A/N: So since at least one person thought I was espousing anarchism (or was having Cloud do so) when I had him tell Tseng to 'throw out the fucking contracts', I thought others might have gotten the same impression. I had already planned for the topic to come up again, so hopefully, this makes it clearer. No, there is no 'anarchism' in what Cloud was saying then, or in what he is (and others are, this time) saying now, because no one in their right minds actually thinks lawlessness works. It doesn't; the only real question is in what the form of the law takes. If anyone still thinks Cloud or I are espousing anarchism after this, then you aren't reading clearly, you're missing most of what's really being said. Whether that's deliberate or not is debatable.
Point of Process
As soon as Cloud stepped into the office that morning, Tyra at his feet, he knew something was wrong, because Derin grabbed him and dragged him over to his desk, where Ansha already sat, looking terse. The older Turk also seized his PHS and, after shoving him into one of the seats by his desk, moved over to the window—half-way across the room—to put it there. With two other ones. Tyra quickly laid herself on his feet again, but a look around showed no sign of Rogue just then, making Cloud curious.
"Now, let me just start by saying I've had very little sleep the last few nights, and Vincent just gave me a very tall order," Derin said when he'd returned to his seat, but he still kept his voice very low. "And you two have permission to help me make it work as quickly as possible. Yes, I know that will slow down your progress on my weapon, but this is more important.
"In short, we're being spied on by someone the President picked to do it, which means by the President, through the video, audio and data files in our PHS's. We have to make sure our PHS's default to automatically erasing certain things we don't actually want the President to know about. What makes this touchy is what things we may have discussed around our PHS's that could already have been hijacked, and those things can't just disappear from the records in our phones."
"Depends on how often we discuss things," Cloud said flatly. "There are things we discuss on a rare occasion, or that we discuss and are then done and over with, so we never talk about them again. Even if we mentioned something once during a month, that doesn't mean they'd ever record us talking about it again. It's more picking out things we talk about generally much more often than once a month."
Both others blinked at him in surprise, then Derin said, "Which is a much shorter list of things we'd have to modify. Why say a month, though? I haven't said how long this has been going on."
"I can think of several things we only mentioned once during a month, but only a few we've openly discussed several times," Cloud shrugged. "And that's true since I've been here, so each month has the same general likely discussion pattern."
"And we've only been having our data taken for about a month..." Derin mused. "Of course, the major problem is knowing how much data the device stored, because I think it can store months of it before it has to disregard the old data."
"Is that based on how much goes on around the phone for it to record? Because someone really busy dealing with people would run out of recording space way faster than someone dealing with people only a little," the boy replied, tone still flat. "Also, did you find traces of older data being taken, or only recent data? Did you even look to see how far the active removed data went back? Because if the person doing it is only taking the recent data, not the old records, we can purge all the old records and start building our negation system from what we know of recently."
For a long time, both Ansha and Derin just stared at him, then Ansha commented in dry amusement, "We really should have thought of that detail sooner. Derin, did you do a check that thorough, or should I start one now?"
"You can start a check," Derin told her in an almost pained tone, then sighed. "For the average person, it holds at least a year of data. For people who are highly social, it ranges from holding around four months to around eight months, depending on the level of activity. For Turks, that's usually around six to seven months. Yes, Cloud, even for you."
"How? I'm pretty anti-social," the blond asked in surprise.
The black haired man's look became flat at that, and he said, "Cloud, you spend most of your time here, in the training rooms, or in Weapons. The range it records at, even if all it's recording is a murmur of voices, would have filled that space."
"I'm still worried about why the President is spying on us rather than getting us to spy on his other employees," Ansha commented as she turned to Derin's computer and began working on it.
"Vincent thinks that's general paranoia after the Restrictors, Heidegger, and Palmer all betrayed him," Derin offered.
"So he's not looking for anything specific, and at best is really only finding some of our quirks curious. Can you find out if one of the things he got from my PHS was Rufus calling me his brother?" Cloud asked with a furrowed brow.
"I can find out, but there's no point in erasing that data or similar comments if he did," the older man offered.
