Just About Done [Emmy/Charlie]

[mina pandora oliveira]

@emilia & charlie darwin weekly

Another boring day at work. Honestly, that wasn’t new information for Mina. Every day that didn’t have a holiday within a week or wasn’t prior to a school term was practically dead. Speaking of, she probably could have kicked the bucket and nobody would have noticed for at least a week. That was where she was at right now. It had been a solid two days since the last customer had stepped into the bookstore. After the first day, Mina checked to make sure that there wasn’t a closed sign on the front door or if someone was obstructing the entrance. As far as she could tell, Diagon Alley was just really sleepy right now. Not only was that awful for business, but it also didn’t cure her boredom in the slightest. Her sister was probably going to kill her if she went home again tonight complaining that no one came in. Mina didn’t even care if they weren’t there to buy books. She just wanted to talk to someone.

Minutes and hours ticked by, and yet the store was still deadly quiet. Not a soul had dared to enter. Was it her? Were people finally tired of dealing with her? She was starting to think that there was something odd about it. Her boss would have mentioned that it was going to be a quiet week, and yet he didn’t. There was no way to contact him either because he was off in some remote location getting an early edition of a book. She couldn’t recall what it was about, but figured it was important enough for him to leave her in charge again. Sighing, Mina spun around in her chair, as was typical of her on slow days. She stopped abruptly though when she thought she caught a faint chime of a bell. There was no way it was the door. It hadn’t gone off in almost three days at this point. The store closed in an hour too. It wasn’t possible. Peering around a small shelf that was in front of her, she saw the door swing shut on its own. A man was heading off in a direction that was home to the creature books. Mina raised her eyes to see if he needed any assistance but he waved her off. That wasn’t unusual, especially if he knew where he was going. The strange thing was that she didn’t recognize him, so he wasn’t a regular. Oh well, wasn’t her business until he asked her for help. Plus she couldn’t very well leave the register alone to talk to him, in the coincidence that someone else entered the store. At this point, anything seemed possible to her.

[Deleted]

@emilia & mina pandora oliveira

Today was a great day. Charlie finally had a few days off from work and could trust leaving his daughter in Romania to continue training while he went home to relax. The first few days back had been quiet, just him and Natalie again. That hadn’t happened since Harper came back from abroad for the last month or so. But his wife still had to work and he had all the time in the world to kill until he had to be back in Romania again the following week. This gave him plenty of time to continue his research on dragons and writing done all his notes. The ultimate goal was to retire eventually, when that was, he had no idea (hopefully not soon), and then to publish all of his findings and studies of dragons. Basically he was learning from his mentor to commit his life to research and end it with an amazing book publication. So far everything was looking good.

The goal of the day was to go to Diagon Alley and check out the new books at Flourish & Blotts. The last thing he wanted was to put a book or information out that was already on the market. That never looked credible. Strolling through the shopping district, Charlie made the rounds, checking into his favorite stores, namely George’s, before eventually making his way to the bookstore. It was late afternoon by this point, so he was hoping that they weren’t closed. Placing his hand on the handle of the door, he popped it down and smiled as it opened. In he went with the little bell above the door alerting him that he was inside. As long as things were exactly where they were the last he visited, then the books on dragons and other large beasts would be somewhere near the back of the store. He waved off the rather disinterested worker that was sitting behind the counter as he went off in the direction that he figured the books would be in. He struggled not to laugh as he went behind the closest bookshelf, having fully seen the young girl spinning around on her chair. Must have been a slow day.

[Deleted]

Today, Emmy’s publisher wanted her to visit one of the local bookshops. Emmy wasn’t sure why she had to be the one to do that, since she hadn’t designed any of her book displays and they weren’t making an event of it. She was told just to walk into the shop, take a look around, and then walk out, which seemed like a waste of time. Her publisher said something about how it would be good for Emmy to be seen in public in London so that her British fans knew that she was there and planning something for Hogsmeade, but there was no guarantee that there were going to be photographers camped outside of Flourish and Blotts, unless there was something that Emmy wasn’t being told about that day’s excursion. She certainly hoped that the plan wasn’t to make a scene, because she didn’t want the bad publicity that normally came with a celebrity making a fool of herself.

