Luminous Beings

The League - First Blood (Persistent World Superhero Sci Fi and Fantasy, Always Open)

Missed the red alert thing, I'll slip that in. my bad.

Wasn't sure how old Emily was, I couldn't find her sheet, I'll change that too.

I'm aware that's how they operate; Cordelia isn't. Even if she saw the numbers she'd probably refuse to accept it. She sees the League as a bunch of cowards: before they had superpowers, nobody was doing anything to help her out. Now that they're suddenly capable of superhuman feats, they're all looking to play the hero. She also thinks, regardless of how much they donate to charities, a good majority of that money is wasted.

The League - First Blood (Persistent World Superhero Sci Fi and Fantasy, Always Open)

Holy shit. That was EXPECTED by these people? Yeah, Cordelia was gettin' while the gettin' was good. No use staying around if the leadership had also foreseen Hot Rod setting her room on fire, or maybe the guy with the gun going on a mass shooting. Apparently, these people had resources that the NSA had wet dreams about-which only diluted her confidence more. Okay, assuming that this hovering chick (walk like the rest of us, you look ridiculous) wasn't blowing smoke, these people had some serious resources...and were totally misusing them. Christ, woman, how many people could you feed with that money? How many kids could you pay to take off the streets for good? And instead they wasted it on security tech they didn't even bother using? Also, they needed to fire whatever shrink did that psych evaluation. Cordelia may not have had much in the way of formal education, but she knew one thing for sure: that chick was cray.

"Ah, yes," Cordelia said. "I'm sure you could taste my anticipation to defend myself against the chick with the explosives. Who you apparently knew about and yet didn't do anything. And I'm somehow in the wrong here. Okay." Cordelia continued walking out, idly listening to Emily's sermon as she did so. "Oh no! I would hate to not correct my mistakes. I'll somehow have to find a way to live with myself.." she turned, walking backwards, and blew a kiss to Emily. "Yeah, I'll stop bitching. Hey, if you're so fucking good at picking up on threats, why's there still crime in Chicago? Dontcha think you could be stopping a lot of rapes and murders if you got off your ass and left this place?" she shrugged. "Just a thought, I know you don't get those often." she turned and walked out into the hallway, fuming. These people were out of their damned minds. Emily was yelling at her? For what? Defending herself? What, did she reprimand people being raped after she stopped it, too? Christ. She'd buy whoever killed that bitch a drink.

Then, she came to a sudden realization with Sonja and Volt following after her. The League was bad-corrupt, worthless, and run by idiots like Emily (seriously, calling an 18 year old girl a bitch? Cordelia wasn't offended- she WAS a bitch and had no qualms admitting it- and carried out by psychos like Agnes. Yet, within that organization, there were people that were capable of genuine good. She came to realize that the League was akin to a police department-overall, it was a diseased tree that needed to be uprooted, but it had some good fruit on it. Man, I have really, really shitty analogies.

Cordelia, for a moment, almost lashed out at Sonja before she got a hold of herself. No sense in alienating potential allies-and Cordelia was pretty sure she saw a way to make money off the League, even now. She took a deep breath and tried her best at a smile. "I...I would really appreciate that. Thank you." She hadn't thanked a lot of people in the last few years, and it was rusty for her. Difficult for to her sound genuine, even when it was. Touchy feely crap like that always came off weird to Cordelia, she didn't know how you went about doing it. Best to take the car ride and get out of her life-and as long as Sonja was driving far away from this place, she was fine with wherever they went. Then Volt came bounding along after them-and, the normally unshakeable Cordelia felt a twinge of both fear and appreciation. First, he looked like a fuckin' hurricane, and Cordelia could feel a bit of her hair stand up on end as he drew nearer. Damn. Wonder if he had anything to do with Katrina. Second, she appreciated that he'd thrown down with an obvious superior (and who put Emily in charge?) for the sake of someone who was leaving the organization. Not a lot of political advantages to that, but it was something Cordelia could respect. She'd never had much in the way of family, so to her, standing up for your own was damned important.

Again, the words fumbled and refused to come, but she gave Volt a gracious nod of her head that hopefully said enough. "...you know, if the first day looks like that, can't imagine what a League Christmas party is like." as they left the building, Cordelia pulled out a cigarette from within her backpack and lit it, taking a few casual puffs. Helped calm her down after standoffs like that one. "So," she asked Sonja, her tone and demeanor returned to that of casual normalcy (even if she was still up for really, really ruining Agnes' and Emily's day). "Where we headed?" And please don't say church.

