With his eyes sore from the constant reading, Salvadore took off his glasses and leaned back on his old reclining chair. The creaks reminded him that he was indeed getting old. He decided to go for a walk. He stood up and put his blazer on and walked to the front door. Lucius, his head of security met him just before he opened the door.

"Are you leaving sir? Would you like me to bring a car outside?"

"No thank you Lucius. Just going for a walk around the compound. I need some air while I think"

"Of course boss. If there's anything you need I'll be right behind you"

The weather was lovely. With the sun beating down on his already tanned face, Sal, began to take note of his successes. Armed men surrounded the complex, walking up and down their area of patrol. Standing on top of small buildings with guard dogs in their designated areas. Ready to be let go at a moment's notice. Beautiful greenery, with the rarest of plants being taken care of by a specialist gardener. Maids were ready to be called upon at the boss's call. And all this effort to make sure that he was happy. He'd achieved all this success with the help of many. Don Mattsr and Don Rosabellacorti, his loyal friends and companion. Username and the rest of his family. But with all this success. Comes a large amount of responsibility. These guards, maids, cleaners, family members all at the end of the day demand a pay check. That pay check is used to tend to their family's needs. Without it they'd starve. So how many families relied on him. So it begs the question. What am I doing this for? What's my end goal? In fact why did I join this thing of ours? For me it was a case of stepping into another world. To see my capabilities and if I can make the right decisions to inevitably keep me alive for longer? Throughout my journey ive made some amazing friends. That I know would be there for me throughout my future bloodline. I wanted to extend a thank you to all those around me. Which leads me to this.. What made you join this thing of ours?

Salvadore took a seat on a wooden bench with the family crest etched in the middle to catch his breath, when Lucius strolled over to him.

"Boss. You okay?"

"Yes. Why?" "Well.. you was talking to yourself boss"

"No, I wasn't. I was talking to all the mafiosos involved in this thing of ours. And their listening and ready to answer. Just watch.. and you'll see"

Salvadore, looked up at the beautiful sky. Convinced that he's not going crazy. And waited to hear everyone's opinions.

It was an interesting question and one that Bachelor had thought a lot about in his time on this earth, "Why are you here? Is it just to be ridiculously good looking?" these existential questions had always haunted the poor man, mostly because he didn't have the brainpower to figure anything out and all of the time spent sitting there could have been spent doing push ups to become even more jacked than he already was; as his father always said, you can never be too jacked.

You know, this reminds me of a story I used to always hear as a child and it went a little something like this... there was a man, an elderly one in fact, who would walk down by the train tracks every single day with nothing on but a pair of old underwear and a rather dirty tank top, now no one ever understood why, and most were convinced even he did not know. Months turned to years and yet every single day he would continue on with this tradition, standing beside the trains as they whizzed on by and still no one understood. That's when a small boy walked over and said to him "Hey, mister, why do you do what you do?" -- and do you know what the old man said?

He paused with his story to make sure anyone was paying attention, he wasn't sure where to go with this as he was just making shit up because he really enjoyed a large crowd. This was awkward, but how would he play it off? Bachelor was good at a lot of things, but figuring out things on the fly was definitely not one of them.

He said, well, he looked at the small child and he looked him straight in the eye and he said... uh...

This was getting bad and surely people would figure out that he was bluffing, unless... unless he could find a way to make them all forget that he had started speaking in the first place. Brilliant as always, Bachelor quickly turned himself into a ball as best as he could and quickly attempted to roll away, before figuring out quite quickly that this was easier said than done. Falling face first onto the floor and knocking out a few of his teeth in the process, he came to the startling conclusion that he was no longer perfect as blood spewed from his mouth and onto the floor in front of the now extremely confused and worried crowd.

Thwat's thwee wend ofth my sthorry.

At least he know had an out?! Taking advantage of the situation he quickly ran down the street and over to his dentist who would hopefully be able to fix this entire ordeal. Yikes.

The young foot soldier for the Pwny Express could be found wandering the streets, a lit cigarette hanging from his lips as he searched for any take he could get. His attention being caught by the question posed. Well the money's better than what I was making back home, he thought to himself. But he began to turn the idea over in his head.

