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"Look at it, Cloud." Cid drawled excitedly, gesturing to the bustling factory floor below them. "This is all because of us." The gruff pilot cracked an excited grin at the other man. "Mostly 'cause of your damn motors. We employ over a thousand people now, and we've only been in the full swing of things for a month."
They- Cloud and Cid- were leaning against the guardrail outside their offices. Well, their factory-side offices.
Cloud hummed softly, but he smiled that elated, proud smile of his as he looked out over the hubbub of activity and just the general sense of life taking place below them.
Cid called that a fucking win and turned back to stare out over their current pride and joy. Planet, but watching these people go about their jobs was damn magnificent.
Team leaders- or Leads, who were essentially assistant supervisors- called out corrections or encouragements to their groups of five to fifteen people. Quality Control employees critically examined the paperwork, comparing the neatly printed off specifications to what was happening in each section. Supervisors were directing forklifts or people with pallet jacks and pallets of materials in various stages of completion in between helping their workers verify information or showing their people how to work equipment.
It was loud and chaotic and there were more than a few curse words being bandied about but the overall sense was one of excitement and hope. Two things that were rather hard to come by in the Slums.
The factory was nearly six stories high at some points, but the west side- which faced the main road, and thus was the 'front' of the building to the public- housed the public entrance. The front door of the factory led to a rather posh waiting area and then a nice office area, the front section having fairly hefty soundproofing. Behind the entrance area and the 'front offices' were the offices for the factory management, which were more utilitarian and functional than gaudy and showy.
Well, that was how it had been designed, but for the moment the front offices were mostly empty, save for the receptionist who answered the phone and called for Cid or Cloud when someone walked in and inquired about a job. There was an application that could be filled out by hand, or on one of the rigged up computers. Planet, it could be downloaded and filled out and sent in via PHS, but the sad truth was that nearly half of the residents of the Slums were either entirely illiterate- meaning they could neither read nor write- or their reading or writing was so poor they could not properly fill out the paperwork.
Neither Cid nor Cloud wanted to pass over good workers due to things that could be fixed. Literacy, physical infirmity, lack of experience- all of those things could be either fixed or worked around as long as the person was willing to work. Both men would rather need to train their workforce than end up hiring crime syndicate plants who were really only there to cause dissension or otherwise disrupt operations.
One of the ways the big crime lords stayed in power was because only those under their umbrella of 'protection' had access to education, medical services, and other things that could possibly improve a Slum citizen's quality of life. Most of the shops- outside of WallMarket- that sold higher quality merchandise were marked by a particular syndicates- usually denoted by a small sticker in the bottom left hand corner of the front window or near the register- and only served those from the syndicate, lest they be 'penalized'. Those that would actually serve non-syndicate members usually charged at least twice to three times the median price for items, mostly to protect themselves from syndicate reprisal.
There were smaller, independent shops but they were closer to the outer reaches of the districts. The further from the central core- the area directly below where the Shinra building was housed Above the Plate- one ventured the higher the chances of getting caught up in the eternal turf wars between mid-sized or smaller gangs. The constant power struggle benefitted the major crime bosses, so they were more apt to contribute to the violence under the table- via supplying weapons or other such things- than to end things.
To help combat this issues, Cid and Cloud put together a small militia. Well, 'militia' was a bit of a misnomer, as the groups were essentially only doing what the police force should be doing.
The majority of their reasoning was due to most of the factory workers living in squalor, barely scraping by while paying outrages prices to live in places that could be comfortably replaced by cardboard boxes. There were some who were entirely homeless, of course, but the men were not entirely sure which group got the shittier end of the deal. Crime was rampant and unchecked, deaths were fairly common, monster attacks and 'disappearances' were fairly normal, the water was unclean, and generally their situations were essentially inhumane.
Cloud's minions- and Cid laughed his ass off about that, at every available opportunity- Aerith had dubbed them 'the Flower Guardians' and sewed flower badges for, though most people simply called them 'the Guardians'. There really hadn't been any major altercations since they had begun patrolling the area around the park, but coming up on just about a month ago they had nearly been wiped out by the Sector Fix Slum big boss. The Guardians had protected their areas and pushed the interlopers back- most of them were former military or had by now been trained up by those who had served- but then some unexpected allies had shown up.
The fucking Turks.
At first the leader of the idiot's goon squad had thought that the Turks were there to help- as it was no real secret that Shinra secretly funded several of the major syndicates- but Tseng, the Director of the Turks, had merely shot the idiot in the head before coolly announcing that the Guardians were a silent allowance of the Turks.
Cid and Cloud had both been pissed as Ifrit's fire, but as much as Cid and Cloud loathed Shinra, that Tseng was a pretty quick talker. Combined with Tseng's smooth argument and the women's- Aerith, Elmyra, Tifa, and Mama Strife- opinions, Cloud and Cid had been forced to see past their Shinra hate and cooperate.
The women were magnanimous enough to allow both blond men to sulk and bitch about the deal in their Shop, however.
With the quiet backing of the Turks- the Turks had not directly involved themselves since that day, but they regularly came through the area and chatted with the Guardians on duty, which was a pretty blatant sign in and of itself- the Guardians had not only held their ground, they had then pushed back. Cloud- even if the brat did not want to admit it- now controlled the entire back half of Sector Five Slums.
And, really, Cid could think of worse things to do for the Turks- even if he would rather never work with them at all. Hiding 'people of interest' from that creepshow mad scientist Hojo and keepin' them outta AVALANCHE's hands at the same time was a pretty tame task, and one that Cid would like to point out they woulda done anyways.
