Pax

Spoilers ahead. Are we okay with that, kid?

Pax
Pronouns	She/Her
Age	33
Affiliations	Crew Liberty (former member) YuYu (former employee)
First appearance	Issue 0
Voice actor	Dominique Tipper

Pax is the main protagonist and player character in Dustborn. Pax is described as an exile and con artist with a rare ability to weaponize language as an Anomal, with her powers being unusually versatile by the standards of her kind. She is on a journey from Pacifica to Nova Scotia, crossing the American Republic, while transporting an important package.

History

Before the heist

Pax was born on August 16, 1997 to a pair of American Republic scientists in Lebanon, Kansas. Thanks to Protolanguage experiments, Pax was given the ability to use the ME-EM machine to learn new Vocal abilities, but at some point, she was separated from her parents and was adopted by Rosa and Annie of the anarcho-primitivist commune, Liberty. While there, she protected her fellow kids from bullies, but at the same time, used her Vocals against them in arguments. One kid in particular, Ziggy, was considered a sister to her, though the two would often fight over the ME-EM machine. In April 2009, Ziggy took the ME-EM without permission, leading to a fight that escalated to the point where Pax used Push on Ziggy and threatened her. This created a crack in their relationship that an Echo would later exploit.

While using the ME-EM machine, Pax discovered Echoes floating around Liberty and possessing people to bring out their most paranoid thoughts. She took it upon herself to use the ME-EM to remove and record the Echoes, restoring the victims back to sanity while expanding her variety of Vocal powers. In December 2009, she used the machine to remove an Echo from Ziggy, which put the two on better terms.

Sometime in the range of 2013 to 2014, at another commune, Pax and Ziggy tried to steal a baseball bat, but were attacked by the local kids for doing so. In a panic to protect Ziggy, Pax used Push on their pursuers. Annie and Rosa realized that Justice would investigate this incident, so they exiled Pax for the sake of the commune. Before leaving, Pax entrusted the then broken ME-EM to Ziggy.

Pax made her way to Pacifica, where she attended high school but eventually dropped out and found herself trapped in poverty. Additionally, she lacked proper papers to be in Pacifica, which limited her employment options. She became a delivery worker for YuYu, but used her Vocals to trick her customers into paying twice. Her other cons included putting lower quality wholesale goods into fancier packaging when shopping on behalf of clients, filing complaints against her warehouse supervisors to get payouts, and tricking private event guests into donating to a charity. Though for the last con, she made sure to give half of that to actual charities while keeping the rest as a "service fee." Even then, she struggled to make ends meet and had to hide her identity as an Anomal in order to avoid the watchful eye of the Puritans. She formed an on-off relationship with Noam, with the two using their Vocals in tandem to rile and gaslight people. She also befriended Sai, a fellow gig economy worker and Anomal.

Six months before the Heist, Pax went to San Francisco and came into contact with Jacob, a Weave scientist. She agreed to help him with his Protolanguage research in exchange for money. When she told him about the ME-EM machine, he suggested bringing it to the Weave in Nova Scotia to help them study Protolanguage further.

The Raid

In 2030, Pax, Noam, and Sai take on a job from Theo in order to steal Protolanguage data from Purity, Pacifica, on behalf of the Weave. They discuss these plans in Noam's apartment on September 27. On October 13, Pax fights alongside the other three in the Puritans' headquarters and defeat the Adjunct, but the terminal with the data has a security system that shoots Pax's shoulder, resulting in severe bleeding.

Issue 0: The Getaway

Pax in the getaway car

In the getaway car, Sai and Noam start arguing to no end, so Pax uses Block to get them to stop talking temporarily so that she can try to calm them down. Although this situation is resolved, a Pacificop activates his sirens to get the crew to pull over. Pax has to use her Vocal to make Sai either hit the gas or pull over, with the former resulting in the cop car crashing into a truck from the other lane. Pulling over results in more options, but only Pax's Block Vocal will result in an outcome where the cop lives while all other options result in the cop being hit by a truck. Regardless of the player's choices, the crew is shaken from almost being discovered by the authorities.

