This is what distinguishes all the "mafias" in Heroes ^^ It's a local quirk; I haven't seen it anywhere else.
Larisa's post was very impressive because it describes things in detail and attempts to take into account the relationships between the non-player characters.
So, weapon hacking, block, or protection by Bill the Red, the hammer was persistently present with him, a diversionary maneuver by the "A" character, and the two-thousandth character promotes smoking; I think that's the set.