A small brass key turned the lock to a post box tucked away inside of one of Chicago's many post offices; the small clink of metal that touched the sides of the box gave way as the door opened, where a sealed, eggshell white envelope sat.  A small hand, wrapped in a leather glove, carefully picked up the envelope as its owner placed it in her coat pocket; Veronica Mantooth, an up and coming journalist who was tasked with the nearly daunting story of covering the recent spat of deaths in the Four Cities.  As she scurried out of the post office to head back to her office and headed towards the nearest taxi, the sound of shrieks and screams poured behind her in the post office before a loud, booming voice took command of them.

"EVERYBODY ON THE GROUND--NOW! THIS IS A TOP-TIER PETTY CRIME!"

An hour passed by before Veronica returned to her fourth story office building in the heart of Chicago, and finally, she was at liberty to remove her coat. Setting it on a small coat rack, she slid the envelope from the coat's pocket and grabbed a letter opener as she made careful note to slit the top - completely bypassing the Dunder Mifflin-branded seal that closed the envelope.  As she slid two large papers folded inside one another, she flattened them out as her eyes began scanning the letter.

Dear Veronica,

The past few days in the city of Chicago (and all of the cities right now, for that matter) have been - for a lack of a better word - ridiculous.  While I'm not keen on talking to the press, (as I do have a paper myself) let alone on matters that fall outside of the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company, the events that have transpired merit some kind of response - though I would kindly ask that we cull over a few details through some additional correspondence before you're ready to publish an article of any sort on the matter.  

While I'm comfortable to speak on the events in Chicago and Detroit, I should point out that these are my views and perceptions of the events, and how I view them might be different depending on what side of the country someone falls on.  Adding to that, I don't feel that I'm quite entitled - nor the best person to ask - to speak on the events that spread to New York and Philadelphia, and I would suggest approaching others that may be more familiar and in-depth with those matters - matters that also delayed in my correspondence to writing this letter.  Nonetheless, I'll dig in as best as I can on the events in Chicago and Detroit - and this will require a small amount of background history.

You may have remembered some time ago another conflict that saw the removal of several high-ranking members from the Four Cities that were mainly associated with the late Godfather ChaosSpike of South Side, Chicago.  While I won't get into the details of why that conflict started - that much has been documented well enough elsewhere - the events that transpired behind those scenes set the stage for a relationship dynamic that North Side and the Suburbs (along with the newly formed syndicate in the South Side) would later encounter with the regime of West Side, Chicago along with its sister districts in Detroit.  To put it shortly - that conflict started without the prior knowledge of North Side and the Suburbs, and we were taken off guard by the sudden execution of a fellow Godfather in our district.  Though we were later given explanations for why we weren't informed, the void it left us with in Chicago was one that lacked the trust and forthrightness that we had experienced previously in our relationships with the rest of Chicago - leading us to feel increasingly isolated with the people in our own city as well as, ostensibly, our sister city - Detroit.  

While our attempts at reconciliation were successful in some regards, the last week saw a severe cooling in relations when rumors surfaced about a potential attack on the Suburbs, South Side and North Side at the hands of West Side and her allies in Detroit; the inverse of this rumor also surfaced at the same time.  These rumors were taken with a large amount salt - if you follow our world closely, rumors appear to have replaced the (occasionally) hamfisted logic of our previous ancestors  for their reasons of conflict.  Nevertheless, with the idea of a bloodbath not something I'm keen on in the least, we approached these rumors with trepidation and attempted to quash them out with Lynch in a hope to stop them from spreading and to ease tensions.  While we may have crossed wires at the time, the response I perceived was that of someone incredibly blasé and unassuming for a rumor that threatened our shared city of Chicago.  Still, trying to give West Side the better benefit of the doubt, I ended the evening undecided in my actions until more concrete information could be received.

That information was acquired the following morning - and sadly, West Side had decided to act on the rumors - planning an organized sweep of our respective districts the following day.  With diplomacy out of the picture and our time dwindling, North Side, The Loop, the Suburbs and the South Side of Chicago took the difficult decision to launch a preemptive attack on what were our former allies in Chicago and Detroit - an operation that was, for all intensive purposes, a clean sweep.

Dec 02, 21:47:01     You tried to WACK! Lynch

..Well, maybe not quite a clean sweep.

Eventually, the districts of both attacked cities fell, and the conflict that started with insidious whispers ended with gunshots, with Chicago left beaten and bruised, but still standing.  I will always have the utmost respect for the rivals that fell - some of them I called close friends, at that - and while their demise isn't something I'm particularly thrilled with, I feel that the equilibrium of our city has been reset for the better, and I'm extremely happy to see a united Chicago back in action.

But that's enough from me - at least until I see the final piece you're going with.  For now, I'm eager to resume business at Dunder Mifflin and settle back into my regular life in Chicago; I would hope the other three cities are looking forward to something similar - we could all use a bit of a breather, I think.

Sincerely,

Solastalgia

A very unfortunate series of events that led to that battle. I know it was not an easy decision to act against those we had all worked along side for so long. However when it was learned that the battle would be brought to our doorsteps we had no choice but to act before they could.

I thank the hard working members of Chicago and the ones now in Detroit for their loyalty and dedication. I also mourn the loss of many wonderful people on both sides of this conflict, may they rest peacefully.

Nicely put, thank you for taking the time to bring this to the streets. And I think Maple summed up things nicely.