Cloud's little SOLDIER lover boy- oh, how Cid wanted to cackle every time Cloud missed the obvious clues the excitable little shit let slip- came down semi-often as well. At least once a week, unless Zack Fair, SOLDIER First Class was on a mission. Cid was learning to like the little shit, despite his occupation.
(Cid blithely ignored the little voice that swore if the SOLDIER ever hurt Cloud, Cid would cheerfully shove him into a faulty rocket and launch him into outer-fuckin-space.)
Still, the women had jumped on the bandwagon and now the whole back half of the Sector Five Slums was being renovated. They were making a lot of the materials at the factory, actually. Not just simple renovations either. The lady scientist that had come with that loud asshole Wallace- Tseng had dropped them all off at what Claudia Strife, called the 'stork house' just before the factory opened, actually- was making all sort of plans for one of the old apartment complexes to be accessible for vets like Cloud who had some 'unique needs'.
Of course, she was also working doubletime to get the operations that would allow them to make prosthetics up and going, too. Cid approved those expenditures. Cloud was a damn saint and would baulk at what Cid was paying her, but Cid wanted the blond brat to have full functionality in both his arms! Cid didn't give a damn that Cloud had lost an arm, but he was damn observant enough to notice how not having a damn prosthetic slowed the brat down.
Cid had plans to get to space, dammit! Cloud needed both hands to help make that happen! They had projects to complete! Barriers to shatter!
Cid's rather random ruminations were interrupted by the arrival of the Diabolic Duo in all their whiney pre-naptime glory.
"Clooooooood!" Aerith sang as she bounded over and bodily tossed herself at the younger blond. "You'll never guess what happened!"
Cloud, who had obligingly shifted to catch her and was holding her limp form up with his good arm, quirked an eyebrow at her.
Aerith- a silly grin on her dirt-smudged face, her half unspun braid trailing over the railing carelessly- grinned brightly up at him. "Tifa finally decided which place she's gonna make her bar!" Aerith lolled her head back just a bit further- and only missed hitting her head on the railing because Cloud pivoted her away from it slightly just as she moved- beamed brilliantly over at her amused partner-in-crime. "Tell 'im, Tifa~!"
Tifa chuckled and sauntered the rest of the way over, bumping Cloud lightly with her hip- causing Aerith to squawk as he almost dropped her- and gave Cid a friendly slug to the arm in greeting before she settled in between the two men, against the railing. "Yep!" She chirped brightly, terribly amused as Aerith switched positions so that she could cling to Cloud like a limpet. "It's a decent distance from the park, but not in the middle of the residential districts. I didn't want to put it too close to the shops, either, but it's closer to them than it is the park."
"It's in one of those awkward little triangle lots that never made much sense to me." Aerith muttered, half of her face smushed unrepentantly into Cloud's firm chest. "We gotta move quite a bit of crap outta the way-"
"Understatement." Tifa muttered with an amused huff as she crossed her arms in front of her.
"- but it's gonna be pretty big, and we've sorta got a structure to work with!" Aerith gave Tifa a thumbs-up gesture. "It's gonna have an awe kitchen, and some pool tables, and a bar, and some tables for, like, card games and stuff, and some booths, and other fun stuff!" Aerith nodded seriously, but most of the gesture was lost and it mostly looked like she had nuzzled Cloud's chest, albeit a bit awkwardly. "Across, well catty-cornered, really- the street Mama Audi and my mama are gonna open a bakery, a general store, a hair salon, and a few other things I can't remember right now."
"Well, I know the crews from the first apartment complex should be done within a week, they're only working on testing everything before we open up the place for showing on Monday." Cid mused as he swiped up his clipboard- it had been hanging on a nearby hook- and rifled through some papers. "The crews doing the actual houses are bit more spread out, but that crew really hit their stride by the time they finished the first floor. Maybe we should mix them up…?" Cid trailed off and looked up at the Diabolic Duo- plus Cloud. "Since I'm pretty sure you wretches are gonna kidnap my business partner-"
"Nap time!" Aerith sang out cheerily, lifting a bangle clad wrist in victory for a moment before she returned it to Cloud's waist.
"Right." Cid drawled, three parts amused and one part annoyed. "I'll go scout the site and get back to you fucking hooligans." Cid spun on his heel and ambled away at a reasonable pace.
"Such a nice man." Aerith sighed happily as she dragged her silent, willing captor towards the 'emergency nap room', Tifa following along behind them.
"You're quiet today, Cloudy. What's up?" Aerith demanded sleepily the moment they were all arrayed out on the cushy nap 'bed'.
"Well. It's just." Cloud sighed and rand his hands over Aerith's silkier than usual hair hair- Ma had taught the others how to make soaps and such, even Tifa hadn't known how, and the Gainsborough women were quite appreciative of their new hygiene products; especially since Ma had showed Aerith how to mix in bits of her flowers for scent- occasionally reaching over and twisting a few strands of Tifa's equally silky locks and absently twining the two distinct colors together before starting the process all over again.
"Mmhmm." Aerith hummed drowsily, Tifa echoing her and both of them yawning at nearly the same time. "Well, you think about it and tell us after we wake up, 'k?"
"Ok." Cloud agreed and both girls slipped off into sleep fairly quickly after that.
Cloud, however, continued to toy with their hair and tried to calm down the chaotic whirlpool that was swirling inside his head.
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Much, much love and appreciation to you all~!