Name: Slade Grimm

Age: 30 Looks: 23

Species: Initia

FC: Liam Hemsworth

Elements: Water, Gravity, & Metal

 

“How beautiful it is to stay silent when someone expects you to be enraged.”

 

First and foremost I should tell you that my mother was a beautiful and fun loving woman. She was passionate, yes, but that passion translated into an artistic soul that saw the beauty in the world around her. She detested violence and ignored the usual racial lines that society is so bent on chaining around us in an attempt to snuff out individuality and incite hatred. Dahlia Monroe noticed all the small things that most people miss and took great pleasure in the simplest of things. She was the crown jewel of her clan though her life was anything but easy.

 

As soon as she was of age she was married off and sent away from her home, forced to leave the oceanic vistas of Northern California to the wooded wilds of British Columbia. Her husband was a big brute of a man, built like a tank and as like minded too. He took little notice of her, too preoccupied with defending his territory from interlopers and inciting unrest with the neighboring clan of Fire Lords. Dahlia kept herself busy traveling into the villages and absorbing the culture as was her want and in those travels she met my father, Mikael. She told me he was a charismatic man with a vibrant personality and a magnetism that was hard to resist. She fell in love almost immediately and though their love was doomed she always stressed how grateful she was to have had it.

 

She tried to fight her feelings, as did he, the forbidden and dangerous line they were walking couldn’t and wouldn’t go unnoticed for long. Both knew they were flirting with disaster though it didn’t seem to matter to either of them, especially when Dahlia became aware of her growing condition. She hid it for as long as she could however she was only prolonging the inevitable for as clueless as her husband was the others in her clan weren’t. Enraged at her betrayal her husband attacked her, hellbent on destroying the life that she had created with another man. Quick as a fox Dahlia avoided him, running away straight into Mikael’s arms. The couple hurried to escape from the rampaging Phoenix though fate had other plans in store that day.

 

The neighboring clans of Phoenix were tired of the warlike antics raining fire from the sky and laying waste to everything in their path. When the smoke finally cleared and the embers burned low, Dahlia’s husband and her lover were both dead. Heavily pregnant and alone she took to the skies, flying across great spans of ocean till she came upon a stretch of small islands. With her strength failing and contractions wracking her body she landed on an abandoned beach late one September night and brought me into the world.

 

Not to get too emotional but it was a pretty significant accomplishment, not only bringing a child into the world alone but doing so after such a serious trauma. Still my mother had a quiet sort of fortitude that translated into a stubborn will to live and push forward, if only for the sake of her newborn son and in the memory of the man who against all odds had loved her. There on the island of Hawai’i she took the name of her late love and resigned to raising her son as a single mother. She imparted to me that my father had been an avid reader of comic books, his favorite being a master assassin by the name of Deathstroke which was where she came up with my name, Slade.

 

I had a pretty normal childhood, my mom worked full time to support us her serene yet commanding attitude made her the perfect fit for a teacher. We lived in a small cottage right off the beach, within walking distance of everything we needed, and though we lived simply, for us it was enough. Everything I value most in this world was taught to me by my mother, her steady grace imparting all the worldly knowledge that has carried me through life thus far. I learned the value of hard work, first in our small garden and then doing odd jobs in the neighborhood when I hit 7. I had my eye on a surfboard that it took several months for me to earn, still I worked until it was mine.

 

I also recieved my first true disappointment at 7 years old, I waited for weeks for the red lines to appear on my back praying that I could be just like my mother. Weeks turned into months and before I knew it my 8th birthday had come and gone. Discouraged and in low spirits my mother taught me that sometimes life has other plans and the best thing to do is wait and see what happens. I can tell you from experience that parents have a wisdom that will rarely steer you wrong, and it gave me comfort when she said that perhaps I was more like my father. I didn’t know what that meant at the time but she was right.

 

Many people have told stories and written about the ocean’s siren call, the steady lap of the sandy shores and the roaring tides that dance to the moon, and perhaps my place of birth had something to do with it but I have ever been a child of salt and sea. I was swimming before I could walk and from my first ride on a board I have proudly been a surfer bum. My abilities in the water far surpassed anything that anyone had ever seen and my mother often commented on how uncanny it was that I could do so much while in the water. Everyday after school I’d come home to the ocean and most days was more comfortable wet than dry.

