15682/Pepper's best idea

Pepper's best idea
Date of Scene:	22 August 2023
Location:	Avengers Mansion - Study
Synopsis:	Loki teases Pepper in the Avengers Mansion, while she just wants to hang up some nice art.
Cast of Characters:	Pepper Potts, Loki

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Pepper Potts has posed:
Evening in the Avenger's Mansion. One never truly knows how many people will be about at any given time, and even Pepper can't track them all. It's hard enough to track thew few she //does// have something of a responsibility to. Once they're all tucked in or in a known position, Pepper can do what it is that makes her truly happy.

Even she needs a hobby. It just happens that hers costs a great deal of money on the outlay.

Paintings.

In the Avengers' study, Pepper is dressed down, ready for some cleaning and hanging, strawberry blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail. She has a duster on the side, a bucket and water, and off on the side of one of the overstuffed chairs, a couple of large frames, the pictures obscured by blankets.

Loki has posed:
Then there's a noise, while Pepper is looking around at the hanging locations... the noise of a blanket being pulled back, because curiosity? Well. It's a thing. For SURE. A big thing.

Pepper will turn, no doubt expecting to find one of the Avengers there, some friendly face that would encourage her in her endeavor here with the paintings, maybe even have a laugh...

Though this probably won't immediately be an easy guess on who it is. It's a black-haired man, half of his hair back in half-pony; he's lean and tall, though he's bent a little to examine the first of the paintings, and therefore turned away. Fearlessly, his back to her, which would imply a friend at first.

Most general people don't immediately recognize Loki out of his battle gear finery or Asgard leathers; he's in modern clothes at the moment, and would fit in perfectly with some rich artist or collector browsing the items. Still, if she nears at all to one side -- it's definitely Loki, bemused smirk and all, though he's mostly just looking at the paintings. For the moment...

Pepper Potts has posed:
The door to the study is open, so there'd be no hint of a door opening and closing, giving Pepper a clue that someone entered. She's humming, the duster taken up blindly as she checks a spot that perhaps housekeeping had missed, or ajust a very industrious cobweb spider doing its thing.

Its the shifting of the blankets, the soft *shhhhhu* sound that is made as it's pulled away, that tugs at the farthest point of her attention. Turning slightly, Pepper catches the form of Loki not yet identified sneaking a peek at the paintings. Brown hair.. really, the Avengers are growing, so it might be someone,

Nothing amiss, certainly, as she goes back to checking the walls, "I was going to have this as a surprise, so.." and turning around again, gets a better look.

The duster comes down just halfway to the level of her waist, and she takes a couple of steps towards..

"What.. what.." What is he doing?

Loki has posed:
"I wouldn't ruin a /surprise/," Loki answers. If there was even a tiny module of doubt, dashed now. Loki's got a very particular voice, that is thick with Asgardian arrogance. It's there now, though not in a deeply obnoxious way.

Loki flicks one hand just a little, as if fanning off any small concern about Loki ruining surprises. "Please. I could be god of secrets. That's what lies /are/, anyway: obfuscation of secrets." And yes, he's still looking through the paintings. He's doing it with an ease, but care-- spellcaster's hands are good at handling fragile things, and the weight doesn't bother an Asgardian.

"Smells like Stark money here." The pricey art; Loki can tell...

Pepper Potts has posed:
Pepper absolutely knows that voice; the rich tenor that holds such.. preciseness, bearing and absolutely, arrogance.

"What are you doing here?" She's finally finding her voice, and she keeps the dustmop in front of her. "Well, don't obfuscate the paintings.." That'd be a travesty, and if they went missing? Pepper herself would go after them.

As for the paintings themselves? Impressionist art. Very expensive, and very original, purchased via Sotheby's, with the provenance tucked away in a notebook on top of one of the coffee tables. Definitely smells like money.

"Stark investment." Hmmph!

Loki has posed:
"I'm looking at paintings. Come on, use your eyes," Loki teases her lightly when she asks what he's up to. Silly thing. He's not mocking /exactly/ but it's right on the line. Loki doesn't need to get challenged every single moment. He does, of course, snark back.

"This is... what, Paris, I think," Loki comments, pulling out the second painting with no qualms about just inviting himself to help himself.

"A little more /gray/ than I remember of that area," Loki comments of it. It's a beautiful, but gray, stone bridge, a landscape piece. He slides his eyes to Pepper, and offers it to her. "Hang this one first." It's more than a suggestion. However, there's an amusement there - like someone about to watch her open a special gift.

On Loki, though, that little smile could be some breed of terrifying.

Pepper Potts has posed:
Pepper exhales in an audible breath, more unaware that she was holding it than as a response to his words. The dustmop drops slightly, her head holding straight. There's no welcoming smile, but she's not running to call for anyone either. After all, JARVIS must know, right?

"Paris," she acknowledges. "For some reason, it's painted rather grey in a few works." Okay, conversational. That works, right?

It's when Loki looks at her, those green eyes in her direction that she pauses, almost freezes like a mouse in front of a cat before she lowers her duster to take hold of the painting. "I didn't have a plan for which to hang first," so, there's no reason NOT to take it.

"Thank you." Pepper's words are soft, a little hesitant, and reaching out for the framed piece, she'll take a step back once again when in possession of it.

"I know you're not here to help me hang pictures," Pepper begins again. "They must know you're here because the alarms aren't going off." She's following the logic down the road, as it were. "Visiting Thor?"

Loki has posed:
"What's the plan? Were you thinking to dust me?" Loki questions when she finally relents to lower the duster. Loki seems to just... not mind, or let it go. He strides sort of past her when she accepts the painting from his hand, surveying the room like an interior designer. A bored one - he doesn't REALLY care about this room at all.

"Mmmmm," Loki answers to Pepper's soft, hesitating thank-you. It's a proper godly response.

"They do know, yes. Thor? No." Pepper's figured it OUT. And then he stands there, relaxed, and puts ... that cool emerald stare on her. Waiting for her to hang the painting, it appears.

No pressure.

Pepper Potts has posed:
The dustmop is set to the side, and when Loki questions her, Pepper actually chuffs a soft breath in her throat; an unbidden chuckle, really. "Improvise." After all, she's no fighter and she's no Avenger. She is truly 'just' a person, though she has contacts. That's her power!

The painting is heavy; the frame is a deep hardwood, and she has to take it by both hands now. It's not too unwieldy, though, and Pepper is able to walk it to the wall. "You are getting along, right? Or.." are they in the middle of another sibling battle? "It's always so much easier when you are." For Earth, anyway.

Pepper sets the painting down and twists around to search for the level. She's got her heights worked out (this one doesn't require a ladder to put up)..

Loki has posed:
"Or will he come in here and put me through a wall? Let's hope not," Loki dryly comments. He watches her position it, think about it, look for her level.

"Yeah, I don't have the patience for that." And abruptly, a spell is cast. Green curves of fingers lift the painting and set it in place. It's probably level. She can check it later. It sticks to the wall, right there, where wanted, with a dull sound. Loki sashsays over to it, and .... abruptly reaches INTO it, onto the small table depicted in the bottom left of the painting, and steals the warm cup of coffee directly out of the painting. Don't worry, there's another cup. Or maybe he just created one, and there was always just one there. "Ehhh. Too much sugar," he says, after looking at it. Loki moves past her, pushing the coffee cup into her hands, clearly discarded and uninterested in it. He's gotten bored, it seems.

Though if Pepper does try to return the coffee into the painting ....she'll find she's able to do so. As if it were an opening into some other distant world.

Pepper Potts has posed:
"Not through these paintings."

Let's hope not. The paintings!

Now Pepper's looking to balance it, making sure that it's level and with the tool, she's lifting- and magic happens under her hands. A startled jump back is taken, and Pepper is trying to maintain her balance. Pepper puts a hand out, and when Loki announces his boredom, she's looking at him, watching him as he reaches into the painting.

"Don't.." touch it. And there is the coffee cup. With the original coffee cup still in the painting. So.. is it.. which is it..

Pepper is absolutely confused, and stares at her hands, now holding a carm cup of coffee. Perplexed.

"What do I.."

Put it back? Is that what.. and gingerly lifting the cup back up into place, there's a decided pull for it as if, yes, opening up that other dimension. Standing there, now empty handed, Pepper is staring at the painting, a spooked look on her face as a distant memory flickers behind her eyes. Stuck in another dimension in the Mansion.

"Please don't do that again," comes softly once more.

Loki has posed:
Loki didn't anticipate this eerie reaction. He appraises her a little bit, and seems to... take pity on the situation. He snaps his fingers (for show, it has nothing to do with that, more that he stops powering the illusion and manifestation pairing he was doing), and it all neatly flicks back into 'reality'.

He doesn't apologize, but he doesn't make fun of her at her expense either. He just resets it, and then watches her, with a penetrating look, arms folded.

Pepper Potts has posed:
The breath once again held is released, and those shoulders relax. While she may now know exactly what it was he did, she's got the feeling that that little painting 'door' via the coffee cup is closed. Leaning on one of the bookshelves (It is the study, after all!), Pepper lifts green eyes to Loki.

She looks a little embarrassed, and opens her mouth to try and explain.. and closes it again. A breath is drawn again, and she prefaces it with, "Thank you. I.. I experienced a different dimension in this Mansion, and opening it was a little scary." Yes, she knows and understands parallel dimensions!

"Now.. I really should hang the others. I have to get home soon."

Loki has posed:
Loki looks around. "Mmm, yes. There's some of that here, I think," he comments, in a curious, but unconcerned way. "Well. Hardly a problem, now that I'm here to fix dimensional gates." Loki's bragging. Absolutely he is. But it's not working /against/ her, so maybe that's not as bad?

..."Well, I did one for you. You can handle the rest, no doubt," Loki agrees, assigning her to ... her own task, it appears. "Though I may add my own. Perhaps to a different room." With that... Loki /fades out/ while walking away, clearly off to find a proper place to hang some other painting.

Maybe they'll find it later. If it's not invisible....