Head of House Speech (welcome, first years!) on Aladren Commons

Professor Rory Taransay

August 03, 2018 8:19 AM

Head of House Speech (welcome, first years!) by Professor Rory Taransay

After the chaos that had been last term, Rory was hoping for a calmer school year. As ever, his summer had been full of adventuring, studying Runespoors. His thirst for adventure filled for now, he was quite happy to return to Sonora and a simpler life, one spent teaching, marking essays, getting to know the new staff, and writing up his summer findings. A danger-free life was his for the next few months, assuming nothing went drastically wrong in any of his classes. Nothing had, as yet, but one could never be too careful when wild animals and potentially cocky kids were involved.

As the opening feast came to an end, Rory gathered his new Aladrens. There were three this year, keeping numbers fairly constant, and once again he thought how lucky he was being the Aladren head of house. He tended to have the more logical kids, reducing the chance of unexpected arguments and fallings out and other teenage drama. Merlin spare him the teenage drama.

Rory led his new students out of Cascade Hall and along the corridor until he reached the library. He entered and, making sure everyone was still with him, paused down a certain aisle, next to a certain book.

“Note this book; it’s the entrance to your common room,” he informed them, pulling the book as if it were a lever and thus revealing the door to the Aladren common room.
Once everyone had filed into the common room, he began his speech, his Scottish accent as prominent as ever. No amount of time spent in the United States seemed to change it.

“Welcome to Aladren. I’m your Head of House, Professor Taransay, and also the Care of Magical Creatures professor. I’m your first point of call if you have any questions, worries, or problems, so don’t hesitate to come and see me if you need help. This year’s head girl, Nevaeh Reed, is also an Aladren, and our house prefects are Zevalyn Ives and Emerald Brockert. They are also there to help you, if wish to speak to a student about something.

“The noticeboard in this common room will give you information about sports and clubs. We have lots of extracurricular activities, so do give them a try. You are also welcome to start a club if you think of something that isn’t already covered.

“The boys’ dormitories are up the stairs and to the left, whilst the girls’ dormitories are to the right. You are not allowed in any dormitory belonging to the opposite gender. Curfew is at 10pm, so please be in the common room or your dormitory by then. My office is just off the common room, and you’re welcome to come see me whenever you want.

“Does anyone have any questions, before I let you all go to explore, chat, unpack, etcetera?”

OOC: You can now post your character on any of the boards, except for other common rooms. Classes will be posted at different times on the class boards, so keep an eye out for those, as they’re a good place to meet other characters. You can also continue your conversations at the feast and at orientation – you can continue old threads whilst starting new ones, so long as they would not happen at the same time (we call this fuzzy time). If you have any questions, just ask in the chatzy. Good luck, and have fun!

Subthreads:

First night [Roommate tag Topaz/Alysia] by Ness McLeod

9 Professor Rory Taransay Head of House Speech (welcome, first years!) 33 Professor Rory Taransay 1 5

Ness McLeod

August 03, 2018 10:16 AM

First night [Roommate tag Topaz/Alysia] by Ness McLeod

Ness followed Professor Taransay to the Aladren Common Room. It being in the library was very cool, and his Scottish accent was nice. Dad and Aunt Catriona said they sounded American to their own ears, but everyone else still heard a distinctive highland twang when talking to them, and the two of them would sometimes exaggerate the accent a bit. It was a good accent. Warm, and comforting because it sounded like home, and exciting because it sounded far away and promised rolling hills and craggy rocks. Ness had only ever seen pictures of Scotland, seeing as the family wasn’t on speaking terms with the relatives back there, but it was decidedly beautiful.

