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Since I’m not doing too much exposition or exploring the world these ficlets are set in, I thought it’d be a good idea to explain some things.
To start, you can fill in most every blank with canon. Unless stated differently, this story is following canon events as closely as possible.
This trope is directly out of the 2010-2015 archive. It was popular in the MCU fandom and there are some great ones out there if you want more of the trope.
The “omega jewelry” trope differs a little from your average courting jewelry trope.
In this universe omegas receiving jewelry as gifts from family, friends, and romantic partners is a given. It’s unusual for Shane to not have a larger collection than he does. It would be expected that he would keep any jewelry given to him, even if from a past romantic relationship, and it would be expected that his alpha friends and even teammates would gift him cheaper baubles.
I imagine fans also send him jewelry, but he has publicly asked for charitable donations in lieu of jewelry pieces.
The price and durability of the pieces is definitely a consideration and friends and early romantic interests would not be expected to spend much money. It could be seen as coming on very strong to give an omega precious metals or stones early in the relationship.
There’s also some hand-wavey science that shows that wearing the jewelry has a calming effect on omegas both on the daily and especially during heat cycles. This will come up later in the series.
Omega jewelry on the daily: Shane only ever wears a chain with his number on it that his parents gave him after the draft (very Crosby-esque, if you will) and occasionally will be seen wearing simple earrings. He has addressed this with the media and stated that both the chain and earrings are family pieces. This makes him a bit of an outlier, most omegas will wear a fair bit of jewelry from family, friends, and both present and past romantic partners in their daily lives. Shane has gotten away with blaming hockey and saying it never bothers him.
Omegas would never buy their own jewelry or buy jewelry for another designation.
Because of his usual lack of jewelry, Rose would have been a big deal. Chirps were likely thrown around the locker room about the bangles she’d given him, but no one would have really questioned Shane saying he and Rose weren’t together anymore but still coming back from All Stars with a new friendship bracelet.
I sort of bent everything for Tampa. The sun definitely sets by 6:30 in January in Florida and that kind of hotel would have certainly had a jewelry store in it, but we’re all going to pretend the sun was setting late and the hotel jewelry store was closed for renovations or something.
The following chapters will have links to any pieces I have real-world inspiration for.