CommissarZverev steps out of his utilitarian vehicle and steps onto a soapbox place in front of him by one of his comrades and begins to address the gathered crowd...

"My friends and comrades, I am afraid that I have to bring you bad news.  As you know, I have sought to keep these Streets well populated and busy, and have been doing this by funding competitions where you, the крестьяне hope to win some money to spend on capitalist follies.

Well, my friend, I am afraid that I simply cannot finish this recent competition...  For one simple, but serious, reason.  City Hall removed the rules that I had carefully left pinned to the noticeboard to another street...  Down to an avenue, one nowhere near as well travelled as this one.

They cited some rules and regulations, and it is not for I to cast aspersions upon what actually happened.

But I will not be bullied, my friends, not by City Hall, and not by any detractors of mine who may be trying to strangle the pravda that I seek to provide.

I understand that those who worked hard to create a speech, advance copies of which I have seen, with the aim of winning a lot of money.  To them, I apologise.

If you'd like to come here and share with me an opinion on what happened here, I will give you a consolation prize."

At this, CommissarZverev steps back into his car and is driven back to Las Vegas. 

Antonio goes to the speech with a bucket of chicken wings while wearing his sports jumper and joggings pants. He looks at Commisar giving a speech and cannot really understand why he, in that case, took part in the first place.

The man continues to eat the chicken wings, but as they are quite spicy with a sauce on them and he does not have any sort of tissue with him he starts to simply wipe his fingers off on his own clothes, attracting some disgusted looks from others, but simply burping in response, before applauding at the end of the speech.

Vaelin, this has nothing to do with you.  

Dom thinks to himself, "Ah, here we have one of MR's finest-ever trolls in the making."

Dominic, to whom are you referring?

Intern Grinbini is furious. After all his hard work in following the rules, his opportunity to donate a hefty amount to his boss is summarily withdrawn. 

As expected. It would seem that every time we get a glimpse behind the curtain, there stands Destro, palms upturned, expecting payment for services rendered, even if nothing was rendered at all. Well Xanxus isn't here now, Destro, and there will be no $1,000,000 payments made.

And, this isn't like Dominic's tailors either, Destro, where you are told something is going to be delivered and then it isn't. Oh, wait. This is exactly like Dominic's tailors where I still await my suit as I still await this prize money. Commissars Dominic and Zverev are doing us all a disservice and I hope their masters are taking notice. Disgusting. 

After providing a, to his eyes, serious submittal to the above-mentioned contest, Blackboard was curious to hear about the announcement made by the creative comrade, he was hoping his name could be among those nominated for the prizes. But as he heard the announcement as well as some of the mixed responses from the audience he also decided to speak up

Dear Comrade Zverev,

I hope you can defend your decision with a little more reasoning, to me it feels like you have indeed as some of my fellow submitters have pointed out left a lot of room for us to feel slighted and cheated. A more personal nature of announcing this as well as telling the people who managed to find that lesser used street that your contest in it's current location was no longer to be continued could have saved a lot of time by those finding their way and penning down their stories. Time that could have been spent on more productive ways in this busy life of ours.

Also destro, honestly i cannot follow your line of thinking, i believe tact and sensitivity is not something we will see in any of your future contributions

Neil was standing on the street corner, sharing a bottle of cheap whiskey with some local Hobos. He was still only a lowly associate and therefore couldn't afford the good stuff like McCallan or Midleton. He still hadn't earned enough to buy a new coat to help keep the early winter chill out, so sharing a nip of amber gold while standing around a fire in an old 55 gallon oil drum with a bunch of the streets finest citizens seemed like the way to go. It was obvious that communism was no better than capitalism when it came to distributing wealth to the poor. It was whilst discussing the state of the economy with his generous hosts that Neil heard a commotion a short distance away.

"Gentlemen please, you arent the only people using the streets, and whilst I can certainly sympathise with your feeling of betrayal and disenfranchisement, but it's hardly the end of the world. Whilst it is true that I offered Comeade Zverev a solution to his worst, how he could continue his competition and stay within the realms of city hall's decree, he elected to decline my advice and simply abandon what had already been started. Fear not however, as disappointing and shocking as that may be, I'm sure the Commissar will come up with another competition soon that falls within the guidance given by City hall, so yaya, you will get to do this all over again. Now if you dont mind, my friends and I are enjoying a quite drink together."

Before my words start getting twisted around here, as I can already sense a spin being put on this, if the contest is cancelled then I was only suggesting... actually, not even suggesting but simply asking, if past winners would be eligible for a portion of the winners pot.  Not the whole amount.  Wasn't even suggesting anything close to the whole amount.  

No one is twisting anything you said dear Destro, I believe they are simply wondering why you or anyone else who didn't enter the competition would be entitled to even so much as the skin of a fart? I mean if they are going to hand out money for being the former winner of anything, then I need to claim back 10 years of missed payments from the King of the ring payments from that competition that my Great Great Grandfather won back in the day. Now, if you don't mind, there's a quarter bottle of Four Roses Rye, with Saliva and chewing tobacco with my name on it....

Destro, you make an interesting point.  Obviously we won't need all of the judges that we were going to use, and we still have some excellent oral history to judge.  As a past winner of my ever popular competitions, perhaps you and I should discuss how to wrap this up to the contentment of the malcontents?

Blackboard, as you deemed it fit and appropriate to call this Union matter, I would like to ask you exactly what you have done to merit an apology?  You haven't participated in anything that I have launched, save for this attempt to have me lost my composure and act like a mere felon, instead of a man of honour, a banker, and a Commissar.  

I won't take your bait, Blackboard. 

Perhaps you and I should discuss how to wrap this up to the contentment of the malcontents?

I was hardly thinking anything close to an astronomical amount, Commissar.  Like 1/18th of the pot.  Talking literal fractions here.  I'm not suggesting that I am entitled to even half the prize money or anything close to what the full prize was.

Destro, one million is too much.  I'm keen to put a full stop onto this - but not that keen.

Make me a better offer and I might consider it?

In that case I'd feel more comfortable if you made a counter offer.  Something fair., that is my sole request  And please know I am not looking to be unreasonable here.  

For completeness sake, I'm happy to send you $500k?

Honestly I would be more than happy with that.  Like I've tried stressing to everyone from the very start, I was not looking for anything outside of the scope of what was fair.  It was never my intention to come off as unreasonable and if I did so, I hope this clears up any miscommunications on my part.

OK, Destro.  You've always been fair, even if you've driven a hard bargain.  This is a note from my accountant:

Your accountant makes note that $500,000 has been wired to Destro from your account. The note "Final payment of $18M competition" was included