The first thing John could smell as he approached the crime scene was Bauerschweine blood. The crime scene itself was a small newsagent, sweets, magazines and newspapers all over the place. The body was in the centre of the room, and John could feel his features reshaping themselves into a wolfen cast at the sight of all the red blood, the smell of it…he could almost feel- no. He stopped the thought in its tracks. Keep looking at the crime scene.
His eyes traced the headless body in the centre of the room. The head itself was on a spike behind the cash register, as though it were serving an invisible customer. What John found most interesting, though, was the writing on the wall. He walked over, sniffing it discreetly. It was most definitely written in blood- the Bauerschwein's, apparently. In spiky writing were the words: Dieses kleine Schweinchen ging zum Markt.
He sighed. He hadn't picked up any scent of a Blutbad, but it was possible the scent was hidden behind all the blood. But it could be the work of a Grimm, or perhaps a Hundjäger? He ran over the possible list of suspects in his mind, not noticing DI Lestrade's stare.
"What does that say?" Lestrade asked.
"This little piggy went to market," both Sherlock and John replied at the same time.
"You speak German?" Lestrade asked. Sherlock didn't answer, staring at John.
"My grandparents on my mother's side were German," John explained. "I grew up speaking it.Opa and Oma Grunewald wouldn't have anything else- they wouldn't talk to anyone not speaking German." He shrugged under their stares. "They lived in Germany all their lives- my parents met there. Mama and Dad met, came here and had me and Harry."
"How did I not realise this?" Sherlock murmured.
"I dunno- I don't speak to anyone who wants to speak German to me anymore. Harry didn't like it and Mama died a few years back, so I suppose you just never saw me speak it. As fascinating as this is, is there anything relevant to the crime here?" He asked, hoping to take attention away from himself.
"This man owned the shop, no children, lived alone- upstairs is a flat?" Sherlock began speaking. "He's recently been in mud, from what I can tell- locally. Doesn't have much of a social life, no girlfriend, appears to like books and reading…" He continued to deduce the man in front of them with a clinical eye. "John?"
"Yes, Sherlock?"
"Would you mind examining the body?"
John kneeled by the bloody corpse. "Whoever it was appears to have tried to strangle him," he frowned, noting the finger-bruises underneath the blood. "But that isn't what killed him." He went over to the head. "This would do it- blunt force trauma." The man's skull was crushed, hair, blood and bone in a messy mixture on the back of his head.
"Any ideas on what removed the head?" Sherlock coaxed him.
He leaned forwards, sniffing slightly- Blutbaden scent. Not someone he knew, thank God, but it was definitely a Blutbad's work. He traced the lines.
"Teeth," he muttered. "Teeth." He repeated louder at their questioning looks. "They pulled his head back, and just dove in, apparently not stopping until the head came clean off."
Lestrade looked slightly ill.
"Well done, John," Sherlock praised. "I didn't think you would get that."
"Full of surprises," he muttered.
Sherlock poked around the crime scene for a little longer before deciding there was nothing else of use to them there. The taxi ride home was silent- Sherlock needed time to think over his discoveries, so John kept quiet, playing Angry Birds on his phone. By the time they got back to 221B Baker Street, Sherlock appeared to have thought over the crime scene and was ready to talk.
As they went inside, a banging and crashing noise met their ears. John's hand flew to his gun, and he crept forwards, using his heightened Blutbaden senses to their full extent. Mrs Hudson was out, one person in the room- Schakalen, quite possibly looking for something to steal. Sherlock's heart was beating slightly faster, and he could smell his anticipation. He lifted a finger to his lips, and Sherlock rolled his eyes. Creeping forwards, he opened the door. The Schakalen whirled round, and John raised his gun, and let his face take on its more wolfish cast.
