The Family Grimm [IC, Fantasy]

[The Cyberiad Council]

Cyrus, it seemed, managed to see through the red-tinted haze of the curse and he dropped Solomon. "Sorry cuz, but you should know better." As the curse started to fade, Cyrus started taking deep breaths, trying to calm his heart rate. "That was a stupid thing to do. One of us could have gone full-Grimm and beaten your head in before we realized it was you."

"And Milo..." Cyrus said looking at his younger brother. "I thought we were being raided. Both of you, we face monsters and enemies that could tear us apart at any second. We don't have the luxury of mocking that danger, Solomon. And, we shouldn't joke about being caught by the feds, Milo."

Milo looked a bit ashamed of himself. "I'm sorry too... I didn't mean to make you upset... I just get tired of people being mad at each other all the time, you know?"

He looked at the floor around him. It was quite a mess.

"I'll clean this up, once Cyrus is done with me."

His expression changed from shame to nervousness as he turned to face Cyrus.

"I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you think that. I've probably been watching too much X-Files lately. And I guess that was pretty stupid. I could have freaked out Ginger just as badly as Solomon."

Cyrus sighed, "At least no one was hurt. You two get this mess cleaned up while I go put the door back on its hinges." Cyrus turned to Alexander, "Did you manage to kill it?"

[S i t k a]

Milo Grimm

"Wait a minute... kill it? Kill what? What's in here that... you know what, never mind. I'm not sure I want to know."

He left the room for his own, where he quickly changed into some dry clothes. He then got some cleaning supplies and returned to where the others were.

"Alright, I'll get this floor dry and then get to my homework. Sorry again."

Actually, he knew he probably wouldn't be able to focus on his homework today. He'd try, of course, but what he really wanted to do was chat with Jacqueline on the computer. She was his only real friend aside from Ginger, and he hadn't had a chance to talk to her for a few days.

[WhatsamattaU]

G.G. shook her head. There was such a gulf between her older brothers and Solomon and Milo. The elder pair felt a greater burden of responsibility, although Cyrus could be pretty childish, at times. Solomon had all of his internal baggage. Milo, she loved him, but he was almost too sweet and boyish to be a Grimm.

Before everything had exploded, G.G. had finally translated most of the leucrocotta info from German to English. Therefore, if Alex had managed to kill the critter, with guns, he'd probably inflicted mass blunt force trauma, since the skin was impervious to normal, and some enchanted, piercing or cutting. She doubted that he'd go 'Hercules' and strangle it.

Ginger noticed the wall clock. The Grimms generally ate supper about sixish, so she'd have to start food prep and cooking, soon. She looked at the testosterone brigade, and again at Solomon, before saying, "No 'fun and games' while I'm making supper." She paused and added, "Not only will you not be eating, but I'll send your 'privates' to the taxidermist!"

Ginger headed to the kitchen, not looking but imagining the boys involuntarily protecting their groins.

Once in the kitchen, Ginger briefly contemplated a bacon wrapped lasagna, but Solomon was here and it would be rude to serve him such fare, as his myriad of phobias included bacon grease.

But the kitchen was the place where she most remembered her mother, and how family came first. Therefore, it was time to cook some old fashioned comfort food. G.G. reached for Grandmother Grimm's recipe book. It had been written in German, but her mother had painstakingly translated all of the recipes into English, placed the translations onto paper and put them between the pages, next to the original German.

After she had figured out the menu, she, started with the cupcakes. They would need to cool before she could put the icing on them. One of the great things about cupcakes was that the portion size was uniform and there wasn't typically the complaint that someone had cut a bigger portion for themself.

[S i t k a]

Milo Grimm

Milo would be coming down the hall, listening to music on an old Walkman, another one of his strange possessions.

These days, Milo wasn't happy very often. When he had his music was one of the few times he was reliably cheerful.

Passing the kitchen, he peered in and lifted one of the speakers off his ear.

"Need any help with dinner?"

Ginger acknowledged her twin with a smile, "Sure, 'Shrimp'!" The remark made Milo sigh and roll his eyes.

G.G. wasn't sure how the genes of her fraternal twin brother and herself could be so different that she'd have three more inches of height than he, or the red hair, but after they both turned sixteen, when the curse came upon them both, there was no doubt that they were both Grimms.

She pulled a pair translated recipe pages from the book (she would replace them later), and handed them to Milo. "Want to handle the produce while I tackle the protein and gravy?"

"Of course!" He got to work. He actually enjoyed cooking, but for a time he had been too nervous about making a mess to do it himself. Helping Ginger with dinner from time to time had helped this.

