Frank and Ana joined the rest of Freedom Force back at HQ later the following day.

By that time Essex was all over the news; the weaponization of Mutants, the creation of a private Mutant army, the secret base, rigged with explosives, in the middle of a densely populated residential area. Rumors of corruption, payoffs, and bribery.

The deaths of the twenty-seven people barely made it to the top of the headlines.  Not because nobody cared, but because people were far more worried about a mega-corporation nearly seizing enough power to take over the world.  And who knows how many other shady companies or governments were out there, conducting research on Mutants, cloning them en-masse, training them in secret facilities outside the US?

Davis was down at the polls, and with the elections less than a week away most people were willing to wait her out rather than riot in the streets.  For now, at least.

Valerie hasn't slept much in the last few weeks.  Her eyes were baggy, and her stride was much slower than her usual gate.  Despite the immense pressure she was under, and despite wanting nothing more than getting a few hours of rest, she took the time to fly to (what remained of FF) HQ as soon as Johnson updated her about Harlem.  She realized the team was barely hanging in there, and though she didn't know if she can do anything to make things better, she had to at least hear them out.

Johnson, she decided, wouldn't take part in the meeting. Maybe later she would invite him to join, but right now she wanted to talk to the team without him being there, feeling they might be more open to voice their concerns if he wasn't present.

Barely finding the strength to stand, she waited for all of the heroes to step into the RV, nodding at each as they entered and found their seats.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:13, Wed 13 July 2022.

In reply to Valerie Cooper (msg # 2):

Illya is the first to arrive at the meeting. He enters the RV and sullenly drops into a chair as far away from Valerie as possible. He pointedly does not talk to her and does not even look at her.

Gwenyth had managed to arrive just a few seconds ahead of Illya and is in the process of clamoring out of a beautiful sapphire blue sports car that is so deep in its hue it manages to make the entire world around it look greyer for its presence. It was almost as if Gwenyth had found a way to channel her unearthly presence into a chunk of fiberglass on wheels. She waves weakly to Illya. She looks radiant as usual but the sluggishness of her movements suggest she didn't get much sleep. She offers a cardboard tray with six large, steaming lattes to Illya with an understanding smile. "The ones with a green star are made with oat milk," she explains. She doesn't know the team's lactose tolerances or vegan preferences; she never thought to ask.

Once inside the RV Gwenyth repeats the beverage presentation process to Valerie. "You look worse than I feel," she says in a soft, sympathetic voice.

Illya sullenly and reluctantly accepts one of the non-oat coffees. Though he is determined not to enjoy it, he can’t help himself, “Hey. This is really good. Thanks.”

”That bad?” though Gwyneth was nothing but compassionate, her comment still stung Valerie.  She took pride in her appearance, and looking worn out to the point other people were starting to notice definitely got to her.   She forced a smile, and reached out to one of the cups, blowing the steam away

”Thank you.  If I don’t get my caffeine fix I might fall asleep standing up”

Ana Sofía lands not much later and walks in. Hearing the comment about oat milk she asks, "Any with goat milk?" Probably not, so she takes a lactose-laden one. "Thanks, I can always use more coffee... Hi, Ms. Cooper, Ilya."

"Only a little bit!" Gwenyth hastily backpedals, seeing that she had hurt the woman who had done so much for her. If it was not for Valerie, Gwenyth might have had to resort to burger flipping in order to pay her legal fees after the scandal of her... genetic status... coming out. Even if she was the least useful member of Freedom Force, Gwenyth was happy to still be a part of something important. Something that utilized the skills she had honed on set.

Gwenyth turns and smiles to Ana as she arrives. "Yes! Oat milk!" she replies, assuming she had misheard. Her face falls as Ana quickly makes what she had intended plain. "Oh, sorry; I didn't even know that was something you could ask for." She sets the tray down and makes a note on her phone to remember for next time!
This message was last edited by the player at 01:23, Fri 15 July 2022.

Kate who had tagged along with Ana shifts back from the noble Falcon she had flown over as down to her more regular fuzzy form and accepted the backpack with her cloths from the older woman.  "Thanks! I'll be right back."  and disappeared into one of the bathrooms to dress properly.

A minute or two later and she was back smiling and chipper, fully human in appearance and looking like she drank a full pot of coffee even though she hasn't yet touched a drop and doesn't seem drawn to the remaining cups.  "So how is everybody this morning?"

