The streets of New York were busy and packed this evening. Just the regular crowd that came and went from work, their lunch breaks, or general routine within their life. Cory Chase leaned on the brickwall of his favorite local coffee shop, which was owned by one of his favorite friends. That was his daily routine, but now that he was in America, there was a whole new world out there for him to explore. Chase made his way down the alleyway to where…. You know, all the hoodlums hang out at.

"Welcome fellow mafioso!"

People slightly turned their head at the street trash, but only a few seemed to pay him any attention at all.

"I was wondering if any of you exhilarating, devilishly good looking, and morally ethical crew leaders have a job for a guy like me to be murdered within your family!"

That got the more people from the crowd to turn and look at the madman that was foretelling his own death, but Chase continued to smile.

"Yes, yes. You heard right! Whether you know who my bloodline is or isn't, doesn't matter - we all know there's a time limit to these things. Well, let's let the sands of time turn, baby. Let the clock rollllllllll."

Chase dropped his voice to a slight hum. 

"Since I don't have anyone recruiting me, like ever… I'm a free agent! I'll be in America casually, as most of my time will be spent in Italy handling some other business that takes precedent. I'll give you money from time to time, because you know, that's what an outstanding citizen of this society does. If you fight someone I'll ask what I can do to help out, because you know, I like to have a good time too, baby. You don't have to let me into any of your special meeting rooms, and honestly, I don't want to be there anyway. I'd like to think I'm not a brat that thinks he's entitled to anything, so you don't have to worry about promoting me or anything like that. You know, I could be a danger to society for all you know!?!? Can't take that risk!

I'll murder some of those Durden idiots though and sell drugs, because I don't know what else to do. Sorry in advance."

Chase holds up a finger to let the crowd know he wasn't finished yet.

"And in return for my loyalty and absolutely athletically stunning charisma, you can purge me in 40 days… 50 days, TOPS! I mean, having this kill under your notch is pretty cool anyway, ain't it. It's much easier to just put me in the dirt, than it is to be skeptical about my willingness to want to help you whenever I'm not in Italy. 

We can even play that game where we act like we don't know what happened and search for the murderer! It's like Clue!

Or better yetttttt, let's wait until a war and say the other side did it! That will really have people confused.  El. Oh. El." 

Chase smirks to himself and steps towards the crowd. 

"Listen, I don't give a single fuck. I know the deets. Let me come kick it with you and be the best member I can to your 'family' whenever I'm here. You can kill me for whatever you want for all I care. 

Poptarts too hot? Shoot me. 

People telling you I should die because I'm a threat to society? Alright, I wish. But whatever, shoot me.

Your girlfriend broke up with you? Take that anger out on me, babygirllllll."

Chase turns his head towards the crowd and sees if he has any takers willing to take him in.

"Any takers? I'll come be just the normal member for you that tries, and you do the norm as well. Just to be clear, I'm cool with purging me, this is consensual. I can't think of a better way to waste both of our time.

Which one of you crew leaders is up to the challenge of holstering a wild man like myself. The absolute undeniable threat to this world of ours? Eh?

Or yall scared?"
 

Alex was walking down the street, his arms around the waists of two absolutely stunning women who he had convinced that he was the actual Godfather of the Bronx. He had even put on the accent.Well, he had tried to. Accomplishing a scouse accent without having committed at least 2 acts of petty theft in the last hour was an impossibility. The women didn't seem to notice though, probably too drunk to care. As he continued to try and steer them toward his love-nest. The thoughts of what he hoped to do soon enough danced around in his drunken stupor. However, he heard something that shook him. He heard Cory-Chase speak on the Street. He stopped and decided to listen. As he continued to hear the young thug speak, he felt his sobriety come charging back at him. He sighed as he felt the buzz disappear, only to be replaced by yet another, even deeper euphoria.

He had never really understood the 5-man HQ idea that those in power had endorsed. It just wasn't possible to throw a massive party with just 5 people. The sororities would just go to one of the bigger houses and we would be stuck in a good ole-fashioned sausage-fest...but now....everything had changed. The opportunity to murder Cory-Chase was at hand. His mind raced as he tried to think of what to say. H

Hi...hello, yes. I have a few doubts. This seems like an amazing opportunity that you are extending to crew leaders across our many cities. I can see so many eyes just lighting up at this prospect. However, I need clarifications on certain topics. Quibbles really.

