Pepper Marigold is was some describe as a prodigy and others describe as a brat. She has chestnut skin and bright green eyes that shimmer when she’s about to get up to no good, and curly dark red hair that almost always sits up in a perky ponytail, giving her almost a hyper appearance. She has three well-known expressions, even familiar to her high school peers she refuses to interact with, and many wonder where they come from because her mother is such a kind soul: the scowl, the blank and the smirk.

Pepper has strangely sharp ears, giving her the unwelcome nickname of ‘Angry Elf’ but her nose is wide and round, like a hound’s. Some think her nose and ears are what allow her to seemingly have super senses, but she was just born that way. If you ask her about the rumours, she’s likely to tell you to leave in a more colourful manner.

Some people think she dresses darkly in jeans and jackets because she’s trying to appear ‘edgy’ but it’s really so she can move around the night with ease. She wears jeans of comfortable, stretchy fabric and the value of her outfits always lie in a good pair of sneakers on her feet. She’s faster than most and has immense strength in her legs, making her seem like a panther in the night when coupled with her agility. She really would live up to the stereotypical expectations of an Elf if it wasn’t for her aggressive and ungraceful attitude, according to the same peers that gave her the nickname.

Though Pepper is hardly considered to have serious character, she is a no-nonsense young woman. She might be cynical at moments but she doesn’t tolerate ignorance, doesn’t tolerate conceit and most definitely doesn’t tolerate stupidity. Though people regard her as a teen misfit, those who look closely at her wonder if she’s twice as mature as her peers. Some of the younger Marigold family members whisper that it’s because she’s made of two people; which isn’t entirely true but also not entirely false. People mistake Pepper’s singular loyalty as selfishness and her distrust of others as an unfortunate flaw in her character, but she believes otherwise. She’s comfortable in the presence of one person, and that person can not be comforted by many other living souls, and so Pepper behaves as her lifeline to the physical world; that her being the sister she has that never took her first breath. A few of her family members like to say that Pepper absorbed her twin in the womb, spreading the idea that Pepper must be of inherent evil that way, others rebuke this claim and chastise those who whisper it. Pepper doesn’t believe that she harmed her sister but also doesn’t feel blameless, even after all these years, but she continues to carry the soul that didn’t breathe, allowing the one she named ‘Poppy’ to experience the world through her.

There have been plenty of remarks that Pepper is just as her name suggests, bitter, but her mother often assures her that pepper is one of the spices that most people add to cooking to make it taste better. She doesn’t need acknowledgement, she just needs to know that she is loved and contributes to the greater picture. Pepper never agrees with her but never argues about it either. Her faith is not in orthodox religions, but it is there, burning strong and bright to those who can see it, powering her through life and promising to do so even after death.