Kari takes a moment to contemplate everything since the beginning of her journey into this world. As she leans against a blackened street lamppost she takes a moment to gather her thoughts.  A lot has happened in the span of her short life but one theme that seems to be the most important in this world is loyalty. Of course, everyone has different ideas and definitions of loyalty, just as they do with the concept of greed.

Mounting her courage Kari speaks, “In light of the most recent war, it has come to my attention that loyalty and greed are a fine line to walk,” I say to passerbys. “At what point does greed overtake loyalty? Are we so hungry for power that we do not stop and think before throwing our claimed friends and families under the bus all in the name of power? Of course it is human nature to want more. We have all been guilty of it at one point or another, but at what point is enough, enough?”

Pausing for a moment Kari looks around at the crowd and then continues. “Watching the destruction of CH, was a shame on many accounts. Not only were trusted friendships ruined but whole families torn apart. All for what I ask; a glimpse of power today that will be gone tomorrow? In this world be have been born into it is assured we will all die. Is it really worth the destruction of scared friendships and the sake of your families to sit pretty at the top if only for a second?"

Kari watches as some people continue shuffling on without a backward glance. Some have stopped to contemplate her works but remain silent. She hopes others who have been in this world for a while now will take a moment to share their thoughts and experiences with her.

The streetlight above suddenly flickers on casting those surrounded around Kari in a warm glow as if passing the spotlight unto them.      

Cin had been having a tea on the corner when a woman started speaking. Taking a sip of her tea as she listened.

Loyalty is non-negotiable to me. If I am loyal, it is till death and to my leader. Friends are another matter.

There are always fake friends that will will stick around until they cannot tolerate enough. Some that point comes when they are proven wrong in public venues and toss a hissy fit. And oh god when that hissy fit comes you don't want to be what people think is a "bad" bloodline because everything they heard about you comes spewing out of their mouths. Those friends are unnecessary to me.

The real friends. The ones that bonds you over lifetimes of ancestors and next of kins. Those friends know their value to you. You do not need to sugar coat around them. They understand when they are wrong, that they are wrong. They also stick by your side when shit starts tumbling down. They offer advice on getting back up there or on ways to improve your life among these streets. Those are the friends you want around you. Those are the ones you aren't likely to toss under a bus, but if death happens they understand.

I am sure if someone was a real friend their next of kin would look you up at some point or another. As you said, Power may be here today and gone tomorrow.

Cin smiles politely. Excusing herself to find another tea from a local vendor.

Revy happened to be passing by when Revy heard the speech, intrigued Revy had given the speech some thought loyalty, greed, where do the lines hit that critical intersection and ultimately become blurred?. After around five minutes of pondering Revy finally had all thoughts gathered and was ready to convey said thoughts to speech.

"greed a seed we are all infected with as it rots us to our very cores, motivating us to do the many things we do in our world murder, robbery, extortion, blackmail but as you asked where is that point of no return that point where the lines become blurred?. That point where greed overshadows loyalty manifests itself differently to different people, to some it lies when a big war kicks off to others it simply never existed because in their mind greed and power go hand and hand. Power in and of itself is very intoxicating and blinds people leading themselves on an inescapable path to self-destruction which leads back to the original question greed overtakes loyalty when power becomes involved whether it comes in the form of a wise guy lusting for power and prestige to the crew leader lusting to become godfather and sometimes when a godfather wants total control of an entire city and when those scenarios happen the people involved begin to lose sight of loyalty, be it to their CL, GF or the city itself."

Revy pauses for a moment to spark up a cigarette and after a couple drags begins to speak again

"the implosion of Chicago is the finest example of greed in its purest, unadulterated form what happens when a godfather wants more than he already has? inevitably they will clash internally in their city while at the same time stepping on the interests of another city. In their minds the reward of more money and power was greater than the price they would surely pay. The result? leaders and mobsters controlled by self-preservation blinded to the plights of their dying comrades and CL's that day we saw many friendships end while others forged new ones. It is a vicious cycle i'm afraid one that will never end."

Revy steps off the soapboax waiting to hear others answer to this interesting question.

YourNextWife sees Kari on the street and walks over to her to say hello but before she gets there Kari starts speaking. Wifey listens to the words that Kari speaks and ponders them in her mind. Once Kari was done speaking Wifey walked up to her and hugged her and said, "Fantastic speech Kari, definitely something that needed to be brought up." Wifey turns to the crowd and clears her throat then says, "We are the mafia, what are we if we don't have loyalty?" She pulls out her dictionary and looks up the word 'Loyalty', "It says here in my dictionary 'Loyalty is faithfulness or a devotion to a person, country, group, or cause.' I don't know about you all, but I definitely feel that greed doesn't fit into this category. To me, loyalty is staying loyal to your family and your families alliances. Greed does nothing if you don't have your family and alliances to back you up, you could have all the money in the game but that won't help when you are dead in the gutter from a bullet in the back. At the end of the day the only people who have your back is your family. Stand next to your family through thick and thin because at the end of the day, all the money in the world can't bring them back, nor can it give you honor or respect." 