The first year listened attentively, managing not to frown at the Professor, even though a Professor at all and an Aladren Head of House especially should have known the difference between gender and sex. He meant that they were not allowed into dormitories belonging to the opposite sex, because there could be no such thing as the opposite gender because it was a social construct and a lie. But Ness kept quiet and did not frown. Everyone at home had explained the sleeping arrangements of boarding school life. And, in some senses, yes they were stupid rules, but at the same time, the school had to arrange people in some sort of way, and also to try to prevent students getting up to inappropriate things together. As most people were straight (or certainly presumed themselves to be when teenagers, especially when blinkered by a heteronormative society) this way had a certain amount of logic to it. Also, straight sex got people pregnant, which was definitely a bad thing. Whilst all that was perfectly fine in theory, there had been two bits of advice which had really stuck, which were the reasons that the question of ‘Any questions?’ was not getting a debate about gender. The first bit advice had been from Mom. After checking that Ness did not, in terms of personal identity, have a problem with taking the expected/assigned room, and that this was more a… theoretical ‘on principal’ stance, she had pointed out very pragmatically, that the Head of Houses had little to do with designing the dorm room system, and that asking them about it was probably going to do very little except seem passive aggressive and piss them off. If Ness wanted to know more or change the system, it was something that needed research (how exactly did it work? What accommodation was in place for non-gender-binary students etc? Who were the right people to talk to about that if there were issues?). Those probably were not subjects for a first night question and answer session. The second reason had been Aunt Lola pointing out that, as a gay person, life dealt you very few advantages, but the ability to have a private hook up space if you went to boarding school was one of them, and not to knock that. This had been followed by suggesting that Ness did not mention to the rest of the family that she had said this, and that she certainly was not condoning the idea of roommate seduction on their first night. Or in general, really, until Ness was much, much older. Really. Please don’t.

Ness headed towards the stairs, ready to deflect the comments of anyone who thought that the first year had misremembered which ones for boys and which ones for girls, hoping that such comments didn’t come. That was supposed to have been the best bit with Evelyn - Ness didn’t know whether it counted as a surprise or not, whether Evelyn had worked it out or genuinely hadn’t been interested in what was under Ness’ robes, but if they’d got put in Aladren together, they would have been roommates. Ness had been trying to decide whether to tell Evelyn that once they were at the table together or to just let the situation speak for itself when they went upstairs together at the end of the night. But now Evelyn was in Pecari, and Ness did not think that Aunt Lola really needed to worry about the issue of opening night roommate seduction. The thought of seducing Evelyn had been vaguely appealing, both because Evelyn was so nice, and seemed so open minded (the most attractive quality in a person) and, for all that Ness had never previously been interested in make up, Evelyn’s lipstick had been very attention grabbing, and Ness couldn’t quite shake the idea of investigating whether it left little orange lip-shaped marks on people if Evelyn kissed them. Ness had glanced over to the Pecari table occasionally, especially when there had been an explosion. That had been the boy Evelyn was talking to covering himself in green sludge, and Ness had felt sorry for Evelyn, being stuck next to someone who was obviously a moron. In the morning though, house tables wouldn’t be mandatory (they only were for the feast), so Evelyn could spend the day as an Aladren, away from him.

For now though, it appeared that there were three of them in the biologically female first year dorm. Ness flopped down onto one of the beds, eyeing the other two, wondering if they were wondering what a boy was doing in their room. Hopefully Aladrens were smart enough to realise that, given that the corridor hadn’t had any issues, Ness was in the right room, in spite of appearance. In spite of the fact that the concept of ‘right room’ was fundamentally flawed.

“Hi. I’m Ness,” came the greeting.

13 Ness McLeod First night [Roommate tag Topaz/Alysia] 1419 Ness McLeod 0 5

Topaz Brockert

August 25, 2018 8:32 PM

So it is by Topaz Brockert

Topaz, though she surely wasn't showing it, was pleased to be at Sonora. She could not wait to learn how to use her magic and then use it in new experiments. So far, the first year had been seriously limited by the restrictions on underage magic. Not that she didn't sneak old wands to practice with. Restrictions on underage magic were super unfair. Topaz could kind of see it with Muggleborns, because it could violate the Statute of Secrecy, but she was never around Muggles and underage magic restrictions meant forcing children to be dependent on their parents or live what was basically the same as Muggles, by having to do things without magic. Neither of these options appealed to her. She was not a Muggle and she was superior in intellect to her mother. Her father too really, but her mother more so. Therefore, Mother should not be able to rule over her.

Luckily, they had house elves so it wasn't as if Topaz ever had to do chores. Chores were beneath her intellectually. She did not have time to waste on making her bed and picking up after herself. Even better was that house elves had to do what she told them, so they made ideal test subjects.

Topaz was also extremely pleased to be sorted into Aladren despite that Emerald was in it. In all honestly, she wanted to be away from her siblings and cousins unless it worked to her advantage to have them around. She would normally have wanted to use her sister's status as prefect but she knew full well that Emerald wasn't about to do her any favors.

Of course all she had to was let people think that Emerald would.