"It's not that. If he got it and hasn't tried to have me killed yet, then as long as I don't try to make any demands of him, he's not going to do anything and doesn't care. Getting a full list of what he's actually gotten and his reactions to that information can tell us a huge amount about exactly how much of a danger his current behavior is. Because just based on the situation recently with Angeal, Sephiroth, and Genesis, if he got even part of that and hasn't retaliated, he's taking their presence in Shinra as assurance that they aren't acting against him, they're trying to not do so," the blond boy told the older man pointedly.
Ansha paused in her typing to join Derin in staring at him, but it was the black haired man who commented, "If we didn't know your actual age was fourteen years older, I wouldn't even have words for all the things you've added to this discussion in the few minutes since you got here. But what situation with the General and Commanders?"
"Angeal began degrading, and he refused help. Genesis is still stuck here because of Diva being so young, so Sephiroth had to go after him," the blond explained. "I assume he succeeded, since Genesis isn't having a breakdown yet."
That made both older Turks snort in amusement, and Ansha went back to work as Derin said, "No, last night he seemed pretty cheerful, until he found out some data was taken from his PHS, too. I think some of that may have at least hinted at him having the Blessing."
"If it wasn't specifically said or the data was ambiguous, we don't have to worry about that—it would be assumed if he 'already went through' something that it happened in Banora before he came here, not that it happened in a future-past life. That's true of all our discussions," Cloud replied in amusement. "And I know from experience that we most need to not jump at shadows or we're the ones who are going to get caught. We can't afford the same paranoia the President has. That's how we make mistakes, and it's how I made plenty of them in the past. No, if something was ambiguous to begin with, we're better off leaving it."
"But we all know—" Ansha began, but was still working on the computer.
"Actually, Cloud has a point," a new voice put in, and everyone looked up to see Kariya standing behind Cloud's seat with a bemused expression. "Before you ask, I took out the recording devices in my PHS as soon as I got it—I didn't live as an anti-Shinra terrorist for over twenty years without making sure I couldn't be tracked. And I'm sure Veld and the President already know that detail, so they wouldn't be surprised to get nothing from me. They probably aren't trying. Cloud's point stands, though—us knowing something doesn't mean the President does."
"Wait, what?" Derin asked in surprise.
Kariya reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose as he muttered something unflattering in Wutain, which caused Cloud to snicker. However, when the orange haired man looked up, he said flatly, "Paranoia is the direct response to 'you' knowing something, so believing everyone else does, too, or that someone specific you don't want knowing it does, even when it's something you've deliberately not shared. If you haven't shared it, how will someone else know anything about it? Turks especially have a fuck-load of data no one else does, so there's no reason for you to react to someone 'knowing' something you haven't shared."
"But if someone found out—" Derin began.
"Who and how?" the orange haired Turk asked flatly. "Seriously, Veld is the only one who had any chance of sharing certain specific details with the President, and as far as I know, he didn't share them. By extension, the President doesn't know about things like the Blessing, so his next reference to something having happened before would have to be a time when any of us weren't with Shinra, which we obviously all had. He's answered his own question, and you don't need to react. Don't do so, otherwise you give him direct reason to look deeper. That's also why Vincent is letting him have data on us and our discussions, not blocking him out completely."
"Oh, let me guess, the Turks were about to become paranoid," Vincent sighed as he joined them. Kariya just smirked, so Vincent told Derin, "If the President's paranoia is general, we want to keep it that way, so we're aiming for things to keep looking like they usually do. We don't change our habits, and we only block a few specific things—and we leave him to his spying all he likes. That way, we aren't targets. If it takes someone like Cloud to keep you from reacting with paranoia, then he's going to have to be in charge of the project, even if you're doing most of the work, Derin." His gaze then moved to Kariya's to ask, "So, what did you need to tell me about?"
"Yeah, I came across a thing while I was in the Slums yesterday evening for my usual checks in Wall Market," Kariya commented, then pulled a small device from his pocket. Cloud couldn't see it from his angle, but Vincent blinked at it, and Kariya said, "This was in some shipping crates Corneo's goons were unloading for sale in his Wall Market shops, but last time I checked, these were goods stolen from Shinra. The logo's pretty obvious, so that then begs the question of where Corneo got it from."
