Chauncy “Chance” Verity's Questionnaire

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, as they say. Chance has never left the city of sin, moving from one cramped flat to another. It was fine when he was living with his mom. Despite his appearances he doesn't care much for luxury, and he'd hesitate to move away from what he knows. Not that he has any alternatives. Forced to live in a gambling den disguised as a 'restaurant' run by the gang that his father pressured him into, he yearns for the day he can escape. Honestly, he might leave Vegas entirely if he could. 

His home has the bare essentials. A mattress, toiletries and storage space for what he needs in his day-to-day life. A vault containing his valuables. And finally, a shrine to 'Lady Luck' that he burns offerings to.

Chance considers himself a professional gambler and it's true. His skill and luck give him enough money to live a decent lifestyle, albeit with always living life on the edge. As an advantage player he manages to earn more than he loses, and his connections with illegal gambling spots lets his earnings fly under the radar. He used to have a retail job but he quit it after it wasn't as profitable. Unfortunately for him he still has to pay off his father's debt (and interest) so he doesn't get to keep much. Even if he did, he'd probably just blow it all back on gambling.

The Theory of Justice states that one must try to imagine themselves creating a world, without knowing what position you would be born into. Would you try to make a gap between the most powerful and the least powerful while not knowing on which side you'd end up? The world we live in is not fair or just. Chance detests how luck determines one's position during birth and thereafter, that if you're born into wealth you stay there and if you're born into poverty you're likely stay there too. He's definitely made it his life's mission to try to even the odds as much as possible, to help those in need and take from the wealthy. But with his main focus being to save his mother, he's going to do that first before he does anything that could get him into too much danger. If he dies, she dies.

He had shouldered his abusive father's mistakes and harm for too long. The person he cared about the most out of anything, his mother, was taken hostage due to one of such mistakes and his life changed forever. Now on a mission of recovering his mother and seeking revenge, everything he does is to undo this horrifying event. It happened on his 18 birthday, ruining that day for him forever. 

He became more jaded, falling deeper into his gambling habit, and started having difficulty making bonds with people, seeing them either as tools or thinking that they would only want to use him as a tool.

"The person I am the closest to would be my mom, Elise Verity. She's a good woman, and doesn't deserve anything that's happened to her. I want to make the world a better place for her, one where she can enjoy the nice things in life without fear of harm. She raised me on her own, she did. With me being unexpected, it wasn't perfect, but I know that she did the best that she could and that she was always there for me when I needed her. I haven't heard her voice in so long, and I'm scared that if I don't get her back soon, I'll forget her face. I can't let that happen."

"My biological father, Vincent Raith, is a scumbag piece of shit leech that ruined my mom's life and mine. I want him dead. He'd show up, take what little we had and only come back for more. The few conversations I've had with him ended terribly. I'm not one for violence, but whenever I think of him my vision turns red."

"Hmm. I have to come up with another one? I don't actually have a lot of friends. Just acquaintances. Ahh, fuck it. I confide my secrets to lady luck, Fortuna, Tyche, whatever you want to call it. Worship her, pray to her, rely on her for my continued existence. I honor my own luck by being superstitious, and people may judge but it's worked for me." 

"My childhood was as good as it could have been, I suppose. My mom tried her best to raise me, and I didn't appreciate it as much as I should've when I was younger, though once my 'fahter''s shittiness reared its ugly head I quickly learned to take what I could get. Whatever. Not everyone wins the life lottery. I'm 'lucky' enough as is to have my mom. She was always patient, maybe too patient, but knew how to get things done. I wish she didn't have to bend over backwards to placate the fucker that ruined our lives, but what's done is done. He can and should die in a ditch, and I'll bet on that happening soon."

"I went to a crappy public school, and it was mostly a bad experience. I managed to do just enough to scrape by. Cheated on almost every test except when there were multiple choice questions. Those were just a 1/4. Pretty good odds. Had to sell drugs for a while and I made good money off it even with the cut from the 'debtors', but I hated doing that shit."

"I dunno if love is in the cards for me. My parents' relationship has completely fucked me up on that front and I think that love is a load of bull. Sure, it works out for some people, on the surface, maybe. But 100% loyalty is just not something I'd bet on. Humans are the most unpredictable entities and luck can only alter so little. I mean, I'm not apathetic or aromantic or whatever. Maybe. But I like knowing the odds, or at the very least having a plan when things go wrong. And no amount of 'love' can guarantee that. Besides, I'm devoted to Lady Luck. Sardonic wink."

