Physical Description

Wozzees are known for how well they manage to stand out from their surroundings in spite of their tiny size, what with their pastel colors and attention grabbing clothing. The same cannot be said for Mint, where every aspect of his appearance is geared towards keeping him as inconspicuous as possible. Due to his albinism, Mint's fluff is a stark white, the only hint of color on his body being his blood red eyes. His preferred apparel is a simple black hooded cloak, which allows him to blend into the shadows when needed.

The most notable aspect of Mint's physique is, of course, his size. He stands at under half an inch in height, making him a diminutive speck compared to his surroundings. Having dedicated his life to escaping the limitations of his size, Mint has learned to turn his height from a hindrance to a near complete positive. Of course there's the obvious benefit of being near undetectable. Mint can easily sneak around others even in plain sight and can explore and trespass many areas that are inaccessible to others, whether due to size limitations or being considered off-limits. Mint also has incredible agility in the form of speedy and incredibly far reaching jumps, which he commonly uses to his advantage. After all, fleas make for amazing jumpers, and Mint has perfected the art. He also has an uncanny knack for throwing his voice, allowing him to be heard clearly by those he speaks to, as well as being able to distract enemies by making it seem as though he were behind or beside them.

Mint goes nowhere without his most treasured possession by his side; an anomalous needle he has affectionately named Stinger. It's a sharp, silvery piece of metal with wrappings around its eye for a makeshift grip. Such a tiny needle nearly appears to be near useless in a fight, but its ethereal sheen hints towards its immense cutting power. Not only is it sharp enough to cut through nearly anything, but while being swung its reach briefly extends an extreme amount. As such Stinger has the effective length of a normal sized sword, allowing Mint to cut through opponents much bigger than him. The mechanisms behind Stinger aren't well known even to Mint, though he appears to be the only individual able to properly wield it as a weapon. It should be noted that without his needle Mint is nearly as powerless as a regular wozzee, in which case he only has his speed and improvisation to rely on.

Personality

Mint maintains an aloof aura that most would not expect from a wozzee, which stems from his desire to act larger than his tiny size would suggest. As such he manages to remain unfazed in the presence of others, who tend to be giants from his perspective. Mint doesn't care much for size differences, and makes a point in talking to others as if said difference was a non-factor. He has little patience for those who look down at him for this however, and can be quite condescending towards them. Mint has no qualms in getting into fights or sneaking up on people when need be, but in spite of his demeanor he avoids outright killing whenever possible. Cold blooded murder doesn't sit right with him, due to how his first encounter with killing somewhat scarred him mentally.

Mint acts cool and self confident, but in truth he has an intense inferiority complex in regards to his size. In his mind he's locked away to a completely different scope of reality compared to other species, cursed to never be able to truly partake in what he sees as a freer, more fulfilling way of living. This is what motivates Mint to distance himself from life as a wozzee, and instead make a name for himself in the universe at large. This is why he takes on roles such as that of a mercenary, striving to excel in work none would expect to see a wozzee in. He's not in complete denial however and recognizes when his size works out to be a benefit, mainly in his other interest of exploring the world. Wozzees are already known to be hitchhikers, but Mint takes this to an extreme. He leads a nomadic existence, going wherever he pleases beneath the notice of others. The sheer act of being able to see new places and things with complete freedom is a joy Mint never gets tired of, which is understandable considering his constrictive upbringing.

Mint's feelings on his own species range from deep pity to immense annoyance, usually the latter. From his perspective wozzees are near universally childish and ignorant of anything outside their fundamentally flawed social circles. Being in the presence of other wozzees is a very frustrating experience for Mint as he can't connect to their overly innocent way of thinking. Their affinity for blindly following leader figures is a particular aspect that embitters Mint as he's seen time and time again how this behavior leads to wozzees being taken advantage of, as well as how difficult it is to change said behavior. Mint constantly feels as if he's the only mature member of his species, which gives him a conflict of interest. On one hand, he doesn't want to associate himself with wozzees, but on the other hand, he can't help but feel responsible for the wellbeing of any he comes across. As such he very begrudgingly helps his fellow wozzees out whether he wants to or not, especially via shutting down illegal wozzee testing labs as he has a particular vendetta against them.

History

There once was a covert research lab, discreetly tucked away under the surface of a backwater planet, that specialized in studying the effects of cult behavior in a community. Those funding the study wanted controversial results in the hope of garnering media attention, and they surmised the best way to obtain those was to use lab raised wozzee colonies. Not only would they be easy to house and raise, but they were practically hard wired for forming cults. It was also surprisingly easy to find a team of researchers who considered wozzees less like sentients and more like insects, ripe for all sorts of testing. With a crew of people willing to perform unsavory acts upon colonies of innocently clueless wozzees, the experiments would begin in earnest.

