*Zeitgeist entered the fray utterly exhausted, his collar still sporting splashes of Durden blood from a full-scale Durden invasion that had descended upon the seven cities. Even with all that has been going on it was important for Zeitgeist to be standing where he was, on one of the busiest street corners in "The Big Apple" with a crowd now beginning to form around him*

Greetings citizens of New York and indeed all of the 7 cities. There is a very serious war brewing within the city of New York; not one that is fought with firearms or indeed with bats or fists, rather a much sharper and deadlier instrument... the tongue! For too long oratory supremacy of the city has been sitting with Donna Madeline, her prowess in this regard was legendary and one need only look at his resume to understand just how prolific she has been. 

It is time that her title is challenged, we have seen over the past 24 hours that her oratory skills are not infallible and she is carrying a whole district on her silver tongue. This is a call to all the citizens of Manhattan, step out from behind your HQ walls; come forth into the streets and be heard! The beauty of the streets Ladies and Gentleman is that, you need no title, no provenance, and no rank to come forth and speak your mind and share with the citizens of our world. Even if you are too shy for the streets, visit New York's booming business district; grab a cocktail and catch a show with us, but most importantly come forth and be heard!

*Zeitgeist pauses for a moment, he slowly ducks down, removing his weapon from it's expertly sealed location and fires one round directly between the eyes of another Durden member, putting the safety back on he once again conceals his weapon, looks up and begins to re-address to crowd*

Sorry about that folks, you know what it's like when Durden invasions hit these shores, as I was saying come forth and be heard! Let's make the War of the Words in New York a verbal battle for the ages!

Ronin stood in the crowd and listened as Zeitgeist addressed the people of the New York underworld. He had been expecting this declaration of war for days now. Sure, Brooklyn had always held a firm grip on the city's streets, but that era was coming to it's close. 

"Don Madeline, you and your compadre AlexanderKnight have a long history of being great speakers. You have shown yourselves more than capable of leading New Yorkers in that regard. But Manhattan now rises, full of new blood with veins that go back through generations of great speakers and master debaters. Zeitgeist and myself are just the tip of the iceberg; young Cato could talk the clothes off a mannequin, the beautiful ElenaMichaels can cause erections with facial expressions alone, and the allfather Odin will certainly stop being a prat and write us a novel in the near future. Your reign on top of the city ends with us! No one, not even HandjobRob can save you!"

Jemaine picks himself up and composes himself after being creased by 'HandJobRob'. Good. 

Mr Ronin, Mr Geist, please stop this immediately. That is all. 

Siegfried comes running out to the streets. Freshly cleaned mouth and made sure to not forget the molars,especially the tonger. He continues to puts his hands towards his mouth like a megaphone.

“Dear Brooklyn, your pretty tongues have been summoned"

Siegried Roars

"RAWR, for the love of Valhalla,NY you’ve been summoned to let the world know just how slippery our tongues are. May the silver tongues guide us”

New York Shall Rises...

*Zeitgeist steps up to the podium once again, he has subsequently changed his shirt and showered since he was last here having washed the pains and the blood of the day off*

Greetings Godfather Jemaine_Clement thank you for coming out to chat with us on this auspicious day, as Manhattan we have officially laid down the gauntlet in this battle of words and wits, our verbal soldiers are rallying as we speak ready to descend on the streets. Whilst Donna Madeline is quite the linguist and even with AlexanderKnight re-entering the fray, I fear you are no match...

*Zeitgeist glances over to the leaderboard that had been erected*

Manhattan - 127

Brooklyn - 126

The time for diplomacy is over... this means war! 

New York shall rise, they said. 

And it did, indeed.

With Zeitgest's revolutionary speech, Ronin's slightly comedic yet truthful commentary, Jemaine_Clement's presence that need not be introduced to the world and finally Siegried's added words that held strong hope for the future of New York and its residents. Unfortunately, Cassandra could not be in the same vicinity as these rising legends, but she did hear about this from some friends of hers.

She was actually able to grab a manuscript of it, reviewed it carefully, and didn't even notice that a small smile had appeared on her lips while her eyes scanned each line. Even with Cassandra being slightly intimidated with these new inexhaustible energies coming from New York, who was she to dissuade it? She liked to see people vigorously making changes and providing new challenges for their city.

