Selina Skies
October 18, 2020 11:42 PM
Head of House Speech by Selina Skies
Selina had a lot of checking to do in the first few days of term, as could only be expected. She had already checked in on Giselle before the feast, although she would make sure they had plenty of catch ups as she settled in. Killian and Mary were both on her list, the former because of what she suspected had occurred during the summer, and the latter because she was dealing with the upheval of her wife being absent. Of course, Mary would not be a prisoner on campus (and would probably be substantially less busy during her office hours now that Dorian Montoir had graduated). As Tabitha's research put Mary in the position of having an offsite spouse, her own comings and goings had been discussed as part of those arrangements. Tabitha would probably do more coming than Mary would do going out, but both were options. It would be a big adjustment, and one Selina wanted to make sure everyone was coping with. In some ways, she was glad to have so many of other people's problems to deal with. Maybe it would stop her thinking too much about her own.For now though, her duty was to deal with the incoming students. As the feast faded away, she made her way over to the Crotalus table to collect her new charges. As usual, there weren't many, Sonora being a small school, although she had noticed that she had one of a set of identical twins. That would potentially keep her on her toes, though luckily they seemed to have different enough haircuts that she would be able to tell them apart.
"Hello, new first years gather around," she instructed. "My name is Professor Skies and I am your Head of House. If you'll follow me, I'll take you to show you where you'll be living and sleeping here at school."
With that, she led them out of the hall, their path quickly diverging from the other groups of students. She pointed out useful landmarks as they made their way through the school towards Crotalus. After the last of these, she paused in order to foreworn them about the last stop on the tour.
"Around the corner is the entrance to Crotalus Common Room. It is guarded by a rather unusual portrait, which some of you may find slightly disturbing. Gunther is an inferus, which is a reanimated corpse. However, he is just a painting, and whilst the paintings here can move and talk, they cannot interact any further with our world, and cannot hurt you. The worst Gunther can do is refuse you access to the Common Room if you forget the password. He can also hear you, so please be polite." Admittedly, she was not sure how much he could understand but instilling a basic expectation of good manners didn't seem like it could hurt.
Leading them around the corner, she made her way over to Gunther who shuffled and moaned.
"Cauldron cleaner," she told him, and the portrait swung open like a door. "That is our password for this month. New passwords will be displayed on the notice board over there. The location and entry details to Crotalus Common Room should not be revealed to any students outside of this house," she stated. She tried not to stare too pointedly at whichever Mr. Spellman it was, as being sorted into her house indicated that he wasn't particularly likely to need reminders about the rules, but she did do her best to get a moment of eye contact and to know that he knew that she Really Meant That. "The notice board is also used for announcements about clubs and events, as well as occasional notices from teachers, so keep an eye on it.
"Crotalus will be your home whilst you are at school. You have been sorted here because of your personalities and your values, and we hope that means you have a high chance of getting on with your housemates. When that isn't possible, you will still be required to treat people here with kindness and respect, and should expect it in return. If anyone is not treating you that way, or you have any other issues, you can come to me or one of the house prefects - Jessica Hayles, Allegra Brockert, and Caitlin Pierce. Though of course you are welcome to find any adult or peer who you feel comfortable with," she added, recognising that preteen boys may not feel comfortable with talking to Girl Prefects and that there currently wasn't much diversity in the Crotalus selection.
"Curfew is ten pm. After that, you must be back in the common room and should keep the noise down. Are there any questions?"
OOC You do not have to reply to this post but may do so if your character has questions. You are now free to post anywhere on the site except other houses' common rooms or staff/prefect only areas.
Subthreads: Just one or two questions, ma'am. by Henry Spellman with Selina Skies
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Selina Skies
Head of House Speech
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Henry Spellman
October 22, 2020 8:08 PM
Just one or two questions, ma'am. by Henry Spellman
Henry couldn't help watching as Oz was led away, although he tried to be inconspicuous about it. It wouldn't do to show weakness, and it wouldn't do to let Oz know he was worrying, and it wouldn't do to get lost from his own small group. So he kept his eyes mostly on the tall lady, Professor Skies, as they made their way through the mansion. When she stopped to explain about the portrait - who thought this was a good idea for children?! - a few of Oz' choice words came to mind, but he pushed them aside. He'd seen scary movies before. Plus Forensic Files had really upped the ante on what was appropriate for Netflix viewing, so it wasn't like it was a totally new concept. Still. . . . hopefully a painting wouldn't be as bad.Somehow, the fact that poor dead Gunther was moving around was both simultaneously less gross - he didn't really seem dead after all - and way more so. Professor Skies couldn't say 'cauldron cleaner' fast enough for Henry to follow after her into-- wow. This was supposed to be home now? Another thought of frustration and unfairness wriggled into his head as he looked around at the crack-less walls, and couches that seemed to only function as couches, no hide-away beds underneath.