"Run down. Questioning whether this is the right thing. Stressed about the nasty posts people are making on my social media. I haven't even read any of them but I know what they're saying." She pauses to give Kate an appraising look. "You look... happy?" she says, not sure if the last word is a question or not.

Frank walked in looking as tired as the rest of the team. He hadn't slept well, being deeply disturbed by the events in Harlem. The Marauders and their new friends were the least of the troubles, though, and Frank's lack of sleep was more due to Johnson's hardline response to Shiva's actions, and Shiva's subsequent mutiny. This was not how being a super-hero was supposed to work.

He took a coffee, muttering a thank-you intended for whoever brought them in the first place, and drank half of it in a single go. It was hot, but he was invulnerable.

"Morning, everyone," he said, finding a seat. Seeing Valerie, he nodded in her direction and added a specific "Ms. Cooper" to his greeting.

In reply to Windtalker (msg # 7):

Illya nearly spits out his coffee when Ana greets him. He mutters a reply with his gaze firmly fixed on his feet.

"Hello, Frank" she called him by his first name, never much one for formalities.
Seeing they were all here, she placed her cup on the nearby table, pausing only for a short moment to collect her thoughts before addressing the team:

"So you know why I called you all here.  We're all reeling from the events of last night.  Twenty-seven people died in that apartment building.  Innocent civilians"
She tried not to think about the dead children lying in a row in the dark. Not so successfully, and her voice faltered before carrying on.

"The 'Nasty Boys', as they called themselves, were about to set off five tons! of C9 in the neighborhood. I know it is difficult.  I know we failed to protect those children. I know how the media portrayed us.  But the fact is that you saved thousands of lives last night.  You put a stop to Essex.  All their assets are being seized as we speak. Their management was arrested.  The main site in London was searched by Excalibur last night, and the one in Brazil was destroyed. You single-handedly put a stop to their plan of creating a cloned Mutant army.  It's not a failure" she had to repeat it one more time, also to convince herself "It's not"

It didn't feel much like a success, but the numbers skewed in that direction, so Frank was prepared to accept it as one. A 'W' is a 'W' he reminded himself. He just wished he could have stopped Slab from demolishing that building. He didn't take out Slab even with a busted knee, and he was too slow in fighting Scrambler and Riptide to follow up. He could have been better. He should have been better.

"Where do we go from here?" he asked. He meant it both metaphorically and literally. The team literally needed a new place to operate, in addition to needing a new direction. They couldn't keep going the way they were now. "And what happens with Shiva?"

At the mention of Shiva, Illya's mood grows sullen again and he makes inadvertent and no so furtive glances at Ana.

Kate was about to respond to Gwen when the meeting itself sort of rolled over her chance.  So instead she just gave the actress a little shrug and the agency woman her attention.  Valerie had earned at least that much from her.  Moving to sit down muffled some of her youthful energy but not nearly as effectively as the news that Valerie gave them.  She knew it had been bad but not that bad exactly having tried to stay away from that part of the operation.

However once past the bad news she did perk up at the rest.  Happy to see that the government wasn't quite as slow or annoying as Agent Johnson as a whole.  Really glad now that she had gotten the rest of the details from John for Johnson instead of trying to keep things all secret from the jerk.

Perhaps out of turn Kate spoke up a little at Tank's question.  "Well given how slow things are going with Zoey probably nothing yet.  Her trial hasn't even really started yet.  I bet he's super bored.  We should probably take turns calling him to keep his spirits up while he waits.  Oh, and call Zoey too.  I should do that again." 

After handing the backpack of clothes to Kate, Ana Sofía is more focused on the others. She seems surprised at Ilya's reaction to her. When Frank walks in she says, "Hi. How'd you sleep after that return to the island?"

After Valerie's comment Ana Sofía says to everyone, "I hate that people were killed. That's what we try to prevent. But that's a lot of explosive that would have kept them going and have killed a lot more people. For my own sanity and spirits, I'm going to say that was a win, but one we could improve upon... As for John, he's done things he should answer for, but hopefully it can end up as a sort of slap on the wrist as they were for a good cause."

How had he slept? It might have been a better question to ask if he'd slept at all. He'd slept poorly, and in short fits, getting little to no actual rest. Mostly he blamed that on Slab and the collapsed brownstone, more than on the return trip to Noman's Land. Their first time there had been bloody and traumatic, but he'd come to grips with it over the subsequent months. While the return trip might have torn open old wounds, Frank wasn't sure that it had. The fresh wounds took up too much attention to be sure.

