Prompt 2 - A Special Object - open for posting!

[f1owercrown]

[ Ammiras - backstory - proof of ownership ]


I was born on the 3rd of March, 1998.

...

When I was a kid, I like playing video games. My earliest memory was a Game Boy I got on my 8th birthday, and the only game I had at the time was Super Mario. Never mind the countless hours I spent clearing levels; I played because I was told that I would unlock a female character by the end of the game. Of course, no one told me that this female character was unplayable in my version of the game, and that her only role was to give the plumber a reason to go through worlds, over spikes and under blocks and past the big turtle boss. I didn't learn of the term until 6th grade English class, when the teacher gave the girl a name: "The damsel in distress."

From then on when I started consuming television media as a puberty-stricken pre-teenager, I noticed it. Superman to the beautiful Lois Lane, or Popeye to the pretty Olive Oyl. Even when I had gotten into the Legend of Zelda on my Game Boy did I play as Link tumbling through caves just to save his princess.

The more I consumed more pieces of media, the more I realized what strong women were portrayed as in the early days. They were rebellious, assertive, strict, and refused to dress in a way that made them look like a damsel in distress. In hindsight, there was nothing wrong with being who you were, but at the time I had thought that the only way for people to take me seriously was to do what strong girls in television did, and dress the way they did.

So I asked my mom for a denim jacket when I was 12, to which she promptly said no.

"But mom, you don't know how much I want one."

"Denim jackets are very expensive. You'll outgrow them any time soon. And besides, you have your other jackets."

"But they're not cool."

"You don't need a denim jacket to look cool, honey."

After that, the denim jacket was something I had left lying in my bucket list to collect dust.

...

Years passed and I probably had forgotten the whole ordeal of the jacket. My fashion statement and personality took too many makeovers for me to find my niche, and through time I had established to my community that I was not one to be messed with. I made it clear about my disinterest in love, and only wanted to form friendships and relationships that didn't involve me being "saved" or being seen as a someone weak.

On my 18th birthday, upon the inquiry of so many of my peers and friends, I told them that I refused to do to the traditional debut (it was just not me), and only wanted some sort of pizza party with my close ones. My mom agreed to it, and threw me a surprise party with the important people in my life. No awkward dancing, no spotlight, no hosts. Just a chill afternoon, just the way I like it.

I had thought that was my mom's gift for me, but she surprised me yet again with another gift, this time wrapped nicely under a silver bow. I ripped it open and found the one thing I had asked years ago.

It was a denim jacket. But it wasn't any ordinary jacket.

"I embroidered a little tigress at the back of the jacket. I thought it was a very 'you' thing." My mom told me. "You've grown much already and probably won't overgrow new clothes, so I thought, why the heck not. I just want you to be happy, and I love you so much, you should know."

I hugged my mom tightly and told her how much it the jacket meant to me.

...

I was born on the 3rd of March, 1998. Year of the tiger, international month of women, "I want you to be happy" day.

My favorite, special thing in the whole world is a jacket my mother gave me on my 18th birthday. It's a denim jacket with an embroidered tiger at the back, and a little tag sen on the inside of the jacket says, "To my fearless tigress: never stop being a woman."

[chanhee.]

"Oh! Not quite what you meant, I think, but I have a journal from when I was younger!" Salem perks up at the question and pulls his bag from his shoulder, rummaging around for a few moments before pulling a worn down journal from the bottom of it with a victorious grunt.

"My mom and I used to write stories with one another, and since she's passed I've tried to keep this on me so it won't get lost. We have maybe forty short stories in here that I plan to, at some point, make films out of. I know it wasn't the original purpose of it, but y'know, if she were here she'd be happy with the idea. She'd want me to be safe, of course, as she knows what the creatures I want to work with can do, but she'd be proud of me for keeping these ideas around!"

Salem digs through the journal and finds an old sketch of a ghoul his mother had done that had been crudely coloured in with bright crayons and shows it to Devin, biting his lip as he smiles.

"This was her favorite. I never coloured her sketches but I'd fallen in love with this one, so I took it to my room and ruined it. She was so happy about it, though, and I can't imagine why, but... I remember being so proud of myself for colouring in the lines..." Salem trails off, the journal nearly slipping from his grip as it loosens. He catches himself, though, and wipes a tear from his eye before closing the book and slipping it back in his bag and throwing it back over his shoulder.