[The Cyberiad Council]

"It's starting to smell good in here," Cyrus commented as he walked through the kitchen. He was covered in mud after helping Alex incinerate the beast and bury the ashes. Dodging his younger siblings, Cyrus got a glass from a cabinet and started filling it with water from the sink. "Anyone want a Leucrocotta tooth?" The tooth was odd; instead of being long and pointy, it was almost a semi-circle with a serrated edge.

"We also managed to save some of its hide; it might be a neat project to make some protective clothing out of it. If anyone wants the tooth, it will be in Dad's study. I'm going to go take a shower before dinner."

Cyrus headed upstairs and got to work cleaning himself up.

---

Dinner was nearing completion when he finished his shower. Thank God they know how to cook, Cyrus thought to himself; there was only so much pizza and takeout he could stand before it started to revolt against his gut. He picked up his phone and checked for new messages. None. The uneasy feeling that sprouted earlier only continued to grow. Cyrus slipped outside, stepping over the broken garage door (he needed to fix that soon), and punched his dad's number into his phone.

Tensing with every ring, Cyrus muttered under his breath, "Come on, Dad, pick up!"

"Hey, this is Timothy Grimm and I'm not able to... Hey, piss off you ugly..." The sound of splintering wood and heavy objects crashing to the ground quickly died down. "...Just leave your name and number and I'll get back to ya when I can."

Cyrus was normally amused by his dad's voicemail; he decided that hunting a rougarou was a great time to set one up, but now it just felt like it was mocking him. "Hey Dad, it's Cyrus. I'm worried, call me back as soon as you can."

Hanging up the phone, Cyrus headed back inside.

[Kazarogkai]

Solomon Grimm

And so the dust has settled and all is well... I guess. The past few hours had been a rather frantic and difficult affair. Getting wacked in the face, pushed against a wall, being called mean names by the baby, etc. Life is tough, you gotta just roll with it. So here I am just laying in my room reading a book and what do find out. Someone is making some food. Typically that was the job of the big man himself ever since the Mrs bent over and died excuse my language so I assumed it was him. I wasn't that hungry but I figured it would make me feel a bit better to get something hot and substantial in my stomach. Figured it would be better than the cup o sweet tea and jelly sandwich that I had.

With that in mind I made my way down hoping to great the big guy and maybe acquire into where he's been potentially. When I made my way down and then finally saw... Ginger. And she was cooking. God no. The paranoia within me relating towards people cooking for me very much extended to my family. I always suspected that the Mrs wanted to poison me in order to get rid of the inconvenience so I made sure to refrain whenever called down to eat. I trusted Timothy of course, he was a good man and well I had a sorta fondness for the guy for some odd reason still. But Ginger. No. And by all standards it looked like she was making some of that German shit her granny was into. Yuck.

Without a word I made my way over into the kitchen. Not speaking, not acknowledging, just seemingly minding my own business and proceeded to open a few cabinets and the fridge and assembled before me a scant few ingredients. Some pork chops, a couple of seasonings, a F ton of lard from the tub, flour, milk, and oh ya some herbs from the garden. I made my way outside to the grill in the family backyard and proceeded to work:

Roll: 39, Failure
- Target 30

After about 7 minutes of effort the results were kinda sorta fucked up. It wasn't an amazing screw up but it still wasn't great, they were overdone and some of the sides got a bit burnt, and to add onto my list of war wounds for the day I suffered a small oil burn to my currently bare chest. Still they were edible and I didn't give a damn. With what I had I made myself a pork chop sandwich from some toasted wheat bread slathered in BBQ sauce and mustard and dipped in the pan full of lard. Wasn't pretty but it would do. Still non nonchalantly I made my way over into the kitchen once more and leaned myself against one of the walls facing the view. Looking straight at Ginger with a no shits given look wearing nothing but some boxers on and I proceeded to eat the rather greasy and kinda ugly looking sandwich. Smacking, licking my fingers, and in general pigging out but always making sure to never stop looking her straight on. A silent question was being asked unspoken but there:

"Whatcha gonna do about it?"

[WhatsamattaU]

Ginger Grimm:

G.G. saw Solomon walking about in nothing but his boxer shorts, eating some dreck that he'd slapped together and staring at her with a challenge on his face. He truly was a freak.

Solomon would likely cut off his own nose if his brain had told him she, or mom when she had been alive, had cooked something that smelled good to him. Why did she bother? After the afternoon's fracas, she had thought something from Grandma Grimm's recipes as a peace offering. She thought that, since they had the same Grandmother through her father and his mother, that maybe it would be something to bring the family more together.

It didn't look like that would be happening. Screw him. She had the rest of her family and living well was the best revenge. G.G. went on with cooking and ignored Solomon.

