Snehzima is the city where winter never ends. Separate from any outside influence, it stands as an independent state removed from the rest of the world. Despite the dull conditions nobody wants to leave, caused by drugs pumped into the water, and anyone who does is never seen again. Nothing is known of what happens to them.

Snow is a near-constant feature of Snehzima's environment, there being very few days in the year where it ends. The climate is never settled above freezing meaning every building with enough of a budget has some kind of heating system implemented. However, many can't afford to have heating systems built so instead substitute it with thick clothing and blankets. Most people live in appartment blocks with only the richest living in independent housing. This has lead to a sense of community among Snehzima's residents where people exchange goods with each-other to get by. People who can't contribute are often isolated because of this meaning anybody too poor or otherwise unable to give back ends up unable to escape their situation.

The give-and-take nature of relationships in Snehzima leads to socialising generally being for people's own individual benefit rather than for the sake of building meaningful friendships or partnerships. This has lead to Snehzima being a very lonely city.

Yulya Ivanovna

• Female, she/her
• 20th November 19XX, 23
• Status: Alive

"Yulya's official photograph taken for her government ID. When told she wasn't allowed to smile for it she told the photographer that she wouldn't have anyway."

Yulya is a 23 year old office worker born and raised in Snehzima by her Father, Ivan Ivanov and Allochka Ivanova. She had a relatively normal childhood, though it was sometimes affected by her mothers poor mental health. Going into her teenage years Yulya had to look after her mother as her health deteriorated while her father worked to support them as a family. Around her 19th birthday her father retired and started looking after her mother instead, allowing her to go into work.

Yulya is very friendly though tries not to trouble herself too much with getting close to others due to her upbringing. While talking to others she has a smile on her face that she only lets slip once in private. While not an introvert, Yulya finds too much social interaction taxing due to her insomnia leaving her with little energy day to day which is something she tries to conceal. She takes a lot of responsibility for the feelings of others and doesn't like to bring down the mood which can cause conflict with people wishing to get to know her deeper than the surface level information she willingly shares.

Czehstawa Dunajski

• Female, she/her
• 17th April 19XX, 23
• Status: Missing

"Czehstawa's official photograph taken for her government ID. She spent an hour debating if she should wear her favourite scarf or if it would make her look less professional, only to decide to wear it anyway."

Czehstawa is a 23 year old woman working as a cashier in a store local to her appartment block. She spent part of her childhood raised in Poland before her family moved to Snehzima for her Father, Arnold Dunajski's, work as a millitary officer. Despite her fathers occupation Czehstawa knows nothing about the government opperations in Snehzima. She lives with her mother, Arleta Dunajski, and teenage brother, Aleks Dunajski, while her father is often away. Her younger years being spent outside of Snehzima leave her without the apathy surrounding leaving, but everybody else's attitudes towards it being unenthusiastic means that she doesn't share this with anybody to avoid any potential arguments.

Czehstawa is quiet and reserved around almost everyone besides the select few she cares about, who she is very bubbly and exciteable around. This leads to people not interacting with her often due to believing she'd rather be left alone. Czehstawa is often frustrated by this and can snap at people who didn't know they were doing anything wrong by not acknowledging her. She doesn't make a very good first impression due to this, but when somebody gets to know her she is very kind and will always go out of her way to help them if they need it.

Side characters

• Ivan Ivanov - Yulya's father. His father was also named Ivan, hence the surname. He worked as a miner up until his retirement
• Allochka Ivanova - Yulya's mother. Yulya had to take care of her throughout her teenage years. Allochka was unable to properly care for her because her various undiagnosed mental health problems.
• Arnold Dunajski - Czehstawa's father. He works for the millitary locally in Snehzima, meaning Czehstawa doesn't see much of him. He always buys her something nice when he comes to visit
• Arleta Dunajski - Czehstawa's mother. She is very attentive but struggles to control Czehstawa's brother, Aleks.
• Aleks Dunajski - Czehstawa's younger (teenage) brother. He acts out a lot due to missing his father and being friends with a group of other boys his age who are very rebellious. He secretly hates acting like this but he doesn't know how else to cope with his emotions.

"The missing poster distributed around Snehzima for Czehstawa's disapearance. Yulya feels an intense sense of guilt whenever she sees it."

Everybody born and raised in Snehzima feels apathy around the idea of leaving. Something about the environment leads people to not thinking about leaving Snehzima and, even if they do, they don't care enough to try. However, with Czehstawa coming from the outside, she never had the same apathy. She had wanted to leave since she was a teenager and an arguement with Yulya the day after Czehstawa's 23rd birthday pushed her to finally take the bus to the closest town outside of Snehzima, Salavat. She didn't tell anyone, causing her mother to file for a missing persons report.

• Yulya was born the year before Czehstawa, meaning their birthdays are around 5 months apart.
• The idea of drugs in the water making people apathetic about leaving was directly inspired by the meme of Donald Trump saying the water was turning the frogs gay. Seriously.