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Post by Snowglobe18 on Nov 24, 2017 18:28:12 GMT -7
Opening up the bookstore always filled her with this sense of happiness, in the years that she had loved books she never thought about opening up a book store which seemed to double as a trinket store too. There were things that she loved selling and the most important thing she could sell was the books themselves.
The feeling of holding a book in one’s hand was one of the best things but at the same time it made her think of Will.
There were days when she missed Will more than anything but she knew that she was never alone. His words were in the books he had written so many years before but the books that she could never put out in the shop because they spoke about demons and angels and all the stuff that came with the supernatural.
Will had been her husband but he had died in 1937.
At that thought she put her hand to her left wrist and played with the pearl bracelet that he had given her for their 30th anniversary.
Tessa cleared her throat softly before she moved over to the coffee machine that she had put in the store. Everyone needed coffee and books and sometimes if people were lucky there was a hot chocolate machine too that would give them the warmth with tiny pink and white marshmallows.
All the books she had in the store she had in her apartment at home, she had made the second bedroom into a library and she was sure that Will would’ve loved it even though it was smaller than the one they had in London.
It felt strange to be back in the States especially when she had left it back in the 1800s for her life in London and yet she never managed to pick up an accent, she only had the accent that people the world over associated with America, it probably made it a bit easier when she returned home years before.
Tessa took a sip of that coffee that she had been waiting to brew and could smell all over the store before she had lifted the closed sign to open. It was usually busy and would only get more and more busy as the week went on but she didn’t mind that, she loved sharing books with the younger generations.
Today it was cold so she had a grey sweater on and her jeans tucked into a pair of boots, her dark hair was pulled back to a messy bun at the back of her head.
She took a sip of her coffee and the door opened and the bell jingled and she smiled to herself when she came face to face with the first customer.
“Good morning” she said softly before the man smiled back at her and then went looking around the store.
Tessa was 155 but she didn’t look like she was older than in her twenties and other than a handful of people she has met over the time, mostly supernatural people, no one would ever know her real age.
William didn’t care that she would get older than him and would stay the same, he had loved her all the same.
Her black haired blue eyed Welshman.
At that thought Tessa smiled to herself and then took another sip of her coffee before the rush to get into the store would begin.
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Post by Ray on Nov 26, 2017 15:21:55 GMT -7
A slight chill had finally found its way into the heart of Cambridge, the first real cold weather they'd had since fall began. The usually blue skies had dulled into a sullen grey, paling the low-hanging sun over his head as he walks the length of the sidewalk in the center of town. A cigarette hangs from his lips, filling his lungs with smoke, tendrils whisping from the edges of his mouth when the wind drifts passed.
With no class that morning, his feet had carried him away from the halls of Harvard and the lingering shadow of questions that followed him there. Even though his first semester teaching is nearly over, he still remains somewhat of an...enigma in the eyes of the senior professors. A man who barely looks twenty-five with several doctorates and a teaching position at an Ivy League is hard to ignore. They either treat him like a prodigy or a fraud, always trying to catch him in a lie or a question he can't answer. As if he could not possibly know anything substantial about the past. About time.
As if he has nothing at all to say about the steps it took to get here.
It's aggravating. An irritating nail picking at what little patience he's managed to keep. And he would leave, find some other way to spend the ticking minutes on his perpetually spinning clock, but he knows there are very few things left in this world for him to dip his toes in. And he's had enough of war.
But today he does not have to endure them or those thoughts. At least, not for the moment.
As he reaches the steps that lead down to a shop door, he tugs the cigarette from his lips and lets it drop to the concrete. Taking a moment to crush it with the heel of his black boot, he glances towards the sign, making sure he's in the right place. The Old Bookstore. A strange feeling grips a little at his chest. Apprehension, maybe. Meeting people from the past is not something he usually has the luxury of having. There are very few familiar faces in the world for him. But here he is about to see another. He exhales a slow breath and steps down.
A soft bell jingles over Jon's head as he enters the bookshop, the smell of coffee filling his nostrils. His eyes are immediately greeted with rows upon rows of perfectly organized books sitting upon wooden shelves. It is not like the cold efficiency of the library at his work, furnished for minimalist study in a world where computers can find information faster than flipping pages. No, this feels familiar. Like someplace sometime long ago. Quaint and warm and filled to the brim.
