Achilles does something dramatic and then sets the scene for his speech, as he does so you notice a significant bulge in his nether region...Surely not?

"Straight to the point then.

I was walking down the street recently and I came across a man who was obviously fairly old but also had an air about him that demanded respect. After asking several people just who the guy was, I was told he was a Consigliere from one of the chi-town families. I looked at him and noticed he was all grey. Not just his hair, but even his suit was of a greyish colour. I got a little closer to get a better look and I realised this greyness was in fact dust. I mean this guy had been sitting here for so long he was just collecting the stuff.

Was he still alive? Brushing off a few spiders, I poked him a couple of times and he made a low, creaky sort of sound but nothing more, I gathered this meant he was still breathing. As I looked around to see if anyone else thought this was crazy I noticed more of these dusty looking mobsters, in fact there was a small collection of them from just this one family. A Capo and 3 Made Men that I could see that were just sitting there, all dusty.

A couple of days later I found myself noticing even more of these dusty folk in other cities, there was obviously a small army of them from Gangsters to Consiglieres. I just couldn't understand how or why they were still alive though? I mean, does that explain all of the dead streets, coffee shops and HQ's? At first glance the current amount of mafiosi looks to be vast, but on further inspection there are a lot of these sorts of people around who aren't contributing anything.

What purpose does Ol' Dusty and his army have? Why aren't they all dead? If someone could answer me this I could go on being a little less confused than normal.

Achilles, of the nimble feet and huge pee pee.

What an interesting thing you have noticed here Achilles. I must admit, I've notice it too as well to be honest. It strikes me as so odd. Why are these people being left to rot, barely breathing and with a very mild heart beat. 

It's kind of like they're robots and they're just sat there, inactive.

I can only fathom a guess at the moment as i'm not in a position where our family is full of them but I can only imagine it is to give the impression to the outside world that their families are vastly populated or they have more man power that it seems. Maybe to ward off any potential threat. Having said that though anyone with a bit of nouse about them and a bit of leg work can see the truth. Or is it to make it look like their cities are more populated than they seems to be as to give off the impression that more leaders are needed to be authed adding to the already massive amount of bolds running around already.

Why have they not been given a dirt nap or thrown over the bridge with a nice new pair of cement shoes. Some of them I can kind of understand. Some of them let their leaders know that they're going on a short hiatus prior but all of them? I seriously doubt it. 

I really hope there is a leader over hearing our discussion at the moment Achilles. I'd love to hear their opinions on it and reasons for keeping this people alive. That though, is up to them. 

Excellent observation, friend. Im going to go out on a limb and be blunt, for me its on word; perception. Amongst a few other defining variables, this world thrives off the ideology of this word. There are many examples of how perception works to the betterment of certain crew leaders and Godfathers.

Sometimes it can be a visual deterrent, safety in numbers as they say.  For example, you can have an insane amount of bodyguards surrounding you, from the outside you look almost impossible to get at, making people think twice before attempting to make a play for you, when in actual fact you have 175 fat, drunken bums, who wouldn't know how to jump in front of a speeding bullet. But the perception exists, and its this perception that could and does change the dynamic of a war, for example.

Its the same with family numbers, the more members  district it has, the harder it will be to tackle, potentially anyway. Like has been suggested, its a possibility that it is used to force another auth within a district, once again creating this perception a district is stronger than it maybe is.

Is this a bad thing, well im  not too sure. What ever it takes to survive, right? if its making people think you're stronger and more populated than you're, then so be it, no? Its not like we cant get rid of those gathering dust if we need to make the space for someone else, its easily managed.

like I said though, its a great subject to push forward, well done.

A topless Zack made his way towards the current discussion. He was fast growing a reputation for impeccable smoothness across his chest. Clearly a man who enjoyed getting waxed. Other mobsters would look at him, always judging, watching, as his flamboyant character paraded around The Streets. 

"A good topic to raise here, Achilles. What has been said already by our fellow contributors does hit the nail on the head. The more members a family has, the stronger it becomes. However, would you substitute this for fewer members, who are less dusty? For me, every time. My family has learned, over time, that quality wins hands down and if the right people are selected with the right values and good potential then you will have a full HQ - with members who want to be there and build with you.

Saying this, I would like to clarify that this doesn't mean not taking a chance on people. New blood in this world have great potential. You only need to look over to the likes of Blu_Blank or Frank_Fontaine, both fairly new to these shores when my grandfather knew their ancestors. They are a prime example of nurturing potential and knowing when to expose them."

Definitely an interesting choice of topic you've decided on. The men of dust have been an occurence for a long time time in this world, you can always find plenty of them sitting about. Usually this condition doesn't appear all of a sudden and is often precedented by the said person to interact less with his fellow crew members, do less work and slowly fade away as they become dusty. Although sometimes the condition just kind of hits overnight.

So why do people keep these dusty men around when they don't really contribute to anything? For some it's the illusion(Or actual feeling) of power that makes these men of dust viable to keep around, as pointed out by many others before me because well, if you've got plenty of beds to spare then how does it hurt to keep them around? Make for pretty nice decorations if you ask me. For others it might also be the hope of seeing some of these men of dust recover from their condition and become active, talkative and increasingly viable members again which isn't exactly an uncommon thing to happen as sometimes people become dusty for about a month and then suddenly start going about like nothing ever happened in the first place.

Seeing how the pros outweight the cons unless you're short on beds for your men to sleep in I don't really get how people can see this as a negative thing. I've never heard of a crew leader that got negatively influenced by keeping dusty men around instead of dumping them in the sewers. But yeah, thank you for bringing this interesting topic forward and I'm eager to listen to opinions of others on this matter.

Commander Red noticed people talking about dust on people and started to get very annoyed, if they started to figure it out it would ruin his plan, he started to push people out of the road trying to make his way to the source of the conversation and he found Achilles at the head of the crowd...

Achilles, friend, amigo there is nothing wrong with this picture, these are just a new breed of Mafiosi, they sit and collect information and once they have collected enough the start their usual routine again...

Commander Red knew that his plan would have to be executed sooner than expected, his Red Ribbon Army Androids would be noticed soon. So he went back to Head Quarters to hit the kill switch.