After several days of mourning, Maria finally feels as though the time is right to step out onto the streets and say a few words on a recent event which saddened her greatly: the death of Godfather Desmand. Heading down into town and picking her spot, she clears her throat and begins to speak softly, somberly. 

Over the course of this last week or so, our world has seen some heavy losses. Starting with the tragic striking down of Godfather Jeddy, we've also seen the loss of Godfather ChristianTheLion (AJ, every day!) and Detroit - and yes, I KNOW that my district was involved in that takedown, and I support Godfather Mako and his reasoning, but that doesn't mean I wasn't sad to see him fall -, the shooting of Godfather AK, although admittedly, he wasn't somebody I knew much of, either by personal interaction nor seeing him knocking around these streets overly much, and, most tragically of all, in my opinion, the shooting of Godfather Desmand, by a man he himself had placed into power.

Now, I'm not here to debate the rights and wrongs of Silvio--Dante's actions. We're all perfectly capable of forming an opinion on events and I think that to some degree, that debate has taken place elsewhere on these streets. Silvio--Dante did what he did, and it cannot be undone, and the result of this, is that we've had to lay to rest Godfather Desmand. As a fellow Chicagoan, I have to say that I feel as though this loss has been a blow to all of us. As somebody who's bloodline has moved from utterly despising Desmand and writing him off as a complete and utter thundercunt/jizznugget/insert expletive here, to respecting the man greatly and seeing him as a friend - I know that I myself will miss the man greatly. And I know that to many, that will be a surprise, as my line and he clashed on a number of occasions.

So, I'd like to say, if anybody had some particularly good memories of Desmand and what he did, said and achieved here, then please come out here and share them. Desmand had the kind of street presence that it's truly sad to see so few others of his rank displaying, so I'm sure there's plenty to go at. I thought I'd share a few of my personal favourites here.

Deliberations With Desmand/North Side Notices

As I'm sure the titling of my speech has at least strongly hinted towards, I'm quite the fan, especially in retrospect, of the papers that Desmand produced during his life. I've always been a fan of a well written newspaper serving to round up the current events of this world of ours, and I have to admit, I was a fan of Desmand's style. My line as been one of those who has tried their hand at producing a newspaper in the past, and the journals of the ancestors responsible know the hard work this takes. It's understandable that as Desmand's responsibilities became greater, the new issues of his newspaper became fewer, but probably the only negative side to his newspapers was that there weren't that many of them.

It was certainly always a motive for my own line to consider going back to our newspaper writing days of old. Perhaps now that this most serious of competitors is now laid to rest, I can try my hand at it once more. 

If you haven't ever come across Deliberations with Desmand, I'd encourage you to take a look through them. 

Deliberations with Desmand
Deliberations with Desmand issue #2
Deliberations with Desmand issue #3
Deliberations with Desmand issue #4

North Side Notices issue #1

I'm sure that as others come out here and share their own memories of Godfather Desmand, I'll be adding more. 

Maria reaches into her pocket and pulls out some fine cigars and a bottle of whiskey. Toasting the whiskey in a silent salute to Desmand, she takes a deep swig, before lighting up one of the cigars. 

Mako walks up to the speech with grim look on his face. Having lost one of his best friends can do that to man, the true pain of it all that couldn't be numbed out. 

"To many people that only knew what little contact they could have with Desmand, it doesn't even begin to justify the real man that he was. It took a lot for Desmand to become fond of you, but you sure as hell knew it when he expressed it. I believe the thing I respected the most from him was his unwillingness to change for anyone. He was who he was, and he spoke his mind while he was within power. I hope, if anything, that people will at least take a page out of that book from his reign. Those in power don't need to be afraid to speak their mind, and it's something special to see a Godfather littering the streets with their opinions. 

I think the fondest moments of my time with Desmand are just being around at the printing press for those issues that you've shown. He certainly had his own way of spicing it up and giving details from his point of view. But I agree, Desmand was someone who came to the streets and gave input on several things, a quality that lacks more than it is inspired. If you think that Desmand didn't care about things, you were very wrong and didn't know him very well. While he was his own unique person, you could tell what he cared about and Desmand lived up to support everything he cared about. Most importantly, Desmand had a soft spot for those who followed his leadership. 

He will be missed."

He nods his head to the others and takes his place in the back of the crowd. 

The Reverend walks over to where Maria and Mako are standing with a solemn look on his face. 

He then begins to speak and says, "Many of you did not know Desmand very well, but several of you knew who he really was. Such as I did, I was one of his closest friends in the days of my father. Mako is right, it took a lot of hard work and perseverance for Desmand to take notice of you., but once he did you knew right away. He taught me everything there is to know about this game, its inner workings, and about life here. He will not be forgotten. I owe him everything, and more."

He then stands silent next to Mako and Maria.