#like goodness gracious who wrote this curriculum

[thotly-thoughts-101]

College rant

Okay, I am writing this from my work event since I am here as the only props employee representative (faculty accepted me years ago but I think the theater majors are still a little apprehensive of me as an english major) but I wished to rant about some things. I am in an ancient European history class (it’s more Mediterranean buuuuut) and this one classmate had the audacity to say that guns were a sign of advanced civilization when the point in which we mark the beginning of the concept of guns is the 10th century in common era! Advanced civilization started before common era!

[skultrashfics]

Heyy!! Could you do something fluffy with gracious o’callahan x reader, maybe a movie night marathon or going to a convention?? Tysm! 🧡🧡

Aaaaah good ol’ Gracious. I’m so NOT funny so please forgive me trying to write that way XD But Imma try! Such a Lil cutie though, enjoy Anon! 

Pairing: Gracious O’Callahan x Reader Word Count: 958 Themes: Nerdiness, Movie Date, Fluff 

The church was gradually starting to brighten as the sun lifted into the sky, it was a cool morning and so silent that you could hear the drips of morning dew echo around the hall. You took a deep breath and smiled, it was always best to tour monuments like this before it opened to the public. Even if that meant breaking in. As you walked around gazing at the beauty of the stone carvings you hummed softly, the acoustics of the hall were perfect and you glanced around quickly to make sure nobody was around. Reassured that you would not be caught, you began to sing May it be from The Lord of the Rings soundtrack. 

You had practised the lyrics so you even knew the elvish parts perfectly. Your voice rang out through the chamber clear as a bell while you sang, it sounded almost hypnotisingly beautiful. Gliding across the floor you sang toward the beautifully ornate stained-glass figures on the windows as well as those that rested in their tombs. The echo of your voice gave it a mystical sound and it made you smile being able to just relax and sing to yourself while the sun rose. The song came to a close and an abrupt noise suddenly disturbed the peace, you turned around dazed to find two men standing there and clapping. You blushed furiously and made to run but you realised they were blocking the only way out of that room, “A-Am I in trouble?”, you mumbled shyly. The shorter one laughed and glanced toward his taller friend, “I’d say we don’t tell anyone. Since she seems so nice”. “Yes and we don’t want anyone to see us either. Otherwise we may get arrested. Again”. They both nodded simultaneously and you raised an eyebrow, “Arrested? So you- you don’t work here?”. They then both shook their heads in unison, “Nope. We broke in because we heard your singing and thought you might look as beautiful as you sounded. And you do. Considering how much I love that song, I must be in love with you too. Let’s get married”. The taller friend spluttered with laughter, elbowing the other in the ribs, “Gracious you can’t just ask a stranger to marry you. She probably wants to run away now”. The man called Gracious seemed upset by this and looked at you once more, “Do you really want to run away? Darn, I must have come on too strong”. As you watched them banter back and forth you couldn’t help bursting out into laughter. Gracious grinned and gestured toward you, “There see that Donegan? She thinks I’m funny. We are hitting it off already”. Donegan sighed, “Or she is just laughing at how ridiculous you are”. You stood up straight after calming down from your laughter, “Maybe we should leave? Since this place is opening soon?”. Gracious approached you relieved that you seemed friendly, “Let’s leave together then… maybe we could catch a movie? Or go out for breakfast?”. Donegan frowned softly, “Are you ditching me for a date?”. Gracious simply shrugged as though it were obvious. You giggled again and started to walk toward the exit, “I think that sounds lovely…”. Gracious gave Donegan a cheeky grin before following you, Donegan only rolled his eyes in response, “I can’t believe that worked”. 

After walking and talking with Gracious and Donegan in the early morning you had come to discover that they had been searching for a strange creature that often dwells around churchyards. Which is how they came to find you singing all alone in the church. So they were the monster hunters that wrote those unusual books, you had thought to yourself. They were both extremely delighted that you had read their work and even more so when you told them that it was on the school curriculum in Roarhaven. Donegan eventually went home claiming he was tired, but it was more out of courtesy for you since technically you were on a date with Gracious. You had decided to get a Wetherspoons breakfast as it was convenient and not too expensive, plus it was the perfect place to get a pint at 10 in the morning without being judged. It turned out you had a lot in common, both of you were raving about how excited you were to watch Marvel’s newest release in the cinema. “That’s what we should do then. After breakfast let’s go and see it”, you beamed excitedly. Gracious seemed just as keen as you and nodded in agreement, “That sounds like a perfect plan!”. As your large full English breakfasts arrived both of your eyes lit up with a delighted hunger. The only thing you left on your plate was the mushroom and Gracious left his tomato. You smiled at him, “Your tomato for my mushroom?”. He laughed swapping your plates.“I thought you would never ask”.

