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Characters: Marinette/Ladybug and OPEN
Date: 6/17 Day and Evening
Location: Various
Situation: There is a great deal on Marinette's mind, and part of it starts with an "A" and ends with a "drien". So time to clear her head a little before she embarrasses herself more.
Warnings/Rating: Um. Excessive derp?

1. Morning: Social Shopping (With Marinette)

The past few days Marinette's been pretty damn over the moon. Sure there was some confusion about her being here and people having met her and all, but the biggest revelation was that Adrien was there. ADRIEN. For some time, in fact, but he was still here! With her -- kinda. And them sharing a place... oh -god- she couldn't even let that thought settle in her head. So, she was out exploring the city - currently walking down a street with several bags looped on one arm, glancing around a little absent-mindedly. She's going to end up dropping something aaany minute now.

2. Afternoon: Relax at the Cafe (With Marinette)

Of course she's not going to spend ALL day shopping. In fact, Marinette decided to take a lunch break at a nearby outdoor cafe, with a notebook open on the table and her focus more on her sketches and writing than anything else. She does, however, glance up now and then when someone passes by, watching with a mix of intense focus and curiosity.

3. Evening : The Terror that Flaps in the Ni-- okay not really (with Ladybug)

Once her morning business was taken care of - or rather, as much as it could be at least, Marinette spent most of the day organizing her new goodies, inwardly relieved that her previous self (wow that's weird to think) had already taken care of the things she needed for her sewing. By mid afternoon, she was getting restless again, so after double checking with Tikki to make absolutely sure the kwami was feeling well enough, she changed from plain, ordinary Marinette into the comfident, reliable Ladybug and slipped out - nothing like swinging through the city to clear a person's head, and if there was trouble, she'd at least be out there to help anyone who needed it.

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Pepper is always up for shopping. It's possibly her favorite activity besides flying/being a superhero. Combining that with new friends just makes it better. She is not, however, a big morning person, so by the time she located Marinette it was already late morning.

At least she came bearing gifts - Pepper had a bag of pastries in hand and a grin on her face when she finally reached the younger girl. "Morning! I may have to retract my previous statement - shopping tours might be the best way to see a city. What've you picked up so far? Oh, hey, I brought muffins, too, sorry for being kinda late."

Pastries! Pepper is quickly moving into her circle of favorite people, along with Alya, Tikki, her parents and Adrien. Already grinning at the sight of the other girl, Marinette chuckled at the statement, "Some bolts of fabric, sewing supplies and a few spools of thread. Nothing too exciting, but definitely vital." She beams, "No apology necessary, but I will accept a muffin. I skipped breakfast this morning." Because the idea of sharing a meal with Adrien was just too much!

"Oh, cool!" That's right, she remembers Marinette doing something like this before. Need to be careful about bringing all that up this early on. "Mostly clothes? You could totally make a living off that, if you wanted. I tried to start a little clothing side business last year and then I ended up sort of busy with the police department and the whole building-a-government thing," Pepper says as she unrolls the paper bag and offers the bounty to Marinette. The flavors are not entirely unlike what one might expect from Earth, with dried fruits and nuts.

"Now I mostly just repair things for the house. I've got a sewing machine my best friend bought for me if you ever want to borrow it, actually; they're not all that common in the city and I don't use it nearly enough right now."

"Well, clothes is probably what I want to focus on, but I don't want to fall into a rut. I could make dolls too - I bet the children around here would like that." And maybe even adults! You're never too old for a doll. "That's actually what I was planning - offering my services sewing and mending clothing, making dolls or designing banners and posters. Stuff like that. The wider the variety I offer the more chances I'll be noticed and get clients, I'd think."

"Building a government from the ground up must have been a lot of work though. But pretty rewarding in the end." As long as it doesn't get corrupt. "If I get a lot of requests for things, I might take you up on that offer though! At least as long as I don't have one of my own. Sewing everything by hand would be ...tiring."

Yay muffin! And it even doesn't look too weird, which is good. She takes a cautious bite, and relaxes when it doesn't...scream or anything. Not that she didn't trust Pepper. "This is pretty good!"

Oh, man, someone who talks almost as much as she does. Awesome.