The bell above the shop’s door chimed when she walked in, and Emmy thought that she had definitely chosen the wrong day to come. There hardly seemed to be anyone in the store at all, except for maybe the person behind the cash register. Emmy nodded to her, even though she didn’t seem to be paying attention, and then made her way to the back of the store. She could slalom through the aisles a few times and then be on her merry way, back to writing the book that was supposed to be submitted for its first round of edits by the end of the month. Emmy was still at a point where finishing by the deadline was a definite possibility, but if she kept being sent out on useless errands, then maybe it wouldn’t be. When she got to the back of the store, Emmy found that she was not, in fact, the only person inside. The other person was a man who looked to be fifty-ish years old, intently reading the cover of a book about some beast or another. Emmy made a soft snorting noise at that. Yes, he was definitely her target audience, she thought with a roll of her eyes.

charlie darwin weekly

[Deleted]

@emilia

Charlie was simply minding his business, flipping through a book on large magical creatures, mostly of the XXXXX category, seeing as dragons fell into that one, when he discovered that this book seemingly omitted them, as many did, because they had enough intense study to warrant their own books. It was slightly disappointing not seeing the giant beasts wedged in the section right after dementors. Dragons surely deserved to be placed with the other dangerous creatures even if they did have their own dedicated sections in libraries and bookstores. As he flipped through the current book, he heard the bell to the shop jingle once again, noting that another person had either walked in or the girl at the cash register had just run out on him. She definitely seemed the type, not that he should judge young adults on their chosen career paths. Unfortunately not every graduate of Hogwarts could end up in their preferred career. Luckily he had found dragons long before that came to question.

As he was about to place the book back where he had found it, the other customer, who must have been the one to trigger the bell up front, came down the aisle he was standing in. She passed by, making a snorting noise as she did so. What was funny about reading about magical creatures? If it wasn’t for the likes of dragonologists and magizoologists, then beasts would be running rampant and killing people. Surely no sane person wanted dragons flying around London, scorching every single thing in sight. “Not an animal person?” Charlie inquired as he placed the book back on the shelf. He was interested in figuring out what was so abhorrent about the book that the woman needed to react that way. Obviously it wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and he wasn’t one to judge others over their want to keep all their limbs intact for their entire lives.

[Deleted]

Apparently Emmy had been too loud in her scoffing, because the man she had been regarding had heard her. He looked up at her, and Emmy had to resist the urge to look away like a school child who was about to be scolded – she had a right to snort at whoever she well pleased. He seemed to think that her distaste was due to the book that he was reading, even though Emmy hadn’t paid it much attention. Her eyes flickered to the cover – something about dangerous magical creatures – and then back to the man. “Animals are alright.” She said with a shrug. There were some animals she liked more than others – butterflies were most notably her favorite fauna, but other than that, it wasn’t like she had an aversion to anything. Then again, she also wasn't into the idea of losing an arm or something because some carnivore decided to take a bite out of her. “The reason I…made that noise,” Emmy said, deciding that that was the politest way to phrase what she had done, “Is because I was sent here by my publisher to show that I took an interest in books and get good press. And it’s kind of hard to do that when no one’s here – except you, but I don’t think that you’re really who my publisher is trying to sell.” She said, explaining her thought process and hoping that the older man didn’t take offense to what she was saying.

charlie darwin weekly

[Deleted]

@emilia

Animals were only alright? Charlie could have a contentious debate on that alone. It was tough sometimes, because to him, his animals were the dragons in Romania. Anything at home had to be hypo-allergenic for Ondina’s sake, and the last thing he wanted was one of those bald cats. They were kind of ugly. His wife had toyed with the idea for years, picking his mind about it every so often, in which Charlie was quick to shut it down. Pets were meant to be warm, huggable creatures that you could pet. Not something that looked identical to a balding, middle-aged man. At least she hadn’t criticized the magical creatures in the book he had been looking at, because that would have drawn the line. Then he would have given her the low down on everything that could kill her in an instant, to the things that could save her life in just as much time. There were more things that could kill when it came to XXXXX beasts, of course.

