Of all the well known and beloved shows on Talon's airwaves, one of them had been around much longer than the dragonry sitcoms and reality dramas. And of all things, it was an educational show! Professor Quincy Pepper was a local alum of the UCSD and UCTC systems, and was known as a major influence in the scientific field outside of his very popular tv show. For many years he had studied astronomy, electronics, computer sciences, and all manner of physics (astro, chemical, quantum, theoretical, you name it), with his lovely wife Clover who also originally served as his production assistant and co-host. Together they had three children, Ginger, Anise and Basil. However, shortly after Basil's birth, Clover was involved in an industrial accident which also took the lives of three of the production team. Since her death, Quincy raised his children as best he could, in front of the families of America, and more importantly in the science lab.

All three of his children exhibited true genius but each showed it in a different manner. Quincy often spoke at C4 (Crescent City Community College) and Carramba High, along with other coastal high schools and colleges. He tended to enjoy a teenage audience the most, knowing that he could influence them to head off to the fields best suited to their interests. Even though they could easily have gone to a private school, all three kids attended Carramba, for varying lengths of time and at wildly different ages.

Ginger, the eldest of the three, took strongly after Clover in appearance if not in attitude. She was known as 'the smart one' to distinguish her from her bubbly and gorgeous 'pretty sister' Anise. That's not to say that Anise wasn't smashingly smart as well - but she definitely took after Clover's love of attention and activity. Their younger brother Basil, by the time he was seven, was well on his way to becoming a mad scientist in his own right. Ginger's graduation from C4 and doctorate program out of UCTC by the age of 17 may have alienated her a little but she never cared much for the partying and sports that Anise enjoyed. At 17 several years later, Anise chose a rather different path through the sciences, and assisted Quincy with the show's production. When Basil turns seventeen next year, he will have already been responsible for three resonance-cascade-level disasters - and no one would ever know, since he and Quincy fixed them with their time machine...

None of what anyone sees on TV really gets deeply into the family's workings - they were a tight unit, even if they didn't always get along. Ginger going out with Quincy's high-school friend (rival? not really) Quinton Popper the famous porn producer didn't really cause a stir. Anise's famous Homecoming Party antics only got her grounded for a week. Basil... well, Basil's still working on that world-domination thing, Ginger usually managed to pull the plug before anything serious happened... Quincy himself, for whatever weird reason, was hugely popular among not just teens and science nerds, but the young gay population of Carramba... A feature which Quinton still ribs him about.

There has been talk of creating a spinoff show about the Pepper family, in addition to the Science Power Hour - if they can get everyone to cooperate and not be lost in different universes that is. If dragons are involved... they may very well get that show whether they want it or not.

***

It would seem a bit backwards, but then that was the whole point. Dad had called a meeting, he claimed that there were dragons hatched at a specific location and they needed to be there basap (before as soon as possible, which is hardly a misnomer given that they have time travel...). Thus the entire family - and then some - assembled in his lab, ready for anything...

Maybe anything but this. They stepped into the time travel device, feeling giddy. On arrival to Eriol they were almost entirely overwhelmed by the number of dragons, eggs, people, and ... just all the noise! So they did what was logical to do - they dove right in, and managed to find 'just the right dragon' for each of themselves, double checking the roster against the eventual future records. Of course they had some work ahead of them for that, because Eriol apparently ceased to exist shortly after this massive hatching, but they would always be able to return to it carefully as long as they didn't overlap their own time there.

Name: Quincy Pepper, PhD (numerous)
Gender: Male
Age: 45
Ht: 6'0
Wt: 135
Skin: light
Hair: blond
Eyes: light brown

Personality: A genuine and happy man, still saddened by the death of his wife 12 years ago, but willing to move on. He's never taken another wife, though he does date on occasion. He's usually too intellectual for most normal women, and plenty of those who can match him wind up trying to steal technology secrets from him or his family. He's not 'naive' but he does like to believe that people are good in general. His family means more to him than any science show - and if any one of them are in trouble or danger, he is the first to don his traveling hat and boots and head out to fix it.

Of course, his family also has to put their boots and hats on to rescue him on occasion too. He sometimes seems a bit distant, it's when he's come back from some (failed?) venture in another dimension.

Dragon: Black winged Brown Male Efypth (not even close to pernese)

Name: Ginger Pepper, PhD (theoretical physics, electronic engineering, chemistry)
Gender: Female
Age: 22
Ht: 5'11
Wt: 130
Skin: pale
Hair: ash blond
Eyes: light brown

Personality: Essentially the black sheep of the Pepper family, Ginger is a goth/emo type who would far rather be experimenting in her room or the lab than attending a movie or sports event. She is calm in nearly any situation, almost eerily so, and normally has a grasp on whatever is going on even if she's not participating in it. She has been known to blow her top at Anise, though only when things have truly gone wrong or endangered anyone. Her situation with Quinton Popper started as a business arrangement - she had developed a camera technology that the porn industry just had to use. (Compression of images, certain objects with camera lenses built onto them... you get the picture?) But after they all had been blown back in time and out of this dimension into a weirder one as prisoners in some kind of semi-mideval castle, she realized that Quinton appreciated the science just as much as anyone, and he was in the porn industry for a reason...