Vincent took the device and put it in his pocket as he said flatly, "I can guess, and I'm adding this to the file Donnel prepared for me to take to the President. Thank you, Kariya. Are you opposed to being sent to tear down Corneo's operation if the President gives word to do so?"
"Not really," the man shrugged. "Though, that's gonna leave a lot of people without work in a place they really can't afford not to have any."
"I have an idea about that, too," Vincent shrugged. "Don't worry—I was going to suggest it to the President anyway."
"Suggest what?" Cloud, Derin, Ansha, and Kariya all blinked at him in surprise.
"Because we can't afford to have all of Corneo's legitimate business shut down, I'll just suggest the President take it over and put in his own chosen managers," Vincent pointed out dryly. "That way, it stays running, and it's still under his control, and later, when Rufus is ready to take over, he can do something more effective with it."
"Does that mean the President would keep that stupid bee theme?" Cloud asked in disgust.
"I have no idea," the undead Turk answered. "I don't really care, either. Though, I don't think he especially liked the theme to begin with, so he might change it to something else, or take it out entirely so they're just scantily-clad women. I can't predict what he'll do with it. The shops are a lot more worrying than the Honeybee Inn, anyway, and that's where most of his attention will be up front."
"Really?" the younger blond asked in a dark tone.
Vincent crossed his arms and said plainly, "The men and women working there have actually chosen to do so, Cloud. It's work in a place they otherwise wouldn't have any, and some of them actually take pride in doing it well. Until we have better jobs to offer them, it keeps them fed and with a roof over their heads, and I'm a lot more worried about the women and children who are starving because they don't even have that much, regardless of their reason."
For Cloud, though, the words were shocking, and it still rubbed him the wrong way to leave women in a state like that, especially after everything they'd had to deal with regarding Scarlet.
It was Fenrir who commented, :The difference between Scarlet and the people at the Honeybee is in the choice, Cloud. He didn't say it was a good choice, just that it gave them something to work with until, priority-wise, that can be dealt with. And there are even some men and women who are so highly sexed that they sort of have to work in the sex trade just to bring it to a level where they can focus properly. You take that away entirely and they'd go crazy from the deprivation of something they can't control. It's rare, but it happens. All of that can only be fixed in steps over time, though.:
Finally, with the realization that they really couldn't address the situation at least until all the people they needed gone were, Cloud knew it would have to wait. In the meantime, if he thought about it by the terms of how quickly they could get to something, putting Corneo's former operations under Shinra's control would actually let them fix it sooner. After all, Cloud didn't think Rufus went in for the same things as his father, especially not sexually, so he'd be likely to get rid of it entirely, or find a better use for it. He definitely planned on stopping all the issues like Scarlet's.
Before he could reply to Vincent, though, Verde said, "Okay, you told me you needed me for an investigation in the Slums, but with a quirk. I just got here, so do you have time to go over that with me, Vincent?"
The black haired man faced the newly-arrived blond Turk and said, "Yes, as soon as Rude and your 'quirk' join us. Rude should be back soon, since he was running an errand for me, and—well, the 'quirk' will get here when he gets here."
Verde gave him an annoyed glare and asked, "You're sending Rufus into the Slums with me?"
"I am," Vincent agreed in amusement. "He needs to see the reality of the city so he can better grasp his lessons and the reasons for them. You and Rude will still investigate, but since you're largely dealing with recon, it shouldn't be a problem to have him with you. And I know you can explain things to him because you grew up there."
The man sighed, but agreed, "Fine. Do you have some paperwork for me to go over before we leave?"
"In the office. I'll join you shortly to get it to you before I go see the President," Vincent agreed, then turned back to the group at Derin's desk as Verde headed to the office. "So, was there anything else you needed?" When he got back negatives, he told the group working on the coding, "Choose your keywords carefully. Ambiguous statements aren't detrimental to us." He then looked at Kariya and added, "Stay around until I get back with word on whether or not you can eliminate Corneo." When the orange haired man nodded, Vincent headed to the office, too.
"So, looks like we're going to need more time than I thought to work out what we'll blank out," Derin sighed.