The dishes for supper were coming together, nicely. Milo had taken care of prepping the produce and putting the salad together in the big salad bowl.

“Set the table and get the salad dressing, please,” G.G. asked her twin.

As Milo set the table, G.G. began transferring the food to the covered buffet plates, tureen and gravy boat. Schweineschnitzel, Pilzsoße, Bratkartoffeln, Erbsen und Mohren (tenderized and breaded pork cutlet, mushroom gravy, sliced potatoes (with a little sautéed onion) and peas with carrots). Everything needed just a little time to set, but it would all stay warm in the covered containers, so she took a few minutes to ice the cupcakes and placed them in the cake dish.

Before calling Milo for help, G.G. placed a meal’s portion of food into Tupperware containers, for Dad, if he arrived while they were eating, or later that night. If he didn’t come home that night, one of her brothers could have it, or if it didn’t suit them at the time then she we eat it. ‘Waste not, want not,’ the old adage said.

Ginger called out from the kitchen, “Milo, is the table set? I could use your help bringing out the food!”

[S i t k a]

Milo Grimm

"Coming! I just wanted to put away my tape player!"

Milo had dashed unnoticed up the stairs, and was rushing back down. He paused as he entered the hall, looking perplexed. Solomon was there, in boxer shorts. "Whatever...", Milo thought as he made his way back into the kitchen.

Before he brought the first set of plates to the table, he turned to Ginger. He started to say something, then chickened out and quickly carried away the plates. Something was troubling him, but other than that it wasn't clear what he wanted to say.

[WhatsamattaU]

Once all the food had been placed upon the table, G.G. asked Milo to go and let the others know that supper was ready. Places were set for all five of the residing Grimms. Dad might not, would probably not, arrive but his place at the table was ready for him. Solomon's place was set, too, even though he'd made a show of his disdain for eating food prepared by her and Milo. If he showed up at the table, G.G. was certain that Cyrus and Alex would insist that he at least put on pants and a shirt.

Ginger waited, with her back to a wall, for the boys to arrive and then she'd sit down with them.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say grandma had been here!" Cyrus said, smiling as he came back into the dining room. Inhaling the delicious scent of the food, the eldest Grimm child slid into his seat.

Grandma Grimm had been a stern character, thought G.G. There'd been no doubt that she loved her grandchildren, but she had seen the effects of the curse on her own children, and those times she'd smiled the most were in the kitchen or at the dining room table. She always insisted on the saying of the grace and giving thanks to the Lord. If anyone had reason to be angry with God, for allowing the curse to happen or the continued burden that had befallen her family, it was Grandma Grimm. One time, Ginger heard Grandma say on the matter, in her German accented English, "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?" Grandma explained it was a quote from the Book of Job.

G.G.'s mind returned to the present and she said to Cyrus, "Milo is my secret weapon. The way he handles a knife in the kitchen, he could be a chef, in his own right, one day."

[S i t k a]

Milo Grimm

Milo dutifully walked out of the kitchen and yelled "Dinner's ready!" It wasn't long before Cyrus showed up. Satisfied that everybody had probably heard him, Milo went to sit down.

"Well, I don't know about that. I didn't used to be so good at cooking, back when I first started helping you." he said, in response to Ginger's complement about his cooking.

He felt reasonably happy. He had actually managed to get all of today's homework done, which took a lot of stress off him. He hadn't gotten to talk to Jacqueline, though, because of the time he spent getting it finished. He planned to run upstairs to video chat with her after dinner. Fortunately, the Grimm curse didn't seem to work through video.

[The Knockout Gun Gals]

Once all the food had been placed upon the table, G.G. asked Milo to go and let the others know that supper was ready. Places were set for all five of the residing Grimms. Dad might not, would probably not, arrive but his place at the table was ready for him. Solomon's place was set, too, even though he'd made a show of his disdain for eating food prepared by her and Milo. If he showed up at the table, G.G. was certain that Cyrus and Alex would insist that he at least put on pants and a shirt.

G.G.'s mind returned to the present and she said to Cyrus, "Milo is my secret weapon. The way he handles a knife in the kitchen, he could be a chef, in his own right, one day."

Alexander Grimm

Alex was rather quiet. All this chaos ensued, these actions were bad. He'd be pretty mad, but since he's here as an off-duty cop, it is a lot fine than it supposed to be. Alex took the seat on the furthest left side, because he'd spent times on texting to his girlfriend after the whole "monster-killing" quest.

"The food's nice, G.G. Milo, too. You two are great chefs, can't wait to get this food on!" he exclaimed.

