Sioux again sets up his makeshift totem pole out on the corner before climbing to its top. He'd offer a wave to each person as they filled the area   before him.

"Hello all! I have a matter that has been brought to my attention, one I was pretty curious to learn more about. It's about the dueling a handful of our associates and peers have began to mettle in. Not so much the actual act of dueling but the coming to the point of dueling."

He'd clear his throat a bit, taking a brief moment to put his thoughts together.

"Does an individual need to speak out to another before sending a duel notice? If he doesn't, is it considered a threat or an attack in any which way? It seems to me, that, if you have beef with anyone, sometimes words aren't our forte.. therefore shouting and brandishing weapons may do that better for some.  Is there a proper way to come about initiating one of these duels and should there be reprisal if you don't at least speak to your prospected opponent?"

Sioux sat down on the edge of his totem, listening to the side conversations begin to take place. Offering his thoughts on the tangents in which some began to take this.

I believe that the Boss of any friend of ours has an interest whenever someone threatens his or her bottom line. Challenging someone to a duel threatens to take earnings and manpower away from the Boss.  For this reason, a Boss has every right and reason to feel threatened by the act of dueling and could legitimately take actions to stop it or to punish either participant.

As far there being a proper way to initiate duels, my ancestors have found more success taking the "surprise duel" avenue. Much less chance of being shot back. At least, not by the other unwilling participant.

I do recall the Gods informing us when dueling was introduced that banning, or prohibiting duel would result in a loss of sleeping bums in said persons city. So, banning this isnt an option. Carry on

I appreciate you allowing us to carry on, Falcon. You're such a wise guy, no pun intended. Though, no where in this conversation have I heard the option of banning the act of  dueling until you. Not even prohibiting it was mentioned. 

What was mentioned was the possible reprisal. Being smacked around, physically or verbally..maybe both! 

People apparently are seeing duel requests without being spoken to first and are taking this personally, up-channeling it to their  command and they're seeing it as an attack and a  threat.

Challenging someone to a duel threatens to take earnings and manpower away from the Boss.  For this reason, a Boss has every right and reason to feel threatened by the act of dueling and could legitimately take actions to stop it or to punish either participant.

Carry on, my point stands. 

Your point? You had no point other than regurgitating what The Gods had mentioned previously. 

Sure you're not a parrot, Falcon? I hear they do name changes, around the corner.

Firstly, I find this discussion about 'ethics' when it comes to duelling quite saddening, to be honest. We now have ethics about everything.

Pickpocketing: 'Zomg, a Pickpocket unfriendly person was pickpocketed by someone. Gross breach of ethics!!!!'

Suiciding, apprently:' Zomg, he/she didn't give his/her CL a free kill. Gross, unbelievable breach of ethics!!!'

We are in the mafia, for fucks sake, do we really need 'ethics'? Yes, we need Omerta. Yes, we need rules and structure to the way we conduct our business but ethics? Really? Honestly? Well, Ok.

Anyway, now that I've had my little rant about a pet peeve of mine, I'll attempt to make a response to the topic at hand. As the more perceptive of you might have guessed, I don't think there needs to be ANY ethics surrounding the relatively new concept of God-organized duels. At least, not any blanket statements along the lines of 'Duelling is bad and should never be done without prior contact with both parties and their respective Crew Leaders' Or ' Duelling is soooo much fun. Who cares what anyone thinks? Just ask everyone you meet if they'd be interested in attempting to kill you and as for the will of the leaders....who gives a fuck what those farts think?'

Each and everyone of us is, at our most basic level, unique. By extension, this means that each situation is unique. I think a situation should be viewed individually and a set of so-called ethics should be formulated for that particular situation ALONE. There might be a scenario where someone sending me a duel request out of the blue would not make me bat an eye and I would accept it with a single click of my fingers and within a heart-beat. Other times, I would be taken aback and would have appreciated a certain amount of context as to why I was being challenged to a battle to the death by a fellow mafioso and in an even different scenario I would go 'Maybe his/her Boss should know that I am about to try to kill someone whom they have invested a lot in and have high hopes for.... Just to save myself from possible backlash from an angry and powerful member of our society'

Basically, in my humble opinion, there can be no blanket statements of 'ethics' regarding these duels and each scenario should be viewed by an individual just as what it really is, a singular event and the aforementioned individual should use a gift called 'Common Sense' to determine what to do... for that situation. ALONE.  

