bip stands in the shadows lurking. Well, lurking as best as her fuckton of bodyguards would let her. She had been listening for a good while, listening to all the people doing their best to talk their way into one of the fine looking HQs on offer in Staten Island, New York. She can’t help herself but smile.

The years had treated her nicely considering everything she had been through. Scars from both knife and gunfights were starting to show up here and there on her skin that had been so unblemished years ago, before all this. Not that she cared. She was a powerful woman and had made it. Besides, nobody really had the guts to tell the Godmother of Downtown, Detroit to cover up a few scars.

She had no regrets. She had done everything in her power to keep not only her family but also mostly herself alive and in a position of power. Climbing her way up to the top hadn't been easy and that was one of the reasons why she was smiling at the moment. In order to get to the position she finally possessed she had done things, unspeakable things, things that nobody would expect her to be capable of doing. Her rap-sheet, if some copper ever had the guts to write one up would show literary everything; bribing, torture, drugs, seduction and killing. The list would just keep on going.

She walks out on to the streets, the heels on her feet making a nice, rhythmic clipity-clop. For a moment, a scene from her youth flashed through her mind. An old man whose name she had forgotten had given her first piece of 'actual' advice after she entered this life of crime...”Those shoes ain't built for running, young missy!”. Well, she no longer needed to run anywhere. People waited and nobody would want to chase her. She then lifted her gun and let it go off with a loud BANG!

Oh hello there! Have I got your attention? Brilliant, let me tell you all a story. Once upon a time when I was young, imagine that, me! Being young but yes, I was once young. I was roaming these streets aimlessly doing everything in order to survive. Lifting wallets off unsuspecting businessmen, shoplifting, you name it. Just the small stuff though. Didn't make a lot of money, just enough to survive but it played a much more important role. It made me tough, prepared me for my future path.

One day this nice looking man approached me. JakeLuciano told me to consider joining up with him and his gang if I ever needed any spare cash. Lets just say that spitting at his feet wasn't the way to go when he offered me that opportunity? As I lay in bed for weeks recuperating from the 'retaliation' that his men had delivered I had some time to think. Lets just say that was my first lesson and quickly learned my way around these parts.

While I might have needed some help initially, I ended up as a pretty good soldier. I did everything that was needed, bribing the local politicians, 'convincing' the local police officers that they were better off not checking my shipments of 'dried fruit', taking out the bosses’ trash. You name it. Eventually, I did it so well that I ended up with a nice looking suit with people of my own to do my dirty work for me. Fun times.

Was this enough though? Some may say yes but not me. I wanted hmm nay, I needed more. So without hesitation and no remorse I killed my way to the top. It’s true in order to get where I am now, believe it or not, I had to bribe and remove the ones before me. With no conscience. Like this was some world which was based on the mafia. Shocking? I know, right!

bip looks around to see if anyone’s still listening to her rant or if they have wandered off believing this to be nothing other than a Godmother reflecting on her multiple achievements. She hoped not, primarily for their sakes. She did have something important to say. She contemplated shooting into the air again but decided against it. 

As she surveyed the watchers, she saw some familiar faces as well as unfamiliar ones. The familiar faces of JakeLuciano, Maple, DeadlySpikeS, Dripple, Weasel, NiNe, BTSP and so many others was looking at her. It almost seemed as if she could see the spirits of fallen comrades, Drunky, Primus and others. Her mind seemed to want to wander and she was curious to see where it would lead her. Ah, back to her younger days!

Even though it was so long ago she could still remember the rush of adrenaline that she had gotten when, for the first time, she had convinced a young FBN agent to securely transport a shipment of drugs to the right part of town. She would never ever forget the first time she took a life, especially the bit about becoming violently sick immediately after. Making money? Fun. Killing People? Not so much. She almost let out a loud guffaw as she remembered the first thought that came after “Crap, I think I am going to throw up! Nobody better laugh!” and “I am never going to kill anyone again. Have to promise myself that”. Well, what a sad promise. 

She then realized that the public were not going to stand there watching a woman go glass-eyed, irrespective of who she is or was so she proceeded. 

