Webcomic / Ice (2003)

"Once upon a time there was spring, summer, fall and winter. Now there is only winter."

Earth has been plunged into Endless Winter. Humanity ekes out a living, barely, although money can get you a lot of things. Maybe a heated apartment, if you're really rich.

Hunter isn't. She lives with her boyfriend, Cirr, whom she literally rescued from a garbage bin, in a not-very-nice part of London, earning their living scavenging and fixing things, until a slightly odd electronic device falls into their hands by accident.

And things of this sort are always wanted by someone...

A completed then deleted webcomic from 2003 to somewhen, with only archive copies left (it sort of stops within the second scene of the epilogue) comic by Faith Erin Hicks of Demonology 101. Read it on an archive of her website.

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These tropes are freezing their butts off:

• After the End: Energy crisis, Endless Winter, the United Nations is a thing of history...
• The Artful Dodger: Reann. It's in the chapter title. And Ayume, although she does have a home.
• Broken Bird: Both Hunter's and Cirr's backstories are straight out of a Hurt/Comfort Fic. That this works somehow is only a testament of the author's skill.
• Catapult Nightmare: Hunter's nightmares cause her to fling herself out of bed and into the bathroom, where she throws up.
• The Complainer Is Always Wrong: While this one is, actually, what happens to him would be Disproportionate Retribution.
• Condescending Compassion: The Prince, while doing all this charity work, doesn't seem to have much of warm feelings towards its receivers.
• Deus ex Machina: Our heroes, on the mercy of Munsch and Saul, are suddenly rescued here by the Queensmen
• Dialogue Reversal: "Do you stay with me because you feel guilty?"
• Distant Finale: A year later, things are taking a turn for the better. And Sarah comes to visit.
• Distressed Dude: Cirr tends to be. Rescuing him for the second time makes Hunter grudgingly reconcile with her sister.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": Hunter's real name is Sarah, like Cirr's sister. It's plot-relevant.
• Endless Winter
• Even Evil Has Standards: Munsch. He and Saul may be ruthless murderers, but they aren't deviants.
  Munsch: We must have our moral standards, or else we are no better than the rest of the rabble.
  • For the record, the thing they considered too evil for their standards was a recording of Hunter's rape, which the hacker wanted to play for voyeuristic pleasure.
• Everybody Knew Already: Hunter worked out on her own that Cirr is a noble - he has no tatoos whatsoever (believe us, she looked).
• Fantastic Drug: Heat. Makes you warm and horribly addicted. And often dead, if overdosed.
• First-Person Perspective: The story starts with Hunter monologueing introspectively. Later, she narrates several times.
• Flashback: Many.
• For Want Of A Nail: Discussed
  Hunter (narrating): The old timers would say that people before would now wonder "if I'd never taken home that stupid little dog, would things have turned out different?
• Granola Girl: Hunter used to be one before turning all cynical. Remains egalitarian, though.
• Hacker Cave: This guy's lair.
• Heroes Love Dogs: Hunter, despite her insisting otherwise and calling the hardly Post-Apocalyptic Dog who follows her home "Useless".
• Hero of Another Story: Prince William, seems like. His story and Hunter's only intersect in one place.
• Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Mercy, just a bit. She's a stripper who helps our heroes, because Hunter is her long-lost little sister.
• I Have No Son!: I Don't Have A Sister: Hunter claims in so many words at the beginning of the comic.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: It's better that way.
• Lipstick Lesbian: Present day Mercy. The coming-out was a difficult process for her.
• MacGuffin: The super-plug Reann and Ayuome found.
• Misery Poker: An interesting variation between Cirr and Mercy, who compete on how much each of them has hurt Hunter.
• Mundane Luxury: Warmth, and energy in general, is very, very coveted.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: If Ayame hadn't picked up the plug and sold it to Cirr, it's likely the whole plot could have been averted, since the Queensmen would have (probably) recovered it before Prince William could.
• One-Word Title: Presumably named after the Ice World setting.

• Power Source: Plugs. They power things.
• Rape as Backstory: Hunter was raped by Queensmen when they broke up a protest she was a part of. She still has nightmares about it, but has resolved to try moving on.
  • This is also why Mercy and Hunter had a falling out. When Hunter told her sister about her rape, she didn't initially believe her.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Queen Mary. Also, Ms. Exposition.
• Recovered Addict: Cirr. With strong The Atoner vibe.
• Reduced to Ratburgers: Some poor are, according to Hunter.
• Rescue Romance: In a way, between Hunter and Cirr. She found him in a dumpster and nursed out of a Heat withdrawal.
• Revenge by Proxy: In a flashback, Hunter tries to avenge herself on nobles by selling the battered Cirr to a gang - but finally doesn't.
• Scavenged Punk: For the poor, at least. Hunter's sister can afford premade stuff and good housing, barely.
• Talking in Your Sleep: Cirr, in the process of being nursed back to health by Hunter, apologised to Sarah (his sister) in his feverish dreams. This convinced her to let him stay.
• Treasure Chest Cavity: Hunter feeds the super-plug to Useless.
• Upper-Class Twit: Cirr used to be one, and comes from an entire family of those, with Sarah as the White Sheep.
• The Wise Prince: Prince William cultivates the image, but is really The Evil Prince and The Starscream.