As Paul stepped out of -Draven-'s headquarters in The Loop to start his day's work, he did so with a cloud of sadness hanging over him. Just two days had passed since the death of his father on the streets of the Bronx. Following this, he felt he needed a change of scenery; a place he could call his own. He felt he had found that in Chicago. He was getting to know his new acquaintances, who had done all they could to make him feel welcome.

He sat down at a nearby café, and ordered a sandwich and a cup of coffee. As he ate, thoughts ran through his mind. He had never thought about his decision to move until now. To follow in his father's footsteps was an instinctive reaction; something he never hesitated to do. As he pondered, the thought crossed his mind: "Am I doing the right thing?"

As he finished eating he got up and made his way to a nearby street corner. He cleared his throat.

Ladies and gentlemen, the question I pose to you today is a simple one. It goes without saying that in our world, our time in the land of the living is ultimately limited. The life of crime is dominated by risk, and it is inevitable that one day each of us will meet our maker. My recently deceased father's journals note that there has recently been a plethora of high-profile casualties in multiple cities, notably the likes of Godfathers DanTheMan and Goku, the former being a man my father served loyally as his Right Hand and spoke of very fondly. Being a survivor of that war, he moved from Manhattan on to the Bronx under Don Montenegro; the place where he met his death. 

Each of us has our own ways of dealing with the death of our ancestors, and the subsequent upheaval this brings. My line, being relatively new to this life, has never yet experienced being able to run their own family. However, my question today is particularly pertinent to those lines have seen this privilege; in particular when their direct ancestors oversaw the building of a family, in many cases an entire district, and saw their hard work shattered by a single bullet.

His hand trembling slightly, he takes a hipflask out of his pocket and takes a swig before deciding to continue.

Of course, I was upset at the death of my father. I know he had high ambitions and it is a real shame that he was cut down before those ambitions could be realised. However, upon learning of his death I simply asked myself this question: "What would he want me to do?" The answer to that question was simple: he would want me to make him proud. To realise the ambitions he was sadly never able to realise. To this end, I feel the best way of doing this is to pick up immediately where he left off; to do the best I can for my leader and Godfather, and to try and build my own legacy in the way he longed to do for himself. We must all start somewhere, after all. It is the will to do my father proud that feeds my desire to achieve great things in this life, yet I also realise that I must do it for myself and for my own future; indeed, my children's future. 

So, the question I ask is split into two parts. Firstly, how does the death of your ancestor affect you? Does their death immediately galvanise you to try and achieve greater things; do you often feel feel you need time away from this life to fully come to terms with their death; or is it a combination of these things? Secondly, on looking through their journals and hearing their stories, how have their experiences affected, or indeed altered the way you go about your life now?

Finishing his speech, Paul looks around at the gathered crowd, hoping to hear their opinions.

Wow, great angle at this idea. I haven't heard this one before and even passing through the notes of my past relatives, this one hasn't seemed to be touched on much. Thank you for taking the time to gather your thoughts and opinions and project them out for us to think upon.

Now, death comes to us all. That's guaranteed. 

How I deal with the loss? Well, how I dealt with the loss of my father was a combination as you said. I've always been taught to strive for better, after each and every failure, come back better and try a new approach! To tell you I didn't feel discouraged hearing of his untimely death would be a lie. It's devastating and hard to get back on the upswing at times.

I took a part time job elsewhere before returning to this thing of ours. I just waited for the opportune moment to return, once I had gathered my thoughts and created a plan.

I guide my life now by reading into my ancestors past experiences. You have to, really. Times change and so do the way things are conducted. You have to adapt and overcome, the times are ever changing. If you constantly follow the same road, you'll always get to the same end, no?

I'm loving the recent spur in activity on our streets. Thanks for sharing fella. 

For me, dealing with the death of my father depends on how and why he died. If my father died for what I feel is a bull shit reason then you can be damned sure I'm joining this way of life purely for revenge. It's one of my worse traits I reckon. It spurs me on so much, fuelled with hate and anger at his sudden death that I want nothing more than to put all of my effort and passion in to making myself as strong as possible to take my revenge. After a while though, i'd have calmed down a lot and come to terms with it being just a part of the life we choose to live. The good thing about that is I have already put so much effort in to building myself that I leave myself with a good foot in the door to becoming something more. 

The other way is when I know for a fact that my father deserved his death for one reason or another. When this happens I can't help but echo what has already been said. I strive not to make the same mistakes my father did or in some cases I make damned sure I don't trust the same people my father did. Which in itself is basically a mistake not to be repeated anyway I guess. In these times I feel I would just put my head down and get stuck in.

It had been an early start for Maria - and if there was one thing Maria was especially bad at, it was early starts. Being forced to pull herself from her nice warm bed was something akin to torture in her mind. Having seen to the business that had dragged her from her bed, she decided to treat herself to a nice coffee to accompany her on her walk across town. As she went into the cafe, she almost walked right into PaulHeyman, who was so deep in thought that she didn't like to disturb him. As she queued for her coffee, she thought to herself how very like his father he was in certain ways. 

Once her coffee was prepared, she picked the take out paper cup from the counter and slipped a lid on the top, taking a sip before screwing up her face in pain as the scalding hot coffee touched her tongue. Shaking her head, she set off from the cafe and around the corner, meaning to go straight to her next meeting, though she'd be a little early. It was only as she rounded the corner that she saw PaulHeyman again, this time speaking out to a small crowd. As she drew in closer and listened to his words and the words of those who responded, her mind started racing, considering both her own feelings and the feelings she'd seen noted down in the family journals.

