12957/After the shopping is done...

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After the shopping is done...
Date of Scene: 03 October 2022
Location: Stark Tower: Penthouse
Synopsis: Pepper and Janet shop for Halloween decor and retire to the Penthouse to chat and have dinner.
Cast of Characters: Pepper Potts, Janet van Dyne




Pepper Potts has posed:
It's the true start to the 'season', the moment October First hits. While hints of Halloween has hit the stores before school even went back into session, the spooks, the ghosts and goblins have truly come into their own. This change of season brings with it other challenges, and that is decoration.

For some, it's 'go big or go home'. There aren't many bigger, therefore, than Stark Industries, with its reach into the sky giving the Empire State Building a run for its money.

Shopping. There is a great deal to be said about online, but there is simply something about actually going to the stores, the markets, and, of course, it all has to be brought home again. (Poor Happy. Up and down the elevators.)

Pepper is crossing the expansive living room, stopping only to pull her heels off and let her hair down. As she pads now, heels in hand, she's looking back, a brightness in those green eyes that are from a day well spent.

"I'm ready for Milan in the spring. I was hoping at some point you could actually try and move at least one show to the tropics? Perhaps a nice Carribbean island?" She's joking, mostly, though she's more than willing to underwrite such a venture.

Some of the purchases are already inside, piled up to the side of the couches. Blacks and oranges are intermingled with ghosts and skeletons. On the dinner table, a spot set aside in a 'nook', with bar and kitchenette, is dinner. Looks like the chef stayed in this evening, with the fare of roast duck with shoestring potatoes that are woven in a pattern, lying atop the browned fowl. Green beans (haricots verts) are set to the side, and there is a setting for two.

Janet van Dyne has posed:
Janet would die before going barefoot. Besides, her kicky, strapped heels go with the bright red patent leather belt she's wearing over a hip-hugging, above-the-knee black skirt. It's paired with a black bolero cloth overshirt and a blouse precisely the color of fresh snow.

"I could call Richard Branson, ask if he'd lend me his island," Janet suggests, quiet seriously. "He owes me a favor." Her own things have been dropped off with her driver to be delivered to her home, so she has nothing she has to sport except for a small bag of select goodies and her fire-red clutch.

She does set aside her sunglasses and broad-rimmed black hat, looking around the room at the decorations that have been put up. "Wow, Pepper, I never pegged you for a Halloween nerd," she tells her friend. "Is this all just for you and Tony, or are you taking your shot for hosting a Halloween bash this year?"

Pepper Potts has posed:
Pepper is in her more 'casual wear', sporting an A-line bundled with sweaters and high-end scarf. She has absolutly no problem with pulling the heels, however, but then again, she's home.

Her lips press together in a tight-lipped smile, and she shrugs lightly. "I live with a big kid. Halloween gives him the chance to tinker with his drones, and a little direction." Pepper can't help a laugh after, "DUM-E loves wearing a wizard's hat."

It's only a beat before, "Come eat. Tony's away, and I don't mind actually eating at the table."

Shaking her head as she does make the cross towards the set table, Pepper twists slightly and adds, "The Malibu house or the one in Dubai is where we throw //those// parties." The word is stressed, and Janet may know exactly what she means by it. Those alcohol-fueled parties where Pepper ends up going to bed early and Tony parties into the night. One of those, actually, haven't happened in over a year... has he changed?

Janet van Dyne has posed:
Janet follows along to the table; out of habit, she sits on Pepper's right after the hostess has claimed a chair. "Mm, your monkey, your circus," she tells Pepper, and flickers a sly grin at her friend's fair features.

"We could combine forces this year," she suggests. "I'm having my usual bash at the Museum of Modern Art. Don't have a theme in mind yet, but it'll come to me, it always does," she reassures Pepper.

One foot tucks behind the other under the table and both move to the side, out from under Janet's seat. "Do a joint JVD-Stark thing, see how much we can roll up for the veteran's charities? That was always Ste--" she breaks off, face twisting in consternation until she can settle some unresolved feelings back down. "...Or you know, the firemen. Or one of those special schools, for the kids with the helmets and wheelchairs," she suggests. "It's a tossup between adorable children and hunky firemen in pool drops, what do you think?"

Pepper Potts has posed:
"The Museum?" The words come out sounding one way, but the underlying meaning is most certainly, 'My museum?'. She does, after all, sit on the board at the MoMA. As a representative of the Maria Stark Foundation, of course. It's one of her joys in life; curating collections of art. Pepper considers a theme, and she observes, "We do have a Renaissance exhibit coming soon. Do something of a Masque?" It's an idea, and as she sits, she's attentive to her friend. "I'd love to be part."

