Mint Green Minccino
Unova, one of the many regions in the Pokemon world. A region of many rich landscapes and cultures. Within the lush and dense Pinwheel Forest, a couple colonies of Pokemon live together in harmony and help each other grow. Living among these colonies, is a single Minccino with oddly colored fur. Born 19 years ago, he lives a rather difficult life due to his strange fur coloring but has made the most of it.
This Minccino's name is Mint, his parents thought it would be a good idea to give him this name due to his fur color. They've told him that his fur color is unique and special, so he should be proud and feel great about himself. This is not the case, Mint has very low self-confidence and self-esteem issues due to constant teasing, bullying, and being left out of activities with his fellow Minccino. Due to this, he's grown up to be very shy and becomes anxious in almost any social situation that doesn't involve him with someone he knows.
Today is just another day for Mint… being bullied by his own kind over something he's heard to no end: his unusual fur color. The same old ordeal he's been dealing with since he was 12. The two Minccino who are bullying him are notorious for being rude and nasty towards anyone who is slightly different than the rest. Everyone knows who they are yet there is one thing that's ironic about them. These two Minccino are girls, but then again, the gender ratio of Minccino is an odd one. 1 male to 3 females. These two girls are Rachel and Patricia, and they constantly pick on Mint because nobody steps in to stop them because they all don't want to seem like they're defending the oddball of the group nor do they want to be picked on themselves.
"All Minccino have grey fur. The only other fur color that's ever been seen is pink and there aren't any of those living around here." says Rachel.
"Yeah. How can a Mint-Green fur color exist if all normal Minccino have grey fur? You're not a real Minccino then! If you had the shiny pink coat, then you'd have a pass but no, no Minccino has ever had such an ugly fur color like that before!" says Patricia.
Mint stays silent, it's what he knows best after all. The two girls move in closer to him and he backs up. They get right up in his face.
"How come your parents haven't disowned you? The only Pokemon that are allowed to live in our part of the forest is Minccino and Cinccino, and you aren't either of them. I bet your parents see you come home every night and think, 'here's the degenerate excuse for a son we have walking into the nest again.' I guarantee they lie about loving you so you don't feel sad about yourself." Rachel further insults.
This is a potentially nerve hitting blow, mentioning his parents is a very touchy subject for Mint as everyone knows that they had a rough time with their relationship over the last few years. His mother had made a decision that nearly ruined it. Another Pokemon had fallen for her and she began to see him in secret and his father had caught them. Ever since the incident, they've been somewhat indifferent towards each other. Luckily for Mint, they still kept loving him no matter what.
This, however, is just more fuel for the fire. "I wonder if your mother fucked a Metapod or a Pansage in order for you to have the fur color you have? It's the only logical explanation I can think of." she says, before shrugging and continuing. "Unless of course, you have the answer to that question?"
She looks him dead in the eye. His cheeks are red with embarrassment and he looks towards the ground away from her, continuing to stay silent but secretly getting angry with her. She cracks a smile for a split second before taking a step back. "Figures. You don't know how to respond. You're a mute, a mute! Do you even understand what we're saying to you? Perhaps we need to talk in a language you'll understand."
She clears her throat and Patricia joins in. "Your mother's a dirty hoe that gave birth to a hybrid abomination of a Minccino who can't even stand up for himself. What a sad little baby he is, running home to his mommy and daddy to get his diaper changed!"
His eyes shoot right in their direction now and his expression changes. For the first time in a while, he says something to them. "...you… you take that back." his tone is quiet and low. They've clearly gotten through to him now.
"What's that? I couldn't hear you!" Patricia puts her paw up to her ears. "Speak up or shut up!"
Mint doesn't repeat himself and instead, lashes out at her and whips her in the face with his tail by using "Tail Slap", the signature move of any and all Minccino. It leaves a nasty red mark and she stumbles back a bit. Rachel catches her to prevent her from falling over, it was a very powerful hit!
Mint's glowing white tail stings and pains him due to the sheer force he put into the attack, but he doesn't let it bother him and he speaks. "T-take back what you said about my mom! She made a t-terrible mistake and promised to never do something like that again!"