Charlie found himself crossing his arms across his chest as the woman explained that she was here because her publisher asked her to, and that he didn’t look like the cliental that was interested in her material. So she was a writer? That would possibly also explain the look she had given him, whether it was about the book or him in general. He was rather wild-looking from time to time, though he thought he had dressed like a normal person today. “That’s unfortunate. That I’m not who you’d be selling to, that is.” Charlie found himself grinning. This woman was quick to judge, though she probably did know her audience better than he would. “So who are you looking to sell towards? Teenage girls? I have two of them, though I’d say they air on the side of young adults at this point.”

[Deleted]

The man in the store did not seem to be impressed with her or anything that she did, and Emmy had to admit that the feeling was definitely mutual. He looked like the kind of person who did stupid stuff just for the sake of stupid stuff, and not for adventure, the way Emmy did. Besides, the redhead felt like she was being judged (and rather harshly, at that) by the man just because he wasn’t a part of her target demographic. He then proceeded to ask what her target demographic was, adding that he had two teenaged daughters. Emmy bristled a little bit. She didn’t like the implications that a young woman writer could only write for teenaged girls – there were plenty of other markets that did not include middle-aged men! The thing was, she wasn’t even allowed to be angry about it, because she was indeed trying to reach young woman. “Young adults, not teenagers.” She corrected. It sounded like a nitpicky difference, but people in their younger twenties loathed to be lumped in with teenagers, so just calling her brand of fiction ‘teenaged fiction’ would be a great way to cause sales to take a plunge. “Though really, anyone can enjoy a good mystery time to time.” Just because she didn’t use openly erudite vocabulary didn’t mean that adults couldn’t enjoy her books, and she didn’t really think about gender, either, given that the point of her books was mystery, and not romance.

charlie darwin weekly

[Deleted]

@emilia

So young adults it was. Charlie let out a small chuckle. He had interacted with few fiction writers in his time, mostly foremost experts on beasts and creatures of all sorts. The target audience was whomever was interested in the subject of the book, not an age demographic. He supposed that was what made them different though. “A very important distinction to make. I know my two can get up in arms about it quite a bit. Doesn’t stop them from acting like little kids to get what they want though,” he let out another laugh. “Then if anyone could enjoy a mystery, who’s to say I’m not the target audience?” Charlie posed the question, jokingly of course. He enjoyed light hearted conversations with people he didn’t know. Usually that was done with dragons in Romania who were trying to bit his arms off.

Glancing down at his watch, he realized quite a bit of time had already passed since he arrived in Diagon Alley. He needed to be home to get dinner prepared, seeing as it was just him and the wife now. At least for a few more weeks until Harper was off training for a short break. It was great having her home, but he could have done without being kept up by her new dogs throughout the night. Thankfully she had brought them to Romania. “Well, I’d hate to scare away any potential fans of yours. It seems that the books I was looking for aren’t in yet. Need to get an edge on the leading studies for dragons, you know?” He smiled at the woman. “Have a good evening, and good luck!” With that, Charlie turned from the aisle he was in and headed back towards the front door of the shop. The rather bored looking cashier was still there, seemingly as disinterested in him as she had been when he entered. Still, Charlie gave her a small wave as he left Flourish & Blotts, the bell above the door leaving a happy jingle in his ears as he stepped back out into the bustle of Diagon Alley.

[Sorry to cut Charlie short. It's time for him to go but mina pandora oliveira is far more entertaining anyways xD]

[Deleted]

When the older man said that the difference between teenagers and young adults was an important distinction to make, Emmy wasn’t sure whether or not she was being insulted, or if the man was just behaving the way parents of teenagers normally did – that was, being embarrassing. When he asked if he could theoretically be the target audience of her books, Emmy just gave him an awkward, forced half-smile. It was so much easier to talk to young adults than older ones, and Emmy was dreading the day when she became the person that no one else wanted to talk to because she was just so awkward. Luckily for her, the man excused himself form the bookstore before Emmy was forced to think of another question to ask him or to respond to one of his awful dad jokes. Thankfully, with the man’s departure, Emmy was now one of the only two inhabitants of the store. She took a deep breath, drawing her shoulders up to her ears and then letting them slump down a little to release some of the tension that had wound up in her shoulders during the brief conversation. “That was weird.” Emmy had thought that she was being quiet, but she swore that her voice echoed through the empty store.

