[Japanese - Yuki-Onna] a quest for a bad taste in your mouth | Page 1 | Fa'e Quest Threads | Guild Forums

Angel Below

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Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 4:41 pm

Welcome to my quest thread! I'm a long-time lurker in the Fae thread and I figured I may as well write up the quest that was in my mind.

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 4:45 pm

Post 1: Welcome
Post 2: You are here
Post 3: General Biography
Post 4: The Story of Yuki-Onna
Post 5: Yuki-Onna
Post 6: Character Chart
Post 7: Lost Child
Post 8: Powers and Weaknesses
Post 9: Guardian
Post 10: Myth and Application
Post 11: Questions/Comments
Post 12: Rules
Post 13: Gifts and Awards
Post 14: Links
Post 15: Credits

Angel Below

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Angel Below

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Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 4:47 pm

Gina Kumiko Satou is a relatively normal Japanese girl. She was an orphen when younger, found abandoned at the base of a mountain that was slowly becomming more populated. She was adopted by a businessman who has enough money to spoil her, but not enough money to be considered rich. She was always average in school, but excelled at dancing. As she developed, she noticed that she had certain . . . she was reluctant to call them powers -- but that's what they appeared to be. Things happened, specifically when her emotions flared. She hated it when it happened. It usually only made her angry (angrier), but she could not seem to control it. She does her best not to have strong emotion, but occationally, especially when mad, she can not control herself and her powers are freed. When using her powers without control, she has often froze things, once killing a lizard by accident. Since then, she has seen the powers as only negative.

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 4:50 pm

In a village of Musashi Province, there lived two woodcutters: Mosaku and Minokichi. At the time of which I am speaking, Mosaku was an old man; and Minokichi, his apprentice, was a lad of eighteen years. Every day they went together to a forest situated about five miles from their village. On the way to that forest there is a wide river to cross; and there is a ferry-boat. Several times a bridge was built where the ferry is; but the bridge was each time carried away by a flood. No common bridge can resist the current there when the river rises.

Mosaku and Minokichi were on their way home, one very cold evening, when a great snowstorm overtook them. They reached the ferry; and they found that the boatman had gone away, leaving his boat on the other side of the river. It was no day for swimming; and the woodcutters took shelter in the ferryman's hut,--thinking themselves lucky to find any shelter at all. There was no brazier in the hut, nor any place in which to make a fire: it was only a two-mat hut, with a single door, but no window. Mosaku and Minokichi fastened the door, and lay down to rest, with their straw rain-coats over them. At first they did not feel very cold; and they thought that the storm would soon be over.

The old man almost immediately fell asleep; but the boy, Minokichi, lay awake a long time, listening to the awful wind, and the continual slashing of the snow against the door. The river was roaring; and the hut swayed and creaked like a junk at sea. It was a terrible storm; and the air was every moment becoming colder; and Minokichi shivered under his rain-coat. But at last, in spite of the cold, he too fell asleep.

He was awakened by a showering of snow in his face. The door of the hut had been forced open; and, by the snow-light (yuki-akari), he saw a woman in the room,--a woman all in white. She was bending above Mosaku, and blowing her breath upon him;--and her breath was like a bright white smoke. Almost in the same moment she turned to Minokichi, and stooped over him. He tried to cry out, but found that he could not utter any sound. The white woman bent down over him, lower and lower, until her face almost touched him; and he saw that she was very beautiful,--though her eyes made him afraid. For a little time she continued to look at him;--then she smiled, and she whispered:--"I intended to treat you like the other man. But I cannot help feeling some pity for you,--because you are so young... You are a pretty boy, Minokichi; and I will not hurt you now. But, if you ever tell anybody--even your own mother--about what you have seen this night, I shall know it; and then I will kill you... Remember what I say!"

With these words, she turned from him, and passed through the doorway. Then he found himself able to move; and he sprang up, and looked out. But the woman was nowhere to be seen; and the snow was driving furiously into the hut. Minokichi closed the door, and secured it by fixing several billets of wood against it. He wondered if the wind had blown it open;--he thought that he might have been only dreaming, and might have mistaken the gleam of the snow-light in the doorway for the figure of a white woman: but he could not be sure. He called to Mosaku, and was frightened because the old man did not answer. He put out his hand in the dark, and touched Mosaku's face, and found that it was ice! Mosaku was stark and dead...