"Sorry to yap your ear off. Thank you for listening, though."

[294]

[shishou]

| kenjirou's tag |

[Mnemosyne]

Niko frowned and considered Devin's question for a moment before his eyes lit up and he let out an exclamation. "I've got just the thing, actually!" He gently unfastened the badge from the front of his uniform and held it up to Devin, watching it gleam in the low light. "This is my badge, which officially designates me as the captain of the guard. Isn't it pretty?" Niko lifted it higher still, making sure that Devin could get a good look at it. It was a flat golden badge, shaped like a shield, with Raevannis's coat of arms engraved into it. The coat of arms featured two branches of a local tree, the Roundleaf Beech, crossed over each other with a stylized trident and staff crossed on front of those. Niko rubbed his finger over the badge, the look in his eyes peaceful, then fastened the badge back onto his uniform.

"When I was a kid I could only dream of being able to wear something like this," he continued, a faraway look entering his eyes. "I thought that being a guard was the coolest thing you could do. Well, not that my opinion's changed too much about that, haha." Niko chuckled a bit, turning back to Devin. "I wasn't sure that I'd ever be here, but here I am! I wouldn't trade it for the world. Either my badge or my job." Niko's smile turned a bit mischievous as he winked at Devin. "You haven't been up to anything suspicious, have you? I'll be keeping my eye on you..." Straightening up, Niko gave Devin a salute and marched off the way he came, his paw resting on his sword. [ 280 ]

[yen.]

Shiki

[eros]

Elewyn paused for a moment, considering the question, before opening her satchel and spending a few seconds rooting through it. She presented a simple book, held tightly in her paws. It seemed totally ordinary, maybe save for the ragged leather cover that was covered in nicks and scratches.

“I know it doesn’t seem like much,” Eleywn murmured, “but it’s actually quite interesting.”
She opened the book, exposing time-worn pages that held the same shade of yellow as champagne. The smell of the old parchment was strong, but not uninviting. Elewyn took a deep breath before continuing.

“It’s a story about a hero from long, long ago. He was a young farmer in a faraway kingdom, sent by his mother to the nearby castle town to buy bread and eggs. On his way into the city, he noticed a small group of people in a crowd, all shouting and making a ruckus. As he came closer, curious to know what the fuss was about, he was met with the sight of a beautiful young lady being held by the end of a sword.

“The farmer boy panicked, and drew the small knife his father had given him to defend against wild animals. Having not been noticed, he snuck into the fray and slayed the leader of the bandit group, simply watching as the rest fled in confusion.
“Well, as luck would have it, the young lady was actually the princess of the kingdom, having just been interrupted by those brutes as she was on her midday stroll. She brought the farmer boy to her father, the King, and proclaimed that he was a hero, and should be knighted at once.

“...Oh, I suppose I must be boring you,” Elewyn chuckled, finally pausing in her rambling.
“Well, that wasn’t even the interesting part!” She flipped through the book until she reached the very end, displaying one strangely stained red page before continuing, “This is the end, but it isn’t! The book just stops as the boy is approaching his greatest foe, and that’s it! I’ve been searching for the ending to this story my entire life, but I’ve never even been able to find someone who’s heard of it. Sometimes I think that there’s something special about the book, about me even. Maybe I’m meant to finish it?”

Elewyn closed the book, gazing at the leatherbound cover with a troubled look, then opened her mouth to say something, but decided to instead just place her precious story back inside of her satchel.
“Well, anyway, thank you for allowing me to share my story… Devin, is it? I must be going now, though, so I hope you have a wonderful day. Goodbye.”

(449 words!)

[FangirlTrash]

Castiel ran his fingers through his hair.
“Well, definitely nothing as cool as your little trinkets."
Castiel paused to wave at Devin's collection.
“But...” Castiel shifted his body weight onto his other foot, as he began to dig through his pockets. Desperate for anything worth something to impress Devin who owned a entire collection of valued items.
“Matter of fact-“
Castiel felt his phone in his pocket.
“I do have something very close to me.”
Castiel reaches into his pocket and retrieved a cell phone.
“I warned ya it wouldn’t be as cool as yours,” Castiel chuckled. “Yeah, uhm, unfortunately for me my family isn’t very- forgiving.”
Castiel’s eyes narrowed, realizing what had just slipped out of his mouth. He considered whether or not he should finish telling his new acquaintance his tale or even making something up entirely to hide his past. He was about to open his mouth to share a lie but something in him told him that it would be wrong. Besides, Devin shared a clip of her past with Castiel. His gaze landed on a loose pebble he found on the floor to avoid eye contact.
“I may or I may not of taken a large fortune that was not mine for the taking,” Castiel half-heartily mumbled. “I should of boughten something special to me but I didn’t. I just wasted it, and I lost respect from my family on top of it.”
Castiel bit his lip and looked around for something to distract Devin from having to respond to his story.
“Hey, do you think you could tell me more about the emerald? How did your grandmother obtain it?”

