The first time Wilhelmina Esther 'Minnie' West of Keystone City picks up a bow, she is just four-years-old. Energetic, bubbly and far too smart for her own good, Minnie hadn't been thrilled with her time at Camp Keystone. Hiking was boring, the counselors kept calling her 'Wilhelmina' and only the big kids were allowed to swim in the lake. By the time her small group, including all the campers ages four through six, made it to the archery range, her hopes weren't very high, especially after a twenty-minute safety lecture that could have been scraped down to 'don't shoot anyone, including yourself'.
The first bow Minnie ever holds is a lime green youth bow with a black grip to show her where to put her left hand. Her assigned counselor, a college student named Becky, fixed her grip, posture, footing and shoulders manually, and even pulled Minnie's elbow back for the draw.
"Remember to release all your fingers at the same time, and keep the arrow pointed toward the target. Do NOT shoot anyone, please."
The first arrow Minnie ever shoots went two feet wide of her intended target. This is much better than just about everyone else in her age group, most of their arrows fell flat at their feet, being improperly released. Minnie spends the next half hour shooting arrows and narrowly missing the colorful paper target stapled to a dry hay bale. Her fourteenth and final arrow of the day hit the outermost ring of her target, and Minnie is delighted. When her parents picked her up from camp that evening, it's the only thing the little redhead with bright green eyes and a smattering of freckles can talk about.
The first time Minnie hits a bullseye is the last day of camp. She's only four-years-old and she'd never felt so accomplished in her life. Camp is over and she begs her parents to let her continue with archery some other way. Her mother, Mary West, raises an eyebrow, surprised at her daughter's passion. Her father, Rudolph, chuckles good-naturedly and agrees. The camp had been his idea, after all. He could tell his daughter was a genius; at just four she was reading long chapter books and had memorized half of the periodic table. His father, Ira West, had been a genius too, and he knew exactly how lonely of a life that could be. He hoped a hobby would help her connect better with kids her age, and signed her up for group archery lessons that weekend.
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Minnie is five-years-old when Green Arrow makes his debut in Star City. For a few months, he is referred to simply as The Hood, and all reports on him are as confusing as they are conflicting. The words 'murderer' and 'vigilante' are thrown around, but a series of good deeds endears him to the public of Star City, leading to the word 'hero'. He eventually emerges from the shadows, easy-going and funny and claiming the name Green Arrow.
Minnie is immediately star-struck. At that point, like many citizens of the Gem Cities, she had been a huge Flash fan. The Scarlet Speedster had emerged months earlier with none of the mystery that surrounded The Hood. He was colorful, vibrant and chatty. His use of an old hero title with the first Flash's blessing gave him credibility with the people of Central and Keystone that very few modern heroes get the advantage of. The Flash's vibrancy is more comparable to Metropolis's Superman than Gotham's Batman and Minnie is a huge fan.
But Minnie West can't run faster than the speed of sound. She adored the Flash but he was an ideal, existing outside the parameters of Minnie's reality. No matter how much she wanted to, Minnie couldn't be 'like the Flash'. She could, however, be like Green Arrow. An archer, like her, with no super human skills, who was funny and cool and could pull off amazing trick shots. Minnie has her mom buy one of the very first Green Arrow posters available in Keystone- the only thing faster then the Flash was the superhero merchandizing market- and sticks it right next to her poster of the Scarlet Speedster in her room.
Minnie decides right there that one day, she was going to be a hero.
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Minnie is seven-years-old when the Justice League goes public. Compiled of seven of the best heroes across the world, including a few that Minnie hadn't heard of (who exactly was Martian Manhunter?) Minnie follows their exploits closely. The Flash was a member, and the group had already saved the Earth multiple times and even though public opinion of them remains mixed on a good day, Minnie thinks it's the coolest idea ever. The only thing that could make it better would be if Green Arrow were a member.
Minnie is still determined to one day be a hero, so at seven, after much begging, she starts martial arts classes. It isn't until she's staring down a particularly beefy ten-year-old in her sparring gear that she realizes exactly how much further she has to go until she's ready to save anyone.
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Minnie is nine-years-old when she gets her wish and Green Arrow becomes a member of the Justice League in a new round of recruiting that includes another popular Star City hero- Black Canary. Like the Flash, Black Canary was an inherited title from the old Justice Society and Star City embraces her with open arms. Minnie is happy there's another female member along with Wonder Woman and the newly joined Hawkwoman. Her Aunt Iris is always talking about the importance of strong female role models.