That idea of honor among thieves has always appealed to me, even before Don Pseudonym picked my small time ass up for his crew. To most we're nothing but criminals, but I look around and see some of the most honorable men and women. Willing to put their lives on the line for something bigger than themselves. I looked up to these people growing up extorting the chumps for "Bully protection", and now I'm working my way through the ranks with some of those same very faces.

Leftyy paused to take a drag from his cigarette, smiling at the memories of his school rackets.

And hey, the pay's not half bad neither. 

Alex was taking a walk to simply enjoy the night air when he heard the question ring out through the streets. Stopping he thought it through before clearing his throat and replying

"Well, the easy answer would be the idea of money and power, no? I mean, when you look around and you see mafiosos wearing the best suits, driving the nicest cars, and eating at the finest restaurants while other suckers are working day in and day out to barely get by it is a hell of a pull."

Alex stopped and thought a moment longer

"For me, however, the reality is that while all of those things are nice I would have joined this life anyway because what choice did I have? Growing up on the streets of the Soviet Union isn't exactly a picnic, especially if your family is considered undesirable by the government. The vorovskoi mir gave me an opportunity to thrive rather than just barely survive as those who tried to stay within the law did. When I came to this country, what else was I going to do? Being a criminal is what I am good at, and so like any master of his craft it is what I will do."

Gracie pondered the question that was presented to her. She had grown up rather well to do in Philadelphia with both of her parents. She didn't have some tragic backstory that motivated her to turn to the seedy side of life, she just happened to be somewhere at the right time. "Funny story, actually." she told the man, "I was at a party in Philly when I bumped into Kathryn and Merci." she told him, "They were hired to kill a man, and I was there because my mother wants grandchildren." she rolled her eyes, "So, they were hired to kill this guy, and me being a doctor tried to save him." she shook her head, "It was so long ago at this point, but thats it. I got involved with them, we became friends and when I ended up in Las Vegas after I was fired from the hospital for using the morgue to save Merci's life, well things just kinda fell into place." she looked around and laughed, "Honestly, it was a bit weird but I suppose even mobsters need doctors, right?" she asked him. "Besides, life isn't black and white, there are multiple shades of grey you have to consider." and with that she pinched Alex's butt and headed back to her Clinic to ponder what the hell to do with Shini's hand. 

Mr_Cat was running across the street chasing a mouse and saw Salvadore speaking with himself and a couple of others. For the moment he looked away, that damn little thing managed to run away from him. Stupid mice! Why couldn't they just be easier to catch?

He stopped just in the middle of the crowd and listened for a little while. It seemed like an interesting topic with many sorts of interesting answers. He was still not sure exactly what to say - that question kept echoing in his head. Why did he actually join this thing of ours? 

Then his prey had returned. It was sitting just in front of him. As if it knew there was no other way around and that it was going to die anyways. Ending up in the cat's stomach and even later in his sh-... 

Its neck was broken, the mouse was dead. The others just stood there and watched as this whole thing happened. Perhaps they were fascinated? Mr_Cat didn't even care about them, he was too hungry and too tired to actually drag it off to a place where he was certain no others would steal it from him. Besides, these were all humans, and it seemed he would be safe there. For some time, at least.

After eating more than half of the mouse, he finally decided to speak up and answer the actual question. A simple answer. 

"Why not?" Mr_Cat said and picked up the mouse to walk somewhere else. Perhaps some of the others from his family wanted a piece of this delightful meal, too. 

Tommy was taking a walk, running his daily errands and minding his own business. When stopped to light up a cigarette, a sudden thought came in to his mind... why is it you are here? what is your purpose? Why choose this life? It was like the whole world had stopped and was just waiting for an answer.

Tommy used his calm voice to answer.. "No fucking idea". Tommy's purpose was like everyone else's. Live the life you are given, but live it better.

Tommy continued his walk. As he started to approach Salvadore's compound, he could see that he and some companions were talking amongst themselves. He heard that they were also talking about their purpose. So being someone who would usually mind his own business, he decides to stand at a distance and listen to what everyone else has to say.