Then...sirens. Hm. The wheels began turning very, very quickly in Cordelia's head. Who did she know that was currently locked up? If she was going to be back on the streets, she was going to need a damned good bargaining chip to be offered open arms after joining up with the League...she didn't plan on staying in Chicago much longer, but she didn't want to get shot ten minutes after ditching the League. "So, if you want to drop me off after this prison break or whatever, that's cool." she added to Sonja and Volt. "Unless you guys need to go put on your spandex."

The League - First Blood (Persistent World Superhero Sci Fi and Fantasy, Always Open)

My mistake, I thought she'd dropped them by the door to the common room as she came in.

The League - First Blood (Persistent World Superhero Sci Fi and Fantasy, Always Open)

@LeeRoy: yeah, but that'll just keep things interesting, right? Haha, I've never had a character as antagonistic/misanthropic as Cordelia before, and this is really fun. I'll have to make a nice character later to balance her out.

Abysse, I don't want to be rude here, so I apologize if it comes out that way, but there's really no other way her actions could be taken. This is a room full of people who have dealt with everything from criminals to supervillains. Whether or not they're cops is irrelevant-they're people. If you walk into a crowded room and hold up a detonator, people are going to flip out. Someone with a weapon will probably shoot you first and try and figure out what the hell happened later. Dropping a bag of God-knows-what by the door as you walk in, then coming inside and whipping out a detonator?

No one knows anything about Agnes, other than her name and the fact she's pulled out a detonator. They can't deduce whether or not she's just kidding or if she's really serious, aside from the telepaths. Regardless, bomb threats are really serious. A quick google search says bomb threats can be punishable by up to twenty years in prison. A group of people who are probably at risk for PTSD who are used to dealing with murderers and generally crazy people really aren't going to handle a bomb threat well. Those who know what she's capable of, power-wise, are only going to be more afraid. If I see Volt, I'm going to be a little uneasy because I know he can shock me to death just because he feels like it. If I see him come in tugging around a generator, I'm going to be pissing myself.

It doesn't matter what her intentions were, it matters how everyone else perceives them. Personally, it feels unrealistic for me to have a girl who's been in a bunch of street fights and learned it's generally better to assume the worst of people think that the new girl with the detonator is just messing around. I tried to have her play it cool and assume Agnes was joking, but setting off explosives (no matter how harmless) behind her kinda backs me into a corner here. You keep saying your character's not suicidal, but she definitely has a skewed perception of reality if she walks into a room full of incredibly powerful, hardened people with a detonator, then proceeds to actually set off explosives. If that's the way you want to play your character-unstable and dangerous-that's totally fine with me, it's an approach you don't usually see in superhero RP's, but you can't ignore the consequences of it.

The League - First Blood (Persistent World Superhero Sci Fi and Fantasy, Always Open)

Cordelia had seen quite a bit in her eighteen years of life. Junkies, narcs, gangbangers, cold-blooded killers, all sorts of things most people would prefer to turn away from.

Light, however, was not within Cordelia's realm of experience.

"What the actual fuck?" Cordelia said, surprise flashing across her face. Jesus. This thing didn't even look human. It took Cordelia's snark a moment or two to recover, after which she realized there were probably a fair amount of superhumans traipsing about that were more "super" than "human". "Uh, yeah, I have a vendetta against anyone who pulls out a detonator around me, Frankenstein. So unless you're going to help me avoid turning this place into ground zero, kindly fuck off."

Then some smartass threw a bear at her. She didn't see where it came from, but the gesture (while admittedly funny to Cordelia) was slightly annoying. Just to prove her point, she returned her focus to Agnes and ripped the bear's head off before throwing the torn pieces to the floor. Some guy with a piece on his belt and a rifle in a case came walking up to them-ah, he had that dog with him. You keep Lassie on a tight leash or you better have brought a shovel along with all those guns, Clint. Hot Rod had, mercifully, finally taken the hint no one (his blood relatives and God included) wanted him around, and seemed to be trying to leave-hopefully he'd the dog, the pacifistic Frankenstein chick, and whoever was throwing teddy bears around, with them. Thus far, the only person (well, only living thing-she didn't know if Light was even human) in this room she didn't immediately want to strangle was Volt, who was quickly garnering respect in her eyes, merely by virtue of NOT being like these other people. Seriously-and, she didn't have much room to talk, given her record-but did the League not even fuckin' try to screen this people? This bitch just walked in with a detonator. Cordelia didn't think, post-9/11, you could get away with that kind of shit. And unless she'd just started making bomb threats, that's the sort of thing you identify in a person pretty easily. Cordelia added "whoever was in charge of screening new people" to her list of League members to harass.