Issue 1: Opening Act

Once the party arrives in the library in La Torre, they find Luna trapped under a bus, and Pax has to figure out how to delegate tasks to her teammates in order to save Luna. As the party makes their way down the elevator to the basement, Pax feels an urge to vomit and has to go to the bathroom, but suddenly receives a vision of the Tree of Tongues, and then an abrupt vision of Axiom. After meeting with Luna in the latter's office, Pax's shoulder is diagnosed and treated by a Puritan DOC device. However, the Pacificops come knocking on the door and Sai locks herself in the bathroom out of fear, so Pax has to try to convince Sai to calm down and leave. When all else fails, Pax uses a Vocal to break Sai's train of thought, which allows Sai to calm down but also strains the relationship between the two. When the crew is introduced to their bus-driving robot, Pax is upset because her anarcho-primitivist upbringing instilled a hatred of robots in her. When the robot tries to approach her, Pax has the option of either using Push on the robot or giving the robot the silent treatment, with the former resulting in Vox washback due to robot not being a valid target for Vocals. Pax is still upset afterwards, and Noam will use Gaslighting on her if no dialogue option is chosen in time in order to convince her a robot driver is no big deal.

On the bus, Pax explains that she wants a detour to Liberty in order to pick up Ziggy, though she neglects to mention that she also wants to pick up the ME-EM device, which she wants to give to Nova Scotia for more money. This upsets the rest of the crew because she did not discuss it beforehand, but they agree to make a stop in Liberty. Afterwards, Pax improvises the "We're the Dust Born" song for use in future gigs, since the crew has to masquerade as a punk rock band. During a nap, Pax dreams about her first meeting with Jacob, but then suddenly finds herself near the Tree of Tongues fighting a bunch of Echo-infected people, who she knocks away with a huge shockwave.

Upon waking up, Pax finds the bus at the border to Oregon, where the Puritans cannot follow. The Justice cops do not buy the crew's cover story and demand a performance as proof of their legitimacy. Regardless of the crew's performance, they are allowed through and they make their way into American Republic territory.

At the campsite, Pax has an opportunity to bond with the crew and practice her songs. However, when she goes to bed, she has a dream where Axiom tells her she was never meant to have the power of Protolanguage, since it obfuscates the truth and distorts reality. The next day, Pax wakes up to the Horned Riders gang demanding valuables. Pax decides to fight back using the nailbat provided by her opponents and fights off a few waves of enemies by herself before Sai teams up with her to defeat the leader Patsy. Pax can then choose whether or not to knock out Patsy, which affects Patsy's opinion of the group in Issue 3.

Issue 2: Ghosts

At Liberty, Pax is surprised that the gate is locked with no one to answer. When she attempts to use the secret passage, a Tolboi robot stops her and damages the driver robot. She later tries the secret passage again and pulls the hatch open with the chain in order to let Noam in. When Fred starts threatening Noam, Pax has to use her Trigger Vocal to give herself an adrenaline boost to hook the chain, allowing her to go through the hatch. Pax then attempts to negotiate with Fred to let the crew into Liberty, but taking too long to answer, using Push, using Trigger, or telling Noam to disarm Fred will cause Fred to shoot Noam's mechanical arm. On the other hand, Pax can resolve the situation peacefully by identifying herself as a former resident of the commune.

Pax notices the lack of regular produce and confronts Annie about the use of robot labor and the abandoning of Liberty's anarcho-primitivist ideals. Annie explains the economic situation of Liberty and how this is necessary for survival, but Pax worries this is defying Rosa's vision for Liberty. Pax explains parts of the plan to leave for Nova Scotia, but not the full story about defying the authorities.

Pax goes into Ziggy's house and regrets how she treated Ziggy in the past. She opens the floorboard to look for the ME-EM, but only finds the cartridge. Pax goes to her and Ziggy's secret fort to find the latter, but is shocked when Ziggy accuses Pax of running away from Liberty, which contradicts the real story. She then follows Ziggy to the commune's kitchen, and she can either repeatedly call out to Ziggy or use Vocals to get the latter to listen. Pax explains that she was exiled for using Vox in public, but Ziggy refuses to believe her. Pax asks Ziggy to come with her to Nova Scotia to escape from anti-Anomal persecution and Liberty's infighting, but Ziggy refuses. Finally, Pax asks for the ME-EM machine back, which angers Ziggy further, but Ziggy gives it back and agrees to work on the driver robot.

