3 Chapter 3 Understanding
"I saw what I think was a werewolf today, am I going crazy?"
A long pause.
"No son you aren't crazy, now you've gotta give me a long and hard listen, alright?"
We pull into the drive, and my dad waits for me to head toward the door. With a reassuring hand to my back, he guides me to his room and I sit on his bed. He pulls out a leather bound book, another and another, and another until there are 10 books stacked on the desk.
"Now what I am about to tell you will is incredibly hard to believe, and it's gonna take some mental gymnastics to understand, so bear with me". I nod my head.
"There are creatures, that are human adjacent, like an off shoot of humans. Like how homo neanderthalis are to homo sapiens. These creatures can manifest in more ways than one can count."
He then pulls a book from the bottom of stack, labeled Mammalis vol.1 and says," These are the books I've written or collected over my travels".
He then opens the book to a page with a picture of what looks like if a fox, and a human had an unholy love child," This is a fuchsbau (fooks bow pronounced like you're bowing to someone not the archery equipment) this is what we call a wesen (vesen w is pronounced with a v half the time) and they look human normally, but when under the height of emotions they, what is called woge(w=v) or change into this form.
A wesen can hide this woged state, but not to Grimm, which is what you are, and what I am. What you saw in my eyes is what signifies me as a Grimm, you have it too, I saw it when we were having that argument this morning. The ability to see these wesen when they don't want to be seen, and the ability to adapt to most situations is what makes us Grimm."
"Questions?"
"I'm kind of just perplexed", I say as I flip through the book, first the fox then a tiger like one, then a lion, a cat like one.
"As you should be, really you're fortunate that you changed into a Grimm so early, I didn't turn into a Grimm until I was in my early thirties, and I thought I was insane, until I found one of these books. I checked myself into mental hospital, after mental hospital but I kept seeing these things, even under heavy medication. That's when I figured out we Grimm can see two types of light that normal humans can't, that only reflects when a woge happens, hence why humans can't see a woge unless the wesen want them to.
"How long does this go back?", I ask.
"As far as I know, as long as humans have been around, maybe earlier".
"That werewolf you saw earlier, what did it look like?", he says.
"Well it looked almost human, but with extra skin on the eyebrows, that gave it a permanent scowl, sharp canines that jutted out the mouth a little, long ears and yellow eyes".
"Yellow eyes? Are you sure?"
"Yes, that's what I saw".
"Then we've got an actual bonafide werewolf on our hands, not a blutbad like I thought it was. If you ever see one of those and they have red eyes and you feel like you wanna run away when you see them, tell me immediately, that would be an alpha and they are incredibly dangerous."
"I need you to understand the entire picture so you don't go off and do something dumb because you're 'special' now, you can die like any other person. You are not bulletproof".
"I understand whole heartedly, there is no heroic venture that I should die for".
"Yes, but I goes deeper than that,I need for you to ingrain into your very being that you are not invincible, the things I've seen some of these people do, still makes me shudder to this day. I only say this because I love you, more than anything."
"I know it dad, thanks for the sentiment. I love you too dude." I say while patting him on the shoulder.
"Now I know you're open minded, so this shouldn't come as a surprise to you, but wesen are people too, not all are bad and not all are good. They aren't much different from humans except that their animalistic instincts play a big role on how they act."
"For example a Lowen tends to be aggressive and competitive". He points to a lion looking wesen in the book. "The opposite can also be true, a Lowen does not always exhibit these traits, but when pushed to the edge those traits almost always come out, it's in their nature, the same way a tropical storm is almost guaranteed to come during hurricane season".
"Also another thing that you should know, never look a wesen in the eyes when they woge, unless you're looking for a fight, they can see our pitch black eyes. Grimm are like boogymen to wesen. I mean Grimm are literally in their story books to scare children. Wesen have heard of Grimm their entire lives as killing machines, so don't blame them if they either try to run away, or attack you to protect themselves".
"Yeah I figured, that werewolf guy, he's in some of my classes and we're both on the lacrosse team, I would like to say we're friends but I don't really know yet, it being the first day and all. What do you want me to do with that?"
"Just be yourself, if you start acting differently, he will notice. By the way, with werewolves they have a sort of manic trance they go into around the full moon, they have little to no knowledge of their actions, the full moon is this Friday so be careful."
So I'm a Grimm, a wonderful and anxiety filled realization, of what effect that has on my life and how I live it, I dont really know yet. I just know it's bound to be interesting as all hell.
.....
The rest of the day went off without a hitch, had dinner, which was my favorite, all meat pizza, played some cod until 10 like a responsible teenager, and then went to my room to get ready for bed.
'Alright Adel let's see that status page'.
[Almost thought you forgot about me]
Status
Name: Christian (Chris) Richter
Age:16
Height:5'8
Race:Grimm/ ???? ??????
Level: 1
Strength: 10
Agility: 14
Reflexes: 15
Will: 15
Intelligence: 16
Vitality: 13
Stat Points: 2
Exp:100/200
Abilities
Grimm Sight: Allows a Grimm to see wesen when they don't want you to see them.
Grimm Adaptability: The ability to adapt to most afflictions or adversities, for example if afflicted by a deadly disease and cured of the disease, you have immunity to the disease.
