11/21 (city streets) - Cordelia Chase, Prince Zuko. WHO: Cordelia Chase, Prince Zuko WHERE: city streets WHEN: November 21st, afternoon WHAT: storming out after Katara hit him RATING: TBA STATUS: COMPLETE
Why he had thought he'd be able to stand that waterbender in the first place was lost on him. She was absolutely infuriating! A few days with her, her nut-brained brother, that blind earthbender, and the Avatar probably would've driven him to the brink of insanity by this point. Of course, the chance for him to run off and join the Avatar's little rebel group had been taken away from him, as he'd been brought here instead, but he was sure that's how it was going to go.
Stopping the war was worth putting up with them...right?
Zuko stormed out of the shelter, robe done up and hood covering his head. There was a bruise forming on his right cheek from where Katara's fist had connected with his face. He let out a growl of frustration once he was outside, lighting up his arms with hot fire that licked at the air, aiming for the first thing in sight - a strange blue, metal box of some kind.
Bending the fire from his arms into a ball in the palm of one hand, Zuko hurled it at the blue box, watching as the fire ate away at the paint and singed the apparent paper contents within it. With a wave of one hand out to his side, he bended the fire away, leaving the blue box smoldering. He walked up to it, kicked it, and started to head off in the direction opposite of the way they came. cordychase CORDELIA CHASE
Cordelia had been on her way to pay Anne a visit at the shelter, wanting to make sure that the woman had survived the battle relatively intact and see if she could offer some kind of help if any was needed. Volunteering her time to watch over a bunch of runaways wasn't exactly Cordelia's idea of a grand old time, but considering how much the shelter had helped the lost youth of the city, she figured it was the least she could do.
Rounding the corner, she came to an abrupt stop at the sight of the burning public mailbox. She watched as a robed someone approached the box, the fire seeming to disappear with a simple wave of his hand, before he proceeded to kick the remains and then head away. Unfortunately, she wasn't the only one who had noticed this. A uniformed officer a half a block or so down, on the opposite side of the street, had also taken note and began speaking into the walkie talkie attached to his shirt. She assumed he was calling the destruction of federal property in and getting permission to take down the guy who looked to be responsible.
Cordelia wasn't about to let that happen. If the guy had started the fire he clearly hadn't used any kind of lighter or matches. Which meant, if she didn't act, half the LAPD would end up bar-b-que by the end of the day.
Thinking quickly and moving even quicker than that, she headed off at a brisk pace behind the hooded figure. She waited until they'd reached an alley in between two of the buildings and, without even so much as a warning, grabbed her target firmly by the upper arm and practically hauled him inside. From there she shouldered her way through a door just off to the side of one of the buildings and dragged him inside, slamming the door closed behind her just in time to hear the footsteps of the officer go rushing by.
Turning to face the man (demon? warlock? she wasn't sure at this point) that she had all but kidnapped, she held up her hands in a classic sign of surrender. "I'm not trying to hurt you so keep your fire to yourself, okay?" she stated quickly and quietly. "I'd just rather not see half this block go up in flames because a cop decides to play hero with the wrong guy. Give it a few minutes for him to give up the chase and you're free to go on your way." Not that she had any real way of keeping the guy inside the run-down building with her, but she'd do whatever she could to try. She didn't want to see anyone else pay with their lives, especially an officer of the peace who just didn't know any better. firebender PRINCE ZUKO
Even though the woman spoke words of neutrality, she had still grabbed him and pulled him into a building without his expressed permission. So, on edge and not a big fan of being touched in the first place, Zuko narrowed his golden eyes and lit a flame to one hand, holding it towards her threateningly. While he had the diplomatic skills to handle a situation like this calmly, his temper was spiked so high at the moment that such was out of the question.
"Who the hell are you and what are these cops you speak of?" cordychase CORDELIA CHASE
"Hey!" Cordelia exclaimed, her attention on his face rather than the fire he was threatening her with, "what part of keep your fire to yourself didn't you understand?" She stopped speaking for a second as footsteps approached once more, this time muffled voices also joining them. Once they were gone again, she continued.
"My name is Cordelia Chase, and cops are... people who are supposed to uphold the law. If you break it, they arrest you." She didn't even want to question how he didn't know what a cop was. In fact, she was trying not to question much of this at all. Especially the large scar that she could make out across one of his eyes, and whether he was human or not. She just wanted to keep him calm until the coast was clear then get the hell out of there as fast as her new, designer boots would let her.
"Look," she added after a second, "destroying that mailbox is a federal offense. So is destroying the mail inside the mailbox. Now I know and you know there's no way short of a miracle and a whole lot of flame retardant that anyone is going to arrest you for what you did. But they don't know that. And since half of those guys have families and the other half look pretty good in uniform, and all of them are putting their lives on the line to try and protect the people of Los Angeles, I'd rather them not end up the star patients at the local burn ward, okay? So just... wait, for a few minutes, then go back to whatever it was you were on your way of doing."
