wiscon_vidparty | Member Posts

There Are Content Warnings For This Fic! Content warnings for mental illness, bear-trap injury, bad parenting!

Also note: ends on a cliff-hanger.

Written for the Valentine Edition of the Firewhiskey Fic Challenge, a 48-hour period during which fanworks creators drink "adult beverages" or "do the 420" and create their fanworks "under the influence" with no editing allowed. Participants then view all the fanworks and vote on them in the categories of Most Coherent Entry, Least Coherent Entry, Funniest Entry, Favorite Entry, Best Use of Prompt, and Best Smut. I was awarded Most Coherent Entry (and not for just the first time: I do have a high tolerance level).

This was also written for the SNFU Fanworks Challenge (12SNFU) for writing fic where the title of the fic is taken from the title of one of the songs by Canadian punk rock band SNFU.

This was also written for the 2026 Edition of Be The First. That challenge is to write a fic for a fandom that had not yet been represented in AO3.

Title: I’m Real Scared (or: What Can Happen If a Psychopath Rescues You During a Manitoba Blizzard)
Fandoms: Cold Comfort; Canadian Six Degrees
Characters: Stephen Miller, Floyd Lucas, Dolores Lucas
Length: 551 words
Summary: What can happen if a psychopath rescues you during a Manitoba blizzard.

Fic on AO3.

FWF 1st Place Winner - Feb 2026 - Most Coherent

Current Mood: wordy
Current Location: near the lake they call Michigan

ride_4ever

Those of you who are very active in MFU fandom already know this, but for those who don't know about this and might find it interesting: the winner of the 2026 Preakness Stakes on May 16th was a horse named "Napoleon Solo". Furthermore, there is fic referencing this: A Horse Named Napoleon Solo by

st_crispins.

(If you read the fic and leave comments, feel free to comment "here on a rec from

ride_4ever".)

Current Mood: horising around
Current Location: near the lake they call Michigan

ride_4ever

May 25th is celebrated annually as Towel Day to honor the memory of Douglas Adams by carrying a towel in reference to his The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy where it says "A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have."

May 25th is also the annual Wear the Lilac Day to honor the memory of Terry Pratchett by wearing a lilac in reference to his Discworld where characters wear a sprig of lilac to commemorate the fallen revolutionaries of "The Glorious Revolution" in Ankh-Morpork.

GNU Terry Pratchett. GNU Douglas Adams.

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Location: near the lake they call Michigan

alias_sqbr

Masterlist.

Spoiler warning! I have watched up to partway through Episode 6, and also have some vague memories of discussion I encountered before playing.

Please do not spoil me for anything later in the game, including letting me know if any of my speculation or vaguely remembered spoilers are true.

In general this story is a lot more fun if you go in blind and come up with theories as you go, less to Solve the Puzzle and more to experience the planned out rollercoaster of interpretations and subversions. I have no idea if any of my theories are correct but feel like having worked them out will improve my enjoyment going forward either way.

Feels good to have my thoughts in order, and I came up with some more ideas while I was writing! For now I am going to just keep watching the LP but I might go back to writing summaries if it feels like that would be helpful.

CW: Incest theories
( Spoilers!! )

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Masterlist.

Some pretty intense scenes of children experiencing bullying and abuse in this Episode, it was well handled but distressing enough that I went through some sections at 2x speed.

This is only the a partial post because I very suddenly felt like stopping my summaries and working on my Theory instead, and want to post this part while it's fresh in my head.

( Read more... )

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Masterlist.

Ha, I have now started Episode 6 and once again all my theories are in disarray. Episode 5 was amazing though, a really clever deconstruction of the existing structure and the very concept of a murder mystery.

CW: Suicide. Domestic violence, kinda?

( Read more... )

brainwane

I'm speaking, performing, moderating, and otherwise participating at WisCon 48 (WisCon 2026) this weekend! It's entirely online (Discord + Zoom with some YouTube livestreams). My schedule:

Panel: The Last Year in Gender-Exploring SpecFic
Saturday, May 23rd, 10:30 AM–11:45 AM CDT
Members of the 2025 Otherwise jury and others familiar with the award will discuss the 2025 Otherwise Winner, Luminous by Silvia Park, as well as the Honor List titles and other works of gender-exploring speculative fiction from the last year. The panel will also discuss trends that they have seen in speculative fiction in in relation to the exploration and expansion of gender and how that exploration intersects, as it must, with other identity categories.
Cheryl S. Ntumy and Rebecca Fraimow, Mod: Sumana Harihareswara

GoH Panel: Climate Change & Climate Fiction
Sat. May 23rd, 1:00 PM–2:15 PM CDT
Climate change presents humanity with so many different potential challenges, it's no surprise that fictional imaginings of its effects are already so copious. Both our Guests of Honor, Premee Mohamed and Darcie Little Badger, have used their own scientific backgrounds to highlight climate change in their stories. In this panel they'll discuss their perspectives on climate change as scientists and as writers.
Darcie Little Badger and Premee Mohamed, Mod: Sumana Harihareswara

Otherwise's Fundraising Auction
Saturday, May 23rd, 7:00 PM–8:00 PM CDT
The return of the Otherwise Auction! Sumana Harihareswara is your live auctioneer. Bid (via Discord chat; pay using credit/debit card, Venmo, or PayPal) on a variety of material and immaterial items to support the Otherwise Award.