This is the same year Minnie meets her aunt's boyfriend: Barry Allen. Minnie approves of him almost immediately. He seems kind of boring, but he's crazy for Iris and he shares Minnie's enthusiasm for two of her favorite things; the Flash and science. Barry is a CSI for the Central City Police Department and an offer to 'come see the lab sometime' is all it takes for Minnie to give him her blessing to date Iris.
Minnie loved science, it was her favorite subject in school and she spent hours outside the classroom reading about engineering, chemistry and physics. Her junior chemistry set was her most prized possession other than her favorite maroon recurve bow. They dominate dinner conversation discussing the scientific implications of the Flash's powers; something Barry seems almost too well versed in, not that Minnie noticed.
Later that year, Barry Allen proposes to Iris West and immediately becomes Uncle Barry.
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Minnie is ten and she's no stranger to the word 'prodigy'. Some of her more enthusiastic math and science teachers had thrown the word around, but this is the first time her archery coach has muttered the word with a particularly calculating look in her eye. Minnie had graduated up from group lessons to private instruction at eight, and after two years under Coach Ki and with several local competitions under her belt, the indomitable Korean woman starts bringing up traveling and national competitions. Her parents have long in-depth talks with Coach Ki and Minnie, and it's the first time Minnie hears the words 'Olympic potential'.
Her parents worry about the funding, but the problem is solved by the timely intervention of Ira West. Cranky in his old age and as brilliant as ever, Ira lived in a sort of self-sentenced seclusion since his wife, Nadine, died before Minnie was born. He would, however, show up at random at his children's houses whenever he felt like it, and one such time was during a meeting between Minnie's coach and parents. Quickly evaluating the situation, Ira demands that he pay for Minnie's travel and competition expenses, neither taking no for an answer, nor explaining himself. Minnie begins to send periodic letters to her grandfather, and even though he only reply's to one out of three, Minnie gets the sense that he appreciates them a lot more than he claims.
With the funding handled, there really isn't a reason not to let Minnie begin traveling for competitions. Minnie promises to practice extra hard and decides that if the whole superhero thing doesn't work out, Olympic archer isn't too bad of a back up plan.
On top of extra archery practice and the occasional tournament, Minnie decides it's time to start taking another step toward being a hero. She's heard of all the fancy trick arrows Green Arrow uses, and starts to design a few of her own. She nearly burns down the shed with a failed incendiary arrow, and struggles to get the weight right on an electrified Taser arrow. She's pretty proud of the Taser arrow, actually. With only rudimentary tools at her disposal, she manages to create a powerful working Taser capable of knocking out a person in seconds. She knows it works because she accidentally shocks herself into unconsciousness with it… twice. Unfortunately, it's too top-heavy and unbalanced, making it nearly impossible to shoot with any sort of accuracy as a result. With more advanced materials she could probably get the weight down, but it's just not feasible at that point.
Minnie's big success comes with her knockout gas arrow. She studies the chemistry behind it relentlessly to make sure she isn't developing something poisonous, and as far as she can tell, she succeeds. It's extremely effective, and Minnie knows this because she accidently springs it on herself even more than she did the Taser arrow. It's lighter than the failed Taser, and flies much straighter as a result. With no side effects apparent, Minnie makes ten of them and hides them in a wooden box kept in a dark back corner of the shed, slipping only one into the bow case she takes to practices with Coach Ki.
Her parents don't know she's experimenting with dangerous chemicals in the backyard with her junior chemistry set and a few chemicals she borrowed from Uncle Barry's stock in his garage (having a CSI for an uncle came with all types of advantages) and she'd rather they stay ignorant for the time being. She's mentioned her ambition to become a hero to them a few times, and while they've never struck her dream down, she can tell they don't take it seriously, viewing it as more of a phase or a fantasy. Minnie wants to convey to them how serious she is about this, but thinks them discovering she was secretly messing around with dangerous chemicals in the shed is a bad way to go about it.
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Minnie is eleven and becoming a hero has never felt more real to her. Robin had become the first sidekick to Batman of all people, and it proves to Minnie that a young non-powered hero can make a difference. Robin seems to be even younger than her, and from what Minnie has heard, he's some sort of acrobatic prodigy that uses gymnastics in combat along with Batman's impressive gadgets. Minnie is not ashamed to admit that she buys a Robin t-shirt as soon as they're available, a red shirt with yellow accents and a yellow 'R' in a black circle on the left side of the chest.