He lets the door close softly behind him as his dark eyes drift around.
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Nov 26, 2017 15:39:00 GMT -7
There was just something about the ringing of a bell that makes Tessa feel warm inside, it's strange and people would probably laugh at her for that but she didn't care. She loved books, she loved that there was just many lives she can live in through books. She hadn't even dreamed about opening a bookstore until one day she stepped into one and it didn't have anything she wanted to read, it wasn't full of the books she loved but this one was.
This was the love that she had found.
Books had helped her during dark times of her life and she was sure that they would help her through the best parts of it too.
The bell went again and she usually had locked up by now and she was wondering just who would come in, she usually had an hour to herself where she could sit down and have a drink and some food but she guessed that she had forgotten to lock the door. It was getting to her. She came out of the back. "We're close for-" she stopped and looked up at him and there was just something so familiar about him that it made her smile.
It was Jon.
She knew him from the 1800's when Katherine had come looking for her help and now here he was. It was strange to think that all the others she had come across that were immortal and there was a few of them, none of them looked as good as he did. She guessed that was the vampire part of him.
Tessa bit on her lip "I see you finally made it to my shop" she said in a slight tease, another smile pulling at her lips. It had been strange to think that she was the only one who could do what she does but loads of what he was. She slowly moved out of her spot and then over to the door putting the closed sign on and locking the door. "Lunchtime" she said in a sort of relieved laugh before then indicating for him to take a seat.
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Post by Ray on Nov 26, 2017 16:02:12 GMT -7
He hears a voice coming from the back of the shop and he turns his head towards the sound, brows lifting slightly.
It had been years since he'd seen her last. Back then, they had both been plunged into the dreariness of Victorian London, a time far different than the one they find themselves in now. But even still, even nearly one hundred and fifty years later, she looks the same. Still young. Still beautiful. After all this time, that shouldn't surprise him. After all, he is the same. Stuck in a body that never changes, never ages, never shows the marks of centuries passing. But beyond himself, beyond Edric and Katherine who have been with him nearly every step of the way, it feels a little strange to know that he is not the only one.
Then again, he still doesn't even know, truly know, why he is this way.
"I did." Jon replies, a small smile finding its way to his lips. She locks the door behind him and flips the sign before motioning for him to sit with her. He moves forward to do so, letting his gaze drift around the shop once more, briefly looking over the spines of a hundred books all surrounding them. "I didn't mean to interrupt your lunch." Jon says as he sits, letting his dark eyes fall back to Tessa. "I guess time got away from me."
A phrase that, he thinks, is a little fitting for their entire circumstance. Not very many people let a century pass before he visit old friends again. Even though, back then, her dealings had mostly been with Katherine.
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Nov 26, 2017 16:14:07 GMT -7
Tessa watches him when he speaks and she smiles "It's no trouble, I usually have another friend in here with me but today decided not to turn up not that's a bad thing" she said in a soft tease before laughing. "Oh time got anyway from both of us" she said with a smile once more.
It had been a long time since she had seen him but mostly it had been because she had dealt with Katherine more than the other two that she had been with but she knew that they all had been together for a very long time, Katherine being a very old vampire and she guessed that Jon had been the same as her so she never really questioned it. Tessa had to admit that before moving to London she never knew about the things that lurk in the darkness, she hadn't aware of the werewolves, vampires and all the other things that liked to lurk in the dark streets of Victorian London.
It had been around then that she had decided to stay and only moving back to the States in the 1990's. Everything had changed from when she had been last here. It had been hard to adjust too but she was getting on well. That had been until Katherine turned up on her doorsteps five years ago and now she was in contact, albeit a little bit, with the vampire once more.
Tessa stood up and grabbed them two coffees "I'm sorry I don't have any of the other stuff so coffee will have to do" she said with a soft smile and then sat back down in her seat. "So, what do you think?" she didn't know why she was asking Jon about her store but he liked books too and she wanted an honest opinion. She took a sip of her drink and then put it down on the small coffee table in front of them before sitting back in her seat.