"Wow. So, you're a Renaissance woman," Pepper compliments. "I never got that far with designing things. Well, unless they were infiltration plans. Not so useful for starting a business. Whenever you want to borrow it, let me know. I'm always happy to even the odds in the house - I live with two guys."

She's glad to see that Marinette approves of the selection she's made. "I make it a point to know the best cafes in the city. I'd be a terrible New Yorker if I didn't. Man, I miss bagels, though."

Marinette can be VERY chatty on certain subjects. Still she laughs, "I don't think I've ever been called that, but, yeah, I guess you could say that." A pause, and she glances at Pepper curiously, "Infiltration plans?" wutwut?

"Oh sure! And it's funny you mentioned evening the odds - I have a friend here who offered to let me stay in the apartment he's living in. Uh - well, apparently I was saying there before I came here. I mean. The other ..me? Gah, that's ... still really weird to say. I mean- the me from before, not the me now --you know what I mean, right? Anyway he said I could stay with him, which is super cool and totally like him s-so.." MM THAT MUFFIN IS REALLY GOOD. She's .. gonna take a quick bite before she starts babbling about Adrien.

Bagels eh? "You know, my parents run a bakery. If I got the ingredients, I could probably make some bagels. I've helped them out in the bakery a couple times. Although they probably wouldn't be as good as your New York bagels." At least she could guarantee they won't be misshapen lumps of coal. . . . unless Adrien is talking to her.

"Oh, yeah. We had to break into a high-security building to get my friend Tony's armor back. We're superheroes," Pepper beams. "Technically I wasn't then, but I was in on the whole thing."

She listens to Marinette chattering, pleased to have found another person who engages in conversation like her. "Adrien, right? Yeah, he's super nice. Are you gonna stay with him, then?" The younger girl's mannerisms are telling Pepper that Adrien is not just a friend in this situation - she's been there.

"Oh, man, really? That would be super mega awesome. Not as good as New York is totally fine - any good bagel, period, is like food of the gods right now," Pepper insists. There were some attempts made by the kedan, but it seemed like only Earthers could really understand the right kind of doughy, chewiness of a proper bagel.

"You're superheroes? Really? Should.. you be telling me that?" Marinette asked, a bit hesitantly. She and Cat Noir weren't supposed to tell anyone their identities, let alone each other. Although Tikki DID say she should go with her heart when she had been conflicted over it so it probably would have been fine to tell Cat Noir at least.

"Yeah! Isn't he great?" Marinette grins, and though she would be ALL too happy to chatter on about her favorite subject (next to designing) she behaves. "Y-yeah, well -.. it just makes sense, since we're from the same world, it'd be nice to be close by to someone that's familiar to you." Yep, that's the only reason.

She giggles a bit at Pepper's enthusiastic reaction to bagel potential, "Okay, then when I go shopping for food ingredients I'll keep it in mind. Is a plain bagel okay? I don't know if they'd have some of the ingredients for other types here." Though she ..kind of wants to experiment with some of the ingredients here. and see what kind of new flavored bagels they could have potential for.

"It's fine," Pepper waves her off. "Everyone here already knows who's wearing the flying power armor, so there wasn't much point in trying to hide it. The Foreigners aren't a big group, anyway, so it'd be pretty easy to nail down even if we were trying to hide it."

The redhead laughs a little at Marinette's chattering about Adrien. The crush is obvious from like a mile away. "Cool, that's good. Having people here you know from home can be rare. How long've you guys known each other?"

"Plain is awesome," Pepper confirms. Any bagel is awesome at this point. "But yeah, ingredient substitution can get a bit interesting. Some of what they have here is really strange."

She didnn't honestly expect people to be so ...casual about their superhero identity. It must work differently here. Or in Pepper's world. "Did you get that here, or was that something you had back home?"

If she knew she was being so obvious about her crushed she'd be so embarrassed, but.. she wouldn't stop her chatter either. "Actually it hasn't really been that long. We met at the beginning of the school year, and it's only been a few months (~~ooc I assume...~~) since then. About half a year?" (ooc again, more assumies) "A lot's happened, the time seems to just fly by."

"So let's say I decide to experiment with a bagel's ingredients. Would you be for or against taste testing?"

