| Pepper |
 |
| Name: | Virginia Potts |
| Gender: | Female |
| Place of Birth: | Unstated |
| Age: | 35 |
| Aliases: | Pepper |
| Origin: | Human |
| Origin Earth: | 199999 |
| Present Location: | New York City |
| Occupation: | Executive Assistant, Stark Industries |
| Team: | NA |
| Alignment: | Support |
| Significant Other(s): | Unknown |
| Powers and Abilities: | None |
| Portrayed by: | Gwenyth Paltrow |
One could say that Pepper is both curse and blessed with being ridiculously competent. It is a dual edged sword. Her early life was much of what one would expect for a young woman growing up in midtown Manhattan. Her father worked Wall Street and kept their family quite well in money for all of her childhood. Her mother held down the volunteer jobs of the wealthy — PTA, Women's Club, various charity events and cancer walks every year. She taught Pepper it was important to give back to the world for all they'd been lucky to have.
Pepper, however, was far more interested in her father's work. She'd ask about it endlessly. When she was ten, he began to teach her about stocks. They played a little game where she would pick stocks each week from what she'd read in the news papers and her allowance went up and down depending on how well her stocks did. Pepper became *very* good at this game. By the time she was 16, she was able to buy her first car with her 'stock' allowance.
That brilliance was able to secure her a full ride to several universities, though she eventually chose to get her business degree at Northwestern. She needed to get out of New York and see more of the world not under the wing of her family. She excelled in university just as she did secondary school, keeping a 3.8 GPA and several extra-curricular activities.
Undergraduate school rolled straight into graduate school, Pepper having been accepted to Columbia's MBA program. Yes, it brought her straight back home, but it was also the best start her career could hope to have. But she was a proud woman and tired of living at her parent's behest. So, combined with a few loans, she picked up a part time job with Advanced Idea Mechanics while she was finishing her degree so she could afford her own apartment.
Advanced Idea Mechanics was intelligent enough a company to recognize talent when they saw it. The moment Pepper graduated, she was offered a position as an administrative manager with them. While it wasn't exactly business, the pay was right and it gave her a foot into the tech industry. Pepper did her best to handle the somewhat sleezy nature of her boss, Aldrick Killian, but she was constantly seeking a better opportunity.
That opportunity came in the form of Stark Industries. She was offered a Project Management position about two years into her career with better money and better working conditions. She took it with barely any contract negotiation. Little did she realize where it would go. While she began in the business sector, Tony Stark had blown through five personal assistants in a year. Soon, her project to manage became Anthony Stark himself.
Now, over a decade later, Pepper finds herself the CEO of Stark Industries while Tony concentrates on being Secretary of Defense. She's excellent at her job and is running the company into a new golden age.
No one expected she'd last nearly as long as she did, but Pepper was intelligent and adaptable. She knew Tony needed a protector, a mother, an assistant, a secretary and a business manager all in one. So she became all those things. She turned a blind eye to his womanizing ways, just relieved they weren't really directed at her, and helped him keep his life together. Within a year, she became quickly invaluable.
When Stark was kidnapped in Afghanistan, Pepper was beside herself. Publicly, it meant she looked a little worried when she tried to manage press conferences. But her relief went beyond professional when he finally returned. The reactor he'd built for himself was worrisome, but not as worrisome as his insistence that Stark Industries stop manufacturing weapons. She knew the economy and she knew what worth the world saw in him. She wasn't certain she could keep them both afloat. Somehow, though, they made it through and she even began to assist him in small ways with the Arc Reactor in his chest and the strange suit he was developing.
Things only became more complicated as Tony developed the Iron Man armor. Pepper didn't agree at first, but he managed to talk her around to it. Shortly after, she discovered Stane's betrayal of Stark Industries. She slipped the information to Phil Coulson but had little time to do more as Tony shortly after decided to come out to the world as Iron Man. Somehow, he managed to sweet talk the senate into letting him go free and make the armors. Pepper is still surprised about that.
Shortly after, Tony made Pepper his CEO. It was every dream she'd ever had, and yet she couldn't help but think something was wrong. The time that follow was as insane as it was successful. Pepper managed to keep Tony's business together under the threat of Vanko, Hammer, and Extremis, among many others. She was the strong Captain at the helm when everything else was falling apart. Then there was Ultron.
