Chalk walks along the streets, hearing his name said a few times. Here, there, along other avenues, too. Even in that strange Help Centre that’s a few blocks away. People just couldn’t seem to get him off their mind. He’d even seen himself pinned to another man’s suit. “It must be love.” Chalk thought to himself. It was either that, or a crazed obsession. Almost like Satanism.

He carried on his way, more avenues passed, more mutterings. He even passed a strange, open space, Outside of the city streets, where people were still mentioning him. What had he done to deserve such fame? All he had ever done was participate on these streets. Maybe his rhetoric wasn’t okay with these people.

There were others, too. Singled out and berated, in an attempt to drive them off the streets, he assumed.

“Enough.” He thought. 

He turned down another street, and pulled up an old soap box, addressing the people.

“I, along with a couple others, seem to have attracted a bit of attention recently. For what, I am unsure. It has got me thinking about something though.

“There is an attempt to run certain people off these streets, and my simple question is: Why?

“Is it due to a strange superiority complex held by those who have taken issue with us? Is it just that we are not part of their little friendship group, and therefore are not ‘allowed’ to make our feelings known? Or is it just down right obsession?

“I believe people should be able to give their opinions out here regardless of their level of eloquence, or standing in this world. The only way for people to get better at speech giving, is by giving speeches!

“As long as what they are bringing to us is creating interaction between people, is not a repeat of what someone else has said, and has some volume to it, why should they not? If the opinion that they have given isn’t to your liking, then that’s fine. The world would be a boring place if we all held the same opinions, and only listened to those with the same opinions as us too!

“The berating of certain individuals, including myself, is uncalled for, and will only serve as a reason for people not to come out here and interact with the rest of us, for fear of it happening to them.

“This is a question to the others out there: What do you think should be done regarding street activity, and what do you make of what is currently happening?”

If there was a genuine attempt to run people off the Streets, the VIP list would be littered with bodybags. This does not seem to be the case and I don't think anyone is obssessed with you or at least not that I have seen.

Standing in our world is everything. Act above your station or beyond the realms of what you are allowed or capable of doing via the power you hold, or is afforded to you by your friendships, and this will quickly become apparent. 

A genuine attempt to make a street speech will rarely be attacked for a lack of eloquence, however, as with most things, there is a limit. Spewing utter gibberish that is indescipherable from dogshit will be met with, at best, ridicule.

Anyway, I think that this speech was made largely in relation to the conduct of Wilde, and you, as he did, has overestimated the degree to which his antics will be tolerated. If you think other people share this view or are attempting to run anyone out of town, please let me know and I will look into it.

It's not uncalled for, and this victim mentality that I see in This Thing of Ours when it is convenient for you and all the other crybabies is truly sickening. 

Upon my arrival, I personally witnessed you bouncing around from corner to corner criticizing and interfering with people's stories, most likely to garner support from other street participants who had (what you perceived as) similar issues with them.  These story tellers often tend to themselves, are generally nice people, and according to ancestors of mine who have housed these tale-spinners in their own HQs, are great and solid members.  You decided that these storytellers' "lack of engagement" was where you were going to take a stand.  So you spoke your mind.  Most of these storytellers didn't respond at all and went about their own affairs as they often do.  Yet you continued to rain on their parade, despite none of these people biting back or even giving a cross look in your direction.  You in turn, in your bloodline's typical fashion, picked at what you perceived to be the weakest of the weak to puff your chest out to.  As soon as someone called you out on your bullshit, you cried victim, even low-key dog whistling to City Hall in this corner as well as another avenue.  Pathetic.

Oddly enough, the only storyteller (as far as I know) that spoke up against your tired attacks on them was Connor_McManus, and don't even get me started on that guy.  He's just as bad as you are when it comes to taking potshots at styles of street activity he doesn't enjoy, then crying victim when somebody takes a swipe back at him tenfold.  

I believe your gripe was that since there was limited or no engagement in many of these stories, that this was an exploitation of a creditshare system put in place by City Hall, yet you basically hopped from corner to corner reiterating nearly word for word the same exact sentiment.  Then, in a very transparent attempt to counter your shitty public persona, you drop random hallow compliments here and there, again mostly just a nearly word for word reiteration of the meaningless compliment you had just given prior.  Now you sit in a pretty high seat on the street's Very Important Person list, most likely soaking up creditshares like the people you spent your time publicly shaming.  So how is what you are doing not the exact same thing you've been whining about?

