paper paper obsolete ; casey cooper (![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} tippetarius) wrote,@ 2008-02-10 19:28:00 |
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the store
 Nestled on the corner of this street and that street in the East Village lies a little store called Once upon a time... It looks like it has been there forever and the contents inside probably twice as long. The store is full or everything you want, but nothing you actually need. Clown salt and pepper shakers? It's there. Fire place mantels? Yup. Chamber pots? Those are there too. There are hardwood floors the creak, shelves you can reach and a perpetual layer of dust on the windows. Unlike most stores, there is no real organizations to the products, though the workers seem to know where everything is located. Almost all the prices can be negotiated. However, there are a few items, such as a Steinway piano and a broken grandfather clock, are not for sale no matter how much a person offers. More examples of products: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]  Once upon a time... is owned and operated by Charles and Sylvia Cooper (formally two Munchkins from Oz), high school sweethearts and collectors of everything under the sun. They acquired the store, including all the junk in it, in 1974 from it's then elderly owner who himself was not a Tale. Over the next nine years, they randomly travel around the world collecting odds and ends to fill up their store. They also collected things that regular customers would never see, but that is neither here nor there. They're traveling stopped upon the birth of their first child Neil, so they settled back down in New York City to raise him and his sister Casey, four years his junior. Currently, Charles and Sylvia handle sales/purchases of high end items, some of which end up in the famed auction houses around the world. Their daughter Casey is the general manager of the front store, handling small sales/purchases and customer complaints. All employees are Tales or Horrors.  To the average person, Once upon a time... just seems like just your average eclectic antique store, but to Tales and Horrors it offers an additional purpose. Kept hidden in a back office away from the general public is a huge antique mirror. While it looks innocent enough, the mirror is actually a portal to another mirror in Las Vegas, Nevada. It works simply: you step through the mirror in New York City and step out the other side in Las Vegas. No one is exactly sure how it works, just that it does and it's most likely done by some sort of magic. The knowledge of the mirrors is not flaunted as to avoid unwanted traffic, but both sides are more than willing to let people pass through. All they ask is a bit of notice and a simple thank you. Oh yes. There is also the unwritten rule that you buy something on your respective end for that is only polite. The mirrors are operation during Once upon a time... business hours (10AM to 10PM Monday - Saturday, 12PM to 5PM Sunday), though Charles and Sylvia can be reached via their home phone in case of emergencies. However, there is another magical item in the store that is known to very few people. Located near the back of the store next to a still-life painting is a broken grandfather clock, one with no price tag and a sign that simply states no offers will be taken. It does not work no matter how much it is wound, but every so often it chimes three times to signal the death of a Tale or Horror. Usually the Coopers and other employees pay little attention to this as it is part of life. However, occasionally the clock chimes a little song (one Emma likes to think sounds like the Dies Irae from Berlioz's Symphony Fantastique), signaling the death of a Tale or Horror by unnatural means such as murder. |