[WhatsamattaU]

Ginger Grimm

It seemed that everyone who was coming to supper was at the table. Cousin Solomon was being a stranger, as usual, and G.G. wondered why he remained in Flagstaff. Then she looked at the empty space at the head of the table and realized that their father was the sun that the family revolved around. Where was Dad?

Ginger accepted the praise from her older brothers with a smile and joined them in seating. The table was quiet as Dad's absence seemed to be on all their minds.

Cyrus began to reach for the plate when G.G. gave a polite little cough and asked, "Cyrus, let's say the grace, first."

Cyrus looked a little annoyed, but her relented and said, "Sure." Then her older brother smirked and looked at his younger brothers and little sister. Since this was food that Grandma Grimm would have cooked why not say the grace the way she would have done it? He began,

"Komm, Herr Jesu;" and the rest of the family joined in with him, "sei du unser Gast; und segne, was du uns bescheret hast."

G.G. reached and handed Cyrus the plate of Schweineschnitzel. Then she turned to Alex and asked, "So, Alex, the leucrocotta, blunt force trauma to the head with shotgun slugs?"

[The Knockout Gun Gals]

Ginger Grimm

It seemed that everyone who was coming to supper was at the table. Cousin Solomon was being a stranger, as usual, and G.G. wondered why he remained in Flagstaff. Then she looked at the empty space at the head of the table and realized that their father was the sun that the family revolved around. Where was Dad?

Ginger accepted the praise from her older brothers with a smile and joined them in seating. The table was quiet as Dad's absence seemed to be on all their minds.

Cyrus began to reach for the plate when G.G. gave a polite little cough and asked, "Cyrus, let's say the grace, first."

Cyrus looked a little annoyed, but her relented and said, "Sure." Then her older brother smirked and looked at his younger brothers and little sister. Since this was food that Grandma Grimm would have cooked why not say the grace the way she would have done it? He began,

"Komm, Herr Jesu;" and the rest of the family joined in with him, "sei du unser Gast; und segne, was du uns bescheret hast."

G.G. reached and handed Cyrus the plate of Schweineschnitzel. Then she turned to Alex and asked, "So, Alex, the leucrocotta, blunt force trauma to the head with shotgun slugs?"

Alexander Grimm

Alex reached for one of the supper, and put it on his plate. Things went better, if for awhile. At least no more dangerous attempts or dangerous pranks like what happened earlier. And the Ginger asked him about the leucrocotta. "Yep, shotgun slugs to the head. It takes some time, but the creature died. And now let us all eat in these foods before we try to converse more about non-related food stuffs. You know how Mom hated the conversation on the table," he continued.

Not noticing the statement.

[S i t k a]

Milo Grimm

"Shotgun shells? Leucrocotta? Well... I guess that explains all that noise earlier."

And he didn't say anything more. It wasn't a day-to-day sort of occurrence, sure, but 17 years living in the Grimm household had kind of desensitized Milo to this sort of thing.

Listening to his sister talk made Milo wish he could teach himself German. He knew he could do it if he focused, but he couldn't focus, and as a result couldn't say anything more than 'Good morning'.

[Kazarogkai]

Solomon Grimm

Seeing that my place honestly wasn't here and well not much could be done, the sandwich was long gone, I decided I needed to find my entertainment somewhere else. I'd fucked with the cousins enough to a degree that they were kinda jumpy so it's wouldn't be any more fun even. From the Kitchen through the dining room I quietly made my ways along living up the freedom and breezyness that came with the boxer life and walked myself down all the way to the backyard and toward the shed. I made my way around toward the back in a rather non nonchalant manner and from there I lay my eyes upon what I desired. On the side of the shed rested a small steel door that lay upon the ground and which was barely larger than that of and closely resembled a manhole cover. Crouching down and placing my hand down upon It I maneuvered through the various the various small magical incantation based passwords protected wards that I had placed upon the thing to hopefully keep others out and of which only Timothy and probably Ginger, who was far more skilled in the craft than I, could get through more than likely. |07/30| In a rather deft series of movements I was able to get through the things with barely a sweat though there were a handful of moments from which I was a bit scared I quickly pulled through. Opening the rather heavy door what lay before me was a rather short ladder leading to a floor below. Into it I went making sure to place the door back on and within a few seconds my feet had hit the floor in question.

What one would see before them if they were to enter this place would be a rather small room which would feel even smaller due to how crowded it was. All along the walls lay racks of spears and swords and axes and all manner of contraptions and weapons from the all practical to the straight bizarre. In one corner lay what one could best interpret as a chemistry station filled with stained tubes and vials filled with noxious chemicals which could only be interpreted as poisonous by anyone in their right mind. On another corner lay a furnace and anvil team. This, this quite simply was my place in this strange world we Grimm's called home. This was my port my refuge where the greatest of my skills, crafting of various things like wood, stone, and metal, was honed and perfected. I made my over to a table which lay near the aforementioned anvil and furnace. Said table was filled with a rather heavy quantity of various odds and bits of partially finished projects which due to time constraints I was unable to finish as of now. The long ago knife which I had been working on quite a while ago right before I decided to start messing with ginger was one of those.