Many years pass, generations of wozzees grow up and die in the confines of the sterile lab, never to know that an outside world even exists, and always at the mercy of the cruel researchers presiding over them. Paradoxically however, the wozzees would end up seeing these researchers as god-like leaders, their communities having developed the thought that these figures are responsible for giving them existence and thus must never be questioned. This worship didn't grant them any sympathy from their "leaders", who had quickly gotten over the novelty of being gods over fleas. The only truly positive things they gave to the wozzees were low-quality sugar, poor homes, and knowledge on how they could throw their voices which the researchers only taught so as to more easily collect data. Otherwise they practically tortured the wozzees in the name of their unethical research. It was a one-sided relationship, but nonetheless this status quo would remain for a long time.

One day, the lab decided to research the effects of a community raising children communally rather than leaving the raising to the children's parents. To do this they took all the recently laid eggs from the parents of one of their wozzee colonies and commanded they all look over the eggs together, while forbidding the parents from ever uniting with their offspring. Dissent from the wozzees quickly quieted down, as they trusted that their giant leaders had divine, unknowable, and ultimately good reason for demanding this. Thus this new generation of wozzees would hatch and grow up in these circumstances, one of them being Mint. The community was willing enough to all act as parents for almost all the new younglings, but they were uncertain about Mint. He was the first albino wozzee they had ever seen, his fluff matching the color scheme of the lab they lived within. The momentary interest the researchers took in his coloration particularly confused the community, as they rarely took interest in individual wozzees like that. Mint was quickly forgotten by the researchers, his color not being a notable enough trait for them to care about. Consequently the community perceived this as disfavor from their leaders, and thus they were careful not to give Mint any more than the minimum of attention.

Mint's upbringing would be a lonely one, being ostracized by a superstitious community for reasons he didn't really understand. As a result he would grow to be quite jaded, and while he was just as much in the dark as the rest of his colony, he didn't subscribe to their beliefs. The wozzees of this colony normally hammered into their younglings' minds the divinity of their "leaders", as well as the world they had given their civilization, but as Mint was shunned most his life he never had to deal with this indoctrination. For his dissent he was seen as a troublemaker by the colony, feelings which were exacerbated when he dared to explore the surroundings outside of the table the wozzees were settled on. Mint took advantage of how lax the researchers were with security, as they had never accounted for deviance from their obedient wozzees, and regularly explored the room right under their noses. There wasn't much to see, but nonetheless he familiarized himself with the vast cold floor and impossibly tall walls, delighted to explore outside his home. He never ventured beyond the room's door however, as he couldn't shake his fear of the unknown that laid beyond. One day he would see what was on the other side, he told himself. But for now at least he was content.

Mint's childhood was relatively stable, minus all the loneliness. The researchers kept the communal experiment going for quite a long while, allowing the wozzee colony a sense of peace. Eventually however, feeling they needed more extreme results, the researchers decided to bring turmoil to the colony with harsher experiments. Mint's personal suspicions on these "leaders" were confirmed when one day about a fifth of the colony suspiciously disappeared, never to come back. The colony was distraught and had plenty of theories as to why this happened, but only Mint suspected the researchers. His attempts to share this theory were violently shot down, nobody would want to listen to the unfavored one speak against their leaders after all. Anticipating more catastrophes, Mint gave up on trying to convince his community and instead focused on his own survival. He made sure to hide whenever he had to sleep, in case of any more wozzee snatchings. When food suddenly became scare the community squabbled over how only those most loyal to their leaders should get to eat, while Mint discreetly stole food whenever he could knowing] he would be last in line to eat otherwise. More and more disasters rocked the community, seemingly at random and for no particular reason, though Mint saw the influence of the giants all over this. He feared that sooner or later he and the colony would die out, being pointlessly tortured for reasons they would never get a chance to understand. Too afraid to try and escape to whatever laid outside, he resigned himself to a slow death.