Although she was far from an experienced speaker, Cassandra was eager to learn something from these people. To seduce someone with words - now that's a challenge in itself!

Wandering into the streets for the first time in many months it was a changed world. Stories are told a plenty but the art of debate appears to be lost from these stones.

Hearing a familiar accent addressing a small numer of people bighead wanders across. The man claims that the New York Streets will be claimed by Manhattan. Another voice pipes up with an endorsement for the skills held within the district and bighead cannot help but smirk. These people may be good speakers, they may even be excellent, but they cannot compete with Brooklyn he thinks. He thinks it's time he speaks up..

Ladies and Genetlemen these are indeed strong claims. This war of the streets, a resurgence from New York can only be good for the world and good for the city, but a war it will not be. A massacre would be a better description I would suggest. Our dear Don Madeline has done a fabolous job representing our merry band on her own back. Perhaps it is time she was given some help..

There is a term used that talks about a sleeping giant. This district, although sitting idle in the large part, has held it's own reasonably well thanks to the Don. There is another term about poking a sleeping bear that would also be apt in this situation I believe.

I don't need to list the names or what they can do. You'd recognise them without needing me to anyway so it'd be a waste of words and they wouldn't want me blowing smoke. well, except for our dear Godfather who is as vain as they come

The buisness districts are not where this should take place but on these streets. Where it can be reported and documented properly. Where the world can be the judge of where the real power of the Streets lies in New York.

So, I appluad the the challenge you have laid down. It's a ballsy move and make no mistake.

I look forward to seeing the marker going down, the line being drawn and may the best district prove their worth

Stepping back into the crowd with a broad smile on his face bighead realises, for the first time in a long time, The Streets may be a worthwhile place for him to visit again. How it used to be..

Madeline awoke to the news that some folks in Manhattan had seen fit to launch a surprise war against none other than herself and others in Brooklyn. Not the typical kind of war that ended in bloodshed, no, this was a war of words. It seemed that Manhattan had decided to once again challenge Brooklyn’s dominance in the streets.

Of course, the newcomers wouldn’t be aware of the history in their city, so Madeline knew it was only fair she give them a lesson. Fresh blood was always so eager to rise when they first arrived – the energy was refreshing and she was pleased to see it in New York. But the war of words was a slow and steady fight and Madeline had found over the years that people burn out quickly when it comes to speaking. She had been challenged before; Kamille and Roper had come together and put up a decent fight. But in the long run they had lost.

She took time to have her breakfast and prepare herself before heading out to the streets to respond. It was true that her time here had drastically reduced in recent times; she was older and many of her stories had been told. She had been preoccupied on internal New York affairs and on the work needed for her own family. But if a competition was what they wanted, a competition is what they would get.

She saw that it was Zeitgeist that was the start of this little rebellion, not surprisingly, with Ronin right behind him. They felt the need to name others in their district who would support them, puffing out their chests as the young were prone to do. They even named Alex in their challenge, which she found amusing. Alex had been personally challenged in the past by some of the best street speakers alive today, a challenge he not only rose to but dominated. They really had no idea what they were getting themselves into.

With a calm smile, Madeline addressed the Manhattan members.

“You and those you named are excellent speakers and story tellers, it’s true. You bring value to this great city and I am pleased you are all here. I'm even more excited at the idea of seeing so many of you in our streets and business districts. I have long encouraged more of it in this city and worked as hard as I could to get other New Yorkers into these streets. So no matter what happens, I consider this entire situation a win for our city."

"With that being said, however, you are not the first to challenge me or Alex and I’m sure you won’t be the last. I welcome it, in fact, I thrive on it. You see, Manhattan has tried before to dominate Brooklyn in these streets and while they won a few battles, they fell back down again soon enough. So while you may see some early successes, having sprung this with no warning in the middle of the night to ensure your head start, don't count your chickens before they hatch. And just remember – you asked for this.”

With a wink to Zeitgeist, Madeline went off to rally Brooklyn and prepare their plan of attack.

As Tara heard Zeitgeist declare a war of words against Madeline she arched her brow with curiosity and skepticism. 

At each continued comment, her brow continued its inexorable march higher until it threatened to secede from her forehead. Finally, she blinked and shook her head as she glanced at Madeline, then back to her challengers.

"Well... good luck to you. As for me, I'll put my money on Madeline."