A great many of my ancestors have been met with very unwelcoming remarks regarding stories and musings they put in the streets.  Would you like to know how many of them cried about or or played the victim card?  ZERO!  I don't come to the streets thinking everyone will enjoy my style.  In fact, I expect only a select few that share my sense of humor or ideologies will enjoy them.  If 5 people in the entire mafia enjoy them and the rest hate them, I'll speak to amuse those 5 people.  And if someone wants to publicly attack my works, I will stick up for myself.  I won't whine, I won't dog whistle to city hall, I won't attempt hack reverse-psychology and try to convince myself that "I'm living in someone's head rent free", I'll just stick up for myself.  

If you had left these story tellers alone in the first place, you wouldn't be viewed as such a joke around here.  Or maybe you would, but for different reasons.  My issue with you is your taking aim at the people you perceive to be weak as to bolster your own standing.  If you can't handle verbal attacks in the streets then maybe it's you that doesn't belong in them.  It has nothing to do with eloquence.  There are plenty of regular street speakers with far less speaking chops than you, and they are all left alone.  

I'm not even implying you shouldn't be a dick.  If that's your MO, then just own it.  But don't cry afoul when you act like a dick and a bigger one comes along and makes you sad.  No one is obsessed with you.  They're just picking on you because you act like an ass.

A lot of my point about people being ran off the streets did relate to Wilde, which is also where my point about there being some sort of obsession with me came from. Today I received six telegrams telling me that I had been mentioned in various places throughout our world. Some in our streets, in the strange place Outside of our streets, and even the Help Centre as I said. Why would a person want to follow me around that diligently?

It was not just him though. I have also had someone tell me not to participate in something the Gods may be organising, while simultaneously informing me of how poor my abilities are at being in these streets.

Now of course, I don't think the things I say are gibberish or of poor standard, or I wouldn't say them. If others believe that to be the case though, there are ways to go about conveying that, without basically saying I shouldn't bother trying.

Enough about me personally though, I'm not the only one.

I do agree with your point about standing in this world. It is an interesting dynamic to see who can get away with what, and especially interesting when it is not someone who obviously holds a lot of power, but is connected via their friendships, as you said.

Thank you for taking the time to speak here, Grin. It's appreciated.

If you have a beef with one or two people, don't try to make it seem like there is some sort of conspiracy against you. Wilde shouting your name all over town is probably not a "little friendship group" collectively trying to stifle you, it is probably just Wilde shouting your name all over town. Same goes for anyone else you have offended, you speak a lot and you've interjected in a lot of places you weren't welcome to try and make a point. Seems to me that rather than make a speech supposing the existance of a group trying to run people out of town, you should review the one or two individuals who might have a problem with you.

My gibberish comment was not about you, it was about my telling FuriousWolf to beat it when he opens his mouth and idiot comes out. 

VoxNeruda, sorry, I didn't see you there until after I'd finished my previous statements.

I'm not trying to be a 'crybaby' and I think there are differences to what I did when I first arrived on these shores, and what happened within the last 24/48 hours.

Firstly, I wasn't bouncing around from corner to corner, but I did visit a couple of story tellings to voice my concerns, of which there were primarily two. One, the fact that these story tellers would take strange pauses in the middle of their story, which is what I assumed to be an exploitation of the creditshare system put in place by City Hall, like you said. My second concern was that there was no interaction between people in these stories.

I thought my feelings and the way I went about displaying them were sound, but looking back on them now, I sure could've conveyed them in a more amicable and less harsh way. This was made evident when a few of these story tellers retired from the life of crime. This made me realise that I had been a bit too harsh, so I apologise for that.

My reasons for it were not to garner support from others, or to exploit this credit share system myself. I believe for ninety percent of my appearances out here, I have at least tried to add something genuine each time. I also don't particularly care for support from others, I was aware a couple of other people felt the same way, but I just said what I wanted to say, if no one agreed, then fine.

Could you explain what 'random hallow compliments' I have been making please?

I'm also curious at who you think my bloodline may be, and when before I've 'picked at what I perceived to be the weakest of the weak to puff my chest out to'. I'm not trying to be a dick here, I'm genuinely curious.

I also don't recall whining to City Hall, could you let me know when I have done this please?

--

Grin-07, maybe I did put some pieces together in my head and come out with the wrong picture, but it did seem like there were a few people that were taking this approach.

My plan wasn't to offend anyone, so if I have done that with the way I originally went about things, again I apologise.

