billionaires | ✌💘 acatalepsy contact 🎉♩

[ Pepper hates this. God, how she hates this. She doesn't think she's ever been more frazzled and out of place ever before in her life as she is now, stranded onboard this hulk of a derelict spaceship. She has a whole new understanding of Tony's anxiety and fobias now, that's for sure. On top of the fact that she's absolutely useless in this setting, possessing no special skill or talent to help repair the ship nor explore its bowels, Pepper feels particularly crotchety. She hates these jumpsuits, hates the constant thirst and absolutely despises feeling so filthy with no access to toiletries, clean clothes nor water in such quantities as to allow a decent shower. She's braided her hair tightly in effort to keep it from going greasy so quickly with that fact in mind.

Shivering, Pepper suppresses the urge to wrap her arms around herself for warmth-- it's so cold in space she's freezing all the time. Instead, she sorts through the pile of supplies she's collected from the mess hall, from the common pools of random stuff that people have been finding from the nooks and crannies of the ship. Every woman and man for themselves, Pepper's decided; fuck Astoria's intentions. It's not like they were the only ones hoarding items for later use, who's to say how long they were stuck here? (Not long, she fervently hopes.) ]

Here, [ she says, handing Tony a bar of soap and... a switchblade. The most romantic of all gifts, clearly!! She brushes her bangs from her eyes and tries to ignore her oily forehead -- what she wouldn't give for a face cleanser! -- returning to the task of sorting through the things she's piled onto one of the pod beds in their room. At least these terrible jumpsuits have big pockets for carrying quite a few items in them. This is something productive she can do, at least, trying not to pay attention to the fact that she's effectively been demoted from a CEO to a scavenger, basically. ]

I got some first aid supplies, bandages and antiseptic... and these are-- [ she picks one a few of the silver packages and studies it closely. ] dried fruit, I think. It's not much, but still nicer than that goo.

[ she really will adapt in any scenario and though he's been busy working on the electricity issue with zari, he still feels like pepper is coping much better than himself. her veritable mountain of trash is quite impressive as well, and he takes the items on offer like they're the best things he's ever seen. ]

Have I told you how beautiful you look today?

[ Pepper huffs, a sound caught between a laugh and a scoff. With her oily, makeup-free face, hair in a tight french braid and wearing a drab jumpsuit that's a size too big on her, she feels anything but beautiful. The only flawless thing about her is the shiny, burgundy nail polish on her fingers, still miraculously unchipped through her misadventures.

But his words still screw her lips up into a fond smirk in spite of herself, a warm sparkle in her eyes even though she does her best to give him the look. ]

No, because that would make you a liar.

Come on, when have I ever lied to you.

[ tony, you literally do it all the time. he rushes to tack on: ]

You really are gorgeous. [ to his credit it's obvious he believes it ]

[ She arches a brow and purses her lips against another smirk of amusement. Does he really want her to answer that.... ]

Well. Thank you. [ Now she has to look away, abashed by that earnestness even after all these years. ]

I guess you're pretty cute, yourself.

[ She guesses!! Now who's the liar. ]

[ he rolls his eyes good-naturedly. he knows he looks like hell. he hasn't eaten or slept, but these fruits look pretty good. he's psyched about the jumpsuits himself, pocketing the knife and throwing the soap on his bunk for later while he goes for the foil packet to see if there's any information on it. ]

Still way out of your league, so I guess it's all relative. [ tony opens the bag and takes a bite of freeze-dried... whatever it is. strawberry maybe? he makes a little face, but then offers it to pepper to try for herself. ] ...You holding up okay?

[ Normally, she would nag him about both of those things. Here, however? Well... let's say she can well understand why he hasn't done (or can't) either, when even she has similar troubles. Pepper smiles wanly at the offering, passing anything that even distantly resembles a strawberry because all she needs is an allergic reaction on top of everything. She extracts a yellowish blob out of the packet that she hopes is an apricot or something like it. ]

Okay is relative, I think. [ An echo of his earlier comeback, garnering a vague lift of the corner of her mouth for a second before she takes a cautious nibble out of the dried fruit. ] I guess it could be worse, but this is still so...

[ She trails off, shaking her head and sighing. A beat passes and she goes on, an addition that could've sufficed as a response to the question as is; ] I don't know.

[ he sighs big, handing her the packet as he immediately loses interest in eating. even this brief interlude has him thinking he should be getting back to work. ]

That's super fair. This place sucks even worse than Under the Sea world.

I think if anyone's entitled to think that, it's you.

[ As if reading his thoughts, she swallows the rest of the pseudo-apricot and gently grabs his hand, proffering the opened packet he pushed at her in an obvious prompt. ]

Hey. Try-- please? Even a little. [ Little is truly what there's on offer here, so... Okay, maybe there's some nagging left in her after all, but she does think he could use a bit of a boost in his blood sugar levels before he gets back to work. ]

[ he looks down at his mag-boots, thinking about the nightmare that place immortalized for him. should he tell her...? ugh. it takes him a moment to catch on, but then he's taking the packet back and moving to sit down at the little desk assembly that's hooked to the wall. the truth is he has negative energy right now, but it's never stopped him before. ]

I have to tell you some... things you're not gonna like. But I don't know if this is the right time. [ he munches a dried blueberry and looks up at her nervously. ]

[ Oh, well. That's not ominous at all. Pepper swallows a sigh and pushes some of the stuff on the bunk to the side so she can perch on the edge of it, grabbing a fresh fruit packet to tear open. ]

Well... is there really going to be a right time to tell me something like that? [ She gives him a look with a tiny shrug of one shoulder. The choice is his, but he may as well while they have a moment to themselves. ]

...No. Probably not.

[ tony admits, still looking uneasy. ]

Astoria reached out to Cap when we came back from Fishtopia. She said... well, a lot of stuff. But the gist is that she's Voldemort and we're all carrying around a stupid piece of her stupid magic inside us, only we didn't even get a cool scar.

[ Pepper sits still, fingers pausing their attempt to tear open the packet in her hands as she processes the news. ]

What... [ Shaking her head slightly and swallowing, she tries again. ] What does that mean, exactly?

I think it means - we're her insurance policy.

[ he grimaces, really hating the whole thing. but she needs the truth as much as he and steve do. ]

I'm starting over, square one. The only people I trust are in this room. [ which incidentally... extends to miles. he is a superkid, his true weakness. ]

✌💘 acatalepsy contact 🎉♩

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject