Frozen Hearts Mafia [Family Ties - Mafia/Survivor Victory]

The Syndicate

Vincent watched the pages burn.

A few days after his return home, he decided to destroy all that remained of his excursion to Caribou's Den. Copies of the books Lyncroft gave him, the business records of Julian Parker, even his own journal - all of it went up in flames. He hated giving into the fires of destruction, the very thing that fueled all of this in the first place. It was Mahler's only victory against him - defeating his very will to stand up for the city.

Without a word, he closed the opening and sealed the flames within. The fuzzy orange light illuminated his wrinkled face and white hair. The stress of it all had aged him just a bit.

All he had left was a little black binder. Within were the documentations for a case Vincent pursued before he lost his job as investigator for hire: the disappearance of Diana Ultramanious. Perhaps he'd go back to that case. Another day, he thought. His wife and daughters called to him. He needed family time.

Outside, a storm was brewing. It was about fifty-five degrees Fahrenheit, unseasonably warm for this time of year. The sky was dark and stormy, despite it only being roughly four in the afternoon. It was a stark contrast to the feeling of freedom Vincent felt as his days in Caribou's Den burned in the flames of his basement furnace. It was, however, a herald to what was about to come.

Vincent was followed home. Someone still had business with Vincent. Mister Visceral walked up to his front door, no car in sight, nothing to indicate he had travelled. He checked the lock, found the front door was open, and slipped inside. This mission evaded him for too long, and it had to be done now.

Bang. Bang. Two gunshots fired.

"Wait, what was that? ... What the fuck? Who are you? What the fuck did you do to my children?"

Bang.

A woman's scream is heard. It is promptly silenced.

Bang.

The sounds of a camera go off. Moments later, Mister Visceral walks out of the house, carrying a small black binder.

Keeping Diana's kidnapping a secret was never the intention. The daughter to the richest man on earth is swept away in the middle of an isolated forest, and expecting her father to keep quiet is a foolish train of thought. The best that can be done is to keep it from spreading too much - a mission at which the organization that employed her failed to do. A certain Vincent Blanchard was hired and he has learned too much. It's time for him to die.

That's why a man named Nikolas (he never gave her a last name, oddly enough) hired her, Katherine Venancio, to carry out a hit. She was a high-profile killer for hire, noted for her incredible documentation of her killings that she had sold as black market novels. While she'd been arrested and jailed for stints, she never failed to perform a murder. With the truth behind Diana's kidnapping contained in a black binder carried by Vincent at all times, he had to die.

She was thusly hired by the Ouroboros Syndicate, a massive underground network of organized criminals who arranged Diana's kidnapping. Her kidnapping would be a means of stealing her fortune to fund weapons projects. She was promptly deployed to kill Vincent, and came very close to carrying it out before he left for Caribou's Den. She even managed to silently murder his next door neighbor and observe his life for the perfect kill... only for Vincent to leave town the next morning. She followed him up the highway and through Whitewash City to Caribou's Den, only for him to start living in the city. After a quick hotel room reservation to get him on his return commute home, he ended up living in the business he now managed. On top of that, some bastard stole your two long-range guns, and she lacked the means to kill him. The Syndicate had since abandoned her, but she refused to give up on her goal.

After a late-night phone call with Nikolas, he offered to provide the Syndicate's utmost level of protection provided she got back to killing. She waited for this crime spree business to blow over. Either way it ends, she would have a very clear shot at killing Vincent. Infiltrating his business as one of the regulars was easy, but without any weapon to kill, she wasn't going to prove she deserved Syndicate protection. She instead found a way to fool Nikolas: by documenting people in the night and hoping they get killed by the criminals, she would submit fake murder reports to convince the Syndicate she was able to perform her duties and kill Vincent eventually. All she had to do was bide her time until this was all over. Vincent would then be hers to kill with impunity.

Mister Visceral was an INDEPENDENTLY ALIGNED ORACLE SURVIVOR.

Each night, he could name a person he suspected would die to the Mafia's nightkill and send a photograph of the victim to Nikolas. If that person died during the night, the Syndicate would extend their protection on you, granting him a one-shot bulletproof that would last for the next two night cycles.

If he guessed incorrectly, the target would be informed they had a photo of them taken.

Mister Visceral would achieve his win condition if he managed to stay alive until either the Town or Mafia wins, at which point he could then carry out his nefarious mission successfully.

Mister Visceral has WON.

Katherine puts the phone to her ear. "The job's done, Nikolas."

"Excellent work, Katherine. Head back to Whitewash, we've got more hits for you."

"Names?"

"Ivan Vasillich and Thaddeus Archibald."

"...Wait," Katherine paused. "The second one. Isn't that the name of-"

"No time for questions. Get to killing."

--

METROPOLITAN MALCONTENTS (Mafia) have WON.
MISTER VISCERAL (Third Party) has WON.

LOYAL CUSTOMERS (Town) have LOST.

THE END.