You came out of the cinema sniffling as you recovered from the end of the film, Gracious handed you another tissue and you took it to dry your eyes and blow your nose. “Thank you. You must think I’m so silly for crying at that film. And I’m a mess”, you whined worried that you had not made a good first impression. Gracious smiled at you sweetly, “Hey I still think you look beautiful. And between you and me, I cried in the cinema- but it was dark so nobody saw me”. You laughed again as he took your free hand in his and you walked down the high street together. “So what should we do now?”, you asked curiously. He leaned over and kissed your cheek, “Who knows? Sometime adventure just runs right out in front of you”.

[ib-suffering]

Update

Hi to anyone who still follows this blog!

I graduated from high school over a year ago and honestly forgot to update this blog at the time (Whoops). But I was going back through my tumblr blogs (my main and the few side blogs I have) and decides to jump back on this one for a brief moment to discuss my IB results and my life since high school.

So, let's get everyone's first question out of the way: I passed! I received my diploma, and few things are as satisfying as the first time I held the paper proof of my diploma. It was confirmation that all my hard work paid off and that thing's getting framed asap lol.

But let's backtrack. Exams. My senior year I tested in: History HL, Chinese AB, Philosophy HL, and English HL (Lang A). And since I'm pretty sure I didn't ever discuss my junior year exams, I'll talk briefly about them here: Math SL and Biology SL.

So let's begin with Math and Bio. I received a 5 in both. I was nervous for my math exam since test prep in class was not going well for me. I kept getting 3s on cumulative exams, which was difficult to see in the weeks leading up to the exam. For those of you who may not know (I didn't before my first exam), there is a short reading period when the exam starts where you cannot write anything. Just read. And I remember flipping through the exam booklet and finding that I had a good idea on how to go about solving most of the problems. For the problems I wasn't sure about, I at least had an idea on how to start them. Math is one of those exams where showing your work can get you partial points, and I highly recommend attempting each and every problem. Two points can make the difference between a 4 and a 5, which increases your chance of getting that diploma overall. Biology, however, was a breeze for me, if I'm honest. I am actually continuing my education as a bio major, since it was something that I pick up on quickly. I still spent a lot of time studying, though, since the human biology portion was not something I was as familiar with as my school combines the AP and IB bio students (due to there being very few of us IB kids) and the IBO places much emphasis on anatomy than AP does. For those who find biology a daunting class, I highly recommend teaching the concepts to a friend/classmate. Have your notes with you and reference them as need be. If you feel confident discussing the ideas, then you can explain the ideas on paper. While this won't help on the multiple choice as much, this will help you sweep up those points in the written sections.

Moving on to my senior year exams. I received 4s in Chinese and History, a 5 in English, and a 6 in Philosophy. I took Chinese as an Ab Initio course because I didn't take a language my first year of high school. My teacher had done her best to get me up to speed, but nothing was more sobering than opening up that exam booklet and finding that I didn't understand much on that first page (and reading is definitely my best skill in the language). And I still had 4 minutes and 30 seconds left of the reading period. So how did I manage that 4, you may ask? Well, page 2 wasn't nearly as terrifying. I did recognize some of the characters on the first page, so I used what I had to infer what the questions were asking. Before the exam, I spent my studying time to practice characters, which helped when writing my essay as it had brought to mind some characters I had nearly forgotten about (though, to my horror, I found that I had repeatedly wrote a character wrong in my essay, but not terribly so, so I hope it wasn't a huge issues lol).

History was interesting. I was honestly shocked to see that I had only gotten a 4, since I received a 6 or 7 on every exam in class. But, I'll chalk that up to either my teacher having been a gracious grader or the prompts not being in my favour. (Not to mention that one of the days was the same day we tested in English, so writing was miserable after 6-7 hours- I swear I have carpal tunnel or something due to it since I still have mysterious wrist pain to this day from activities that never bothered me before like bowling). I wish I had some advice for how to get through history, but I'm not quite sure what I should have done differently to prepare.