Now that she had interacted with a person, Emmy didn’t feel so bad in leaving the store. Someone had seen her come in – the desk clerk – and now that same person was going to see her leave, so she would know that Emmy wasn’t camping out in the back, waiting to pounce on unsuspecting store patients and force them to buy her book. Emmy pushed her hair behind her ears and, after glancing at the shelves surrounding her to make sure they didn’t hold any good reading materials, began to make her way to the front of the shop.

mina pandora oliveira

[mina pandora oliveira]

@emilia

Thankfully she hadn’t quite fallen asleep yet when the man entered the store, because a woman followed him through the door a short time after. Maybe there would finally be some kind of action in here. Mina didn’t notice it immediately, but after a few seconds of silence, she realized that the other two people were talking to each other. Usually there was enough noise in the store that she couldn’t hear private conversations, but the distinct lack of that today and the fact that she was absolutely bored out of her mind meant that she was interested in listening to it. The best part was that they were talking loud enough that she could hear every word from her seat behind the register, so that only helped with her laziness. They were talking about the woman’s audience, Mina missed a few words here, and how they were mostly young adults or something like that. Was she a stripper? That was the only kind of audience that a really young audience would be captivated with. Though she could name any number of creepy old guys that came into the store that would probably be a fan too. Maybe this guy was one of them. Their conversation did see rather strange after all. There were a few more exchanges about the woman’s audience, and then something about dragons, probably the name of the strip club, and then the man bid her farewell and headed out of the store, making sure to wave at Mina as he left. She returned the leave as he stepped out of the store. Strange dude, but he didn’t really seem like the strip club kind of man. More like a family man.

Mina heard a voice echo her thoughts of the man being weird, and soon the woman was walking out of the same aisle of books that her friend had just left. At least they were thinking the same thing. “A fan of yours?” Mina asked, making sure that she spoke up enough so that the woman would understand she was directing the question at her. “If you need any help finding anything, let me know,” she added, taking note that the direction the woman was going was somewhat towards the door. Entrapping her in conversation would pass time until closing. Strippers in a bookstore was definitely going to be a new one, if it was actually that. She was kind of interested in figuring it all out now. Quite the mystery she had here.

[Deleted]

Emmy hadn’t realized that the woman at the front desk had been paying her any attention at all, but apparently, she had been. Judging by her question to Emmy, she had even been listening to the conversation that the redhead had been having with the man at the back of the store. Her fears about being loud enough to be hear anywhere were apparently well-founded, Emmy thought to herself. At least she hadn’t said anything horribly embarrassing or admitted her life’s greatest secret or something. Emmy shook her head when the clerk asked if the now-departed man was a fan of hers. “I don’t think he even knows my name, let alone what I write.” Emmy said with a little bit of a nervous laugh, wondering if the other woman recognized her or not. Since she hadn’t been spoken to when she entered the store, Emmy assumed that the answer was no, but sometimes people acted purposefully nonchalant around celebrities in order to make them think that they were cool or down to earth or something. If it was the latter case, then Emmy definitely appreciated it, because she didn’t like being gawked out. Adored, yes, but gawked at? No. It was kind of difficult to walk the line between those two things, but Emmy was always eager to do difficult things.

The clerk offered to show her anything that she asked for, and Emmy was sorely, sorely tempted to ask to be shown to her own books, just as a little bit of an ego boost. But she didn’t want to be that person. Instead, she decided to ask something that could possibly get her the same results…Just a little indirectly. “What book is your bestseller?” She asked. “Can you take me to it?” With Emmy’s luck, it was going to be some other young adult mystery, but she was still morbidly curious to see what the taste in literature was like in London.

mina pandora oliveira

[mina pandora oliveira]

@emilia

Mina had a mental sigh of relief as the woman pointed out that the man that had previously departed probably didn’t know she was a writer. At least that was better than her being a stripper, as had been thought up only minutes earlier. Not that Mina had anything against strippers. Her own sister was one. Or at least she thought Sarah was. It was kind of hard to straight up ask someone if they made a living doing lap dances and swung around on a pole all day. Especially a sibling. She supposed the bonuses included lots of cash and a hardcore work-out regimen that allowed one to hang upside down on a pole for minutes on end. She’d never be able to do that considering the amount of alcohol she consumed every night. If anything, she would be one of the ones leaning up against the railing tossing money at the dancers on stage.