[✦ nemuri]

nikolai's hands flew almost instantaneously to the bat charm that had temporarily taken residence in one of the many pockets in his trench coat. he swallowed slightly as he processed the question, with a tentative expression of either wanting to show devin his prized item or turning tail and fleeing.

ultimately, he hesitantly pulled out the charm and held it in his cupped hands, pointed slightly towards devin.

"it looks a little worse for wear right now, but as far as treasured items go, this is probably the closest thing i have that fits the criteria," he murmured, rubbing the edges of the charm with the pads of his fingers. a forlorn expression crossed his face as he began to reminisce, and the corners of his otherwise downturned mouth started to lift upwards. "seeing ghosts isn't normal, and for obvious reasons. i was a born into a normal family in a remote village by some mountains, but it was clear that i was the only person - or rather, thing - that wasn't really normal."

at that, a bitter look filled his eyes, but he continued on. "to save you from me droning on and on about how difficult life was, things just weren't great. i was a troubled child, and people either wanted nothing to do with me or wanted to kick me down to feel better about themselves. me saying that ghosts were better conversation partners than any of their lot probably made things worse, but at the time, i didn't care. it felt good to stand up for myself.

"you know what really feels better, though? it's the fact that someone would go out of their way to defend you instead. that's kind of the story behind this charm. some guy thought i needed help, chased off some nasties, and sat me down to have a good, long talk about self-defense."

nikolai let out a soft exhale through his nose, and he pocketed his bat charm again. he smiled wryly at devin, shrugging his shoulders slightly. "and here you have me, a ghost hunter. that charm used to belong to the person who helped me, and they said that it was like a good luck charm of sorts. i bet that they probably picked it off the streets, though, but at the time, i appreciated the sentimentality. it meant so much to me then... it was like a sign that not all was lost, and that i could still get up and continue to live my life.

"and i did. i'm still living my life right now, away from the places that suffocated me. this charm is like a reminder of everything that has happened so far, and i carry it around because it gives me some semblance of hope." nikolai paused, ran a hand through his hair, and clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. "if possible, i'd like to meet that person again."

[Lorne_Purnima]

Takeo stared at Devin for a moment as he thought, jewelry? Family pendants? Childhood toys? He didn't have things like that, nothing that stood out as particularly special anyway. He slipped his hands into his pockets preparing to tell her no such luck before it suddenly dawned on him, "uh, does this jacket count?" He asked as he motioned to the colorful paint-covered hoodie he was wearing. "It's my most prized possession, don't tell the guy who gave it to me that though it'll go straight to his head and it's big enough as is." Takeo would laugh at his own comment before softly smiling looking down at the hoodie quietly for a moment before looking back at Devin "you're wanting the story huh? How could some old jacket be so important? Well, I guess I got a minute to share." Takeo would pause for a moment as he thought back on the history of the piece of clothing he had dragged around with him everywhere for more years than he really cared to admit. "Well," he would start slowly "I guess for a little bit of context, I didn't really have the best relationship with my parents, that's a whole can of worms I'm not gonna open but, y'know, the can is there. Anyway, because the relationship wasn't great, I ended up taking off on my own, I was like 14 at the time and I decided it sucked so I upped and left. I didn't really have anywhere to go though, I wasn't smart enough to grab any cash or anything of value so I was broke and just roughing it on the streets." He would pause again as he thought about memories he hadn't pulled in years before shaking his head a bit snapping himself out of it.