Once seated, the duck falls away with its slices hidden until touched. The potatoes are maneuvered, and wine is poured.

Pepper's head tilts ever so slightly in the slip, and a slightly sympathetic smile creases her lips, "How are you, by the way? And, I think hunky firemen are always the way to go. We've done a great deal this year for housing and food for Mutant Town, for some of the other areas, and the surrounding schools. We've not even come close to supporting our infrastructure." Though, she'd asked Tony about offering up some of the Stark green tech to some of the city's buildings.

"Definitely hunky firemen, though."

Janet van Dyne has posed:
" 'Your' Museum, yes," Janet echoes, drawing the word out for comical emphasis. She seems a little susprised to have Pepper actually serving up the meal; she offers to help with the wine, at least, once she realizes that the staff isn't going to come boiling out of the walls to come assist.

"And totally, a masquerade party," Janet agrees with Pepper. Since it's informal dining she relaxes her posture a bit, serves herself a few sides, and digs into her meal with a politely restrained hunger. Janet does need to eat quite a bit more than her narrow frame would suggest.

"Me, I'm fine," she adds after a few morsels of food. "Doing -great-," she says with too much enthusiasm to be convincing. "Trip to Themyscira was absolutely incredible. Saw Peg's new baby. Made some, um..." she tugs her earlobe and looks away, grimacing as if dealing with an itch. It's really to hide a bit of embarassment in her cheekbones. "Made some maybe less-than-brilliant coupling decisions, but I think, y'know I'm rebounding-- that's fair, right? Just trying to throw myself back out there, live life again, etc. etc," she mumbles, and digs into her food with a little too much focus.

Pepper Potts has posed:
Pepper smirks before she lets out a genuine laugh. "I can't help it." She has her pet projects, and Janet knows it. Those organizations that she supports, she's fiercely loyal to. After all, it's completely different than the life and work that she does for Stark Industries, and a little bit of art, a little bit of creative culture never goes amiss. At least in her eyes. It's a serious hobby for her, and at this point, her curated works just for Stark Industries is well into the multi-millions.

The wine is therefore done by Janet, and she sets her glass a touch closer; a quick indication that she would love some, thank you! No servants to set out the portions, but with the pouring of the wine, DUM-E rolls out with a towel across his arm, and a little bowtie wrapped about his mid-section. The *whrrrrr* of his treads across the floor is quiet, but still present. Once the wine is poured, the little three-fingered 'hand' reaches for it to set it into a pail of ice.

"Thank you Dummy," Pepper does actually talk to the robots and the drones. Never know, after all!

"Masquerade. Big dresses, lots of lace." The fork and knife are in hand, and she eats slowly as she considers it, picturing it all in her head. "A small string orchestra. We can give Renaissance dance lessons beforehand?" She wants at least one 'court' dance! "It would look marvelous." It's exhaled, and those green eyes glitter with the thought. It's a different world, the world of dance and courtiers. Pepper is a romantic?

Those same emerald eyes narrow as Janet goes through her dance of 'I'm fine', and as it finally ends with regrets, Pepper offers her friend a supportive smile, and words to match. "We've all had those moments of 'what was I thinking?'. As long as you know and understand, and they know that if they do anything to hurt you, they'll get a full force coming down on top of them?" Fiercely protective, remember? She nods once, "Firemen. See what they can do to help you with that fire." The sly grin rises at the end of it, and she finishes, "Not a bad idea, really."

Janet van Dyne has posed:
Janet sits up, blinking. "Can-- is there someone recording this? I want to get that on tape," she calls to the drones, fork jabbing the air vaguely in Pepper's direction. "-Pepper- said that," she announces to apparently no audience whatsoever, and she just shakes her head at Pepper and clucks her tongue once in consternation.

"I'm not-- look, it's not like all that, anyway, it was--" Janet closes her eyes and heaves a breath, then looks at Pepper. "It was Lois, ok?" she confesses in a low voice. She sounds almost... /embarassed/, a word one doesn't normally associate with Janet. "We got blitzed at her birthday party and made out a little, it wasn't a big deal, then we got to Themyscira the same week, and... drank a bunch of their wine, and ... kinda made out a lot more," she mumbles into her food, "and then--" she falls silent, describing 'and so on' with a gesture of her fork. Yadda, yadda, yadda...