Edited (*bites html*) 2017-07-01 22:18 (UTC)

"The armor's from home. Tony built them. We don't have nearly enough tech here to build something that advanced. It's actually a little hard to repair them, too, so we try not to get in serious fights," Pepper explains cheerfully.

~~Time is a fickle, wily thing. IMAA never has a winter despite two years going by.~~ "Trust me, I know what's that like. So, you're in high school, right? Man, I'm in high school, but I'm old enough to be in college here. I can't believe I've been here that long already."

If it's possible, she brightens even more. "I will absolutely volunteer to be a guinea pig, yes. Totally. Sign me up."

"Yeah, I was wondering about that. I guess you can't really go out and scavenge metal so easily. I mean, for a power suit it probably needs special..metal ..stuff. Uh..alloys?" Eh, good enough.

"Yeah, just started! Well not 'just' started, but... I'm in my first year." She tilted her head, "How long have you been here?" If she was in high school but old enough to be in college ...she must have been here a long time. Note to self: Don't bring up missing family.

Oh! OH!! "You will?" Marinette grinned broadly, "That's amazing, Pepper, thanks! That'll be such a big help!"

"Poly-carbonate steel, yeah," Pepper confirmed. "Honestly the power source would probably the biggest challenge to recreate here. The closest thing we've seen is literally running cities."

She looked a little wistful then, but not unhappy. "Just over two years. It doesn't seem like that long, but then I look back and wow a lot has happened. My friend Gene has been here for... five? And Tony for four and a bit."

And they had changed significantly in that time, Gene especially. She wondered how different she might be if she ends up staying here that long, too.

"Of course! I'll never turn down an opportunity for baked goods," she said a little mischievously.

~~...because "Marepper" sounds weird.~~

"It's too bad you can't run it on one of those.. rechargable types of power sources." Sure, like a size triple x battery. Because those are real. "Like solar power, or wind power!" Pause. "Actually... that would probably be a really really bad idea." Also how BIG would this power source BE if the equivalent was running cities?

"That's...kind of amazing." Marinette narrowly saved the predictable 'holy shit that's a long time to be trapped away from home. "But at least you have your friends here." As selfish as that was. Rather than stick on that subject though, she grins at Pepper, "Glad to hear it - so you can't blame me if it comes out weird. But I promise not to burn anything, or give you anything I wouldn't myself taste test first." That settled, she shifted her weight a little, "So, where's the first stop on this shopping tour?"

~~they're both pretty good mashups~~

"We should probably leave the renewables around to solve the whole energy crisis thing," Pepper laughed. "The power source needs recharging every so often, so we try not to push them too hard since it can be a drain on the city here." Especially with two of the suits here now.

"Keeliai's... kinda turning into home," she replied, smiling softly. She missed New York terribly, and her father, but she'd gotten to see him a few times at least. "Bagel deal," Pepper agreed. "I was thinking I could show you one of the curio shops - sometimes stuff from home shows up and they find a bunch of it - and then take you to this crepe place my boyfriend and I really like."

~~So true, So true :D~~

"Probably a good idea. Besides, can you imagine if you DID use something like solar power of wind power for the suits? You'd fight a villain or something, and then it'd get cloudy- oops, no more power." Also, pray you wouldn't be flying at that time. She's not even going to JOKE about that though.

"That's good too though. I mean, I know that things aren't 'perfect' here, with everything going, but it's not perfect anywhere. Every place has its problems..even France." She grinned a littl sheepishly, "But the important thing is that you're comfortable- it'd be harder to get by here if you were miserable all the time."

She perks up a little, "They just.. show up?" Hrm, mabye her portfolio will appear here - or some other stuff of hers even! That'd be nice. Convenient too. "That sounds great! I can't--Wait wait wait, hold the phone," Marinette grinned at Pepper, "You didn't tell me y ou had a boyfriend - who is he, what's he like?" Dish dish!

"Ooh, yeah, that would be awkward," the redhead agreed with another giggle. She's fallen pretty far in the suit with no power and smacked into the ocean, and it wasn't fun. Pepper would prefer not to repeat that.