"Sorry, haven't thought about it in a while, anyway, uh, oh right, I had been roughing it for about a year by myself, y'know just doing what it took to survive, then it all went down this one night. It had been raining for what felt like forever and it was just particularly miserable on the streets, I was so cold and miserable that I decided to try and rob a place to get some cash for a room somewhere. I was gonna do it all sneaky like, chose this gas station and I was gonna get the guy working distracted somehow and I'd get into the register and then I'd be off." Takeo would laugh and shakes his head "14 year old me was an idiot, it went wrong immediately and needless to say, I got caught trying to get the register open. The guy spotted me and called the cops and I took off running, it was actually really the first time I'd had the police called on me so I was terrified, I started running and just kept going. While this is all happening, by the way, I'm in these tattered clothes and a rain slicker I got from a dumpster that looked like it had been through a shredder before getting to me which is why I was so desperate. Anyway, I'm running and running and I can hear sirens so I'm looking for anywhere to hide and I end up dipping into this old building, think it used to be a motel or somethin before shutting down."

There would be another pause as Takeo thought about it, he couldn't remember the name anymore, not that it really mattered, a small throat-clearing noise from Devin would pull him out of his own head again. "Oh, sorry, where was I? Right, motel or something, I ended up just sprinting into it and barged into a random room, the place had been closed for who knows how long so I just figured it was empty, didn't even dawn on me at the time that other people might be hiding out in it. I guess it was lucky for me that there was though, I remember I flew into this room and closed the door behind me and just got down on the ground to catch my breath. It must've been a solid minute that I didn't even notice the room itself but eventually, I looked up and what do I see? This idiot guy sitting in an old recliner watching a tv he's dragged out of a dumpster somewhere which he's hooked up using a series of extension cords from a nearby building that's still up and running." He would pause to laugh somewhat hard as he recalled what the scene must have looked like "Course since I barged in he wasn't watching the tv anymore he was looking at me like I had just barged into his living room. I was all scared still so I grabbed a plank of wood or something that was near me and kinda threatened him with it but he kept his cool. He told me his name was Axel and without recalling the whole conversation he just kind of... talked me down I guess, but as he was talking to me he commented on my clothes and how I was shaking like a leaf and without missing a beat he took off his jacket, this jacket, and insisted I take it." A warm smile would cross Takeos face as he talked "he didn't care that I had threatened him, he just said that I looked like I needed it more and insisted I take the jacket. Course he also said he wanted it back cause he really liked it, see he does these UV murals and that's what all this paint is, says it isn't a mess but that it's 'customized'. That was like... 3 or 4 years ago now I think, he'd know how long it's been, whenever I try to give the jacket back he just keeps insisting I hold onto it, says I still need it more. He's kind of an idiot and isn't really the best with talking about feelings or whatever so I think the jacket is kind of how he says that he cares; and don't tell anyone but I kinda think that the jacket is kind of lucky so I always keep it on." Takeo would smile at Devin then lightly laugh as he rubs the back of his head "Sorry, that's kind of a long drawn out story for a not very interesting looking thing huh? It's all I got though and it's all I really need, it doesn't have to be monetarily valuable or significant to be special to me." Takeo would nod to himself as he seemed pleased with his story before looking around and Devins collection "enough about me and my jacket though, your turn to tell a story."
{1,130, oops}

[Loelya]

Pippa starts to speak, then ducks her head as her cheeks flame. "Well, my first thought-- but-- it doesn't really look special, I guess. It would just look like a piece of junk to anyone else. But... but it's special to me."

She reaches a paw into the small satchel she's carrying and pulls out a smooth, rounded piece. It might almost look like a pebble, but the grain of its wooden surface catches the eye as she turns it over in the light.

"My sweetheart - Lynn - she guards a special place, and in that special place is a very old, very magic wooden bridge. She comes with me sometimes when I'm traveling but we're apart fairly often, too. She gave me this piece of polished wood from one of the bridge's beams - says that through its magic her love can reach me wherever I go."

Pippa sighs and goes to tuck the wooden token away again. "When I carry it, it doesn't... feel magical, but she's not the type to say something because it sounds pretty. If Lynn says the wood keeps its power even so far away from her, I have to believe it." Pippa smiles, giving a cheery flick of her bushy tail. "On the nights I miss her most, I tend to sleep with it under my pillow. When I do, I get these... dreams... these images and sounds that remind me so much of her home and the place we met."

Pippa's smile turns wistful. "Maybe that's it. Maybe the magic is reaching out to me the best it knows how." Then she gives a laugh. "Maybe its for the best it doesn't give off some kind of spooky magic aura! Would be kind of a nightmare if it drew the wrong sorts of attention."
[303]