1. You have brought up the possibility of us role-playing your death. Would you be open to role play during your life? For example, would you object to being required to wear a frilly dress and a gimp mask? You know, just as a random example of course, not that I am into that sort of thing. I'm into chicks and booze..hahaha.

2. So if I were to come back home in a bad mood(home meaning HQ of course, not a cohabitation situation, hahaha) and decide to kill you, but no you refuse to give in and we struggle, knocking over furniture that we so lovingly accumulated from our weekends antiquing (HQ has to look cool,you know...just guys being dudes) and suddenly we are face to face with each other,breathing in each other's scent, one atop another...what would happen next?

3.Post your demise, do you have any requirements as to how your corpse would need to be treated? Just curious. Like would you object to being embalmed,striking a pose like Michelangelo's David for instance.

He then stepped back calculating in his head what it would cost to have his 1 bedroom apartment officially recognized as crew HQ as he waited with bated breath for a response. The women stared at him quizzically before deciding to just sit down on a bench nearby to observe the goings on

Chase looked to AlexMorgan and listened, and nodded his head in return.

"Those are some great questions, Alex! I am part of the promask movement, so help me protect you, protect me, protect you, until we can't protect each other anymore. We can pretend we met at the bar if you're into that kind of thing. 

I would like to think if we ever got into a tumble, smarter minds would prevail and we would wear our mask! Can't be breathing on each other like that in today's world. But the tumble you described? Not gay . Totally not gay. 

As for my dying wishes? Piss on my body in the streets if that's what gets your socks off. I literally don't give a fuckkkk. Not going to hurt my feelings, I'll be fucking dead already. We can pretend to be shocked and say nice things at my funeral. Wish my son to come back. You know, all the generic shit."

Chase turns to Anton, ready to deliver a smartass comment, but he retracted his thoughts.

"You know what, Anton? I was going to ask if there were any other takers, but you make a strong and valid point. Would I be safe with you? Well, probably not. You are definitely a leader, at least in that aspect. You could lead me to the grave yourself. 

But I hope you understand that I'm the type of guy that goes down with the ship. You die? I die. I take my oaths seriously. Not that you care, but that's just the way I like to roll. Absolute loyalty in return for... I dunno. Trying to figure that out! Now that I think about it, the crew leader to family member loyalty ratio is heavily unbalanced. I'm basically signing up for a homeless shelter until it's time to fly away from the nest, after I pay my taxes first, of course"

Duggee wanders into the street, sits panting and listens to what Cory-Chase has to say. When the hub bub has died down he stands and says piece.

"Woof wuff wooof woof. Ah woof woof woof. Wooooof woof. Ahhhh woooof!"

Thankfully as always the Narrator is on hand to translate Duggee for those not intelligent enough to understand dog.

What do you mean you don't need me any more, that from now on you will be speaking for your self because you have your Public Speaking badge? Fine! Be like that, lets see how long it'll be before you come crawling back on your paws and knees begging for my posh English voice when no one else understands your barking. And I don't care who Wuffle the wonderdog is!

And just like that the voice was gone. Duggee smiled and started to speak.

"Woof... sorry, still had some marrowbone stuck in my throat. Anyway, I would like to extend an invitation for you to join Cohle, Laugh and myself in Vegas Cory. Cohle and my family have been working together for over three generations now, and we keep dying too. Its probably getting near that time. So if you like, you will be more than welcome to join our merry band of deviants, and we can all die together in a month or so... perhaps a little sooner, we have been up for a few weeks already."

Whilst I don't intervene in who my captains decide to recruit, nor would I stop Anton from taking you into his crew, my own view is that people who make big songs and dances like this, don't usually go on to lead productive lives for the family. Who needs this kind of drama from taking on a Thug? 

As long as you join anywhere besides The Loop or Pioneer Square you're pretty much guaranteed to be purged in 60 days or less! Dealers choice!

Duggee wonders what he had done to Cory-Chase that he felt the need to totally blank him, its not like he was purging people in Vegas.

