Ax

Ax is a character in The Grand Heist.

Equipment
A brace of clip-on cans of spray paint, a roll of tape, a barberâ€™s razor, a small pack of 30cm x 30cm sheets of tissue paper, a few rags, a very long and thin leather belt, a box of matches (â€œNothing distracts people like a fire!â€), a bottle of white spirit for cleaning up her paintings and a 2H pencil.

Abilities
Everything she paints gains a semblance of reality, but only very loosely. For instance: while she might be able to create a coil of rope, it'll still only look just like a painting and be very small due to the size of her stencils, which she cuts out of tissue paper with her razor. She can create living things, but only if they have few moving appendages and she concentrates fully on moving them. If she loses concentration they will disintegrate back into normal spray-paint. The best use of her stencils is to create door-like portals between places, but she has to paint both of the doors in their respective locations before she can pass between them. Also, everything she paints is life-size, so if she wants something larger than 90cm2 she'll have to prepare a larger piece of tissue paper or take the time and resources to stick a few together. Ax dislikes doing both. Keys and the like are generally out of the question unless she somehow knows exactly what they look like.

Ax is also fairly skilled at parkour. It should be noted that this has saved her skin more times than her other lousy talent ever has.

Description
Ax is a tall, somewhat lanky blonde with choppy, dubiously cut hair that falls over her eyes with annoying frequency, only for it to be pushed away again. Her eyes are dark and shifty; her lip is often bitten. She's unusually pale due to her nocturnal habits of theft and graffiti, and her nails vary between broken, chewed and stupidly long.

This lends to her overall appearance coming off as a bit rat-like and sickly, but she can outrun you any day of the week.

Ax's allegiances and interest regularly wander, but she never forgets to put herself first. Her favourite hobbies are lies and deceit. She's never trusted or liked any single person enough to tell them the straight truth, which is probably something to do with her habit of never staying in one place for long. She'll fall in with artists of all kinds as she goes, telling them a different story about her past every time.

In regards to stealing, she hates the principle but loves the act. She probably wouldn't be so prolific if her only profitable talent, painting, hadn't been twisted beyond use by her unusual touch. Ax is a twitchy and paranoid kind of person from the offset.

Biography
The truth of her life is that she spent her childhood as she spends her adulthood: traveling. Her father was always being dragged off to distant countries and strange lands as part of his work, and, lacking a mother or relatives to take care of her, Alexandra would always have to go with him. By the time they finally settled down in a single spot Ax was in her late teens and burning with wanderlust. She ran away from home multiple times before she finally left for good, hiding on trains and stowing away in ships to get as much distance behind her as possible.

Within two weeks, she was starving to death. She was no good at stealing, and only succeeded in outrunning those who caught her in the act. It was only then, alone in a strange country and with no hope left, did she find a building no one ever looked at in a street no one has ever heard of: The Myriad. The last resort that could only be found by those who had run out of all other options. The Myriad was all too willing to help.

For a price, of course.

After all, desperate people will give away anything for the smallest fragment of a second chance. Children, limbs, souls, hearts, minds, freedom, even their heart's desire. No price is too large when you have so little to lose. Once you sign away the thing you can't bear to let go, the Myriad will give you everything else in the world. Every whim will be met, and eventually you find yourself forgetting the price that must be paid.

Ax sold her freedom. The Myriad recognized her potential, uncovered her talents and honed her skills until she was ready. And then they demanded that the debt of her life must be repaid. For months Ax accepted their tasks, stealing mystifying and frustratingly bland items which would be taken and never mentioned again. Their purposes went unexplained and all the satisfaction of theft was sucked away until she could stand it no more. Ax did what she did best and ran away.

It's been six months. Not counting a few narrow escapes, the Myriad have not yet found her. And find her they will, she knows that much. The debt must be repaid. Ax continues to wander, now with feverish purpose, peddling her lies and stealing to survive. Her paranoia and guilt grow daily, like cancerous tumours on her conscience.