On a damp December evening, Ziva has finished up the last of her business for the day, hoping that an end to the bloodshed that has gripped the secret world she is part of is here. A great many good men and women have fallen, lately, including some close to her heart. Casting her mind back through her own experiences and the journals of her ancestors, she notices that the reasons for such losses seem to be less documented than they might have been previously. Checking her watch, she sees the time a little earlier than she expected; only seven. She had a meeting arranged later on that evening about the possibility of some "work" going on a job to knock over a local trucking depot, but plenty of time before then, and the meeting wasn't far across town to where she decided to head; the newly renovated restaurant and lounge she had opened over in North Side, close to her Headquarters, The Red Rose. Hopping into a taxi, she makes the short journey across town, and heads downstairs into the lounge, nodding to the bodyguard guarding the entrance on the way, grabbing a drink from the girls behind the bar on the way in before settling down on one of the velvet couches. The lounge itself was reasonably busy, a few familiar faces around enjoying a drink to celebrate the end of the day. As a group gathers around her, Ziva starts to speak about the things occupying her mind these last few days.

A whisper. A rumor. A question, perhaps asked in the coffee shops; in the public ones, in the private meeting rooms. Not always answered directly, at least, not in public. Privately... well. That would depend upon the asker and the askee. Discussed perhaps in other avenues of this world, but, at least this time, only in part here.

Which question? The question 'Why?', of course.

This past week has seen a level of bloodshed in our world unseen since the great war of May, which saw the majority of Philadelphia, New York and Detroit take on the rest of those cities, and the city of Chicago. Many of us lost an ancestor in that war and only a tiny number of mafiosi remained, still standing, and charged with the task of rebuilding our world. In the conflicts since then, many lives have been lost, it's true, but on a smaller scale to what we saw in May and have seen in the previous week. However, in the time since then, I have seen a new trend emerge. There seems, at least to these still relatively fresh to this world eyes, to have been a drop in the amount of explanations given.

Don't get me wrong, of course - explanations have still been given at certain points. Hell, explanations possibly even contributed to the removal of Detroit under Alucard and Subtle and Philadelphia under MadChild and Weedall. Some explanations do seem to be quite strongly rejected for one reason or another.

Maybe as well as that fear, also, the sheer number of Godfathers out there now, with our current age of our world dividing itself by district rather than city, also contributes to the drop. After all, in any given situation now, there is usually multiple men and women in a position to be the ones to stand up and account for it.

Perhaps also, our current crop of Godfathers just feel like they don't need to hold themselves to account - if that is the viewpoint.. well.. they are the Godfathers. It is their prerogative to supply or to not supply the volume of information that they see fit.

Possibly in our current situation, the reason that only one of the wars of the past week has been so far accounted for is the time between each conflict; each seems to have triggered the next and at this point, it seems complicated to look back and start to pick out the individual reasons for this and for that, plus the latest in this line of wars has perhaps taken from us one of the people who may have been able to shed light on the second, the Brooklyn/Queens/Old City District take down. Godfather Solastalgia provided an interesting reflection on the take down of Lynch already, which I'm sure I can say was appreciated by all of us paying it attention, but what of the rest? Time will tell if the Godfathers will choose to divulge their reasoning.

I'd like to repeat what I said earlier, at this point. If the Godfathers do not wish to divulge this information, that is their right, as Godfathers, to not divulge it. I will respect that. I don't know if that is how I would conduct my business were I in their shoes, because I've never been in their shoes. My bloodline has so far been one that follows the order to go to war, rather than one to give it. I do not wish to put pressure on the Godfathers to provide explanations for recent events, rather recent events have triggered my thoughts on this matter and I am interested to see what the general consensus is at the moment.

What I would like to discuss, is whether or not people feel that perhaps it may be a responsibility of the Godfathers to discuss publicly the reasons for their actions which may lead to the large scale loss of life that we have seen lately. Does the responsibility, in your eyes, change by the type of conflict? Should an internal conflict be documented in the same way as the wars that spread across the cities of our world? Do you respect more or less the leaders who do come out and say their piece? Would you rather that those with little to say or who are going to give reasoning that may seem weak or otherwise poor not say it at all? What would you do?

Ziva takes a long swig from her drink, lights up a cigarette, pulls an ashtray on to the arm of the couch and sits back, awaiting the response of those around her.

I would say Rags, that in my opinion, since the death of DeadlySin and Phil_Steak, there has been a bit of a decline in the number of reasons threads.

And, as for the point about remembering Godfathers.. I do agree. Many of the Godfathers we have had since we started appointing Godfathers by district rather than by city, I wouldn't have a hope in hell of remembering. We do seem to have a fairly constant parade of people hitting the Godfather rank. Whether or not attaining the rank of Godfather is something which has been somewhat cheapened... is a debate for another speech that I am sure boredom will drive me to give another day. Or maybe even later today. God knows. Obviously when the rank becomes more available and less exclusive, it becomes easier to attain. Whether or not standards drop as a result of that is another argument.

Although it would be interesting to know the markers that people set for a good Godfather, both from an internal and external perspective.

Cory Chase approaches Ziva with a smile and a handshake, letting the unlit cigarette dangle from his mouth.

"Hello there. I wouldn't worry too much about expressing your feelings on these matters, as I share those same feelings. I personally feel that after wars it is the victor who should supply the community with a speech. Even if they were under attack to begin with, there is always some sort of information there to be extracted.

However, I'm not going to stand here and tell you that reasons are or are not being put down on paper. Normally, we would come to the streets with a single speech about the events. Seeing as this has been multiple events itself within a short time frame, I believe that the reasons are still being put together to their liking. As the wars have been back to back to back, if it were me, I would be preparing one big speech for that occasion instead of coming out here with several ones. Seems to me like one is being finished, then having to be revised and added onto due to more current events and reasoning. I could be wrong, so don't quote me. That's just how I would approach it.

War speeches are one of the best parts of this world in my opinion. I love to listen to them, give my opinion, and look forward to building this country like I've seen done before. To people, it's not so much as having the reasons, it's the way you explain it to them. Trying to find a way to make it acceptable or not to the public eye and making sure that you touch on every key point you were trying to make. Some of these speeches can make the best stories for our ancestors to look back on one day, and that alone is special knowing who and who wasn't involved in so-and-so war.

Yes, I respect someone more who has the ability to come to the streets and give it to us straight, or even in your own controversial opinion. It's what makes this world worth it sometimes. Watching carefully to see if history repeats itself, or this could be a whole new reasoning we've never seen before. Either way, it's exciting.

This might be a time where all they need is just a little patience, but sometimes that is hard for all us to give the Godfathers. Like everything else in life we are spoiled and greedy when we want something and we want it now. I'm the same way, to be honest. I get impatient with it at times. Like you said Ziva, it might just be the person conducting business. If it were myself, I can't say I would do anything differently because I honestly don't know if I would. I can see this war speech for what has been happening across the country being put into effect, but having several deadline extensions due to continuing matters. Just when it looks to be finished, surprise! There's something else that needs to be added along to it. Not saying that is a bad or good thing, but that kind of hard copy takes time to put together."

He offers Ziva a cigarette straight from the box and lights his own.

AlexMoran ran out into the Streets and tackled Cory_Chase into the ground taking him, his lighter, his cigarette box and his swag down with him. 

Dooooode! Don't you know?!?! WARZ,brah! We gotta keep our heads down!!!

Cory seems to whisper something into Alex's ear.

Oh, it's over? Jesus. Nobody tells me shit. Goddamit!

He turned around and looked at everyone..Ziva with her classic 'I'm scouse and not very bright' drool and the rest of the esteemed line up that had spoken at this most pressing topic up until now.

Well,hai. 

Thank you,Ziva for bringing this topic to our fair Streets. I am sure it took you quite some effort. After all, we do not require our leaders to bring anything but their auth speeches to these Streets anymore and why should we? We are here to be mobsters who click away frantically, not anything else but I digress and for that I apologize. Short attention span and all that.