Fred pushes Pax down some steps, causing Pax to realize the Echoes returned to Liberty, but Annie shows up with a gun to protect Pax. Annie asks Pax to hunt down the Echoes using the ME-EM machine in the hopes of calming the community down. Pax does exactly that, but eventually runs into a Protolanguage squid that eats Echoes, resulting in Pax fighting the squid using the ME-EM machine. Pax then explains the Echoes to Sai, who is shocked by how recording and capturing Echoes causes explosive shockwaves in the air.

When Fred brings an angry mob to Annie's house, Pax attempts to defuse the situation by removing the Echo from Fred's head, but Fred has been stuck with the Echo for so long that she does not go back to normal. Pax has to use the Discord Vocal to make the mob lose trust in Fred, causing Fred to lose the will to fight. She can then tell Annie whether or not to make amends with Fred. Pax herself realizes that it was wrong of her to want Liberty to stay the same forever and not accept the reality of the commune's economy.

With Annie's permission, Pax tries once more to talk to Ziggy in the baseball field to join the trip to Nova Scotia, but is rejected once again. However, they are interrupted by Justice's attack on Liberty, so Pax wields Ziggy's EM bat and teams up with Ziggy and Sai to fight off Justice and the reactivated Junior Justice robot. Now that it is clear Liberty is no longer safe from inner conflict or Justice's attention, Ziggy reluctantly agrees to join the crew, but refuses to forgive Pax for cutting contact with Liberty. Before leaving, Pax, Ziggy, and Annie pay respects at Rosa's grave.

On the bus, Pax comes up with another song, "Influence Apocalypse." The next day, on October 15, the crew plays at Pete's Pool Hall to maintain their cover story and not incur further suspicion.

Issue 3: Caretakers

On the bus, Pax talks with the crew and composes "Chasing Echoes," Pax and the crew agree to the robot's request to make a stop in the Standard Energy Station in Nevada, but the robot drives off without warning. Pax is once again forced to figure out how to delegate tasks and find a way to steal either a truck or the Horned Riders' bikes. Before leaving, Pax has the opportunity to converse with Henry the service robot and agree to his request to deliver a letter to the next Betty robot. If the bike stealing plan is used, Pax will also have to throw molotov cocktails at the pursuing Horned Riders to shake them off.

Once the crew makes it to the trailer park that the bus is stopped at, Pax and Ziggy enter the underground Justice school to search for the robot as well as an Anomal that Noam detected. While there, Ziggy starts to process the recent trauma, giving Pax a chance to reconcile with her sister depending on the dialogue choices. The two fight through several robots before rescuing the Anomal Eli from his fellow Horned Riders. When Pax and Ziggy cross a metal beam, the beam collapses and Ziggy falls into a wall, leaving Pax the task of guiding Ziggy to the thinnest part of the wall to phase through. After reuniting with Eli, Pax and Ziggy learn learn that the school is actually a Justice facility for creating Anomals. The three fight another batch of Horned Riders in the cafeteria, including the Fireman, an Anomal who wields a flamethrower and resists fire.

In the Whispering Room, Pax discovers the robot, but the latter has an Echo and is now vulnerable to Vocals, which should be impossible. Pax removes the Echo, but finds that the robot, Caretaker, regained her memories and now wants to stay in the school until the children return. Pax uses Hoax to convince Caretaker that the children are fine, and then leaves with everyone to the surface.

Unfortunately, the Horned Riders took the rest of the team sans Sai hostage, and Pax's team has to once again fight Patsy. Once Eli reconciles with Patsy, the crew has an opportunity to perform for the Horned Riders as a show of reconciliation.

Issue 4: Promised Lands

In Utah, Pax will wake up next to Noam if the latter is on the Maybe Someday Coda, otherwise Ziggy will draw a mustache on Pax's face. Pax has an opportunity to continue the service robot sidequest chain with Betty at the latter's diner, but Betty notices that Pax is pregnant, which Pax asks her to keep secret. Pax goes to the bathroom, but when looking into the mirror, she sees Axiom, who condemns language and tells Pax that her power can be used for his goals. Pax interrupts him by using Block and tells him to leave her be. After leaving the bathroom, Pax is confronted by two Justice officers, who ask about her punk rock activities. No matter how accurately Pax answers, the conversation goes awry, with the female officer making assumptions based on Pax and Eli's race and both officers repeating anti-Anomal conspiracy theories. Pax can use her Vocals to accuse the officer of traditional racism, but if that choice is skipped and enough time passes, either Pax or Ziggy will call the officers out for dehumanizing Anomals, resulting in Noam using Gaslighting to resolve the situation peacefully. Pax can also use Discord to get the two officers to turn on each other, causing them to shoot each other simultaneously and knock each other out. No matter how the situation is resolved, Pax realizes she needs to update Ziggy and Eli on the crew's cover story to prevent suspicion from the authorities in the future.