But Aladren was the house for brainy people and she was a brainy person. Now, instead of being surrounded by the intellectual inferiors that were her mother and siblings, she would be around other smart people who'd hopefully appreciate her genius. Of course, Topaz was likely still smarter than them the way she was smarter than Emerald, but at least they wouldn't be total idiots like those Pecaris she'd seen at the feast. The slime covering was standard Pecari behavior but she'd been rather aghast at the fact that the girl with the clownish lipstick had allowed Slimey to place his wand inside her mouth! Could someone be more stupid? Obviously they had to be Muggleborn because if they had magic in their families, they would know better.

Then again, maybe they'd be willing test subjects. That could be fun even if it did lack the psychological terror she usually inflicted on Allegra and Sapphire as well as the fact that them knowing ahead of time would possibly affect her data. Still, it was something to keep in mind and as they were obviously not members of pureblood society it would be easier for Topaz to get away with. Risks were too great when using members of society that she wasn't related to.

She followed the Head of House to the Aladren common room along with another girl and the boy who'd been talking to Clown Lips at Orientation. About the only really valuable information given was where the common room was located, how to get in to it, and which dorm was hers.

Topaz entered the room and began to unpack when someone spoke. She blinked. Apparently the person who she'd thought was a boy was not because otherwise, she would not be allowed on this side. "Hello Ness. I am Topaz Brockert of the Western Brockerts." She didn't bother with the curtsy as she didn't think she needed to and removed her taxidermied raccoon. Topaz placed it on top of her dresser with pride.

11 Topaz Brockert So it is 1427 Topaz Brockert 0 5

Ness

September 01, 2018 9:23 PM

The raccoon in the room by Ness

Topaz Brocket of the Western Brockerts’ introduction put her teeth on edge. Was all of that really necessary upon meeting your roommate? A roommate who had introduced themselves by abbreviated first name only? The only conclusion that Ness could draw was that Topaz Brockert of the Western Brockerts thought all those bits of information about herself to be terribly fascinating and important.

But… Aunt Catriona might well have gone around introducing herself as Catriona McLeod of the Highland McLeods when she had been a first year.

Dad might well have gone around introducing himself as Fionn McLeod of the Highland McLeods when he had been a first year.

Ness struggled to mesh that idea with the mental picture of the current McLeod family. It was just so alien. Surely, whatever else Aunt Catriona and Dad had been like at school, they had been underlying nice though. Aunt Catriona had always liked Aunt Lola, even though she was Muggleborn. It was hard to imagine her putting on airs and graces with her. But maybe she had been like that, at the beginning.

Ness was about to try to tell Topaz Brockert of the Western Brockerts that it was nice to meet her. This was not strictly speaking true yet. But they had to share a room for seven years. And Ness had been forced to endure several talks about ‘not pissing people off’ before being allowed to leave for school. Only stupid people tended to be annoyed by the first year, and Ness couldn’t see why other people’s stupidity was anyone’s problem except their own. Ness was certainly not willing to be any less intelligent just to preserve the feelings of morons. Still… they had to share a room. And maybe Aunt Catriona had been like this once. Was Topaz Brockert of the Western Brockerts underlyingly nice, and redeemable in spite of her fancy introduction? That was the question. And Ness should at least try to answer that before clapping back about her name.

However, before Ness could make a go of saying ‘nice to meet you,’ Topaz pulled out a stuffed raccoon. And not as in the snuggly variety. As in a real actual dead raccoon, which she placed on top of the wardrobe, and thus the words that came out of Ness’ mouth instead were “What the hell is that?!”

13 Ness The raccoon in the room 1419 Ness 0 5

Topaz

September 12, 2018 11:33 AM

And the frog too by Topaz

Topaz was slightly taken aback by the words that came out of her roommate's mouth. Not the profanity even though she had always been taught it was unladylike to swear. Not that she really cared much as she thought a lot of the ladylike things were awfully silly. As much as Topaz liked to take advantage of her position in life as a Brockert to get what she wanted-and as Mortimer Brockert's granddaughter to get advantages around school, such as permission to use the restricted section of the library-she didn't truly fit that pureblood girl mold. She wasn't a perfect little lady like Ruby and Amethyst and her cousin Esme. Or even Allegra or Sapphire. In fact, even Emerald fit better than she did.

