Name: Mino Asterion.
Suggested Occupations: Former con artist, pays off his debts by working for Hades’ security team.
Age: 33.
Gender & Pronouns: Cis man, He/Him.
FC Suggestions: Lewis Tan.
Can be seen: standing the corner with crossed arms, patrolling the halls after hours, investigating strange noises from Hypnos’ lab, intimidating casino patrons with a glance, eyeing the security cameras, wearing the coolest leather jacket south of Styx, trying not to zone out while Achilles talks to him.
Influence ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Charisma ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Protection ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Information ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
Experience ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
The Minotaur’s story is an ugly story, tangled in pointless tragedies. Tragedies walled by many mirrors, mirrors that when gazed into rend the reflection grotesque: not his, no, but of the rest of us. As a chronicler, I do not like the thing it says about human nature. But I do appreciate its cutting truth. Because Mino’s story began in a place everyone called utopia, a place without scarcity or sin; yet it followed, I’m afraid, and, the same pattern of lost children everywhere. Mino is a creature abandoned in the land of plenty - and, as such, he was a thing that cannot exist.
There are no publicly funded orphanages in Arcadia. Why, the literati believe, orphanages are such a soulless, barbaric concept. How can the state care for children with a hand warmer than that of family? In the same breath, the patrician class professes an expectation for illegitimate children to be cared for: money ought to be sent, acknowledgement ought to be made. Which leads us both everywhere and nowhere. There are orphanages in Arcadia - charitable houses, their real purpose obscured under a veil of politesse. These homes are privately funded, derided by the literati but endured for their necessity. There is a very specific kind of child that ends up in them: a child, perhaps, like the Minotaur. It is not so terrible: their stays at the orphanage are pleasant; the children are clean and cared for, and taught to speak softly for their would-be adopters. Still, it would not be disingenuous to say these children are considered more in the vein of product than orphan.
Asterius was one such child. Cursed by his birth, raised impoverished but not lamenting... the death of Asterius’ mother brought him to the orphanage, and his father’s mysterious, though considerable, pedigree, made sure his stay was paid for. His caretakers possessed high hopes: the boy was given special attention; fine garments; extra lessons in literature and song. But what every child desires most is to make a name for themself: to be seen for who they are, not a splinter off their father, their mother, or the marked absence between them
There are arenas in the labyrinths of Arcadia, and violent traditions that span millennia — traditions of gladiators, and battle, and baying for blood. Drachma is a universal currency there as elsewhere, and one that may also count the worth of life.The Minotaur sought his fame in this arena. Together with Ariadne, they would sneak from the orphanage and test out its depths. He became a thing extinct from polite society but unavoidable in the shallows, a pillar on the wet ground beneath one’s feet. I think he sought more than his fame: he sought to be reborn. Perhaps Minor was a boy once, with another name, but he does not use it now. He uses the one he earned: the Minotaur, a fighter as ferocious as he kind.
What’s left to tell, in the story of the Minotaur? The backbone, the brawn, the sillhouette in the dark. He is often the last one to be mentioned, when talking about the heisters. Third from the top, less slippery than Ariadne, not sly as Theseus. But I always found him more exceptional than anyone. He is impressive in the way a hammer is impressive, cast off by fortune at a young age, his growth shaped around the contours of violence - yet not, mind yourself, defined by it. He went into the labyrinths of his own will, as some scions take to the stand. Not only for the money, but because he was good at it. Good tools only that know they are tools; the best know what they're useful for, and how they can twist it in their favour. Together with Ariadne, he joined Theseus, a man who made them both sharper, brighter.
But there is one last page. The moment his story split from his sister's. The moment his life ground to a halt, and hers continued on without him. The heist they planned in Tartarus, with Theseus as mastermind and Ariadne as decoy, was supposed to make them rich; instead, the siblings were both afraid it would make them corpses. The Minotaur wasn't surprised when their plans fell to hell; he'd never been one to lean on expectations, not when they'd so often slid through his fingers. If he was upset, no one could see it, nothing showing but the gleam in his eyes as the security team's flashlights fell upon him, his fingers tightening around his gun and then going suddenly slack. Ariadne did what she had to do, after all. She betrayed them for a chance at her own name. These days, Mino is left to pay off his debts in a different way than Theseus - but perhaps not a harsher one. For while Theseus is chained to Hades’ office, by threat if not by steel, Mino is left to wonder the halls on security patrols, working for the shadows he learned so long ago how to love. But do not ask him about his sister, once the hand in his hand. He is not a tool that lets itself dream of future or past.
Familial connections: Ariadne (adoptive sibling, a resentment not allowed to fester).
Professional connections: Hades (former target, attempted to rob before being found out; now employer of necessity). Thanatos (coworker, cleans up after himself; knows he aggravates Theseus). Achilles (supervisor, a straight-cut fellow; doesn’t owe him kindness, but shows it anyway). Theseus (coworker, just different sides of the battlefield). Dusa (prankster at heart, a welcome levity). Megara, Alecto & Tisiphone (coworkers, occasionally need the extra fighting contest). Charon (coworker... kinda gives him the creeps).
Social connections: Icarus & Prometheus (familiar faces in unexpected places; they once used to stalk the bars and pubs of Arcadia, shouting about their promised destiny). Theseus (former conspirator, bound together in misery). Hypnos, Zagreus & Eurydice (friendlier than the rest, entertaining when not in the line of fire).