In the abandoned mall in New Jerusalem, Pax and the crew break into the hidden library, where they are stopped by a raccoon, Mr. President. Pax can either use Vocals on the raccoon or bribe him with a bag of peanuts. Pax uses Push to force the librarian Lottie to stop pretending to be a statue, and then after hearing about how the latter got trapped inside her office, Pax turns the mall's power back on to reactivate the office's electronic lock. With Lottie freed from her office, Pax and the crew spend the night in the mall and help Caretaker explore her identity as a sentient robot. Pax can also perform alongside the original crew to play a birthday song for Lottie's raccoon, Mr. President. That night, Pax notices Lottie's computer is Puritan tech and gets the idea of using it to examine the datakey. Theo is against this idea, but Pax uses Bully to convince him to go along with this plan, though her inner thoughts show her being conflicted about using Vox on her friend. In order to get into Lottie's office, Pax bribes Mr. President with a bag of peanuts to obtain Lottie's voicebox, which unlocks the office door. Their analysis of the datakey fails because the files are encrypted and Caretaker interrupts the two before they can examine the data further. Later that night, Pax has a dream about another meeting with Jacob, but eventually sees her parents next to a tree. Axiom shows up in her dream to admonish her for defying his definition of truth and for misusing language.

Upon waking up, Pax and the crew find themselves beset by the Puritans, who used Pax and Theo's activity on the Puritan computer to determine their location. Thanks to Theo's EMP grenade, Pax and the fighters of the team defeat the Puritan cyborgs, and then escape with Lottie's help. At Texas Beach Campground, Pax has the option of either shifting blame for the encounter onto someone else or taking responsibility for it. Caretaker discovers Pax's pregnancy through her sensors, and is asked to keep it a secret. Later, the crew performs their next gig in Main Street, an establishment in Colorado.

Issue 5: Yellow Brick Road

After the bus crosses the checkpoint in Colorado, Pax composes "The Gig Grind" as a way to express the crew's struggles to survive against Justice's detection while seeking a better life. Noam senses a new Anomal at the Alpine Visitor Center, prompting Pax, Eli, and Ziggy to conduct a search. The three find a mute Anomal girl being accosted by several Justice officers. After the first fight, Pax chases after the girl, but finds that the girl attracts Echoes, which Pax removes. The girl is still traumatized by the situation, so Pax uses Normalize to convince the girl that her grief and fear are normal to feel in their dystopian situation. While carrying the Anomal, called Girl, back, Pax is given the choice of immediately fleeing to the bus or rescuing the elderly couple who are being assaulted by paranoid Justice officers.

At the Standard Energy Station in Boulder, Colorado, the crew makes a stop to refuel and find food and drink to make Girl more comfortable. Pax can also deliver Betty's message to the Henry here. After Pax finishes her business in the bathroom, she runs into two Justice Officers, Praetor Walker and Prefect Kim, who discuss their plans to raid the Yellow Brick Road Motel for containing a library. No matter what Pax does, the officers see her face but assume she is an ordinary civilian for now.

At the Yellow Brick Road Motel, Pax takes Caretaker, Sai, and Ziggy with her to locate the librarian, Sol. They find him in Room 3, and Pax agrees to take his emotional support philodendron, Mr. Planty, to the bus. However, the Justice officers arrive and Walker and Kim become suspicious of Pax. Fortunately, Sol blows up the motel, distracting the officers long enough for Pax to escape to the bus.

At the next camp, Pax can listen to Sol's words about how the Weave wants to use information and language to fight Justice instead of direct violence and form her own opinion on her future path. While discussing with Theo about what the crew should do about the dwindling number of libraries, Pax notices Lebanon, the location of the Tree of Tongues, is in the Great Plains Exclusion Zone. She chooses this location as the group's next destination, both to avoid Justice's notice and to search for the tree.