Ah, good, Volt had found his balls. He chewed Agnes out, and Cordelia figured the reaming from a legit member of the group would probably do more than her trash talk had. Fine with her, as long as Agnes moved the hell out of the way. (Wonder what superhero name is...shoulda gone with Bombshell. ) Agnes was clearly out of touch with reality-there's a world of difference between carrying heat on you and actually threatening it. What she was doing was in no way different from pointing a gun right at someone, but this cretin didn't even seem to get that. Cordelia privately felt that Agnes' life expectancy was going to run out here soon-sooner or later, she was going to encounter someone that just pulled out a gun and wasted the bitch when she tried something like that. You make threats like that, you better damned well be able to back it up.

Cord watched her carefully-and Agnes made the very, very foolish mistake of turning her eyes away from her. She could understand why-Volt was the more apparent threat, as a high-ranking member of the League, with a solid rep and more directly applicable powers. That suited Cordelia just fine-she had zero problems with stabbing someone in the back while they were looking the other way. Her voice began to rise in intensity and she rose the detonator up in the air.

Cordelia's hand darted into her jacket, closing around her switchblade.

Are you ready?

Whatever she does will not harm you.

Agnes raised the detonator, clicked it, and...nothing happened. She was expecting a wall of darkness to engulf her, shielding her from the force of the blast, any falling debris, but it was all some fucked up joke. Cordelia kept her hand on the knife, just to be sure-she was staring intently at Agnes, who had made the mistake of turning away from Cordelia. It was understandable-Volt was a high-ranking, damned good member of the League, and she was a street rat they'd just picked up. Absolutely fine with her-Cordelia had no problems fighting dirty, and she'd cut out this bitch's throat before she turned around if she tried something for real.

Then, the detonator went off. There was an explosion from behind Cordelia, who instinctively tucked her head down. Her reaction, however, was likely not as impressive as her shadow's. Splitting into two directions at once, her shade behind the chair cupped itself around the explosives with blinding speed, nearly an instant after they'd gone off. Then, it went for Agnes. Flat on the ground, her shadow whipped around and grabbed Agnes' shadow's throat with its hands, choking her out. It wouldn't suffocate her, not truly-but she'd feel it. The pain of her throat being crushed, voicebox and larynx splitting, the throbbing like her skull was about to shatter.

"Enough," Cordelia hissed, just under her breath. The suits had come in. She didn't recognize their faces, but she recognized the way they moved. They moved around the same way authority figures did-the same way the dusty old bitch that had run the orphanage moved, the same way the cops moved. Cordelia's shadow gave Agnes' shadow one last, good throttle before slinking back into the chair. "Pranks like that are unappreciated?" Cordelia laughed, her quoting of Emily entirely scathing. "Bitch, are you serious? She just threatened to blow us halfway to hell. You're damned lucky she's not dead." Cordelia stood up, grabbing her bag and slinging it over her shoulder. "You want us to settle this like reasonable adults? Yeah, I'm going to show the reason you dumbfucks clearly don't have and walk right out the front door. You people seriously operate this way? Holy hell. If she'd done that in a police station, army base, you'd be wiping off bits of her skull from the back wall over there. This how you people do things on a regular basis? I shit you not, I have seen gangbangers with more professionalism than you have. The hell does she have to do to get in serious trouble? Because if you're going to pussy out of delivering any punishments, I'll rob this place blind before I go." she cast a glance back at Volt, raising an eyebrow. Her expression said about all she'd need to say: You're seriously okay with this shit? This is how your people do things? she turned to leave, giving Emily a cold, hard glare that had absolutely no trace of fear. Behind her, Cordelia's shadow seemed larger than the thin girl's silhouette should've been, rolling its neck from one side to another. "Move."