By dawn the storm was over; and when the ferryman returned to his station, a little after sunrise, he found Minokichi lying senseless beside the frozen body of Mosaku. Minokichi was promptly cared for, and soon came to himself; but he remained a long time ill from the effects of the cold of that terrible night. He had been greatly frightened also by the old man's death; but he said nothing about the vision of the woman in white. As soon as he got well again, he returned to his calling,--going alone every morning to the forest, and coming back at nightfall with his bundles of wood, which his mother helped him to sell.

One evening, in the winter of the following year, as he was on his way home, he overtook a girl who happened to be traveling by the same road. She was a tall, slim girl, very good-looking; and she answered Minokichi's greeting in a voice as pleasant to the ear as the voice of a song-bird. Then he walked beside her; and they began to talk. The girl said that her name was O-Yuki [2]; that she had lately lost both of her parents; and that she was going to Yedo (2), where she happened to have some poor relations, who might help her to find a situation as a servant. Minokichi soon felt charmed by this strange girl; and the more that he looked at her, the handsomer she appeared to be. He asked her whether she was yet betrothed; and she answered, laughingly, that she was free. Then, in her turn, she asked Minokichi whether he was married, or pledge to marry; and he told her that, although he had only a widowed mother to support, the question of an "honorable daughter-in-law" had not yet been considered, as he was very young... After these confidences, they walked on for a long while without speaking; but, as the proverb declares, Ki ga areba, me mo kuchi hodo ni mono wo iu: "When the wish is there, the eyes can say as much as the mouth." By the time they reached the village, they had become very much pleased with each other; and then Minokichi asked O-Yuki to rest awhile at his house. After some shy hesitation, she went there with him; and his mother made her welcome, and prepared a warm meal for her. O-Yuki behaved so nicely that Minokichi's mother took a sudden fancy to her, and persuaded her to delay her journey to Yedo. And the natural end of the matter was that Yuki never went to Yedo at all. She remained in the house, as an "honorable daughter-in-law."

O-Yuki proved a very good daughter-in-law. When Minokichi's mother came to die,--some five years later,--her last words were words of affection and praise for the wife of her son. And O-Yuki bore Minokichi ten children, boys and girls,--handsome children all of them, and very fair of skin.

The country-folk thought O-Yuki a wonderful person, by nature different from themselves. Most of the peasant-women age early; but O-Yuki, even after having become the mother of ten children, looked as young and fresh as on the day when she had first come to the village.

One night, after the children had gone to sleep, O-Yuki was sewing by the light of a paper lamp; and Minokichi, watching her, said:--

"To see you sewing there, with the light on your face, makes me think of a strange thing that happened when I was a lad of eighteen. I then saw somebody as beautiful and white as you are now--indeed, she was very like you."...

Without lifting her eyes from her work, O-Yuki responded:--

"Tell me about her... Where did you see her?

Then Minokichi told her about the terrible night in the ferryman's hut,--and about the White Woman that had stooped above him, smiling and whispering,--and about the silent death of old Mosaku. And he said:--

"Asleep or awake, that was the only time that I saw a being as beautiful as you. Of course, she was not a human being; and I was afraid of her,--very much afraid,--but she was so white!... Indeed, I have never been sure whether it was a dream that I saw, or the Woman of theSnow."...

O-Yuki flung down her sewing, and arose, and bowed above Minokichi where he sat, and shrieked into his face:--

"It was I--I--I! Yuki it was! And I told you then that I would kill you if you ever said one work about it!... But for those children asleep there, I would kill you this moment! And now you had better take very, very good care of them; for if ever they have reason to complain of you, I will treat you as you deserve!"...

Even as she screamed, her voice became thin, like a crying of wind;--then she melted into a bright white mist that spired to the roof-beams, and shuddered away through the smoke-hold... Never again was she seen.

Angel Below

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Angel Below

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Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 4:52 pm

YUKI-ONNA (雪女, Yuki-onna - snow woman) is a spirit or yokai found in Japanese folklore. She is a popular figure in Japanese animation, manga, and literature. Yuki-onna is sometimes confused with Yama-uba ("mountain crone"), but the two figures are not the same.

APPEARANCE

Yuki-onna appears as a tall, beautiful woman with long hair. Her skin is inhumanly pale or even transparent, causing her to blend into the snowy landscape (as she is most famously described in Lafcadio Hearn's Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things). She sometimes wears a white kimono, but other legends describe her as nude, with only her face, hair, and pubic region standing out against the snow. Despite her inhuman beauty, her eyes can strike terror into mortals. She floats across the snow, leaving no footprints (in fact, some tales say she has no feet, a notable feature for many Japanese ghosts), and she can transform into a cloud of mist or snow if she is threatened.