Issue 6: The Bad Lands

When the bus crashes into an unknown object near Lebanon, Kansas, Pax steps outside to check on the damage, but while the front bumper is damaged, there is no sign of what caused it. Worse yet, Girl runs into a site full of metal shipping containers, and Pax has to follow. Pax ends up falling into a ravine and gets trapped underneath rubble, and a large bionic being approaches before leaving. Fortunately, Eli makes his way down and frees Pax from the rubble, and the two follow Girl. They end up spotted by Justice officers, only for the bionic creature to knock the cops out and attack the party. After the bionic creature leaves, Pax and Eli climb up to a dilapidated Betty's Diner. Although the Betty is in poorly maintained condition, Pax can deliver Henry's gift and message in order to raise the robot's spirits. At one of the tables, Pax finds Girl sitting with a masked Anomal woman, who believes she is dead and that everyone around her is a demon in disguise, due to the Echo in her head. Outside the diner, Pax is accosted by Justice officers, only for the Anomal woman to use her pain-sharing Vocal to knock them out.

With the Anomal woman in tow, the party follows Girl to the Kennedy Institute to reach the tree. In order to get in, Pax uses Cancel to make the gate guard think his comrades abandoned him, making him more cooperative with the party. However, the bionic leader kills the guard and attacks the party before retreating to the top of the institute. At the top, the party finds a giant Protolanguage squid, which attacks the Justice officers while sparing them. The party then uses music to gain the squid's trust, and by extension, the bionic army's trust as well. In what appears to be a larger version of the Whispering Room, the party finds a small tree, which Pax touches. This causes Pax to have a dream about another meeting with Jacob before shifting to a space containing the Tree of Tongues. Inside, Pax listens to her mother's explanation about Protolanguage and how Justice's experiments on it to control the masses caused the Broadcast by accident. Once Pax returns to the real world, the tree stops glowing, signifying that it is no longer under Justice's control. The Anomal woman turns out to be Eli's friend Ophelia, who loses the Echo in her head and becomes lucid enough to recognize Eli.

At Camp Oakwood near Kansas City, Missouri, Pax discusses the tree, Girl, the squids, and the Broadcast with Noam, Sai, and Theo. When Pax returns to the bus, she has a conversation with Eli about Ophelia and inducting her into the crew. Later that night, Pax has one more conversation with the original crew members, and if the player did not interrupt too many conversations with them, the crew acknowledges that Pax is becoming more considerate and open to listening to others compared to before. Pax acknowledges that she always considered language to be a weapon and shield, but that this strength can also be a weakness when it comes to forming bonds.

Issue 7: Let There Be Light

In Iowa, the bus starts having problems due to damage to the heatshield. If two officers show up to inspect the bus due to prior dialogue choices, Pax realizes that the crew incurred too much suspicion and can ask either Noam or Ophelia to use their Vox to handle the officers. Once the crew stops at an abandoned house, Pax uses a combination of her ME-EM and Girl's Echo-controlling power to break into the basement of the house, allowing them to open the front door from the inside. However, Ophelia gets infected by another Echo and loses control of her power, causing pain to everyone. All present crew members discuss whether or not they can keep Ophelia in the group, but no matter which side Pax chooses, she will anger either Eli or Sai. Pax then has to talk to the other members about this, but tensions are high over their disagreements. When Sai sulks over the situation with her family, Pax attempts to use her Vocals to make Sai feel better, only for each attempt to fail, causing Pax to wonder if she could ever learn a new Vocal to succeed at this. Afterwards, Girl comes up with the idea of playing hide-and-seek to lift everyone's spirits, and Pax has to be the one to locate everyone, with some hiders requiring the ME-EM machine to expose.

Outside, Pax notices a bunch of Echoes heading towards the Tree of Tongues, but Girl calls some of them to the house so that Pax can record them and learn a new Vocal. Pax also recounts a conversation with Jacob about how collecting enough Echoes could allow her to affect actual reality and not just perceived reality. After collecting over a hundred Echoes, Pax goes to the barn to craft a new Vocal, but cannot figure out the correct keyword. Pax eventually states the word "control," causing her to levitate before falling to the floor. Axiom states that this Vocal can rewrite the universe and tells Pax to deliver this power to him so that he can create a world without chaotic language. Pax worries the Vocal may have hurt her baby, but Noam comes in and confirms the baby is fine while revealing they already figured out about Pax's pregnancy a while ago. When Pax takes a nap and wakes up, she finds Girl listening to her stomach, indicating the latter also knows about the baby.