Elena sighed to herself as she stole a glance at her watch. It was early, and it was cold. She would much rather be curled up in her bed than standing in the middle of the street, listening to a speech. Simply put, Elena was lazy. In fact, her whole lineage had produced slacker after slacker; it was her family's legacy. Yet here she found herself again, doing her best to support some of her closest friends in their crazy mission. 

She was still fresh off the boat, and ignorant of the city's well known speakers. She excused herself to a pay phone as Zeitgeist prattled on, confident that her short absence wouldn't be noticed. After sliding a quarter into the slot, she dialed her local library and asked to speak with the head librarian, Felicity. Elena didn't prefer to speak publicly, but she loved to read, and had formed a relationship with most people working at the library. The head librarian could easily spout out figures and facts, on both historical and current events. If anyone knew about this "Donna Madeline", it would be her. 

Elena's eyes widened as her friend filled her in on Madeline, and her close associate Alexander. "Are you serious?!" she gasped, genuinely surprised at the amount the two had been seen speaking. Her fingers twisted the phone cord nervously as she spoke. "My district is trying to challenge them..." Elena explained. She jumped and held the phone away from her ear as her friend cackled, the sound resonating from several feet away. "Yeah, yeah thanks. I'll see you later today." Elena replied as she hung up the phone. 

Making her way back to the crowd, she realized Zeigeist had already finished speaking and Ronin had taken his place. Oops. Hopefully she didn't miss anything too important. Her nose wrinkled at the mention of unwanted erections. "Ew," she muttered to herself as he continued. Odin? Was Odin out here? Elena peered around the crowd, praying her new boss hadn't witnessed her skip out on literally half the speech.

Several other mobsters had stepped up and had their say. She made her way towards Zeitgeist and Ronin, the need to warn them was rising. But she stopped dead in her tracks as Madeline opened her mouth. The confidence that shone from her was incredible, it was apparent that this was the woman her friends had mentioned. She was so well put together and it was easy to see how she was able to dominate the streets so effectively. As she watched Madeline step aside, she was able to move again, no longer entranced by her words. 

She flashed a dazzling smile to the crowd as she turned to Zeitgeist and Ronin respectively, speaking through gritted teeth. "What are you guys doingggg," she hissed, grabbing the paper out of her pocket that she scribbled on earlier. "I spoke to Felicity earlier... Madeline has been documented with almost 30 public speeches THAT SHE STARTED," Elena paused, realizing her volume was increasing with her anxiety. She took a deep breath before continuing. "Not to mention she's been spotted speaking publicly ALMOST 300 TIMES." Elena caught herself spazzing again and grabbed a glass of wine off a nearby table to calm her nerves. She downed it before continuing, "Her associate Alexander? Just as impressive. Also I'm pretty confident that she uses some black magic voodoo in order to keep people entranced during her speeches." 

Elena looked at them both, confused at the expression of amusement on their overly confident faces. Her brow furrowed, glaring at their expressions. "You already knew about this, didn't you. And you still came out here and CHALLENGED THEM?!" Elena's hands flew in the air, the paper she'd written the numbers on fluttering down between them. "Well just... good luck with that, gentleman," she snickered, the alcohol finally finding it's way into her bloodstream. "I'm going to find more wine."

Jeffrey!!!!! Aloisus screamed bloody murder. I will MURDER you if you do not give me a good price for this opium I need to load off. 

She had the dealer by his collar in the back alley that was called, rightfully so, Jeffrey's alley. Aloisus bore down into him, or up, as she was shorter than the tall man. Her size didn't matter, she had enough man slaughter in her eyes to prove to him she was serious. 

"Is just like I been tellin' ya, Lo. Th' market be a competition and I gotsta keep ma prices right with it."

Things didn't start like this. It wasn't like Aloisus just marched her pretty face into this back alley, forced her hands all up on Jeffrey and went from zero to strangulation. No, things did not start this way. And it wasn't like she could get away with this sort of behavior with everyone or even anyone else. She knew how to play the game. 

Jeffrey...Aloisus said softly, lowering her dark lashes over her blue eyes. She released the man's collar from her grip. Remember that time I helped you out of a bind with the coppas? Remember that favor you still owe me?

Jeffrey stepped a few steps away from Aloisus as silently as he could as soon as she let go of him, but as soon as she brought up the favor he looked at her sideways. 