She's still flying high on Robin's emergence when Speedy hits the streets a few months later and causes all types of conflicting emotions. On one hand, his emergence is further proof that young archers can be heroes. Heck, it even proves that Green Arrow would be willing to mentor a kid.
Minnie watches the limited footage of Speedy that's available and has to admit that the other redhead is a good archer. Really good. He's also older and from what she can tell, a better fighter. Minnie currently held a black-striped red belt in Tae Kwon Do, and was only a few more months away from testing for a First Dan black belt. But for all the sparring she'd done in the last four years, she had almost zero experience fighting outside of controlled conditions. According to the security footage that played on the news, Speedy seemed rather adept at smacking around thugs twice his size with moves she'd never seen before. If Green Arrow already had a sidekick, than he wouldn't be in the market for another one, especially a younger girl without fighting experience.
Until Robin had shown up, Minnie always assumed she would have to be older before she could realistically pursue her dream of being a hero. Robin's emergence meant she could start sooner; she could get a mentor, she could be a sidekick, maybe even Green Arrow's sidekick. Even though it had only emerged as a possibility a few months ago, Minnie had seen a chance to meet and work with her favorite hero; she wouldn't have to go it alone. Speedy's appearance made her feel like she'd missed that chance. Now she was back to square one, and she wasn't completely sure if she was willing to wait anymore to get started.
Minnie continued to be distracted by her thoughts of Speedy and sidekicks when she went to visit Aunt Iris in Central City. Uncle Barry was out for the weekend visiting some distant relatives or something and it was supposed to be a girl's weekend. Unfortunately, Mirror Master decided to pull a heist right before they agreed on what movie to start with, and Iris has to rush off to report on it in her role as a television journalist.
Minnie is left alone at the house, wondering around in boredom. She considered practicing some of her Tae Kwon Do forms, but the news of Speedy is still weighing heavily on her, and she can't summon the necessary focus. Instead, she paces around restlessly, drifting from the living room to the kitchen and trying to imagine if Green Arrow would be interested in a second sidekick. There was no rule that you could only have one, right? Her distraction gets the best of her, and Minnie ends up pouring half a glass of soda down her shirt when she clumsily goes to take a sip.
Feeling absolutely fed up with the whole day, Minnie stomps into her aunt and uncle's room to borrow a replacement shirt from Iris. She shifts through Iris's side of the closet and eventually picks up a Green Lantern shirt she's never seen her aunt actually wear. Shrugging, she plucks it off the hanger and turns to leave the closet when a brown messenger bag grabs her attention. It's tucked away in the corner of the closet on her uncle's side, and would have completely evaded Minnie's attention if it wasn't for a large chemical burn across the leather that looks similar to some of the burns she caused to her clothes when her incendiary arrow misfired. On impulse, Minnie grabs the bag to get a closer look and heads to the bathroom to change shirts.
After pulling on the too-large t-shirt and throwing hers into the laundry room, Minnie settles down on the couch to inspect the bag. Secured with two shiny buckles, the brown leather is soft and pretty decent quality if not for the chemical burns darkening the material in an uneven blotch. Honestly, the thing should probably be thrown out because it was more or less ruined, but that was Barry's choice.
Standing up to return the bag, Minnie noticed a very light tinkling sound. Surrendering easily to her curiosity, despite knowing it probably wasn't the right thing to do, Minnie carefully unclasped the two buckles holding the bag closed. Tipping it carefully onto the coffee table, Minnie was greeted with the sight of about six identical gold rings- the source of the tinkling- and a single thick journal.
Minnie grabbed a ring for closer inspection and noticed a lightning bolt inscribed in the metal. Confused by her uncle's preference for weird rings, Minnie set it down and cracked open the journal.
She read, and stared, and could quickly feel her blood pressure rising with every word because this journal held the step-by-step instructions on how the Flash got his powers!
Apparently in an experiment gone wrong, a stray bolt of lightning had changed Barry's life forever. Minnie suddenly remembered there had been reported sightings of the Flash in Bangkok this morning on the news, and oh my god, Uncle Barry wasn't visiting relatives; he was the Flash on a mission in another country, holy crap!