Strippers aside for the moment, Mina returned to the conversation she was having with the woman. She was a writer, not an exotic dancer or call-girl trying to sell her wares to a prospective customer, which in Mina’s defense would have been an awesome story to tell everyone later on. Nobody would believe her that two people were getting freaky in the back aisle of Flourish & Blotts, but it would still be a fun one. Being a writer made sense though; they showed up in the store every now and again. Usually they were trying to promote their books or talk to the owner about getting a few copies near the front of the store. Mina knew the deepest, darkest secrets about the books that sold well. First, it depended on the kind of book. Practical books, like charms and potions for home use, and school books always sold better when they were stacked in the windows and as close to the front door and register as possible. Fiction, on the other hand, needed to be either on the shelves or on individual, smaller shelves separated from all the clutter of the store. There was a system to it, and she was well aware with how it worked because she had to constantly restock and rearrange both of those areas on a daily basis. The only fiction authors that got that treatment though were the ones that the boss liked, and there weren’t too many of them.

The woman decided to take Mina up on the offer of help though, asking which book was the bestseller, and if she could show her it. Mina slid off her chair behind the register and stepped around to the front of it. “Should be over here,” she stated as she stepped by the woman and headed towards the entrance to the store. It was another new edition of a ‘Charms for Homeowners’, or whatever it was all the lovey dovey couples were getting these days. “That one is hard to keep on the shelves for some reason. So grab it now if you don’t already have a copy,” Mina relayed unenthusiastically. Christmas had practically sapped all of her happiness in that regard, because literally everyone wanted a copy of this book, from old people to former classmates of hers. If that hadn’t been a punch in the stomach, she didn’t know what was. “Unless you wanted fiction, because in that case,” she pointed towards the back of the store where the woman had previously been, “that one would be back there. Kind of hard to see it sometimes since it’s so dark back there.” Mina yawned as she headed off towards the fiction section. She hadn’t had the time to read whatever this book was about, but it had been a hit during the holidays with students, so it had to be good. She preferred muggle comics over a real book. They were easier to read when they had pictures with them. “So what is it you write, if you don’t mind me asking?” Mina inquired as she stopped in front of the shelf that the popular fiction book was on.

[Deleted]

Of all of the things that Emmy had thought would be the best-seller in the store, a book called ‘Charms for Homeowners’ was not it. She didn’t own a home, even though she could definitely afford it, because there was something that felt slightly sleazy about being a writer and a model who owned three homes on various islands in the Barbados, or whatever island chain people were purchasing real estate in these days. Houses were too much space for someone living alone, as far as Emmy was concerned. She much preferred returning to a cozy apartment that didn’t echo every time she moved around in it. Besides, when the time came, she would be in a position to buy a home – she didn’t need to track the ups and downs of the market like some people did, because no matter what, she’d have enough money… which also felt kind of sleazy to think, now that the thought had already crossed her mind. The girl said that the book was hard to keep on the shelves, which still was a strange thought. Why that book, of all of the ones that existed? Emmy was half-tempted to ask, but she also didn’t want to seem bitter or rude. “Do you have a copy?” She asked in lieu of any comment on the books popularity. If the salesperson had a copy of the book, then maybe she would actually consider buying it. If not, then Emmy was going to give the book a hard pass.

Upon realizing that Emmy might want to see fiction instead, the salesgirl led them to a slightly dimmer section of the store where the fiction books were. Emmy hadn’t been expecting to see any of her books, since none of them had been published recently and generally the bestsellers section was reserved for new books that were being hyped by the media. Emmy had read the book that had been the go-to gift for teenagers who liked to read, and she had personally found it rather boring – the plot was predictable, at least to a writer. Emmy was surprised to see, though, in a particularly shadowy corner of the bottom shelf, that there was a copy of Spartan. Emmy kneeled down to pick it up, running her finger down the spine gently. There were some days she was still surprised that she had managed to write a best-selling work of fiction, and there was something nostalgic about seeing her first real success still on the shelves in stores. “I write mysteries.” She answered with a smile. “Like this one.” Emmy said, extending the book to the salesperson, in case she wanted to look at it.