Some of the auction items:

A signed, numbered, hardcover limited edition of N.K. Jemisin’s book How Long ’til Black Future Month -- donated by Subterranean Press
Vintage collectibles, such as a WisCon 42 tote bag (from 2018, donated by SamHain Press)
Discounts at online booksellers
Wacky experiences! (I promise that there will be at least one wacky experience.)

I'll make nerdy jokes. You can come and have fun without bidding on anything. Anyone who donates any amount of money to Otherwise during the auction gets a virtual gift bag with some fun items in it, including the brand-new Otherwise ringtone, made specially for this event. ~~I know we'll take PayPal and credit cards; we may also be taking Venmo.~~ We'll take PayPal, Venmo, and debit/credit cards.

Guest of Honor Speeches & Otherwise Presentation
Sunday, May 24th, 7:00 PM–9:00 PM CDT
WisCon's traditional Sunday night event. Speeches by our guests of honor, followed by presentation of the Otherwise Award (and a filk to celebrate it!) and a speech from the con chairs.

Tickets for WisCon are sliding scale, USD$0-$5-$25-$65. And you'll also get the chance to enjoy fascinating (and well-moderated!) panels, readings of new work, a curated fanvid show, and other sessions, many of which will include CART (real time captioning by a human). More info at the helpful "How To WisCon" post.

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Masterlist.

My Episode 1 post is pretty dry and full of details, because I mostly engaged with it as a murder mystery puzzle and world setup. Episode 2 has more about characters and feelings, and is where I got more attached to those aspects. It's also where things start to get Surprisingly Weird.

Halfway through writing this post I had an EPIPHANY and now have a THEORY. I have written it upo in my Theory Post, which will come after I have written up Episodes 1-5 since it draws on all of them.

I just finished Episode 5, and kind of want to finish writing everything up before Episode 6 throws all my ideas out the window, but also I want to see what happens next!!

( Read more... )

duskpeterson

Returning through the door to the previous corridor, we now reach the point where the corridor is met by another corridor running toward the south. This corridor is actually an extension of the corridor to the north that leads to the council chamber; however, it is broken by the court.

Following it south, you will first pass, on your left, the [chapel]. This is a chamber intended for use by anyone, residents or visitors, who seeks a place of quiet contemplation or prayer. Like the royal chapel in Koretia, it is filled with foreign aids to prayer, but most often it used for public recitations of law passages by devotees of the Chara and his law. At other times, palace residents may be found here during their breaks from work, quietly reading law books.

Further along, on the left, is the treasury. As you might imagine, this chamber is well guarded, though much of the Chara's wealth is spread across the empire, often in the form of land. The royal treasurer plays an important role in the Emorian government, authorizing payments for the Chara's many projects. He does not take well to attempted bribes.

Further down, again on your left, is the chamber of the Chara's clerk. Behind this unassuming door is one of the largest sets of rooms in the palace, where dozens of scribes prepare the documents that track the workings of Emor's vast bureaucracy. Behind the scribal rooms is a corridor to the Chara's documents room, followed by the actual chamber of the Chara's clerk. If you are tempted to break into either room to steal a document, you might wish to keep in mind that nearly all of the scribes are boys. You may be able to creep past dozens of prankish boys without being detected; I have never managed this.

[Translator's note: Just why a chapel exists in the notoriously nontheistic land of Emor is explained in Law-Lover. To visit the chamber of the Chara's clerk, read Breached Boundaries. To visit the documents room, read Empty Dagger Hand.]

alias_sqbr

Masterlist.

I started writing a "short summary" for people who haven't played and to get my thoughts in order, then realised it was (a) getting long and (b) would be easier if I looked up a plot summary to remind myself. So lets go episode by episode until I finish or get bored haha. You can also just read the wiki page I referenced yourself but mine is shorter, if you can believe it, and has a few extra thoughts.

I mostly go through the mystery stuff, there's a bunch of humour and character moments which aren't captured in this summary. I'll avoid anything that significantly spoils later Episodes until a later post, but will not be super strict when it feels more logical to mention things now, or if I have current speculation that I either did or could have come up with at the time.

Please do not leave any comments which spoil past episode 1! I have played up to partway through Episode 5 but some people reading might not have.
( Spoilers for Episode 1 )

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Non-spoilery review

Episodes:

Episode 1: Legend of the Golden Witch
Episode 2: Turn of the Golden Witch
Episode 3: Banquet of the Golden Witch
Episode 4: Alliance of the Golden Witch Part 1

alias_sqbr

I've been watching a Let's Play of the classic, epic Japanese visual novel "Umineko: When they Cry" by Ryukishi07, and am currently up to Episode 5 of 8. I'm quite enjoying it but it's LONG. The LP is 168 episodes which are 30 minutes to two hours long.

