bio.

[exacutus]

CALL ME CRAZY, CALL ME SELFISH. SAY I'M NEITHER, WOULD YOU BELIEVE HER?

BASICS

name
Araminta Simone Payne.

alias
Just Minty. Go ahead and call her by her full name, see how that goes for you.

division
Exploration / operations.

occupation
inheritor of generational wealth Explorer / volunteers at the gardens.

age & dob
25 / 28th October, Scorpio.

pronouns
She/her.

family
Gabriel & Lita Payne, parents (deceased).
Bernadette Payne, twin sister.
Le Souverain (Bebe), Somali cat.

CONCEPT

Ironically enough, this shadow rogue loves being the center of attention.

POWERS

shadow blade construction;
Minty can create blade constructs made from shadows. They're lighter and sharper than the real thing, but disappear once she loses concentration on them. Maintaining contact with the blade isn't necessarily required to continue their existence—meaning that they can be thrown or dropped without immediately poofing away—but it certainly helps. Because longer/more elaborate blades take more effort to create and maintain, she favors simple (some might say crude) forms that prioritize effectiveness over anything else; a jagged dagger is her go to. She can create more than one blade at a time, but anything over two is simply unsustainable for more than the length it takes to throw them.

shadow stealth;
While this ability cannot render her completely undetectable, Minty can effortlessly blend into shadows. The sense most fooled by this ability is sight; if she's very still there's almost no way to visually detect her form. No amount of shadow can fool a trained nose, however, and her hiding spot can only dampen so much noise—she has to actually be stealthy to be hidden.

shadowlessness;
What it says on the tin: she's lacking a shadow. There's no real drawbacks or benefits to this, and while Minty has some fun theories (maybe her blades are her missing shadow manifested!) it's not much more than a quirk at this point.

PERSONALITY

is

→ the proud owner of a superiority complex.
→ vain/arrogant.
→ surprisingly disciplined.
→ intelligent and driven.
→ competitive, petty, and eristic.
→ charming despite being a pain.

isn't

→ impolite.
→ unnecessarily cruel.
→ a doormat.
→ one to suffer fools.
→ maternal.
→ wrong, ever (in her own view).

will

→ treat you well if you're a friend.
→ try to get reactions out of you.
→ flirt.
→ smile prettily to get her way.
→ make an entrance.
→ call you out.

won't

→ talk about her feelings.
→ hide her facial expressions.
→ tolerate idiocy.
→ sugarcoat.
→ spill secrets (yours or her own).
→ go for low-hanging fruit.

likes: the color red, gardening, cats, material objects, hobbyist level herbal medicine, meat, 90's alt rock, halloween, cardio, gossip.
dislikes: sweets, children, being told no, waiting, astrology, losing, celebrity brands, body trends, puppets, true crime.

APPEARANCE

🫀 5'3.5" (the half inch is important) and leggy.
🫀 If you think you saw her without a bold lip, no you didn't.
🫀 Her nails are kept a relatively short almond shape and usually painted a shade of red.
🫀 The hair is the real star here, and yes, it's natural! Long, silky, and only worn up while exploring; otherwise gently curled and bouncy.
🫀 A pretty face with bold features. Most striking are her eyes and lips.
🫀 Two lobe piercings on each ear and a bouquet of wild mint tattooed on her right flank.

HISTORY

tw: parental death, car accident

For eighteen glorious minutes, Araminta Simone Payne was the sole heir of new money finance nerds burdened with the knowledge that the word 'no' exited their vocabulary the moment their baby entered the world. Then her twin just had to follow along, wailing inconsolably as she usurped Minty's spotlight for the first (and certainly not the last) time. Typical Bernadette.

As their birth story would set the tone for much of the relationship shared by the Payne girls, there was hardly any of the amicable closeness one tends to see in twins. Sure, they knew each other and their respective business as well as they knew themselves, but that didn't mean they got along. No, the two of them grew up competing for a nebulous and elusive first place position. It wasn't the attention or approval of their parents they fought over, nor was their competition restricted only to their individual merits; it seemed to permeate every aspect of their lives, and yet what constituted winning was so poorly defined that there was never going to be an actual victor. Still, not even knowing this particular nugget of information would've stopped the sisters from bickering—they were simply too alike in the worst of ways.

When Minty was twelve, her powers manifested. It was a shock to her and her family, even if by then the whole world was aware that anyone could become a Liminal—beyond that, it was... scary for the pre-teen. She wasn't born with the knife wife gene, after all; she had to be made. But even with how much of a change it was to lose her shadow and become a one woman weapon factory, Minty found the silver lining in all of it: she was now much more special and infinitely cooler than Bernadette could ever DREAM of being.

...Until the literal eve of their fourteenth birthday, when the younger twin finally got her own powers after being exposed to a completely separate rift. Minty should've seen it coming, really. Now they were back on equal footing, leaving her to ruminate on how to prove herself better than her sister yet again. The one upside of this continuous sibling rivalry was that both girls applied themselves earnestly to any aspect of their lives that could be compared. Minty in particular got stunning grades, and those combined with her extensive list of extracurricular activities (and her family's money, let's not kid ourselves) meant that she practically had her pick of the litter when it came to schools. It was certainly no surprise to anyone when she got accepted to her first choice of Columbia University.

There was obviously plenty of allure to the prestigious school, but the best thing about it had nothing to do with academics or college culture—the number one draw was that there would be no Bernadette around to share it with. The fact that her twin intended to go to university in California was unabashedly the driving factor behind Minty choosing an east coast school; the rest was just confetti. Expensive, esteemed confetti.

Minty took a semester abroad in Greece during her sophomore year, thrilled to explore a new culture and put more worldly experience under her belt; but it was during the tail end of her time there that she received the devastating news that her parents had been involved in a fatal car accident. Her father died on the scene, but her mother hung on long enough that Minty was able to catch the next red eye out of Athens and squeeze in a tearful goodbye. Minty, who'd lived a life free of struggle or strife, had no idea how to begin handling such a big loss and the even bigger emotions that came along with it. It should've been the perfect time to reconcile with Bernadette—the girls didn't have to do this alone. But for some reason, Minty just couldn't. It was somehow easier to shut out her sister and write her family off as a complete loss.

It took time for Minty to go back to school, but she eventually earned a degree in sociology. There were plenty of things she could've done with that degree, not to mention furthering her education, but she simply marked it as a feather in her cap and moved on. Her inheritance ensured that she could essentially work as little or as much as possible and be comfortable regardless, so she chose not to return to the grind. The poor little rich girl wanted to rest. She picked up hobbies and interests galore instead, including a return to honing her abilities—something she'd let slide since her time at [Seattle boarding school].

Picking up training piqued a returning interest in and desire to be around her fellow freaks (affectionate) once more. Feeling a sense of direction for the first time since her parents died, she sought out an opportunity to immerse herself into Liminal life once more. It was through IRIS that she found employment at the Enodia Station... only for it to be shut down less than a year after she was hired. The mysterious event that led to the shut down is troubling enough even without knowing there's no explanation for it, but Minty doesn't care. She's happy to be back.

NOTES

🫀 Is continually annoyed with the fact that she's an identical twin because it doesn't lend credence to her theory that she's the most specialist person ever :(
🫀 Obsessed with Liminal flora, but in a cute way.
🫀 Writes poetry and it's not half bad, but you'll never get to read it.
🫀 Has a stupid amount of hobbies and interests beyond what's already been mentioned (herbalism, running, party planning, calligraphy, lepidoptery, 20th century history, and flower arranging to name a few). Is it excessive? Yes. Will she be taking criticisms at this time (or ever)? No.
🫀 Red is her color and Halloween is her holiday.
🫀 Speaks conversational French and semi-fluent Greek.
🫀 Hometown: Seattle.

OOC

rhia . PST . madelaine petsch . dropbox / discord (rhiapet)

code