So, much has happened recently. Plenty of unknown Civilians/Thugs/Gangsters unaffiliated with this Thing of Ours have stood around the streets telling anyone that will listen how terrible the current leaders are, how we should be at everyone's beck and call and giving answers out for our actions.

Well, I hope most people in this life understand that quite frankly that's not going to happen, unless the leaders in question feel the need to make it happen. If they did feel that need, then it would have happened. See where I am going with that?

Everyone involved in the recent wars had their reasons for it. I'm sure if anyone wanted to know the reasons, they'd just ask them, right? I know for a fact the people that wanted to know my reasons had the sense to approach me and were given the reasons. I have a duty to my city to do what I feel is best for them and I will always stay true to that. However I don't feel the need to come out and share these reasons with the general public as my reasons are only of a concern/importance for my City as my actions put their lives on the line.

Now, enough of that. I didn't come here today to discuss the recent actions, I just thought it would be better to get that out of the way first as no doubt someone unknown person will remark on the fact I came to talk to you all but still hadn't mentioned the war.

Now the real reason for me approaching you all today is a thing called transparency. We spoke of it only 2 weeks back where Kimble was kind enough to approach the masses to summarise a meeting that had just been held between all the City Heads. You may remember from that point, it was mentioned this meeting would be held every 2 weeks? Well, I'm sure your all quick enough to realise that's exactly why I'm here today now.

Philly, or more importantly, LottaBEssen, organized the meeting for today and we thank her for doing so. Most importantly I'd like to thank her for the Rum Cake on entry, provided a most delicious start to the proceedings.

First on the agenda today was clarity, LottaBEssen wished to confirm to all that she will be heading up the great city of Philly with the passing of Cassi, with Tonks giving her all the support she needs. The rest of the City Heads wish her well and extend her any support she may require.

Next up was the recent bout of BodyGuard deaths. Once again our world is plagued by these stealthy ninja's disposing of the hired help. After much discussion the Leaders have came to an agreement on how best to handle it, sadly due to these reasons being top secret I cannot disclose them. Can't have the ninja's learning our game plan after all.

Following on from that, we all agreed that leaders and their hands don't communicate enough with one another. We feel that a lot of problems in this world could be solved more simply if there was a much more open dialogue between us. It was agreed that leaders and their hands would ensure to make more effort to enjoy a coffee with one another from now on, instead of sitting in the same coffee house in silence all the time, like has been the case for a long time now.

With communication now sorted, the question was posed as to what the leaders wanted to do with the two empty cities we have. Everyone agreed that right now the world requires stability and it would be better for all if we focused on getting our own Cities in order before embracing those that are empty.

Next on the agenda was the homeless people. Right now there are a number of people left homeless from the effects of the recent War(s), all cities agreed that these people have had a fair amount of time already to choose their next move, a timeline of 1 more week was placed on their status, should they remain homeless after that they would become targets for the nasty killers in our world.

And so with that, the meeting was concluded. No-one else had points they wished to cover at this moment in time.

So there you have it folks. A summary of tonight's events, transparency if you will. I've left out the bit where JesseJames went nuts, stormed out the room, came back and threatened to kill us all (starting with those bastards in St Louis) as everyone will assume he did it anyway, after all he's the Mafia's very own Hulk, right?


Well, thank you all for your time (if you managed to stay awake listening to me all that time, that is). If anyone has any questions, concerns, comments etc. Feel free to discuss here in the open, I don't mind answering if I can. Though I will only address those affiliated with This Thing of Ours.

Insert a golf clap here and a few words of congratulations here.

Now, onto the real reason I'm here. Don't your loyal followers deserve to know the truth about your involvement? Isn't it true that you were involved in the war simply to try and reduce the maximum number of hired security enforcers one can have in this thing of ours? Why not let the world know this? I'm pretty that's what the message left on the desk of our now departed Chade said. I happened to find it as I rummaged through the HQ looking for anything of value someone may have left behind. A girl's gotta figure out some way to survive in the Streets.

Ya'll have a nice day now...

I find it highly unlikely that anyone's reason for the war was to try and reduce the maximum number of bodyguards anyone can have. This war was organized people "in the know". And people "in the know" would know that killing Chade would not have an impact on the maximum number of bodyguards allowed.

Forget all the idle chit chat this was a power play and nothing else we are back to the days where if you want power you just got to take it simples!

Starts to applaud after hearing Alabama's speach and grins.

Thank you Worley for taking time out of your day, coming to these streets to give us a summary of what happened in todays meeting. Its great to see leaders working together, helping this world heal from the latest events. I also agree, time for each city to grow and work together should come first before putting new life in the empty cities. It will be nice to see how this progresses and I look forward to seeing changes in the future.