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Post by Ray on Nov 26, 2017 16:35:50 GMT -7
"Coffee is fine, thank you," Jon replies when she sets a cup in front of him, the drink still steaming. He lifts the mug to his lips, feeling the heat of the coffee against his tongue as he takes a small sip. It's warmer than most people would have been able to tolerate, but the burn that rushes down his throat only soothes his nerves, feeding the fire already blazing in his chest. A fire that has burned for centuries.
He sets the mug back down but keeps his palm against the side, leeching off the heat to chase away the chill that had followed him the entire way here. Sitting forward to rest his other forearm on the table, he lifts his eyes back to Tessa's face at her question.
"Of the coffee or the store?" He asks with a hint of amusement, his smile curving a little further on his lips. "No, I like it," Jon continues after a moment, glancing round. "It's very...you." He admits, catching sight of a few titles here and there. Classics. The kind they might have found in a shop had they stepped into one in the same year they first met. He recognizes a few. Ones he's picked up over the years. Ones he read the very first year they sat upon a shelf. Contemporary titles seem far and few in between, skipping the sometimes tawdry best-sellers that have graced bookstores as of late. "A book lover's paradise." He says, looking back to her.
"Do you get a lot of students in here?" He asks, taking another sip of his coffee.
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Nov 26, 2017 16:51:20 GMT -7
Tessa is actually happy that he likes the bookstore. When she had first time Magnus that she was going to be opening the bookstore he was a little apprehensive but she told him that she couldn't hide forever and while she might be living forever she was wasting years and books were with you whenever you need them. Whether you fell in love with someone who loved the same book or whether or not you lost someone, there was always a book there to heal you whether you knew it or not.
She smiled when he said that it was her. Tessa had to admit that it was definitely her and she was thankful of that because it meant that she was doing something she loved, she had nothing against the other jobs that people had but she couldn't think about doing anything other than owning this shop and pushing people towards the classics. Whether or not they liked it. She would always do that. Tessa nodded when he said that it was a book lover's paradise. "Then I am doing my job" she said and watched him.
"I do actually, I get reading groups in here too and they bring their own books and they sit and talk while having coffee" she admitted and bit on her lip. Tessa liked watching the groups discuss the books and what they mean to them and sometimes when she wasn't so busy she would sit with them but sadly that was less and less as the Christmas period came towards them because people would buy books for their loved ones and if she was honest she wouldn't touch one of those Kindle's even if she was paid too.
She liked to feel a book between her fingers and the noise of turning pages as she gasped at certain things, even if she has read the books a thousand times before. "You're more than welcome to come back anytime you want, I usually close up for lunch so if you want some peace and quiet then you're more than welcome to join me, I don't mind the company" she admitted and watched him.
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Post by Ray on Nov 26, 2017 17:13:33 GMT -7
"Not surprised," he admits, "It seems far more comfortable than the dreadful study rooms on campus." Jon laughs a little. Harvard has its amenities, its way of catering to the rich overachievers that walk its halls. But for most, study rooms are cramped little stalls only really meant to fit a single person. And he's seen students try to fit in four or five all with their piles of books and their laptops and their matching leather shoulder-bags. This shop seems like it would be a haven to those students -- a relaxed, stress-free environment to browse books and study in relative silence.
He might have to suggest it to his own students. Or perhaps not. Maybe he'd keep it a secret for himself to use. A place to get away from prying, questioning eyes where he doesn't have to worry about putting up a pretense.
As if she had read his thoughts, she offers him an always open door -- particularly during lunch when the shop is empty and quiet. It's a tempting offer. A kind one. "I'll keep that in mind," he replies, nodding his head a little. "Though you might get sick of my face if you're not careful. I have a habit of lingering." He teases lightly, cracking a half smile at his own bad joke. It seems far funnier saying it to a woman who's watched the years go by just as he has.
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Nov 26, 2017 17:26:11 GMT -7
Tessa looks around and right now the silence is noticeable but she likes the lunch times where she can sit down and read her own book. There was always one that she couldn't bear to part with and only because it was from her late husband, he had written in it and slipped it under her door and now she keeps it by her bed. Sadly the writing is fading but it was words that she would forever keep in her heart. Words that wouldn't fade in her eyes even if they had on the pages.