"Okay, let's start with a list of keywords and go over how often those topics have come up and in how much detail over the time we know they've been taking data," Cloud answered, pulling over a paper and pen, and started writing down words or generalized topics in a list. "Once we have Ansha's data, we can extend it if we need to, or we can leave it because they've only taken recent data. From it, we can decide on what things to remove and by what terms. Do they take the data live?"
"So far, they haven't," Derin offered. "That could change, but by the current track record of the hacker, that's one less issue."
"It is," Cloud nodded, pausing to tap the pen on the sheet a few times before adding one more thing to the list. He then put the pen on the paper and pushed it over to Derin. "Anything else you think needs to be added?" The blond boy watched as Derin read it, added one more topic to it, and passed it to Ansha with the same request to her. She turned away from what she was doing to read it, then took the pen and wrote a note beside two of the topics, then passed it back to the black haired man. Derin stared at it before passing it to Cloud.
Kariya, reading over his shoulder, voiced the same thing Cloud was thinking, "Good catch on those two, Ansha." She gave an absent wave and went back to work.
"It's true, though—both of those have branch topics we have to monitor, too," Cloud agreed. "And thanks for your add, Derin. Did you have anything, since you're here, Kariya?"
"Nope, looks good to me," the orange haired man agreed. "And I can tell you right now that three of the topics here can be left unless someone specifically names them or cites something that can't be mistaken—an example would be the Blessing being cited as 'having lived fourteen years into the future.' That phrase would need to be blanked, or copied over."
"Copied over?" Ansha asked with a furrowed brow.
"So the words are replaced with something more ambiguous," Cloud told her. "It's possible, but would require voice recordings from all the people we plan to do that with, which will mean a list including all the Turks and the top people in SOLDIER, and probably their mentees. Can we do that, Derin?"
"With their help and permission, yes," Derin agreed. "We know the Turks will, and those who aren't Turks and have the Blessing. Some of Deepground's former people maybe not so much, but we'd have to ask. The mentees either know enough of the situation to agree, or they would find it amusing and give the go-ahead. Anyone else we should bring in on this?"
"Scarlet, Reeve, myself, and very likely Reeve's second, Miss Mitter," a new voice threw in, and they all looked up to see Rufus standing there, brow raised. "If you're up to something, you pretty much always have to include us now, so you should begin that way. Is Vincent in the office?"
"He is," Derin agreed, waving him towards the door. "Thanks for the note on the 'who', though."
"You're welcome," Rufus agreed, then reached over to ruffle Cloud's hair, even as Tyra got up off the boy's feet to greet Dark Nation happily, tail waving. As Cloud gave the older blond an annoyed look, Rufus glanced at the two dogs, sighed faintly, and headed for the office—and pointedly left Dark Nation to visit with Tyra.
"Does he make a habit of that?" Kariya asked Cloud in bemusement as the blond tried to straighten his hair.
"A lot of people 'make a habit' of that—and one guy even asked how the Hellfire my hair could be so soft," Cloud replied with a pout. The others all chuckled. "In that regard, most of the Turks don't, so I actually appreciate it."
"You make it sound like you don't want to appreciate it," Derin answered in amusement.
"I kind of don't," the blond told him flatly, and the others blinked in surprise. "I was on your hit list and was one of your victims in that other lifetime, and only am not dead because of circumstance. It isn't actually easy for me to be here, and the only thing making it easier is that I'm seeing who and what you are from the inside, so now you aren't just cold-hearted monsters to me. That's why one of the things I told Tseng was to reassess the 'contracts' he'd signed and throw them out if he realized they had been violated—lack of being informed counts—or if they hurt people. You can have viable contracts without keeping ones which are destroying people or yourself. As long as the Turks aren't willing to throw out those harmful contracts, we'll never get anywhere."
"But—" Derin began.
"I get it," Ansha cut in, and the black haired man turned to stare at her. She was still working, but she said, "We've all been raised to believe 'a contract is binding', period, and that thought pattern interferes in how we respond to things, even when we know something is wrong. SOLDIERs aren't being told what's actually being done to them, but at least they know they are experimental subjects, and some of Hojo's staff will give them details if they ask. That's not true of everyone, especially if a contract is involved, and the one major trait everyone who uses contracts has is that they won't let anyone have time to read the contract—they already know there's something the other person won't like in it. That means the rush for the signature has already broken the contract."
