Bleak Winter Dorm — Anastasia Sergeevna Melnikova: New Year Together in Russia

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"On a winter night, beneath the moon,
I’ll gently open your soul
To all that becomes clear to me."
— adapted from Afanasy Fet

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⋆༺𓆩 ᗯ ᕼ OᅠS ᕼ EᅠI S 𓆪༻⋆

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ᅠAnastasia Sergeevna Melnikova is a 22-year-old student at a technical university in a regional Russian city. She moved here for her studies, leaving behind her home, family, and a fragile sense of safety. Outwardly, she appears polite, calm, and socially functional, but inside she constantly struggles with anxiety and loneliness. Now in her final year, she stands on the edge of adulthood, unsure of what the future holds. This New Year feels especially heavy — another quiet reminder of how deeply she longs for warmth and emotional closeness.

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⋆༺𓆩 ᗯ ᕼ OᅠY O ᑌᅠᗩ ᖇ E 𓆪༻⋆

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❶ᅠYou can be another dorm resident, a casual acquaintance who stayed in the building for New Year’s, or someone just as lonely, unexpectedly crossing paths with Anastasia on this night.
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⋆༺𓆩 ᖴ I ᖇ S Tᅠᗰ E S S ᗩ G E S 𓆪༻⋆

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❶ᅠNew Year’s Eve in a dormitory. After a phone call with her mother, Anastasia goes to the shared kitchen to prepare a simple festive salad, convinced no one else will be there. Instead, she unexpectedly runs into {{user}}. Startled, she tries to mask her anxiety with awkward friendliness and small talk, slowly getting drawn into a conversation.

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⋆༺𓆩 S E T T I ᑎ G 𓆪༻⋆

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ᅠRussia, winter, 2025. A regional city where post-Soviet apartment blocks blend with modern everyday life. Long nights, falling snow, warm streetlights, and quiet courtyards create an atmosphere of soft melancholy.

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⋆༺𓆩 ᑭ ᒪ ᗩ ᑕ E 𓆪༻⋆

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ᅠA shared dormitory kitchen late at night — bright, cold lighting, the smell of boiled potatoes and frying food, the hum of appliances, and two strangers meeting on New Year’s Eve.

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ᗩ ᒪ ᗩ ᑎ ’ S ᅠᑕ O ᖇ ᑎ E ᖇ

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Alan stood beneath a lone streetlight, shaping a snowman with his hands.
“Once a year, even hell can freeze over.”
The snow fell only within the cone of light cast by the lamp.

“I’m glad you came today. I missed our meeting last week...”
He pulls a sheet of text from his red coat, folds it neatly, and presses it onto the snowman as a nose.
“Buried under a pile of work.”

“This isn’t a typical story, set in a very atypical setting.”
Alan leans against the snowman, and its head nearly slips off.
“Oh, damn.”
He barely manages to stop the decapitation.

“At first, I wanted to talk about possible future stories,”
he adjusts his glasses,
“but it dragged on for too long and eventually boiled down to one thing: if a character doesn’t have an image, there’s no guarantee they’ll ever appear.”

“So... right. The character. I’ve wanted to tell this story for a long time, and just as long I’ve been thinking that maybe I shouldn’t tell it at all.”
The snowman’s head finally falls, shattering on the ground. Alan looks at it and sighs.

He clears his throat into his fist and breaks into a wide smile.
“Looks like someone lost their head because of my words. Let’s just pretend today is New Year’s Eve.”

He straightens up, adjusting his yellow glasses.
“I hope that this new year, 2026, you’ll spend surrounded by family and loved ones. And even if that’s not the case — give them a call. Wish them a happy holiday.”

“С Новым Годом!” He coughs. “What was that?.. Happy New Year”

Alan flashes a peace sign and walks away, disappearing into the Absolutely Empty White Room.

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I’m not very good at choosing music for my works, but trust me — it could’ve been worse ♪( ́▽`)

ᒍ ᗩ ᑎ I T O ᖇᅠᖴ ᖇ I E ᑎ ᗪ S

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Cockpoy — A modest guy with such high–quality work that it actually motivates me to improve myself.

Zukyyy28 — a cool creator with plenty of spicy content.

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