Minnie grabs another ring and takes a closer look. A small switch on the side grabs her attention, and on impulse she scrapes her nail across the tiny lever. A scarlet suit bursts from the now open ring, looking strangely hollow without a speedster to fill it. It flutters onto the couch, and Minnie just stares for a few seconds before squealing out loud. This proved it! Apparently, boring Barry Allen was actually Central City's superhero! Suddenly two years of poor excuses, abrupt exits, late entrances and knowing a little too much about the science behind the Flash makes a lot more sense. Her uncle was the Flash!
Minnie can feel her thoughts racing. She now knew a dangerous secret. Should she tell her uncle she knew about his double life? Should she keep it to herself? Maybe support his excuses as a subtle way to help him out? That brings her to an abrupt halt. Why should she just help him subtly? She understood his notes for the most part, and everything else she could look up. She could recreate his experiment. So what if Green Arrow already had a sidekick? The Flash didn't. She could recreate the experiment, give herself superspeed and become her uncle's sidekick instead.
Minnie snatched the journal up again, and started leafing through the pages, making note of which chemicals she'd have to gather for the experiment. Her eyes roam over the paper quickly, but she stops short when she gets to what her uncle had written about side effects.
… distortions of time and perception…months of jerky reflexes… poor impulse control that faded over time…
Minnie bit her lip in thought. It sounded like her uncle needed months to adjust to his powers and even now his brain would sometimes rush faster than the rest of him. Would twisted perception mess with her skills as an archer? Would impatience ruin her aim? Sometimes, when Minnie was really focused on a target, she'd try to shoot exactly as her heart beat. What if she had superspeed? Would her heart beat faster? Would that throw her off? If she managed to give herself superspeed, would it ruin everything she'd worked for so far? Ruin her chance at the Olympics? Waste the money Ira West had invested to give her that chance?
When Iris West-Allen returned home from her impromptu assignment, she found her niece siting pensively on the couch, staring vaguely at the TV without watching it. There was no journal, suit or ring in sight, and no decision either. When Barry Allen opens the brown leather satchel to make sure everything he needs is in there before he transfers the spare rings and journal to his quarters in the Watchtower, he assumes one of the rings malfunctioned when a suit comes tumbling out, and thinks nothing more of it.
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Minnie is still eleven-years-old, and she's pretty sure the level of angst she's feeling is supposed to be reserved for teenagers. She'd hesitated on the day she'd found out her uncle's secret, and a week later when she was back at Iris's for a second crack at their girls night, she sneaked into her aunt's closet again and the satchel was gone. She had missed her chance.
Now she was walking along the streets of Keystone, burning up time before her appointment at the indoor shooting range downtown. The loss of the journal had spurred her into upping her practice in archery and martial arts. She had no back-up plan now. Archery was her only hero-worthy skill. In her heart, she knew archery was also one of her favorite things about life, and she doubted she would have actually risk it for just the slim chance at superpowers, but the possibility had been comforting. Before, if she hadn't been good enough to be a hero like Green Arrow and Speedy, she could force the issue with science. Now, if she wasn't good enough she would just be… not good enough.
Her bow case feels unusually heavy in her hands as she lugs it around, window-shopping idly, wondering if maybe she should try the Taser arrow again to make herself feel better. She'd been reading up on alternative plastics recently, and wondered if one of those as a casing would cut the needed weight off the electric arrowhead. She was so distracted by her thoughts, that she jumped about two feet in the air when a sharp alarm blared from the jewelry store across the street. There is a shrill scream and the sound of breaking glass, and Minnie's first panicked thought is to call the police to report a robbery in progress. She shook her head hard. What is she doing? This is her chance! She didn't need to be Green Arrow's sidekick, she could be a hero in her own right, and she could start right now.
Minnie ducked into the nearest alley, quickly pulling her bow free from its case. She does a quick inventory of her arrows and grimaces. For the most part, she has standard bullet arrow tips for target practice. She has two sharper field tips that could certainly injure whoever was breaking into that store, but she's a little uncomfortable with drawing blood so soon. She understands it might be necessary at some point, but would rather avoid it if she could. All that left was the one knockout gas arrow she'd slipped into her case last year when she first developed it. She hadn't found a use for it, so the arrow had been sitting in her case untouched. She grabbed it and hoped that whoever was breaking into the store doesn't have friends.
