua still wasn't sure he'd go so far as to call them close friends yet. Friends, sure, he'd grant that much after working with him on his history studies, but not close enough to feel obligated to join the Concert based on him being one of the organizers. And while he knew Eden from Quidditch, and had sworn on his honor at one point to try not to let her die, he felt even less obligation to join the Concert based on her prefectliness than he did based on Kir's. Of the three, he somehow knew the one from his own grade the least well. Mostly when he thought of Georgia Kirkly, he remembered Professor Skies telling her to keep an eye on him when his Plague had been acting up. That had been uncomfortable for both of them and hardly a foundation for any kind of friendship.

Which meant it wasn't personal loyalty that had him arriving at the Common Room promptly for the Concert Meeting. It had to be House loyalty, then, the same as what got him drafted into Quidditch at the beginning, when Teppenpaw needed bodies to fill out its roster, never mind he wasn't any good at it.

Likewise, he expected to have very little to contribute to a concert act. Especially since Georgia had talked about song and dance routines, and . . . Jozua was even worse at singing than he had been at Quidditch in the beginning. And he'd been terrible at Quidditch in the beginning. Even after six years of practice, he was only barely scraping into competent. He was marginally capable of ballroom dance, but doubted that would carry over much into group choreography.

He really should not have come today. Teppenpaw would be better served without him there. At the last concert, he'd been one of the act organizers, being a club leader, but he didn't think there was any overlap between a showcase of the dueling club and a showcase of the Teppenpaw values. In fact, he'd had to think long and hard at night sometimes about why he was even in Teppenpaw instead of Pecari, which was the House of action and adventure, and far more likely to feature dueling somewhere in it's act.

The answer he'd come up with was echoed in Kir's words. Jozua was all about action and adventure. He was the Dueling Club president. He excelled best in DADA (well, DADA and potions, but he was only good at potions because he'd spent so much time in his early years learning how to safely blow things up). It was his motive that was different from, say, Lily's, whose interests and goals were very similar to his own. Whereas she wanted the experiences and excitement in their own rights, Jozua was there because he wanted to, erm, . . . protect the world from the monsters.

He wanted to be the knight in shining armor who saved the day, protected the town, and defeated evil.

Like Kir said. Make the world a better place.

And now he was on the spot. "I'm Jozua Sparks," he said, then cursed himself because none of the prefects had used last names, so he shouldn't have either, but it was too late to take it back now. "Um, to me, Teppenpaw is about working together, and, um, helping out when your help is needed," even if you don't really want to, he added internally and wished this particular value was a bit weaker in his own personality so he wouldn't have to be here right now, "and, yeah," he nodded at Kir to offer credit as he plagiarized the younger student, "trying to make the world a better, safer place."

"And you don't want me singing, at all, and probably not dancing either," he continued, "but I could maybe do something back stage, like dramatic spell effects or something. I'm, ah," aw, heck, it was his senior year, and he'd been good for two long years, "really good at safely producing fire and smoke and contained explosions and flashy lights."

If Georgia and the others could work those into the act, he might even have fun. He missed blowing things up so bad.

1 Jozua Sparks Why do I keep doing things I don't want to do? 348 Jozua Sparks 0 5

Johana Leonie Zauberhexen

February 02, 2019 9:57 PM

Lass uns ein Konzert planen. by Johana Leonie Zauberhexen

Johana Leonie understood very little of everything that was happening. In fact, she'd understood so little of the what was happening with this whole concert thing that she'd spent most of Saturday morning trying to eavesdrop in the Common Room. Her English was still awful and she spent as much time with her nose in Hilda's dictionary as anything else. Literacy had never been particularly important at home, which made it harder anyway, but she'd found that spending time in places where she could eavesdrop generally helped. At least she was starting to pick up on some common English sentences and things.

When she'd finally figured out what the concert was, she'd decided she couldn't possibly do anything but help. Music and dancing was a huge part of life at home and she could hardly imagine life without it. Now that she didn't have to, it wasn't so bad. The prefects spoke first and Johana Leonie tried her best to understand everything that was happening, but when the prefects finished and another boy spoke next, she was utterly lost.