Her first impressions of the League had been entirely accurate. Delusional, stuck-up, self-centered. They had all this money to burn on fancy food and a gym unlike any she'd ever seen (not that Cordelia had really seen any) but they handled threats like this? No security teams or anything? What, like a bomb threat was just some whiny child throwing a tantrum? Fuck that. Cordelia wasn't staying if these were the sorts of people she was going to have to be working with. Volt was the only one with an iota of sense. Maybe the guy with the dog had a little, because he was at least staying quiet-however, he had a dog, so she couldn't in good faith say he had sense. There was the ugly-ass chick reprimanding her for getting pissy at a lady with a detonator, the superfast asshole who probably got off to pictures of himself on the six o' clock news, and now this chick talking down to them. There was only one problem here, and that was Agnes. She'd pulled out a detonator, set off some explosives, and this bitch Emily was acting like everyone else was at fault, too. No. She'd put up with shit like this before and she wasn't doing it again. If Cordelia was going to do a job with other people, it wasn't going to be with people that fucked around like this. What Agnes had pulled would've gotten her killed if she'd been working with the cops, hell, even operating in a gang. The paycheck from this place was nowhere near good enough to merit hanging around people like that-and if the League employed legitimate psychos, there was no damned way they were managing to do any good in this world.

The League - First Blood (Persistent World Superhero Sci Fi and Fantasy, Always Open)

Hahaha, the vaccuum cleaner line was gold, BlackSam

The League - First Blood (Persistent World Superhero Sci Fi and Fantasy, Always Open)

I think Cordelia and Agnes are going to be good friends by the end of this, honestly.

Inadvertently double posted.

The League - First Blood (Persistent World Superhero Sci Fi and Fantasy, Always Open)

Cordelia wasn't sure if this guy was a total airhead or if he was trying to act macho and tough to prove a point-either way, she felt a sudden and compelling urge to annoy him. Cordelia had a grim feeling this urge would return later-perhaps around midnight, when she slid frozen piss under the crack of his door, making his room mysteriously and without a trace smell like an uncleaned urinal. Maybe his car would be repeatedly and without a sign broken into, hotwired, and moved across the parking lot, making him slowly question his sanity. Maybe she'd just put a little salt in his contact solution. Harmless stuff.

So, Cordelia let a look of juvenile comprehension spread across her face and she not-so-subtly tried to suppress a fake grin. "Oh. Hot Rod. Of course. Yes, I, ah..." she smirked. "I've heard of you, I suppose you could say."

After which she disregarded him and turned her focus back to Nessie, or Voltage, or whatever his name was. Christ, she was bad with these accents. She was getting one out of every two or three words, tops. The more he spoke, the more she grasped it, but it was still a bit to get adjusted to. He did earn a bit of her respect with insisting on his calling her Volt-while she thought the superhero names were grating, his general suspicion was reaffirming. So somebody here had some brain activity going on after all. She personally didn't mind her name being slung about, because it wasn't anything that could really be traced back to her-she didn't have a house or a job or anything with that name on it. Knowing her name didn't bring her enemies any closer to her, it merely gave them a tantalizing, just-out-of-their-reach concept to be annoyed by. And he seemed to, if not entirely genuinely interested in her (Cordelia generally felt it wise to second-guess the motives of everyone here, just out of habit. Who knows? Maybe she'd catch a mole and get lauded for being helpful or whatever).

Ah. The walking power outlet was irritated by Hot Rod, too. Hm. Another inkling of respect. Ah, I've gone soft. Next thing you know I'll be writing love letters to him. Volt was attempting to nudge him out of their conversation, which she personally didn't expect to work at all, but whatever. She'd dealt with upstart pricks before, and Cordelia had come out on top thus far. Well, she was still around, which she generally considered a victory. Gotta set the bar low sometimes.

"...hm." Assuming he wasn't bullshitting her on the "I'd stop doing this if I could" speech, that was interesting. Thus far, Volt was he only one here who hadn't seemed delusional, and while she was definitely suspicious of him, she was grudgingly forced to acknowledge the League's members as human at the very least. Well, superhuman-but human in all the important ways. There might be a chance to do some legitimate good-and while Cordelia was still walking out the (back) door the second shit hit the proverbial fan, it did make her wonder if there was a possibility to actually help people. Maybe de-escalate some of the gang wars without putting people in jail, without orphaning more damn kids. Figuring out a way for people to make a living without drug money or protection fees.