At the dinner table, Pax and the original crew members recount their adventures in Purity's headquarters, but Sai becomes angry at how nonchalant everyone is about the dangers of that event and calls out Pax about how she keeps dragging everyone into danger. Sai then leaves the crew and is nowhere to be found. Pax ruminates about Sai's departure on the bus, while Noam tries to reassure her that there was nothing they could have done.

Issue 8: Battle of the Bands

In Chicago, Pax has to choose a partner to explore the streets with in order to find the Bad Lands Bar. On the way, she spots a mixtape vendor, Hawker, who her ME-EM identifies as an Anomal. Talking with Hawker will result in Pax attempting to recruit him, but he refuses because he has friends in Chicago, though he appreciates the sentiment and offers a mixtape with K-pop. Further in, Pax has the option of giving the previous Betty's gift to the homeless Henry. Pax then finds a group of Medina-Castillo supporters who are under arrest for graffiti, and she has the option of using Normalize to make the officers forgive the artists.

At the Bad Lands Bar, Pax and the crew have to use their powers to convince the bouncers to let them in. However, they soon find the entire bar swarming with Justice officers holding a retirement party for one of their senior members. Fortunately, the officers do not suspect a thing and the crew is able to participate in the Battle of the Bands. Most of the band gets drunk before the performance, and Pax has to find a way to set them straight. Regardless of the competition results, the crew parties in order to let off steam and Theo states that his contact could not make it due to all the officers. When it is time to leave, Pax is annoyed and possibly jealous when Noam spends a lot of time chatting with the bartender. Pax and Noam get into an argument, with Noam accusing Pax of using them while Pax points out that Noam does the same, and they both worked together to abuse their Vox against other people, which had the side-effect of making their own relationship toxic. Pax states that their relationship going forward needs to be more honest, but these words have yet to sink in for Noam. As the two leave, Walker and Kim show up and ask questions before revealing they received multiple reports of Pax's suspicious activities. Pax and Noam are forced to flee to the train, with the graffiti artists (if helped) and Hawker stalling the officers.

Issue 9: Rotown

In Rotown (Detroit, Michigan), Pax and Theo go into one of the factories to talk to Theo's contact, Desmond, but Pax notices several holes in Desmond's story. Nevertheless, she and Theo agree to escort Nainai to Nova Scotia. Justice has the place surrounded and Pax, Ziggy, and Eli are forced to fight their way out, with Caretaker sacrificing the bus to give them an opening. Justice Walker uses his mech to capture Pax, but once Ziggy attacks him and frees Pax, Pax reverses the situation and takes Walker hostage. She and Eli then use a combined Vocal to summon a colossal Bituman, who knocks the Justice tiltrotors out of the sky, with one of them creating an opening in a wall. Pax and the party try to escape, but Kim stabs Pax and nearly kills her. Caretaker throws Pax out of danger, but is hit by a train and seemingly dies. Pax falls unconscious and her wounds are so severe that even Sol cannot fully heal them.

Issue 10: The Maine Event

In the final stretch of the journey, Pax wakes up in a hospital in New York City, bound to the bed. Although she is at Justice's mercy, she warns Praetor Walker of Justice's real agenda to create and control Anomals, causing him to doubt his organization. Walker decides to free Pax to save her from the Puritans, who are invading the hospital to capture her. Sai, Eli, and Ziggy show up to extract Pax from the hospital and make a getaway with Ruth, a librarian. After Nainai uses her Vox to get the crew to a safer location, Pax learns that Sai was forced to be a mole for Justice, and may or may not forgive her. At the next Betty's Diner, Ruth asks if Pax's baby is Jacob's and offers her to join the Weave, which serves as one last opportunity to significantly influence Pax's Coda. Pax can also finish the service robot quest by giving Henry's song to Betty. Pax also gets to resolve her earlier argument with Noam to get them to confront their problems instead of ignoring them.

At Schoodic Point, the crew is cornered by both the Puritans and Justice, and Pax is forced to fight the Adjunct by herself. Praetor Walker pins down the Adjunct afterwards, and although Pax is wary at first, she wishes him well in his quest to uncover Justice's secrets. Near the docks, Pax finds that the Puritan Overseer captured Theo, Girl, Nainai, and Noam, and that her Vocals are useless against the Puritans' new Filter device. However, Pax comes to the realization that her Vocal powers are affected by the way she perceives language, and that if she perceives language as a weapon to win confrontations and take control, she will never be able to use that power in a positive way. Pax then professes her understanding and love towards the Crew, filling them with positive feelings and giving Theo the courage to defeat most of the Puritans with an EMP. Axiom appears and corners Pax, but Girl gathers numerous Echoes into Pax's womb, allowing Pax to use a supercharged Vocal alongside her baby to defeat Axiom.