Pepper Potts has posed:
Pepper laughs again, the sound amused, and she shakes her head theatrically ruefully. "I have friends in the Tower. JARVIS and HOMER will only record what I ask." After all, there is a great deal that happens in this Penthouse that shouldn't ever see the light of day.

For effect, a close clipped English voice appears from everywhere and nowhere responds, "Ms Potts has a standing order not-.."

"Okay, Jarvis.." comes interrupting the oh-so-helpful butler AI.

"Yes, ma'am."

With the brief exchange done, Pepper's able to turn her full attention back, and with //that// news? Brows rise, disappearing into that strawberry blonde hairline of hers. "Oh, you don't mean.." Oh.. oh dear. "It's not serious, is it? Or.." Pepper exhales in a breath and sets her fork down, reaching instead for the wine. As she does so, DUM-E turns deliberately to 'look' at Janet, then turns his optics back to Pepper..

Janet van Dyne has posed:
"No, it's not--" Janet half groans, half sighs, and drops her fork with a clatter to beseech the ceiling for intercession. "It's not THAT, god," she mutters, and gives Pepper a level look. "I figured out where I stand on the Kinsey scale when I was fourteen, trust me. It's just..." she brackets her plate with her hands as if trying to seize some imaginary physical object to describe her situation. "You know I don't have a lot of *friends* friends. You and Lois, Natasha, Peggy, y'know, the--"

She looks at DUM-E staring at her, and gives the drone a look that has sent many a junior designer scurrying for cover. "Can I help you with something?" she asks of the unit with an acid tone.

When DUM-E looks away, she rolls her eyes and focuses back on Pepper. "I just feel like shit because I wanted to just, like, burn off some of all of this, this BS," she says, gesturing at herself. "And I know she was just trying to *help*. I'm not even saying she didn't. I'm just... I /feel bad/ because like, if I *was* ever going to hook up with Lois, I didn't want it to just be, like a..." her shoulders crumble, and Janet pushes her plate out of the way so she can *thud* her forehead into the table. "a pity lay," she says, voice muffled. "Christ, I'm pathetic."

Pepper Potts has posed:
Pepper is listening; it's one thing that she's very good at. She happens to be an expert in the listening to ramblings as a mind attempts to make sense of things, when spoken out loud. The wine glass is cradled in her hand, though not witout it having some of its contents first. She nods slowly, deliberately. "You have some very devoted friends," she prompts.

"Well, is Lois giving you a difficult t-.."

*thud*

"Janet," Pepper begins again. "Don't.. don't think that. Janet, please. I understand, I do. But I'm sure it wasn't anything like that. You needed physical contact. A touch of a person, and the belief that you are worth something to //someone//." She smiles, the gesture a touch tight as her own memories sneak back towards the front of her brain. The glass is set aside, and Pepper reaches across the small divide to lay a hand on her friend's arm. "As long as you're okay after."

Janet van Dyne has posed:
Janet's head rests on her forearms, and doesn't budge when Pepper touches her tricep. "Pepper I'm almost thirty, just out of a four-year relationship, up to my *ears* in my own shit, and despite everything I have going on--" she sits up, eyes a little bleary, and focuses on Pepper again. "--I made a really big gamble with one of the few necessities in life I absolutely *can not* go out and replace with a credit card."

Janet rests her temple on her arms, looking at Pepper's face, then frowns. "Hey." She sits up again, brow furrowed, and gestures at Pepper again. "What's this, with the face you're making. You look like you just bit into a lemon. Are YOU okay?" she asks, eyes flaring slightly in concern.

Pepper Potts has posed:
"And, have you spoken to her since?" Pepper isn't certain of the answer, but it doesn't sound as if it's leading to a confession that Lois hates her and never wants to talk to her again? All this is recriminations and, dare she think it, self-doubt creeping in. Truly //feeling// is not easy. When the cavalier has to be tossed aside, and all is revealed?

Not easy.

Brows rise again as Janet shifts, and fixes her with her own question. Pepper shakes her head, a hand lifting to wave the thought away. "Nothing. Just a few things you said brought up some past memories. It's fine, though. It's all gone and over with." No doubt that rocky road that is named Tony Stark. "I do understand, though. I do. If you ever, EVER, need an ear, you know you have my complete attention. I would be more than happy to be your wingman should you need me."

Janet van Dyne has posed:
Janet eyenarrows at Pepper, the flops an arm over to offer a reassuring (and apologetic) finger-squeeze. "Thanks, hon. And, y'know, vise-versa," she reassures the redhead. "If you ever want the world's worst sounding board, anyway. My theraputic techniques don't run much deeper than getting you too blitzed to care about anything."

