Alex was born into an aristocratic, Upper-Level family, specifically to Baron Randolph and Baroness Courtney Finch, though the baroness died due to complications shortly after childbirth. Prior to the girl's birth, both had been prevalent among Bleaker's slavers and hunters, and Randolph continued to be so afterward. Baron Randolph Finch was an infamous game hunter, most interested in hunts of shifters in their natural—more dangerous, more sporting, more fun—habitat.
Alex was denied most of the frocks-and-frills stages of a young aristocrat girl's life, having been left in care of a more simplistic set of maids and stewards in her early years. This is something for which she eventually became extremely grateful; while other girls her age were wearing cute dresses and bonnets and having little tea parties, Alex was teaching herself to knock sparrows from trees with the use of a sturdy rock. For several years before she was allowed to join in the hunts, she idolized her father and brother and was jealous of them both, as great trophies and greater stories always accompanied the pair's return. She was at the age of five close to six upon one return when a horrified maid told her father of the girl's violent pastime in the back properties of the family estate. Though her brother seemed silently disapproving, her father was delighted at his younger child's apparent predisposition for the hunt. He had previously had no intention of taking the girl on hunts, but her early promise soon began to change his mind. Upon further consideration as, over the next few years, Alex graduated herself to slingshot, he insisted that his children learn what 'real hunting' was all about, and so, at age seven, Alex began being taken along with her father and elder brother Edward on all varying sorts of hunting expeditions.
Prior to her first expedition, her elder brother took her aside and attempted to explain to her that 'shifters are people too,' and killing people is a Bad Thing. Alex was incredibly confused by this; if killing shifters was bad, why would her father do it and be paid well for it? She also wondered at Edward's telling her not to hunt, as before she went on any expeditions herself she thought him to be quite as good a hunter as her father. She soon discovered, of course, that her brother was essentially useless for hunting living beings of any sort. Her confusion only heightened with this, and for months on end she refused to handle any of the weapons her father offered her for hunting. Randolph, in turn, became confused and frustrated, wondering what could possibly be 'wrong with' his children. Alex eventually asked her brother, in private while their father slept, why he would not hunt. As Edward attempted to explain the moral reasons behind not killing his fellow human beings, Alex could only come to the conclusion that her brother was 'soft'—and perhaps a bit touched in the head. The next day, she expressed interest once more in learning from their father, and was soon being taught the finer mechanics of various bows and firearms. This turn was very much to Edward's chagrin, though he kept his opinions to himself.
As Alexis grew, gaining skill and prowess in the hunting field, she began to realize that she not only enjoyed the hunt: she reveled in it. Oddly, however, it was not the fact that the shifters she hunted were 'mere animals' that helped her justify the hunts. Rather, it was the very idea that they were human—that they were more intelligent, cleverer, and thereby more difficult to kill—that intrigued and excited her. She no longer saw the killing of shifters as the hunting of animals; she saw it as the unjustified but completely sanctioned taking of a human life. She anticipated every kill, and saw great victory in each life she claimed. There was one point, when she was thirteen, when 'the family' was tracking a particular rhinoceros shifter in Africa. The woman had evaded them for nearly two weeks, when finally, she was caught up to hiding in a small village. Upon being told what she was, the terrified villagers drove her off, injured. Alex killed the woman in her unshifted form. This shocked her father and horrified her brother; both males were at a loss for explanation when Alexis could not figure out what she'd done wrong.
The only thing her father could think to do was to leave her at home over the next expedition that he and Edward set out upon. Alex was absolutely enraged at this turn, and actually spent several hours after their departure storming about the house, smashing expensive vases and slashing at expensive fabrics with a pair of shears. One maid and one maid only attempted to placate her, as this woman ended up missing three fingers at the wrong end of Alex's shears.
Upon finally calming down from her rage, Alex collected herself and endeavored to 'make the best of' her time at home. To Alex, this consisted of coming up with the most vindictive thing she could think of in retaliation to her father's punishment. Her first action was to simply be as publicly unladylike as possible, hanging out in seedy dives, starting brawls, using foul language and blatantly resisting all forces attempting to stop her. Zero Tolerance returned her home with her hands behind her back on more than one occasion, causing great stress to the family steward. Her father was written with word of her misdeeds; the only reply was that Alex was being a 'willful teenager' and that the steward merely pay any fines and leave her be. This, more than anything, shocked the girl from her tirade, and she was quiet within the house for well over a month. The steward and maids counted their blessings, though they were worried on Alex's becoming something of a recluse during this time. In actuality, she was spending her time going through her father's libraries, eventually breaking into his desk and reading over his journals in attempt to figure out what actually would set him off in anger. The only things he seemed to denounce were shifter-lovers and anti-slavery movements, and Alex was not of a mind to become a member either of sect for the sole purpose of disrupting her father. Randolph's writings, however, did seem to contain an occasional sniff at the whole of the Entertainer's Guild, once writing them off as a set of 'tactless floozies with no respect for real class or human sanctity.' She supposed this was made mostly in reference to the guild's apparent indifference to shifterkind, and of course set immediately out to immerse herself in their company.
