CORDELIA & DAMOCLES
Character Introduction for the Bureau of Barbarity Collaborative World
COLLABORATIVE MONSTER HUNTING SANDBOX
This characters are part of a collaborative serialized fiction project exploring the monster hunting genre through diverse perspectives and moral complexity.
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THE NIGHTCLUB OWNER & HER SHADOW
In the heart of Edinburgh, there’s a nightclub called Memento where the city’s elite come to forget themselves. No phones. No cameras. Just expensive drinks, darker secrets, and a proprietor who never seems to age.
Cordelia Lionel looks barely old enough to own the place, but there’s something in her eyes that suggests she’s seen more than most people twice her apparent age. Cold, elegant, with the kind of presence that makes you want to impress her while simultaneously wondering if you should be afraid. She’s been running Memento for years now, though if you ask around, no one can quite agree on how long. Some swear it’s been a decade. Others insist she only bought it three years ago. Time gets slippery around Cordelia.
And then there’s Damo.
He’s always there—broad-shouldered, dark-eyed, somewhere between bodyguard and something else entirely. People have theories. Her boyfriend. Her security. Her mysterious business partner. He has that quality of seeming closer than he actually is, like you could turn around and find him right behind you even though you last saw him across the room. Women find him magnetic. Men find him unsettling. Cordelia calls him “my sword” with a smile that doesn’t reach her eyes.
They’re looking for something, these two. Or someone.
Memento attracts a certain clientele—successful, powerful, the kind of people who are used to getting what they want. And sometimes, one of them disappears. Not the kind of disappearance that makes headlines. The kind where mutual friends exchange glances and someone says, “You know, come to think of it, I haven’t seen them in a while,” and everyone nods and moves on.
No one’s reported missing. No bodies found. Just... gone.
If you asked Cordelia about it over one of her precisely made drinks, she’d give you that cold, assessing look and suggest you mind your own business. If you were foolish enough to push, Damo would materialize at her shoulder, and you’d suddenly remember you had somewhere else to be.
But here’s what the late-night gossips whisper: Cordelia Lionel isn’t running from something. She’s hunting. And whatever she’s after, Damo helps her find it.
The question isn’t what they’re hunting.
The question is: what kind of monsters look human until it’s too late?
WHAT WE KNOW (And What We Don’t)
CORDELIA: She claims to be 36, though she looks a decade younger. She’s British, old money accent that she can’t quite shake, and she has a habit of referencing things that happened before she was supposedly born. She’s brilliant at reading people—knows what you want before you finish your sentence. Runs her club with the efficiency of someone who’s done this before, somewhere else, under another name.
She doesn’t talk about her past. She doesn’t talk about her family. And she doesn’t talk about how she met Damo, though it’s clear they’ve known each other a long time.
When she finds her targets—and make no mistake, they are targets—she’s patient. Methodical. She watches. She waits. And when she moves, it’s decisive.
DAMO: No last name. No social media presence. No digital footprint at all, actually, which is impressive in 2024. He’s got that quality of ancient mountains—patient, immovable, like he’s seen empires rise and fall and found them all vaguely amusing.
He defers to Cordelia in public, but anyone watching closely can see it’s a partnership. They move around each other with the unconscious ease of people who’ve known each other so long they don’t have to speak to communicate.
He’s protective of her in a way that goes beyond professional. And sometimes, late at night when the club is nearly empty, you might catch him watching her with an expression that’s hard to read—something between concern and something else. Something that might be fear.
THEIR DYNAMIC: They’re not quite lovers. Not quite friends. Not quite business partners. Something that defies easy categorization, forged in circumstances no one else knows.
She calls him Damo, Dam, Cles—casual nicknames that somehow make him more unsettling, not less. Like she’s domesticated something that shouldn’t be domestic.
He calls her Nessa or Leonessa, names that clearly aren’t Cordelia, names that might belong to someone she used to be.
They have inside jokes. They finish each other’s sentences. And sometimes, if you’re very observant, you’ll notice that Damo never goes farther than a certain distance from her. Like there’s an invisible thread connecting them. Like if it snapped, something terrible would happen.
THE HUNTS
Here’s what happens:
Someone comes to Memento. Someone successful, charming, powerful. Someone who, if you scratch the surface, turns out to be poison. The kind of person who leaves wreckage in their wake—broken partners, destroyed lives, victims who smile and say everything’s fine while their eyes scream for help.
And somehow, Cordelia finds out. Maybe she overhears something. Maybe someone confesses to her like people confess to bartenders. Maybe she just knows how to recognize the signs.
What happens next varies.
Sometimes, a victim finds unexpected courage. The strength to leave, to fight back, to do what they couldn’t do before. They describe it as a moment of clarity, a rush of conviction, like someone whispered in their ear that they deserved better.
Sometimes, the predator simply... disappears. Last seen leaving Memento with a young woman who looked naive, vulnerable, easy prey. Except the woman was Cordelia, and easy prey is the last thing she’s ever been.
The victims go free. The predators vanish.
And in the morning, Damo looks satisfied in a way that’s hard to define. Like he’s had a particularly good meal.
THE QUESTIONS
What are they really? Cordelia isn’t just a nightclub owner. Damo isn’t just security. But what are they? Vigilantes? Something stranger? And how long have they been doing this?
What connects them? There’s a bond between them that goes deeper than partnership. Something binding. Something that keeps Damo within a certain radius of her, something that makes them move like two parts of the same weapon.
What is Cordelia running from? She changes locations every few decades. She has money that doesn’t quite track back to any legitimate source. And she has the kind of watchfulness that comes from being hunted—or from being afraid of being found.
What does Damo get out of this? He’s clearly not human, even if he looks it. So what does he gain from their arrangement? Protection? Purpose? Or something else—something darker that neither of them talks about?
And most importantly: After what’s clearly been years—maybe longer—of hunting together, what happens when two people bound by necessity start to become something more?
THEIR WORLD
Cordelia and Damo operate in the shadows of modern Britain, in the spaces between what’s legal and what’s just. They target monsters who look human, who hide behind wealth and power and social respectability.
They don’t answer to anyone. They don’t explain themselves. And they don’t apologize for what they do.
But they’re not quite heroes, either.
Because there’s always a cost. And someone, somewhere, is paying it.
AN INVITATION
If you encounter Cordelia Lionel and her mysterious companion, tread carefully. They’re dangerous in ways that have nothing to do with violence and everything to do with what they see when they look at you.
If you’re innocent, you have nothing to fear.
But if you’re not...
Well. They say the sword of Damocles hangs by a single thread, ready to fall at any moment.
And Cordelia’s already holding the scissors.
Cordelia and Damocles are available for collaborative vignettes exploring themes of justice, morality, partnership, and what it means to choose your cage. They hunt human monsters, navigate their complex bond, and slowly discover whether what connects them is obligation or something far more dangerous.
Approach with dark humor, moral complexity, and an appreciation for slow-burn tension. They’ve been dancing around each other for longer than you think.
Welcome to Memento. And remember: everyone pays eventually.
© 2025 E.M.V. - writing as Morgan A. Drake. All rights reserved.
Ooooo, this gave me chills... What a pair of intriguing hunters to join the hunt! Can't wait to see how they interact with this world that Kelly has built for us!