"But society would collapse if we didn't have contracts!" Derin gaped.
"Only if you believe 'everything is a contract,'" Kariya replied flatly. "That's not reality. In actual terms, people make agreements, which are generally benign and non-binding, to do things like obey laws—they never signed a contract to do so. Contracts are specific to reading a document and signing it, which next to no one living in Midgar has ever done. The President assumes he has power over anyone born here or who happened to move in, but there's no contract giving him that power, and the extent of what he has is only what the people living here agree to accept for laws.
"There are some contracts which are okay because neither party is being harmed by them. Loan sharks are called that for a reason, because they're hurting people with their excessive fees and payment requirements. Those aren't technically legal unless the person knew full well the extent of what they were signing into, which is pretty rare. And let's not get into parents somehow having a viable right to sell their children into slavery, shall we? I can tell you, though, that I'm only loyal to Tseng and Veld, not to Shinra, because Shinra decided he had the right to slaughter my whole family because they were in the category of the poor and the working poor in Junon some time ago. I have no contract with him."
As much as Cloud was shocked by the statement, he decided to take advantage and faced Derin to add, "It's not about getting rid of all agreements and contracts—ones like no stealing and no killing are good and people should abide them. It's about people realizing their rights and freedoms are being taken away or that they're being hurt and stopping it. Also, laws aren't contracts, because the majority of people never signed any kind of document saying they were agreeing to obey any law made by the leader or leaders of the city or country they live in.
"There's also a limit to what kinds of laws are even acceptable to make. Shinra makes a lot of bad and notably harmful contracts which need to be gotten rid of, and even if you say he's doing good by establishing law in the first place, that law is notably flawed. For example, it's already making people into slaves and failing to stop theft by loan shark. Without a contract—or even with one—people are free to fix the flaw. They just haven't been because they all think they have some sort of binding agreement with 'their leader'.
"However, all 'governments' got into power on the premise of protecting the people who answered to them. As soon as they take their weapons to their people, or let others do so, whether with something like a sword or gun or with the media or a drug, they've broken any contract and agreement they may ever have had with their people. In response, the people don't just have the right to take them to task and stop the atrocity, they have a requirement to do so, otherwise they're giving up all their rights willingly. And that's a problem for everyone. That's how tyrants get into power."
"But that would mean everyone at a certain age would have to do something as tedious and outlandish as reading every law and signing on to be a citizen of that city or country," Derin glared at him and Kariya.
"They would," Cloud agreed. "Or, it could become a required school class that they learn the laws from the time they start school, and either agree or disagree to obey them when they reach their majority. They don't even need to sign a contract for that—and I'm opposed to them doing so—just that they would have full awareness of what it means to live in that part of the world, and they're old enough to leave if they want. If they stay, they're giving tacit agreement to abide those laws, at least up to the point when those laws start hurting people. Getting actual government support would probably need a contract to verify they're citizens, but most don't get anything of the sort, so there's no need for a contract."
"Actually, that's not a bad idea," Ansha commented before Derin could reply again. "And if there was a voting system dependent on you actually knowing those laws, and all new laws and pending new laws were publicly announced to everyone when a majority of people would see them, people would be able to vote out laws which are bad or people who make a lot of bad laws. Someone like President Shinra wouldn't even have gotten into power that way, or it would be very curtailed power."
"I'd go for that, too," Kariya commented thoughtfully. "The only problem is that a lot of people are actually stupid enough to give up their freedoms thinking they'll get security in exchange, when instead they don't actually get either freedom or security—they're just as oppressed as people resisting the oppression."
"Well, the only chance we have to cure stupidity is with proper education, not a media completely controlled by whoever has the most money," Ansha replied.
Derin sighed and said, "Which is why we're doing all this in the first place. I get it. Can we please get back to work instead of discussing a touchy subject?"
Cloud and Kariya both had to snort as Ansha looked amused, but they began going over the topics until Vincent came back from his meeting with the President. Since he hadn't left yet, that was going to be awhile.