Not wanting to draw any attention to all of this in the middle of a team meeting, Frank was glad that the conversation moved on from there.

Gwenyth takes an oat milk latte and sips it quietly while Valerie speaks. She listens to the others, too. Seems like no one wants to be the one to bring up the obvious problem.

"If this were a movie," she says quietly, "it wouldn't be a neat and pretty Hollywood production. Yeah, we saved thousands... but the camera is panning over the bodies of those kids, and the people we saved are probably the same ones shouting us down. Fickle, ungreateful little..." She looks up, frowning. "I saw Davis' popularity polls. Is Freedom Force in trouble?"
This message was last edited by the player at 10:02, Fri 15 July 2022.

“You’re all going to move to the FBI office in Washington until HQ is rebuilt, and continue our work from there.  As for Shiva – you are all aware he was arrested.  The charges are serious, and the White House is extremely concerned about his decision to share Essex’s technology with parties unknown”  she didn’t tell them that she was the one being blamed for the leak.  Freedom Force was her brainchild, and she was the one who recruited most of them.

“He still refuses to let us know who he shared it with, and the evidence has all been scrubbed from the web, which makes charging him with the crime difficult.   At any rate, he is no longer a member of Freedom Force, and I am asking you not to contact him in any way.  He is being interrogated right now, and none of you want to be charged with obstruction of justice, witness tampering, or worse”

She hasn’t missed Black Hole reactions every time Shiva name was mentioned, and made a mental note to talk with him later. She nodded silently as Gwyneth talked.  This was textbook selection bias.  It was hard getting credit for preventing horrible things from happening, because most people had no knowledge of the fact, or ability to grasp how terrible the situation could have been without intervention.

“Yes, Davis is down at the polls” she confirmed, trying to be as forthcoming about the situation

“The early vote is the only thing that can save her right now.  I don’t know what would happen if she loses.  Freedom Force might be disbanded, but more likely we would be reporting to someone else.  Senator Kelly, perhaps…”
This message was last edited by the player at 13:15, Fri 15 July 2022.

"Now there's a weird thought," Gwenyth quips. "A Kelly-directed Freedom Force. Haaaa~." A zillion scenarios run through her mind, all farcical.

"So Essex is supposed to be, like, a civilian company right? Where did they even get nine tons of C-whatever without anybody noticing?"
This message was last edited by the player at 10:03, Fri 15 July 2022.

"I hope it won't come to that, and I can understand if you will reconsider your options if it does.  Let's not worry about it for the time being; there's not much we can do about it anyhow" Gwenyth was definitely on a roll today.  One perceptive question after another:

"The explosives were produced in-house. They had access to the chemicals, and C9 isn't that complex to make"

"Oh, okay. I guess if they could brain transfer dead mutants into new bodies then brewing some boom would be easy for them."

Kate spoke up with something that would probably make people question their own hearing.
 "Senator Kelly wouldn't be so bad.  He's a lot more reasonable in person.  I think politics just makes everyone act stupid even if they aren't.  Like Johnson.  I mean, I'm not even sure that John did anything or if he was just needling him."

Dropping that subject she's quiet for a bit before asking.  "So, if Essex is done with and blown up in Brazil and arrested in Britain what are we going to be doing next?"

"He means well, and he certainly doesn't hate mutants.  I'll give him that" She too preferred to drop the subject, though she wondered how Kate would know how the senator was like 'in person'.  She made another mental note to herself.

"Yes, Essex is done.  We don't have any other identifiable threats at the moment, other than Magneto. We don't know where he is, and what he is up to, and even though he has been awfully quiet for almost a month now, I'd rather we looked for him rather than be caught off guard if he ever decides to make a comeback"

"I thought Gambit blew his butt sky high," Gwenyth says. "His super secret sea base is boom and we nabbed a couple of his guys, plus whoever was in the sub has their inside parts all over the Atlantic. I know he turned the Statue of Liberty into a big letter X-" she crosses her index fingers to illustrate, as if anyone present doesn't know what an X is, "- but that read to me like a flex more than anything. 'Hey world look at me and how totally relevant I still am.' No threats or demands or anything, just 'when the world can accept us you can have your statue back.' Doesn't that seem like the act of someone who is totally out of ideas? Or... or am I forgetting something?" She shyly taps her fingers together.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:11, Fri 15 July 2022.