He said his name, though, and that was helpful. She made a mental note, hoping she could remember Joshua pretty easily. Joshua . . . it sounded different in her head than when he'd said it. She put that thought aside for now and hoped somebody would say his name again.

In the meantime, she took the opportunity to speak a sentence she'd been practicing all morning. "I'm Johana Leonie. I dance," she said. "I dance at home." There were other words that would be better but she couldn't think of any of them. "I to want help!" She offered a happy smile, eager to be of use.

22 Johana Leonie Zauberhexen Lass uns ein Konzert planen. 1432 Johana Leonie Zauberhexen 0 5

Georgia and Kir

February 03, 2019 4:58 AM

Yeah. That. by Georgia and Kir

Georgia almost jumped in as soon as Jozua had finished speaking because what he had said had a very definite reaction turning over in her mind, but one of the first years spoke up next.

“That’s good,” she smiled encouragingly, both at the fact that she could dance (which definitely wasn’t Georgia’s strong point) and that she wanted to help.

“We could do ‘Firework’ by Katy Perry,” she suggested excitedly, “That’d tie in with the stuff Jozua can do. And you like it too,” she added to Kir before he could say she was making it all about her again. The fact that it was on her shortlist of songs was just super convenient, and the excitement she had over having an excuse to do one of them had her totally missing any subtext to Jozua’s remarks. He was Jozua. Jozua had said ‘explosions.’ That just seemed normal. The contrast between uncontrolled and controlled ones had been lost on her both because subtleties often were and because she was too excited about song choices. Kir had noticeably suppressed a knowing smile but he was neither going to pull Jozua up on that comment in front of everyone nor report him to any teachers.

“Does it represent Teppenpaw?” Kir queried.

“Erm. Sure. Believe in yourself. Be yourself. That’s… totally the kind of thing people in here would say. Right?” she appealed to the group at large.

Kir enlarged a spare piece of parchment, deciding his current note keeping method wasn’t cutting it, and made it hover so everyone could see. He drew three columns, heading one ‘people/skills,’ one ‘general ideas’ and one ‘specific ideas.’ In the first column he wrote ‘Georgia - singing, Kir - piano (badly), Jozua - explosions etc,’ he left a space and added ‘ - dancing/helping’ before asking the first year to repeat her name for him, and to spell it. In the middle column he wrote ‘Musical performance - songs, dancing. Drama’ technically no one had floated a vote for that year but he had given one for ‘or whatever/anything’ and thought he should make sure that anyone with non-musical inclinations felt comfortable coming forward. In the final column he wrote ‘Firework - Katy Perry’ to show Georgia that she was being listened to without committing to any firm plans yet. Starting a new bit of parchment he wrote ‘Teppenpaw’ in the centre, and then drew branches off with the things people were saying about it. So far they had ‘friendly,’ ‘make the world better,’ and ‘be yourself.’ He gave the middle comment a tap to make it bigger because it had been repeated, something he could do with any of them, so that the more often a word was said, the bigger it would appear on the final diagram. He nodded to the next person in the circle to show they could continue.

(OOC - normally multi person threads go in the order people post. I am guessing most people won’t want much input after making their initial suggestions, so sort of plan on letting anyone who wants to do so voice their ideas with Kir and Georgia jumping in as necessary/as they feel like, given that they are chairing. If anyone wants to do it differently, or their character has a burning desire to respond to another suggestion, just float in on the OOC or in chatzy. People can assume that what they say gets added by Kir to the relevant parchments).

13 Georgia and Kir Yeah. That. 346 Georgia and Kir 0 5

Dorian Montoir

February 08, 2019 5:38 AM

Baby steps by Dorian Montoir

Dorian was a little bit anxious about attending the concert meeting. But he thought he had read it correctly that it was for anyone who wanted to be involved, and he very much did want to be involved, and to help - he just didn’t have anything to offer in terms of being on stage. He listened carefully to other people’s contributions. Kir mentioned not being very good at piano at happy to leave that role to anyone else who could play but Dorian suspected he was worse. He played for fun, for his sister, and they sang songs together but he wasn’t good enough to do either of those things in front of other people. When Jozua spoke, Dorian was relieved to find that he was not the only one who wanted an off-stage role. He also noted with interest the difficulties in forming English sentences and the pronounced accent of the girl who went before him. He identified her accent as neither Russian nor French, and made a note to try to talk to her at some stage. Clearly she wasn’t suffering a crisis of confidence if she’d shown up to a whole house meeting, but it was probably nice to know there were other people who were, in some respects, like her. He certainly found that helped.

