Prompt 172, Bear or Bare, "Collector"
Title: Collector
Author: seta_suzume
Series: manga(/Brotherhood?)
Word Count: 498
Rating: G
Characters: Grumman
Summary: Grumman had always enjoyed collecting things.
Warnings: none
Author's comment: I always laugh when I see one of those fishing bear carvings randomly in manga or video games. I'm not sure they show it in the anime, but Grumman owns one in the manga!
Wilhelm Grumman liked to collect things. When he had been a little boy growing up three towns over from Central, it had started with marbles. All the kinds and colors and patterns there were to use and admire- catseye, tiger, clear, swirled and china. He bought a few from the town's general shop and others when his father took him into the city. His collection expanded as he played and traded and even found a few stuck in the mud by the creek.
But it wasn't marbles specifically that brought him pleasure. It was the process of collecting. His parents were easygoing about this. "Nothing alive," his mother laid down her ground rules, "And no spillover into other parts of the house. Keep it in your room."
They were simple enough strictures, so he managed to comply. Wilhelm's interest in collecting gradually expanded and shifted from marbles to interesting rocks and baseball cards to tinted postcards depicting various regions of Amestris and occasionally other lands.
"Your room is like a museum," his grandfather told him. Wilhelm considered it a compliment. He took good care of his things and covered his shelves with books and treasures.
When Wilhelm left for the academy, he made his parents promise not to throw anything out, but by the time he had graduated, he looked around his old bedroom and found he had moved beyond most of the things he had left there. He sold the marbles and rocks and baseball cards to boys in town, but kept the postcards. He was still interested in letting his imagination stretch far from the bounds of the location he was bound to (now his military post, instead of his hometown); he still needed something to collect.
The woman whose heart he eventually enthralled (though she would always say it went the other way around), shared his interest in finding like things, cataloging, and displaying them together. Together they began a collection of regional crafts.
"I'm lonely when you're away," she admitted, and began to search for a part-time job, "With just the two of us in the apartment there isn't enough housework to occupy my day." She took a position at the local antique store, which, aside from filling her hours, afforded her the first look at all the used postcards that passed through their doors.
"Here, Wilhelm," she smiled over a particularly fine prize, "Here's a hint to the new next piece in your new collection."
The faded picture showed a unit of proud Briggs soldiers standing around a carved wooden statue of a bear with a fish in its mouth. "Fantastic!" Wilhelm laughed, "Such strength, such character!"
"And when we find one, where will you put it?" she looked around the cluttered apartment.
"As soon as I have sufficient rank to merit my own office, I'll put it on a shelf right behind me to keep a little of our hobby present in my day no matter how busy or important I become."
Author: seta_suzume
Series: manga(/Brotherhood?)
Word Count: 498
Rating: G
Characters: Grumman
Summary: Grumman had always enjoyed collecting things.
Warnings: none
Author's comment: I always laugh when I see one of those fishing bear carvings randomly in manga or video games. I'm not sure they show it in the anime, but Grumman owns one in the manga!
Wilhelm Grumman liked to collect things. When he had been a little boy growing up three towns over from Central, it had started with marbles. All the kinds and colors and patterns there were to use and admire- catseye, tiger, clear, swirled and china. He bought a few from the town's general shop and others when his father took him into the city. His collection expanded as he played and traded and even found a few stuck in the mud by the creek.
But it wasn't marbles specifically that brought him pleasure. It was the process of collecting. His parents were easygoing about this. "Nothing alive," his mother laid down her ground rules, "And no spillover into other parts of the house. Keep it in your room."
They were simple enough strictures, so he managed to comply. Wilhelm's interest in collecting gradually expanded and shifted from marbles to interesting rocks and baseball cards to tinted postcards depicting various regions of Amestris and occasionally other lands.
"Your room is like a museum," his grandfather told him. Wilhelm considered it a compliment. He took good care of his things and covered his shelves with books and treasures.
When Wilhelm left for the academy, he made his parents promise not to throw anything out, but by the time he had graduated, he looked around his old bedroom and found he had moved beyond most of the things he had left there. He sold the marbles and rocks and baseball cards to boys in town, but kept the postcards. He was still interested in letting his imagination stretch far from the bounds of the location he was bound to (now his military post, instead of his hometown); he still needed something to collect.
The woman whose heart he eventually enthralled (though she would always say it went the other way around), shared his interest in finding like things, cataloging, and displaying them together. Together they began a collection of regional crafts.
"I'm lonely when you're away," she admitted, and began to search for a part-time job, "With just the two of us in the apartment there isn't enough housework to occupy my day." She took a position at the local antique store, which, aside from filling her hours, afforded her the first look at all the used postcards that passed through their doors.
"Here, Wilhelm," she smiled over a particularly fine prize, "Here's a hint to the new next piece in your new collection."
The faded picture showed a unit of proud Briggs soldiers standing around a carved wooden statue of a bear with a fish in its mouth. "Fantastic!" Wilhelm laughed, "Such strength, such character!"
"And when we find one, where will you put it?" she looked around the cluttered apartment.
"As soon as I have sufficient rank to merit my own office, I'll put it on a shelf right behind me to keep a little of our hobby present in my day no matter how busy or important I become."