Inspecting the pile I went over to the side of the table and found a book, a rather strange one at that. It was written in Latin extraordinarily enough which was a language I admittedly was only partially familiar with still. Though I sometimes had difficulty with interpreting the text that things that lied inside were still very much of interest admittedly. As such after pulling up a reasonably comfy stool, whose look and origin were based on those seen among the Ashanti, I began to read with the best of my ability. Despite the difficulty the imaginative juices were already beginning to flow and I knew I had really cool idea. How to bring it about was what really mattered. I had the tools, heck even the material one simply had to look under my desk to see a stack of metal bars of varying types. All I needed was the manner from which to implement. The sad part about all of this though was that final question which proved the most difficulty. I wasn't the best at languages or school for that matter and consequently I needed the constant help of nearby dictionary to aid in translation. Even then these old books weren't known for giving the best details meaning when I actually got to doing something I had to simply improvise the best I could. Thankfully enough when it came to crafting things these seemed to be various if you will universals which meant what could be applied in one area could be applied in another. That helped.

Finished with what I had set my eyes upon I put down the book and rubbed my hands together savoring what was to come next. In a rather quick manner I made my way all around gathering up the various tools of my craft that would be necessary in the undertaking to follow and with that done deposited them right next to the anvil. Over to the furnace I went which thankfully right next door to it I kept a series of ceramics filled with the necessary material needed to make the god damn thing work. In this case Lime and Charcoal. All that would be necessary after that would be the metal which in this case would be high carbon steel which thankfully enough I had a couple bars of. With all that was necessary gathered I took a match and savoring the moment prepared for the beginning of what would be hopefully a symphony....

[WhatsamattaU]

Ginger

"Sorry, Milo. Sorry, Alex," G.G. said. "After 'Cyrus-who-couldn't-be-bothered-to-do-his-own-book-reading-or-wait-in-a-total-non-emergency'," shooting her eldest brother with a loving look of annoyance, "showed up at school today, I got sort of curious."

Cyrus seemed to accept G.G.'s mild scolding as justified. He'd better, she thought. If he hadn't got over-excited about a tiny little problem, then he would have also dealt with Solomon on his own. G.G. wouldn't have been Solomon's target that afternoon, Milo wouldn't have gotten soaked and G.G. wouldn't have blown a gasket at her cousin.... Well, she smiled as she reflected, hitting Solomon, in his creepy helmeted head, had been satisfying, but she'd never say that, probably.

[The Cyberiad Council]

Ginger Grimm

G.G. was proud of the meal that she and Milo cooked. It truly did remind her of the times that Grandma Grimm and Mom were both alive. She had been so much younger.... LOL! She was still too young to complain about how young she used to be.

Without rushing, even with pausing to savor a taste or a memory, all the Grimms finished dinner in a relatively short time.

"You know, Cyrus, I think you owe me for pulling me out of A.P. Chemistry, today", said G.G. raising both her voice and an eyebrow in a playful way.

Cyrus Grimm

Cyrus let out a brief chuckle. "I thought you were about to start swinging when I first picked you up." He glanced at Milo, hoping his younger brother wouldn't be too upset he left him to rot in the clutches of public education.

"Yeah, so get this: I heard word of some strange disappearances in New Mexico. It had all the makings of one of our cases, so I took the truck out there yesterday. The thing wasn't hard to find, at all!" Cyrus was starting to get into his "yarn spinning mode" as their father called it. He said it was one of the hallmarks of the Grimm line; they were natural storytellers. "Most of the missing person reports were around this small patch of forest, which is not the most abundant thing in New Mexico. 'It's got to be there', I thought to myself. So I go poking around there at night, and I heard someone calling for help. I got probably fifty feet away when I felt the rush. The bastard jumps out of some really thick brush and goes for my head, but I managed to get the Axe up in time and hit it on the side of its face. I didn't get any blood on the blade, so I figured I just missed. Which is rare!" He added in a lighthearted tone.

"I keep getting hit after hit on it, but It doesn't seem to be getting hurt, so I take the Axe..." For effect, Cyrus lifted the family Axe up, which he usually keeps near his person, but it suddenly flew out of his hand and buried its blade deep in the dining room wall opposite Cyrus.

After sitting for a second in stunned silence, Cyrus tried to call the magical item back to his palm, but it only twitched. "What the hell?"