As I look around now, mainly at this 'contest' that we, the Godfather Council have brought out here. I wish I could say something else but I’m disappointed. Very disappointed. There’s too much playing nice around here for my liking. It’s like you have morals. 

bip makes her voice turn bright and gleeful, almost like that of a hormonal teenager's on her sweet 16th. She even let out a very uncharacteristic giggle to drive the point home.

“I won’t trashtalk because my mommy told me not to!” “I won’t bribe to secure votes.” “Everyone’s so nice. I miss my mommy.” “People shouldn't ask so many questions!”.

Gaaah 

The woman lets out a sigh and shakes her head. She looks around yet again and turns her voice back to normal. Firm.

Where the fuck is the motivation? Where is the thirst to succeed? I am yet to see anything of that sort! All I see are little children who think wearing a bold suit would be a good idea. This is the fucking mafia. You are competing for a chance to run a Family, not for a chance to be class president for fucks sake!

You are not going to get anywhere with your “I'm a good guy, people will vote for me” routine. Success comes to those who utilize every single avenue to get ahead. It does not come to you because you're honorable. Success will run from you at every chance it gets and you needed to chase it down and grab it to become a 'somebody'

Is there a point to all this? Yes. Do you want me to vote for you before Saturday? Come to me and tell me what I stand to gain if I was to vote for you to succeed. No, I don't want to hear “I will grow Staten Island to be uber cool”. I don't fucking care. I want to know how it will benefit me and mine. Not how it will benefit a pile of concrete that I have no affiliation to whatsoever.

Well, green does grease every wheel around here, doesn't it? It should. Now why would you need to come to me with those offers? I don't know... I do happen to control 10% of the total votes cast, personally AND I just happen to lead a district with quite a few men and women who are ready and waiting for me to give them instructions. Not to mention my wide array of contacts across the 4 cities. Oh yeah, don't forget about the fact that you might have to do business with me on a regular basis and this is your chance to make a favorable first impression.

bip turns around and walks back into the shadows. As she walks away, listening to the sound of her heels, she can't help but feel a deep sense of satisfaction knowing she has made an impact in the minds of quite a few mobsters.

Roquelaure turns her head and listens intently to God Mother Bip.

God Mother Bip first let me start out by saying that I have read about all the memories that you have spoken about from a while back in my mother's journals. I know that she is more then impressed with all of those that have come from God Father Jake Luciano's family. I know she watched ya'll work hard and achieve great things rather quickly and everyday she was impressed with your work and every other individual there's.

Lighting up a smoke and then offering God Mother Bip one she pauses a bit and then replays everything she heard in her head.

Sometimes necessity makes it where we have to do things that we don't want to do, or do want to in some cases. I believe most here know that the road to the top isn't something that is fully of all glitter and fun. Sometimes we do have to get our hands dirty.

As I have said time and time again over the past few days, I want all the auth's to work well together. It's not a moral sense per say that I want to do that, but it's because it's what I feel will be best for those that are going to be there, crew leaders and family members of them. It's very similar in essence to a regular district (even though it is completely different) to wars among each other killing each other off constantly isn't always good for business.

As far as what I personally can do or offer you, to be honest I have nothing that you would want except for the respect and admiration for you and your entire city that I already have and you will never lose. While I have already said previously I'm not my mother, her journals alone speak miles for you, and I personally hope to grow to know and learn from you as she did.

She stops as she pulls a drag from her smoke and looks off into the distance with her own memories she has made not just from this event but even from the time she joined under God Father Kpacumup.

You know? This is why I wear a boppin beepers headband. Cause this right here is what it's all about. This tells us how it really is or how it should be...

I agree with every damn word of it, not because I was a former member of your family but because every single word goes straight up my spine and gives me goosebumps. We need leaders like you Bip, actual leaders.

I see maybe two people actually with a thirst for it in this 'competition', showing that they want this and think the could do this... Though most are riding along on friend votes and to be honest that's pretty sickening. Telling people what they want to hear just to get their head threw the door. There's no hunger there, there's nothing new.

The only person I spoke up for was Yobssarg, yes he is a friend but at the same time there was a few little things in his speech that made a bit of sense to me and it was somewhat different from the others. Some of what he said was similar to others like the whole "I will help rebuild the city to it's former glory" but you have to think also that being a "New Blood" shows that's he's just seeing things from other people and picking a little of that up, just like anyone would.

