[Knickknacks]

Username: Knickknacks
Name: Rylan
Gender: Male

Opinion on winter:
There are, in Rylan's mind, two 'types' of winters.

Country winters. The kind of winter where you could look out your window and see snow-covered fields and hills all around you. Huge freezing flakes would patter against the windows and gather in drifts and, though you knew it was cold outside, you would be safe and warm in your house with family and friends (and plenty of warm apple cider to be had).

Those were the winters of his childhood. He missed them.

City winters- the winters he experienced now- just weren't the same.

In the city, snow didn't gather in drifts- it melted into streets, and was shoved into dirty gray piles by the plows and shovels. It wasn't something soft and beautiful, but something hard and cold and hungry, biting into you when you stepped outside your door no matter how much you bundled up.

Sometimes the city could be beautiful, its lights combining with freshly fallen snow to give the appearance of some sort of wonderland. But by the next morning, when the plows came through, Rylan would see nothing but dreary cold streets. The weather here was different from the weather in his childhood home. The winters were too.

~*~

Extras: --wip!

[poindexter]

Username: honeysticks
Name:
Gender:
Opinion on winter:
Extras (optional):

res omg

[spumoniie]

up

[skip]

Omg mark

[uηsρεcifiεd ¢ryҏtiɗ]

Username: Drasheep
Name: Quilo (I quite like it!)
Gender: Female
Opinion on winter:
(Not sure who this is directed to, so I'll just do both?)

I like winter to a degree, though I am not a fan of cold weather. I can understand its importance in making me appreciate the warm weather more. I love it when the plants are lush and I hear cicadas at night. But I love winter in its own way. It is the land's way of sleeping. It is a break from reality, a time for being still, quiet, and appreciating life. I enjoy the rest.

Extras (optional):

[appiesauce]

- marking -

[Topsy Turvey]

Username: Topsy Turvey

Name: Noelle
Gender: Female

Opinion on winter: Oh my GOSH winter honestly my biggest aesthetic ever,
I adore anything and everything winter themed and have so many winter chars that it's not even
funny but they're all so different and I have so many more ideas that I just. need. more. winter kids ;w; <333
(sorry this isn't a whole thing, if it was drawing I'd go to town but I'm the least creative writer
you've ever seen so it takes me weeks to really flesh out my characters c':)

Extras (optional): Regardless of whether or not I'm lucky enough to get her,
this is one gorgeous gal and I hope she gets the home and all the love that she so very much deserves! <3

[SilentMelody]

Username: SilentMelody | Name: Quilo | Gender: male

Opinion on winter: res with not minding the cold, literally doesn't feel it at all and it doesn't change his body temperature

[☆ star child]

★ star child ★ - artach rune - male

contrary to all known beliefs, artach actually despises winter. he hates the way the cold eats its way into his skin, disregarding the protection his fur, hat, scarf, provide, and chills him to the very core. he despises the bleakness of a world covered with fresh snow, how everything looks untouched, still, lifeless. he hates how quickly the sun dips below the horizon each night, rising only for a short time and gone too soon for him to truly appreciate its scarce warmth. he hates how the nights seem to last forever and how the shadows are just a little darker, a little colder, crueller, even.

and yet, he enjoys the excuses the winter brings. he hates winter itself - he loves the individual aspects, the culture around it, enough to not hop on a plane and fly south for the terrible months it lasts.

coming home after a long and cold day at work, artach enjoys shaking his numb paws and scattering the snow on the doorstep before he steps into his small house. he enjoys the soft orange light of the fire he gets to light, how it turns the whole room into a gentler place, how the fire reaches out and thaws the frozen centre the snow has created. he enjoys making himself and his beloved, ashe, the creamiest mugs of hot chocolate he possibly can, heaped with so much whipped cream that it tilts to the side and threatens to fall. the weight of the dozen and a half marshmallows he scatters probably doesn't help much either.

he always makes the cocoa in the ugliest winter mugs he can find.

there's just something so precious to him, knowing that even though the season of winter itself has killed the earth for a short time and made everything so miserable, that he can still find things to enjoy and be happy with. he can throw on the ugliest knitted sweater in the world, featuring a snowman dancing with a reindeer, and he can coax ashe to wear a matching one, and they can curl up on the couch watching terrible movies and eating gingerbread houses that they spend six hours building only to eat it in the space of twenty minutes.

winter is bitter and artach hates it with every fibre of his being. when the first day of the dreaded season hits he always resigns himself to yet another dark and terrible end of the year. but he knows, deep in his heart, that it will be okay - spring will come back soon. all he has to do is find ways to enjoy himself for the next few months and everything will be just fine.