However, this would all change when Mint stumbled across something rather strange. He was exploring the room while everyone else was asleep, trying to find solace in a stroll, when he stumbled across a recess hidden in the wall. Mint had thought he already knew his surroundings inside and out. Curious, he reached into it wondering why it was so camouflaged within the wall. He got his answer when he felt something thin and metallic within. Pulling it out, it was revealed to be a strange needle that fit comfortably in his hand. He gave it a test swing, and quite nearly cut a gash into the wall! Whatever this thing was, it was powerful. Did a wozzee hide this thing? Why? It was a relief knowing that he wasn't the only complacent one in this place, though despair set in as he felt how dusty the needle was. Its owner was likely long gone, but at least Mint had found their weapon. He suddenly gained a rash boost of confidence having the needle in his possession. Naming it Stinger, he decided he could use it to defend the colony from the giants that had tormented them for so long. He was sure he could get all the other wozzees on his side this time, but first... he wanted to see what was past the door. With a weapon he finally felt it was time to see what was beyond his entire world.

Crawling under the door, Mint found a vast hallway filled with doors that looked the exact same as the one he exited. The place seemed empty, devoid of any researchers, so he went over to see what lied beyond one of the doors. He immediately got a sense of deja vu, for the room looked exactly the same as the one he lived in his whole life. There was even a table with a wozzee town upon it. Suspecting that his colony was not the only colony in this facility, he climbed up the table and came across a horrific sight. There were indeed wozzees here, and they were all dead. They seemed to have died around the same time, likely with poison. Terrified, Mint bolted out of the room and went into another. Every room he entered led to the same sight, more wozzee towns, more cleared out populations. Soon enough he went into another room, and stumbled back in terror. A researcher was here, spraying the room's colony with what looked to be a bottle of poison.

The lab had run out of funding a few days earlier, its investors having lost faith in it returning on investment. As it turns out, people got bored of seeing newspieces calling cults bad year after year, especially in a universe where notails already filled the evil quota. Before closing for good, the lab's numerous wozzee colonies had to be quickly cleaned out in order to avoid legal trouble. This researcher in particular was the only one on the night shift, and he was just finishing up the mass extermination. He walked out of the room, Mint barely avoiding getting stomped on, and headed towards the last room on his checklist, Mint's colony. Mint never had the best relationship with his colony, but he had grown up with them his whole life. Not wanting to see them murdered he chased after the researcher, but by the time he reached his room the giant already had his poison ready. Mint felt utterly powerless, but remembered the needle in his hands.

In desperation Mint leapt onto the giant, closed his eyes, and began hacking away. He thought he could at least distract them, but by the time Mint stopped... the researcher was dead. In his terror and desperation, Mint didn't realize Stinger's power until it was too late. He stood on top of the corpse in shock, drenched in blood, and up above his colony gawked. They were woken up by the commotion outside their homes, and laid witness to Mint slaying a god. There was silence, and then the colony began to panic. Fearing that Mint would kill them as well, they yelled and screamed and threw whatever they could at the menace before them. Mint was stunned, he had saved his colony and this is how they reacted. Rational thought was drowned out by the fear and anger Mint felt, along with the shock of having killed a living being so violently. If he were in a better state of mind, Mint might have tried to explain the situation, try to convince his colony to finally leave their prison. Instead, he turned around and left his colony to die when the dead researcher was eventually found, a decision he would come to forever regret.

Mint eventually found the bunker's exit. He ascended and laid eyes on his first ever sight of the outside world: Giant green blades of grass all around him, fresh air filling his lungs, and an infinite expanse that was the starry night sky. He stood for a moment, trying to process everything that came before. In the end, he felt that all the suffering he experienced to this point could have been avoided. It was his species' fault, their complacency and idiocy that allowed this to happen to them. Vowing to be better than them and escape his curse of being a wozzee however he could, he set off into the field ahead of him with Stinger in hand. Mint would never let himself be imprisoned again, from now on he would explore the world on his own terms.

Special

Giantslayer: Wozzees typically don't pose a threat to most people due to their tiny size. This is not the case with Mint. In fact, he seems to perform better in combat the larger his opponent is. Mint has an innate sense of the weak points on a giant opponent: The chinks in their armor, where they'd feel the most pain from a wound, and their vital areas. In addition to his Stinger for directly attacking these weaknesses, Mint also has advanced knowledge of various chemicals and poisons and how they can affect his targets. It's not uncommon for Mint to easily knock out an unaware victim with a tiny, discrete injection of poison into one of their blood vessels. In short, Mint specializes in incapacitating those larger than him whether through stealth or direct combat. The bigger they are, the harder they fall.

Trivia

• Mint grew up on a strictly sugar based diet, and thus finds it extremely creepy and bizarre whenever he sees a wozzee drink blood.

• Mint secretly enjoys comparing himself to a certain katana wielding character from the hit video game series Human May Cry.

• Rumors allege that Mint is in a romantic relationship with a sarax. The exact details currently remain unclear however.

Image Gallery