Ending

At this point, Pax's path depends on the sum total of all the choices the player made in the game, which grants her one of three Codas:

• In the Librarian Coda ending, Pax decides that working with the Weave in Nova Scotia will be the best way to both improve the world and protect her baby.
• In the Expat Coda ending, Pax decides to stick to her original plan and use Nova Scotia as a respite to eventually go to Europe, where she lives peacefully with her baby and Jacob.
• In the Ronin Coda ending, Pax decides to return to the America Republic and engage in armed rebellion against Justice, taking the CAT robot with her.

Pax will also send both Theo's glasses and a letter to his sister Beatrice, praising him as friend and leader while mentioning the possibility of a cure for Beatrice's uncontrollable Vocal. The exact contents of the letter depend on both Pax and Theo's Codas.

Appearance

Pax has yellow eyes and dark brown hair, with an undercut on the left side of her hair. She has several tattoos on her body, including a skull-headed moth below her neck. She has a hoop earring on her left ear, but no earring on her right. She almost always wears a yellow beanie with a tree Protolanguage symbol and ripped cuffed jeans. In some chapters, Pax wears a red jacket that is too small for her, which she used to wear as a child. After regaining the ME-EM, Pax wears headphones with orange ear cushions, with the headphones connecting to the ME-EM to enable Echo scanning. In order to control her yellow electromagnetic baseball bat, Pax wears a purple right-hand glove with magnetic features, which leaves her pinky and ring fingers exposed. On her back, Pax has a harness for the bat, which she wears when she expects to be in a combat situation.

Pax changes wardrobe frequently throughout the game, often changing between various T-shirts, which includes the following:

• She starts with a beige shirt that displays "BAM!" in light salmon letters, but it got damaged and bloodied due to the battle in Purity, Pacifica. In her Librarian Coda comic, she goes back to wearing this shirt.
• At Noam's apartment, she wears a gray T-shirt with an 80s style print with the text "The Flashback".
• In Issue 1, she can pick a white shirt with a robot print or a pink shirt with a unicorn print.
• In Issue 2, she wears a black shirt with a ghost print.
• In Issue 3, she wears a white shirt that displays "WHO CARES?" in red letters.
• In Issue 4, she wears a white shirt with a print inspired by George Michael.
• In Issue 5, she wears a white shirt with a mountain and sun print.
• In Issue 6, she wears a black shirt with a print of an orange wasteland, which depicts a person treading through. Above the person is the black text "Apocalypse".
• In Issue 7, she wears a white shirt with a red lightning bolt, which also has teal and black accents.
• In Issue 8, she wears a cropped black sweater with the white text "Mattock", a white shirt underneath, and tight yellow and black pants.
• In Issue 9, she wears a black shirt with a purple Bad Lands Bar logo.
• In Issue 10, she starts in a blue hospital gown. After escaping, she wears a black shirt with gray concentric circles surrounding the text "The End" in white letters.
• In the Expat Coda ending, Pax has a white scarf, a white slouchy beanie, a red coat, a black shirt, black pants, and brown boots. She also has a pregnancy bulge due to the timeframe in which she reunites with Jacob.

Personality

Ever since she was a child, Pax was very protective of her loved ones, but at the same time, her relationships were strained by her desire to control the situation and she often failed to consider how others would feel about her actions. Due to this, she was seen as both a protector and a bully depending on the situation. Even in adulthood, these traits persist and she is still willing to use Vox to get through difficult social situations, but it is possible for the player to pick choices that focus more on empathy and understanding, causing Pax to learn how to be a better listener and better realize her friends' emotional needs. For most of the game, Pax sees both language and Protolanguage as a weapon to protect herself, but she starts doubting this mindset when she sees that her powers almost exclusively cause harm and when cracks form in her relationships with her friends. Her doubts are often shown in her optional reflection events, but due to her belief that strength is necessary to survive social confrontations, she usually does not show her more vulnerable and introspective side to others. Through her conversations with the crew, she realizes that she needs to use language to empathize with other people and come to an understanding with them rather than simply forcing the outcomes she thinks is right. Simply put, Pax's characterization is meant to show the double-edged potential of language as both a confrontational tool and a means to build bonds.

