Twining Fates Academy

first year sleeping arrangements

"With no power comes all of my great and overwhelming responsibilities!" - Dire Crowley probably

My wife and I have a little game we play called "Speaking From Ignorance."

To play Speaking From Ignorance, all you need is a phone with a voice recorder, and another person who knows considerably more or considerably less about a topic than you do. The topic can be anything: from "how to bake a quiche" to "what happens in the Peter Jackson Hobbit movies" to "who is Florence Pugh" to "how does the traveling salesman problem work." All that matters is that one of you has a firm grasp on the material, and one of you absolutely the fuck does not.

Then the person who knows about the topic turns on the recorder, and says to the person who knows barely anything: "Hey - tell me everything you think you know about [X]."

The speaker is then not allowed to ask any questions. Nor is the expert allowed to volunteer any information. The expert is allowed to pipe up with a faintly incredulous "Oh--really? Do you--do you think so?" from time to time, but for the most part, the expert's job is just to sit there and make encouraging sounds while the speaker digs their own grave.

This is never not funny.

The reason you record it is because, very often, the first thing the speaker wants to do after finishing the recording is find out how you actually make a quiche, or whatever. Then you both get to go back and listen to how wrong they were.

We have a small library now of Speaking From Ignorance recordings, and I'm going to be listening to them until I'm eighty.

Yearning for someone who doesn't exist

Writing Tips

Punctuating Dialogue

✧

➸ “This is a sentence.”

➸ “This is a sentence with a dialogue tag at the end,” she said.

➸ “This,” he said, “is a sentence split by a dialogue tag.”

➸ “This is a sentence,” she said. “This is a new sentence. New sentences are capitalized.”

➸ “This is a sentence followed by an action.” He stood. “They are separate sentences because he did not speak by standing.”

➸ She said, “Use a comma to introduce dialogue. The quote is capitalized when the dialogue tag is at the beginning.”

➸ “Use a comma when a dialogue tag follows a quote,” he said.

“Unless there is a question mark?” she asked.

“Or an exclamation point!” he answered. “The dialogue tag still remains uncapitalized because it’s not truly the end of the sentence.”

➸ “Periods and commas should be inside closing quotations.”

➸ “Hey!” she shouted, “Sometimes exclamation points are inside quotations.”

However, if it’s not dialogue exclamation points can also be “outside”!

➸ “Does this apply to question marks too?” he asked.

If it’s not dialogue, can question marks be “outside”? (Yes, they can.)

➸ “This applies to dashes too. Inside quotations dashes typically express—“

“Interruption” — but there are situations dashes may be outside.

➸ “You’ll notice that exclamation marks, question marks, and dashes do not have a comma after them. Ellipses don’t have a comma after them either…” she said.

➸ “My teacher said, ‘Use single quotation marks when quoting within dialogue.’”

➸ “Use paragraph breaks to indicate a new speaker,” he said.

“The readers will know it’s someone else speaking.”

➸ “If it’s the same speaker but different paragraph, keep the closing quotation off.

“This shows it’s the same character continuing to speak.”

"I'll just write a short one shot," I said.

"It'll be fun and show the bond between these characters," I said.

I am now 7000 words deep, not even halfway done, and the cast has expanded to a 7-character hunting party trying to figure out who hurt their friend

Day of Fateweaving

The Day of Fateweaving is a holiday in Nightbloom City meant to celebrate everlasting bonds between people. It is said that on this day, people used to cast spells with a partner that magically bound their destinies together, so that no matter what they would stay by each other’s sides. This spell was first said to have been cast by the Enigmatic Storytellers, a promise that they would always be together.

To symbolize these bonds, people weave friendship bracelets out of fiber, plants, fabric, and whatever other materials they can gather. Traditional ones are very simple, consisting of a woven brair in two colors; one that represents you, and one that represents the intended recipient of the bracelet— sometimes with a charm of some sort attached. However, plenty of people make them completely differently. Every relationship is unique, and as such, so are the bracelets.

Originally, they were meant to be exchanged with your best friend. However, the tradition has since been expanded, and people exchange bracelets with close friends, family members, and lovers. The only requirement is that you cherish this person deeply.

Usually, people will make the bracelets on Fateweaver’s Eve, and then exchange them on the Day of Fateweaving. It’s customary to wear any bracelet you receive for the entire day, and locals often wear shorter sleeves in order to display any bracelets they get.

This holiday is celebrated officially by Twined Fates Academy due to its association with their idols. On Fateweaver's Eve, workshops are set up so that people can gather materials for their bracelets and learn to make them if they don't know already.

It is around this time that the Promising Young Mages' Social takes place.

he needs enrichment