Your point actually does not stand, Falcon. Your point seemed to be that banning the occurrence of duels was not an option. Why is it not an option? You mentioned that there would be a loss of sleeping bums if any sort of prohibition on dueling occurred, but you never did state how that made it not an option.  The existence of some sort of penalty for taking a certain action does not remove that action from the realm of possibilities.

What he meant as his point is that you, Triggerhappy, had said "..legitimately take actions to stop it or to punish either participant."  Which isn't allowed,  because, The Gods have stated that they would not  tolerate  severe reprisal like this. In that point, yes, his was valid and  true.

It's a matter of The Gods. They've already stated they won't tolerate any leader or city banning this and will take action. Like, thinning out or causing a drought in the vagrant population.

His point does stand in that regard, though.

Standing at the corner of the street watching Sioux speak in the middle of the street Tupac dares to speak his mind.

I have always valued loopholes. Loopholes are pretty much a means to get in and do things you would like to do even if they aren't exactly allowed normally. For my first example i will say that if you go out and shoot a member from another family what happens? You become a rogue, disappointment, idiot, or a ninja with a gun. We all know through every act of signing the family rules in each of our own respective HQs that shooting another criminal in this world is outlawed and will result in death. Thats just how this thing works. Except there is a loophole.

The Loophole for killing other family members is this. Offering a duel. Although they do not have to accept such a request sometimes they do. If they do and it becomes a mutual desire to killing each other we have a sort of 'hunger games' in our midst and all we have to do is sit back and watch the action unfold. Eventually one will kill the other and the whole 'purge' like aspect becomes widely accepted.

Pretend you are a crew leader with me for a moment. You have a young warrior who practices his gun getting ten kills daily. Suddenly he challenges an old lion from another crew. A more respected sort of man. The duel takes place and your soldier wins. How can you possibly stop this from happening again?

Yet again we find a loophole. It is becoming to your discretion however. You choose to shoot a man and your crew leader still has the right to take you out in anyway he sees fit. 1.) You didnt sign the family rules. 2.) You didnt tribute enough 3.) I dont like your profile. Although some of these reasons to take out a family member would normally be stupid it gives reason to do what a leader must. Protect his family.

See, If you are a crew leader and you have a young criminal running around trying to duel everyone it becomes obnoxious. Besides that it also becomes dangerous. You cant contain your crew and other families don't want to lose their members. So you sacrifice the lamb. Put the blood on your door so your whole family knows what happens if you go out of line. Yes prohibiting duels is still banned, yes it may result in the loss of city bums, and yes you lose a family member with a potential high gun. However no one has to know why you killed this young criminal and if they ask, you can lie. After all you are a criminal who snatches purses and sells drugs. Whats a little white lie gonna do?

Tupac looks down and thinks about etiquette. Is there any etiquette in dueling and if there is what is it. The original question is now in Tupacs mind.

I think a proper etiquette would be at the very least letting your leader and perhaps the leader of the other family know why you desired to duel this member. Perhaps maybe attending his/her funeral would be a decent thing to do as well. If you were smart you would talk it over with your leader, this person, and perhaps a friend. Maybe they can talk you down. We all do somethings in the heat of the moment. You work your whole career and bring such good action to the family then you let some wiseguy shoot you down.

Proper Etiquette tells me this. Your gun should be your last option. That is only when every other measure is completely exhausted. The human mind is more powerful than the skill of a weapon. So instead of dueling with weapons i would recommend dueling with the mind.

If duels have any honor in them thats fine and dandy. Yet who is to say the son of that who was shot down in the street wont come back for a little bit of ruthless vengeance. This time proper honor might not be used and a gunning down in the street may just take place while you were midway through a beautiful conversation about lilies and shit.

Tupac has nothing to say any longer and decides to leave. He has said all he could. Hopefully the realization that dueling does not have to be the end all be all in most cases. Tupac reaches the street corner and stands there listening and waiting to see what if people ask him to come back out and answer or clarify something. Which he really hopes does not happen because he is really busy and should actually be doing other shit. So Tupac is really just kind of waiting to see if he is the last person to speak which he doesnt think he will be but if he is then that becomes super awkward and he could have carried on with other things almost immediately instead of hanging around here.