Also a congrats to LottaBEssen on taking over the reigns of Philly. I wish you and Tonks the best of luck rebuilding Philly.

SpaceCowboy checks his jacket and pulls out a bottle of whiskey. Hands the bottle to Lotta as a gift for the newly earned rank. 

Civ listens to AlabamaWorley and smiles applauding...

"It is good to see that we are off to better times and better communications. As i am new in this bold life, i am looking forward to our futur. Seems quite promising if i may say so.
But damn... i missed that meeting and the rhum cakes. Communication has always been the best of tools, and i know that i will do my part and try to communicate more with the other leaders.

LottaBEssen, congratulations on taking charge of Philly. I am looking forward to seeing your fine city grow under you.

Thankyou Alabama for taking this time to communicate this to us in the streets for all eyes to see.

Here, here!"

Civ raises his glass of whiskey in the honor of AlabamaWorley and all the city heads!

I have to admit, I am a little disturbed by this. It's certainly not my place to question the actions of those guys at the top, but it's not just nostalgia on my part to remember fondly the days where Omertà as a concept ranked as a rule and way of life ranked highly. On one hand, it is rather refreshing to see information in the public domain that the lower rankers would not normally be privvy too; but surely it must be said that the reason they're (we're?) not normally privvy to this information is purely because we're low ranked.

It's already widely accepted that the ascension to Made Man is the crowning moment of a Mafiosos 'career' as they are officially inducted into the inner sanctum; they've truly 'made' it. From reading family diaries, and from conversing with more esteemed friends than I, one of the crucial aspects of this promotion was the fact your CL wa now publicly and boldly putting his trust in you and vouching for you. You're now truly part of the family, not just a hanger onner but a valued member. Your CL trusts you enough to give you the button, and ipso facto, they'd be happy to trust you with sensitive information and so on.

Granted, this information is not exactly ground breaking; and I'd imagine if anything truly controversial took place it would be 'edited' somewhat so the reality and the presented version differ slightly; but regardless of what's being said, surely the public disclosure  of a meeting between the half dozen most powerful and influential people in the Mob (and by extension - all of America) lessens the gravity of Omertà and takes the lustre off the entire process of becoming Made.

All that being said, in spite of myself I would say it's interesting to get a glimpse into the decision making process.

One last thing I'd like to say in response to Mr. Fawkes,  we are not 'back' to the days where if you want power you must take it; we never left those days. We are in the Mob. Power is attained through force; not by a democratic electoral model.

Sprozz, whilst I understand the point you're making, I think it would make for a very boring and quiet time if we truly operated as authentically as possible.

I think that we can sacrifice a certain amount of realism in order to provide greater entertainment and excitement to our day to day lives.

~G~rin.

butternut squash!

As always, Grin has beat me to the punch. Sprozz, I completely understand the sentiment behind what you said, however realism is often something we place far too much importance on. We are in this life, we should have very little concerns for the ways in which others, even our forefathers, lived.

Thats not to say we ignore these things completely, of course not. More so that we apply common sense to the matters. As you can see, there is only really one such detail from the meeting that was considered sensitive information and it wasn't revealed. In future should there be anything discussed that the leaders feel shouldn't be shared with the masses i'm sure that City Head addressing the public will omit it from the summary, or be as vague as I was at the very most.

There's always Rum Cake in Philly!

Lotta smiles at Bama ans winks at her in a way only girls understand

The one thing that came out of this meeting is the fact that we agreed communication was lacking between the cities. This lack of communication breeds paranoia, rumors, and eventually wars as is evident in this last bloodshed.

I look forward to working with everyone, and making our Thing a better place.

Power is attained through force; not by a democratic electoral model.

Now, now, Mr. Sprozz, please speak for yourself on that one. The Cain Train has just arrived in the station, and the Cain Train needs your votes! A mere donation of $5,000,000 to the Friends of Herman Cain will place you in first class on the Cain Train, with benefits including the opportunity to personally converse with Mr. Cain through your ordinary mob mail functions! So hop on board the Cain Train today -- every vote and every dollar is a step towards a Cain administration.

This response was funded and produced by Herman Cain for President PAC.

"Next on the agenda was the homeless people. Right now there are a number of people left homeless from the effects of the recent War(s), all cities agreed that these people have had a fair amount of time already to choose their next move, a timeline of 1 more week was placed on their status, should they remain homeless after that they would become targets for the nasty killers in our world."

Perhaps I simply didn't read this properly, but my understanding of "one more week" was from the time of this speech (making the death-date 11/14/11, for those keeping track at home). Yet, some of the homeless are being shot down days before that time. Is that date (11/14/11) incorrect? If so, I apologize. If not, I'd like to know why the homeless, especially those from my own city (which was relatively uninvolved in the war, apart from Cassi's death) are being shot ahead of the given time.