Ultron was the worst, by far. Something broke in Tony with Ultron, and then there was Wanda. The woman could cross universes, could change things. Pepper was watching her world fall apart then… Suddenly, she wasn't there. She was here. A new world. Not CEO. Tony who is so much like her's and yet not. Pepper has been in this universe for about a month, keeping her head down and trying to do all she can to keep Stark Industries together while she learnes a new world.
Keep Stark Industries running. Help support what is left of the Avengers in this world. Keep Tony Stark sane. Keep a happy, competent, strong face for the whole world. Pepper can tell that this world is in complete chaos and the best thing she can do for it is be the calm in the storm. If that means she's holding down a multinational corporation AND a super hero team? That's fine. But it also means she has to pretend to know what she's doing and that she's been here all along. So, Pepper's doing her best to make this universe feel like she belongs while she gives everyone someone strong to lean against. She is the calm port in the storm.
Pepper likes to be everyone's support because she's good at it and Pepper NEEDS to be NEEDED. She doesn't know how to relax. She's motivated by difficult conditions, an impossible boss, and a challenging world. This world couldn't have more of all three, so she's doubly motivated to pull everything together and keep things running. But that motivation comes out of a deep love and loyalty for those people around her who are stronger than she is trying to do GOOD things. She wants to support good in the world, so she does that by being everyone's rock.
While Pepper is immensely competent and great in a crisis, she's also more than a bit anxiety ridden. She worries about EVERYONE and EVERYTHING. She's generally good at taking rough situations, but there have been a few times where she thought she'd have an actual heart attack at the stress Tony puts on her.
To her core, Pepper is loyal to the very end. Whether it's her Tony, or another universe's Tony, the Avengers, Stark Industries, or anyone she's taken into *her* heart, she would do anything for them. She'll work herself to the bone, risk her life and her sanity to make certain they have the rock they need to hold themselves together. And she often has.
While Pepper isn't actually OCD, some might consider her close to that level. She's organized on a level which is almost genius or insane. She can keep far more business plates spinning than most people and she can handle great amounts of pressure with style and grace.
She is a business genius, but her personal life often tends to be a bit of a mess. Pepper is too trusting, too loving, and (perhaps) too much loyal to people who would use her and abuse her. Some say Tony isn't healthy for her. She'd disagree, but she simply can't see the less than healthy parts of their relationship.
Pepper needs a spine of steel when dealing with Tony Stark and many other folks, and she has it. If she's set her mind to something, she will get it done come hell or high water. Some nights, exhausted and half broken, her pure stubborn heart is the only thing that's kept her going.
Part of being the calm port in everyone's storm is being an optimist. Pepper can see the best in people AND the best in situations. She tries to keep everyone's heart up and spirits going through the roughest of times, but it's because she genuinely feels that way!
Pepper controls a truly ridiculous sum of money. Personally, she's quite wealthy, her salary in Stark Industries is in the top 100 of the world for her position. She could make more, but she'd rather reinvest in the company. Also, despite past issues, under her leadership, Stark Industries is doing better than ever. She often makes the final call on all it's stocks, assets, and business model. She commands an untold sum of wealth and that comes with all the power wealth brings. Even if it's just behind the scenes.
While it's not *her* lab, if she really needed, she'd have access to Tony's lab and his technology below. Occasionally, it comes in handy. Especially when Tony is being an idiot.
Never a formal member of the Avengers or SHIELD, Pepper still knows many of their faces quite well. She's been the quiet support in the corner, helping Tony through everything, planning company holiday parties, hosting people when they needed somewhere to go, and being back up for the team when they need it. She holds affection for all of the Avengers and would assist them with anything necessary.
While she is not CEO in this world, Pepper is basically second in command of Stark Industries. She knows everything that happens in the business, holds press conferences, and generally keeps the operation going smoothly. It's a mass amount of power to have in a chaotic world.
An MBA from Columbia and a natural head for business, Pepper knows money makes money — and she has a lot of money. She's taken Stark Industries through the darkest of times and into a more profitable future in one universe, she can do it again. She knows how to make small portfolios work all the way to the massive company she runs. Her business savvy is probably what has got her ahead in life more than anything else.
