Omake!
(For those who don't know, that means "Bonus."
3nodding )
For the record, may this particular journal base post be marked as OOC.
sweatdrop I wanted to create this as a thank you to Kanth, and to give a bit of backstory as to why Cynder is so precious to me for interest's sake.
First off, a great huge fat THANK YOU to Kanth for just up and getting me this semi-custom Velveteen. o_o
heart Best belated Christmas gift I could ever receive. I'd been watching the shop for some time simply due to my undying love for all my toys, not to mention fond memories of the story of the Velveteen Rabbit.
I used to have a velveteen rabbit, once. Wish I knew what happened to it.
Now, before Io, queen of tangents gets further distracted, I present to you:
Say hello to the real-life Cynder Kyn Opal, everyone.
biggrin She may look like any old Magic Beanie Baby, but there's a reason why she's one of my most precious toys even when I have a whole gigantic Toys R Us bag full of beanies sitting in my closet. And nearly a hundred Transformers. And a crapload of Legos. And a multitude of other plushes. And a My Little Pony collection. And... you get the idea.
Cynder has a story behind her, and I'd like you all to hear it.
When I was little, and this is still true to a degree, I loved dragons more than anything else. I drew them constantly, creating stories about them and making characters of them with as much fervor as I do today with stories and characters of all kinds.
Once, I was out with my parents somewhere... I don't remember where doing what, probably visiting a friend or family member. But we passed through this tiny little shop that sold lots of plush toys, and to my delight, sitting by the register in a large bin were many of these beautiful white plush dragons with glimmering opalescent wings. I was estatic, as I knew well that it was difficult and rare to find a plush dragon that didn't look overly goofy, or evil, or disproportionate. She was simply beautiful. Of course, I didn't know about Beanie Babies yet, as this was fairly early in their existence. Cynder's tag doesn't even have the logo or her original name on it - 'tis just a normal black-print plush tag.
Anyway, I scraped through my wallet for enough allowance money to buy the plush, feeling in my gut that this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance. Alas, I came up several cents short, and was devastated, as my parents had a strict "pay for it yourself or not at all" rule.
I'm not sure if I whined over it or not, though it's quite possible. XD;;
In any case, the cashier, bless her heart, upon seeing how disappointed I was, declared that today was my lucky day, for it was on sale for exactly how much I had! Words cannot describe how happy that made me, silly though it may be.
heart I happily played with my new dragon the whole rest of the day, going on adventures with a plastic pteranodon I'd obtained earlier. After deciding that "Magic" was a dumb name, I went on a bit of a quest to find another.
I'm not sure I can truthfully recite the origin of Cynder's name now. It was partially derived from a book series I'd been reading and partially from the birthstone of opal, for October - because her wings shone like opals. At one point I had a dragon for each birthstone.
Cynder quickly became one of, if not THE central character of mine at that time. She still has a solid role in my psyche as a stable voice of reason, a personal advisor of sorts. She kinda embodies my confidence and caring, I suppose you could say.
Anyway, I suppose you're all sick of my babbling by now. I'll catch y'all on the flipside, eh?