mina pandora oliveira

[mina pandora oliveira]

@emilia

Mina let out a rather loud, obnoxious, and quite clearly scoff-like laugh at the woman’s question; on whether or not that she had a copy of ‘Charms for Homeowners’. She hadn’t meant for that to happen, but the sheer irony of it was too much for her to contain. For one, she wasn’t a homeowner. Not only could she not afford that, but her being allowed to live on her own in a house would only happen if hell froze over. And that was a really big if too. Obviously the woman wouldn’t know that about her just from idle chit-chat, but it was better to stop her there. “Ahh, no. My sister probably has a copy though,” she said to herself, mostly. Mina knew she did, because she had gotten it as a gag gift for Christmas. Best part about it? The author had given all the employees a copy for the holidays. Apparently that was a thing since they sold the most out of all the other stores. She had no reason to use it, but Callisto certainly did. “I’ve skimmed through it though. Not all of it is about keeping a clean home, or how to deal with magical pests. There are a few good things in it. Wouldn’t be a best seller if it didn’t have those.” At the end of the day, she was still a salesperson, and getting a customer to buy the book on a whim was better than them moving on from it completely.

She yawned again, audibly this time. Quite frankly, she didn’t really care if the woman could hear or see her yawning. It was the end of the day, and there was only an hour or two left before the store closed for the day. Since the woman hadn’t said anything about it yet, Mina was going to carry on and continue yawning at her own pleasure. The darkness of the back of the store had a somewhat comforting feeling to it, probably because she tried to spend time back here to hide from customers on occasion. That and it was really easy to get some shut-eye on quiet days since it was the furthest from the hustle and bustle of the street. Blinking back her drowsiness, Mina automatically reached for the book that her potential customer had handed her. “This is a mystery?” she asked as she studied the cover. The title was Spartan, though how that had any correlation to a mystery book was beyond her. The brief synopsis on the back gave a good chunk of the details. It definitely looked interesting, that was for sure. “It’s quite old though, isn’t it? How’d you manage to find it in all the clutter of books that are published?”

[Deleted]

Emmy startled slightly at the sound that came out of the cashier’s mouth at her question about the bestselling book. She had read between the lines (which hadn’t been hard) to say that was a definite ‘no’, which the woman then confirmed verbally, though she said that her sister probably had one. Emmy realized that she didn’t know the name of the woman she was conversing with, and surreptitiously glanced down at the name tag she was wearing. Mina. That was such a nice name – hopefully it wasn’t short for anything horrible like Wilhelmina. Mina went on to say that she had skimmed through the book that she had such obvious contempt for, which surprised Emmy. She would have figured that its popularity alone might have been a deterrent from trying to read it. Not that popular books were always bad, but sometimes they did have an air of being overdone… which might have been what attracted people to them in the first place? Emmy was still working on figuring out what exactly made a book successful, beyond just good writing (and sometimes not even that was necessary).

Emmy chuckled a little to herself when Mina yawned again. Part of the great thing of writing was that Emmy was all alone when she did it, so she didn’t have to hide any of her emotions or her state of mind. It appeared Mina was adopting that sort of mentality, too, not caring whether or not her customers saw that she was tired or bored, whichever was making her yawn. Mina accepted the book that Emmy had held out, and the author watched, somewhat intently, as the cashier read the back, looking for any sort of reaction, whether it be positive or negative. Mina had asked if it was a mystery, and Emmy nodded, and then realized the other woman was too busy reading to see her, in all likelihood. Mina asked if the book was old, and Emmy nodded again. “I’ve been told that it’s a classic, whatever that means. It’s only been a couple of years since it was published, so I think it’s wrong to say that it’s going to be a part of the literary canon forever.” Part of Emmy saying that was modesty, but most of it was uncertainty in her own work. Something that was popular one day could easily fade into obscurity, and she didn’t want to rest on her laurels – hence why she was pressing to have her newest book done sooner rather than later. “I’m also rather attached to it, so it’s easy to find. Kind of how you can find someone you know in a crowd.” The metaphor wasn’t the best one, but it was the closest Emmy could come to describing how she had been able to pluck Spartan off of the shelf so easily.

mina pandora oliveira