The number of people who could be happy here, and it was just a few new students every year? Kids got this, while entire cities and countries of people were dying and alone and-- and-- ugh. It wasn't fair. It wasn't right. It was day one here and Henry was already becoming more and more rapidly convinced that he would need to do something to right these atrocities in the world. Magic was like First Strike - he had a new ability that was going to let him make a move before people who couldn't do magic, and yet all magic people seemed to do so far was overfeed their own kids and stick them in fancy rooms. Something had to be done.
The first thing that had to be done though was that Henry had to get ready, and that meant listening up and doing his very best. He had flushed, both out of the embarrassment of having been non-verbally called out and at the thought itself, when Professor Skies explained that you couldn't have visitors from other Houses. That answered his first question, and he didn't like the answer, although he thought that Oz probably didn't mind. He wasn't sure his brother would have wanted to visit him anyway, although it would be weird sleeping away from him. In fact, Henry wouldn't have a roommate at all. Oz would . . . Henry would be alone, in a room that, even if only mildly fitting for the rest of the school, would be fancier than anywhere else he'd probably ever slept in his life. Except maybe that one time the school had a lock-in for all the students who had a perfect GPA in history, and they got to sleep in a fancy hotel downtown and then go watch some Shakespeare plays. Henry had only been able to go to one play because parents had to pay for any extra, but it had been fun anyway. He'd gone without Oz then . . . he could do this. He could do it.
He did have questions though. When the professor was done, he approached with some caution, hoping he wasn't outing himself as a weirdo right away. "Excuse me, ma'am, I do have a question if you don't mind," he said quietly, although his eyes were anything but quiet. His head was down and he had all the right demeanor for someone whose life goal was to fly under the radar, but his eyes shone with curiosity. "I wondered whether everything you said, is that basically true for other Houses too? Everyone's hearing similar information right now?" he asked, suspecting that Oz wouldn't remember anything about how important the bulletin board was, or the fact that the Common Room location was a secret, or the fact that curfew was ten at night, or anything like that.
"And, I also wondered about the library," he admitted. He hadn't wanted to ask Professor Wright when everyone was around but he did sort of want to ask now. "I didn't see anything on our schedule about getting a library card or ID, or what sort of fees there are? Or whether there's any sort of program for students to do some volunteer hours to waive any of those fees or anything?"
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Henry Spellman
Just one or two questions, ma'am.
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Selina Skies
October 25, 2020 9:54 PM
Of course by Selina Skies
"I don't mind," Selina confirmed, when one of the students sought her specific permission to ask her some questions, even though she had just openly invited them to. He had waited until the group, such as it was, had disbanded and he could find her individually. She made a mental note to add to her speech next year that people were welcome to do that if they didn't want to ask in front of the group. His general demeanour spoke to being very shy, which wasn't an unusual trait in Crotalus, although - as with any house - there were multiple different ways its traits could manifest.She stooped her head and shoulders a little. He was too old for her to crouch down to his height without it being patronising, but she tried to seem just a little less big and a little less scary, and to make sure she heard exactly what he was asking. She was fairly sure she did. She heard someone who had grown up in what must have been a very close relationship asking what was happening now in the places he wasn't in...
"Yes. The rules are the same for everyone, and everyone will be getting welcomed and settled in by their head house right now," she told him, keeping her tone soft. "The houses are similar in how they operate. They just each have a different way in, different decor according to the house colours, and I suppose different atmospheres given that we sort by personality. Hopefully that means most people end up with some like-minded people they can get along with. Though, of course, we see lots of friendships between people in different houses too. You all are in classes together and will have free time with members of other houses," she assured him.
"You will get a full library induction to help you learn how to use the card catalogue and check out books. It might be down on your schedule as study hall," she informed him, "There aren't fees for using the library. If you return books late, you can be docked house points. If it is a serious and persistant offence, you might get a detention or have your borrowing rules changed. The librarian does ask for student helpers but it's more for those who want to - maybe so they have something to put on school applications in future, or just because they enjoy helping in the library.
"Was there anything else?" she asked.
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Selina Skies
Of course
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