Alright, English. I have to say, I am most proud of my IOC (though, I hear they're altering that aspect of the curriculum). We had rehearsed examples often in class, and I was lucky enough to have gotten a passage from the reading I loved the most and unpacked well. However, what benefitted myself, and my class overall, was that my teacher had selected books that were enjoyable to read and had clear themes to exploit in my essays. Thorough discussions in class allowed us to add to our notes, and soon my books were covered in writing in the margins. So, my best advice of this class is to turn it into book club. Get together with your friends, share your thoughts, and add on to other's. It may give you the idea you need to connect them together and write about in your exam.

Finally, philosophy. I actually had the same teacher for philosophy as I had for English. First things first, don't do what I did and finish your independent reading less than a half an hour before the exam. Though it was fresh in my mind, I probably shouldn't have procrastinated as much as I did. I read the prescribed chapters from Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex. 10/10 would recommend. I am a huge fan of existentialism (shout out to Albert Camus), so I found the concepts easy to navigate. If you're not a fan of existentialism, don't pick this book, by all means. For the rest of the exam, I highly recommend making a chart of philosophers and what they theorized. Use anybody and everybody's ideas as evidence or counterarguments in your essays. Having a good idea of how these philosophers used their claims helps you immensely. I would also recommend that when you practice philosophical writing, you create a chart with the elements (implications, relevance, critiques, etc.) you need with bullet points of your claims. Do this with your IA. I also did this with my EE since that was also a philosophy paper, but more about that in another post. Make this ideas as transparent as you can make them. You will thank yourself for it.

Alright, I know I implied that I'd discuss everything in this post, but it turned out to be much longer than I expected. So, I'll make separate posts about EE, CAS, IAs (if that comes up), getting my results, and how it compares to college life (and what the hell is going on with that now). Thanks for reading this far and don't be afraid to reach out to me for advice, as always. Just because I've graduated, that doesn't mean that I stopped supporting IB students and the struggle of going through it. My habits as a student in the programme still affect me as a college student and give me much to reflect on now. I will try to be more active from now on so as to give you all someone to go to with your questions!

[bananniewrites]

A Change of Plans

Princess Genevieve 8/?

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“You’ll probably have to hide here in the barn or in the wagon tonight,” Peter explained to Gen. “I have a feeling that somebody’s looking for you, probably my pop. I know he mistook you for Eloise.”

“Who is Eloise, anyway?” Gen inquired. “Is your pop going to find her and realize he messed up?”

“She was the house maid, but she died a little more than a year ago. Fever took her. Pop’s gone a little loopy in the head, if you ask me. Old age, you know?”

“Gosh, I’m so sorry. Did he really treat her like that? Threatening to beat her if she didn’t work?”

He shrugged. “Sometimes.” He thought for a moment. “She’s in a better place now.”

Genevieve felt a lump swelling in her throat. There was a chance she would go home, back to swiping apples from the kitchen and climbing trees, where her greatest worry was keeping up with her lessons without getting bored to death. But Peter was stuck here, under the scrutinous eye of a half-blind monster who beat the housemaid. How many times has he belted Peter? Even if he wasn’t that great to Gen in the past, is it right to leave him here?

“Peter…” Gen started, just as he was about to leave. She paused, but she decided that she had to offer, “Peter, come with me. To the castle, I mean.”

“What?”

“I can’t leave you here and… not feel bad about it. Maybe I can talk to my fath-- the king and see if you can stay with us. Maybe he can at least hire you on.”

He sighed. “Gen, that’s really nice of you, but-”

“PETER!” his boss shouted, much closer this time. “Where are you! I thought I told you to get that hay on the wagon!”

 Peter pointed to a ladder leading to an upper floor and whispered to Gen. “Up there, quickly.” He then shouted back, “Working on it!”

Gen scrambled up the ladder and found bales of hay, neatly tied in bundles and stacked high. She could hear the barn door open with a croak, and dove behind a stack. The straw on the floor below her rustled, and the old man’s crotchety voice asked, “are you in here?”

“Yes, pop,” Peter answered innocently. “I was just about to get the bales to put on the wagon for tomorrow. What’s the news today?”

“Well, Sir Wallace of Onirea returned saying he was chased by a monster in the woods. Said it had the body of a bear and a face of a badger.” He cackled. “Then he went along the main road and met some Kakorish soldiers. Heard they beat him up pretty bad. Might’ve even killed him.”

“That’s awful,” Peter commented. Gen could feel her stomach turn.

“What else? Oh yes, the kingdom of Kakor is offering a reward for Princess Genevieve of Onirea. A hundred pounds. Imagine what you could do with that, boy!”

