People of Umbrage

middle-aged stern woman, iron-grey hair in a tight bun, brass periscope monocle over one eye, high-collared dark navy dispatcher coat with brass Lanternline lantern badge, clipboard

plump kind old woman, grey curls under a headscarf, round cheeks, cream apron, wax on her hands, gentle tired smile, candle in hand

tall gaunt woman, shaved head with an ash cross painted on it, hollow cheeks, black deacon vestments with grey stole, long iron candle-snuffer staff

elegant cold woman, long black hair in a severe bun, silver pince-nez, long black Hush Office coat with silver epaulettes, pocket-watch chains, silver fountain-pen rapier

old priest with long white beard and blind milky eyes, tall black and silver precentor robes, conductor's baton, silver handbell

small girl about nine, messy short brown hair, big frightened eyes, oversized grey choir robe with black sash, holding an unlit candle

scrawny teenage boy, messy sandy hair, soot-smudged freckled face, oversized patched coat, lamplighter's hook tied to his back, holding a tiny tin lantern

thin old man, bald with white sideburns, round spectacles, stained grey apron, kind tired eyes

teenage girl about seventeen, messy auburn hair tied up with wire, soot-smudged freckled face, rolled-up sleeves, leather tool apron full of lamp parts, goggles pushed up on her head

tall elegant woman entirely in white, long white coat, white gloves, silver hair in a severe crown braid, pale grey eyes, a white ledger under one arm

small eleven-year-old boy with messy red hair and freckles, drowning in an oversized black tram conductor's coat and cap, brass ticket punch on a chain

a younger Mirela: silver-grey hair scraped into a tight junior-clerk bun, no glasses yet, an oversized grey Pemberton Mutual clerk suit with black sleeve garters and a brass name badge with the name scratched out, her face hidden behind a pinned claim form with a single red tick mark, an enormous red rubber stamp held like a warhammer in one hand and a long steel fountain pen like a lance in the other, ink dripping from her cuffs, a tower of filing cabinets and crumpled denied forms trailing behind her

a tall glamorous theatre impresaria in a sweeping crimson velvet gown made of stage curtains, gold tassels, a powdered face with a painted smile, opera gloves, a crown of candle-stub footlights, holding a long gold conductor's baton like a sword and a gilded megaphone

a skinny young boxer of twenty with jug-handle ears and a hopeful face, gold championship belt far too big for him, bruised and exhausted, red boxing gloves that move on their own, sweat and candle wax streaking his shoulders