Minnie is almost out of the alley when she realizes that she has not, in anyway, concealed her identity. She pats her pockets quickly, as if the action will suddenly bring a mask into existence, or at least a pair of sunglasses. Nothing. Grimacing again and realizing that she really should have thought this out more, Minnie pulls the hood up on her white sweatshirt. That will have to suffice for now.
Minnie heads to the main street again, arrow at the ready, and decides to stick to the shadows for the sake of her new secret identity. She really does need a better disguise, maybe a full costume. She has a list of possible codenames written out at home, but hadn't made a final decision yet. She should really get on that.
Minnie takes aim at the store front, the door being a good fifty meters from where she was standing. This was nothing. She could hit bullseyes consistently from 100 meters and further. A human sized target at fifty meters should be child's play at this point. Somehow, the thought wasn't as comforting as it should be. What if there was more than one thief? What if they had guns? Oh god, this is so dangerous!
The thief bursts through the front door of the store, bag of jewelry in hand, and Minnie almost drops her arrow because it's Captain Cold! Not just some thug in over his head but an actual supervillian who fights the Flash and sometimes wins! This was so above her pay grade.
Minnie almost gives up there and then before gritting her teeth and taking aim again. She could do this. There was a poor storeowner in there that had just been robbed. Cold had scared people; maybe even hurt them and he needed to be stopped. She had the ability to stop him, and that means she had to. People who can make a difference and choose not to are just as bad as people who actually do terrible things. Minnie was responsible now, because she was here and she had training and equipment that most people didn't. In this moment, she didn't just want to be a hero, she had to be.
Minnie nocks her arrow while Cold turns to make a run for freedom, exhales, and then releases on the beat of her heart. The dark green arrow with bright orange fletching sails through the air and impacts Captain Cold right in his parka covered chest. The tip, a fragile glass ball, shatters on impact and the oxygen in the air interacts with the chemicals Minnie had filled the arrow tip with, causing a wispy white smoke to expand from the point of impact. The surprised inhale from being struck by something is all it takes for Cold to sway slightly before falling backwards with a thud, jewelry bag laying innocently beside his passed out form.
Minnie's jaw dropped in shock.
She did it! Her first criminal takedown against one of the Flashes greatest enemies (or at least, one of his most persistent). Minnie had stopped a robbery all on her own and she didn't need Uncle Barry or Green Arrow to make it happen. She used her own skills as an archer and a scientist, and she won. Minnie might have basked in the victory all day if the approaching sound of sirens hadn't shaken her from her daze. As quickly as possible, Minnie stashed her bow into its case and made a hasty exit from the area, pulling her hood back as she went, her grin bigger than it had ever been.
The Flash arrived seconds later, stopping short at Cold's sprawled form. He checked his pulse quickly, breathing a sigh of relief at the steady beat. He noticed the bag of stolen goods left next to Cold's hand and quickly deduced that another villain hadn't taken out Cold for his loot. A cop car was pulling up behind the Scarlet Speedster when he finally noticed an abandoned arrow shaft lying innocently at Cold's feet. He picked it up, deep in thought.
"You got him faster then usual today," a gruff voice said from behind the speedster. Flash turned to face the officer, an older gentleman with auburn hair and a grey-flecked mustache.
"Wasn't me," he admitted, showing the officer the abandoned arrow. The man's brows furrowed.
"You think Green Arrow was passing through?" he asked.
"I don't know, but I'll try and find out."
The Flash zipped off to make a phone call to a certain friend of his in Star City.
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Welcome to Quick Draw! A new story about the adventures of Wally West as a female archer rather than a male speedster. While these are pretty big changes and have huge long-term effects, it's very important to me that I keep the spirit of Wally alive in this incarnation of a girl named Minnie (short for Wilhelmina). I don't want Minnie to come off as an OC or turn into Artemis. The point of writing a female Wally is that she still remains Wally despite a different set of circumstances, that's the challenge and I look forward to it.
A couple points to be made:
Source Material: The main canon for this is the Young Justice cartoon. Eventually, we'll even work through the individual episodes and how they're changed by Wally's new background, but there are several adventures that Minnie gets involved in before that point. There are other DC influences and inspirations at play here as well. The old Justice League/ Justice League Unlimited cartoon will be a source of some plot points and some characterizations for characters that haven't quite developed on the screen of Young Justice. For example: the character of the Question would be based on his Justice League Unlimited characterization because he hasn't appeared in Young Justice at this point. Other influences include the CW's Arrow, comic backstories, DCEU films and several of the animated movies like Under the Red Hood and The Flashpoint Paradox. That being said, the only thing you really need to have seen to understand the story to its fullest extent is Young Justice. Everything else is being picked at, will be explained thoroughly, and always plays second fiddle to whatever the Young Justice Canon indicates. The rest is just world building and inspiration.