Topaz felt she was above all that. She had gifts that were not bestowed on her sisters-or really brother either-or cousins. (Even if she did grudgingly admit Emerald and Isla seemed bright though of course, it bugged her when people commented on her little cousin's precociousness. She was supposed to be the precocious one, the intelligent one. People had said that about her when she was Isla's age and now they were saying it about Isla instead. It was grating.)

In all honesty, she didn't really like the idea of being a pureblood housewife and socialite. It sounded boring. And then she'd be expected to procreate. Topaz didn't have a nurturing bone in her body, but then neither did her mother and she had six children. That was not happening, no matter how much her husband wanted an heir. Maybe if she married someone not an heir to an entire family, there would be less pressure on her.

For even more than she resented praised heaping on Isla for being precocious, she resented the preference some purebloods had for boys. The fact that her parents hadn't wanted her or Ruby or Sapphire or really even Emerald and all they were attempts to get their heir. Never mind that Topaz was so incredibly superior to Jasper. Granted, he wasn't defective like Sapphire was but he wasn't on par with her .

Anyway, the issue that she took with her roommate's question was that the question seemed so...like it did not need asking. What the first year had was not some magical creature that a Muggleborn would be unfamiliar with, it was a simple ordinary common raccoon. "A raccoon." Topaz replied as if it should be completely obvious. Because it was.

Honestly, this was Aladren . The other girl should have been able to figure that out. Even the dumbest Pecari would be able to identify a raccoon. Why was she here if she didn't know that? Aladrens were supposed to be smart!

The raccoon's eyes blinked as if it knew they were talking about him, and he moved slightly on his mount, his paw seemingly beckoning towards Ness. Topaz grinned with pride. That magical stuffing was working nicely. "I stuffed him myself. Great isn't it? I've been doing taxidermy for a few years now and it's a ton of fun. I hope to move on to bigger creatures soon. I hope Care of Magical Creatures will inspire me. It would be so much fun to do a garden gnome."

Topaz reached into her trunk. "I also have this ." She pulled out a frog on a mount. Even though it was smaller and easier to catch than the raccoon, it had been harder in terms of getting it to move the way she wanted. However, she had managed to go past eye blinking. Topaz placed it next to the raccoon.

A moment passed and then it happened. The frog made a leaping motion. "I really would like to be able to make it croak too."

11 Topaz And the frog too 1427 Topaz 0 5

Ness

September 24, 2018 9:21 AM

I see your dead animals and raise you all the gay by Ness

The ‘explanation’ that it was a racoon received a solid eye roll, even though it was the kind of passive aggressive and sarcastic response that Ness might well have given had the situation been reversed.

“Obviously,” the first year replied. The facts that it was a very dead raccoon and was in their room were clearly the issues at hand Topaz did go on to explain, stating that taxidermy was her hobby. Ness would have assumed she was joking, especially about the garden gnomes, except the evidence to the contrary was twitching and beckoning from the top of the wardrobe.

“How can you enjoy stuffing dead animals, that’s horrible?” Ness asked, totally appalled. The fact that it was Topaz’ hobby, and the note of pride that had been in the girl’s voice, might - had this been Teppenpaw - been cause to try a subtler tack. But there was a reason Ness had not ended up in the diplomatic house. “And the title of the class is Care of Magical Creatures. I don’t think Professor Taransay will be too impressed by you wanting to stuff them!” Ness added, somewhat sanctimoniously. The idea of being out of favour with a teacher was about the worst kind of censure the first year could imagine.

Ness flipped open the trunk at the end of the bed, deciding to fight fire with fire. Or rather, decor with decor. It was a little hard to find the desired items - they were easily accessible, packed on the top, but Ness’ hands had to do the searching mostly unaided because it was hard to not watch the racoon and the frog, and the girl who had put them there, afraid of what they might be doing if they went unwatched.

Ness sat sideways on the bed, so that the creepy assembly stayed in peripheral vision. A large rainbow flag was unrolled, and pinned to the wall by the bed. Ness then began surrounding this with various postcards, the messages of which were not particularly subtle. ’Some people are gay, get over it. Liberté, Egalité, Homosexualité. Queer Without Fear. Even if Topaz did not know what those words meant or what the rainbow flag symbolised, the point was underlined by both more general liberal messages ‘Equal rights for all’ and various pictures of boys kissing boys and girls kissing girls, including a particular favourite which depicted a Muslim woman in a rainbow burka.

13 Ness I see your dead animals and raise you all the gay 1419 Ness 0 5