Walking towards her soap box Wet catches a reflection of herself in a window.

My skin is so dry! Why are my pores so big? Does my nose really look like that?

She fixes her shirt making sure her breasts look right. Making her way towards the box she makes sure to flirt with the cute boys and bat her eye lashes at the crowd.

Hello everyone. Firstly I want to say that you all look amazing today. I'm so glad we decided to wear pink. Totally cute. Earlier today, while on my way to America, I was thinking about ups and downs and water. The boat went up and down over the waves which are made of water. Which made me think, trees need water. They also have roots. They say people have roots but if we do I don't know where everyone puts them. That made me think about our families and where we all come from.

We call ourselves mafioso but we aren't Italian.

That doesn't make sense to me. Have Italian names changed or have we allowed non Italian members to be apart of this thing of ours. If not, I may be in trouble because I don't think I'm Italian.

Or does being in this thing of ours make us Italian?

Should you have to be Italian to be in this thing of ours?

I know this is a lot of questions but hopefully we can all work together to figure this out!

Im chinese--italian!!!

Thats very interesting WingWongWang. How do you know you are chinese--italian!!!? Do you have roots to prove it? Also, you didn't answer any of my questions! Does that mean you are apart of this thing of ours because of your italian side or did you get your italian side because of this thing of ours?

Townslave saw Wet dressed in pink, checking herself out in a window. When she began her approach to the soap box he decided to perch up on a building balcony because he liked having a view of everything. Townslave pulled out a book to look for Wet's name in it, he never could remember what his next target would look like. Listening in on her group discussion words filled the air. The group discussion wasn't long in fact it seemed Wet just came to everyone with a few questions.

The thug asked for team work after just shortly arriving. This woman he had listened to even said that everyone in the crowd were wearing pink. He glanced down to who ever may have stopped on their way to run errands. Townslave looked at his fashion and all he saw was a black leather type robe with foreign designs on it, black gloves and his skin. He grabbed a strand of hair on the side of his face and moved it in front of his eyes.

Yep still silver.

Townslave snapped his finger and two men standing below the balcony stood close together and looked up to him. They were wearing sun glasses and the average attire. As soon as the two men looked up Townslave jumped down from the balcony. The two men caught him and put him down gently.

Let's go, I'm not Italian.

The two men followed Townslave out of the group discussion's area.

Wet hears Townslave announcement of not being Italian. Noticing him leaving she yells.

Wait! Do you feel that being non Italian effects your standing in an Italian mafia? If it doesn't then surely you have some serious connections. If it does could you elaborate on it?

Townslave hears Wet's yell and stops for a moment and turns around to look at her and smiles. After pausing for only two seconds he turns back around to continue walking on. His smile slowly begins to fade as he gets further from Wet. It's not that he didn't care to answer her question but she must learn that in life sometimes you have to learn from experience and testing the waters.

Reaching an establishment with tables outside he takes a seat at one of the tables. The two men stand post as he pulls out a cigarette and lighter from his black robe. He puts it in his mouth and lights it retreating just the lighter back in his possession. He inhales nicotine and takes two fingers and places the cigarette in the middle of them forming a wedge where it doesn't drop when he releases it from his mouth. Townslave spins around on the bench to look at the beautiful sunset.

It's almost my favorite time of the day. Night.

Townslave starts to watch the sunset.

"Since when do you have to be Italian to enjoy making money? If a family is recruiting only because of the color of your skin then Come to to Las Angeles we aren't big enough snobs to turn away new faces. I feel that even some of the more Hollywood type family names even had a few family members who weren't exactly from Italy. Why would you even feel like you have to be any race to be a bootlegger. Shame on any family who turns aways someone just cause they don't match your race. I am not of Italian decent but I proudly wave my Familia de Angeles flag and will do so til I am six feet under"

Fydora breathing heavily from her long outburst or what she would call a speech, decides she has said enough and just shakes her head at the thought someone in this day and age actually being racist. Rolling her eyes and hailing a cab Fydora heads off to her favorite bakery to get herself a tasty treat

Mercury listens to Wet talking about something called the mafia .. and mafioso .. and boats going up and down. She had no idea what this woman was going on about. Mercury looked around for these so called "mafioso." She shakes her head in confusion.

We are all fine, upstanding businessmen and businesswomen here. I've never heard of the, what did you call it? Mafia? I don't think such a thing exists.

Mercury gives the woman one last glance and heads on down the street. She is pretty sure she knows where Fydora went. They have business to conduct.

Willoam stands listening to the conversation, even at one point yawning before finding a pause in the discussion for him to butt in

My name ends with a vowel, does that count?

Besides that this is the 1930's, a lot of we mafioso were born in the United States and maybe our parents wanted us to fit in? Maybe some of them wanted to go against the grain? Or for example for me they hated us?

Either way a mafioso by any name still smells of sausage and peppers.

Willoam laughs before wandering off

All of a sudden Italians have cornered the market on Organized Crime? Since when? If you have to be Italian to rob a bank, a lot of us may as well go home right now.

It sounds like the consensus is that you do not need to be Italian to be apart of this thing of ours. Im relieved because i was worried i would soon be sleeping with the fishies.

Sammo walks into the street, choosing now to end his period of self imposed silence and introspection. Despite his ungainly size and weight, Sammo is unusually lithe and light on his feet for a fat Chinese man.

I know what you are getting at Wet. Although it is not a requirement to work with the mafia, usually only those of Southern Italian descent ever receive their button and become fully fledged members of 'this thing of ours'. Because many third and fourth generation Italian Americans have non-Italian ancestry, having an Italian surname seems to have become the prerequisite for Mafia membership. Some examples of made members who are not of full Italian descent include John A. Gotti, whose mother was of Russian descent, and "Cadillac" Frank Salemme, former boss of the Patriarca family in Providence, Rhode Island, who was half Irish.

Likewise, those with a history in Law Enforcement are usually prohibited from ever becoming made men. DeMeo crew member Henry Borelli could never become a made man in the Gambino family, since he had taken the New York City Police Department entrance exam, and Bonanno underboss Salvatore Vitale was only made because his brother-in-law and future boss Joseph Massino covered up his previous work as a corrections officer. Again there are notable exceptions though, Scarfo crime family capo Ron Previte was a former member of the Philadelphia police force.

Being Chinese myself, I suppose would prevent me from ever becoming a Made man, I am after all in no way Italian and don't even possess an Italian name. Would that make me more likely to be Tong or Triad? I guess things have become more relaxed in recent times, either that or there are no actual true Mafia families in existence any more, I for one can't recall a time where a Family head required Italian ancestry to hand out a button.

As the Dean hinted at, Italians do not corner the market on Organized crime. We have the Traditional Mafia of course, but now we have the Irish Mafia, the Russian Mob, Triads, Tong, Yakuza, Yardies, the Columbian Drug Cartels, the Italian American Cosa Nostra, The Neopolitan Camorra, the Calabrian and Italian Canadian 'Ndrangheta, and the Apulian Sacra Corona Unita, the Albanian Mafia, the Pakistani MQM, as well as a whole host of street or youth gangs. I guess we have just moved away from the traditional notions of the Mafia, and developed a more general Organised Crime Society. Personally I hope someday to see a time when the actual Mafia Returns.