“Yes. I… think of this as being Teppenpaw,” he answered Georgia’s question. “Being kind is accepting people. Teppenpaw has many different people, and you cannot imagine that someone would be unkind about your differences. Tolerance, maybe is a good word,” he added. He had not really meant to say quite so much when he just… broadly agreed with everyone else but, even though her question had been put to the group at large, he felt he should acknowledge what Georgia had said as he was next to speak, and then it had just sort of… kept going.

“I- My name is Dorian. I do not want to go on stage, but I want to do helping, with effects. But not what you wanted to make,” he added quickly to Jozua. He didn’t want to seem like he was treading on the older boy’s toes, or particularly be put on a team with him because Jozua still scared him somewhat - in spite of being a Teppenpaw, he was captain of the duelling club, which freaked Dorian out. Jozua was also into making explosions and… all the kinds of things boys were supposed to want to do. And, as usual, Dorian just had to pick something that sounded like a girls’ job… He supposed he could just say he’d help, do whatever, and leave it to someone to probably end up designating him roughly what he wanted to do, because it was the obvious thing that was left within ‘effects’ once you took out explosions. Or he could trust in everything he had said so far about his fellow Teppenpaws, and admit it for himself. Because even though some boys wanted to make explosions didn’t mean it had to be a problem that he didn’t. “Maybe lights charms, or I… can make things pretty,” he offered, really glad that he didn’t have a tendency to blush because his face definitely felt really warm right now.

13 Dorian Montoir Baby steps 1401 Dorian Montoir 0 5

Ivy Brockert

February 21, 2019 6:05 PM

I doubt that will be enough by Ivy Brockert

Ivy was honestly really disappointed that she hadn't gotten prefect. And, nothing against Eden, but she didn't know why either. She was-according to her classmates-friendly, smart, involved and creative. And likely to be found in the library but that one probably wasn't necessarily a quality that prefects had. Unless they were in Aladren maybe. Emerald and Zevalyn had both gotten it.

Anyway, Ivy was in the orchestra, the garden club, and on the school paper. And she'd put a lot into two of the three activities. Plus, she got good grades and was kind and friendly to everyone, even certain people who'd been unnecessarily rude to her. Eden....was nice enough and Ivy didn't know about her grades, since that would be horribly rude to ask and they didn't matter to the Teppenpaw anyway since she did not judge others by them. However, she thought that they would be taken into consideration when prefects were picked.

And she wasn't trying to insult her roommate. Not really, it was just that Ivy was honestly hurt. What was so terrible about her? First someone she'd never even met was nasty to her for no reason and now she didn't get prefect.

Still, she was trying-very hard-to be a good sport about it. Ivy did not want to be a sore loser. Maybe she'd get Head Girl. Her peers must have liked her well enough to vote her for so many yearbook awards. Still, it was highly disappointing not to be impressive to the staff. Besides, they were the ones who picked who went on the Head Student ballot in the first place. If she wasn't good enough for prefect, would she even be good enough to make it? Clearly the staff thought she was lacking, though she couldn't figure out in what.

Ivy had to keep trying though, to make everyone like her. She had to keep being involved, though she had to be careful not to end up like Chaslyn and on the verge of a nervous breakdown by the time she graduated. Then again, Chaslyn had gotten prefect and Head Girl. Would Ivy have to give as much of herself as her cousin had just to be liked by both the staff and her peers? Even though that wasn't why Chaslyn had done so.

However, because of that, the Teppenpaw decided to participate in the concert. That had to look good to people, right? Besides, at the very least, she could try to hang on to her yearbook awards.