"You wantta be callin' in on the favor over a few dollars of opium?"

Aloisus smiled and simply replied.

I just want what I want. 

She knew it was over the top to go through this much trouble with the man, but she needed to keep him in check. Plus he was a drunk. Aloisus had used this favor several....dozen times. On the rare case he remembered she'd switch over to another time she helped Jeffrey from a bind. For the fourth time, Aloisus handed the dealer the product and finally he handed her back the cash she wanted. As she started to flip through the bills, Jeffrey blurted.

"Lo you know you don' need t' be countin'. Ya know I be good for it."

This meant he shorted her. She stopped counting and plucked one of the two wine bottles from the brown bag near Jeffrey's feet. As the dealer started to protest she slipped the money into her pocket and gave him a wink. 

I'll see you next week, Jeffrey. I've got a man to listen to.

Aloisus left Jeffrey to his single bottle of wine and his back alley. She had heard earlier that Zeitgeist was organizing speech in the streets. This was something she wasn't willing to miss. 

One bus ride, three blocks, two homeless hands trying to grab at her Aloisus slid up to ElenaMichaels in the crowd.

What did I miss?

She gave Elena a smile.

Oh, here's some wine. 

Miss_Niki was late... habitually late. No matter how often she tried her DAMNEDEST  to be on time,  the fates, the Gods, something always intervened and she was late. This war declared by Zeitgeist was no exception. She glanced around to see if Odin or Ronin had noticed her tardiness. She had an excuse all lined up. It was going to be that whilst she had been busy robbing old ladies this morning she was mugged by a vicious durden, he almost killed her. She looked around trying to find either of the them so she could spill it while it was still fresh, but saw neither. She did spot ElenaMichaels . As she walked over to Elena, she saw that Cato was threading his way through the crowd. Good, with all off these people speaking on the corners, this war would be a shoe in to win!!! 

Cato's toga dragged along the ground as he began to speak. He had just come from the completion of his magnificent Curia in New York, and was drawn to speak.

Citizens of this great nation and its greatest city, New York, lend me your ears. This is no common quarrel. No simple struggle. We are bound by the city limits to share this great city with Brooklyn's lackluster lectures and classless conversation. But no more must we yield to them our cultivated connections with the ladies of the night. Manhattan, and its residents, shall enjoy the fruits of this forum and be contested no more. When Tyler Durden brings his horde to our shores, we alone shall know where they sleep and their chosen whores.

Do not be persuaded by the lovely ladies and considerable craniums rising from Brooklyn's streets. This war will be fought on substance of thought, not volume of word. If you seek a district dedicated to a greater good- a code of fundamental exceptionalism- your destination is Manhattan, not Brooklyn. There was a time, prior to this district's revival (and coincidentally, my arrival) that Brooklyn could take the lead. That time is over.

I wish no ill will on our Empire State brothers and sisters, as they're far better than the woeful refuse populating, staining, and contaminating Our Thing. But they need to know they're place-

He had been holding off a cough for the last few moments, and started to cough quite severely. He took a drink of water and resumed.

just below Manhattan.

Cato lifts his canteen as if to toast those around him. It pleased him to see so many New Yorkers in the Streets, regardless of their district of origin.

Death_ arrived a little later to this party than the rest. Having only just joined the ranks of New York, he was ignorant to this word war raging around him. He stepped into the room and noticed all the great city heads were gathered and bickering about. 

"DAMN IT, I want in on all this shouting and fussing about too!" he shouted as he walked over and took his place with Odin, Ronin, and the rest of Manhattan.

The Allfather was on his way travelling back to New York. He had spent the majority of the day murdering members of the Tyler Durden gang on the streets of Chicago. Some would say this was beneath him, killing low life Gangsters from Delaware City but the reality was that the God was never afraid of getting his hands dirty. Rarely would you need ask him twice. 

He returned to the Streets of New York when whilst walking he heard a familiar voice in the distance shouting what he could have sworn he heard as 'war'. As he rushed to get closer he saw that it was Zeitgeist, closely followed by his friend Ronin. He stood there listening as various members of Valhalla including Siegfried, ElenaMichaels, Miss_Niki, Cato and Death_ spoke up. Although slightly bemused at first, he quickly caught on to what all the excitement was about. 

"Did somebody mention war!?" he bellowed as he stepped forward. 

