Symplicity had been doing some shopping in town the day after Tryptophan Day. The streets were busy despite the shallower pockets, and her own hands were quite full with shopping bags as she emerged from one of the retail shops.

The snow on the ground didn't muffle one bit of the scene that met her eyes there on the street, however. While she stood there, one fellow of rank pickpocketed another fellow of rank, one who held status as a hand in a crew. The hand turned on his heel and mugged the perpetrator, and Symplicity figured, well, that was the end of that... but then the first fellow began to scream death threats, demanding the hand return what amounted to barely six figures. The hand stood there stunned, a funny little smirk on his face as the other fellow continued with his threats, even seeking out the crew leader of the hand in question, and continuing on with his threats and demands.

"Did- did you see that?" Symplicity asked the woman standing closest to her.

"I don't get involved in pickpocketing disputes."

"Well yes, but- " 

The woman had hustled away, leaving her to speak to the wind. Symplicity continued to stand there, now looking more closely at the signs and tattoos displayed on some of the suits that passed by her. There had been a ruling on pickpocketing and mugging recently, but it seemed as if hardly anyone had read it, or cared, or even understood. Wise guys and below still sported threats of mugging, or worse, on their attire, while others proclaimed to not give a shit at all about any stance whatsoever.

Surely, though, things hadn't fallen apart to the point where it was wholly acceptable to threaten the life of upper structure without some sort of repercussion? 

Or had they?

He didn't know if it was really happening, or was it the after effects of the LSD bender he'd gone on after the Commissar had mentioned him by name, but Neil honestly believed he could here that woman's thoughts. That couldn't be right, it must be the LSD... but he watched her, saw the look of consternation on her face, and the words in his head seemed to match perfectly, where she looked, her expressions, the voice in his head even matched the voice she used when she spoke to that ignorant woman who hurried off. His head began to throb (No! not that one you dirty minded fuckers!), that was definitely the LSD this time. This was like the plot of some cheesy romance pulp fiction novel written for down on their luck spinsters. 

"Excuse me Ma'am, but for some bizarre reason I couldn't help overhear your conversation with yourself. Yeah, yeah I know that sounds crazy as fuck, not as crazy as the 30% strength tincture of LSD I took last night, but that's a different matter. The issue is balls... and hands... yep hands and balls. Will the balls, its all about testicular fortitude. Who's got great big saggy swingers, and who's got little bitty tiny apple seeds. It sounds like the leader in question has little bitty balls, after all they aren't backing up their Hand. Now, forgive me, cos I've got a throbbing head ache, so I need to get this down straight. A button man, picks the pocket of a Hand of a CL, and gets mugged for his trouble. He then bitches to the Hand, demanding his money back? Plus, he threatens to kill the hand? Yep, its a lack of testicular fortitude. The Hand obviously has teeny tiny balls, or bigger balls and teeny tiny hands and can't get a proper handful. Some schmuck just threatened to kill him, I'd have shot him were he stood for threatening the hand of a CL. If the hand has a teeny tiny gun to match his teeny tiny balls, then his leader should have shot the fucker for threatening their Hand. If neither the Leader nor their hand has any kind of gun to speak off, then why the fuck are they leading a crew? Who's protecting the poor schlubs that joined them? Now, the guy who was mugged, he's got big hands, not very big balls, and a teeny tiny brain. Big hands, cos standing up and issuing death threats to a RHM or LHM means he's got a big old grip of his balls. He's got small balls because he didn't follow up on the threats, either he decided his life was more important, or his threats were all full of hot air. He's got a teeny tiny brain because, he got mugged for picking a pocket... Mugged... for picking a pocket... You dance with the devil, then you pay the piper. Surely if you go around picking pockets then you have to realise that you risk getting mugged. Don't want to get mugged? Stick to the FBN or don't pick peoples pockets, or given the Leader's council ruling, pick on associates. That and threatening a hand, people have died for less, not too smart at all that guy.

So, anyway, my heads busted, i need to go and find some painkillers, and try and work out what is going on, and perhaps find away to stop it."