Milo Grimm

"Ugh... I'm sure whatever it was you were after deserved it, but I'm really tired of hearing about you guys killing things.

And then the bit with the axe happened. That wasn't normal, even in the Grimm household.

"Err... I think I better leave before that thing decapitates me."

"Is no one else a little weirded out by the fact that my Axe just embedded itself in our wall?" He walked over to the wall and tried to tear the weapon free, but it wouldn't budge.

[WhatsamattaU]

Milo Grimm

"Alright, does anybody have a clue what's going on here?! Because I don't, and if that axe is out of control I'm out of here."

The childish, seemingly-oblivious Milo was gone, and now he was stone-faced and serious. Magic didn't just do it's own thing like that, especially in the hands of someone experienced like Cyrus. Something was wrong, very wrong.

"Maybe we should work together to get this malignant weapon locked in a closet or something before it decides to fling itself at one of us?"

Ginger

Truth be told, G.G. was weirded out a little by the flying family artifact.... A horrible thought crossed her mind..., Had Cyrus somehow become infected with something that could be turning him into..., something..., some thing? He hunted alone so often....

G.G. stood, put out her open hand, and 'reached out' with her spirit to the Grimm Axe....

Cyrus

"Wait a minute," Cyrus tried focusing his will on the Axe again. "Do you feel that, G.G.? Do you remember what Dad said, that magic is like a fingerprint? Does that magic feel familiar to you?"

Suddenly, the Axe started to move on its own accord yet again. It dislodged itself from the wall and hung suspended in the air for a second. Then, it attacked the wall, again and again, hacking at it in different angles and in different places. Soon, the cuts started to form crudely shaped letters and words. The message read "Bein hnted dont look 4 me dngerous sty away frm cabin - T"

"Did dad just magically hijack the family Axe to seen a danger message written in texting lingo?" shortly after finishing the message, the Axe fell lifelessly to the ground.

Ginger

G.G. breathed a sigh of relief. Nothing was wrong with Cyrus, or Dad, but Dad was in Danger, capital 'D', Danger!

With a little uncertainty in her voice, she answered Cyrus, "I'm thinking, 'yes'."

Now, the question was, did they listen to Dad's warning, or Not?

"Dad must believe it's possible to escape whatever it is stalking him," said G.G. "If it was a group of things, then charging in to save the day would just give the whatever more Grimm family targets."

[S i t k a]

Milo Grimm

"Either that or he doesn't think he can escape, and doesn't want us to get killed trying to find him..." Milo said, shivering.

"What are we going to do? I mean, there obviously isn't much I can do. I'd just make everything worse. And we don't even know who or what's after him. Do we? Nobody ever tells me anything..."

He trailed off into fitful rambling before shaking his head and getting control of himself.

"Alright. Alright. There isn't anything I can do now, but I need to be ready for whatever happens or whatever you guys decide to do. What's the plan?"

[Kazarogkai]

Solomon Grimm

|35/60=+3|

While the others were off enjoying the meal I carried on down here in my little hide hole.

What I had hoped would turn into a symphony turned to into something more akin to that of a productive day in a garage band one could say. That's the best analogy I could come up with any ways. I'm a bit harsh on myself but I knew it could have been better and wish it had. Still sometimes you just gotta roll with it. Still the results were not anything to scoff at. I had spent a good amount of time up till this point simply working and working blowing my furnace till it burned and felt like the gate of hell itself had opened up then hammering away at the piece of steel trying to mold it like clay or something of the like. "Don't wait for it to get hot, make it hot by hitting." is the saying I wish I could live up to for every few minutes inevitably I had to cut off my work and once again bring the furnace back to working order to burn the steel until it once again returned to a state of white hot and then from there bring it back to the anvil and pound at it again. I used a mix of tools of varying degrees and sizes and uses. Clamps to hold the piece and a dizzying array of hammers that if bought up I could talk about for days on end all in their own right. Some big some small, some heavy others a bit light. Some had the shape like that of a baseball bat having a striking surface on all sides while others were more akin to a sledgehammer and even a few typically larger pieces were akin to that of a splitting maul.

Sparks splashed and the metal ringed like a bell. Time, time and more time that was what it was all about when it came to making things with metal. Time to gather the materials, time needed to produce the metal, time needed to shape it. This was not going to be something that would be finished within a matter of minutes instead what it was looking like was akin to a couple hours of hard labor today and after work tomorrow a couple more hours of work. A good long project is what I was looking at but I was fine and knew that from the very beginning. As the metal continued to sing I as worked my way along flattening the metal down into a shape similar to that of a rod and then splitting it into the 3 more thinner rods which I then twisted with my hammer. When this was done I then once again pounded it all down and flattened it out and repeated the process over again with the ultimate goal being to create a pattern wielded blade. The reasoning was more or less cosmetic rather than a specific need do as such. I just thought it would look nicer overall so heck why not.