Although Pax is no longer part of an anarcho-primitivist commune and had to adapt to a high-tech society to survive, she did not completely unlearn those teachings at the start of the game. She has a deep distrust towards robots, both because of these teachings and because she knows she cannot control them with Vox. However, the Henry and Betty side quest, along with her interactions with Caretaker, allows her to discover common ground with sentient robots and eventually become more considerate of them.

Due to her harsh experiences in both the American Republic and Pacifica, Pax is very cynical about politics, believing that it is impossible to reform the country when the fascist factions seem to hold all the cards. She is also distrustful of popular political figures like John F. Kennedy, as she holds the minority opinion that he would have sided with the current version of Justice, unlike Noam, Ziggy, and Vivian Chapel, who believe JFK would have opposed the current regime. If she has the Expat Coda, she will continue to think America is a lost cause, but in the Librarian Coda ending, she becomes more idealistic about the idea of using her powers for good and abandons her cynicism.

Regardless of what choices are picked, Pax is willing to use violence to defend herself, the crew, and other Anomals, but is also averse to murder and sees it as a last resort. In the Ronin ending, Pax embraces this mindset and continues to fight Justice regardless of the logistical odds being stacked against her.

Abilities

Physical abilities

Despite being pregnant, Pax is capable of temporary bursts of strength and speed through her Taunt action, allowing her to deal powerful physical strikes with her bat.

Bat

Main article: Bat upgrades

Pax's electromagnetic baseball bat, known as the Psycho Pete bat in the Vision Tour Bundle DLC, comes with a glove that allows her to pull the bat back to her hand after throwing it. The bat can also be upgraded to shock the opponent or set them on fire.

Vocals

Pax's Vocal abilities tend to manipulate the targets' minds, though people with enough willpower can resist these effects. Since most of these target other people and not Pax herself, they are not effective against robots or people protected by a Filter device. Pax is unique among Anomals due to the sheer variety of Vocals she can learn. In the final chapter, Pax realizes that her powers depend on the way she views language, since her confrontational views result in harmful powers while her embracing of empathy eventually results in an encouraging power. Most of her combat Vocals can be followed up by an attack from a crew member if they are also participating in combat.

Block

This causes targets to stop moving or talking temporarily. In combat, this will freeze enemies temporarily, and Sai can follow up with a ground slam.

Push

This causes an invisible force to push targets a certain direction. This can either be a relatively gentle push or a mighty push that sends the targets flying. In combat, Ziggy can follow this up by teleporting and sucker-punching the enemy.

Trigger

This causes her targets to have heightened emotions and aggression. In combat, this can be used to give Pax a temporary adrenaline rush to increase her damage output, and pressing the Crew/Taunt button causes Pax to extend this effect to all participating crew members.

Discord

This causes the targets to distrust each other or another target. In combat, this causes enemies to attack each other.

Hoax

This causes the target to be more likely to believe Pax's words. In combat, this causes the enemy to believe they are being burned by a green fire, and Eli can follow this up by summoning Bituman to deal additional damage.

Bully

This bends the target to Pax's will to make them do something they do not want. In combat, this causes enemies to bunch together in a formation, and Eli can follow this up by summoning Bituman to deal additional damage.

Normalize

This causes the target to think their current emotional state is normal. This is the least harmful of Pax's Vocals, which is why it does not have any combat application.

Cancel

This causes the targets feel very negative about themselves, specifically by making them believe they have been abandoned or isolated from their allies. In combat, this causes mental harm similar to what Ophelia's Vocal can do. Fittingly, Ophelia can follow this up with further mental damage to the enemy.

Unnamed positive Vocal

By affirming the target's path in life, Pax is able to fill them with a burst of positive emotion, potentially giving them the courage to act in desperate situations. This requires her to have empathy and understand the targets.

Baby's unnamed Vocal

When Girl directs several Echoes into Pax's womb, Pax is able to use her baby's Vocal to create a powerful blast that can launch enemies a great distance, even against enemies as powerful as Axiom.

Gallery

Concept art from 2019

Outfits concept art

Trivia

• One of the visual inspirations for the character was her voice actress, Dominique Tipper, before she was cast for the role.