At nine on the sixth morning, LalaLive's board gallery looked more like a public forum than an executive meeting.
The company had turned the subscription vote into an open consumer session after regulator pressure. A large screen displayed the new offer:
`FIVE YEARS — HALF PRICE / PREMIUM DREAM ACCESS / SAFETY IMPROVEMENT INCLUDED`.
People photographed the headline before anyone opened the terms.
Marwa stood before the board. “Long-term commitment is how we keep immersive services affordable. Safety systems, compute, and creator royalties all cost money.”
Amina opened the second schedule of the contract. Cancellation would end service access, but training copies already inside the adaptive pool could remain for “system integrity.”
“Put that clause on the main screen,” she said.
Ruth, present as an observer, supported the request. The text appeared in front of the audience and the room changed immediately.
Marwa did not deny it. “Training continuity matters. You cannot build a stable safety model if the training base disappears every hour.”
Amina placed two clauses side by side. “A user can cancel the service but cannot necessarily revoke the training copy. That is not just a subscription. It is a service contract tied to a data license.”
A consumer delegate from Eastlands raised her hand. “The half-price plan is the only one my family could afford. If people refuse training, will the service cost more?”
Amina refused to invent a reassuring answer. “It may affect the economics. That is exactly why the price should be visible instead of hiding payment inside a consent clause.”
Marwa replied, “Compute still has to be paid for.”
Sifa had been sitting near the back. When board counsel claimed affected beta users had understood the terms, she stood on her own.
“Do not use me in that sentence.”
The board secretary handed her a microphone.
“I signed the beta form,” Sifa said. “I understood experience improvement as improving my session. I did not understand it as an ongoing training copy. That is my testimony. My missing-song problem is not proof that LalaLive stole a memory, so do not add that either.”
Counsel tried to press the point. “You do have a memory gap?”
“A subjective gap.”
“And you claim the company caused it?”
“No.”
The answer removed the easiest dramatic attack while strengthening the consent problem.
Amina opened churn data from the internal audit. Users who had left the service months earlier still had active training tokens because cancellation did not trigger model-pool revocation.
“Is that a bug?” a board member asked.
Kato answered from the technical row. “Under the current design, no. The contract allows retention.”
Amina proposed separation: subscription access as one agreement; experience consent for the pack; storage as a user choice; training as a separate, revocable license that did not require account closure.
Marwa ran the numbers. “Removing the training subsidy could raise the low-cost package by twenty-eight percent.”
“Then show the real price,” a consumer delegate said. “Don't bury the rest inside consent.”
The board divided. Some saw separate licenses as a compliance burden that could kill growth. Others saw five-year lock-in as a greater risk after the K-17 incident.
During recess, one delegate followed Amina and asked whether the proposed system would simply create a “privacy premium” affordable only to wealthier users. Amina agreed that this had to become a metric in the regulator review. Refusing training could not quietly turn basic service into an unaffordable tier.
Marwa heard the exchange and wrote a note on her tablet. For the first time, the argument was not only company versus regulator. It was also about who would pay for transparency.
When the board returned, the chair postponed the five-year vote until Ruth's office completed the licensing review.
“You have put the company in limbo,” Marwa told Amina afterward.
“The terms did.”
“Separate boxes will not make people read.”
“Then we measure comprehension, not clicks.”
Sifa approached carrying a clinic form.
“I have an appointment with Dr. Nuru.”
Amina almost asked five questions at once. Instead she asked one. “Do you want me there?”
“As my sister. Not as supervisor.”
Amina nodded.
Sifa took a pen and wrote one sentence beneath the restoration consent:
`I CAN STOP AT ANY TIME.`