She slides her elbows up to force her body to rise, and hooks fork and plate over so she can continue her meal. "And belatedly, yes, me 'n' Lois, we're cool," she assures Pepper. "I just had to... I'unno, tell -someone-," she confesses. "If you ever think I'm really in a tailspin, you'd tell me. Right?"

Pepper Potts has posed:
Pepper smiles and squeezes her fingers upon her friend's arm before she retrieves it to pull her plate back. "I'll remember that," is offered with a bemused tone. "I'll pass on the blind drunk, though. I'm sure if I need you, we'll think of something."

The assurances give Pepper a little more peace of mind, and she nods once in acknowledgment. "Good. And if I ever see you in a tailspin, we are going //somewhere//. Monaco, maybe." The sly smile returns before adding, "Or perhaps your friend Richard Branson's island."

Janet van Dyne has posed:
"God, no, twist my arm," Janet mumbles between bites of food. She rolls her eyes in a feigned exasperation, but it quickly turns to an amused grin for Pepper's aside. "Monaco would be nice. I haven't been back there in, uh... a year or two?" she hazards. "I usually stay in La Meridien, it's kind of nice to be away from the city. But," she allows, "I imagine you and Tony go for the Grand Prixe?" she hazards. "Probably better to stay at the Fairmont, it's closer."

She finishes her food with a few neat passes and politely moves the plate to the side so she can collect her wine glass and rest her elbows on the table for more comfortable conversation. "God, it just occurred to me," she says with a sudden amusement. "When we first met. Like four years ago, now? I was still married to Hank, you were charging around after Tony, trying to keep his feet grounded. Seems like it was so much longer ago."

Pepper Potts has posed:
Pepper nods her assent, "Yes, we usually get that suite of rooms. One for Rhodey," and she ticks off, "One for me, one for Happy, and a living area with televisions with CCTV." A grin follows quickly after, "It's been a little while. Tony hasn't gone for the gambling, drinking parties in a while." The fact that Tony isn't living up to the rich, womanizing, drinking playboy image he so (not) carefully crafted over the years may give hint as to how the couple is doing.

The plate is finished, complete with the green beans, and she finally shifts the plate over to retake her glass of wine. A fond, reminiscent smile creases her face, and she adds, "Four years. You and Hank, me and my very overworked self." A self-deprecating laugh sounds, and the redhead shakes her head. "It was hard, watching him self-destruct. He was getting so deep, and no sane word was going to pull him out." It was very hard for her.

"How much things have changed." Reaching out with a bare foot, she nudges Janet's leg. "We looked to you as a stable influence. You and Steve back then. Now?" Pepper cants her head, and there's a warm, fond expression on her face. "I wouldn't want you any other way than you."

Janet van Dyne has posed:
Janet grins at Pepper and bumps her foot back affectionately, and she can't hold back a bell-like laugh. "Christ, -me- as a stabilizing influence. That's how desperate we were," she snickers. She composes herself a little theatrically and gestures through the air. "I mean- don't get me wrong, I take full credit for it. Including passing on Hank's pitch of 'The Science Brigade'," she says with droll amusement.

"And sic'ing St- Steve," she stumbles, "on the nerds once in a while when they were at each other's throats." She downs a large gulp of her wine.

"I was all of twenty-two years old and telling these grown-ass men that either they were going to behave like adults or I'd kick them off the team. I mean, for fuck's sake--" she leans towards Pepper's seat for emphasis. "Hank is *still* salty about the doughnut incident."

Pepper Potts has posed:
Another laugh escapes, and Pepper nods her head, the amused noises still sounding. "I mean, let's face it. Tony did //not// have the healthiest of role models." He was sent to boarding schools, after all. "I still wish Peggy was in his life a little more," she murmurs, though it's more an afterthought. "Maybe it'd do him some good."

Still! "He was priceless going after them. I tried so hard not to laugh when he'd played dumb, making them stop and actually try to //explain// things to him. I knew he was just acting." She'd gotten a quick glance that told her volumes. "And it was better you did it. I wanted to keep my job, though later Tony and I would have our discussions." That usually started, in private, with Tony taking off his shoes and observing that perhaps she wasn't as amused as perhaps he felt she should have been?

"Hank really, really needs toget over it. Tony will always be the one to poke the bear. There's no stopping that."

Janet van Dyne has posed:
Janet's almost falling over with laughter, spluttering helplessly with a hand splayed partially over her face. The other keeps the base of her wineglass firmly pinned down, like any good professional party girl. "God, there was a lot of speculation about your 'discussions'," she says, putting air quotes near the words. "'Oh look, Tony's having a fit, Pepper's gonna bring him into his room for a 'discussion','" she quips.