Magic
Mage Hand: An ethereal extension of your hand, at the moment it can lift up to 10 pounds.
'Ooh that's new'.
[As you learn about abilities, magic etc. They will be added to your status page]
'Good to know'.
'I think I'll make the obvious choice, and add the two points to my strength to make it more even'.
Strength:10 -> 12
A new layer of muscle builds over the original over a span of 25-30 minutes. I bust out a quick 25 push ups and barely feel any strain.
'You said something about a quest tab last time we talked, let's see what that does'.
Quests Tab
Available Quests
The Regiment
Quest of self improvement. This quest will slowly but surely raise your stats without the need for stat points. Demands dedication and hard work. Not for the feeble of mind or body.
The Delver
A good way of getting exp.
Recommended: Lvl 5 or all stats to at least 15
The Artist
??? Level insufficient
The Specialist
??? Level insufficient
The Explorer
??? Level insufficient
' I'll take the Regiment quest for now'
[Just so you know, all quests are repeatable and it is reccomended to repeat the quests, because the rewards are based on how much you get done in the mission time limit, which for the Regiment is one day and it can be repeated each day]
'Good to know, thanks Adel'
'Do I need to be awake for this?'
[The physical part, yes]
'The mental part?'
[We can do that right now]
The next thing I see is a white room. A digital black and green screen is floating in front of me and it reads
What would you like to train:
Reflexes (15 current)
Will (15 current)
Intelligence (16 current)
I tap the word 'reflexes', feeling a pain in my forehead, and the next thing I know I'm on my back.
I just got the shit knocked out of me.
"That wasn't very fuckin nice!" I exclaim as I get to my feet.
I feel a pain in the side of my head my stomach and right thigh.
[Your enemies will not be 'nice']
I nod as I focus, using all of my senses. I try to find where this projectile is coming from, when I see a blur coming towards my chest. Only that I see it a second too late, when I try to dodge, it still hits me in the shoulder, spinning me around.
What looks like an arrow is now blazing toward my face. I move my head just in time for it to cut my face but not hit me strait on.
+0.05 Reflex Points
"This is going to take forever".
[Don't worry about getting hurt, it's just in your mind]
An arrow slams into my shoulder and with a yell of pain, I rip it out and it almost immediately heals.
"Still don't feel good".
.....
I wake up in a groggy state, my brain like fried bologna. Instead of the look of annoyance or anger, one would expect of a guy getting hit with arrows and rocks all night. On the contrary I had a huge smile on my face, I earned myself two points over the night, shooting my reflex stat up to 17, making it my highest stat.
15 -> 17
I felt a new awareness and sharpness, I feel like a completely different person from the night before.
To test out my new reflexes, I pick up a tennis ball that I throw around because of ADHD. I throw it as hard as I can against the wall, and it comes back at me at about 75 miles an hour. I catch it as though it's going at 45 miles an hour instead. Being three points away from peak human is insane.
I take a look at my phone, and I woke up an hour before I was supposed to, which should have been evident because it's still dark outside. I don't have to worry about being up early, because my dad wakes up much earlier than I do, maybe about 2 am every morning. My guess is it has something to do with him being a Grimm.
I put some clothes on, I usually wear a graphic t-shirt of some type, and a hoodie. Todays hoodie is slipknot with some jeans. Nice fitting, not too loose not too tight and some Nike running shoes. I'm happy I usually wear baggy clothes because after four points in strength my body has filled out quite a bit. If you lift up my shirt you can see an outline of a six pack that isn't defined, but is definitely there.
I walk out my room and I see my dad making himself a protein shake in the kitchen, he's wearing shorts and an athletic t-shirt.
"Wanna join me on my morning run?" He asks me with barely held in anticipation.
[If you didn't want to, 10km(6.2 miles) of running is part of the physical part of the Regiment quest. Remember you don't have to do all of it in one go, I'm just going to warn you now if you don't get the all of the minimum requirements of The Regiment there will be reprecussions, if you don't pick the quest at the beginning of the day you don't have to worry about these problems]
'So basically if I say I'm gonna do it, I have to do it, and don't worry about it, I wouldn't even think of turning my dad down.'
"Of course I will, will you make me a protein shake while I get some shorts on?", I ask.
"Sounds like a plan".
While I go into my room to get some shorts on I hear the blender going. Shit is gonna taste like chalk.
I come out and he gives me my protein shake, I taste it, yup chalky chocolate, needs more sugar, I'm sure my Grimm side will be fine with a little sugar.
I take the sugar container out the cabinet, and put a tablespoon of sugar in it, so much better.
"Hey dad, why don't you put sugar in your protein shake, it probably tastes horrible."
"Because, I'm trying to gain muscle not fat, I don't have the body of a teenager anymore and need all the positives I can get. Also what the hell are you talking about it's literally just sugar."
"Well how does your Grimm body react to that?"
"Ah, um I did tests and apparently my metabolism is twice that of a normal person my size and I don't gain fat as easily, but I need all the muscle I can get for my job".
"What really is the association, now that I'm a Grimm".
"I'll answer that question on the run, as well as any other questions you have about Grimm anatomy. Take a few sips from that and leave it here, the protein shake is for after the run and other things we will be doing, grab a water bottle and let's get going".