extras --
ashe had warned him that winter in the north was very different from his home. he hadn't seen how it could be - winter was winter, after all, so what could change it so drastically to make it terrible only a ten-hour flight away?
they'd arrived early may. back to ashe's homeplace, a country so far north that even the maps sometimes discluded it to save space and ink when printing. it had been cool - not the scorching heat of home, but not freezing, either. he'd enjoyed it, and when summer truly came it grew hotter. no, it wasn't as bad here as ashe had warned at all.
unfortunately, that fantasy was short-lived. september arrived and the temperature dropped, abruptly. he woke up one morning mid-month and stepped out to collect the mail, and had ended up on work-leave for two days while he recovered from the nasty fall he'd taken after slipping on ice. artach had never seen natural ice before.
october brought the snow.
below freezing constantly, and with him constantly cold, he understood just what ashe meant now about winter here being more extreme than home. he woke up one morning and opened his curtains, expecting to see the usual barren trees and dead, grey pavements, and instead was greeted by a world washed of all colour. ashe had crawled out of bed beside him and smiled when she'd seen the snow.
"the start of winter, love," she'd said before trotting back to bed and climbing back into the warm blankets. "you should leave for work early today. traffic's going to be terrible."
it had been terrible.
and the snow did not go away. it piled, and piled, and piled, a little deeper each night, a little more frozen, neverending. oh, artach hated every single second of it.
ashe teased him about it near constantly but she did still do her best to cheer him up. buying him hats, thick scarves, getting up early with him to try and help him shovel snow out of the driveway so that he could leave the house safely without struggling through the six-inch deep snow that'd fallen overnight.
the days were so incredibly short, too- he left work only to be greeted by pure darkness at only three in the afternoon, and frankly, that scared him. in what world was it even allowed to get dark this early?
ashe had warned him that the sun would be gone altogether soon. it tended to vanish for about three months a year up here.
gods, he couldn't stand it. how could anyone live here, in such a miserable and dark place? a world turned totally black and white, bitter, cold, lifeless. artach longed for home.
but ashe was happy here, he knew. she was trying so very hard to make him love it, too- she'd always hated the sweltering heat of his home far south. she'd missed the snow, just as much as he missed his sun.
so they compromised, sort of. they went home for two months every winter - the seventh of november to the seventh of december. the first of january to the thirty-first. and then they went home, back to the house they owned, their little cottage nestled in the land of cold and snow but home, he realised one evening, as he sat on the couch with a blanket around him and watched ashe dancing in the kitchen while making their drinks. the winter sucked. it hurt. he hated every second he had to spend here living through it, but he was here with ashe. they got through this together - her with her childhood spent running through deep snow banks in the pitch black with her friends, him with his childhood spent splashing through warm oceans in the never-ending days with his family. if she could stick it out and go home with him in the summer to see his folk, he could stay here during the winter with her.
maybe it wasn't so bad after all.

the evening was quiet. peaceful. it was that time just before dusk where most kals
had gone home for the day, leaving the beaches mostly empty - a
few people strolled around, by themselves, hand in hand with another,
following their unique pets across the sand at frantic runs. it made him
smile to watch it all.
this was his favourite time of day. when it was still warm and bright but
the world was just starting to sleep. he continued his slow walk, heading
to the same spot he always went when the tide was out at dusk. not quite
a secret spot, but secluded enough that most people wouldn't bother to stop
there and sit down to watch the sun sinking below the waves and-
he rounded the corner and stopped dead.
he didn't know the girl sitting in his spot,
but she hadn't seemed to notice him so far.
she sat there with her head in her hands and just gazed
out over the orange ocean, the fading sunlight shining
in her eyes. he swallowed and finished the walk over, then
sat.
"this is where i sit every time the sun sets, you know."
a second and then she snorted, a smile curling her lips.
"do you say that to every girl you meet?"
"no, no, i mean it. i always take a picture of the sunset
too. if you want proof."
she glanced over at him then, eyes holding an intelligence
that he hadn't expected. a moment and she went back to
looking at the sunset.
"it's a nice spot."
he nodded and glanced out at the sunset too, though was
careful not to stare right at it like she seemed to be doing.
"i've never seen you here before. i mean, it's a really small town.
did you just move here?"
"travelling," she replied. "just finished school. cashed in my savings
from the family business. i wanted to go somewhere warm."
"somewhere warm?"
she nodded, raising a paw and waving at the general sun, ocean.
"where i come from, the sun sets and doesn't rise again, in the winter.
i heard here that it rises and never goes back down. i wanted to
see if it was true."
"you're lying."
"am not!" she exclaimed, and then glanced over
at his expression and laughed.
his heart stopped.
it was light, carefree, simply joyous. it made her
whole face shine. it was like a second sun, not as blinding,
but just as beautiful, in that very moment.
he looked away quickly and was glad his fur hid
his blush.
"i don't believe the sun never rises."
"and i don't believe the sun never sets. guess we're
at a crossroads."
he snorted, smiled, glanced back quickly but she had her
attention on the sky again. he looked up too.
"my names artach. how about you?"
"ashe."
"how long are you staying?"
"want to know how long i'll be stealing your
spot?" she teased, and he couldn't help but grin.
"maybe."
another laugh.
"i'm here until august."
"just enough time to see our never-setting sun."
she nodded.
five more minutes, and he pointed.
"that cloud looks like the wing of a dragon."
"no, it's a bird."
"is not."
"is too."
another second.
"can you tell me about the never-rising sun?"
she smiled, glancing back to him and meeting his
eye this time.
"only if you promise to show me the never-setting sun."
he nodded, flashing a second grin.
"deal."
"deal."
and they went back to watching the sunset.

artach believes that unless you're willing
to use the right type of mug,
hot chocolate is pretty much worthless. to have the
perfect hot cocoa you must
have the perfect mug - in his case, it's any goofy
winter-themed mug,
something you can laugh at while you drink.
once you have the mug the next step is easy -
three teaspoons of
salted-caramel cocoa powder. whole-fat milk,
fresh, heated to
that moment right before it boils, where the
froth rises and threatens to spill. add to the
mug- pile with as much whipped cream as possible.
if it falls over don't worry,
just scoop it up and dollop it back on top!
exactly a dozen and a half mini marshmallows -
9 in one colour, 9 in the other.
then top it off with a flake, crumpled into
little pieces, scattered across the cream.
that sounds pretty delightful to him.

favourite colour red

theme song follow - lucian (sleeper)

favourite food peanut butter bagels

job Lepidopterology, technically, but where he
lives nowprevents that - currently works as a
nature journalistand is completing his
studies on Actias luna.

[womp womp]

xxx

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Username: diamond sapphire
Name: chicory, 'chi'
Gender: female

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