Eirlys_762 has a minion!

Vivasvat the Winter Puff

Pet Profile by SubetaHQ
Lyrics (italicized paragraphs) by Tarja Turunen
from her song "My Winter Storm"





Put all your angels on the edge,
Keep all the roses, I'm not dead

Oh. Visitors.

Great. Just what I needed.

No, you don't need to leave, you're already here and it's pretty cold outside - you certainly don't seem dressed for the weather. Sit, sit, you look tired and you've got icicles forming in your hair. I s'pose I've got to feed you, huh? No, stay, it's no trouble. Cocoa? Oh, come on, I'm already up. There you are. See? I already had a batch brewing, that's how.

Go tell the world I’m still around
I didn’t fly, I’m coming down

So you've come to hear my story, huh?

Not many people talk about me anymore.

Well, that's all about to change.

I s'pose I'll have to begin at the beginning, huh?

Well, I was born dreaming of the snow. My childhood was filled with scrambles to avoid the summer heat and wild romps around in the winter weather. Every winter afternoon and evening, I would rush out to explore the world made new by ice and that wonderful crystally powder that either crunched beneath my paws or fluffed up in clouds around me like glittery flour. I'd stay out and build snowmen, run around and get into these snowball wars with my friends, build these mountainous snow structures - it was great. I'd pretend to walk around and be an ice queen, and I'd imagine that the falling snow was building, y'know, my castle. Yeah, snow castle. Kinda dorky back then, but whatever.

Every winter night, I came home as late as I could - not because I didn't want to be home, but because I was so entranced by the world outside that I simply couldn't tear myself away. When I was old enough to make it on my own, I instantly made for colder climes.

There, in an icier part of the world, I made a bit of a name for myself. I was an artist, an architect.

I built my love for the snow and for winter in general into a career. I built snow - not snow castles, not that great... but forts. Really elaborate snow forts. Towers, spires, columns - it would take hours, sometimes days - but it was so worth it to see them glittering in the winter sun or glowing in the weird light of a snowstorm. I built them for fun, at first, for the sheer love of the craft, and for the delight of the kids that would come running after I was done to play... and to eventually destroy my work, but that didn't matter then.

Then my work started catching on. I'd get paid to build at birthday parties, then cocktail parties, then for an art promotion... then I got my own outdoor gallery showing of sorts. Nice pay, if I could get it. I loved it. I got a manager, started my own career as a... well, stunt architect, I guess. I'd still build for the kids every once in a while, but my manager, he'd get mad, call them "freebies". I dunno, it annoyed me... but the manager was always watching me, asking me about my work, you know, I thought he was really interested in the craft. It was great to have - I guess an apprentice who was also a manager, you know? It was a great partnership.

Then... everything changed.

I woke up and my business manager was building these cheap - flats. Places people could live for a day or two if they were real careful and pay through the nose to get it. My name was forgotten. The money stopped. The engagements stopped. Worst of all.... the kids stopped coming around, stopped enjoying the forts I built for free. I guess they were too busy getting trapped with their parents in snow flats... or maybe the creativity was sucked out in pursuit of money, you know? I never thought of that before. Maybe they hadn't come for a long time and I was just... not seeing it.

So I got a job in a shop, dropped out of the art world, and here I am today... but not beaten, not broken. Waiting. Waiting. Look - here, let me get them - watch the cocoa, watch it! - okay, there we go, 'scuse me - annnnd there! Look.

Yeah. That's my masterpiece right there. Look at those spires. Yeah, that's a genuine spiral staircase. Oh, no, that's actually a widow's walk. Uh-huh. Yes, it is possible. It is so. You'll see. Uh-huh, snow railings. Never tried those before. Yeah, and see, those're the parapets - the ones that kids can fire snowballs from at each other, y'know? And here - the interior - yeah, they can hide behind them. Look, here - a snow maze that's inside a snow castle! You know, I'd have killed for that when I was a kid! Look, it's a snow castle - fort, fine, fort. No, you know what? This is a snow masterpiece! I'll come right out and say it: This is my snow castle.

And it's going up, this winter. It's going up for free. And those bloody art critics aren't getting anywhere near it.

Says me and myself and that other one, that's who.

"For who?" What kinda question is that? For the kids, of course. Every kid deserves a snow castle.

Even me, I guess.

My winter storm
Holding me awake
It’s never gone
When I walk alone