Moving onto the actual topic at hand...the question of 'Why?'

Well, I'll respond to your original queries first,shall I?

 Does the responsibility, in your eyes, change by the type of conflict?

Well, this question makes the assumption of Godfathers and Godmothers having a responsibility to us, the public. Even though I believe that they have no such responsibility,I shall accept the premise of this question. Only because I like hearing the sound of my voice. No, it doesn't, as far as I am concerned. If we are to believe that Godfathers have a responsibility to explain themselves, then the nature of the conflict should change nothing...for instance if I was a GF and three other GFs and myself have taken a city down, I would ask the others what they feel should be done...whether one speech would suffice or all 4 of us should give our reasons. We would then proceed with the plan.

  Should an internal conflict be documented in the same way as the wars that spread across the cities of our world?

Depends on the internal conflict. If it was just a case of a Thug thinking he has more pull than he does,then no. If it is something that the rest of this world notices, then yes.

 Do you respect more or less the leaders who do come out and say their piece?

I would refrain from passing judgement  on a godfather simply based on his Street presence and I would dig further. If the only piece of information I could get on said Godparent is a street speech or lack thereof , then it would depend on the way the speech was delivered or in the way the world looks at him/her.

Would you rather that those with little to say or who are going to give reasoning that may seem weak or otherwise poor not say it at all?

Well, how are we to set a good example for new blood coming to our shores if the people on top of the food chain are told not to visit the Streets just because what they are about to say may not be well received? No matter what you have to say, if people died for it....it's probably worth saying. 

What would you do?

Think I've explained that.

After listening carefully to the words of Cory_Chase, Ziva gratefully accepts the cigarette, lights up, and motions over to the girls behind the bar to fetch Cory a drink over, as well as top up her own. As AlexMoran approaches, she instinctively recoils slightly; Alex has a reputation for being somewhat, well.. a Fleabag. As he molested Cory, she made a mental note to dust Cory down with flea powder later on. Wouldn't want the couches getting infected now.

I quite agree with you Cory, I'm sure that in this instance, it is merely the frequency of the different conflicts which has caused the delay in explanation to be delivered; I more than understand that and I don't wish for my words to be seen by our Godfathers as an attack; I understand the situation, it's just the bitching and whinging that has gone on in certain circles while we await explanations that has made me wish to respond.

I also very much agree with your point on the speeches historically bringing a great sense of activity to our streets; the excitement that they generate and the feelings that they trigger can be some of the best parts of our world, most certainly. I think even to read and to disagree in conversation can provide something different than our everyday conversations. In a way, our appreciation for the explanation is almost gladiatorial in nature, I suppose. We sit, we wait, we watch the blood shed, we pass judgement.

Alex, you're most welcome for the bringing to the speech, I very much agree that the radio silence that we as leaders can sometimes give out is quite disappointing, possibly even unhealthy. It's a trend that I'm hoping to not continue, personally. There may not be things that can be said relating to the state of affairs in this world constantly, but there is always room for a debate or two. It's what makes the streets go around, and sometimes having something new to respond to is what keeps this thing of ours interesting.

You raise an interesting point about the responsibility of Godfathers to the public being one I had assumed; you are quite right, although I must admit that I hadn't realized my assumption until you pointed it out. Although I am personally of the opinion that this world cannot function in the dark, that we need to at least be drip fed information from above to an extent, you are of course correct in saying that the Godfathers themselves do not have a duty to provide it, although perhaps they are the best placed candidates to do so.

I feel you may have taken my point about respect for leaders who will come out an say things as me saying it should be the only indicator; there are many things that make a great leader and although I do believe that public appearance is one of them, it is most certainly not the sole thing to judge upon. I will say though that on a personal level, a leader that can come out and make a careful and considered speech or explanation will gain a little more of my respect.

It's most interesting to hear both of your thoughts on this matter, I thank you very much for sharing them.