BEHAVIOR

Yuki-onna is winter personified, particularly the storms common during that time of year. She is at the same time beautiful and serene, yet ruthless in her killing of unsuspecting mortals. Until the 18th century, she was almost uniformly portrayed as evil. Today, however, stories often color her as more human, emphasizing her ghostlike nature and ephemeral beauty.

In many stories, Yuki-onna reveals herself to travelers who find themselves trapped in snowstorms and uses her icy breath to leave them as frost-coated corpses. Other legends say that she leads them astray so they simply die of exposure. Other times, she manifests holding a child. When a well-intentioned soul takes the "child" from her, he or she is frozen in place. Parents searching for lost children are particularly susceptible to this tactic. Other legends make Yuki-onna much more aggressive. In these stories, she often physically invades people's homes, blowing in the door with a gust of wind, to kill them while they sleep (though some legends require her to be invited inside first).

Exactly what Yuki-onna is after varies from tale to tale. Sometimes she is simply satisfied to see her victim's death. Other times, however, she is more vampiric, draining her victims' blood or "life force". She occasionally takes on a succubus-like manner, preying on weak-willed men in order to drain or freeze them through sexual intercourse or a kiss.

Like the snow and winter weather she represents, Yuki-onna has a softer side. She sometimes lets would-be victims go for various reasons. In one popular Yuki-onna legend, for example, she sets a young boy free due to his beauty and age. She makes him promise to never mention her again, though, and when he relates the story to his wife much later in life, his wife reveals herself to be none other than the snow woman. She reviles him for breaking his promise but spares him yet again, this time out of concern for the children she has borne him (but if he dares mistreat their children, she will return with no mercy. Luckily for him, he is already a loving father). In a similar legend, Yuki-onna melts away once her husband discovers her true nature.

IN POPULAR CULTURE

* The 2005 movie The Great Yokai War briefly features a yuki-onna.
* An evil yuki-onna appears in a filler episode of of the anime InuYasha, disguised as a woman Miroku used to know.
* The 1990 movied Dreams, directed by Akira Kurosawa, features a yuki-onna in the story The Blizzard
* The 1965 movie Kwaidan features a yuki-onna in the story The Woman of the Snow.
* The manga/anime series Hell Teacher Nūbē has a prominent yuki-onna female named Yukime. Although in many ways she does hold many yuki-onna skills and abilities, she is consistantly trying to fight against the general nature of her kind in order to return the love she holds for the spiritualist teacher.
* A Pokémon based on a yuki-onna, Yukimenoko, was introduced in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl.

Just a note: Yuki-onna "died" because the mountain area she resided in slowly became more populated.

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 5:02 pm

Date this chart was completed
November 26, 2006
Character's Full Name
Gina Kumiko Satou
Reason or meaning of name
Gina means silvery. When she was reborn, her silvery hair prompted the first name. Kumiko means eternally beautiful child. While she does not always look like a child, Gina is not the modern day definition of beautiful with tan skin, but she is very beautiful in an awkward way. Satou is a common Japanese surname and her Earth guardian was a common person.
Nickname
Kumi
Reason for nickname
There is something weird about Gina that no one around her can grasp and her middle name provides the perfect nickname. One meaning for Kumi in Japanese is bitter taste. Despite Gina’s awkward beauty, something about her personality figuratively leaves a bitter taste for those around her.
Birthdate
January 12
Astrological Sign
Capricorn

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE
Age
15
How old does s/he appear?
15
Eye Color
Pale crystal blue
Glasses or contacts
no
Weight
98 lbs
Height
5’3”
Type of body/build
tall and slender fairly flat-chested, but beautiful still
Skin tone
very very pale
Skin type
smooth, no blemishes nor scars
Shape of face
oval
Distinguishing Marks
her eyes, hair and skin
Predominant feature
her eyes and hair stand out the most, but her beauty is complete
Hair color
silvery with a tint of blue
Distinguishable hair feature (bald, receding hairline, etc.)
very long hair
Type of hair (coarse, fine, thick, etc?)
fine
Character's typical hairstyle
down, straight and flowing as if on its own
Looks like
Yuki-onna
Is s/he healthy?
yes
If not, why not
Physical disabilities
none -- she’s very flexible, very fit