She's never tried to hide her relationship, except when Chloe is around. Chloe and she aren't the best of friends.

Dragon: White female Sodeth

Name: Anise Pepper
Gender: Female
Age: 19
Ht: 5'9"
Wt: 120
Skin: fair
Hair: golden blond
Eyes: light brown

Personality: Entirely the opposite of her sister, Anise is happy, bubbly, and seems at a glance to be an airhead of epic proportion. But this is just plain not true: she isn't as smart as her sister or brother, but she is a certified genius. She just doesn't do the sames things with her smarts - she's scientifically inclined, where it concerns practical applications rather than theoretical ones. She's far more into the social aspects of life in general, and will drop book-studies to play basketball or attend a pep rally for her school friends. She is a bit reckless in that regard - the reason she was grounded after that Homecoming incident wasn't that she herself did anything particularly bad, but she did allow a number of less healthy elements into the Pepper house, who did reasonable amounts of damage.

Though she doesn't always agree with what Ginger wants, Anise understands that they're family - and nothing can separate them. She also knows that the reason their father is so dedicated to time travel devices (and why he often appears sad after using them), is that he hopes to rescue Clover, even if it means finding her in another dimension to do it.

Dragon: Gold Meozihhuuyth

Name: Basil Pepper, MdS (mad scientist)
Gender: Male
Age: 16
Ht: 5'8"
Wt: 140
Skin: fair
Hair: light brown
Eyes: hazel brown

Personality: Scheming, focused, single-minded, and absolutely intent on SCIENCE! Basil reminds Quincy of himself as a youth - only a little younger than himself and a lot more dangerous. From the time he was able to grasp things and focus his eyes, Basil was putting things together and trying to blow them up. At the age of ten he'd created a device which would have sucked the entire universe through a small black hole in the living room of the Pepper house. Fortunately, Ginger managed to turn the device off before it got too far. He was only slightly disappointed that he didn't get to see the results all the way through. Basil is the kind of kid at Carramba that will eventually wind up teaching there, probably one of the weirder subjects like speculative quantum engineering, or time management through alteration of the dimensional allignment.

Yes, he's probably going to do exactly those things... sooner than you'd imagine.

Basil doesn't really understand what the hype is about his father's gathering of gaybois and teenage girls. As long as some of them come to him, he's okay with it...

Dragon: Lime Green Dveth

Name: Quinton Popper, Porn Producer
Gender: Male
Age: 45
Ht: 6'7"
Wt: 215
Skin: light
Hair: none (waxed), grows light brown
Eyes: grey-blue

Personality: Professional, somewhat serious, but as an actor he can also adopt a huge range of emotions and roles. He really is quite good at acting, not just showing off his assets... Why in the world is a porn star part of this little family? Well Quinton and Quincy went to high school - and some college - together, and with their names being quite similar they were often mistaken on paper, or even by appearance until Popper began to sprout up to his adult height. They were never really rivals so much as bemused that anyone could possibly mistake them for one another. And yes, Popper is his real name - lends itself to his industry, eh? When Quinton helped organize a ridiculously gay parade in honor of his friend Quincy (and Quincy didn't seem to realize they're all guys) and that weird little gadget misfired sending them along with Basil and Chloe into another universe, he enjoyed being rescued by Ginger. Perhaps a little too much for Chloe's taste. After all, Ginger was still a teenager when they met. However, Quinton would never have put the moves on his high-school pal's daughter with the intent to hurt their family.

He met Chloe, his agent and business manager, at a political rally where she had to bail out half a dozen of his actors (and himself)... Chloe would prefer that Quinton retire from the industry and do some 'proper' acting, but in the meantime she keeps everything legal and up front for him.

Dragon: brown Lizhawth

Name: Chloe McMartin
Gender: Female
Age: 37
Ht: 5'4"
Wt: 135
Skin: light
Hair: brown, highlighted
Eyes: ice blue

Personality: Chloe is not a generally happy girl, considering how interesting her life has been since meeting up with Quinton and his bunch. That's not saying she doesn't know how to enjoy herself, cut loose - heck, she's even been in some of his movies. However, she is a lawyer (business) and an excellent business manager, so she must always keep tabs on who is doing what. Even if it means following that bald menace over to the Pepper house, to make sure he doesn't get involved in some new mad science mess. And to keep that girl Ginger out of his pants. >_> No it's not her territory. But still. She's half his age - he went to school with her father! Chloe never hesitates to point these things out to both of them, and has hardly ever gotten a response beyond rolling of eyes.

Of all the group, Chloe is least prepared for the weirdness that is the Pepper/Popper party...

Dragon: Asparagus Green male Hafryth