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fandomweekly2022-04-23 03:14 pm
badly_knitted) wrote in fandomweekly2022-04-23 03:14 pm
Entry tags:
[#133] Not Just Fairy Tales (Grimm)
Theme Prompt: #133 – Storytelling
Title: Not Just Fairy Tales
Fandom: Grimm
Rating/Warnings: PG / None
Bonus: Yes
Word Count: 985
Summary: Some stories have more truth to them that most people will ever realise.
People all around the world are familiar with Grimm’s Fairy Tales. They’ve read them, entertained their kids with them, even used them as life lessons in some cases, the same way they’d use Aesop’s Fables. The stories have enjoyed widespread popularity since they were written, and yet most people still dismiss them as fiction, fine storytelling but nothing more than that.
Until a couple of years ago, Nick felt the same way, but then his Aunt Marie showed up in Portland and turned everything he thought he knew on its head. The stories aren’t merely fairy tales, they’re true, and all the mystical monsters depicted in them are only too real, strange hybrids of human and animal known as Wesen. They look human, most of the time, but when they don’t… Some are monstrous enough to give even a cop nightmares.
And Nick, as luck would have it, is a Grimm, one of a rare breed of human capable of seeing Wesen as they really are. Seems it’s a hereditary thing, and now his abilities have manifested his life has become a little … complicated. With his aunt’s death he’s inherited all the Wesen lore and equipment his ancestors collected over the centuries, meaning he’s now responsible for dealing with any Wesen who cause trouble, which an awful lot of them do.
Slumping at the table in his aunt’s old trailer, Nick wearily rubs at his face. It’s been another long and exhausting day, and it’s not over yet, not by a long shot.
‘Thanks, Aunt Marie. Thanks for dumping all of this in my lap with only the bare minimum explanation,’ he thinks. It’s unfair of him, he knows. It’s not his aunt’s fault she died, and she held on as long as she could, but even after two years there’s still so much he doesn’t know. He’s fumbling his way through each case, trying to figure out what he’s up against each time, and yeah, he has help now, from a mismatched bunch of friends and colleagues, but he’s the Grimm, the one responsible for continuing the weirdest family tradition he can imagine. After everything he’s seen, his imagination has gotten pretty good at weird.
Pulling an old, heavy tome towards him, he opens it, flips through page after page until he finds the one he wants, and smooths it out before reaching for an old-fashioned fountain pen. No cheap modern biro for this stuff. The book’s paper takes ink differently to modern notepads. Tradition is a big thing for Grimms apparently. He’s given up a lot of the traditions that come with his heritage, most notably the one where Grimms used to cut the heads off every Wesen they met, even the harmless, peaceful kinds, but there’s no harm in keeping the books updated in the traditional manner. It leaves information accessible to future generations.
Pen poised over the blank page, Nick shakes his head. “Why do I always feel like I should start entries with ‘Dear Diary’?” he muses.
“Well, they are sort of diaries,” Monroe points out. “The collected lore of past Grimms.”
“I suppose.” Nick starts to write, the pen scratching across rough paper, adding what he’s learned to what’s already known.
What he really wants is to be home, in bed with Juliet, not here in an unheated trailer, working by lamplight, trying to get all the details of his latest encounter down for posterity before he forgets anything important. Krampus, of all things, and the poor guy doesn’t even know! Nick’s not entirely sure he can be classed as a Wesen. He’s only active three weeks out of the year, the rest of the time he’s a perfectly normal guy, but… How many kids has this particular Krampus killed and eaten over the years? How many bereaved families will never have answers, or any kind of closure regarding their missing child’s fate?
Part of him feels sympathy for the guy in the cells at the precinct. He doesn’t remember what he did, and he never will. Can he even be charged and tried for the abductions he carried out while he wasn’t himself? At least this time the kids survived, and maybe they’ll behave better in future. Or maybe they won’t.
Capping the pen and setting it aside, Nick blots the wet ink carefully before closing the book.
“Don’t know about the rest of you, but I am going home.”
Hank stifles a yawn. “Sounds good to me.” He pulls his jacket on, pauses at the trailer door. “Are all supposedly mythological creatures Wesen, d’you think?”
Nick looks up from fastening his own jacket. “What’re you asking me for? I’ve only read a fraction of the stuff in these books. Most of it’s not even in English.”
“But they could be, right? The Yeti, fairies, stuff like that?”
Both Hank and Nick turn to look at Monroe, who shrugs. “Hey, I don’t know any more than you do! It’s not like Blutbad are taught the family history of every Wesen species in existence. In theory, I guess they could be. I mean, most folklore has a basis in fact so it’s possible. Some are probably just figments of somebody’s imagination though, or extinct.”
“I’ve had enough of mythological monsters for one day,” Nick decides, chivvying his friends to the door. “Anything else can wait until I’ve had a good night’s sleep, or better yet, until after Christmas. We deserve a break to enjoy the festivities.”
“From your mouth to God’s ear.” Hank follows Monroe out into the.
Nick takes one last look around the trailer before turning out the light, closing and locking the door behind him. If he and Juliet ever have kids he thinks he’ll skip fairy tales, read them Dr Seuss instead. They’ll likely find out the truth about monsters soon enough anyway. Let them stay innocent for as long as possible.
The End
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It seemed a good fit when I thought about the prompt so I just dove in.
Thank you!
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