He cackled again, but Peter said nothing for a minute. Gen’s stomach continued to churn and it started to creep up her throat. She only barely heard him murmur. “A hundred pounds?”

“There’s even a poster.” There was a light crinkling of paper. “I think I’ll get supper started, maybe give Eloise a break-- God rest her soul.” The old man’s last comment sent a shiver of paralyzing terror up Gen’s spine. The barn door croaked, and his rustling footsteps died away.

“P-Peter?” Genevieve stammered.

“Hm?”

“Maybe I should… stay in the barn tonight. I think your pop overheard us earlier.”

“Alright then.” Peter’s voice was quiet, absent. He had been that way since he heard about the reward. Gen made a silent note to herself not to sleep tonight; if he or his pop left, it would almost certainly be to turn her in. She started to wonder if the horses knew the way to Onirea or if she would have to figure out the directions herself. How easy would it be to steal the wagon?

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Earlier that same day, Princess Clara was escorted down the hall to a lavishly furnished room. Silk canopied the single bed, colorful rugs covered the floor, a desk sat in the corner, and a tall closet stood across from the bed. All of the furniture crowded the room, making it feel smaller than the last. The one glaring feature of this room was the notable lack of windows.

“There’s clean dresses in the closet,” one of the guards was saying, “and a water basin on the nightstand. Dinner will be in about two hours. We’ll escort you there.”

“Where does the light come from?” Clara asked. “There’s no windows.”

“Clap twice and the candles light themselves.”

Clara squinted. “Pardon me?”

The guard clapped twice and sure enough, ten candles were suddenly aflame in a combustion of light: two candles on the desk, two on the right of the closet, one on each side of the bed and on each side of the single door, and two handheld candle holders. “And of course, you can have the door open if it’s not bright enough,” he added.

“Thank you,” Clara said, surprised at the magic and hospitality. The guards nodded, satisfied, and shut the door behind them.

In the dimmer bedroom, Clara immediately sat down at the desk and searched through its drawers. There was paper, ink, and quills. She wrote, Day 2 of being captive. My new room is much fancier than the dungeon I was held in last night, but a prison’s still a prison. The only difference is the strange hospitality the guards and seemingly the king of Kakor is showing me. There has to be something up his sleeve to make me stay here, some sort of plan, but I can’t possibly know at this time. No knight has come. Could this be what the king has planned? Part of me wishes I had disobeyed my parents and tried to escape on my own, just like Genevieve. How I miss her! How I miss my freedom, my home! 

Clara paused to wipe the tears from her cheeks from the reminder of Genevieve and home, but continued: There must be something the king knows that I don’t, if he’s this gracious on the second day. If worst comes to worst, I still have one of my daggers. God, give me the wisdom to know when to use it. 

She wrote all of this in about half an hour, then stood up to stretch. That’s when she realized why there were two candles next to the closet: they were positioned above a mirror just taller than her. Clara peered in to examine her face and make sure there were no ink smudges. Besides being horribly messy, she knew they would reveal she had been writing, and should they decide to see what was written, would anything she wrote be enough to incur their wrath?

There were some smudges on her cheeks when she had wiped her eyes, as well as on her fingertips. She rushed to the basin to scrub her hands and face. As she tried to get the ink stains out, she remembered how Genevieve would intentionally dab ink on her face. Genevieve said it was to look like she was doing her work when she really wasn’t, and Clara had pretended to be mad because it was wrong, but now she smiled at Gen’s past cleverness. Her heart ached for those moments now. 

But all Clara could do now was wait either for a rescue or the king’s next move and go from there. Knights don’t usually take this long for a rescue, and the king of Kakor isn’t holding her captive in the traditional manner of a cell block in a tower. Sure, there weren’t any windows to climb out of, but the security seemed a bit lax. It’s almost as if… as if…

...As if he’s not expecting a knight to come.

But her parents implied that she needed to sit tight and wait for one whenever she got kidnapped. On the other hand, what is she supposed to do when that doesn’t work? She crossed over to the closet and opened its doors. She would just have to figure out the plan for herself and fight from the inside.

This is what her lessons had been for. Not the ones teaching her how to be a lady, but the lessons she would need to be prepared for the politics of her position. Strategy, persuasion, and sometimes stealth had all been part of this particular curriculum. Clara just didn’t think that she would have to utilize these skills so soon in her life.

The first step, of course, was to gather information. With this in mind, Clara began to hold up different dresses in the mirror. It would be important to make a good impression.