 

On my 10th birthday my full connection to water became apparent, marking me as my father’s son in both name and ability. The science fair was in full swing, the usual array of flying contraptions, baking soda volcanos, and bug collections were well represented with a few spatterings of unique ideas. My ocean conservation project had been set up right next to an alternative fire extinguisher display that during the judging went very wrong. Fire broke out over the display, the various materials that had been coated in gasoline went up like tinder and quickly jumped to a few other displays surrounding it. The fire raged hot and heavy and looked to cause a whole lot of damage and possible injuries, turning the situation dangerous within the confines of the student packed gym. I remembered the fear I felt and the scorching heat of the flames, when suddenly all the water manes within the building burst, water pooling at my feet and rising around me, following my will and gestures to put out the fire completely.

 

My mother whisked me home covering up the incident with a half cocked story that the staff ate up and when we got home we both celebrated, admiring the tribal tattoo that had appeared on my lower back. Thankfully we didn’t have to stay there long with the speculation and rumors that abounded, my mother received an offer for a Principal’s job in Honolulu so we moved in the beginning of my 6th grade year. We found another small cottage on a private beach where I could practice and master my element in peace. The rest of my school days passed in a normal blur of school, surfing, and work; I managed to snag a side job teaching surfing lessons that paid for my extracurricular activities. Extreme sports and anything that could give me an adrenaline rush interested me greatly, so I spent my spare time mountain climbing, biking, skydiving, snowboarding, parkour, and even some base jumping.

 

I passed school with ease graduating as the salutatorian, dropping my grade just enough to avoid all of the pomp and circumstance that comes with being valedictorian. After school I took to the Pro Surfer Circuit which enabled me to travel while still being a home a good deal of the time, though had I known the danger I was placing my family in I wouldn’t have ever ventured outside of Hawaii. I would have definitely spent more time with my mother, as there was a bounty out on her head that she never mentioned or let on that she knew about. That night will forever be etched into my memory, the sights and smells branded for all eternity into my psyche.

 

It was storming, rain pelted the islands as Hurricane Isaac raged across the oceans side swiping the small state with inclement weather. I was headed home from the airport having just gotten in from an invitation in California when a call came across my phone, the moment I picked up I knew something was wrong and against my mother’s protest I sped home with all haste. Some instinct had me circling around to the back of the house which was where I found her body, broken and lifeless, a golden dagger protruding from her chest. Sounds of rummaging and broken glass came from the open door drawing me inside like a moth to the flame, the golden dagger that had snuffed out her flame clutched in my hand.

 

Several Phoenix were ransacking the house, searching for something though for what I couldn’t imagine. They had made a mistake coming to my home during a rain storm, the raging downpour only fueling my powers as I stalked into the house enraged and heartbroken. 4 men had been sent to take care of 1 woman and they hadn’t been quick; her death was brutal and violent and painful. Dagger in hand I moved from room to room using the rain to buffer any sounds and dispatched the murderers one by one. Methodically I took their bodies outside and using the storm I cast their useless carcasses into the raging ocean pushing them to depths that would crush their bones leaving the meat for the creatures of the deep. Once the storm abated I straightened the house, cleaned her body, and then burned it, casting the ashes into the crystal blue waters she had loved so much.

 

As far as legal records are concerned Dahlia Grimm is a missing persons case that will forever be cold and unsolved. After a month of hard searching they pronounced her dead though I refused any sort of service as a grieving son would. A week later I received a call from a lawyer who had a will that was written in my mother’s name and needed to be present while it was read. Much to my surprise and consternation I arrived at the office and met my mother’s mother face to face. It seemed my dear Grandmother was looking for the money my mother had supposedly stashed away. Dear Dahlia was full of surprises, she had in fact taken a sizable sum from her own accounts and more from her departed husband's accounts and hidden them away in a trust, a trust that had my name on it.

 

Grandma Monroe was furious and spat all sorts of insults in my direction as I laughed my way out of the office, a rich man at only 20 years old. I understood then why my mother had been killed, her own family wanted the money she had whisked away and saved. Instead of getting angry I found my humor irritated them most as I took my new fortune and did as I pleased. From that moment on I became a nomad though my house in Hawaii is still maintained for my use when I need a little taste of home. For the next several years I went where my whims took me doing anything that got my blood pumping and my heart pounding.

 

I spent some time searching for my father’s clan, locating them during a trip to Belize. I learned some valuable things about my heritage, the history of the Initia, and some tidbits about my father himself. I may be his son but his people were still pretty tight lipped, treating enough like an outsider that I got the hint and left. I was in South Carolina for a few skydiving expeditions when I overshot my landing zone, ended up in some trees and fell a couple stories. The fall broke my leg in three places forcing me to slow down for the first time in 26 years in order to let my body heal.