"Magneto did deliver an Ultimatum" she reminded Gwenyth "He wanted his coconspirators released, and the people responsible for the experiments in Camp-X brought to justice"

"Magneto was not on that submarine when Gambit blew it up. And, as Ms. Cooper said, the 'X' came with a demand." Ana Sofía sighs. "Looks like we're back to hunting Magneto. Hopefully that will be much less violent right now. I think we could all use some calm and rest."

"We were already doing that second thing though. As for the first, he has not been shy about releasing his men by force in the past, so the demand suggests he's all out of manpower right?" She looks at Valerie with big, proud-of-herself eyes. She seems a lot more confident without Agent Johnson around! "So is it really an ultra- ultim- ultimatum if he can't follow through on that?"

"Not saying we don't have to find the asshole, but... yeah, a night by the lake, roasting marshmallows and telling silly stories sounds like a heckin' good way to recharge. You should join us, Director~!"

"There's a lake?"  Kate asks guilelessly in curiosity though she dos manage to mostly keep focus.  "He may not have lots of men right now but it won't be hard to find more willing to help.  Especially if he doesn't ask them to do violent things for him.  He's pretty um.." She tried to figure out he right word, charming, impressive, leaderlike... nothing really worked so she sent her impression of the man to the others 'charismatic' being the best word her thoughts about him invoked in the minds of the others.  "And with how much people dislike us right now it probalby isn't hard to find them."  The us in question certainly being Mutants, not Freedom Force.

"If Magneto is our next priority, then we should figure a way to draw him out." Frank wasn't sure that he had any suggestions on that topic, though. What would attract one of the most powerful mutants on the planet? "It's not much of a plan — or a plan at all, yet — but it beats waiting for him to come to us. Any ideas, anyone?"

"We know next to nothing about Magneto, which makes it hard to formulate a plan to draw him out.  Maybe we'll have something if Wax agrees to talk.  Or the Legion. In the meantime, I wholeheartedly agree with Gwenyth - you need some time to rest and recuperate after everything that happened these last couple of weeks.  If you keep on going like that you'll be burnt out before the year is over" the same also applied to her, she knew, but she wasn't going to take any day off anytime soon

"Unless there isn't anything else, I'd like to announce something" she gave Frank a knowing look, and waited for him to stand up

"Me and Johnson came to the joint conclusion that Johnson's presence on the field is a deterrent to the performance of the team.  You would have spent more time fighting Essex's Mutants if you didn't have to worry about rescuing Johnson from getting hurt. Therefore, we decided that from here on Frank is going to assume tactical leadership of Freedom Force operations. Johnson would still retain overall command, but will focus more on strategy, coordination with the Justice Department, and mission priority. "

Illya frowns despite himself at the description of Shiva's removal and incarceration, "Do we know where he's being kept?"

And listening to Valerie speak about the fate of Essex, a perplexed looks crosses Illya's face, "How do we know that the facilities in London and Brazil have been eliminated? I mean do we really know? And what if Essex has other locations we don't know about. It seems that we are taking a lot on faith. What if we're being misled?"

In reply to Kate Messer (msg # 30):

"I'm sure there's one somewhere!"

---

In reply to Tank (msg # 31):

"Please, no more plans unless they involve s'mores!"

---

In reply to Black Hole (msg # 33):

"Norman's Island, remember? Jeez~!"

---

In reply to Valerie Cooper (msg # 32):

"Oh wow! Congratulations Tank! It's about time!" Although she certainly seems enthused about the prospect, she also finds himself just scooting the ever-so-slightest bit away from their new field leader...

"I could certainly use some R&R. I still haven't fully healed from since leaving the hospital." Ana Sofía looks relieved that Ms. Cooper has said something about this.

After the leadership announcement she says, "Congrats, Frank! You made a good choice, Ms. Cooper."

Kate can only nod in agreement with he rest about Frank's promotion.  Really she had thought he was already in charge, but maybe that was just because he had that kind of aura about him and Johnson was always an ass.

"I'm not sure trying to draw Magneto out is a good idea.  So far he has at least tried to avoid killing people, unlike Essex, but if we push him isn't he a lot more dangerous than they are?  I mean, the scale of his power is waaay bigger."  She doesn't mention that she's going to talk with wax, but tries to make a mental note about it, if she can figure out what that means.

"We're lucky that he accepted.  It's not an easy job, but I'm sure that if there's anyone who could do it, its him" Valerie went on with the accolades until she made Frank's cheeks turn a deeper shade of red.  Or at least to get him to lower his gaze.  Only then did she address the other questions.

