Daniella glanced down the street at the still sleeping lion that she’d recently patted on the head and left bacon for. She shrugged slightly and looked back at the speaker who was telling her that such an action couldn’t actually take place. Honestly is was no crazier than the chick doing magic just around the corner from here.

“I beg to differ Mr. Sharpe; lions really can be pet on their head. They quite enjoy it too. You see I tried to get myself a tiger, to match the family name and all, but that didn’t work very well so I ended up with a lion instead. He’s really a very nice lion, I’m sure he’d let you pet him on the head too, as long as you bring bacon.

As to your other points, while I realize I’m a bit late to the party, I still wanted to address some of them. First, I’m very confused as to these posts that you and another keep referring to; are you talking about some sort of pole or marker? Or a posting made on an announcement board in a city square somewhere? How do posts help you know where Tyler’s men are? Do their locations get posted somewhere here on the streets that I don’t know about?!” The woman frowned, clearly a bit confused over just what he had been referring too in that section of his speech.

“Moving on, I believe that TsuDhoNimh and a few of the others here summed up pretty perfectly how I feel about this topic. Just saying ‘no’ gets us nowhere. I would much prefer to step out onto these streets and join a discussion, even a poor one, to share my thoughts and opinions. I would rather help those who have started piss poor discussions mold their argument and provide feedback for them to grow. Hell, just recently I was on another corner with a former associate of mine, Argyle, talking about post offices. A rather random topic sure, but should I have just said no and walked away? How would that have motivated him to come out and speak more, about different and perhaps more useful topics?

You say your point is to inspire everyone to do better, not to create some master plan for everyone to follow, and that’s fine. I agree that we should police our own and call out those that are doing a piss poor job, or those, like Bonkers already referred to, that are purposefully causing disruptions. I offered my crew a back alley near our headquarters where we could work as a team to create a story that was later presented here on the streets. I’ve encouraged people to speak in discussions or stories, or to create businesses with the promises of rewards. But there will never be a time when everyone is satisfied. Not long ago, early in my career, the streets were filled with people complaining that the streets had died. Now I always found that rather funny since they were using the streets to talk about how the streets had died but that’s a discussion for another day. My point is simply to say – the streets are busy. They are filled with stories and discussions. It’s a start. But now we see conversations like this or implications that there’s too many stories and not enough discussions. There is no way to satisfy our entire community. If we discourage people from being out here for fear of being judged or not being good enough, we'll just end up with more people whining about how the streets are dead once more." 

That chick doing magic round the corner is clearly on hallucinogenics. But each to their own. But if I happen to see a lion anywhere in Las Vegas I will shoot it for you. No problem. Keeping the community safe for my own needs obviously.

Posts? Yes, they are a marker. They are a record of what you have said on these streets kept by the Gods and easily accessible to show if you have been a cunt anytime in your existence. Always good to have.  These let you know where Tylers men are by the fact, if you nip down the Street, there are boards displaying the top speakers on the streets updated in real time. Maybe that magic is real, eh? When you and your mates from a city top these boards the Gods give you little perks. Good that innit. Almost like a lion walking down the streets.

Moving on indeed. Where have I said say no and move on. Nowhere. You've gone on a right tangent. I suggest you re-read the post records, them things kept by the Gods, as I am not repeating myself to move up those 'magic' boards.

I appluad all those things you say you have done. But conversations like this are needed. I see nothing but positive feedback in terms of people trying to help people improve their standards. As I said in my originally. At no point has anyone said that people need to be stopped coming out here. In fact, I encouraged more people to come out here and the few who replied here said they should be out here more.

So I am going to contradict myself - there is it openly stated so no one else need to.

The streets are not a playground, they are a place of debate and exchanges and of action and of stories. I have always been an advocate of encouraging all voices here, but talk a load of shit and don't expect it to be respected.

Bluntly buck up or shut up. There is help and support and training in how to speak in the streets and if people cannot either be resourceful enough to get that or have it offered from within a crew then that is a problem. No one minds a fuck up out here - rambling on about a different topic, stammering or getting words wrong, being a bit shy these are all ok, welcomed in fact...

Standing up to say next to nothing in next to no words is jumping through hoops for the sake of it. If you talk here you have to be thick skinned enough to take any and all comments that follow, it s not a monologue it is a conversation and people will have opinions. This is the reason here the streets are the final stage in developing talking right, fucking up in a back alley is fine - learning to take constructive feedback without taking it personally takes practice and is better done privately than a community taking a view publically.

Leaders need to lead and feedback and train the good, the bad and the just plain ugly in the community spaces. I am a little lost though when or if those people needing some better direction and information on adding substance is a crew leader themselves. Essentially that is non of my business, I am sure with the passage of time one way or another that will be addressed.

Perhaps I did go on a bit of a tangent, you’re right. That wasn’t my intent but I did let myself ramble on a bit. I agree that conversations like this are needed, in fact I think I agreed with many of the things that you said in your original speech. You’re also right that you never said to say no and walk away, I apologize if my wording was off there. However, you speak of setting standards and of each person taking accountability to hold others to those standards. But I question who makes the standards. For example, you seem to have a problem with my lion wondering around the streets, though he very rarely does, but you have no problem referencing these magical ‘posts’ and boards that update in real time that are made and kept by the Gods. If you’re going to have a problem with one you should have a problem with both. If I see magical boards that are updating in real time on the streets, then maybe it’s not so crazy to believe that people can do magic too. Or that I can pet my fucking lion on its head. Magical world we live in, isn’t it?

Personally, I'm quite a big fan of your neighborhood lion Daniella. He's quite the lil' rascal at times, but that just makes him more endearing. Adding to his own je ne sais quoi. I can't say I'd be willing to share my bacon with him, but assuming he doesn't try and take my bacon we'll be good friends I'm sure.

There's no real issue with the lion, it's what people choose to do I'd take exception to. If a street discussion starts becoming punctuated by people grasping the attention of all those gathered to do nothing more than walk in, pat the lion on the head and leave some bacon, then I have an issue. They could just as easily be taking a drink from a hip flask or brushing their hair, it's the interrupting things that are substantially more important that the issue is with and not the individual act in question.

I can't speak for Dick over there, he has all sorts of issues of his own he's (not) dealing with so can't say if that's the same view he shares. I just know if I catch people interrupting interesting chats to do anything other than contributing in a meaningful way I'll certainly take exception to it. It's the intent far more than the act.

Constantine returned to see conversation was still being had. Although he'd ducked off for a bit to scout some other happenings on the streets, he couldn't help but return to see how things were progressing.

And luckily he did, as more bonafide references to magic were being made. First the wand wielder, and now this, what an erection.

"Some magick is real and concrete. It's simply a way to work with natural forces to bring about a result of some kind. There's also the other kind, slight of hand or whatever else that's created to give an illusion to an audience."

"Now, there's a lot of shit that simply can't be explained. Like a little book of holy stories that many take as truth. I love nuns, but come on, only seven days to create this massive fuckn planet? I think whoever wrote it was on some of that burning bush that Moses was on when he did whatever the hell he did."

"My point is, some shit we believe is created solely in the mind, yet you could also call that magical, as thoughts are also things, and just as real as the physical.. You know what? I lost my fuckn point. I can't stop thinking about nuns for some reason. Carry on."