Pix is one of the star performers in Master Payne's Circus of Adventure. We first see her here ✣ , lurking in the background with Zeetha -- which will be the last time for a long time that she plays a background role, because Pix likes the limelight. As will be seen, that's incredibly important.
In her first appearance, Pix is a bit wary of Agatha. She's one of the Circus folk who meet Agatha when she brings the lost child Balthazar home to his mom. Of course, she's appreciative, as are the others among the Circus, but she reacts negatively ✣ when Abner starts making noises about Agatha staying around. Being a prudent girl, she insists (with some justification) that the decision on whether or not Agatha can stay must come from Master Payne. On a slightly deeper level, she's one of the first characters to think through the implications of having someone around who's on the lam from Baron Klaus Wulfenbach, as Agatha clearly is. She's still upset ✣ when Payne turns Agatha and Krosp away, because she sees wandering solo in the wilderness as a death sentence for this likeable naif, having no idea yet that Agatha is a big-time Spark.
Of course, the episode with the Spider Clank takes care of that. And when Gilgamesh Wulfenbach and Bangladesh DuPree come calling in the aftermath of that attack, Pix truly shows she's accepted Agatha's presence, and that she really is a good actress, enthusiastically playing a key role ✣ in convincing the duo that Agatha is dead.
These events also cause a shift in her attitude toward Abner, a good thing for the circus, since the two of them had apparently been driving the rest of the company nuts with their arguing and romantic tension. When Abner is forced to go with Gil and DuPree into the wastelands, Pix seems to realize he might not be coming back, so she takes a chance and finally kisses ✣ him. Abner's return marks the start of an actual romance between the two. By the time Pix and Abner conclude a good, long talk ✣ over the smoldering remains of the Monster Horse Beastie, a relationship has been well formed, and Pix and Abner are an Item henceforth.
Her most important role, however, is yet to come. Pix makes it clear she doesn't like playing Lucrezia Mongfish in the troupe's Heterodyne shows and so when the Circus visits the hamlet of Zumzum and stages a performance of Race to the West Pole, she is happy to defer the Lucrezia role to Agatha, playing instead The High Priestess. Nevertheless, she eventually gives the performance of her life ✣ as Lucrezia when the whole troupe conspires to rescue Agatha from the clutches of the Baron's forces at Sturmhalten. The ruse works, Agatha is rescued, and the Circus escapes along with her (with the exception of the unfortunate Lars). Pix stays with the circus when they accept Ardsley Wooster's offer of sanctuary and a brand new venue in England. And sure enough, when Agatha finally makes her own way to England, she encounters ✣ Pix playing The High Priestess in a Command Performance at a little shindig thrown by Queen Albia. (High in more than one sense of the word..)
It's interesting that "Pix" is the alias that Agatha adopts ✣ on the spur of the moment as she slips incognito into Castle Heterodyne to try to repair the place. While she only tells one person this, and her true identity is pretty quickly outed, she also claims to have poisoned 37 disgruntled diners, so who knows, maybe Pix has acquired an unfortunate reputation.
The Novels[]
The print novels offer a couple more details about her. Her life before joining the Circus was evidently not pleasant, leaving her with A Thing about getting close to people and then losing them (hence her reluctance to take the plunge with Abner and her reaction to Agatha being sent away originally.) After she hooks up with Abner, she becomes a lot more happy, agreeable and willing to help out with minor chores around the Circus. (She even stops talking about herself for minutes at a time!) And along with playing the Priestess, she shows her range by breathing new life into such hoary old Heterodyne roles as the Lost American and the Tragic Abomination of Science.
The Works[]
Pix appears in "The Works" with Abner. She looks rather heavier and scruffier and holds a screwdriver, as if she is one of the minor sparks. However, the epithet for Abner and Pix is only Circus Artists. See Abner and Pix.