I continued to work along by myself particularly oblivious of the world around me which in a way became almost a blur of repetitive action with a single minded focus like that of meditation. Doing my craft and working with what I had I cared not noticed much of what went on within this room, which was none, and not surprisingly noticed nothing of anything outside this room, which was a great deal of things, while I made my way along making what I was trying to make which if one had a trained eye resembled the shape of a sword. A guess that wouldn't be too far off the mark...

[The Knockout Gun Gals]

Alexander Grimm

Well, this is interesting. Or rather, terrifying. Their prized Axe suddenly went into the wall all of a sudden. Cyrus reminded that the axe has magic fingerprint, as it wrote the message on the wall. Dad seemed to be very afraid of this one, truth to be told. He sent them that they were being hunted. "Well, I'm outta here," Alexander took a grim statement to all.

"I proposed we settle at my place down at the town. It's not big, and I think I cannot cram all of you there, maybe just two people with me," Alex offered a suggestion. "Unless we have any other options for now," he continued.

[The Cyberiad Council]

Ginger

Good God, thought G.G., after hearing Milo ask about a plan. She, the analytical one, hadn't ever consciously thought of a situation like this before. Her heart spoke up about disobeying Dad and her head told her the best plan would be to follow Dad's orders. The thing was, her heart believed everything required action, and her head could make up some kind of rationalizing lie, telling her that everything would be okay....

Cyrus
Reading over the message again, Cyrus' eyes widened. "Everyone go pack your bags, now." He bent down and picked up the Axe. He headed out of the dining room, sticking the family heirloom back on his belt.

Ginger had no intention of arguing with Cyrus. He might be excitable, but, with the whole family involved, G.G. trusted in his leadership. She followed him to his room, out of earshot of the others.

When they were alone, she quietly said and asked, "Cyrus, I'm with you. I saw you looking hard at the message, so, was there something hidden in it that I missed?"

Her brother continued to rip open dresser drawers and throw clothes in a large duffle bag but managed to give his sister a terse nod. "He signed it 'T'. I'll explain it once we're on the road, but we have to get going!" He zipped up his duffle bag and headed downstairs.

"No, you don't understand, Alex; we ALL have to get out of town. We're not safe. Go home and pack up. Meet us at Fuller's gas station in an hour. If you aren't there by then, we're leaving without you." Cyrus walked over to a seemingly ordinary wood-paneled wall and swung at it with the family Axe. The panel broke, and Cyrus reached into a hidden compartment, pulling out several large stacks of cash and five passports. After adding the items to his duffle, Cyrus started towards the door. "I'm going to find Solomon, get packed, Now! We're leaving in an hour, no matter how ready you are."

[S i t k a]

Milo Grimm

Milo swallowed the last of his food and set his plate by the sink.

"Alright. I'll get ready."

And with that, he dashed upstairs and into his room, dumping the school supplies out of his backpack. He didn't have an idea where they were going or for how long, so he packed several changes of clothes. Then he threw in a flashlight and a compass that had been laying on his desk, and got his toothbrush and stuff from the bathroom. There was still room left, so he added some books he had been reading, a sketchbook and drawing materials, his Walkman and some tapes, his bulky old laptop, and the plush fox that he had secretly kept since he was little. If Solomon or one of the others found out about that, he'd probably die. Finally, he took his poster off the wall, rolled it up, and crammed it in the backpack. For whatever reason, he always took that with him on long trips. Perhaps he felt better having a bit of his room with him wherever he stayed.

He pulled the stuffed backpack onto his back, started for the door, hesitated, and put it back on the floor as he sat down in front of his desktop and powered it on. It obviously hadn't taken him the entire hour to pack, so he figured he could sneak in a chat with Jacqueline, if only to tell her that he might be gone a while.

He opened the video chat program, and fortunately she was on her computer as well and quickly answered.

"Hello!" she said cheerily, giving a smile.

"Hey. I can't talk long. Something's wrong."

"What?" She suddenly looked frightened. Something being 'wrong' with Milo's family was a lot more serious than with other families, given their monster hunting antics.

"I'm not sure. Dad's in trouble. He wants us to hide out here, but the others want to leave. I don't know if we're going to try to find him or just going to try to get out of here. Cyrus got some passports, though I'm not so sure they're real passports."

"Oh god."

"I'll try to keep in touch on my laptop. Have you been alright? I haven't gotten to talk with you in a few days."

