[MINGLE] One-Man Show

[sixthiteration]

WHERE: Inari Shrine and elsewhere
WHEN: 25 January 2019 through ?
OPEN TO: All opted in characters
WARNINGS: Please warn in the subject line of your comment as needed, and remember to move anything turning adult to a new post.
IMPORTANT NOTES: Final reminders and informational links are here. Please label all top-levels clearly so that there is no confusion who they are open to and what they are for, and DON'T FORGET TO ADD YOUR TAG!
Have fun and ask questions here!

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Pepper's past - WARNINGS for Marvel-style violence & Science Consent issues.

[scovillescale]

The entire experience is disorienting, because no amount of chatting about the things that happen here being even crazier than just the act of being kidnapped across worlds could have prepared Pepper for standing in the forge one minute, cold hands seeking warmth from steaming tea made of local edible flora, and then suddenly not being there. It's dark by contrast for a moment, and then everything around her lights up with the image of strangers.

She has no idea why she's seeing what she suddenly is, and she's trying to puzzle that out as well as absorb details (names and clues to where or what this is), but despite that, she can't help but smile at the uniformed young man and his distraction by a pretty girl. It's so normal when what's happening to her is absolutely not.

[ooc: 0:45-end] And then it's not these strangers anymore, it's a time ripped right out of her head, but all around her. There's a few seconds of her remembered perspective of the back of a glowing man and then it abruptly shifts focus and she's watching these moments from the other side. In this moment, this is not something she wants to relive, because she spent so much money on therapy after it, just to not be a walking hot mess forever in a mental and emotional sense and unable to handle such a personal violation of her body and the consequences of it.

There's no view of having crawled from the wreckage, having effortlessly honed in on Tony and that psychotic monster Killian, having picked up a massive pole like it was a twig, just-

BAM. She's still seeing this like she's outside herself, but it's so much clearer and sharper for not being her memory of events. Destroying a suit. Blowing up Killian with calculated efficiency. Turning away from glowing rage to see Tony, battered but not dead, and she finds herself speaking along with one moment, "Oh, my god, that was really violent", because it really, truly still is, but it's suddenly, shockingly satisfying in an entirely new way, because she did that. Superhumanly drugged against her will, yes, but she saved Tony, and got the bad guy directly this time.

The next thing she speaks in mimic is voiced in a whisper, "You know, I think I understand why you don't want to give up the suits." And that floors her, because she remembers saying it, but it's become distant between that moment and the right now, bogged down by future-past frustrations and setbacks and trying yet again to find moderation and failing and succeeding and accepting. The feeling, though, of being able to protect the most important person in her life because of technology and science (and it had been enough, but what if it hadn't? What if she had needed something more and lost him because of it?) - that she had let grow dim, and maybe she shouldn't have.

She's not shellshocked enough by this viewing experience to miss taking in everything after the violence, though, from a perspective she should have never been granted bringing stark clarity to remembered emotions, and it affords her, well, perspective. Her fear and his promise to fix her, his showy but deeply emotional sacrifice, her socked-in-the-heart, I-love-this-man-to-the-limits reaction, his slight but gut-wrenching (to her) body language communicating the relief of having her not be dead (suddenly, painfully, she hopes he's not watching this too, because right now he doesn't need a full-color and surround sound reminder of Pepper Presumably Dying moments), and she's gripped by the ridiculous desire to rewind just this part and watch it again.

But a new vision or memory or virtual reality experience plays before Pepper can even ponder how.

[ethnobotany]

It takes them all some time to get around to each other, to digest what they're each seeing and how those sights affect not only the person directly involved, but also everyone else. By the end, Beverly is beginning to think that her vision is one of the only good ones. Although one of the unfamiliar ones doesn't seem quite as awful as it probably could have been. Once things have calmed down a little, Beverly makes her way over.

"Well, this sure is one way to meet people," she jokes lightly, offering a hand to the other woman. "Beverly Crusher and I really should be used to sudden, unwilling transportation by now. Odd holographic videos... not so much."

[scovillescale]

Pepper immediately takes the proffered hand with a smile that, although strained, does have friendly truth to it. She may look visibly rattled still, she isn't sure, but it's not entirely or even mostly about what she saw. It's about the other visual projections with shocking impact, especially for the man who appeared in two separate ones in physical and mental states worlds apart.

But not this woman's video/VR/hologram, and Pepper's actually grateful one of them had a seemingly good memory and that the memory was the one to greet their shock at the abrupt change in location and circumstance.

"Pepper Potts. I can't say that I'm used to either, but I can say that I'm very grateful you were the one to go first." She smiles, less strained. "I'm assuming that was a happy memory. I hope it was."

[ethnobotany]

Beverly offers a light laugh, soft but amused in spite of everything, though there's a wry tinge to it all the same. "So am I, though it could have been a good finisher, too." Either as a sweet introduction or a pick-me-up at the end would have been good.

Still, the thought of what it is brings back the multitude of questions that she herself has about it. She can name most of the important faces in that minute-long hologram, but not the why. Or where. So her smile turns a little bit wry and she shrugs in response. "Well, if it's a memory, it's one I've forgotten and given how much I've missed Wesley, I doubt I could have ever forgotten that. So, either it's completely fake and meant to give me false hope or it's something from the future." She pauses, her lips twisting a little, wry amusement showing through now. "If it's all the same to you, I think I'll hedge my bets on it being something from the future. I like that option much better."

[scovillescale]

Something from the future. Pepper hadn't considered that option as a possibility prior to this moment, as hers was a new look at a past event, but she considers it now. Given what the future at home holds, she's suddenly very glad her past was chosen, because the last thing she would have wanted was to subject others, or herself, to a hellish stretch of galactic fighting and heartbreaking loss.

It's far better to focus on Beverly and the bits of information the woman is revealing, enough to catch Pepper's genuine interest. She smiles a little wider, a little softer.

"How long has it been since you've seen him?"

[ethnobotany]

Beverly has to think about that one, only because her sense of time in this place is a little off still. They didn't always have the wristbands and accompanying watches, so for a while it was a bit of a guessing game.

"Five years?" she guesses. "Three years at home and at least a year and a half here. Closer to two by now. It's hard for those of us who have been here a long time to really tell. We haven't had the clocks on our wrists the entire time, so a lot of the early timekeeping was estimation and guesswork based on the seasons." They can't even say they relied on the sun. At one point, the sun didn't set and they don't really know how long that lasted.

She does smile at the memory of her son. "He looked so grown up. He'd be about 27 by now and he really looks so much like his father."

Her lips twist a little sadly at that. She and Jean-Luc might be doing their best to move past the skeleton of Jack's passing, they both know that the subject always has a chance of coming up. They are prepared, at this point, to work through each situation that brings up that past together, which is certainly better than they had been doing.