While Pepper might not be the engineering genius Tony Stark is, she's brilliantly intelligent in many ways. She has self-taught herself most skills and then refined with better training through schooling. While her business savvy is among the top in the world, she's now working on engineering and technical savvy. She has a mind that hungers for knowledge and she'll never stop trying to learn new things.
However, Pepper isn't just a money woman. She's extremely intelligent, as mentioned before, and has put that intelligence towards understanding the company she runs. She learns every single one of Tony's new projects (when he lets her), and has schooled herself in development techniques so she can help him in the lab. She doesn't have his genius, but she can navigate all his projects, both on the market and experimental. It's a part of being his right hand. She also has a high understanding of computers and a fair amount of hacking. She was able to hack into Obidiah's own computer without his notice, even though she didn't know the system.
Pepper's training and understanding is probably now equivalent to that of a nurse new to her profession. She's had to help Tony patch so many wounds. But after she began assisting him in picking things *out of his chest*, she started more formal studies in the human body, first aid, and nursing. It's a side project for her, but it means she can help with anything that doesn't need surgery. Especially if the need to keep things quiet.
While Pepper can't hold her own against any sort of powered hero or villain, she's come to acknowledge that her life is a dangerous one. Therefore, she's begun training in martial arts, using physics to help boost her small size when defending herself. She'll never win a world competition, but she knows self defense and is getting better every week.
For all the money, power and intelligence that Pepper Potts has, she is still just only human. She has no super powers, no extra strength, and nothing to bring her into the realm of those with whom she normally deals. One of these days, it's going to catch up to her, in a dangerous way.
Pepper has always been deathly allergic to strawberries and very carefully avoids them at all costs. She carries an epi pen with her almost always in case there'd be an accidental exposure, but being a life long allergy, she's generally good at steering clear.
Pepper was previously infected with the Extremis Virus. While Tony worked hard and cleared it from her system, it's not clear what the long term effects of it may be, or if it leaves her open to being contaminated with it again. It's given her certain vunerabilities of which she's not yet aware (open for plotting in the future.)
Pepper works so very well with Tony because she doesn't mind being on call 24/7. In truth, she's accustomed to working around the clock. However, it's not always a healthy state of mind. She's literally addicted to her career and helping the man she's stood near for years now. She wouldn't know what to do without them, even if the stress may get to her some day.
It's clear that Tony Stark has more than a few enemies. Most of these enemies are far more powered that Pepper's simple human self. While it might not be publicly known how close they are, it's known that he gave her control of his company and they've been seen at more than a few social functions together. Pepper would be a very easy way to get to Tony and a bit easier to put down than he is. Her relationship with him has made her a target in the past, and it's probably only going to get worse.
Tony has previously said that she's too good for him, and he's probably right. Still, she cares deeply for the man who was her boss and is now her best friend. Sometimes more. She'll always come to his rescue and support, no matter how awful Tony's acted.
While Pepper is not from this world, she's done everything in her power to adapt to it and BECOME the Pepper of this world. She doesn't feel like she can give up the power and trust that people have in someone from their home planet, so she's studied all of Pepper's somewhat public history, has completely stepped back into her shoes, and is doing everything she can to pretend to be from this place. Still, sometimes she slips up. More than that, she misses home and she worries what she left behind.
No one is sure if Pepper is actually from this place or not. She looks and acts like the Pepper Potts the world knew. However, there's a few hints that things have changed. Part of those hints are the fact that she's come back, full time, to being second in command of Stark Industries. Having previously resigned and moved to Chicago, she's left that life behind her and is now doing everything she can to keep the business afloat.
IC Events
Logs tagged with "pepper-potts” or “re:pepper-potts" will appear below automatically. Logs predating December 4th, 2016 are from a previous player.
09 Feb 2017 23:45 (2017-02-05) Not Quite Avengers
11 Oct 2016 19:11 (2016-10-11) How Do U Apologize for Ship Theft?
09 Jun 2016 15:09 (2016-06-09) It's a brand new day
09 Jun 2016 00:21 (2016-06-08) That did not go well
08 Jun 2016 20:16 (2016-06-07) Under 'new' management
Gallery
 |