> Letty: Freeze the air or something!Your ABILITY TO MANIPULATE COLD doesn't work that way! You can't create cold, you can only control cold that already exists. Furthermore, it has to be a natural source of cold - something like your minifridge won't cut it - and there's none of that to be found around here.
During the coldest days of winter, you're a top-class youkai. But in the summer, you're essentially powerless, which is why you prefer to just sleep the whole season away (in addition to summer being horrible).
> Letty: Get some airflow going?You already have the door cracked to let the vapor out, but unfortunately getting any breeze is out of the question. Your den is about ten feet underground, with only the entrance, a small cave, being exposed to air. No wind flows in. The A/C vent doesn't do any good either since it just leads out near your front door.
It's a moot point anyway, since the air is completely stagnant today. It's even worse outside than it is in here.
> Letty: Stick head in minifridge.
Sadly, no longer an option. You slept with your head inside it for a few days until it burned out, and since you spent all your savings on the new A/C, you won't be able to replace it until you start work again this winter...
> Letty: Play some music.
You bought this combination radio and record player shortly after you moved in (since you are now in range of the tengu radio stations), but unfortunately it did not occur to you that the radio wouldn't get any reception underground. Oh well. You do still have a sparse collection of old classic vinyls.
You put one on.
...
You turn the music off.
> Letty: Examine magazine.
This is the KOURINDOU CATALOG, currently turned to your most recent purchase.
Collecting appliances from the outside world has become a bit of a hobby for you, although their usefulness varies. The blender is particular is a godsend. Speaking of which...
> Letty: Fix something to drink.You head over to the minibar. Unfortunately, with the fridge out, you have no ice and no fruit to mix something up with - only room temperature alcohol.
You mix up a vodka martini without ice.
It is awful.
You drink it anyway.
> Letty: Watch TV.You have already watched your handful of BETAMAX VIDEOS (nature documentaries, mostly) more times than you can count. You can only watch a gazelle get jumped in slo-mo so many times. You need some new tapes.
> Letty: Take a shower.Your cistern is nearly empty. Without being able to fill it with snow, you'd have to get more water by carrying it in buckets from the river, which isn't happening.
> Letty: Examine candles.
Pine-scented! But the last thing you need right now is fire in the room.
> Letty: FASHION MONTAGE??The only reason you aren't wearing less is because this is a safe-for-work comic.
Your small selection of clothes is tucked away into those fancy boxes in the corner. Aside from your signature winter outfit (whose bits and pieces you regularly mend or replace as they get damaged), you just have a half dozen nice dresses you wear to work. You aren't too interested in having a big wardrobe. You buy maybe one outfit a year, since you spend so much of it asleep.
You're going to have an issue if you need to go outside, because you don't have any summer clothes at all, for obvious reasons.
> Where do we work?In the human village, there is an upscale club run by youkai, attended by wealthy humans and youkai alike. The place is a bit taboo, which makes it all the more stylish. In the winter, you spend a bit of time working there as a hostess.
Naturally, a smooth-talking, full-bodied woman such as yourself tends to have the male clientele wanting to get a little closer to you. Sometimes they want to take you some place a little more private...
And that's when you freeze them solid.
That's how you maintain your yuki-onna persona. They usually survive, but your reputation for making popsicles out of old rich guys is WELL KNOWN, yet they still keep thinking they're the one that's finally going to melt your heart. Including the guys you've already frozen. Sometimes you wonder how men have survived this long.
Anyway, you also make very good money working there, so you can afford a few luxuries.
> Letty: Check calender.You cannot view the calender in detail because the author can't be assed to commit to a specific date on which this story is occuring. Regardless, a bright red circle marks today as the day on which your new A/C is supposed to arrive.
You also cannot view your DAYS 'TIL XMAS counter, but that is by choice. The sight of it being in triple digits is simply too much for you to bear, so you have temporarily covered it with this picture of an adorable baby seal. You are fond of seals, and fairly certain you were a SELKIE at some point.
Apparently a seal showed up in Gensokyo! You still haven't gotten a chance to see it.
> Letty: Examine spear.
This is a SILVER LANCE, an ornamental weapon from your days as the SNOW QUEEN. (In truth, it is a fully functional weapon and only ornamental because you do not have the A RANK in LANCES necessary to wield it. You just shoot ice out of it.) It looks pretty cool when you wear your heavy cloak with it, but that look is a bit over-the-top these days.
> Wait, what the hell are we, exactly?Although you are currently considered a yuki-onna, in case you haven't noticed, your name isn't exactly Japanese.
What you are is a very old and very well-travelled spirit of winter, and how humans have viewed you has changed with the ages. Unfortunately, your long-term memory is spotty; you can't really remember what you were doing more than a few hundred years back. What you do know is that you started in Scandinavia, wandered around Europe hanging out with the fey (you think you got your name here), travelled east and stopped in Russia for a while, then eventually crossed the Himalayas and finally ended up in Japan. You've been in Gensokyo since before the GREAT HAKUREI BARRIER went up.
People have thought you to be a frost giant, a yeti, etc etc. It's all kind of a blur at this point.
The RACE STONE in your SKILL THICKET reads YOUKAI, which is honestly the best overall term to describe you. You're a winter spirit and you feed off of your notoriety among humans. That's about the long and short of it.
> Letty: Examine swordfish.
You examine the swordfish.
Okay. You are officially going crazy.
> _