"I'm fine, I guess. You know it's always weird here, with me being the only one up during the day. I'm worried now, though. Are you going to be okay?"

As their conversation went on, Milo failed to notice that he had left the door open in his hurry to pack. Normally he'd lock it so Ginger across the hall wouldn't catch him talking with his girlfriend.

[WhatsamattaU]

Ginger Grimm

G.G. hurried to her room, satisfied with Cyrus' explanation of why they needed to clear out of the home, pronto! As she passed Milo's room, she heard him talking... to a girl! Probably just letting her know that he'd be out of touch, for a bit. It was sweet. She resisted the urge to eavesdrop further and she'd ask him about the relationship later. Right now they needed to pack! But before she entered her own room, she called out to her twin, "Milo, less talking and more packing!"

Milo Grimm

Milo stopped mid-sentence and froze, as did Jacqueline. How much had Ginger heard? Clearly not much, or she'd be furious right now about him giving an outsider even a few details about what was happening. Fortunately Milo hadn't been talking about the curse or Jacqueline's vampirism. At this point there wasn't much else they could say or do about it.

"... Yeah. That was close. I better go. I'll try to get in touch if we end up somewhere with internet."

"You've been wanting to tell Ginger about us for almost a year now, you know. If you trust her so much, why have you waited so long?"

"Trust me, now's not the time. Just... be safe."

"Be safe."

And with that, he turned off the computer, grabbed his backpack, and headed for the door.

A thought formed in his head. Maybe now was a good time to tell Ginger. Not an ideal time, certainly, with all the stress. But she was alone in her room now, and everyone else was busy. And wherever they went, they'd have a few days to think about things.

"Hey, Ginger? Are you ready? Any idea where we're going?"

Ginger

"Not yet and not a clue," she answered, "but I'm taking my bike!" Referring to her Kawasaki KLR 650. She didn't like riding the motorcycle to the high school, because she didn't care for the juvenile attention it caused, but she loved to ride.

Ginger had been through "bug-out" drills when Dad had been home, so putting a week's worth of socks, underwear, t-shirts, and blue jeans into her army surplus duffle bag was quick and easy. Add a pair of sneakers and clothing was done. She added her leather jacket to the clothes on her back and put on Mom's silver locket. G.G. then ran to kitchen for Grandma's cookbook and then to the study for her laptop computer.

[Kazarogkai]

Solomon Grimm

|15/60=+5|

Things were picking up tempo and going quite nicely. The Pattern Welding had gone in nice and was a heck of a lot more quicker than I had thought it would be. The results look something akin to something like wood grain. Kinda nice looking. As of now I was engaging in the shaping of the block of steel in to from a layman's eye would appear to be some type of long rectangular blade. The overall shape I was going for was as such, a rather long 3 foot blade that was at best maybe 2 inches wide. The ultimate goal was what one would refer to as a Thracian Rhomphaia. A wicked pole weapon of old. My hope was to replicate this weapon. It wouldn't be a masterwork just felt like something I wanted to do quite honestly. I might decide to place some type of litany or the like but I wasn't sure since my magical prowess was admittedly rather mild compared to my relatives. Just something I've never been that great in which was sad since such a skill would dramatically improve upon the weaponry I could make and their abilities.

For the longest time I have been building up my skills in the nature of crafting with wood, stone, and metal and bringing those skills to bare. It's been a long process starting in my late childhood, just something I did, and into today. The bitch of the house, Timothy's wifey, didn't exactly appreciate it due to the noise but I didn't care and just kept at it knowing that it annoyed her making it all the sweater. This was in part one of the reasons why I became an apprentice carpenter, it fit my skills quite nicely. Even after I had decided to run away for those fateful 4 years I still continued to the best of my abilities to maintain said abilities. Still when I finally returned I was a bit rusty. The time spent since then has been in part used to regain and ultimately improve upon my abilities. Such things have not gone unnoticed by the others especially Tim who has in part shown his approval and support for the possibility of my potential as a designated weapons smith for the family. Wasn't the plan from the start but it was something that I wouldn't mind. It's atleast something I could do considering my rather average at best combat abilities.

Still with that In mind I continued on with what I had hoped would turn into a rather interesting project at the very least. It wasn't exactly essential but it was something I wanted to do so that was reason enough to do it in my mind. Still it had been quite draining up until this point. It might be a good idea to take a break. A block of cheese, bread, and smoked pork were nearby for the purpose. Should be adequate to fill a man up for a bit. But for the moment I would continue on for now. And so I continued pounding at the now 4 foot long piece of metal which tapered rather rapidly near one end and had a few holes at the center. The plan was to use that to secure the handle.

So I continued, blatantly oblivious to the outside world and chaos that was ensuing.