She nodded to confirm that items appeared at random and was going to elaborate, but that seemed to be abandoned in favor of the more important detail of her significant other. "He's a little... intense for most people. Kinda prickly, but that's part of his charm, really. Like how those miniature cacti are cute. Bakura runs the Jade Dojo," Pepper added. "He's been teaching me how to fight with a staff, and teaching me Shadow magic, which is super cool, since there's no magic where I come from."

Marinette giggled - heck, she's fallen from pretty tall heights before - off the Eiffel Tower being one of them - without a power suit. Not a fun thing, honestly. If she didn't have her yoyo with her she'd be street pizza now, so she could certainly relate to not wanting to repeat that feeling. Props to skydivers though.

"I think this is the first time I've heard of a miniature cacts being called cute." She considered, "But I think I can see where you're coming from." She tilts her head thoughtfully, "You can just learn magic, just like that?" Shadow magic kinda sounds like bad mojo -- better clarify. "What's shadow magic?" PEPPER ARE YOU SUMMONING THE DEVIL.

"Well, not just like that, exactly. I still needed a power source to use it properly on my own, and one showed up about a year and a bit ago," Pepper elaborated, opening her bag and pulling out the Duelist Gauntlet for Marinette to see. "It's basically... so, there's this layer of reality called the Shadow Realm where different kinds of creatures live, and you can summon them here using your own energy but you need a power source to actually get them to appear. There's also a bunch of different kinds of Spells and Traps, most of which are based on cards that people usually think is just a game. I need to use the cards as, like, anchor points. Bakura doesn't, since he's got this magic natively. It's used in fights a lot, but it doesn't have to be."

.... Marinette eyed Pepper for a good half minute before turning her attention to the gauntlet. Are you SUUUURE you're not summoning demons from the hell realm? .. pff, that kind of thinking would put her on the same level as people who thought D&D was fromt TEH DEBIL. "So you use..cards to cast magic? ... all this stuff is safe, right? If you know what you're doing, then fine, I won't say any more but, it seems kind of...I dunno... shady." Ha ha, shady, because Shadow magic? ...

I'll see myself out.

That was a lot of staring, but people here had all sorts of reactions to learning about Shadow magic and how she'd gained access to it. Pepper just waited until there was something to actually address.

"It's safe enough," Pepper allowed, laughing. "Everything comes with risk. I mean, I fly around in a suit of power armor fighting supervillains, I'm not exactly afraid of danger. Probably the most dangerous part is that there's a test you have to take where you're basically judged by the Shadow Realm about how well you know yourself, and if you fail... well, you can die. But it's fine! I passed. After that, it's really only limited by your own energy."

"Yyeah, but there's a difference between flying around fighting supervillains, and messing around with the d..." she stops short.

"WHAT?"

Volume, Marinette, honey. VOLUME.

Pepper couldn't help but dissolve into laughter; Marinette's reaction was just too funny.

"Yeah, okay, that part isn't so safe," she allowed, stifling more giggles. After a few seconds, she managed to get her breathing under control and calmed down to something more serious. "It wasn't fun. It was... probably the hardest thing I've ever done, but it was also one of the most important. There's something really incredible about knowing who you are, and actually really powerful. And I wasn't alone, and I didn't go into it, like, totally blind. Really, it's fine, I promise."

Marinette didn't think she appreciated the laughing in the face of her concern! ... well okay she could definitely understand why Pepper laughed. Her reaction was kind of over the top. "....I hope you're right, Pepper." She sounds a little -doubtful- but Pepper's a big girl! She'd just be there to help out hopefully, if things went sideways.

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Insert Clever Subject Here : Open Post

1-ish; lmk if this works

Perfect :3

huzzah!

:D

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/bites html also

XDD

We'll teach it who's boss

It'll regret ever messing with the PEPPERNETTE ALLIANCE!

have I mentioned that you are fabulous?

Aww, I thought I was pretty miraculous, myself XD (bricked)

no bricking, unbrick, you are perf

Oooookaaaaaaaaaay. (debricks herself) <3

yes good

:3

no u are never allowed to leave u are too precious

N.. NEVER? But... but...I have to feed my cat D:

"WHAT?"

an exception can be made for our benevolent feline overlords

Wise decision :D