[Console] Video;

[lasergrenades]

[When the screen comes on there is a face just a little too close to the camera; it’s got freckles and red hair. The figure scoots back a bit, and a young woman in her late teens appears, grinning nervously.]

Uh, hiiii. I’m Pepper. Pepper Potts. I come from a city called New York which some of you have probably heard of and if you haven’t you should because its awesome. Or, it was awesome before a bunch of aliens came and tried to destroy the planet, which they might still do, I got here before we blew up the ship when I got teleported, so it might not be so awesome when you go visit. [She pauses, catching herself.] Er. If, I guess. Sorry, I talk a lot when I’m nervous, apparently, that’s what everyone always tells me. Actually they say I talk too much all the time, not just when I'm nervous. Especially Tony and Rhodey and Gene. Oh! Yeah, I'm from the same place as Tony and Gene. Well, not exactly, we came here from different places, or something, which I don't really understand yet.

[She takes a deep breath and tries to slow down the torrent of words.] Anyway. I hear there’s some big bad running around and since I’m kind of used to fighting supervillains I’m totally there if you need someone to help with butt-kicking. Probably.

[Pepper sags a little bit.]

I could use some help figuring out what to do here. I’m supposed to get a job and all I ever wanted to be is a SHIELD agent. I could help...organize...things? Unless someone needs a personal shopper, in which case I am so there.

Comments

Re: video;

[denyamenti]

As you said, sometimes he's a jerk.

[ Sorry Gene. Just because he's mostly in your corner doesn't mean you get off scot free. ]

video;

[lasergrenades]

[Pepper makes a mental note to figure out what happened, especially because actually hitting Gene with something other than repulsors is not exactly an easy feat.]

Good to know we agree on something. I'll see you around, I guess.

Re: video;

[denyamenti]

Aa, until later.

video;

[gistful]

Of course.

In light of the conversation I interrupted, have you any questions?

video;

[ruinsprofessor]

[She has an inventive spirit. Excellent.]

Really. Give me a few days and I'll find some free time.

video;

[lasergrenades]

Are you kidding?

[She has all the questions, Anton. All of them.]

Tony said the Hotel is in a pocket dimension which lets it connect to all the sectors, how does that work? Is that magic too, or is it physics, or both?

video;

[lasergrenades]

[Sometimes dangerously inventive, as it turns out.]

Awesome! I can't wait!

video;

[gistful]

Both. Magical effects are predicated on physics--some of them are simply too advanced to track using science. The Hotel's current status wasn't a feature of its wards previously; it could change locations within a few seconds, even ones thousands of miles away, but it couldn't actively inhabit its own dimension until it was dragged here. I'm still studying precisely how that happened and how to replicate it.

[The first, he has a few theories. The second isn't going terribly well.]

video;

[lasergrenades]

You make it sounds like it's alive or something.

video;

[gistful]

It wouldn't be unprecedented, for a magical building of its age. But I doubt it; not more than any complex piece of software appearing to have personality, at least.

video;

[lasergrenades]

I was kidding.

[This is both mind boggling and totally cool.]

You and Skulduggery sure come from a seriously amazing place.

video;

[gistful]

Were you?

[So blandly.]

It has its moments.

video;

[lasergrenades]

[He's like one of those super cool uncles that she always wished she had. Pepper is pretty sure she likes him.]

You're like a living enigma, did you know that?

video;

[gistful]

A step up from being a dead one, at least.

[But this time the amusement shows, however faint.]

video;

[lasergrenades]

Can't argue with that. I guess I'll see you around the Hotel?

video;

[gistful]

You will indeed. Good day, Miss Potts.