She laughed softly when he teases and she looks down for a moment, having heard as many immortal jokes from her friend than normal jokes and its not that surprising that Jon is teasing her now. She bites on her lip and then looks up at him. "Well you're more than welcome to linger here for as long as you like, there is an area upstairs where it's nice and quiet as the students mostly sit down here so if you ever come during the day then you can sit up there. It has a window seat and you can look out"
Tessa had only put the window seat in recently because there were times when she had been up there and had wanted a moment to herself and now with the money to do it, she had put the seat up there. Sometimes when the shop was closed she would sit up there with a coffee or a hot chocolate and just listen to the silence. She reached for her drink and took another sip of it.
She was glad that he had finally come to see her, they had been talking online a bit and now they were finally face to face and it feels good to see an old friend especially one that looked like him. At that thought she cleared her throat and put her cup back down.
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Post by Ray on Nov 26, 2017 17:48:05 GMT -7
"That sounds nice," Jon nods, his smile softening a little. Needless to say, he could use some familiar company as much as he could use a place to find some quiet. With Edric and Katherine both living in Connecticut, finding their own ways to pass time and find trouble, he's often on his own. Going to school had been part of his own solution, an attempt at finding some place he might be able to fit in this modern world where a man of his abilities doesn't have much use. Teaching had sort of...followed. Not necessarily out of interest, or purpose, or a sudden soul-encapsulating want to reach out to the youth of this world. But out of nostalgic despair at realizing just how much has been lost to the winds. So much of what happened. So much of what he saw.
History has been written and rewritten so many times that convenient fiction has replaced fact and fact has been erased from the very pages. He knows he cannot tell the entire truth of it all. Knows that dragons and direwolves and the dead cannot suddenly be pulled back from the ether and laid bare. But the names...the names are important.
Maybe that is why he is still here. Maybe someone has to remember it all. Remember them all.
Tessa though. Tessa seems so sure in her purpose. So happy sitting here in her bookshop, surrounded by pages and pages of truth and fiction alike. He's a little envious. But even just being here seems to put his own thoughts a little at ease. There's no chaos here. Just a simplistic sort of comfort. An innocence. A warmth.
His gaze lingers on her face for a moment, on her big eyes and her round lips and the sweetness that lingers there. He had not been merely complimentary earlier. This truly does feel like an extension of her, part of her soul.
"Do you miss it?" He asks after a beat, tapping his fingers lightly against the side of his mug as he looks down into its contents.
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Nov 26, 2017 18:00:37 GMT -7
It is nice. The amount of time that she has been in this shop, she was sure that without it then she wouldn't know what to do with herself. It books she found love, it helped her cope with loss and it helped her deal with the loneliness. Tessa had been so lonely after Will died that she just.. ran away to Paris and stayed there for a while then she ended up travelling and seeing things that she knew William would want her to see and then suddenly she stopped in the States and have been here ever since.
Tessa looked over at him and was taken aback by his question, no one had ever asked her if she missed the 1800s. No one knew how to ask her anything because she had been so devastated about losing her husband and thinking that her family bloodline had been wiped out that she hadn't let herself think but now she knew that there was some of her family left out there and things had calmed down a little she was able to stay in one place. It wasn't New York City but she had ended up in Cambridge and she found that she didn't actually mind it.
She was happy here and her business was booming.
Tessa looked down at her wrist, her pearl bracelet was against her skin. "No one has ever asked me that before," she admitted and looked up at him a soft smile pulling at her lips. "I do" she nodded. "I miss it but I know that we can't ever go back so we have to just deal with what we have now and pray that we don't lose precious memories" she said softly. Her grey eyes watching him, there was just something about him that made her want to reach out to him. Something that made her want to reach out and run her hands through those dark curls of his and feel them against her skin.
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Post by Ray on Nov 26, 2017 18:30:30 GMT -7
Jon's smile softens until its gone altogether, his dark eyes flicking upwards once more to catch her face as she speaks. It was not the answer he had anticipated. He half expected some comment about a loss of culture these days, coming from a woman who collects classic literature like it is her very blood but lives in a world where Fifty Shades of Grey is an acclaimed novel. But its astute. Honest. The same urge to move on that Edric has been trying to push him to do for years, yet wrapped with a silver lining of hope.