I've been harangued, harassed, and attempted to be ran out of the streets for my (now) critically acclaimed piece titled simply Sisyphus: The Beginnings. Since those dark days I have now been offered three book deals and Charlie Chaplin himself offered to play me on the big screen which I turned down because I'd rather stay out of the limelight at this point in time.

Everything depends on how you handle your infamy.

It had taken a long time to clean some of the more challenging garments recently handed in at the laundry but now the work was finally done. Nipper carefully layered on more blue face paint and redrew the aggressive black lines around his not-at-all feminine eyes. He wrapped his favorite fine garment around himself and danced off into the streets. It wasn't long before the sound of Chalk caught his attention. He listened to the various comments and after the eye-watering surgery of Vox's savage assessment, Nipper decided to follow his new found upward thinking and try to add some positive vibes to proceedings. He respectfully nodded to Grin-07 before speaking. 

"Herro Misser Chark. Fankyou for your speech. I not here to mercirressry rip you to shreddies. I simpry wanted to say that eroquence has not been a barrier for me so far. Quite contrary, I find community most accommodating. Peopre in generar make much appreciated effort to understand me. I see faces squinting with concentration but they porite and not carr me name or srander me for shit speaks or cowardice to pick on vurnerabre. Ranguage barrier has been overcome by kind peopre making effort. Herp me immensery. I improve because of it."

Oversized flesh coloured hands removed a cigarette from its packet. Nipper puffed on the smoke with the industry of a speeding train, until the dark-eyed squint could barely be seen past the cloud.

"Anyway, as peopre said. If you have varid point to make, pubric wirr make effort to understand. Even if ranguage is crude and charrengingry rimited."

Thinking it best to stop now before some inevitable nasty comment burst forth from his restraint, the smoking curlers made a shallow bow and took a step back. It took a considerable effort but he even resisted planting elbows into the ribs of the two innocent observers either side of him. He was so pleased with his behavioral improvement, he almost smiled. Almost.

Nipper, thanks for your input.

I have admitted that I made mistakes in the past, and that the way I went about things wasn't the way I should've. I can do nothing to change that now though, other than not repeating those mistakes.

I try to make valid points, and have serious debates. That is what I have tried to do in this speech. That's why I have asked VoxNeruda if he would mind clarifying a few points he made, as I'm unsure of when these things took place.

I can keep apologising, but it's not going to change anything that's already happened. My only hope is that people don't write me off due to a few ill-conceived words.

I for one enjoy hearing you speak, I think your accent brings a uniqueness to your speeches and hope I see you around here in the future.

"Oh I not try to criticize you Misser Chark. I only wish point out eroquence not as important as sincerity. Or possibry intention, not sure which word work better. Anyway, was not attack on you. I not doubt sincerity. With this as root, onry good things can grow."

Ach, I tend to shy away from discussions about styles, content and personalities until there is a point that my boredom about the topic is overtaken by my desire to talk about something other than basketball or churro related content – side promotion – visit your local basketball court if you have one.

So here I am.

Is it not the case that some regimes value storytellers for the value they bring in?  If this life is about working on the margins, finding a hustle here, there and everywhere to bring in a little more bacon then most bosses will appreciate the extra cash.  If that margin is tapping into ways to increase the profitability of the creditshare revenues then what of it, really in the grand scheme of things.

Is it also not the case that telling these stories uses up that most precious of resource, time.  Time that could be spent servicing the various families in other financial manners but they have chosen to spend their time doing this.  Now, if the time spent telling stories doesn’t result in work being done for the family then it’s up to the boss to do something about that.  Not necessarily the community at large.  Are valuable discussions being lost under the weight of tales of alternative realities?

The flip side of it is, that as soon as you don that badge that says creditshare accepted here then you damn sure better be willing to accept any criticism that comes along with it.  We have seen vampire storytellers shot down, alien storytellers shot down and mafia storytellers shot down so what is it that people want to see?  I have looked back into my own family’s musings and found discussions about bodyguards amongst the earliest of things.  What was part of Grin-07’s most recent discussion about?  Bodyguards, a variation on the theme but bodyguards nonetheless.

I think if you don’t have the storytellers, then you end up with perpetual discussions about bodyguards, respect and how it was better back in the day!  If you don’t like what they do, don’t engage, or maybe engage in a way that amuses you…but don’t whine if the same thing happens to you.

And to the storyfolks that don’t like interruptions, deal with it or maybe go somewhere more back-alley like if you don’t like the scrutiny of the streets.