"To be honest, if I knew for sure we would never see Magneto again, I would have been happy to let him be, America's most wanted man or not. The problem is that we don't know if he IS planning a comeback, and we can't afford to be caught with our pants down"

She did agree with Kate that Magneto's power level vastly exceeded any one Essex Mutant.  That didn't make them any less dangerous, however.  An entire army of murderous clones were worse than anything Magneto did so far.

"As for Essex; we're going to seize the company's assets. Interrogate their managers, their board of directors, and James Essex himself.  We're not going to leave a stone unturned" which was the best they could do.  They'll never be sure the technology won't ever be used again - especially after the leak they had
This message was last edited by the player at 16:09, Sun 17 July 2022.

A rare smile appears on Illya's face at the announcement about Frank.

But the confirmation that Shiva was being held at the same location with the Marauders quickly removed it, "That can't be right! Shiva's not a murderer! You're keeping him with people that he helped but there! They'll try to kill him!

Frank said a few Thank You's as people congratulated him on his promotion, not wanting to turn the conversation into one about himself. Essex, Magneto, and Shiva were the more important topics.

"I'm pretty concerned for Shiva's safety, too," he added. "Is he being held in protective custody?"

If he was being kept isolated from the other prisoners, maybe he could be kept safe from them, too.

"He's being kept on the other side of the island, separated from the rest of the prisoners. But your concern is still valid.  I'll call the justice department and see if there is anywhere else they can keep him, just to be on the safe side.  There are bound to be other deserted islands in this country"

"We could probably keep him in any prison," Frank suggested. "He's pretty much there on the honor system, since the only thing stopping him from leaving is him. He could open the doors and walk out anytime he wanted to."

"I don't think he could.  There are plenty of soldiers on the Island.  Fighter jets in the nearby airbase" Valerie was clearly not so convinced "besides, I don't run the Federal Bureau of Prisons, or the Justice Department.  I can make suggestions, but I don't have any authority"

Illya frowns. He clearly finds no comfort in the thought of Shiva alone on a desolate island but for armed guards and fighter planes.

But he attempts to move away from the distressing image by focusing on the other pressing matter, finding Magneto, "I wonder if there aren't pro-Magneto forums and social media groups. These may be seeded with folk in contact with Magneto. They may use these groups to organize mutant cells aligned with him. We could either use these to get a message to Magneto, if that's what we want. Or we could monitor them to learn where he is or what he may be planning next."

"You can find pro-whatever groups for whatever deranged nonsense you can imagine. It's like rule 34 but for bad opinions."

"We need an alternative to 'blow everything up' when there is a problem. That's basically what we've seen done twice now. If that's what we're doing, then we're no better than those who came before us. We also can't just put people to sleep forever until they die; that's basically a death sentence, too. We need to lead the country and the world forward rather than repeating past mistakes."

"The NSA is monitoring such groups, and hasn't come up with anything so far" she didn't quite get Gwenyth's reference but agreed with the overall sentiment  "I'm counting on the new Agent joining us to help find him.  She's a precog"

"Oh, new agent!" Gwenyth says, perking up some. "I'm glad despite the media assassination there's still people who believe in us enough to put their lives on the line with us. I cannot wait to meet her!"

"Maybe we are the answer to the problem," Frank said. He looked around the table. catching everyone's eye one-by-one. "Freedom Force started with a handful of X-Men who didn't think the X-Men were being the change they wanted to see in the world. So far, we haven't been that change either, although I'd like to think we've gotten closer. Maybe what we need to be doing is inducting mutants into the team as a form of 'community service'. Not the killers, obviously. We'd still need a way to contain the most dangerous mutants who don't want to cooperate. But maybe the actual idealists like Legion and Wax can be brought into the fold as a more progressive means of addressing mutant issues.

"Having a precog on the team could definitely help us control outbreaks of violence, too."

Illya's face grew red with embarrassment, "What's a precog?"

"A precog has precognition," Frank explained. It was something that had only been theoretical to him until now, but as a geek he knew the word. "That's the ability to see the future."

Illya's eyes grow wide, "What!? Are you serious?! Wild!"