"I never did really figure out when you two actually--" she rings her index fingers into each other, pulls them tight. Oh hey, her glass is empty; she offers Pepper a top-off, then refills her own. A book-club portion, this time. "It was way after that, though, right? I hate to think all my baseless guesses were ruined by you two *actually* having a torrid little liasion," she reproaches her friend.

Pepper Potts has posed:
Laughter is infectious, and Pepper's echoes Janet's own, though she sits back and raises a hand. "Oh no.. he was dating someone else at the time. And it was that other person who'd suggested he run for president." It's all water under the bridge, however; none of this had ever, ever been discussed with anyone. Not even with her own mother.

"Those were actually discussions," read: fights, "and I always went home." No walk of shame, either! "There were times when we didn't speak for days." She leans forward, and her shoulders slump in the memory, "And I hated it. I hated watching him, knowing he could be better."

Again, a ghost of a smile returns, and she stage whispers, "We deliberately did it that way. The tabloids would have had a field day. Not a thing went public until comparitively recently." When papers started noticing that the pair were, well, a pair, and she wasn't a feature in the background retinue. "It was //way// after that," Pepper agrees. "We've only been dating for.. what is it now? Almost two years. He's only used the 'L' word a couple of times, and that started about six months ago?" The smile turns fond, and when the wine is topped off, brows rise again in amused askance. Why not? It's been quite some time before she did indulge. "We're honestly not the stuff of torrid affair stories."

Janet van Dyne has posed:
Janet screws her face up to think, then her eyes go big and round. "Oh godddd, yes, I'm sorry," she apologizes, and pastes her palm across her forehead. "I completely-- yes, that's right." She shakes her head at her own poor recollection.

"See, me an' You-Know-Who, I went the completely other direction with it," she says, urgently trying to move to safer grounds for conversation. "Press releases, papparazzi, all that. Paid that kid Saul Goodberg to get all those great candids and scoop the rest of the vultures. I mean the way I see it, there's gonna be media buzz and speculation *anyway*, right? So, I could hide from it, or capitalize on it. That was right after the IPO for JVD, that extra media coverage bumped my valuation by five points."

Her smile flickers and she looks at her wine glass, takes a big gulp, and sets it back down again. "Say what you will about him, but the man can wear a tuxedo well," she's forced to admit-- and her focus falls to some middle distance beyond the far wall, and she rolls her lower lip between two sharp little canines.

Pepper Potts has posed:
Pepper waves the glass as it is part of her hand, and shakes her head concurrently. "It's fine. It's done, and we really don't ever bring it up. It was.." she pauses before she admits with a single, soft sigh, "..difficult. But,"

Her mood perks again at the retelling of the show that had been put on by Captain America and his lovely lady. "Your PR was in full swing," she agrees easily. "Timing was impeccable, like usual, and I'm sure the IPO did amazing. Your shareholders loved you, and half of American loved you, and the other half probably.. not so much." Pepper absolutely understands that. Even now, they're very private and no one except, well, now Janet, knows that she and Tony has come so far.

"The men do look amazing in tuxes," Pepper admits. "One of my favorite moments is straightening Tony's tie. I think he ties it crookedly on purpose." To look into his dark eyes, they're alone in a room full of people for that second. "It sounds dumb when I say it, though." And, oh look.. another swallow of wine!

Janet van Dyne has posed:
"It does," Janet says, wrinkling her nose with a smile. "But I get it. I guess that makes us both dumb." She s got her elbow propping her head up on the table, knuckles in her temple. "Though I think there's more OCD on my end than on yours," she allows with a smile.

The last of the bottle's poured and Janet's fingertips linger on the rim of her glass, teasing a mellow little tune from the crystal. "Hey, upside this year: I don't have to come up with a couple's costume," she says, trying to sound brighter. "Unless you want something for you and Tony. I could do it all up in red and gold. Or would that be a little too on-the-nose, brand-wise?" she inquires.

Pepper Potts has posed:
"Right. Definitely dumb," is given in the face of Janet's agreement. "Not ever to be repeated." Pepper takes anohter swallow of the wine, and she sits back once more. She does give off another sigh as she pictures Tony in that tux again, though before offering up a smile. "Somehow, I think we'll both survive our stupidity." Somehow.

Another swallow, and Pepper is sitting forward again, "I think it'd be cute. For the Masquerade? I can see it. Gold piping.." and the talk turns to something near and dear to Janet's heart.

Design.