application ] [ paradisa
PERSONAL
NAME: Christina
PERSONAL JOURNAL:
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lollobrigidaEMAIL: GMAIL: lollobrigida
AIM: onlysayinghello
WIKI NAME: lollobrigida
CURRENT CHARACTERS:
Faith Lehane (BtVS/Ats)
Harmony Kendall (BtVS/Ats)
Jo Harvelle (Supernatural)
Oliver Queen (Smallville)
Katherine Pierce (the Vampire Diaries)
CHARACTER
CHARACTER NAME: Virginia "Pepper" Potts
SERIES: Disney's Marvel Cinematic Universe
CANON POINT: Pepper will be arriving from the elevator ride down with Agent Phil Coulson during the beginning of the movie "The Avengers". She'll have just seen the various files that Tony pulled up in regards to the other members of the team that they are bringing in. I'll most likely place her into the elevator in Paradisa for her arrival thread. (see: her 1st person sample)
LOSS: Pepper is losing the ability to be handed things. In canon, Tony doesn't like to be handed things and so people hand them to Pepper and she hands them to Tony. It's a very pass the buck loophole. In Avengers she tells Agent Phil Coulson, "I love to be handed things." Now, whenever someone goes to hand her something, her arms will refuse to lift her hands. The simple gesture of someone handing her something will render her unable to actually take the item from them. They can put it down and she can pick it up, but she can't be handed anything.
ABOUT THE CHARACTER:
"Five."
"Five? Right. Right. You're missing just a couple of digits there."
"The other eight? So I got you for the other eight."
Virginia "Pepper" Potts has always been more than what she shows on the surface. From her early starts as Tony Stark's assitant, to the CEO of Stark Enterprises, all the way up to being Tony's actual partner (even if he really doesn't want to share the credit) -- Pepper is whatever Tony needs her to be. It's her professionalism that enables her to take on those difficult tasks and stay focused despite any emotional attachment that she has to the situation.
Being Tony's assistant had it's trials and tribulations and there is nothing more interesting than being regarded as less than what she is truly worth by those that didn't actually understand her role in Tony's life. Christine Everheart, a one night stand of Tony's, actually tries to be snippish toward Pepper and it's in Pepper's response - "I do anything and everything that Mr. Stark requires, including, occasionally, taking out the trash." - that we're given the first honest view into what is truly the strong woman behind the powerful man.
She is intelligent and capable of running a multi-billion dollar company. Tony, in fact, knew that she was the only person he would trust to actually run his company after his previous business partner screwed him over. Well, technically, his previous business partner tried to blow him up. Okay, he tried to kill him. Either way, she's the one that he's willing to trust. She in turn respects that trust and puts the business, and the future that he's invested in, first.
"You're all I have, too, you know."
Pepper is loyal, but she still allows herself perspective within the situation. In the first Iron Man, when she feels as though Tony is going to be Iron Man until it kills him she steps away. Not because she doesn't believe in the reasons, but because she realizes that her emotions and feelings for Tony will compromise any judgments she might be able to make on his behalf. She knows that her own personal feelings will make it extremely difficult to just watch him continually throw himself at problem after problem and that it has a high probability of killing him.
When Tony explains to her what he's doing and actually has an honest moment with her, she pushes things aside and does what Tony needs her to do. By him dropping all of those guards around her, she allows herself to do the same and admits that he's all she has too. It's a genuine moment between the two of them that is based in an extremely serious situation. With her dedication proven, Pepper goes to Stark Industries, risks being caught, and copies the information that Tony requests. It's in her quick exit plan that she makes the call to align her (and Tony by default) with S.H.I.E.L.D. by giving any and all information she gathered to Agent Phil Coulson. It's in making those quick judgments that she actually finds a way to put Tony's safety first once again.
She's capable of putting her foot down and trying to get through to Tony in a way that most people wouldn't try and even fewer would succeed. However, even Pepper Potts has limits and when Tony is pushing his survival rate with the increasing poison in his blood, his desire to push the envelope outweighs his willingness to listen to reason.
She's incredibly patient and tolerant of a lot of things that would insult most people with thinner skin. Pepper has built up this ability to simply nod and dismiss most of the remarks that Tony makes. She is willing to call him on poor choices, even to the point of argument - such as him donating their art collection to the Boy Scouts of America.
Regardless of her ability to be the cool, confident, strong woman behind the success of Stark Enterprises Pepper also has moments of vulnerability. She's very fond of Tony and when things get too risky or there are moments that the truth of how very serious things are getting/can get Pepper's confidence slips away and she devolves into a very rambling and nervous girl. Her speech pattern shifts so that she can get every single point and question out in rapid fire. It gives a slight tease into the woman she probably was before she became this confident "does whatever Tony needs without question" woman. Who she is presently has definitely been shaped around her job and what it calls upon her to do. Moments when she can slip and have those rambling moments are rare, but expose a level of concern that help make her the right person to take care of Tony.
While she is capable of running the business, the truth is that the job of being CEO is a trying one and it pushes her to a head with Tony. She flat out tells him that she spend most of her time putting out fires and despite actually being capable of doing the job, the set-up that she was left with is not the best situation. She does what she has to though and keeps the company running.