I'll try and write a proper review when I'm finally done, since the story keeps reinventing itself, but so far it's a family drama and murder mystery with supernatural elements, which explores events from different angles in ways which cleverly play around with narrative, both from a storytelling perspective and as a way of exploring how people view the world and each other in different ways.

It's very much worth going into unspoiled if you are interested. But content warnings for violence and gore (mostly just text), suicide, child abuse (well written but harrowing), gender essentialism, male gazey character designs and and "joking" perviness (sometimes condoned by the narrative, though it's better about female characters than you might initially assume)

No unambiguous consent issues so far asides from some rape jokes but it feels like the kind of story where that could definitely be a Thing.

I'm watching Jokrono's let's play, which involves two young male gamers sometimes being thoughtlessly Unfortunate, especially about Japan. I'm sure there's others out there but this is the one I was recced and I'm overall enjoying it.

( Just cut for length, no spoilers )

coffeeandink

Found via

chestnut_pod.

There are so many posts I want to write, but this one is easy and also about books, so! I think everyone should do it so I can spy on your bookshelves.

Take five books off your bookshelf.

(I pulled everything from my physical TBR bookcase, in hopes that it will encourage me to read it.)

Book #1 -- first sentence: "Anyone can write about a large city--large cities are open to everyone--but small cities can only be portrayed by people who love them."

(Already ambiguities: I skipped the preface because this line is better.)

Book #2 -- last sentence on page fifty: "However, I haven't yet read V.W.'s book."

Book #3 -- second sentence on page one hundred: "What amazing childishness these old people were content to live in!"

(Unexpected challenge: do I pick the second sentence or the second complete sentence?)

Book #4 -- next to the last sentence on page one hundred fifty: "'I know.' Verna dropped the packages. A hard, harsh sob pressed at her throat. 'I hate him.' "

(Yes, I am treating one paragraph of dialog plus action as a single sentence for the purposes of the meme. Fight me!)

Book #5 -- final sentence of the book: "Eunice picked up her bag and guitar and closed the door to the storm."

Make the five sentences into a paragraph:

Anyone can write about a large city--large cities are open to everyone--but small cities can only be portrayed by people who love them. However, I haven't yet read V.W.'s book. What amazing childishness these old people were content to live in! 'I know.' Verna dropped the packages. A hard, harsh sob pressed at her throat. 'I hate him.' Eunice picked up her bag and guitar and closed the door to the storm.

I promise it wouldn't make any more sense if I chose another option for step 5.

Book #1: Friendly City by Sofia Samatar
Book #2: The Diaries of Sylvia Townsend Warner, ed. Claire Harman
Book #3: Ready or Not by Mary Stolz
Book #4: The Room Opposite and Other Stories by F.M. Mayor
Book #5: Mojo Hand: An Orphic Tale by J.J. Phillips

duskpeterson

ONLINE E-BOOK (html, epub, mobi, pdf, and xhtml)

Free at my website.

The Motley Crew (The Thousand Nations). When a young man named Dolan flees from the north, he faces danger on all sides. The Northern Army wants him back. The Empire of Emor wants him dead. His native homeland of Koretia may not want him at all. And his only protection is a man with motives that are mysterious and possibly deadly.

New installments:

4 | Apprehension of the Ambassador. A border crossing gone awry turns an escape into a new realm of danger.

Historical Note. [The historical note appears at the end of the omnibus, after the side stories.]

BLOG FICTION

Tempestuous Tours (Crossing Worlds: A Visitor's Guide to the Three Lands #2). A whirlwind tour of the sites in the Three Lands that are most steeped in history, culture, and the occasional pickpocket.

New installments:

Emorian council chamber.

From the council chamber to the courtyard.

Inner garden.

( News and upcoming fiction )

My fiction announcements are also available by e-mail and feeds.

WisCon Vid Party

Fannish Fifty Challenge 2026: Post # 13: my fic for the movie "Cold Comfort"

Fannish Fifty Challenge 2026: Post # 12: Man From Uncle Fandom

Fannish Fifty Challenge 2026: Post # 11: Two Fannish Remembrance Days

Umineko Theorising

Umineko Episode 4: Alliance of the Golden Witch Part 1

Umineko Episode 3: Banquet of the Golden Witch

WisCon 48 schedule

Umineko Episode 2: Turn of the Golden Witch

FIC: From the inner garden to the Chara's quarters (Tempestuous Tours)

Umineko: Episode 1: Legend of the Golden Witch

Umineko: Masterlist

Umineko: When they Cry

3W4DW book meme

UPDATE: Apprehended Ambassador (The Thousand Nations: The Motley Crew #4)

ONLINE E-BOOK (html, epub, mobi, pdf, and xhtml)

BLOG FICTION

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