FAVORITES
Character's favorite color
white, blue
Character's least favorite color
yellow, orange
Why?
The colors symbolize what she likes and dislikes -- white and blue are the colors of snow, winter and cold. Yellow and orange are typically warmer colors.
Favorite Music
Pop and techno.
Least favorite Music
anything she can’t dance to
Why?
She loves to dance as it’s one action that shows off all of her body.
Food
fish
Literature
She's fascinated by the religious mythology of Japan
Expressions
She often has a very blank face, but when it does show emotion, she is most expressive when displaying anger
Expletives
When she is angry, she curses a lot, constantly, and often doesn’t make sense.
Mode of transportation
depending on what’s available. She’s never been in a limo, but she would greatly enjoy it and being the center of attention.
Daredevil or cautious?
daredevil
Same when alone?
Yes

HABITS
Smokes
no
What?
When and how much?
Drinks
rarely
What?
Sake, hard liquor
When and how much?
When she drinks, she drinks a lot and loses control of herself (once older)
Hobbies
dancing, reading
How does character spend a rainy day?
She will often be at the dance studio no matter what the weather is.

BACKGROUND
Hometown
Tokyo, Japan, Earth
Type of childhood
Like that of a normal girl -- she was adopted at the age of three
First memory
Tanabata when she was two. She placed a star on a bamboo tree donated to the orphanage in which she lived (with her young guardian)
Most important childhood event that still affects him/her
being adopted
Why?
She found someone who would care for her
Education
She was above average, but nothing exceptional
Religion
She practices Jinja Shinto
Finances
she is not extremely well off, but her “father” is a businessman who takes care of her needs, she is often spoiled by him

FAMILY
Mother
Mai
Relationship with her
negative, often fights -- she was the disciplinary parent
Father
Hotaka
Relationship with him
positive
Siblings
none -- Mai could not have children so they adopted Gina
How many?
0
Birth order
Relationship with each
Children of siblings
Extended family?
One uncle on Mai’s side that spoils Gina
Close?
very -- Gina is closer to him than any other person in the world
Why or why not?
he actually listens to her as a person

ATTITUDE
Character's greatest fear
gerascophobia - fear of growing old
Why?
Her youth is very important to her it contributes to her beauty
What is the worst thing that could happen to him/her?
Being stranded in the middle of the desert
What single event would most throw character's life in complete turmoil?
Any physical deformation
Why?
She has relied on her looks for much of her success thus far
Character is most at ease when
she is dancing
Most ill at ease when
under pressure at school
Depressive or SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder)?
More emotional in the summer
Priorities
Dancing, uncle, parents, children she visits at orphenage, friends, school
Philosophy
she prescribes to the Shinto philosophy while on Earth, as she was raised that way. However, once on Gaia she will be more selective about what she values: innocence, youth, honesty and family
How s/he feels about self
She is constantly worried about how others perceive her. She feels that everything she does (that matters to her) is worthy of attention -- dancing especially
Past failure s/he would be embarrassed to have people know about
one time, as a child, she was angry and lost control and hit a wall, breaking something that was a present to her from her uncle.
Why?
she really values her relationship with her uncle
If granted one wish, what would it be?
To be picked up by a large dance group as the star
Why?
She is constantly wanting attention, like any other teenager. Dancing is what she works hardest at and being recognized on a major level for her ability would be amazing

PERSONALITY
Greatest source of strength in character's personality (whether s/he sees it as such or not)
determination
Greatest source of weakness in character's personality (whether s/he sees it assuch or not
pride (arrogance)
Character's soft spot
Children -- especially orphans
Is this soft spot obvious to others?
yes
If not, how does character hide it?
Biggest vulnerability
Once she does get the attention she desires, she will be very clingy while attempting to be controlling.

TRAITS
Optimist or pessimist
pessimist
Why?
Orphanage, nothing amazing happened to her in life, Capricorn
Introvert or extrovert
extrovert
Why?
Attention-seeking
Drives and motivations
she wants to be noticed by everyone
Talents
dancing
Extremely skilled at
dancing
Extremely unskilled at
Drawing -- she has tried and still works hard, but she can’t train herself to be good at it
Good characteristics
she is very caring for those she values
Character flaws
she is very hard to get close to
Mannerisms s
he tends to play with her hair when bored or nervous
Peculiarities
she’s a little bit OCD in her personal space
Biggest regret
breaking a memento of her uncle’s
Minor regrets
times when she’s been angry at her family or friends
Biggest accomplishment
winning platinum at a dance competition and being asked to be on a selective local dance team
Minor accomplishments
dancing for 13 years
Character's darkest secret
she has caused things to randomly freeze, it seems, and she doesn't know why or how
Does anyone else know?
no
If yes, did character tell them?
If no, how did they find out?