A brief pause and she added, "Unless it was evil or something, then don't. Because we're only going to run into each other again, if that's the case." firebender PRINCE ZUKO
Zuko didn't know what a mailbox was, but it sounded...crude. And this word, 'federal?' Didn't mean a thing to him. Not that he cared. This wasn't his world, wasn't his problem. If he had damaged something they cared about? Well, oh well. They could just deal. He was in no mood to play nice towards the people who'd chased him down a street, tried to attack him, and insisted that he was in a romantic relationship with that Agni forsaken waterbender.
Yet, it was still better than being Azula's shadow.
"I'm not evil," he told her, snuffing the flames by closing his hand over them, folding his arms across his chest. "And I don't see how it would be your problem if I were." cordychase CORDELIA CHASE
Cordelia slowly arched a brow, glad the flames were out but not about to act any less like herself because of that fact. "Right," she drawled slowly, "because someone who is evil has never claimed not to be." With a slight shake of her head as though to dislodge the mere thought from her mind, she grinned a little.
"Well, you wouldn't see how it would be your problem because you don't exactly know me. But when it comes to demons, and monsters, and other supernatural type stuff the cops aren't equipped to handle? That's where my friends and I come in." She shrugged. "It's just kinda what we do."
Stepping away from the door she was leaning against, Cordelia slowly opened it and peered outside. The coast seemed to be clear so she opened it stuck her head out. First one way, then the other, and she turned back to Zuko. "Okay, they're gone. Feel free to go... destroy someone else's property or whatever." firebender PRINCE ZUKO
...demons and monsters? This twig of a loud-mouthed woman fought that sort? Right. Like he'd believe that. She seemed to be all talk, like many of the courtiers that flocked to his father's side whenever something big went down - all of them claiming they'd do something, but none of them ever acting.
So Zuko merely shook his head at her, arching an eyebrow in slight curiosity (and anger) when she told him to go destroy someone else's property. Or whatever.
"What makes you think that I'm going to go on a rampage once I walk out that door? Apparently taking one's frustration out on an inanimate object instead of a person constitutes need for a slaughter. Like you said, I don't know you - but you also don't know me, peas--"
He started to say 'peasant,' but cut himself off, being reminded of the fact that he'd given up his crown. That made him a peasant, too. Or a noble at most, but he highly doubted Ozai would've granted him that much, had he survived the confrontation with his father.
"--woman. Just because I'm Fire Nation doesn't mean I'm as vicious as the rest of them."
Even though he had been, once upon a time, but Zuko had changed. At least, he was trying to change. cordychase CORDELIA CHASE
Had he been about to call her a peasant? An actual, honest to God, lowly peasant? Cordelia couldn't say for sure, so she let the near-slip slide. Instead she latched onto something else entirely.
"Fire Nation?" she questioned, giving him a look that clearly said she had no idea what he was talking about. "You want to run that by me again without the assumption that I have any idea who the hell you are? Oh, and a little less automatic belief that I'm attacking you would be great too, if you don't mind." firebender PRINCE ZUKO
"Your tone of voice tells me otherwise," Zuko snapped, not really liking this woman at all. Yet, a need for him to get away from Katara and distracted from the confusing setting of the world beyond this building kept him talking to her.
"Yes, Fire Nation, but I suppose it doesn't exist here. Which doesn't make sense, but--" He shrugged, "--whatever. Nothing here makes sense, so why should that?"
He was silent for a moment as he heard an odd call in the distance, the same kind that had sounded as he'd walked away from what this woman called a 'post office box.' Those cops or whatever she'd called them? Like it mattered, for they didn't sound close.
He shook his head.
"All that fuss over bending a blue-painted box? This world is pathetic. I'd hate to see what's considered a major crisis." cordychase CORDELIA CHASE
"My tone of voice wouldn't sound like this if you weren't acting like I just kicked your puppy or something," Cordelia replied. Then she paused, understanding finally coming to her. He wasn't from here. Either some other world, or reality, or dimension, or something, but not from here. That made a little more sense and took him out of the potentially completely insane with a really cool power category she'd begun to almost place him in.
"People are a little jumpy," she said with a shrug of her shoulders, glancing out the door then back to him. "The whole Apocalyptic-licious battle that took place put a lot of folks on edge. The potential end of the world does that, sometimes."