The Name Minnie: I named her Wilhelmina Esther West as a pairing to Wally's unusual and old-fashioned combination of Wallace Rudolph. In the original version of my outline, she went by Winnie (short for Winifred), but honestly, it's been done before, a few times I think and I wanted to try something fresh. My next thought was changing Winifred to Wallis and having her be a girl-named-Wally, but again, it's been done. I was looking through old names for girls and came upon Minnie, I liked it and looked up what it could be short for. Wilhelmina was an option and I liked it better than Mary or Minerva because it meant she could still be an old-fashioned 'W' name like Wallace.
Minnie and Science: Wally is stated/implied to be a science prodigy in Young Justice canon, and I don't think it's unreasonable that the same character who recreated the Flash Experiment in his garage as a pre-teen could develop weaponized arrows at the age of ten. However, Minnie's practices in this chapter are super irresponsible and dangerous and should not be replicated. Do not play with chemicals without proper supervision or safety equipment in secret in your shed! That is bad. Enough said.
Ira West: Wally's grandfather who, according to old Flash comics, won the Nobel Prize in physics and was decently wealthy as a result of some patents he'd made throughout his career.
Coach Ki: Minnie's archery coach is named after Ki Bo Bae, a gold winning female Olympic archer who competed in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics on the South Korean national team.
Sidekick Timeline: Robin is the first sidekick and makes his debut at age nine. Speedy is the second sidekick, and hits the streets about four months later at age thirteen almost fourteen. Minnie's take down of Captain Cold happens about three months after Speedy's first public appearance, at the age of eleven. As of the next chapter she will be the third sidekick and the first female one. For the record, sidekick isn't really a sore point for any of them yet. The term will get used pretty liberally until around the point the Young Justice show begins, with dissatisfaction with the term rising as the years go on.
The Flash Journal: The way I see it, Barry had the journal for a couple years somewhere more secure than just sitting in a bag, but definitely not as secure as it could be (obviously, canon Wally finds it and recreates the experiment). To me, this seems ridiculous that the key to dangerous superspeed wasn't guarded to the highest degree achievable or destroyed for safety. So, after a few years and maybe a close call or two, Barry realizes this and retrieves the journal from wherever he had it insecurely locked up (At work? A home office? Tucked under his mattress? Unimportant.) and intends to move it to his quarters in the Watchtower, one of the most secure and secret locations known to man. He stashes it in an old workbag, hence the chemical stain, and throws in a couple spare Flash rings as backups in case his uniform is damaged and he needs to change it out without leaving the Watchtower. He already has one or two up there, but a couple more never hurt. Before he can actually get the journal to the Watchtower, however, a crisis occurs, or a crime is being committed and he tucks the bag into his closet before running off to deal with it. He's pretty busy the next few days, and it takes him a little over a week to remember that the bag is there and get it up to the Watchtower. This just happens to be the week that Minnie raids their closet after ruining her shirt.
Minnie was destined to find the journal and be presented the option, but she chooses to forego it, at least at that moment. There's a lot of luck and coincidence in this explanation, but there's a lot of luck and coincidence involved with superheroes in general, so I find the explanation rather apt. Also, the why of it all isn't that important when all is said and done, otherwise the explanation would have made it into the actual story rather than just the cliff notes at the end.
Mary and Rudolph West Characterization: I know that it's popular to make Wally's parents abusive, especially Rudolph, and that there is comic backing to this trope. I honestly love stories like that, but it's not the direction this story is taking. Instead, Rudolph and Mary will be as they are presented in Young Justice. Normal, kind, supportive, the kind of parents Minnie would miss if they suddenly disappeared in a magical plot to split the world into two planes of existence, one for adults and one for kids. They're pretty average, but will hopefully be fleshed out into fuller, interesting individuals as the story progresses. The most important part I suppose is that they love Minnie, support her, and Minnie ends up pretty well adjusted as a result (at least compared to a lot of her friends).
Sorry about the astoundingly long authors note, but I like sharing a little extra background sometimes. This one just happens to be exceptionally long because it's part of the first chapter. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed!