Private First Class Chance Harper has short hair, darkish and kept well out of the way.  Her eyes are a clear, lovely gray - and expressive.  (As expressive as her mouth, actually, which can be just as filthy as you'd expect a Scraver's to be - perhaps more so, if you've never spent any time around a Scraver before.)  They do appreciative amusement as easily as thoughtful as easily as easily as damned cold.  When Chance smiles, the smile is wide and crooked, but seems genuine.  Of course, sometimes there's something cynical about the cant of her eyebrows, the way her mouth quirks just so...

When she's not on active duty, her clothes are generally regulation Stigmata Garrison.  At her hip, she has a black ink tattoo of the eye of Horus.  The tattoo isn't generally visible unless she's lost her belt (and some weight) that day.  Sometimes, a pair of goggles've been pushed back on her head, every grease monkey's favorite headband, and othertimes, it's a pair of spectacles with lenses tinted the same blue as thick smoke.  Her active duty wear is quite different.  Blah.  Blah blah.  More details.  Blah.

Quote: "Gentlemen,  I'll see your clean bathwater and half-a-protein bar and I'll raise you one dessert tablet and, aw, Vorox balls, why don't we throw in the good bed downwind from Private Lappit.  I'm feeling lucky."


Stigmata:  "It was my choice to be here.  And I have to live with that.  Ideally, I don't have to die with that too."

Byzantium Secundus: "My home.  Would I even recognize it?  Is anybody I know still alive?  I would do almost anything to know.  I can't believe it was sacked and I was here.  I was fucking here.  It's been a year and it doesn't hurt any less to know."

---

The Countess Carmetha Decados:  "I imagine meeting her one day.  When she's alone.  And I'm plus some fellow ex-Garrison friends.  And the alley is dark."

Master Claudius de Moley:  "He got the raw end.  I think of him as ... like the Scraver General. Stuck with a bunch of shitty parts that don't fit together, but hey, he's not an idiot, he's used to making do, so he's gonna make something clever that works... or blows up in his face.  Hopefully the former."

Sister Theafana al-Malik:  "Not like any al-Malik I've done business with before, but she's a local, so...  Hard not to like her.  Hard not to respect her.  Haven't managed yet.  Intense -- but she's earned it."


---

The Regency: "Weak.  With all due respect."

The Nobility:  "Violent."

The Church: ". . ."

The League: "Good.  Mostly.  Relatively.  Well, necessary."

The Psychics: ". . ."

The Aliens: "Interesting."

The Symbiots: "Bad.  Alas, not mythical."

---


al-Malik:  "I like the al-Malik.  Big surprise, right?  And they talk like fascinating artifacts I want to take apart and maybe see what they're worth."

Decados:  "Ah, them.  Look.  I respect their villainy.  It's complex.  It's almost too vast to believe.  It's a good thing they're busy with their war, or they'd probably be fucking with the League.  They've been interesting clients in the past.  And I hope they are humiliated, demoralized, and crushed utterly beneath the Al-Malik heel."

Hawkwood:  "Lots've history.  Lots've issues.  They seem to come in two main categories:  spark-less shiners or glory-ringed doffs.  I respect that they've gone under so many times and come clawin' up again.  Went to their heads, though."

Hazat:

Pre-Sack of Homeworld:  "At least they try to put their money where their mouth is, and their money can be pretty sweet.  Would sort've like to see more of them around -- what, are they all too afraid to take on symbiots, and prefer flowerin' around with the other Houses?  C'mon.  They're as prickly as a spikebomb and twice as likely to flex out a flare."

After-Sack of Homeworld:  "How dare -- you know what I said about the Decados?  That isn't good enough.  (spit)  Don't talk to me of the Hazat.  Those sift-brained, dust-tongued fungshits can flint themselves right into conflageration.  They sacked my home and killed my people, and I wasn't...  Unforgivable.  Trust me.  Given time, I'll see those involved in screwin' with mine erased and forgotten more thoroughly than all the true names of all the cities before the ruddy  Age of Miracles."

Li Halan: "Faithful and inflexible."

---


Urth Orthodox:  "Intractable and righteous.  They've got grip.  Wouldn't say a thing against them."


Eskatonic Order:  "Interesting.  Sort've exciting, really.  Like: what's this one's secret?  Oh crap, didn't wanna know.  Well, what about yours?  Ooh, that's cool - it'll haunt my dreams forever.  It's not always easy to tell the sane ones from the batshit out-theres, but they're profitable indeed, and here?  We'd probably be screwed without them."

Sanctuary Aeon:  "Why would I have anything against them?  They're silver-cream and brillberry wine.  Don't mess with 'em."

Temple Avesti:  "Know a lot of jokes about Avestites.  Pity the twitchy bastards don't have any sense of humor at all.  If anybody in the whole of the known worlds ever needed to get laid, THESE are the guys..."

Brother Battle:  "At first I thought them a bunch of killjoy trigger-happy aesthetics, good for bodyguard, but hey, how often was I doing something that merited a Brother Battle bodyguard, you know?  For myself, that is.  But here?  They've sort've grown on me.  I don't forget that we're rather about different things, but they've got my respect.  Brave, steadfast, and not impossible to work with -- even if they are so damned grim and so damned serious that sometimes I feel lookin' for a sense of humor is an epic quest like unto finding 2nd Republic Tech in a Li Halan pleasure palace that Temple Avesti torched and sent spinnin' into an asteroid field.  But harder.  I guess what I'm trying to say is they're not all bad.  I'm definitely glad they're here."

Mendicant Monks:  "Hey, it's a mixed bag.  Really.  Either total freaks, total self-righteous bigots (you'd think Avesti'd be recruiting, you know), or the most truly pious."

---

Muster:  "They do their thing.  Sometimes they fulfill a role.  Sometimes they're just the middleman feelin' too puffed up with his own consequence.  And sometimes, they're a pain in my ass.  Don't get me wrong:  I've met some great folk in the Muster; people I'd pass the time with.  Decent people?  Wouldn't say that.  You can't trust that a Chainer won't decide to muster you up.  Can't trust one at all."

Reeves:  "Useful bastards.  Emphasis on bastards.  Fists so tight I'm surprised they can wield a pen long enough to mark up your debt without breaking it.  I wouldn't see 'em gone.  They're the grease on a lot of wheels."

Scravers:  "The best.  Honest.  ...Honest enough, anyway.  C'mon - we know about survival.  We know about needs, and about how some people got 'em, and how to provide for those needs - we're about helping the needy, those in want.  'Course, we're people too - but hey, what's so wrong in acknowledging that?  There's a reason you won't run into too many Scravers here on Stigmata.  In general, we're far too intelligent to be caught in some near undefeatable trap-world.  Unless we've figured out an angle, of course.  Er, sure.  I've figured out an angle.  It's a good one, too.  The best of angles."

---

Ur-Obun:  "They're alien.  But as a general rule, I trust them, as far as trust is applicable.  There are a few things humanity could learn from 'em."

Ur-Ukar:  "They're bastards that I think I understand.  As long as they don't muscle in on my personal jobs, we're good.  I've got nothing against them, per se.  But I think we'll take things on a case-by-case sort of basis."

Vorox:  "Holy shit.  That thing is fucking huge!  Heh.  I know far too many dirty songs about or featuring guest appearance by a vorox.  I know they're supposed to be loyal, and okay, but I'm not really all for hanging around people that can snap me like a twig without some kind of exit strategy already in place, you know?  What would I rather fuck -- a Vorox or an Avestite priest?  Hmmmmm... Get back to me later."

Ascorbites:  "Ugh.  Never a sign of things lookin' up and sun-dandy.  Suckers're annoying."

Gannok:  "Knew a captain once, had one for an engineer...  Hold onto your valuables when those tails're around."