Eying him a little closer, still trying to decide if he was actually friend or foe (in the loosest since of the word since his entire attitude annoyed her to no end), Cordelia asked after a second, "So, how'd you end up in L.A. anyway? And what did you mean by 'bend'? Is that some kind of term for the whole setting the mailbox ablaze thing you did?" Her tone wasn't quite as hostile as it had been, before. If he needed help of some kind, rude and emo or not, she'd feel obligated to help him. firebender PRINCE ZUKO
Zuko looked her up and down. Okay, so this conversation had turned from accusing to curious on her part. He didn't understand why, though, as no one thus far had even questioned where they came from. Or he, rather. Best not to involve that Water Tribe peasant in any of this.
She sighed in faint annoyance. Leave it to him to stall on a perfectly reasonable question. "Uh, remember that whole handle the supernatural type of stuff thing that I mentioned a few minutes ago?" Cordelia questioned. "Someone coming from a place that isn't here falls smack dab into that category."
She fell silent as the sound of a siren drew closer. It turned out to be an ambulance. She could just make out the flash of the lights as it zoomed by on the street, although she couldn't really see it considering how far down the alley the door she was looking out of was located. Once it was gone, she faced Zuko fully.
"Look," she said flatly, "it's obvious you're convinced that I'm your enemy. Which is fine. Whatever. I honestly could care less what you think of me. But if people from other places are just showing up out of nowhere? That I care about. My job is to help people. It's what I do. It's pretty much my purpose in life and it kinda pisses me off when someone gets in the way of that. You don't like me now? You really wouldn't like me when I'm pissy. So would you please just answer the question so I can head to the shelter and volunteer my time doing something I really don't want to do and you can go do...whatever it is you want to do because again with the, unless it's evil, I don't care!" firebender PRINCE ZUKO
Zuko snorted, then shrugged his shoulders. "If you must, I have no idea how I came to be here. One moment I was in the palace--" He decided to leave the part out about the duel with his father, it was none of her business, anyway. "--the next I was here."
Zuko noticed the siren as well, but unlike Cordelia, didn't know what to make of it. Thus, he ignored it.
"And yes, bending is what I did your post office box. I'm a firebender." cordychase CORDELIA CHASE
"One minute you were in the palace and the next you were here," Cordelia repeated, not sure quite what to make of that sentence. Although, if he was royalty, that did explain the near-slip with the peasant comment earlier. As for him just suddenly arriving, she had been expecting a story of portals. Swirly lights. Something, anything to explain it a little better than just one minute there, the next here.
"Okay," she said after a second. "Well, I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess it wasn't some random act. And I guess I should also make it pretty clear that the term firebender? Kinda ranks up there with Fire Nation, as in nobody from around here is going to have heard about it. Ever."
She studied him for a moment longer. "You know," she finally commented, "I've had a bit of experience dealing with other realities and dimensions and stuff, and I have to say, this is pretty weird even for me. What were you doing before you ended up here?" She hoped, with a little more information, maybe she could do some research and figure this out. Possibly even get him back home. Although she wasn't going to make any promises. He seemed the type to set her ablaze for promising something she couldn't deliver on and Cordelia rather prefered not being set on fire if she could avoid it. firebender PRINCE ZUKO
Zuko didn't know what other dimensions and realities were, thus counldn't say whether or not he believed this loud-mouthed female had been there or whatever. It was odd not to automatically be screamed at the declaration he was a firebender, not to have people running away in fear or accusing him of ruining their lives.
"Firebender. I bend--" he held out a hand and let the fire raise up and down in a spiral of flame "--fire. Fire. Bender."
Extinguishing the flame, Zuko crossed his arms over his chest, looking elsewhere for a moment, then back at Cordelia. "I was confronting my father, the Fire Lord." cordychase CORDELIA CHASE
Cordelia's nostrils flared slightly at his almost derogatory explanation of a Firebender. "Thanks, Captain Obvious," she replied, "I never would have figured out that fire bending is what you did to the smoldering postal box." With a shake of her head, she eyed him for a second.
"Now... is that supposed to evoke some kind of response, too?" she questioned after a second. "Because a kid with daddy issues? Not the first time I've been there before, either." A soft sigh then her tone lightened up. Slightly.
"Look. Here? None of that matters. Nobody has heard of you, your Fire Nation, your Fire Lord father, or anything else that you probably know inside, outside, and backward where you're from. You're in a city filled with millions of people, most of whom could care less about anyone but themselves. If you want help getting back home, I might be able to do that. If you don't, that's fine too. But keep talking to me like I'm beneath you and we are going to have a problem." Slowly, her lips curled into a small, almost dangerous smirk. "And trust me, you don't want to have a problem with me." firebender PRINCE ZUKO
After all that had happened with him coming to terms with his father's treatment of him, hearing that he had issues with his father, especially coming from some nobody from a world her was not apart of, was the last thing he needed.
Zuko took a step back, balling his fists and doing his best to keep from lashing out at her.
"I'm through with this conversation," he declared, storming out the door and spiting flames at a trashcan, before heading off in the direction he came.