He's not used to that. To hope.
"Personally, I don't miss the rain." Jon says after a moment, the smile reappearing as he inclines his head a little to the side. Or the ice, a small voice says at the back of his mind, but he ignores it. He lifts a hand to push his black hair back, getting the few strands that had fallen out of his face. A habit, more than anything. "And the food is much better," he adds on as he drops his hand back to the table's surface, huffing out half a laugh at the thought. "But I know what you mean," he nods. Though the precious memories are hard to wade through after years and years of war and bloodshed. Remembering the worst is easier than remembering the best. And sometimes the best causes the most pain.
He feels her watching him and his eyes meet hers for a moment.
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Nov 26, 2017 18:43:35 GMT -7
Tessa nodded "The rain was terrible, I honestly have no idea how the brits do it, the rain and the cold.." she shivers at the thought. Although she hadn't felt the cold because of all the warmth she was getting from being loved. She hadn't let herself feel the cold until she had no choice to but even now she still remembered coming home soaking wet and the tight corsets! God they were the worst.
She raised an eyebrow when he started to move his hair and she so badly wanted to reach out, she hadn't seen black hair like this in a long time and she longed to touch it, to let it sink against her cream skin. Jon then said about the food and she found herself looking down, she guessed that people were much better to eat nowadays but unlike then there were times when people went missing and it was shared on Social Media. People looked for them, the police looked for them.
It couldn't be easy being a vampire in the twenty-first century and she wondered how Katherine kept under the radar but she guessed that they helped each other. Vampires didn't scare her like they used too, she guessed it was cause she had been around too long and seen many different things.
Tessa looked into his dark eyes for a moment, there was just something beautiful about him that Katherine never described when they spoke. She could get lost in his eyes and at that moment she dropped her eyes from his and grabbed her cup.
Talking about books with someone who loved them as much as she did was making her think things that couldn't happen, she hadn't been with anyone for a very long time and Tessa didn't need Katherine after her.
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Post by Ray on Nov 26, 2017 19:11:27 GMT -7
Jon smiles a little wider, amused by how quickly she agrees with him about the rain and by the visible shiver she gives. The cold had not bothered him for centuries. Even during the worst winters he's seen since Winterfell, the snow barely touches his skin, the rain barely soaks into his bones, the winds barely cause a tremble. The only part of him that every threatens to freeze is his heart, still pierced by an invisible shard of ice the flame has yet to melt through. It hurts him some mornings, when the cold has settled heavily over the city he's sleeping in. A constant reminder of the price he's paid time and time again.
She suddenly gets quiet at the mention of food, her eyes breaking away from his. His brows twitch close for a moment, before a thought emerges in his mind. "Forgive me, I am probably keeping you from your lunch," he says, realizing just how long he has been here talking with her. He glances momentarily towards the watch around his wrist, checking the time. "I should...probably be going anyway." His lungs are starving for another cigarette and a stack of papers waiting to be graded sit on his desk at home. It's busywork, nothing like the work he's done in the past, but it keeps him occupied and out of trouble.
A thing immortals like them tend to find themselves often in.
"It was...great. Seeing you again." Jon tells her with a small nod.
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Nov 26, 2017 19:22:54 GMT -7
If she was honest Tessa had forgotten about lunch until he had said about it and she glanced over at the clock and realised that it was almost time to open again and she hadn't even tucked into her sandwich yet. "I don't mind" she admitted with a soft smile. "It's nice for the company" she nodded and licked her lip.
Tessa hadn't actually expected to have him here but it was nice. She liked seeing old faces and apart from Magnus and Katherine, she didn't see a lot of old friends. Mostly because she hadn't reconnected with them but hey at least some wanted to stay in connected.
"You should come by any time because I'm always here and on some days I even make hot chocolate with marshmallows" she said in a soft tease before chuckling. Tessa had gotten quite used to the stuff and honestly wondered just how she could do without it. She brought her eyes up to look at him and said "seriously though, anytime you want to get away from work or... Katherine then the shop is open for you"
It was probably wrong to say that and if she was honest she liked Katherine but Jon... there was something beautiful about this man that made her want to pull him close and feel his skin, although it would probably be freezing cold.
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