Rachel and Patricia look at him in slight disbelief and shock. They didn't expect him to attack because they thought he'd never have the guts to do so. Rachel glares daggers at him. "How dare you hit a girl! Shame on you!" she yells.
He yells at her in response. "I-I said take back what you said about my mother!" this grabs the attention of a few other Minccino nearby who look at the direction of the shout to see what's going on.
Patricia stands up and rubs the spot she was hit, fuming about it. "You're going to regret that you mute baby! Step forward if you think you've got something to prove about not being the little impudent rodent that you are!"
Mint still has his attack active and he bashes the ground with his tail, kicking up a bit of dust. As much as a fight would shut her up and make her fear him, he wouldn't hear the end of it from his parents. The three Minccino stare at each other and a few others from outside close in to see what's about to happen. Mint knows that he could easily beat the shit out of both of them with his eyes closed, but is it worth the nasty earful his parents would give him later on?
Patricia bares her teeth and growls before speaking. "What are you waiting for, coward!? Fight me! You don't want me to call your mother a hoe? Fight me then!"
This further angers him. If there's one thing he absolutely despises from the bottom of his heart, it's those who insult or attempt to hurt the ones closest to him although he decides it's not worth the time and effort to go toe to toe with them, the nasty red mark he left on her face is enough. "I'm not fighting you, you're not worth my time Patricia." he stops his attack. "Let that be a warning… for the next time I hear you talk about my parents like that, I'll put your face into the dirt and make you eat it."
He starts walking away to calm down but Patricia has other plans. "Coward! Get your ass back here!" she clenches her paws into fists. "Your whole family is a trainwreck! Without you, they wouldn't be together and you'd be dead by now! You're the only link that's keeping that cracked up excuse for a family together! Your mother's a big fat hoe who fucks anything that's green like the filthy slimeball she is and your father's a weak ass pussy with a small dick! No wonder your mother cheated on him! Why don't you go kill yourself since you have no purpose in this life!?"
This stops him right in his tracks. Patricia's angry expression turns into a cocky smile, she's got him now. She waits for him to turn around but he doesn't. He stands there, silently looking at the tall trees and the path ahead. Patricia waits for him to turn around, she's ready to run at him the moment he does. Everyone around them watches, ready to break it up if it starts. Even though it was a low blow, Mint simply takes a deep breath, lets it out, and keeps walking. This surprises her. She growls lowly and begins to curse him out. Rachel decides to take her away from the situation and get her checked out after that nasty tail slap to the face. It was a very close call, but Mint avoided beating them into the ground today. As he walks towards his home, he tries his best to not let tears fall from his face as the words they said root themselves into his mind.
Rachel and Patricia know nothing about the problems he's had in his life while at home, and they only add to it. There is one thing that they said was true, him thinking about off-ing himself, ending his life. He hasn't though, he had many chances to do it in the past and instead of going through with it, he kept going because of his parents telling him things would get better. He doesn't want to dwell on the thought of suicide so he hopes that the calming air of the path leading home would be enough to steer his mind away from it. Luckily for him, his parents had chosen a place to live that was a little bit out of anyone's way and provided easy access to the rest of Pinwheel Forest if he or they should need it.
Not far from his home is a Sewaddle colony. Much of the Pokemon there are infinitely more welcoming of an oddball compared to his own. Even though he frequently visits, he has no friends there because if he were to bring any of them into his own colony, it would just cause more problems. There is also a Cottonee colony not far from his home too, though he's visited it only a few times as they don't really have much to accommodate normal visitors and would rather do business and trading than talk and have fun.
The path to his home is full of lush, dark green grass and tall trees whose tops cannot be seen. The grasses and leaves sway and dance in the gentle breeze who wishes to keep the calm atmosphere of the place intact. Mint slowly walks down the path, his ears drooped down a bit. He isn't proud of what he had to do, but he hopes that both of them will learn their lesson otherwise he'd have no choice but to really fight them the next time they saw him.