Good morning Paul, quite the topic you've brought to us here today. As has already been said, I'm pretty sure it's one that my line hasn't come across before so it's been quite interesting to have a think on this, it's really not something that I've particularly thought on before. That really is a rarity for these streets. Even with a new and original spin on a topic, there are only so many times you can come out and repeat the same thoughts over and over before you want to take a bullet in the brain. 

The death of ancestors throughout my line has affected us in different ways. Some of this may be down to the mentality of the next in the line - there are some throughout my lines history that have, for instance, been a little more firey than the rest of us, a little more willing to stand up and say "This is how things are right now, and they're shite. And this is why...." with a large dose of inserting very frank and blunt reasons where you please. That isn't, from experience, really the best way to live this life. It serves it's purpose for a short while, but even the strongest and biggest fires burn out eventually, leaving a trail of hurt and destruction in their wake. And once the fire has burned out, it leaves friends and future relatives in bad positions. There again, I've had ancestors who have taken the death of one of our line and come back and worked twice as hard and aimed to achieved twice as much. It really has depended on the state of mind of the next in line. 

Myself personally, I took the death of my brother pretty well. I felt it was coming, I wasn't too surprised when I got the call to come over and join this way of life. I feel like I've taken to this life fairly well, better in some ways than him. So I'm fairly happy about that. 

Listening to the responses to his speech had left Paul more sure of himself. Any doubts he had in his mind had evaporated; this was the family business, and he was more determined than ever to do his father proud and shine in his own right. He lit a cigarette and addressed the crowd once more.

Thank you to all of you who have shared your thoughts. It is comforting to me to know that this is something we all must learn to deal with; listening to the ways each of you have dealt with this part of life has been interesting. It seems the approach most of us take is largely similar: to mourn our ancestor's passing, but to ensure that something positive is taken from their memory. Be that simply picking up where they left off, or a complete change in attitude.

This is a natural cycle. We are all brought into this life through the death of our parents. That very same cycle is one that will eventually happen to our own children, through our own passing. If I may, I'd like to turn my original question on its head. In this life each of us does things in our own particular way. These methods are often passed down through the generations, but it is clear from the responses thus far that this approach is far from set in stone, and often changes through the generations.

Given I am myself only just starting out in this life with the recent death of my father, I have not necessarily achieved much just yet. I do however have the ambition to go as far as I can in this life; wherever that may take me. I think it is important to set an example to my children and their own children, so that they can follow in the same vein and make as much of themselves as they can, and therefore I would consider it most important to pass that ambition and drive on. As well as that, I will do all in my power to ensure that my children are not afraid to speak their minds on these streets, no matter how controversial their opinion. I consider it important that an active presence is maintained on these streets, and this is definitely something I would like my future kin to continue when they are passed the torch.

I'd like to offer the same question out to all of you. How would you like your children to continue in this life once you are gone?

Having stuck around a little while after speaking to hear what anyone else might have to say, Maria found herself driven to answer Paul's next question.

I'd like to offer the same question out to all of you. How would you like your children to continue in this life once you are gone?

I feel like my own life here on these shores has been a bit of a turning point for my bloodline so far. I feel like it's been a case of dropping some of the attitude and drama that the last few members were blessed with and putting my head down a little more to get along with my work. I've somehow managed to find some kind of balance between keeping my head down and speaking up, however, which is something that I've begun to enjoy immensely. Some of my ancestors have been known for street presence and I hope to be the same, and I have the same hope for my children. To be known as an active speaker, as someone who brings life to these streets, is something that I myself aim for and I would like for them to be of the same mind in this. Further to it though, as many of us wish for our children, I hope that mine can be better than I am. Stronger, smarter, faster. You know the drill. I don't want anything out of the ordinary, but I hope that the swing towards a calmer presence in this world continues though my children when I'm gone.

Luckily though, I don't have any plans to be gone any time soon. Death can meet us at any time, but I'm hoping it won't meet me any time soon.

I'd like to offer the same question out to all of you. How would you like your children to continue in this life once you are gone?

Zack ran his hand through his pristine locks. The question raised in this particular topic was one he could apply to his current line. He realised his father's antics last time round would not have sat well with some of the community, however he now felt the need to voice his current way of thinking.

I think this is very much a personal preference thing, in terms of your children. My father was a quiet man who kept himself to himself. He made no real friends and did really the bare minimum around his HQ, to stay under the radar. The reasons for this were obvious in the end. However, I know he did not want this future for me. My goals and aspirations are much different to his, in the sense I would like to become a respectable member of the community, with amazing hair. Whether or not people look at me in this light, due to my Papa's actions is a different story.

I guess I can throw another question into the mix which coincides with this very topic;

As a member of the community, can you look past the actions of a mafioso's father and judge everyone fairly/from afresh, or will the memory of their family line's choices always cloud doubt over your opinion?

Trixie sits quietly on the sidelines listening to all speakers on this topic.  It is an interesting one!  Considering her name is yet to be made here on these shores she considers it important to see what people think about how we act through the generations.  It is an issue she has considered from other venues where she has resided and has no real conclusions – just some thoughts.

*cough* As I sit here and listen to all of these thoughts I would like to put in just a couple of words.  There is an old saying I tend to live by as best I can.  To paraphrase – It isn’t what you say, it is what you do that counts.  As this applies to this discussion it isn’t what your ancestors have done that should matter – that was them.  It is how you hold yourself and act that should matter.  Overall I think this is a reasonable way to live.

There is one caveat though – we always need to also remember how our ancestors behaved because frequently these traits are passed down through the generations and it often is the case that we behave just like our momma or daddy did.

Trixie returns to her shady seat under the old oak tree to ponder these thoughts some more.