1963-11-07 - Laws of Men and Woman of Law
Summary: Thanks to Mree, Janet had scheduled a meeting with Jennifer Walters. A brief examination of the legality of her venture with Howard Stark.
Related: Checking With Legal
Theme Song: "Know Your Rights" by The Clash - https://youtu.be/5lfInFVPkQs
wasp jennifer mree 


Following her meeting with Mree, Janet van Dyne had scheduled an appointment with Ms. Walters. Eager to find out whether there's any risks she's not expecting with this new venture, Janet arrives in a timely manner, rather than fashionably late. Which is surprising, as Janet is usually very fashionable. Still, this meeting was quite serious. On the dot, she steps into the office, smiling as she calls out, "hello, I'm Janet van Dyne, here for a scheduled appointment with Ms. Walters?"

*

Priscilla rules the roost of GLK&H. Oh, her name might not be on the building. She isn't a partner. But access to anyone through the door requires her permission and one sharp press of a button is all the authority she needs to banish someone. Though at the moment, the secretary holds a bent rolodex card and glares at Jennifer.

"I found this on the floor." She shakes the card from side to side. "Of your office." As if this fact makes all the difference in the world, painting blame over the brunette humming through her case notes. Jen ought to have a scarlet letter. Her brow ticks higher, and she smiles. "My client is here. It won't happen again, Priscilla." Then she rotates away from the miffed empress at her desk, and offers her hand in a friendly greeting to Janet. See, no seven foot tall green jotuness there. "Ms. van Dyne, Jennifer Walters. Come in, please!"

*

"Oh, Miss van Dyne's here," Mree says to himself, leaning over the stairwell from one of the upper levels where he's working, nowhere near the front of the building today, not with all the madness on the streets. He's not even going out on his beloved balcony for any sunshine. There's too much bad feeling out there. But in here he won't be bothered, so even if he's craving some good sunlight, looking a little pale, that's where he's staying. A *POFF*, and he's gone from the third floor, and another *POFF* and he's downstairs in the kitchen, checking on the coffee he'd been brewing specially for this appointment.

*

Janet can't help but smile when she catches the tail end of the exchange between Priscilla and Jennifer, though she keeps from making a comment in Priscilla's presence, as she reaches to shake hands with Jennifer. "Pleased to meet you, were you informed about my query?" Janet asks curiously, as she follows Jennifer.

*

Priscilla returns to looking down the newest guest, assessing her through her glasses. "Your calendar is open until five," she announces, putting the wordless stamp of approval on the arrangement. Because an appointment is sacrosanct and the keeper of time wouldn't be more pleased to have an acolyte like that. She nods crisply to Janet.

Jennifer is at least enough of a real attorney to keep a poker face when it comes to the disapproval behind her. Her grasp is light but somewhat strong. Those calluses don't come about by sitting at a desk having manicures all day long. Believe it or not, she might be the real thing. "I was. Let me show you the way, and please mind the rugs. We had them cleaned the last day or two, and they might be a touch damp in spots despite assurances to the contrary." Her stride is brisk but not long, the kitten heels only helping a little. Through the door separating office from lobby is a fairly long aisle, bisected by an intersection with another corridor, several doors. It's to the second on the right she leads Janet, revealing a small but charming conference room of sorts with different mod art paintings than were there a week past. More tidying, Lieber's fault. That man will never be happy unless he has Scandinavian touches everywhere.

*

There they go! Mree peeks his head out of the kitchen to watch them head down the corridor, just to see which conference room they're hitting up. Then he's back into the kitchen, inwardly thrilling that the Winsome Wasp is here again. How exciting! Clean mugs are taken down from a cabinet, set on a tray along with a little white ceramic pitcher full of creamer and a glass bowl of sugar with a wee little spoon. He takes his time and makes sure everything is just so, letting them get settled into their meeting before he comes to bombard them with refreshments.

*

"So…I take that charming woman is our country's secret weapon against the Soviets?" Janet asks Jennifer once they're out of Priscilla's earshot, "I think you deserve the Congressional Medal of Honor for managing to put up with her," Janet quips as she looks about the office. Actually seeming drawn to the mod art on display.

"On to my matter…do you think Howard and I are exposing ourselves to some serious world of trouble?" Janet turns to face Jennifer, looking quite a bit concerned, no doubt the Avengers being disbanded still sitting ill with her.

*

It's the adorable Green Florodream wandering in with coffee. Keep this up and he is more than likely to find himself squeezed in a hug and given a very pleasant Christmas present on the meager salary even someone of Jennifer's legal stature pulls. Truly this is a terrible era to be female and professionally oriented.

Jennifer stifles a laugh. "The Soviets would fear such as her. I'm sure she could poke ten holes in their five year plans and devise a better way to mobilize the countryside." Shaking her head, the brunette gestures to a seat around the table. Most of them are peculiarly metal-framed, something almost painfully modernist. Tulip chairs only wish they looked that good. "I would like to go over the details again, at least to hear your intentions going forward. A terrible attorney habit, but it will help me line up my details and facts. In all due respect, Mr. Stark is… motivated. I am not entirely sure the aegis of the law can quite cover that fellow, if only because he has quite grand and broad ideas."

*

Nobody's ever called Mree a Florodream before, but hey, if the dream fits— . Here he is, anyhow, hair pulled back into that long thick ponytail, tail looped easily behind him, arraying the tray like a pro and tapping the door open with a hip as if he's watched too many movies with winsome starlets playing this role. He's got it down, down to the sweet simper on the corner of his lips and the half-lidded gaze he wears. "Coffee, Ms. Walters? Ms. van Dyne?" he pipes up mildly, setting down the tray and then the carafe.

*

Judging by the ever widening grin on Janet's face, she has had her share of experiences working with individuals of that ilk. "Right, Mr. Stark is a dreamer, but he's also an achiever," Janet agrees as she moves to sit at the desk, before getting distracted as Mree walks in.

"Oh, hi there! Thank you for relaying my message to Ms. Walters, I really appreciate it, you were quite busy that day," Janet says while inhaling deeply from the scent of the coffee Mree is bringing along. "My…that smells perfect."

She then returns her attention to Jennifer, as she takes a moment to find her train of thought, "ah…so, I take it you're familiar with the Avengers story? Government empowers SHIELD to devise a superhero team to do what normal operatives cannot, and then axes it, because the Avengers are too good the Soviets got worried." Just speaking about it seems to bring an angry red shade to Janet's face, along with a nervous tapping of her foot against the floor.

"Howard Stark got in touch with me so we can right that wrong, go our own way, without being beholden to the government's whims. We just want to do good. Not in the name of one country or other…but because it's the right thing to do."

Janet then turns to Mree again, nodding most enthused, "yes, please, two sugars."

*

Sitting in her own seat, Jennifer relaxes into the sculpted cushion meant to accommodate someone a bit bigger than herself. The legal pad pulled from a drawer under the table, along with a pen, sets her at the ready.

"I know what the Avengers do, at least as much as the public and the government allow us to know. Unfortunately I do not have secret security clearance or the like," admits the attorney easily enough. Her fingers curl around the pen and she smiles. "Please, Mree. The usual." Which means blacker than a night adrift in the Indian Ocean. "SHIELD is currently under a director with access to empowered individuals, regular agents, and consultants, right? That gives a fairly broad pool of individuals in its mandate. I'm going to assume the majority of them are not metahuman or whatever have you, and leave remind that client-attorney privilege applies to consultations, and no, you do not have to divulge any information that would put you at risk." All those things are laid out gracefully enough.

"The first thing you're going to run into, Ms. van Dyne, is where the line is drawn on law enforcement, military forces, and an independent operator. A good number of law enforcement agencies in this town, and the rest of the country, will look at something like a second privately-funded Avengers initiative as either a mercenary force or a private army. Private militaries funded by an organization that get involved in an active warzone are unlawful, per the Geneva Conventions. Private intel forces and mercenary forces are a much more grey area, and the short of it? If the US government decides you can't exist, you don't. There is a very broad line number of murky activities that might elicit a negative response, and becoming an active force to attack, contain, subdue, or kill threats falls under it. Especially if you're on US soil. Two hundred fifty miles out to sea? Free game, naturally, law of the sea and all that. But there really isn't a strong concept in New York State of citizens' arrest and especially not for empowered people. So you know what you are walking into."

*

Mree says nothing else, not to further insert himself into the middle of the important conversation between client and attorney. He listens, for sure, and Jennifer knows he's learning, just from picking up office talk along the way, but he doesn't ask questions or otherwise make fuss. He just pours the coffee with a grateful smile to the Winsome Wasp for her compliment. He does try his best. He pours the visitor's coffee, first, a steaming draught with wisps coiling into the air above. Then, one little spoonful of sugar, and another, and he uses the spoon to stir it gently before placing it at Ms. van Dyne's side, within easy reach, and he folds a napkin to set next to it. He keeps his eyes on his work, content it doing something small quite well, and soon has repeated the process with Ms. Walters' mug— sans sugar, of course.

*

Janet has had her share of meetings with attorneys in the past, so she just nods along to the formalities, which nevertheless still need to be uttered to keep with what the profession dictates. Not to mention the law. Kinda one and the same really. At least in Janet's mind. But it's the subject matter that has Janet a bit crestfallen at first. She can already imagine how her conversation with Howard Stark will go when she explains what Ms. Walters had to say. She was right to, Janet always assumed what they were trying to do wouldn't be quite so simple as to gather the right individuals and have at it.

"I see…so assuming we do take this venture off the ground, it would need to be based in: 'parts unknown' as it were, correct?" Janet bites her lip a little in thought, "I wonder how Howard might take to this…" she reaches for the cup set before her and blows on it a bit, before taking a sip.

*

Jennifer laces her fingers together. She has to, to avoid picking up the pen, or the cup of black coffee singing her name, desperately calling for her to consume it. And then consume the whole pot, thank you very much.

"The first thing you do is take anything adjacent to mercenary, vigilante, military, policing, security off the table. Nothing in your literature, not in the way you talk or describe it," she says. "You cannot be accused of being something you are not when you translate it another way. The Suez Crisis proved a few years ago the idea of 'peacekeepers' works pretty well, as it happens, though those were sanctioned by the United Nations. Someone who keeps the peace is a whole lot different than someone who bullies and intimidates with their powers. I'm not saying you do this, of course, but it's public perception. That's another thing you will be up against, how you market your story to the public. The population wants to know they are secure. Many of them don't sleep very securely knowing there are metahumans, but I bet you apples to dollars there are plenty who feel very uncomfortable without someone with a little extra oomph not sitting on our doorstep making sure no stray missile comes up from a submarine or a carrier led by an unfriendly face. They might like knowing if a big purple death kraken shows up, we have a force on hand. So whatever you do, court the fourth estate hard. It's not to your advantage to be anything but explicit and upfront, like the Fantastic Four are, and make a point of very clearly wanting to broadcast you mean to do good."

She lets that sink in. Then she goes after the cup, taking a sip of the life-giving poison in it. A look passes to Mree, back to Janet a moment later. "Mr. Stark probably will dislike hearing this but that means limiting use of offensive tech. Guns, lasers, missiles, anything you'd consider in the province of military operations. It's one thing to have an established force shield that stops these things, but another to go around with an electric forcecage. I'd start thinking how any item you propose to use fits the peacekeeper mold. Having a flying car show up is a great deal less upsetting to that idea than, say, a gunboat. Make sense?"

*

Mree makes sure that all is well with both of these admirable women, and, hearing no other requests, he only stays long enough to refill Jennifer's mug when she puts it back down again, somehow knowing it might well come down empty. Then he'll leave it close at hand, and head back toward the door, then to the other side of it, within earshot, but neither disturbing them.

*

Janet listens intently as she drinks her cup of coffee, using one hand to hold the cup, the other to press at her temple as she feels like she might be getting a headache from everything she'll have to deal with. "That's a good point, I should try and get a hold of the Fantastic Four, see what I can learn from them." The public after all was quite alright with the Fantastic Four, and more importantly, the government was. Even though it was the Avengers who averted a massive nuclear threat, and yet that shall forever be unacknowledged, and just thinking about that makes Janet's blood boil. "Ms. Walters, you've given me quite a lot to consider, I appreciate your input." Janet gets up as she places her now empty cup of coffee back on the napkin.

"And thank you, for the coffee," she says to Mree, before winking as she adds, "and the company."

"Now I know how to proceed, bill me the consultation fee, I'll be prompt with it."

*

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