It was a snowball's chance in hell, but that was better than she thought the League capable of when she'd joined up.

"Hm. Can't imagine why I'd have trouble fitting in," Cordelia muttered to Volt, casting an aside glance at Hot Rod. "No....I...." she paused, realizing how damned long it'd been since she'd said this. "I appreciate it. I'm not really a touchy-feely gal, so I hope you won't be offended if I don't take you up on that offer very frequently, but...thanks." She gave him a curt nod of her head, trying to convey "I'm trying to not be a total asshole since you seem okay but also I really don't feel like talking to people here" as best she could. See, this was why she didn't talk to people.

Then half the fuckin' League had to come and bother her, and the smidge of optimism Cordelia had felt towards the organization quickly plummeted. First there was Pudgy, who seemed shy (shyness was only nice when they didn't half-ass it, when they were totally silent) and staring at her food. My food, bitch. Go get your own plate. Why was her hair halfway across her face? Cordelia wasn't exactly dressing to impress, but damn, how was she breathing with that mane in front of her nose and whatnot? She could've sworn she saw a dog move towards the door to the common room-Cordelia was not at all a fan of canines, given her rather nasty encounters with some of them in the past. She carried around a Hershey's bar in her beat-up old backpack (which was currently resting at her feet) for that very purpose, and she was going to give Lassie one hell of a stomachache if she tried anything. Then, of course, a motherfucking psycho walked in. Cordelia was tense-she didn't like this many people in the room, she didn't like lots of people around her. Too many to keep track of, it was too hard to notice someone slipping behind you or trying something bad.

So when new girl walked in and intentionally swung behind her? Yeah, Cordelia started prepping herself for a fight. Nothing overt, just subtle. Quickly figuring out who's throwing down and on what side. Hot Rod's egotistical as they come and fast. He'll try and save the day and she can't outrun him. Use his flames against him. Lure him into a small room and asphyxiate the motherfucker. Voltage would try and calm things down but he has enough sense to think it through, unlike the League's resident flaming marathon runner. Probably focus on subduing whoever struck first, or minimalizing Hot Rod's collateral damage. If he focused on Hot Rod, she could haul ass out of this room. Then there was new mystery girl, who-

...who was holding a detonator in her hand. She'd never seen one before in the flesh, but she damned well knew what it was-and a quick flicker of her eyes to the entrance saw several large bags placed close enough to fuck them up. Cordelia's shadow was now far blacker than it should've been, eerily and unnaturally dark, and the entire seat of the chair she was sitting in was covered with its presence.

Oh. This bitch.

"Agnes," Cordelia said calmly, still and tense, a panther ready to pounce. She couldn't get to her gun quickly enough, and she wasn't confident with using it anyways. But she'd practiced whipping out that nasty little switchblade of hers a thousand times over, even if it was a bit too mundane a weapon to tackle metahumans with. Once her shadow had broken Agnes trigger finger off, she'd try and shank her in the leg and run. If those bags were loaded with explosives, she'd haul ass the other way and get out of this building. There was a damned good chance Agnes was bluffing, because you'd have to be stupid as hell to threaten superhumans so overtly, so Cordelia opted not to treat her as a real threat. Probably what she got off on, seeing people freak out over that. Cordelia wasn't one to play well with others. "I think it's cute you're trying to get attention, maybe your dad beat the shit out of you too much as a kid-and, honestly, since your cocksucking mother named you Agnes, I can't blame him, but I'm trying to eat these pastries and have a nice, civil discussion with Static Shock over here. So, and this is coming from a girl who's been legal all of three months, grow the hell up. You and Usain Bolt's napalm-pissing cousin go off and fuck or whatever you want to do, but let me get type two diabetes in peace."

And with that, she turned from them, grabbed another donut, and calmly began to eat it. Cordelia wanted to establish very clearly she was not taking shit from anyone-and bringing in a fucking detonator and waving it about was what she defined as "taking shit from someone". She pushed Agnes above Hot Rod on the "List of People To Annoy The Hell Out Of When I Get The Time"

Are you ready?

Her shadow whispered into her thoughts. Always.

The League - First Blood (Persistent World Superhero Sci Fi and Fantasy, Always Open)

Yeah, but in terms of petty assholery, she's got Abbadon dead to rights

I mean, he might eat you, but she'd put Nair in your shampoo or something.