A sad turn of events indeed, that rumors broke the friendships between West Side and the rest of the city that had endured since May despite all the other times at the rumormongers tried and failed to break us. Lynch, as well as Anomaly, SammyGravano and the rest of Detroit, will be missed by many of us here in Chicago, however the way of this world is that sometimes we must do thinks that we would perhaps rather not in order to ensure the survival of our own.

Rest in peace, West Side and Detroit. 

Looking forward, the opportunity to be part of the rebuilding of our world after the events of the past week will be, as the chance to be part of a similar process that was afforded to my great-great-grandmother of the same name, an interesting challenge. I look forward to working with the rest of the leaders of Chicago and the rest of our world in doing so.

Crazy fucking week, eh? Erasing the head of WS was not the funnest of tasks, nor was hurting Anomolly, and KP. But things on their side seemed dead set due to stuff coming from someone in the radiator... and we all know how that goes... stepping all over everything that brings life.

I am quite sad for the losses of them as it was not something that needed to happen exactly, but I guess Lynch "lost an ear" to us sometime along the way which I guess started around when My Chaos had died... His mind couldn't be changed. He was reached to but to no avail.

Nonetheless, the continued loyalties within Chicago will be rebuilding what had to be destroyed. Onward and upward, together, collectively, all over and out. 

Finally, a note on rumors. Be wary of them. There is a lot of despair in weakness---

Rest in peace, my friends Lynch, Anomolly, and KP. 

Cantona sighed, suddenly irritated with it all.  He was frustrated and he found his English halting and stuttered; as he always did when the passionate anger he was capable of took hold. Thankfully, his talented typist was bilingual so when French came out of Cantona’s, clipped English ended up on the paper.

“Ms. Mantooth, knowing the intricacies of journalism I know you will appreciate a second opinion on recent events; knowing me like you do, I do not have to tell you the importance in keeping your sources secret”

Cantona winced at the turn of phrase. About as subtle as a fish with trousers, as they’d say back in Marseille; and the grizzled reporter was sensible enough not to name her sources and devalue their currency. He instructed the typist to ditch the copy and for a few moments the only sound was the ‘crick crick crick’ as the cylindrical carriage was rotated to eject the discarded draft from the machine. Taking a slight sip of rich brandy, Cantona set the tumbler onto his leather-topped desk and began anew.

“Ms. Mantooth, it is with a somewhat unique perspective that I can break our long period without correspondence. When the events you have been tasked to report began, I was just one of many senior figures within the North Side paper industry; yet by the time it came to end I stood first among my peers in the West Side. It is therefore important for you and anyone else who reads this to note that, whilst I am now a Godfather, the perspective I offer is that of my position before the war; the Right Hand Man of a crew.

When Godfather ChaosSpike died, everything changed. He was, for me, the catalyst that set everything else in motion. The deaths of those in the (old) Philadelphia and Detroit are not relevant to this discussion; I am speaking chiefly of the death of Chaos and the massive role the late Lynch had in it, something which I believe Lynch needed to answer for.

Not something, you notice, that I say JakeLuciano or Kpac should answer for. Why? It is rather simple; decisions made by the Loop were made by Harris - Kpac is his own man. For his part, Luciano’s involvement was only the result of his district being the victim of shots for other aggressors in that war.

So, ChaosSpike is dead and the only person alive to answer for that is Lynch. When the leaders of southside died, so too did any reasonable notion of a unified and solid Chicago. Harris, the figurehead, was gone; and the trust which had been painstakingly built over a period of many things was irrevocably shattered with one simple move.

It is not so much who died but how they died. The internal death of a Chicago Godfather is something that could have, perhaps, been overcome with time. The choice of Lynch to deliberately ostracise two Chicago districts and instead trust in some of those in New York set us all on a path from which there was no return.

It is not my intention to say that Chicago is one homogenous district. We all have our independence and autocracy, and rightly so. What I am saying is that Lynch showed his hand with his actions; North Side and the Suburbs were not to be trusted. Whilst Solastalgia infers that attempts were made to rebuild trust the fact is that actions speak much louder than words. We had a ‘neither can live whilst the other survives’ scenario going on and make no mistake. The acknowledged doubt Lynch had of these districts would only have grown with time and, conversely, the suspicion from our side could only increase. They didn’t trust us before, why should they now? Chicago was a ticking timebomb and the only question was who would blink first. We did, and I will not apologise that, nor would I expect anyone one ‘our side’ to.

Quite the opposite, I was pleased. I had been advising and lobbying Toberius and, where possible, weeks towards rebuilding Chicago, a euphemism which meant - of course, - removing Lynch. ChaosSpike and his Lieutenants were friends to a great many of us and it galled that they died without us being able to do anything. There would be a day of reckoning, I desperately hoped.

Don’t misunderstand me, this is no disrespect to Lynch. He was a respected Godfather and an honourable foe; as were those who fought his corner. The deaths of those in Detroit deserve specific mention; I have spoke nearly exclusively of Chicago, what did this have to do with Detroit? Well, the precedent was made when Lynch removed a Detroit loyal to ChaosSpike; we acted in a comparable manner and I don’t think anyone can have a legitimate grievance with that.

Ultimately, the two factions simply had differing views on the furtherment of Chicago and, unfortunately, these views were mutually exclusive. Those who died deserve the utmost respect (and it is rare after a war that I say this and mean it) but if our spoils are a Chicago that is once again unified, then it was a price worth paying as far as I am concerned.