The help in House Finch was not happy with Alexis's new choice of company, but this time kept it to themselves. Their hope was that Alex would abandon this new 'stage' before her father's return, thereby avoiding the Baron's wrath on all parts. Alex, however, found herself greatly enjoying her sort of honorary membership in the guild, as well as the company of her new consorts, and wondering what on earth her father found so wrong with them. They certainly had a much more diverse set of backgrounds and viewpoints than the conservative, stuffy aristocracy, as well as talents wide and colorful in range. One particular entertainer complimented her on her beauty, and asked if her honorary membership was due to her desire to 'use this beauty to its fullest.' In fact, Alex had been understudying Penelope for a production of Homer's The Odyssey, and had given no thought to the occupation to which this new entertainer was alluding. Upon consideration, however, she grew more and more fond of the idea. She had given her virginity early in her thirteenth year to a young man met in her travels in Africa—unbeknownst to either her father or her brother—and had had few qualms about the subject of sex since. After the production of The Odyssey—in which she was needed and did act, very well upon her part—she asked Guildmistress Mara Phoenix for a true induction into the guild, as an actress and prostitute. The first was allowed without question, though there was some question as to the second, considering her age at the time was not yet fifteen—and she was the daughter of a powerful baron. Alex's argument was that she was not her father's property, and would be endeavoring into this new vocation with or without his blessing or permission, and with or without membership in the Guild. On this note, she was eventually allowed into the Guild, and embraced her new job without reservation.
Upon her family's return, Randolph was outraged, more at his having been left out of the loop than at Alex's choice of vocation. Her father demanded she come on the next hunt with him and leave this 'silly entertainer business' behind her. This, of course, was exactly what Alexis wanted—up until the point of her father's use of the word 'silly' to describe her business. Just to spite him, she refused, choosing instead to stay home and continue her work with the guild. This was seen by not only her father and the Entertainer's Guild but also by the Slaver's Guild and the entire aristocracy as a turn against the hunter ideals. Mortified and somewhat disgusted, Randolph left for his next venture almost immediately, leaving Alexis feeling extremely pleased with herself.
In time, however, as her father's next expedition drew on, Alex found herself growing restless. Her part as actress and whore were fulfilling in their own rights, but the young Miss Finch found herself almost itching to hunt once again.
One evening, Alexis returned to the Belfry's basement after a play to find one poor girl in tears and hysterics, being doted upon by most of the other entertainers present. Alex eventually learned that the girl had been in the act of 'servicing' a client when a member of the Assassin's Guild had entered and ended the life of that client in moments. Half the ruckus in the Basement was wonder as to why the girl was left to live when she could just as easily have been done off with as well. This intrigued Alex beyond all thought or reason, and she immediately began asking her way around, finally finding her way into the company of Guildmaster Patrick Fabrizio. A combination of her enthusiasm, cold disregard for the value of human life, good looks, and good standing with two other guilds and among the aristocracy all combined to win her great favor with Fabrizio, who saw her as a valuable asset. She was set an initial assassination as a test, and returned within two days with the task complete—an accomplishment, as her target had been one of the more untouchable members of the aristocracy's upper crust. She was inducted, though for stealth's sake the Assassin's Guild knows and refers to her only by the name Absinthe, a reference to her 'bitterness and complexity,' as Fabrizio once told her.
Alex was seventeen when her father and brother next returned from their hunts abroad. Randolph seemed to have cooled down considerably in regards to his daughter's work in the Entertainer's Guild, and in fact offered apologies for his previous brashness. Alexis accepted this, and asked that she be allowed to accompany her father for 'one last hunt before she tied her life to Bleaker.' Her father was nearly overjoyed at this response, and the family set out as a trio once again within the month.
The Finches had been out on their trek for only five months or so when Randolph perished in a mysterious accident while hunting. His weapon had apparently backfired somehow, injuring him and leaving him open to the attack of his shifter prey. Like her brother, Alexis was repeatedly questioned, both directly after the incident and upon the siblings' return to Bleaker, but like her brother, Alex proclaimed her innocence with unwavering sincerity. Eventually, she became indignant that the city was not leaving her father to his peace, and the aristocracy managed to have her let be.
The two siblings seemed to have very different ways of coping with their loss; while Alexis was performing as Desdemona in a production of Othello and making herself an available companion, ending up completely out of the house for several days on end, her brother sold the estate and properties entirely—as Alex put it, out from under her. Incensed, furious, Alex put her membership in both the Entertainer's and Assassin's Guilds completely on hold and left the city, using a contact in the Merchant's Guild to find her way to England, where she took up a life similar to the one she had been leading in Bleaker.
Very recently, however, that same contact called upon Miss Finch in her home and produced a copy of the infamous issue of the Bleaker Muck, wherein her brother was very prominent. Her horror and surprise was immediate and extreme, and she bartered passage onto that contact's ship that very night, intent on returning to Bleaker and questioning her brother in person. Her eventual return to the city had been in the back of her mind for several months, as the city just seemed much more like home to her than the settlement in England. The sight of her elder brother being cuddly with Guildmaster Muldoon was simply the catalyst.