"Ladies and gentlement, might I have your attention for a moment please" he asked the gathering crowds.

"With this declaration of war, I would like it known that Valhalla shall rise to the occasion and lead by example! With the strength and courage needed for such a battle flowing through our veins, we shall be at the forefront of this fight!" He continued. "We shall not run! We shall not hide! We shall crush our opponents until they beg for our mercy!" 

With the crowd becoming more and more excited and louder by the second, he raised his spear in the air and roared. 

"For Valhalla! For Manhattan! For New York!" 

*Zeitgeist swaggered back to the streets proud as a peacock with how things have been going for Manhattan in the War of the Words. He had appealed to members of Manhattan and they had been coming out in their numbers to support he was especially proud of ElenaMichaels, Ronin, Willow, Miss_Niki, Siegfried, Aloisus, Cato and Death_ for appearing in the streets and flexing their vocal cords. The work was just beginning though, there was still much to be done. Zeitgeist walked over to pin the updated details to the wall*

Leaderboard

Manhattan - 183

Brooklyn - 163

One day in and Manhattan has already opened up a 20 point cushion. This was a very ominous start for the proud district of Brooklyn. Manhattan is still up and coming, and will recover from a loss, but a loss will be a crippling blow to the Manhattan's and the ego's of Donna Madeline as well as the ever-confident AlexanderKnight. Brooklyn is so confident they have even added an additional wager with me and for the sake of public clarity, this wager will end at 12:00 Local time on Saturday the 8th of December. 

I will also be coming through to update the board on a daily basis to ensure everyone is kept up to speed.

*Zeitgeist swaggers off with a smile, cheek to cheek, this will be fun he thought to myself*

Madeline couldn't help but laugh at Zeitgeist's latest words. The man liked to speak of her and Alex's ego, but it seemed he had a rather large one himself. It amused her how much he thought this affected them. She yawned in relative boredom before she responded. 

"A 20 point cushion at this moment. Yesterday, with barely any effort, Brooklyn took the lead back for a time. You can update the scores daily, and I've no doubt you will wait until you have even a minor lead before you do it, to make sure you look like you're winning. There is no ominous start - we are quietly preparing, working on speeches in private in back alleys across our borough instead of flooding the streets and business districts. You can pad your score early on but as I've mentioned to you in private, this is a war, and a steady, practical approach is more effective. Manhattan can go all out in one battle, but that won't win in the long run.  

Also, please don't think you will ever deliver any sort of crippling blow to my ego. I've been here far too long to be crippled by what's supposed to be a friendly competition in our glorious city. If Manhattan wins, I will come out here and acknowledge it, with no hard feelings and no insults thrown. Can you say you'll do the same when you lose?"

She put on a sweet smile of her own before heading off to finish her latest story. 

HandsomeRob had just left his barbershop as he continued to stroll into the streets. His hair was freshly did and he wanted to make sure others saw what perfection looked like. He had noticed a few other friends of his were reminiscing in the streets and he thought he would partake. He listened to a few of his friends babble on about this war of the districts. Little did they know HandsomeRob was a secret weapon readily available to take on this new challenge. 

"Uhhh hey guys. You guys wanna battle us over the leaderboards? Challenge accepted."

HandsomeRob wondered off to find a new adventure to tell about...

Madeline wondered onto the streets with a grin, looking over at the leaderboards, which showed clearly who was now dominating:

#8 Brooklyn, NY 236
#9 Manhattan, NY 208

"Dearest Zeitgeist, because I know you will wait until this score potentially changes, I've decided to document some updates of my own. It seems we're just short of thirty points in the lead, again with very little effort. I hope you're ready for this challenge because it appears to me that Manhattan has a bit of catching up to do. I do hope I wake up to see a change, otherwise, this will get very boring very quickly." 

With a beaming smile, Madeline headed back to the alleys where she kept her up and coming stories, ready to dominate this competition sooner rather than later. 

Death_ stood there next to his fellow Manhattaners in bewilderment as Madeline came in dropping numbers on us. 

"Come on ya bunch of lazy asses, we need to step up our game and get with the program! We seriously can't let her beat us can we?" He says, almost pleadingly. 

He looks to Ronin, Odin, Miss_Niki, Cato, ElenaMichaels, Siegfried, and the rest for support.