“The Seven of Swords is a card of deception and betrayal.”
Ezra Banks is twenty-eight years old and is a crew member aboard The Sapphire. He works as a server. Ezra is represented by the Seven of Swords Tarot card.
From the time of his birth, Ezra has had seventeen different aliases, the latest of which is Ezra Banks. His parents were both con artists and decided their son would learn the trade from the time he could speak. He learned how to pretend to be a lost child and nab a nice piece of jewelry or cash-filled wallet off of his “rescuer,” and how to pretend to be underfed so his parents could beg money off of people who felt sorry for them. But they didn’t have quite the brains their son did; they were small thinkers, refusing to leave the city they’d both become accustomed to. He knew he was destined for bigger things than stealing a few hundred dollars at a time and living in a crappy apartment. He wanted to live the high life others had, to be part of their world instead of just taking their scraps. By the time he was seventeen, he’d already dropped out of high school knowing it’d never do anything for him. He’d never had plans to finish it or attend college, though he does have quite a few ‘degrees’ that contradict that. He learned everything he needed to know on the streets or on the internet, and his intelligence made it easy for him to pick up all the skills he needed to work his way up in the world.
His first major scheme was pretending to be the great-nephew of a wealthy man who’d left everything to a Mr. Duncan Asher. Considering the family had a divide and he bore a passing resemblance to the man in question, he was easily able to impersonate him long enough to get the considerable funds transferred to an offshore bank account. And then use it to buy a lavish apartment in New York. But that money didn’t last as long as he thought it would. A one time payout wasn’t enough; he needed more. He repeated this scheme three more times, along with a number of smaller schemes involving the sale of supposed famous paintings. It wasn’t long before some very dangerous people caught wind of his doings, but rather than give in to them and work for them, he disappeared, sacrificing everything he’d worked so hard for. He reappeared under the name Rhett Nolan in California where he met a young heiress named Meghan Thompson. Though he’d swindled young, rich women out of money before, he’d never done anything like this before. After a whirlwind romance, the two married and he was given access to her considerable funds. Though the greedy side of him wanted to completely clean her out, the love he had begun to feel for her prevented that. He stole enough to last him a while, enough to make a dent in her fortune, though not enough to break her. After the funds had been drained into another bank account in France, he disappeared once again.
But as always, his tastes were more expensive than the amount of money he’d stolen. He was able to survive a few years on the amount, but it ran out sooner than he had intended. He soon realized he’d need to impersonate someone once more, and flew to Florida to track down an old friend named Ezra Banks. This Ezra had recently got a job working as a server on cruises, a job that he was more than willing to give up to his supposedly rich friend who was willing to pay a small sum to pretend to be him for a few weeks. The real Ezra had no idea that the newly christened Ezra had already found his next target in the young Cara Bishop. Though pretending to be a server wasn’t the most glamourous thing he’d ever done, and it certainly wasn’t ideal, it would allow him more access to logs and more areas of the ship which could end up coming in handy. Plus, people loved that Titanic shit of a ‘poor’ boy and a rich girl. Or at least, that’s what Ezra Banks was counting on.
+ charming, intelligent, adaptable
- selfish, scheming, materialistic
Ezra’s birth name was Ian Stone. Though he’s gone by so many names since then that names have ceased to have much meaning to him, Ian is the name he’s always had an affinity for despite where it came from.
His tastes are expensive, and he refuses to apologize for it. He finds it difficult to pretend to be working class now after having lived as the upper class do and slips up sometimes, mentioning things the real Ezra banks would know nothing about.
The first time he saw the show White Collar, he immediately had an affinity for Neal Caffrey. Though the show was fictional and many of its situations unrealistic, he can’t help but to take bits and pieces of it and put them into his own life. But he’s never been able to pull off the fedora.
Though he’s traveled all over the world, New York is home. It’s the city he loves and misses more than any place he’s lived. He misses his apartment with the loft ceilings and large windows. He misses the constant noise despite the insulation to prevent it. His misses his German Shepard named Lucie who he was forced to leave behind. This time, he plans on getting enough money to live on for the rest of his life, perhaps even enough to go back to New York.
Meghan Thompson - ex-wife & former target
Aiden Winslow - new ally
Cara Bishop - latest target
Ezra Banks is portrayed by Max Irons and is taken.