YourNextWife looks around slightly embarassed realizing she had spoken a little to loudly and passionately, alas what's done is done. She stands by Kari and waits to listen to what others have to say on the matter as well.

Penny awakens in a strange place, but familiar in so many ways. She hears a familiar voice and decides to investigate, she see a light up above her and heads in that direction getting to the top she notices she was in a pocket how and why who knows. She gets out carefully trying not to get caught when she looks up again and sees Kari. She looked all cool leaning up against that light post that Penny listened to what she was ranting at. The key word Penny heard was loyalty and that was enough for her to intervene in the conversation.

Now my bloodline has been around these parts what feels like forever now. The one thing that I have learned is loyalty in a lot of cases doesn't mean a damn thing to most. I on the other hand feel loyalty is the way of life and how it should be, loyalty to your family and your friends is the most important thing, well for me at least. There is no need for me to go further into this cause without loyalty whats the point.

Penny leans up against the light post with Kari, waiting to hear from the others.

This is a very good question Kari.

One that I have a very simple answer to from a personal point of view though. When does greed overtake loyalty? When whoever I have pledged my loyalty to is 6 feet under and not a second before. This also goes for their boss too... for example, my current boss BlackBetty has my undiluted loyalty and although she is Godmother of Bella Vista, she stil views Godfather Tetley as the person to take lead from. So if by some really shitty circumstance BlackBetty passes away, Tetley has my loyalty.

Should Tetley not want my loyalty or pass away himself, THEN it is upto my own personal 'greed'  (something I'd rather call ambition) as ot what I do and where I go.

I'm not sure where others stand on this but it is clear to me from the recent large scale death thrown upon our world that we're definitely not all in the same boat. Some people's personal ambitions far outweigh the loyalty they pledged to someone or a whole family.

If you really want an answer to this question you need to unpack the notion of loyalty more than folks tend to do. There's this commonly held idea that the loyalty is an inescapable inevitability in life, and implication is wrong. I'm not arguing that loyalty isn't an important cornerstone of the way we do business but what I am saying is if you believe we come out of the whom as inherently 'loyal' entities then I have a bridge to sell you.

In our way of life, let's look at where loyalty actually comes from because it's not a concept that sprung from the ground fully formed. There's a reason why our ancestors held loyalty as such an important quality when the defined the 'terms' of the way of life that we lead. Simply put, our ancestors back in the old country did not trust the bourgeoisie. They did not trust them to create jobs, or to deliver justice. They did not trust them to provide the most basic provisions. Why should they care about the rural communities of Sicily from their ivory towers in Rome, Milan and Turin?

In times, communities changed. Locals stopped consulting the Carabinieri and the judiciary if a crime had been committed. Instead, the local Dons were trusted to deliver the right results to these people, the same people who went to the same Dons for the prospect of work. Indeed, these Dons were often responsible for something so basic as the water supply in remote villages. In the absence of a government who cared for their people, in the midst of a capitalist system of exploitation, the Mafia sprung up as a defence and within it, some men were leaders. These leaders commanded the loyalty of people because they delivered something. The loyalty did not precede that; it followed only when these leaders demonstrated they were as good as their word.

So, we have our sense of loyalty, but where does greed come in? Well, I would call the action of these Italian peasants self-preservation or perhaps even the beginnings of a worker's revolution, though you could just as easily call it greed. The people wanted more rights and more justice than elected officials were prepared to give, they wanted more jobs and more income than the Italian state was prepared to dispense with; is this not a dictionary definition of greed?

Fast forward to our place in time and though they may appear so, things are not that different. Why are we loyal? Well, because it's a social construct made concrete by years of practice. We know to deviate from this expectation is to invite death. If were to suddenly arrive a situation in which loyalty was no longer a requirement for advancement, success and a long life, how long do you think people would remain loyal for? Well, some would remain loyal because some leaders are great men/women who naturally command a loyalty; many more would dispense with loyalty altogether.

Greed is an inherent part of the human condition. We all strive for something more; knowledge, power, material goods, whatever. Loyalty, meanwhile, is merely something we have tacitly accepted in our way of life because from the formations of this thing of ours right to the present, it is a useful framework for allowing us to pursue our own greedy imperative. 

Ryu happens to walk by as Guevara was having his say on the topic at hand.

"Mr. Guevara, your speech is top notch, and I agree with you 100%, the mafia business is a business run on greed, everyone involved are in it for the money, power, protection and fame. We want more money but less work, and that tends to form an organisation of crime."

Ryu wanted to say more, as it is an interesting topic but Guevara's speech has said it all.