 

It was there I met a brunette that ensnared my attention, not an easy feat given my free wheeling ways. I’ve never discriminated when it comes to love, I see no color, gender, or style when it comes to my romps between the sheets. Yet there was something about the sexy and mysterious Rosalyn that captured my interest. We met in the hospital shortly after my cast had been put on, I was flirting with a male nurse when they brought her in after an accident of her own. Even injured and knocked out she was a vision, an imaginary woman from a dream that couldn’t possibly be real.

 

For five months I waited and I watched, worrying that she may never wake up, sleeping beauty without an escape clause though I am no prince. Even after my leg was healed I stuck around, anxious to see if she would ever come to and let me see those sparkling eyes. At long last my hopes were granted and she woke up, causing quite the stir as she was made aware of the accident that had landed her in the hospital. After some maneuvering I managed to meet her and found some brains to go along with all that beauty. Our friendship blossomed pretty quickly, within a few weeks I was calling it love though never fully admitted it out loud. I found her incredibly easy to talk to, even opening up some about my past without giving too much away.

 

When her discharge papers came through I boldly suggested we stay together for awhile, just till we both got back on our feet.  Strangely enough she agreed and we found a quaint little apartment by the sea, living off my trust fund and some good times. She was a firecracker, with a sassy streak that couldn’t be matched and she had me wrapped around her finger. It was during our first night in the apartment we discovered her new powers, also quickly discovering that we had more in common than we had first realized: we were both Initia. Electricity went spastic at her touch, the very air around her grew icy cold, she floated at odd times, metal jumped to obey her every whim, and according to her she could see auras around individuals.

 

By some strange happenstance she had discovered a whole new line of elemental powers that took some time for her to master. Together we learned how the powers worked and how to control them, my own experience as a water user enabled me to give enough insight to aid in her own mastery. The longer we spent together the closer we became and at long last I got to kiss her. Our first kiss was the start of something special, or at least at the time I had thought so. The moment my lips touched hers a jolt of electricity shot through my body, in an instant all of the metal objects in the room jumped towards us. It freaked us both out but in that moment we also discovered what we both were. Rosalyn was special, a kind of Initia with untold elements and somehow she had shared a fraction of that power with me. Not only could I control water but anything that was metal jumped to my will.

 

After that things settled into a nice lull, the two of us learning how the whole “settling down” thing worked. For 3 years we lived together, slept together, and learned together moving through our relationship quite happily though near the third year things were getting stale. My wanderlust was riding me hard and Rosalyn’s hatred for the Phoenix was an ever present entity that put a damper on things. The arrival of her sisters tipped it over the edge, their vindictive natures too much for me to handle. With no hard feelings I left Rosalyn Sterling and her sisters, going back to my nomadic and free loving ways.

 

I traveled around for much of my 28th year eventually ending up in a town in Colorado that rumor had it was home to supernatural beings like me. In the city of Evermore I met another fascinating woman who was leading my kind. Sierra Reigns was a graceful and poised woman whose family was out of control and needed some solid guidance. For all of my nonchalant attitude I have an uncanny sense of people and what makes them tick as well as strategy and a fair amount of skills with people in general. I quickly offer my assistance and given all odds managed to stay in one place.

 

Slightly perturbed at the possibility of being treated like an outsider I kept my Privus power hidden from the Ambassador, my water abilities the only part I let show and even then I kept the full breadth of my mastery hidden. The Reigns sibling were wreaking havoc on the local Phoenix population and it took all my considerable charm to keep the clan in line, from falling into ruin that war would surely bring. The longer I stayed in the city the more I wanted to stay, an ever present voice of reason at the Ambassador’s side, with my ear to the ground and my eyes to the sky.

 

I’d been in the city for about a year when I uncovered some evidence as to who had killed Rosalyn’s mother and despite my hesitation I reached out to her. She immediately came to the city and twisted things on it’s axis. A comet came streaking through the sky, knocking out everyone that was outdoors to witness the event. A searing pain shot through my skull as I passed out and when I came to I was floating in the air. After some trial and error I discovered I was able to control the flow of gravity, the comet granting me a third element. Unlike most of the others I had power from both sides of the Initia lines: not Privus, not Radix but a mix of both.

 

Both leading ladies have very different personalities and ways of running things, as well as morals that guide them. It’s my job to bridge the gap between them, to bring the clan together so that we are strong in the uncertain times ahead.

Positive Traits: Adventurous, Charming, Laid back, Perceptive

Neutral Traits: Realist, Smooth, Mellow, Competitive

Negative Traits: Sly, Pretentious, Promiscuous, Crass