Nathan Xavier
October 16, 2020 7:03 PM
Head of House Speech by Nathan Xavier
OOC: It is not required that you reply to this post, but you may if you'd like. BIC:
Nathan Xavier rubbed his eyes and stood up from the staff table once it looked like the new Teppenpaws were done eating. He was excited to meet his new students, but also exhausted. Otto had not yet learned the trick of sleeping through the night, and Nathan was quite ready to move on to that stage of sleep development.
"Hello, first years" he greeted the new Teppenpaw students, once he had collected the small group of them. He smiled, glad for the temporary second wind that had come with greeting his new charges for the first time. "Welcome to Teppenpaw! I am your new Head of House, Professor Xavier, and your Herbology teacher. Follow me, please, and we'll head over to our common room, your home away from home for the next seven years while you're here at Sonora."
He pointed out landmarks to help them find their way back to the Cascade Hall for breakfast tomorrow, and made conversation to get to know them a bit. It didn't come quite as easily as it normally did, but the years of practice helped. He'd always liked to foster a familiar family-like atmosphere in Teppenpaw and that started with getting to know each student as a person as well as sharing enough information about himself so he wouldn't feel like a strange adult who had no personal investment in them. He did mention he had a wife, a preschooler, and an infant living with him here at the school, so they'd probably meet them over the course of the year as well, particularly since his wife was Professor Carter-Xavier, Pecari's Head of House, and the on-staff substitute teacher.
"The Hospital Wing," he pointed out as they passed by its door. "With luck, you won't need it too much, but if you do, our House is located conveniently close to it. We'll just head up these stairs here, and," he stopped only partway up, "here we are." He pointed down to the step he was standing on. "Look for the diamond shaped chip," he stated, pointing at it.
"You'll need to dance a jig on the chipped stair to open the Common Room," he continued. "It goes like this." He demonstrated. He was overweight, sleep deprived, and in his mid-fifties. So it wasn't a pretty jig. Fortunately, it didn't have to be pretty. It was the steps that mattered, not their rhythm or grace, and after sixteen years of being the Teppenpaw Head - Merlin, that was well before any of these kids had been born - he could do those in his sleep. "Repeat it two more times. Try it with me." He offered corrections when he saw mistakes, then at the end of the third repetition of step, step, step, heel-click, tap, tap, and shuffle, the wall beside him opened up, revealing the Teppenpaw Common Room, decorated in muted yellow and maroon tones.
They went in, Nathan taking the rear, and closing the wall behind him. On this side, it just looked like a door. In Nathan's opinion, the Teppenpaw Common Room was a nice relaxing space and he enjoyed spending an hour or so of each day sitting on one of the comfortable couches or chairs scattered about the room, in the hopes that familiarity bred trust and the students would voluntarily come to him if they had any issues with anything. He wasn't sure how much Otto would throw that pattern into chaos this year, but he intended to try to keep it up.
"Your House is like your family here. As your Head of House, I'm the one responsible for your safety and well being and I take that responsibility very seriously. I just ask you all to respect one another and school property and we shouldn't have too many problems." As this was Teppenpaw, the House of diplomacy and friendship, the problems in that regard were thankfully quite few. Even when there were problems, they tended more toward implosion than explosive collateral damage. "Also, curfew begins at ten so please be back here or in your room by that time and keep your noise level to minimum so your Housemates can sleep. Your rooms are up those stairs there, boys on the left, girls to the right; don't go up the wrong one or you'll end up back down here. Your year number is on your door, and each year group gets its own room."
He pointed over to the wall beside where they had entered. "The bulletin board is over there. That's where we post school and club announcements. Our prefects are Nathaniel Mordue who we are proud to share also earned Head Boy this year, Katerina Vorontosov, and Zara Jackson." If any of the prefects happened to be around the Commons either by intent or chance, he pointed them out as he said their name. "Prefects are students appointed by the staff to help you find your way around or otherwise be of assistance to you. They can be recognized by the badges they wear. So any of those three, or myself, are good ones to ask questions or bring problems to or just talk to if you need a sounding board for anything."
"Finally, unless there are any questions, I think that's about it from me. Again, welcome to Teppenpaw. Breakfast is at seven, and I have more maps next to my office over there if you can't find yours." He gestured to a small box set next to a door labeled PROFESSOR XAVIER - OFFICE.
OOC: Welcome to Sonora and Teppenpaw House! You may reply here with questions or just chat with and get to know your Housemates. You are now welcome to post your new Teppenpaw student on any board except the common rooms of other Houses or the Lounges, because first year Teppenpaw students aren't allowed in those places. You may continue your feast and orientation posts as long as you would like to, thanks to fuzzy time which basically means that while these things can be happening at the same time out of character, in character, they are clearly happening a different times, so your character can be involved in all of them. Have fun! And we are always happy to help answer questions on the OOC board or Chatzy if you have any!
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