FFXI belongs to Square-Enix. My characters there belong to me.

Things

She likes small things; they remind her of her sister. They remind her of hiding in caves and of the birds she'd liked to watch every morning when she should have been doing chores. She also likes large ones; they remind her of trees and of cliffs and, more recently, of some of her Elvaan friends.

She likes things.

She likes things, and her living arrangement is a good indication of it. She occasionally asks her moogle what element dominates, but the only answer she's ever gotten has been that there are energies from many different elements drifting around; not the ice of her protective warrior friend or the light of her mage friend, or even the earth of the Mithra who isn't her sister but who she grew up with all the same. It's a strange jumble of everything.

Sometimes she feels bad, because her moogle somehow manages to keep the whole mess clean, and she knows she'd never be able to do that, and it doesn't seem right somehow, because she never asked for help keeping it tidy, though she does appreciate it.

Scattered around the room lie any number of odd trinkets (then again, maybe her moogle doesn't really keep it clean). Daggers, which she doesn't even use; a pile of small stones collected during some free time and held onto because a streak of color or a glint of mica in them had caught her eye; snacks; old armor, new armor, and scrolls she'll never have any use for... She has a considerable stash of earth crystals under her bed, and even she doesn't really know why they're there.

She likes things, and she carries more of them around with her when she goes out to explore the town or the wilds beyond. A dried flower and an old ring, and a feather.

Sometimes someone will ask her why she bothers with all the things; wouldn't it be easier, wouldn't it make more sense to sell them, or give them away, or maybe use them to make new things? She just smiles and bounces on her heels and tells them that she can't really help it; she's a pack cat (because no self-respecting Mithra would ever call herself a rat), or she just likes things.

She doesn't tell them that the feather is from one of the birds back home, or that her sister gave her that flower almost ten years ago. She doesn't tell them the ring belonged to her mother (who had given it to her the day she left to become an adventurer), or that the daggers belonged to her best friend, or that the scrolls are gifts for others (or will be, as soon as they can use them).

She doesn't mention that she still has the stained old armor from years ago because the smell of it and the feel of it remind her of everything she did when she'd worn it, and that she doesn't want to let go of it, that she likes to keep her memories close and real. She doesn't mention that she's afraid of forgetting.

She just likes things, and usually the questioner will laugh and walk off, but sometimes they'll accept the pebble or the flower or the leaf she offers them before they turn and go.

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--end

Thanks for reading!

A little on the premise: I role play my characters, which I know isn't entirely common. However, every character has their own little quirks, even if only because the person playing them has quirks. My acts of storing random items on my Mostly-A-Mule created another quirk in her.