After the recent conflict, I heard talk in the coffeeshops and on the Streets about how we need a return to business so we can all get back to our first love, making money. To do that successfully we need peace between the families, a stable environment free from violence where the civilians can be taxed, fronts established and drug routes milked. 

I think we can all appreciate that although it has only been a very short period of time since the war was concluded, the green shoots of recovery can be seen all around us. Fine Cloth & Silk is back in business, Valhalla Baptist Church opened its doors, and conversations about  MichaelMyers being a bitch continues to trend on every street corner. 

I believe this is because of how seriously the current bosses are taking the safety of the people in their employ. I've got a personal example of this which I can share. Yesterday, there were two attempts on my life, something of rare dark clouds in the bright sky of the new world. Being a little Gary Goomba, I passed this information up the chain of command to those more important than I. They left no stone unturned in the pursuit of my assailants quickly alerting the rest of the bosses of both the attack and, perhaps more importantly, just how much they cared about finding the culprits. I'm sure retribution will be swift and nobody will trifle with The Black Hand family again.

On that note, I wondered how other families were doing in keeping their people alive, and preserving our chances of prosperity. I'm pleased to report that it was good news all round! Save for people retiring from the business, it looked like none of New York, Philly, Los Angeles, Detroit or Chicago had lost a single member.

Congratulations to ChaosBringerUnicron and Zephyr in Chicago on losing 0 members. 36/36 alive and kicking.

Congratulations to Pops, President_Skroob and TheMorrigan on losing 0 members. Super caring, super vigilant, super strong.

Congratulations to H-E-R-O and RoyKhan on losing 0 members. I'm sure someone in the VIP rankings is right around the corner too.

Congratulations to [br]Odin, Reverend Al and Merit on losing 0 members. Coast to coast with a full cohort intact. 

Congratulations to TNT and TheDude on losing 0 members. No 7-10 splits here. 

Sadly the congratulations must end at this point as the news wasn't quite as good from Las Vegas. In fact, that isn't fair, I do have one more congratulations to offer to Chopsticks, as he too managed to keep his full compliment safe over in Paradise, just almost like every other family did. Unfortunately, it looked like there was trouble in The Strip and MichaelMyers somehow managed to lose 20% of his people. Oh well. I'm sure things will pick up from here. 

Yes, yes, credit where its due, massive congratulations to everyone involved for their great success and a job well done. An entire 3 days without managing to hardly kill anyone. Truly outstanding work all round.

Not quite outstanding work all round I'm afraid, NotMatt.

Oh, you're quite right Grin26, apologies. Outstanding work from some, mediocre at best from others.

Listen, we all know Grin26 is the problem, but that's not what this is about. This is about finding common ground in our endeavors. We all want to make money. We all want to stay alive and not be dead like ClownCollegeReject and the others that fell from friendly fire. We all want to pat ourselves on the back for not being MichaelMyers. We all want to rally around those with true, dedicated family loyalty like maniac, who put himself in harm's way and ultimately ended up dying trying to protect his family.
 

maniac the martyr.

Johnny, I am a loyal crew member to my boss, Pops, and I simply follow orders. There is no plot from me, perceived or otherwise, nor will there be unless the big men upstairs tell me to hatch one. I could just as easily be called Loyalty26. One recent example of this occurred yesterday, when one such big man, Nick_Valentine, the RHM of our organization, ordered me to shoot at the slightly less big man, Eazy, the LHM of our organization. I didn't have a gun so he thrust one into my hands and I fired a single round at Eazy, missing him completely. This is the only time I have pulled a trigger, as will remain the case until any more of our family need me to try to murder them or I'm turned into a still-beautiful looking corpse. 

What does all this mean? In order, I guess it means I'm loyal, I follow orders, I'm not plotting, Nick_Valentine is more important than Eazy in our hierarchical organization and I didn't kill anybody as I have neither the capacity nor inclination. As has become customary, I believe the facts speak for themselves; nobody has lost a member except MikeyMyers, who has somehow contrived to lose three.