She joined the others gathered in the common room for the meeting, trying not to think of how badly she wished it was her in Eden's place. Ivy listened as the others talked while also trying to think of what she considered Teppenpaw values. When it was her turn, she said. "I'm Ivy Brockert of the Western Brockerts. To me, being a Teppenpaw means caring about others, being nice to everyone and being helpful." She went on, "As for my skills, I play the piccolo and I can sing okay. I also am good with plants" though that wasn't likely to be very helpful. "I do know how to do ballroom dancing, but not really other kinds so much." Ivy finished, wondering if what she could contribute was enough. It had to be.

11 Ivy Brockert I doubt that will be enough 394 Ivy Brockert 0 5

Zara

February 23, 2019 3:16 AM

Making suggestions by Zara

Zara was a curious person - she liked to be involved, liked to try things out. She wasn’t always the most committed, preferring to sample a little bit of everything that life had to offer. The concert suited her, more or less. Yes, there would probably be a period where it took over all their lives and it was nothing but rehearsing the same few things over and over, but it was a short term project - they would do it, it would be fun, and then she would be free to move onto the next thing.

She was excited to see that her room-mate had joined the meeting, and gave Johana-Leonie an encouraging gap-toothed smile as she took her seat. She listened to the contributions. She hadn’t come to the meeting with much of an idea of what the performance should look like. Acting seemed like fun but she didn’t mind if they didn’t get to do it. She knew she was an okay singer, so doing what Georgia was suggesting worked too. More or less...
“Hi, I’m Zara,” she said when it got to her turn, “I can sing okay. I’ve never had dance classes but I think I dance okay - I could do a decent job if someone was showing me what to do.” She had briefly been a Boston Cultural Center champion of ‘Dance Dance Revolution’ but that involved more jumping and insistent foot stamping than actual moving. Still, she danced - because who didn’t dance? - and she knew she had rhythm. She copied her cousin’s moves whenever he was around, and he was definitely a good dancer.

“I agree with the descriptions of Teppenpaw so far. I don’t have any specific songs I’d like to request right now, but if we’re pinning ourselves as being ‘the house of diversity’ that should probably be represented in our song selection too - so, not just things by straight white people. I could probably come up with some songs and get back to you.”

13 Zara Making suggestions 1444 Zara 0 5

Ruby Brockert

March 19, 2019 5:26 PM

Joining in by Ruby Brockert

Ruby had had a wonderful summer. She had visited Dorian and met his mother and sister. She'd also spent more time getting to know Dean. Plus, Aunt Shannon was pregnant again with what both Emerald and Uncle Ben had referred to-on separate occasions and with different tones- as "Baby U", so that was very exciting.

And speaking of babies, Professor Xavier had his around the Teppenpaw common room on a regular basis. It was so cool seeing little Theodora. She wouldn't be in the same year as Baby U though, she'd be a year ahead of him or her, with Libby. Maybe Libby and Theodora would be roommates or even friends!

There was also the concert this year. It seemed like it would be such fun! So far Ruby had really enjoyed all the midsummer events and she doubted this would be an exception. Of course, neither her sisters nor her cousin really agreed. Emerald was only participating because she was a prefect and Topaz and Allegra-for presumably vastly different reasons-were completely uninterested. Anyway, it wasn't as if they'd have been doing it together since they were in different houses than Ruby was.

She joined the others assembled for the concert, sitting down next to Dorian. She was pleased to see the other fourth year among them. While she couldn't use this activity as a bonding experience with her sisters or Allegra, maybe she could bond more with him. Dorian was probably her closest friend here, and a good enough one that she'd been invited to his house and met his mother and sister-an invite that lead to numerous teasing from some of her siblings, and pestering from Mother. They did the same thing about Dean-but she knew he was better friends with Jehan and Tatiana. However, they were in different houses than he was.

Ruby listened to the other students say what Teppenpaw meant to them and talked about their skills. When it was her turn, she said. "I'm Ruby Brockert, of the Western Brockerts and I agree with the values named for Teppenpaw so far. As for talents, I can sing. In fact, I guess I run the choir now." Angelique had graduated and so had groomed her to take over. "I'm also really good at arranging flowers." Maybe Ivy could grow some and Ruby could arrange them? "Oh and I can do ballroom dancing and some ballet. And I know the piano a little but am not great."

11 Ruby Brockert Joining in 1405 Ruby Brockert 0 5