Right alongside all of the professional courtesy and ability to run a business (even though she does eventually resign from it) is a softer side to Pepper that endears her to Tony. It's her quiet ability to try and protect him, which is ironic since he built a suit to protect himself, and her willingness to stand beside him and stay with him and all of his crazy ideas/projects.
Eventually, the job itself and the pride she has in being able to do what Tony needs her to do falls short of her ability to keep up with everything that Tony does. He's front and center as Iron Man and it puts him into situations that she knows she can't control. He's someone she cares about and having all of the responsibility of taking care of him, caring for him, and running the company is too much for her to take and she resigns. In the beginning of the Avengers, we see that in the time between the two films she's become a much more relaxed person. There is a partnership between her and Tony. She wears cut-off jean shorts and loose tops and the fact that she is walking around him barefoot speaks volumes (in my opinion) of just how much more relaxed she is around him.
She has been there for him in ways that no one else has and her grace, beauty, and intelligence did win him over in the end. She has the ability to banter right along with him. She looks stunning in a dress with a low back. She's full of wit and brilliant ideas and she definitely can hold her own alongside Iron Man.
Also, she calls Agent Coulson by his first name. It's Phil.
ABILITIES:
→ extensive knowledge in art
→ well-versed in alcohol
→ knows how to keep Tony on time
→ amazing skills in business management
→ fully capable of doing whatever Tony needs her to do
She is also pretty skilled when it comes to being able to operate most of the tech that Tony develops. That's not to say she can build things, but she knows how to make them work and probably knows why they do work. She can follow instruction and is a fast learner, so I'm certain that if Tony explains something to her, she grasps it and retains that knowledge. She's able to overload the reactor in Iron Man and she's able to help bring the Stark Tower online in the beginning of the film.
She's a smarty Bacardi.
THIRD-PERSON WRITING SAMPLE:
Planes take too long. It's not even true, but as she sits in the over-sized seat of the private jet, she's thinking about how slow everything seems to move. Distractions aren't nearly enough and the fact that she has one missed call on her phone doesn't make anything seem any better. The flight attendant keeps coming by and she keeps offering her something to drink, but Pepper waves her off each time. A simple look of apology, but dismissive regardless.
He'll call back.
She believes it as her stomach slowly becomes a bigger bundle of nerves. God, why did he have to be so stupid? No, it isn't stupid -- it's reckless, but she's not even sure she can qualify it as reckless anymore. He's doing the right thing, he's doing a good thing, but in these moments she can't help but be selfish. Her hand rests across the belt that's low and tight to her waist. Manicured nails tap absently against the metal clasp. Maybe she should get a drink. Maybe that will give her something to do.
Glancing around, she tries to locate that overly friendly flight attendant, but of course now she can't seem to track her down at all. She could get up and get something herself, she knows where everything is, but she's not really sure she can trust her own movements right now. Sitting is better. Waiting is better.
It's just too slow.
He'll call back and he'll have some smart-ass remark about how she shouldn't have doubted him. Some big ego-stroking comment about saving the world. That's just what he'd focus on. Not that he's safe, not that he's alive, but that he saved the world.
It'll be the best thing she's heard all day.
FIRST-PERSON JOURNAL SAMPLE:
[Pepper has too many things on her mind, which leads to rambling. She'd apologize to the castle, but she's not even certain that anyone is listening.] This shouldn't be so difficult to accept, but maybe it's the thought that I've been here before -- that somewhere there are remnants of my words, of my thoughts, just jotted down somewhere for anyone to just happen upon that doesn't seem secure. [She taps the pen, the pen she's not using, to the side of the journal.]
Do you even wonder where the words go to? If there's some sort of central ... journal database out there? I mean, you all seem to put some pretty personal things in here.
I'm not entirely sure even I would -- [She lets out an amused breath] but that's the question isn't it? Have I already done this? Have I been through this same conversation with no expectations of an answer? [She stands up and starts to pace across the room.]
Earning trust... shouldn't that come over time? Celebrities get their cellphones hacked and personal pictures published online, but this book is just here for anyone. I'm not even sure why I'm trying to make sense of it, it's magic - right? Pixie dust and never growing up.
Maybe not pixie dust.
I'd be far more comfortable just thinking it's all a dream. [Even as she says it she seems to talk herself out of it.] A very realistic dream that has far too many people living unique lives for my brain to actually uniquely personify them.
Okay, I'm done with the magic book.
[a beat] Oh... it knows my handwriting. Now, that's just unsettling. [She'll shut the journal now.]
BONUS INTRO SCENE CONTENT:
[There's a redhead in the elevator. Barefoot and standing there wondering when ...]
Phil...? [She turns to look at Phil, but he's not there and the floors have definitely been reduced and renumbered. Plus, the elevator has changed and there's a book on the floor.]
Well, that's not right. [She goes to press the button for the lobby. The doors open and - oh. Nope.]
Clearly, something has gone wrong. Tony? [Where is the call box?] Okay, it's funny, but really what's going on? Is this payback for the elevator thing, because you know that wasn't really my fault. [Seriously. Where is the penthouse button on this thing and how did he manage to build an entire floor that looks like a castle without her remembering it?]
INTENT: To harass Paulie's Tony forever and ever. To befriend Lois Lane and compare 'loving a superhero notes'. To add a negotiator to my roster so that I can have someone be willing to allow someone else to go fight, but not have to actually send them to the fight for once. Since, most of my current line-up would go fight...