"This is sketchy as hell, why would the boss have us meet up with the "Neo Big Boss" organization. They're basically a bunch of thugs with the professionalism of middle school delinquents, besides, what the hell is it with their name? It's probably the stupidest name I ever heard," Basho sneered, as Kurapika gave him a sharp look.
"Well, our superior has done plenty of small time dealings with them in the past and who are we to decline this task. Besides, be careful about what you say about this group, they might be good at using their Nen for sound detection, so you never know,"
"No worries, there's nothing I could sense that could be threatening to our safety. We're good," Melody assured, bringing slight ease to Kurapika.
"Alright, so that's that, but I could probably guess were their name came from,"
"Oh yeah, where did it come from," Basho said, uninterested.
"Well, considering that we are in Yorknew and with the "Neo" pronoun before the "Big Boss", this is a hunch, but perhaps it's a reference to the corruption that went on in this city that went on in with Tammany Hall from the mid 19th to 20th century and their corruption. Tammany Hall was a political organization formed back in the 18th century, whose intentions where to help the poor and working class citizen. The 'Grand Sachem' or 'The Boss', was the head of the political ring," Kurapika started, as Basho yawned loudly.
"You shouldn't be so rude Basho, this is actually some interesting stuff," Melody scolded.
"Yeahhh, but when I'm getting 5 hours of sleep and off to do a job, I'm really up for some boring ass history lecture,"
"Well, I don't think it's boring, please continue Kurapika,"
"Thank you, Melody, anyway as I was saying, my hunch is that the name is in reference to the corruption that went around during 19th and 20th century Yorknew. Even though Tammany Hall started off with good intentions, it wasn't until that time period when they spiraled into corruption. This organization was known for rigging elections, performing extortions, bribes, and wasting tax payers money on atrocious projects that cost billions of jenny. Perhaps the worst example happened, was when William "Boss" Tweed ran a construction project of a county courthouse that was only supposed to cost 2.5 million Jenny, but cost around 13 billion Jenny instead,"
"So the hell what, that's just poor financing, not corruption, get some political guy who doesn't know what he's working with and of course he's going to screw it up,"
"...I really don't know what you mean by that, but there is a little to what you said that has some merit. Of course it was poor financing, but that factor was itself the corruption. He would over compensate workers to do certain jobs which was hellish on those who put their tax money for the project,"
"I still don't see it, he paid a couple of workers a bit more money than he should, he's not corrupt, he's just an idiot," Basho snarled, trying to out-wit Kurapika.
"Again, what you said has merit, but you're missing the point a bit. The point is, the way that Tweed overcompensated the workers was corrupt in itself, and even if he wasn't knowing how over compensating these workers could have affected the city dwellers, that just makes him a more despicable character who lacked the responsibility to conduct this project properly,"
"Name one aspect of this project that made him a 'bad guy', because I don't see it," Basho challenged, trying to irritate Kurapika as much as Kurapika was irritating him.
"Well, I don't understand how anything Tweed did could make him a 'good guy', if that's what you're saying, but I don't mind proving my point further so I'll just go along with this charade. If you're saying that everything that could of been considered 'bad' about this project was unintentional and that Tweed really came in with good intentions, than instead of being a notoriously brash political figure, that would just make him a notoriously stupid political leader whose stupidity resulted in the harm of many people around him. If you want an example of poor financing, well, there was one plasterer who received 5 million jenny for doing his job, which was probably ten fold, keep in mind that this is taxpayer money, than he was supposed to be paid. But when his bosses on the job disapproved of his work, they paid him an extra billion jenny just to re-do his work,"
"So that was all taxpayer money wasted just to pay a plasterer a ridiculous amount of cash?" Melody asked.
"Yeah, that wasn't the only stupid choice he has made. He also paid over a million jenny for three tables and 40 chairs, a billion in a half jenny for lighting fixtures, and even over 40 million jenny for cleaning supplies. It's quite silly when you think about it," Kurapika lightly laughed.
"Politics is one strange subject," Melody shrugged.
"Hm, I always thought of it as a protest. I always thought of guys like Tweed with the right idea of looking out for the poor, even is it was for votes, but I do remember him giving out food and supplies to families in need. The advantage of this, was that Tweed didn't have to wait for the system to deem them worthy for receiving help, but just did it directly. I know that he was a bastard, but I thought that doing that was always a nice gesture," Basho smiled, catching Melody and Kurapika off guard at his sudden interest in the subject.
"I didn't know you were interested in these kind of things," Kurapika said, as Basho shrugged his shoulders.
"Honestly, I'm not. But my grandpa way back in the day was a huge movie guy. Heh, I used to visit him all the time as a young kid and we would always be talking about movies, watching the DVD's and tapes that he has collected over the years, sharing our thoughts, and one of the movies happened to be somewhat about what we are talking about right now. That movie, I can't recall the name, but it was one of his favorite movies because he too was a history geek and liked these kinds of things. That's when he told me about Tammany Hall and Boss Tweed and all of that, the way you talk about it boring, but the way my grandpa talked about it was something else," Basho poked at Kurapika, playfully rolling his eyes at the remark.
"Well, I'm glad you're interested in it somewhat,"
"Yeah, sure," Basho chuckled. "Anyway, how far away from the destination are we? Besides, doesn't anyone feel the least bit weird that our boss told us to meet in the alleyway and said not to look inside no matter what," Basho said, adjusting his backpack, which had the thing that Nostrade told his employees not to look in.
"There could only be two possibilities why the boss told us not to look in the bag. One, it's a trap and he's trying to send a message across to these guys, or he's worried about my reaction to what's inside," Kurapika responded, looking forward as if he was walking all alone.
"You think they could be the Scarlet Eyes?!"
"No, don't worry, nothing of the sort," Kurapika laughed slightly, with a conversational tone to him. "From what I sense, it's a powdery substance, so it's probably 'something sweet'," Kurapika added.
"Why would our Boss hide 'something sweet' from us, who does he think we are, children? This is pussy shit compared to almost anything else that we have encountered," Basho scoffed, frustrating at the thought of his boss thinking his employees would be offended over conducting a little drug deal.
"What's funny is that it is laced too, I could tell with divination," Kurapika said, trying not to reveal too much about Nen in a public space.
"Really? I thought you couldn't do that,"
"Usually not for my type, but I have a friend who is really good at it, and he showed me how to do it,"
"Ahh,"
"Once you practice for a couple hours a day for a couple of weeks, it's really not that bad. It's tough to expand it and to do mid and long distances, but short distances aren't too bad with a little bit of practice," Kurpaika smiled, showing off a bit of an unusual light to him.
"Look at you with your bright and happy expression, not every day we get to see this stupid smile on this glum face!" Basho exclaimed, putting his arm around Kurapika and stretching out his smile with is hand.
"Enough with that," Kurapika laughed, putting up a barrier between him and Basho with his arms. "You wouldn't wanna ruin my good mood would you?"
"Nope, not at all," Basho chuckled, physically keeping his distance between him and Kurapika.
"I think we're here," Kurapika pointed out, as the three look at the alleyway to the right of them.
"I feel like we could of at least done this a few hours later. It's only 7 right now and the sun just set, I'm just worried that something might go wrong and this might turn into a public disturbance," Basho said, as the three entered that alley.
"I have a hunch that everything's going to end up fine, I think you're worried too much,"
"Coming from the tight ass himself," Basho scoffed, pouting his lips in frustration.
"From their heart beats, I could tell that they're very resolute and calm, nothing suspicious here," Melody assured.
As the three went deep into the alley, they encounter a handful of gangers in dark clothing and menacing aura.