Chance is scared of really losing it all. As mediocre as his life is, it really could be worse, and the opportunity to change it for the better is what’s keeping him going. But that’s easier said than done. He’s pretty afraid of his efforts fully going to waste and never getting to escape the clutches of the gang, but at least the fear keeps him grounded. Somewhat. 

He’s fearful of pain in the way that “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth”. He knows that he can’t win in a (fair) physical fight and he’s been getting into a lot of those lately during Contract work. He’s not used to pain, he keeps himself pretty safe in his day to day life. And he’s lucky. Anguish and torture would break his spirit, though that isn’t particularly unique. Still, it’s a fear he ranks quite high.

Lastly, he has a love-hate relationship with unpredictability—The wheel of fortune giveth and taketh away, puts uncertainty to the world and makes a real fair bet impossible. Best not to tempt it. He gives it a name, Lady Luck, a force to be revered and terrified of. Yep, the gambler hates chance.

The object most dear to him is the pendant of a coin attached by a thin but sturdy brown leather string, a custom counterfeit coin handmade and gifted to him by his mother. He was young when he got it, when his mother was showing off her forgery skills and teaching him to recognise dupes. She swears it’s not weighted but it seems to always land on whatever face Chance guesses it’d land on , without any sort of legerdemain. It reminds him of happier times when he didn’t yet think that luck was rigged. He wears it with him all the time and doesn’t take it off in fear of losing it. It’s a genuine lucky charm and maybe, just maybe that’s actually true. It’s a cute accessory all things considered.

Back in his room, there’s also an ‘ancient’ deck of cards used for practicing tricks that also once belonged to his mom. It’s creased to hell and back, but it’s another treasured memento of his that he keeps safe. 

“Fuckers kidnapped my mom. On top of that I’m in their debt for shitty reasons completely unrelated to me. I have no way to get me or her out of it and all I can currently do is boil in rage. I don’t know what a normal life looks like and while I know it’s not the worst ‘job’ out there being a cheat means I’ve got my guard up all the time. And that I have to worry about going to jail at any given moment, but if that happens I guess at least it would have to be my fault since I’m more useful to the gang right where I am. Just another cog in the illicit machine.”

”…I haven’t seen her in a while and I’m worried. What if they decide fuck it and kill her off like nothing? I have fucking ‘luck’ powers now or something but I still can’t do anything if that was the case. If I really was that lucky they’d die of natural causes and I’d finally be free to live.”

He sighs. “Get ready to face the world is an understatement. But I dunno. I just kind of do it. I wake up, brush my teeth because I’m fucked if anything happens to them, does it look like I have Dental? Human evolution is a bit insane for only giving you one pair for life—Anyway, then I start the day by checking on my shrine. I have a few classic rituals, nothing that serious, just making sure my trinkets/offerings/lucky items are clean and then rolling a bit of dice until I ‘feel’ lucky. It’s a weird habit but it’s stuck. It started when I had to learn how to get into dice stacking. I don’t think I have a 100% success rate with it but I’ve gotten better. Maybe. You know, it’s fucking hard to tell.”

“I get up pretty early. 5am at the earliest if there’s something I want to do undisturbed or if I want to clear my head. No clientele downstairs to ruin my day at that time yet. And I don’t hear the awful noise of the slot machines. Usually I just go jogging anyway to really try and get away from it all.”

“But yeah, most mornings I just plan my day and get to it. Tried getting into bullet journaling but I didn’t like how it felt to have my plans written down.”

For the most part, Chance is a creature of habit. Dressing up for something special is not really a preference for him, though he'd do it to blend in. It's taken him a while to feel comfortable in his own body, and deviating from the norm makes him uneasy. If he had it his way, he'd just show up as himself, wearing a plain white t-shirt and jeans. No matter what, he'd have his lucky charm, his coin necklace, with him. 

He's ambivalent about his appearance. It's just another way to get by, something to maintain but not that important to him beyond what advantages it can get him in life. He doesn't care about looks, as he knows they can be deceiving. It's a little jarring seeing all the new scars on his face, but he knows fussing over it isn't going to do anything, so there's no effort made to hide them. 

Wherever it is that he's going, he'd try to gain some kind of upper hand before showing up. Or at the very least know an escape route.

"...Probably a load of nothing? It's not like I'm gonna miraculously get a break. If I'm lucky, I'll get to take a nap and that'll be my present. Birthdays have never been a thing for me. I mean, I guess for a bit, when I was a kid and mom was... yeah. We'd have a nice dinner. It was nice. I can't afford to do anything like that anymore though, literally and metaphorically. I mean, I could, it just doesn't seem like something efficient to do with my earnings. If I'm spending it on myself it would ideally be for something useful in the long-term and not just some memory.