Most points have already been made about this topic. Guevara says it best that greed is an inherent part of being human. But there is a fine line between greed and desire. Its when you are willing to throw away everything for greed is when you get into trouble. Penny makes a point here as well saying how much its important to have loyalty. 

I will tell you this, over my lineage there are people that have not been loyal. And they eventually do pay for it. Chi is a small microcosm of it. Ajani had built a chi where everyone was equal, everyone was loyal to each other working towards a common goal. Its when the others in Chi thought they wanted Ajani's place...is when it all fell apart. Loyalty gets you real far in this place, if you look around there are lands far and wide...as far as LA/LV. I don't see the need for greed when there are others places a criminal empire can be expanded. But I can't speak for everyone, everyones see's things differently. GF's in Chi wanted to be Chairman in Ajani's place...we saw what happened. They could have easily take over Chairmanship over in LA/LV...but i guess that wasn't a part of their desire. Desire isn't bad....greed is, cause most will do anything to achieve their greed. Long term consequences of such blind greed is rarely good! For anyone....unless if your GordanGeko, then you go to jail. Not in our world though!!! 

All these points are great points if you look at the big picture though all there is in this world is loyalty or lack there of and greed. They both play a part in the way this world works. Wars, or the eventual destruction of entire cities lay solely on if one district is loyal to the next. Without loyalty you have examples of what occurred in Chicago, even though the loyalty was there greed triumph it just like greed always winds up doing.

Like LordBlackwod stated with the open cities, if they wanted the throne that bad why not just take it in an open city. That in itself though is the answer, why start in a city that has nothing when you can take from a city that was flourishing. In this case the end result didn't end with greed but with loyalty with the fall of the so called attackers via the hands of the loyal followers. 

Now I hate repeating what I have said before but I do understand history needs to be learned otherwise it will always repeat itself. At this point though people do need to let it go. Whats done is done, may the fallen all rest in peace.

Penny bows her head in a moment of silence.

Cloud walks up to Kari and hugs her. Taking a stand beside her he speaks up.

"I for one think it should be a given that you live and die with your family. Your CL died in a war? Well you better start shooting at those who killed him. You are a CL and your GF died in a war? Well you better start shooting at those who killed him. I think you get the idea of where I stand on this topic.

It would make me beyond happy if this went back to the norm as it was many moons ago based on my fathers journals. However it seems that this isn't the case. Honour and loyalty mean something to me, it should to all of you. Why should a member be loyal to a CL who just betrayed his GF? With what reasoning could he possibly give to the member? Disloyalty begets disloyalty.

Again honour and loyalty, this is, and always will be one of the fundamental parts of the world we live in. If we choose to ignore this, then why are we here? Money? Power? I would happily give all that up for a small group of loyal and honourable men and women."

Looks to the crowd , then smiles back at Kari.

This has been a question since the dawn of ages.

Once, a wise man (or so there was told he was) said something very clever on the subject:

"It is greed to do all the talking but not to want to listen at all."

Democritus said that, not me.

But I can relate to his point of view.

The question is, however, as Father_TeQ stated before (not a quote but the way I read Father_TeQ's statement):
At what point do you consider greed to be greed, or greed to be ambition (or the other way 'round)

I say it's all a matter of moment and opportunity.

Loyalty is loyalty, nothing to discuss about.
But if you have no one to be loyal to, who are you indebted to?

For me personally this again comes down to the concept of fundamentals and morals. 

Our whole society is based on a group of morals: Family, Honour, Respect, Loyalty and Omerta. 

To highlight a definitive point, where greed overtakes loyalty is exceptionally difficult. It comes down to a matter of a persons morals. 

My ancestors have been around this place for many, many years and generations, the people who mentored me, are much like the current Godfathers, in terms of their attitudes towards family, leadership and many other factors. To me, loyalty to my family, the respect for and of my family members and the concept of Omerta will always reign supreme. My ancestors have many times sacrificed themselves, not for personal glory but for the good of the family, in times of war. Whilst this may seem the obvious stance to take, times are changing. All too often we see members of organisations, button men, who are meant to have earnt the trust and respect of the family, putting their own needs above those of the family and city. 

Our world is more affluent than ever, there are more opportunities to earn money, less direct taxation and this, for some people, inspires and drives their greed. We are increasingly seeing those of low rank buying and training their bodyguards. To some, that may seem perfectly reasonable, but a made man with 200 bodyguards will not stop his city being destroyed around him. Money is not the ultimate in this world, I would much rather pass my money up so that my leader, in whom i place my trust, can use it to the best benefit of my family. 

It is becoming increasingly common place for button men to save their own hides, wherever possible. They jump from the sinking ship, joining the aggressors instead of standing strong, by their families and cities. This is greed, possibly in the ultimate. If your leader trusted you enough, to open the books to you, it is the lowest possible action to abandon them in their darkest hour, simply to save your own arse. Loyalty is the ultimate, a bond that should never be broken, no amount of money is worth being considered a traitor, not to me.