"Why does it have to be me, huh? Why couldn't I be normal like everyone else? I just want to be like them, normal, proper, and appreciated. Nobody else here has fur the likes of my color, yet I'm the same Pokemon as the rest of them so why do they all hate and belittle me?" he thought to himself.
He doesn't realize that in a patch of grass to his right, a rather peculiar stone lies eagerly waiting to be discovered. He walks past it, head held low, eyes half open, and holding back tears. He's a bit upset over the whole chain of events that had gone down moments before. It isn't long before he reaches the den that he calls his home. There isn't anything special about it besides the fact that his parents had dug out the surrounding landscape to make a rather decently sized cave.
The front of the den has a few drapes over it to act as a door. The den itself is as plain as can be, there's a makeshift table of sticks with small blots of grass for chairs situated around it, A few leaves near the table, one of which has a decently sized pile of many different berries, a bunch of fishing supplies to the left of these leaves, a few small buckets of fresh water, and finally, three differently sized grass beds in the back for sleeping. Mint walks in to see his parents cleaning up the floor and walls as usual. It is said that most Minccino prefer a tidy habitat, and Mint's parents are no exception to this. His mother, Emilia, looks up from what she's doing and notices that he's back, as well as his very obvious sad expression.
"Mint… you seem more upset than usual, did something happen…?"
He looks at her for a moment before answering with a monotonous voice. "... I slapped Patricia in the face because she called you a hoe. If it was anything else I would've let it slide."
She looks at him, surprised for a few moments but then frowns. "You didn't have to do that. I know you don't like it when the other Minccino talk bad about us, but you shouldn't ever hit someone."
He looks away from her, his cheeks puffed out a bit. "She deserved it, 7 years worth of pain right back at her. I hope she learned her lesson."
Mint's father, Ross, overhears this and speaks up. "Mint, you should never lay a finger on anyone unless they do it to you first. You could've been attacked in defense and beaten up. You know how the other Minccino in our colony aren't the most understanding or accepting of you."
Mint crosses his arms. "I don't care if the whole colony came after me, she called mom a hoe and you a pussy. How do I not do something after someone says something like that?"
Ross shakes his head. "You just have to stay silent. Pay them no attention."
"And let them walk all over you and mom? I won't stand for that! I don't care about being walked on, I've been dealing with it for 7 years and I'm no longer affected by it but I won't allow them to do that to either of you." he says, rather frustrated.
Emilia walks up to him and begins to brush him off with her tail. "Listen, Mint…. We don't want anything bad happening to you. You might be one of the strongest out of all the young Minccino in the colony, but don't let that go to your head. If it was you against everyone else, you would lose faster than a Magikarp can use splash."
Even though he doesn't want to be bothered, Mint can't help but accept what his mother is doing to him and his eyes start to close a little. "But… but I don't want them to talk bad about you or dad…" he yawns.
She speaks in a calm, soothing tone while fixing the loose fur on his head. "Don't worry about them. Just know that everything is okay and one day everyone will realize that they should've made friends with you instead of insulting and talking down to you. Remember: you are one of a kind, nobody else in this forest has such gorgeous fur nor do they have its brilliant color. They're all envious of you and wish to have what you have."
His father adds to it. "Exactly. Keep your head held high and ears perked straight up. They'll all want a piece of you and you'll have your pick of the litter. YOU will be the one telling them what they can and cannot do, so don't let their words get to you, they mean nothing."
Emillia finishes grooming Mint and gives him a big hug and an equally big smile. "Now c'mon! Throw away that sad face and look forward to what we're having for dinner: a bountiful harvest of rare berries! Your father worked really hard to trade for them and he said that every single bit is worth it!"
He smiles slightly. "...Alright, I'll be happy to eat some berries, it's been a long time since we had them anyway. It would be a good change for once and it's miles better than being bullied."
PD: Hey! This is a solo story I thought up while playing through Pokemon Sword. Tis a shame the game isn't as great as we were hoping it would be but there's always next time... ANYWAY, let me know what you thought of this chapter. Leave a review if you like but nothing overly nasty please! I also didn't know what to genre this story as so I'm keeping it as a drama until further notice. Seeya in the next chapter!