Welcome to Gaia! ::

Turning head to carefully take in the other woman, Emily's eyes widened. Something only she could help out with? Was Celestina...finally interested in the Cleansing Way?!

"Yesss!" She paused in her fistpump and coughed lightly into her hand instead. "Well, yes. Of course I can clear my schedule." And within a moment she was pulling out her phone, clearing the rest of her day.

Ready to swan around the place, subtly adjusting this and that in the closest Emily ever came to making a joke between friends, she instead paused and glanced back. That didn't sound like Celestina was interested in the Cleansing Way. Unless one counted their entire life as some kind of clutter. Which was valid, but on a much more advanced level of TCW than even Emily was willing to assume.

Emily leveled an almost pouting look and then immediately made her way to the couch, pulling out her laptop. The first question she asked wasn't why, it was, "Who do we want to hide the money from? Distant relatives and their lawyers, the government...the mob? Terrorists?" The woman's voice perked up more and more as she went on.

The clatter of keys paused and Emily looked up at her friend again. Her default expression was normally on the more serious and solemn side, but now there was a special edge to it. Very slowly, eyes fixed and intense, she replied, "They're an international organization, you know. With more means than a 'terrorist group.'"

Emily was not going to think too far beyond the moment of what needed to be done, and done very, very well. But it'd be good for them to be on the same page. "It's good if you're planning on staying in the city longterm. There's more means of protection here."

"You're very lucky I'm not," Emily sat back and crossed her arms. "I've been an Order senshi since freshman year in high school. I have a whole world of my own, you know," she couldn't help but brag a little here. "I'll take you there once you're out of...well, there. It's very cool."

Oh wait, no. She meant to be lecturing! "Anyway, don't tell any else. At least not in situations you can't read their power signature. How good is your hand to hand?" Emily's own hands flew back to the laptop, immediately going back to work, even as she opened a new window to create a side checklist for after.

"And how much time are we working with? Are you in danger right now?"

"The whole surface was once covered in temples," Emily began softly, opening the file that contained all the numerous what if plans, she, Miss Mindy, and even Celestina on occasion, had come up with as teenagers. The original copies were in the form of notebooks, dozens of the them. Over the years, Emily had gradually archived them all into a searchable database. Along with every other thing Miss Mindy had written over the years, of course.

"In its perpetual night, the black and white marble and towering columns are lit by starlight, and the glow of its perpetual fires." The words that came out smoothly weren't quite in Emily's own voice, but more like something she'd been told, many times. Tone shifting to something more natural, she added, "The surface is mostly ruins now. I think I've managed to repair nearly ten percent in the years I've been working on it."

Bank heist. Money laundering. Smuggling. Counterfeiting. Assassinating the leader of a country and faking their continued presence. Tax evasion.

It could be said that world domination was to a teenage Miss Mindy Lee was as unicorns are to teenage horsegirls. They all had a beautiful dream in their heart.

Ah, there they were. Hiding money. Faking death.

The money stuff was, in all honestly, probably the most useful anyway. They'd gotten the always indulgent Mr. Lee to give them so much enthusiastic advice that it could be considered his peak moment of parental bonding.

"You're probably going to have to pull a Chameleon Maneuver." She gave Celestina a sympathetic look. "You aren't going to be able to keep all of it. Not with them investigating."

cw: mention of suicide

"Chameleons and certain other lizards will leave a limb behind if they have to, in order to survive." After a pause, Emily assured her friend, "They do grow new limbs back, though."

Gesturing for the other woman to come sit close, and look at the laptop screen, she began highlighting certain sections. Most of the ideas were Miss Mindy's after all. Emily mainly played the part of a highly efficient search filter. "Cleanly getting all your wealth back would create hundred of arrows pointing in one direction. You'll need a good chunk of your money to go somewhere else, for good. Like charities or public works. Scholarships maybe? You do work at a school, so it'd be less suspicious for you to set up some scholarships after your first year. To show how much you love your job..."

Trailing off, she asked, "How are you going to 'die'? An accident or something more premeditated? Suicide is..." Her eyes flickered toward Celestina, gauging her reaction, "Well, it's useful. For creating a build-up. And help to explain sudden actions that might otherwise be questionable."

"The limb is your money," Emily explained seriously. "You have to leave some of your money behind forever. It shouldn't be all or most of it though. And you can make it back." A beat and then she clarified, "Well maybe not you, but you can always just hire a decent investment firm later."

She typed a few more notes into the side bar and then went on, "You should start acting notably strange as soon as possible. Look up what sorts of things people do when they think they're going to die maybe? So if someone over there notices, they can plug how you're acting into a google search and get grim results. Even if they're sad you're dead, later on, they'll probably feel a little satisfied at being right. That they saw it coming." This last advice was pure Emily, The Influencer.

"People like being right. Proving themselves wrong is much less motivating."

Another few notes.

"The bulk of the rest of your money can be inherited by someone you trust implicitly, maybe this Daphne? If you two have made a promise? You should spend more time with her in public spaces. Make sure most of it is tied up in investments for now and have her keep those investments for awhile. No cashing out right away to give back to you. Do it gradually, over a few years. Maybe to buy properties here and there..." her voices trailed off as she scrolled down Miss Mindy's various approaches to similar scenarios.

"The smallest block of your money? Small amounts of cash from ATMs over time, don't go over ten thousand in total. And buy gold jewelry and luxury bags. Nothing too limited that will be noticed later when you resell. Those should be enough to keep you comfortable for awhile? Until your beneficiary is able to start trickling the return on your investments back to you."

Emily turned the laptop fully toward Celestina. There were more lists, more scenarios, more suggestions, neatly typed out and there to pick and choose from. The overall emphasis though was to be patient. To not be greedy. To know who to trust.