"Are you suggesting that being a member of Freedom Force is some sort of punishment?" Valerie's lips, for the first time that morning, curled into a smile "'community service' makes it sound like they're doing their sentence for crimes committed.  But yes, I'd very much like to get more Mutants to cooperate with us"

Maybe Wax, whose name Frank has mentioned, but definitely not the Legion.  That 'man' (and she used to word loosely when it came to 'him'), was entirely unpredictable

"Frank, I've been in his mind. Legion is no idealist. Some may well be. But each clone is different, so I wouldn't even trust clones from an idealist Legion clone. Wax... He is more of an idealist and might be someone who could be useful; he just needs to see a better direction, like you suggest."

"Agreed. But you get my point. And no, Freedom Force isn't a punishment... but consider it a path to redemption." It was all a matter of perspective, he supposed. "Like that movie, except without the exploding heads."

"Yea.  Maybe" she wasn't entirely convinced "I think it's going to take a lot more.  Ultimately, we're the police, and the police never does a good job addressing societal issues.  We're just here to pick up the pieces and put away the bad guys.  The real battle isn't one we can win with our fists"

"Um.. Isn't that really exactly the problem?  Why should we be the police?  Maybe we should be showing how mutants can help people without punches and explosions and stuff.  I'm not sure just what I could do... but I mean why not find someone in the government to help us think of things like that.  Way's to have mutants help in society instead of fighting all the time."

She shifts a little. "It works for community service better too.  I mean Zoey could go to a hospital once a week and heal the otherwise incurably sick.  That has to count for something.  And I bet NASA would love someone who could make things lighter, so you could be an astronaut Illya... ooh I could be an astronaut too."

She sped up as she seemed to get more excited.  "That was the big problem we had with the X-Men right?  That they were just not using their powers smart?  I know getting Magneto on board would be hard, but if we sort of offered community service for whatever he could probably do a lot to help build things.  But the way it is right now all we're really doing is showing that mutants are good at fighting.  That just has to scare people more."

"She has a point," Frank agreed. He'd been trying to come up with a way to say more or less the same thing. "We need Mutant Outreach programs to connect with mutant teenagers, when they're struggling to find their place in the world, before they decide to be criminals. The X-Men were halfway decent at that part, offering a free school to any mutant who wanted to enter.

"The problem with the school was that there were two basic paths. One, learn how to blend into society. Hide, for lack of a better word. The other was to join the X-Men. They should have been the voice of Mutant Pride, though. They talk about peaceful coexistence, but hiding isn't the same thing."

"You're right.  Both of you.  We've been so busy chasing our own tails and putting out fires that we never got the chance to look at the bigger picture.  A Mutant outreach program will require a serious investment, but I'm sure we will find a sympathetic ear with President Davis.  I'll mention it to her today" saying President Davis name triggered her to check her phone.  She already had fifty messages, and three unanswered calls from the last couple of hours.  With a small sigh, she pushed the phone back into her purse

"I really must be going"
This message was last edited by the player at 18:38, Tue 19 July 2022.

"Everyone is right. We just need to remember that Freedom Force is sort of like FBI's SWAT unit, so Freedom Force is roughly police. It's not that Freedom Force should do these other things so much as other people should do these other things."

"But Ana, shouldn't we be doing those other things?  Otherwise aren't we just, you know, doing the same thing as before only with a different letter on the t-shirt?"

Gwenyth waves farewell to Valerie.

She then turns her attention back to the ongoing conversation. She bites her lip as they hit upon something important. "Uhm, if I remember the recruitment pitch correctly, Freedom Force isn't just a hammer for the government to yield. It is an all-mutant hammer, designed specifically by President Davis to show people that mutants are nothing to be afraid of. I know Valerie is a huge believer in this mission, too. So... so a work-release arrangement makes a lot of sense to me. And we should advertise the heck out of it too."

Valerie wrinkled her nose at the 'advertise the heck out of it' part
"Work-release is fine, but let's not turn this into a 'get out of jail free card' either.  We don't want to publicize that we're going to let people off the hook if they work for Freedom Force.  That'll open the door for all sorts of abuse"

Valerie hung her purse over her shoulder and started to make for the door.  She was all kind of late, and couldn't stay for even one minute longer.

"Illya, do you mind accompanying me? I have something I want to talk with you about"
This message was last edited by the player at 18:25, Wed 20 July 2022.

"I trust your judgement!" Gwenyth responds quickly to Valerie, saluting. It's a sloppy salute that wouldn't make it in the military, but it manages to look friendly as well as respectful regardless.

Illya’s drifting attention snaps back into focus, “What? Me?! Uh. Sure. I guess.” He rises reluctantly and accompanies Valerie out of the RV.