Name:Miranda Bethany Ann Cosgrove
Gender:Female
Age:36
Appearance:Born of an Italian-American mother and an Australian father, Miranda combines the best of both with striking natural looks which have only marred slightly in recent years. Her deep brown hair, hazel eyes and olive skin have led her many places in life, but now she prefers to keep herself hidden from the world instead.
Beat Heard As:Beathearer Type:Beatsmith, utilising molecular vibrations to manipulate visual spectrum light waves.
With this ability Miranda can absorb and bend light around herself and nearby objects making them functionally invisible. Storing the energy inside her body as molecular vibrations before expelling it as light, usually in the form as blades from her hands, the duration of her invisibility is tied to the energy storage capacity of her body. When hiding larger areas or groups of people, the duration is greatly reduced, in line with the inverse square law based on the surface area of the group being disguised.
Personality:Once a hard hitting go-getter, driven to succeed no matter what, Miranda found herself living a life which often rubbed against her own morality the wrong way. The decisions she made to cope with that have left her broken and dejected, in desperate need of help and friendship while shunning those who once called her their friend.
History:Miranda was raised an only child by her single mother, which sounds a lot worse than it actually was. Her mother Carmen Bianchi was a second generation Italian-American immigrant whose parents had made good lives for themselves opening several restaurants across the country. Instead of continuing the family business Carmen sold it off for a very tidy sum, which ensured not only a comfortable lifestyle for herself and her daughter, but also provided the best education money could buy for young Miranda.
Pushed to make the investment her mother had made for her pay off, Miranda was always a diligent, hard-working student, pushing herself to succeed through high school and college until finally finding herself working for ParaCure Pharmaceuticals in their sales department. There her true education really began.
As the frontline of the business, Miranda played her part making deals for substandard products, lobbying senators and congressmen on behalf of her corporation masters to ensure their profit margins remained as high as possible, no matter the cost to others. At first Miranda simply played her part, taking her place the the game of political manoeuvrings which made up corporate life. Over the years though, she found herself drifting more and more from old friends as the burden of lies and secrets her life brought with it weighed more heavily upon her.
And then the music started.
It was quiet at first, a rhythm carried on the air barely noticeable but always just on the edge of hearing. Over time it grew, until every second of Miranda’s life was accompanied by the subtle backdrop of an orchestral score. Her first response was to question her own mind, wondering if this was a symptom of some brain problem which could soon see her dead or disabled, but then she heard whispers from her industry contacts of others around the world experiencing similar symptoms, and more.
Knowing the music was just the first step, Miranda arranged a private getaway for herself somewhere she could experiment with any possible powers she may have safety. During the two week vacation, pushing herself just as hard as she ever had, Miranda’s invisibility manifested for the first time. In the months that followed she honed the skill, practicing whenever she could and testing the limits of her power. When she finally felt ready she decided to finally take action.
In an orchestrated series of thefts, Miranda gathered evidence of the misappropriations, misdeeds and outright crimes committed by her company, and others like them which she had access to. Once collected she delivered the information in all its sordid detail to various news media outlets and support groups and sat back waiting in satisfaction.
Over the next couple of months she waited patiently. And then she waited pensively. Finally she waited angrily, enruriated that after the risks she’d taken nothing had happened. Making a few discrete enquiries she discovered that the owners of the news outlets, many of whom were either shareholders in the companies involved or had business connections to them, had quashed any reports of their illicit activities. At the same time pressure was made on the support groups, either threatening them with legal action or paying them off for their silence to keep the reports out of the public eye.
Disbelieving of the callousness of those in charge, Miranda took a desperate gamble and reached out to groups more actively opposed to the industrial super complex, offering them her aid in exchange for publicity in the companies’ duplicity. One group responded, asking Miranda to arrange access for them to her company’s offices and research departments, telling her they intended to collect irrefutable photographic and video evidence of the misdeeds perpetrated by the organisation and promising no-one would be hurt.
On the fateful day Miranda arranged to be offsite, so as to lessen any link to the events and protect her anonymity with the extremists. It wasn’t until afterwards that she learned that the infiltration had been anything but peaceful. Several gunmen had stormed the building, moving from office to office gunning down anyone they found. Casualties ranged from high level executives to low level clerks to mailroom workers and cleaners.
Horrified by what her actions had led to Miranda shutdown. The emotional shock at the events she’d caused leaving her fragile and broken. When ParaCure offered her early retirement on the grounds of emotional stress she took it gladly, the generous package tied up with nondisclosure agreements and legal notifications designed to protect her from any backlash from the incident, but far more to protect the corporation from her telling anyone else what she knew.
Moving out of state, Miranda bought a small, affordable apartment outright and set herself up in a new life. The comfortable little apartment felt good for her, letting her keep everyone she might hurt at a distance and far enough away so she never made another mistake like the one she had before.
Employment:Currently unemployed, living off a generous severance package from her former corporate position.
Accommodations:Small multi-room apartment with a balcony overlooking the gardens to the rear.
Transport:Although Miranda owns a Harley-Davidson VRSCA it rarely leaves the garage. She still takes care to maintain the cycle however, keeping it ready to be used ‘tomorrow’. Anything Else:Miranda has two cats, Jasper and Calypso, who were a gift from a former lover. She cares for them deeply, even though the person she received them from is no longer in her life.