I don't know why you would think anything you've said here would make me uncomfortable. I shoot people I don't trust. I'm very transparent about it and I always have been. I expect my members to put the family before everything else and I protect those who do. It isn't all a one way street and I also try to give chances out too, which is why the "you do things properly- you die" rhetoric is tiresome and plainly false. For every whinger who didn't prove themselves to their CL, there is an Elodin, an AidenPearce, a Vincent, a TwoKnucklesDeep. A OneEyedMonster, an Anne_Nicolle, an Anton, a FrizzBee, a Hush; even a Cromwell. People who have no affiliation to me other than on merit either to me or to Grin-07. And those are just from within Chicago that I named off the top of my head that are still alive. The list of people I've taken a risk on because they sat down with me and we discussed their desires and my expectations is much longer. 

So I see this routine and I see it for what it is. Someone who didn't try very hard to make an impression on their leader and by their own admission isn't paying much attention, so they jump to the wrong conclusion, trying to make the scenario fit their chosen narrative. Anyway, it doesn't really matter, you're just looking for somewhere to get shot after all.  

Better at what? This? How? I'm at the very summit of this mountain and sorry to say, I'm staying here without even breaking that much of a sweat. You should probably also not feel too flattered, you've obviously misheard me if you think I believe you to have any kind of sway over anything. I don't. You're an irrelevance to me; a thug, out here with only one eye on the day to day and trying to stitch something together with none of the sausage and only a little bit of sizzle.

For this song and dance routine to catch on it would need to be true and sadly the 'everyone gets purged regardless of their effort' chorus falls flat on its arse because of all the people who just don't. I reeled off plenty of names without even catching my breath. So it seems to me that it is far more likely that the reason I gave, that the person didn't prove themselves to their boss, is far more likely to be true than everyone is in danger. But that isn't all that surprising because I'm actually here paying attention and know what is going on, rather than spending the majority of my time in another country and flinging shit aimlessly hoping some of it will stick.

And honestly, I'd say more in response to you but I don't have the faintest idea what putting weight in on other's fate means, what West has to do with anything or what you're even talking about in relation to my ancestors. Most importantly though, you're only here to find a crew that'll shoot you, so none of this was really worth my effort to begin with. Still though, I guess it is sunny out here and I need my vitamin D after all. 

"It isn't all a one way street and I also try to give chances out too, which is why the "you do things properly- you die" rhetoric is tiresome and plainly false. For every whinger who didn't prove themselves to their CL, there is an Elodin, an AidenPearce, a Vincent, a TwoKnucklesDeep. A OneEyedMonster, an Anne_Nicolle, an Anton, a FrizzBee, a Hush; even a Cromwell."

You know for all the criticism and claims of indiscriminate purging you get Grinny this a great point which is very hard for your critics to answer. 

To any young mobsters out there just getting started in this way of life, you're probably going to hear a lot of empty talk about purging, but just know that if you're loyal to old Grinner, send cash up, keep your nose clean and work hard for your city you too could be the next Elodin (RIP), AidenPearce (RIP), Vincent (RIP), OneEyedMonster (RIP), Anne_Nicolle (RIP), Anton (RIP), or Hush (RIP).  

Just keep working away for your grateful crew leaders and they'll be sure to reward you!

And good luck, FrizzBee and Knuckles.   

"Ha, look how naïve you used to be, Son!" Crowed Ghost Anton, hearing my own words parroted back to me. I remembered saying them, believing them too, once upon a time. Not anymore though; circumstances change.

"It doesn't need to be like this," Ghost OctopusLegs, a new addition to the spectre fan club, said sadly. Ignoring her had also not worked she seemed here for the duration as well.

I thought I should probably say something to Arroyo, I would have done back when I was trying to give people the benefit of the doubt. "I should probably say something," I said.

Ghost Anton laughed. "You've been talking to your imagination, pal. I don't think these people care about what you have to say."

He had a point.

Congratulations FrizzBee !

Last woman standing in The Most Dangerous Game: People Definitively Proving Grin Doesn't Purge Edition

What an achievement! How are you feeling? 

Has your boss offered any words of congratulations? Perhaps asked about your bloodline and gun size recently? He said he should say something when he was last here, presumably that was to you?

You must be very proud. Better look after yourself or people might get the horrible and completely erroneous idea that there's some purging going on. 

"Anyone have a location for Frizzbee? Ghost Anton? Ghost OctopusLegs?" Ghost Anton shakes his head. Ghost OctopusLegs looks bored with the whole thing and doesn't reply. "Well that isn't very helpful. Sigh. I guess she'll have to live another day then."