SELF-PERCEPTION
One word CHARACTER would use to describe self
talented
One paragraph description of how CHARACTER would describe self
A beautiful disciplined girl who has very selective friends.
What does CHARACTER consider best physical characteristic?
eyes
What does CHARACTER consider worst physical characteristic?
breasts
Are these realistic assessments?
she doesn't really have bad physical characteristics, but her body is long and slim as most dancers' bodies are and therefore she has not developed much up top
If not, why not?
How CHARACTER thinks others perceive him/her
Strange, beautiful, talented
What four things would CHARACTER most like to change about self? (#1 most important, #2 second most important, etc.)
1. Not explode when angry
2. Be neater
3. Be friendlier
4. Not have strange powers
Why?
her anger hurts her and others, she would do better in everything if she was neater, she would have more friends if she was friendlier and less focused on success in dance, she does not understand anything about what happens
If change #1 was made, would character be as happy as s/he thinks?
no
If not, why not?
If she did not explode with anger when she was overwhelmed with it, it would build up and she would lose control of her powers more often

INTERRELATION WITH OTHERS
Is character divorced?
single
Has character ever cheated on signficant other?
Never had a boyfriend
How does character relate to others?
not very well -- children and people she sees as innocent are the people she cares for most
How is s/he perceived by...
Strangers?
strangely beautiful
Friends?
kind, beautiful, awkward
Wife/Husband/Lover?
Hero/Heroine?
How does character view hero/heroine?
First impression
Why?
What happens to change this perception?
What do family/friends like most about character?
Her determination and her love for those she is close to
What do family/friends like least about character?
she is often distant

GOALS
Immediate goals
win another dance competition
Long range goals
learn about herself and her powers -- her "parents"
How does character plan to accomplish these goals?
work hard, investigate
How will other characters be affected?

PROBLEMS/CRISIS
How character reacts in a crisis
panics and tries to shove it away and gets angry
How character faces problems
she gets angry
Kinds of problems character usually runs into
schoolwork, breaking things, freezing things
How character reacts to NEW problems
anger
How character reacts to change
it takes her time to adapt and she is often angry when she has to deal with change

GENERAL
Favorite clothing
dance costumes
Why?
she stands out and is the center of attention
Least favorite clothing
baggy anything
Why?
she feels her body is one of the few things she has so she should show it off
Jewelry
a silver chain with a white gold ring on it
Other accessories
occationally she will wear hair pins
Drives
children often can influence her to do better
Where does character live?
Tokyo and then Gaia
Where does character want to live?
on a mountain surrounded by winter
Spending habits (frugal, spendthrift, etc)
spendthrift
Why?
she wants things that will help her stand out and help the children
What does s/he do too much of?
dancing, practicing
Too little of?
study
Most prized possession
necklace
Why?
only memento from before orphanage
Play musical instrument?
no
Which?
How did s/he learn?

Angel Below

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Angel Below

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Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 5:42 pm

As a lost child, Gina has always felt that her powers were a negative thing, only to be feared and avoided. When she is brought to Gaia, she will begin to realize that she is special because she has the powers, not bad because of them.

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 5:46 pm

Powers:
Baby - cause specific things to cool slightly, only a few degrees
Toddler - Cause greater changes in temperature, both in specific things and in general to suit her needs
Kid - able to lower the temperature enough to freeze small things (cat-size)
Teen - able to freeze human-size things also can cause rain to change to snow She also is beginning to be able to change her appearance, just to look like ages she has been before (only able to go back a few years at the moment)

Weaknesses:
heat affects her negatively, she is also very gullible and often clueless, she acts very much like a human and not at all like a fae. She also neither likes nor appreciates her powers, though she uses them when she must.

Angel Below

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Angel Below

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Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 5:50 pm

Info comming soon. She is an older girl from the orphenage who looked after Gina even after she was adopted.

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 6:20 pm

Comming soon: Yuki-onna affects Gina greatly, and Gina has some of her vindictive nature as well. She is influential in her likes, her grace, her elegance, her powers, her temperment and her looks. Gina doesn't appreciate, what she calls the corruption of her life.