Once more the city heads around the country met in Las Vegas to discuss the further growth of this thing of ours. It was a small meeting but a very meaningful one, the topic of discussion was solely what to do with Detroit and New York. Yes those cities are currently inhabited but they won't be forever and the sooner plans are made for them the sooner they will begin growing. It only took a brief discussion for them to come up with a solution, in fact it took longer for all the parties to met in the same place. As if a trip to Vegas was such a bad thing though, remembers what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas...

Once the i's were dotted and the t's were crossed, Lucky gathered up the papers in front of him. He organized them in a neat pile and tucked them under his arm. Standing up he made his way over to everyone and gave them all a friendly hand shake. It was the final signing off on the plan, there was just something about the handshake at the end that made everything truly final. With the last handshake Lucky made his way out of the meeting room where Hayley was outside waiting for him. As soon as he had seen her, he took the the paper from under his arm and handed it to her. 

"Those need to get filed away in my personal vault."

With a nod Hayley took off with the papers. Lucky stood there for a moment and gave a look around The Mirage before fixing the collar on his jacket. He always made sure to look his best before addressing the masses. After a couple more adjustments on his jacket he made his way outside. The other city representatives joined him, all of them standing side by side. They waited a few moments so everyone in the crowd could get settled before Lucky stepped forward to make the announcement.

"People of this great country, I stand here before you today not as an individual but us as a group. We as a group are continuing to make sure this country keeps growing. Which is why we stand here before you today. In order for us all to keep on building this thing of ours, we need to get both Detroit and New York in proper working order. So we have all decided that the best way to do this is for each operating city to take up residency in one of the four open districts. Now you all may be thinking but there are five operating cities and four open districts. How does this make sense? Well the great cities of Los Angeles and Philadelphia have agreed to share a district."

Lucky could hear the whispers in the crowd talking, he gave them all a moment to quiet down before continuing.

"So, back to what I was saying. LA and Philly will be sharing a district, they will be taking control of Brooklyn. They will be sharing the city of New York with Chicago who will take controlling operations of Manhattan. Now that leaves Detroit, I'm happy to announce that Las Vegas and Seattle will be partnering up to restore business in the motor city. Las Vegas will be operating out of Downtown and Seattle will be operating out of Corktown. We all will be making plans to get people over in those cities as soon as we possibly can. The way we look at it, the quicker we get people settled the better it will be for this great land."

With that Lucky stood there with a big smile on his face, before pulling out one of his cigars from his jacket pocket. He placed it in his mouth and gave it a light before taking a couple puffs.

Listening intently, Jack eventually steps forwards.

"Great to hear talks have been held, Godfather Lucky.

"I don't want to come out here and insult the effort and thought behind these talks and your speech by offering you an empty, passive acknowledgement of this decision. Instead I'd like to pose a question.

"Are there any plans for the future that we can look forward to, any change in approach which might define this era? Offering new opportunities is always well received, though I know many expect those opportunities to wind up in the same hands. Multiple districts with a stake in the same city certainly seems interesting, but regardless of who is leading these cities, are there any other initiative in development? Are there any plans to introduce something new and different or is stability the intention here?"

Jack pipes up again.

"... This is also an open question to any of the other leaders involved in these talks, I forgot to add."

Good questions, JackMezzo. Without presuming to speak for Lucky, or any other leader involved in these decisions, I would say that any decision made in this thing of ours is always going to have stability as the key aspect. As i'm sure you are aware, the expansion that is going to take place is a necessity to allow the community to move forward.

You mentioned new oppertunities always being well received, I would like to just add that such oppertunity requires that new people put themselves forward. We have recently gone through a massive transformation of this thing of ours with many leadership positions being filled, some of those its plain to see have been filled by descendants of very recent leaders. This brings us to assume that people were hand picked for such positions and perhaps got the job based on their ancestors - but it neglects to consider that there may have been few other applicants for the position.

I've not been party to any decisions regarding this annoucement, i'm speaking purely from my own personal perspective and I look forward to seeing what happens next and who steps up to lead these empty districts.

So much for community, rebuilding and stability, I guess.

What a plan. Did you include retiring in that plan?

RIP Las Vegas

There's something to be said for the lack of other crew leaders who did not come out here and stand arm in arm with the late Godfather, disingenuously nodding their heads and smiling, knowing full well his city would not see another day. Whatever drove the decision, from what appears to be the rest of the country to remove him, they did not fraudulently ratify his communication and put any concerns he may have at ease. 

They didn't take the easy option, the safe option, of confirming that this was the plan.

Make of this what you will, but it is a respectful move which would have left a bad taste if insincere comments and smiles had been offered, patting each other on the back. 

Rest in peace to the fallen. 

I have to strongly disagree there, Jack. To me, it would appear that not only did they hold conversations about the future of this thing of ours, but they gave their word that the future would involve expansion for the named cities and indeed would indicate a willingness to continue forward with stability. They have then in fact been duplicitous and two faced about their intentions, whilst planning to remove the city of Las Vegas.

The right or wrongs of their actions aren't entirely relevant, they are what they are. Everyone in this thing of ours will understand that lieing to the face of your enemy whilst planning to put a bullet in his head whilst he sleeps is nothing new, in fact some would argue that its a nature entrenched in our history, so it shouldn't come as any great real shock to be fair.

Personally, I feel its a shame for such a thing to take place when the country is rebuilding, but it is what it is. We move on, we rebuild again until someone else feels the need for power and destroys our stability. As you said jack, Rest in peace to the fallen and lets hope that we see the promised expansion still take place.

Of course it will still take place, except now there are six empty districts to fill and four cities to fill them. If no expansion takes place the Gods will step in again and hostile crews will invade our lands. PH and LA no longer have to share, which I'm sure they're pleased about. The real question is which city will take two districts? Seattle or Chicago? 

Maybe DarGabrielson will grace us with the real plan now that Seattle has made its move. 

Ciao, Tom.

There is an element of your comments which can be justified, which is why I say 'Make of it as you will', there are many if's associated to my perception of it. 

I would expect that following the war, there was intention to meet with leadership and determine the path ahead. Throughout those talks, or through other interactions and revelations, it's reasonable to suggest that there was a division in the approach offered by one side and the majority. 

As I say, lots of if's and maybe's. 

What is striking to me is that I would fairly assume that in the hours before and after Godfather Lucky made his speech, those involved in the intention to remove him were aware of such. Knowing this, they chose not to up-sell the apparent plan for the future.

Again, we don't know the full story, we don't know what drove the decision to remove him. Maybe it was aggressive or convening demands for city control, leaked information on their intentions or just a general ill feeling throughout the leadership meetings. What still stands for me is that it would have been very easy to show support for the proposed plan. This would have calmed any tensions and played out the facade of a united front, but at the same time tarnish the reputation of those who would hours later gun down the men and women of his city.