If it was me up there, I would probably be hundreds of millions of dollars out of pocket already and I'm sure many other little favours would need to be completed. I would take this 'competiton' with my bare hands and strangle somebody until they said yes. Though you know what, I'm not, and it's up to the people to actually listen to you and to what others are saying to secure their votes and to make their run successful when they do actually get appointed as crewleader.

These contestants don't understand that yes they might win but thats the easy part, whose to say they are going to be given a long run at it and that's where the bigger picture lies. They need to start thinking of themselves and their future and bust a nut.

Godmother bip I agree that sometimes we can be too Robotic and play too nicely but in terms of the contest that you speak about I wouldn't expect it to be any other way. The contest is in essence a popularity contest not necessarily who is going to be the best leader. Most will automatically vote for those who they know or have head dealing with in the past as they want to see their friends do well.

I can not speak for the current crop of contestants so this is just purely my thoughts, yes in public they might be acting nice and keeping people onside but if they do get their chance to lead a family who is to say that won't use every underhand tactic to get to the top? Surely the first part is about gaining votes and going along the root of trash talking is a risk, yes you may win some extra voters but at the same time you may lose a lot who think you have gone to far.

It is a fine line but the fact that contestants can see how the voting is going means they can play safe if they are in the lead or play dirty if they need to gain some votes. Also whose to say that people aren't going round securing votes with promises of brown envelopes special treatment for votes, they might not have got to you yet or they might want to see how things are on the final day before lining the pockets of the most powerful.

A very nice speech, Godmother bip. I'll always appreciate the appearance of a leader, especially a Godfather, willing to step out on to our streets and give a honest and frank opinion; it's incredibly refreshing and also downright interesting to see how people are thinking.

Now, as for what you're actually saying.. I can't help but agree, and quite strongly, that this whole competition has been too much on the "holding of hands, skipping through meadows, making daisy chains to drape in each others hair and making Staten Island the bestest of the best of the hand holdy, lovey-dovey, lets all be bestest best friends" vote winning strategy. While in my head, the way that an election like this should play out involves underhand secret murders in the middle of the night to eliminate the competition and clever smear campaigns and elaborate bribing schemes - I CAN appreciate that the way we run this thing of ours kinda knocks the whole murders in the night thing out the water... but you guys are in competition with each other. You're all supposed to be proving that you alone want this more than anybody else, that you alone will fight harder for this than anyone else. Yet everybody is playing it safe and easy so that if they fail, they can just slot back where they were. A chance like this - a chance to walk away from your family to start your own, it should be something worth dying over, not "Oh well I'll have a go but if I don't make it, ah well, never mind, I can just pretend like it never happened in the first place".

It's shaping up to be, like I feared it would be in the first place, essentially just "Crew Leader Idol". Call this number for the act who gave the best performance. And to continue with the analogy of a futuristic 'music' competition, it takes more than just the ability to give a polished performance before you 'make it' to go on and actually do well afterwards. All we're seeing votes being based on at the moment, is bloodline popularity and these polished performances. It'd be nice if we saw someone make some kind of bold move towards showing a genuine thirst. It's not just about why you are good enough, it's about why they are not.

I'm still of the opinion that this competition is essentially, a bag of balls. But that's mostly because it's shaping up pretty much how was expected - although I did think we'd see a few more well known bloodlines throwing their names in.

In Las Vegas, in Detroit, when the futures of those cities were decided by means of competition, people had to fight for their right to win it. Why the fuck are we treating this any differently?

I will admit it has been fun as when the contest first started, i had 2 initial mails. one saying if i get auth, can you come in and shoot everyone else and a second offering to buy my vote.  As fun as either is, like some people money is not my biggest motivator.  As i watched the competition evolve, it became at stages people begging for a vote, but with no real substance behind why?

Is many methods i could take in the election such as simply backing my own to try and take a grip in another city or find the worst contenders and watch from the sidelines as they shoot each other or create problems for society and attempt to recruit the fallens members, i could hope people cause problems for me so i could even shoot them myself.  Fortunately, I am a businessman and know a working prosperous staten island is good for me especially with Brooklyn still awaiting filling.

My interest will be with the elections almost over, how people will react with each other outside their native grounds, and how they will treat the outsider if 2 from one district, one from another or how much past bloodlines can bond to create during challenging times.