"Put it on the ground," he snarled, voice coming out lower and more gravelly, almost a growl. Sherlock's violin, his laptop and several of Sherlock's body parts were lowered carefully to the ground. "Turn around and put your hands on your head." The Schakalen did as he demanded, and John roughly grasped his arms, preventing him from escaping. "Sherlock?" He asked, letting his face melt back into its usual human form, "Call the police." Sherlock nods and grabs his mobile phone.
"Don't hurt me!" The Schakalen whispered. "Please! I just wanted stuff to sell!"
John did not release the man. "What's your name?"
"Thomas Smith, sir!"
"Calm down, I won't hurt you. I'm just a bit upset because you're on my territory, taking my stuff," he snarled the last.
"I know! I'm sorry! I was desperate!" Looking at the Schakalen, it was obvious he was only a kid- around eighteen, scruffy and unshaven. "I just needed some cash for some Jay, alright?"
John sighed. He knew people who were Jay addicts- Harry had been one before she met Clara, before she had quit the Wesen world by ingesting the blood of a Grimm to be with her girlfriend. Unfortunately, alcohol had become a replacement for the drug. He knew that the kid wouldn't understand that no, that drug isn't worth throwing your life away for, but he sighs and nods anyway.
"I get it. Doesn't mean you're not going to kill yourself one day. You know the consequences, the risks…" He trailed off. He knew this speech- the same speech that he'd given Harry, time and time again…
"I know all of that!" The Schakalen snarled.
"Of course you do. But you don't really realise it until it's upon you, do you?" He knew it was hopeless, though. He knew that when you were addicted to something like Jay, you wouldn't stop until you nearly died, and getting clean was a long, hard process.
The doorbell rang, and Sherlock, who John hadn't even noticed re-enter the room, got up to answer it. Lestrade stood at the door, staring at John and the young Schakalen. "Who's your friend, John?"
"I wouldn't say friend," he replied, "more like 'desperate junkie I found attempting to steal our stuff'. He says his name's Thomas Smith, though."
Lestrade nodded with sympathetic eyes. "Has he taken anything?"
"He was trying for Sherlock's violin, my laptop, and for some reason body parts," he explained. "We get them from Bart's, don't be daft!" He added at Lestrade's alarmed look.
"Right. Sorry."
John noticed Sherlock was being very quiet. He headed over to his flatmate as Lestrade read Smith his rights and took him out.
"What's wrong?" He asked the genius consulting detective.
"What's Jay?" Sherlock asked abruptly. "I gathered it's a drug, but what type? And you know more about that crime scene than you were letting on- why were you scenting the air? How did you know it was teeth marks- you've never seemed to notice things like that before? What aren't you telling me?"
Okay, I don't actually speak it, but the German should say:
Dieses kleine Schweinchen ging zum Markt -This little piggy went to market
Opa- Granddad
Oma- Grandma
And the creatures from Grimm are:
Schakalen (SHAK-alen) are jackal-like Wesen who seem to lead a thieving lifestyle. They are very ferocious and have been known to eat babies. "Schakal" means jackal.
Blutbaden (BLOOT-baad-in) are wolf-like Wesen with a keen sense of smell and great strength. The Blutbaden are very violent when in packs and are provoked by the colour red. Their sense of smell can be weakened by the herb wolfsbane and they are vulnerable to attacks to the lower back. Variants include the Wider Blutbad, a reformed Blutbad who abstains from the killing of humans through a regimen of diet, drugs, and exercise. They are the mythological basis for the Big Bad Wolf. Blutbad literally means bloodbath in German and wider is an older German word for against.
Hundjäger (HUND-yay-guhr) are vicious dog-like Wesen with heightened tracker talents and relentless sense for pursuing their prey, which is why they become feared hitmen, enforcers or bounty hunters.
A Bauerschwein (BOW-uhr-shvyn) is a pig or boar-like Wesen. They have an intense rivalry with the Blutbaden that dates back centuries. The rivalry is so intense that the Blutbaden are even blamed for Bauerschwein suicides. Bauerschweine like to take mud-baths in order to think, calm their minds, and soothe their skins. The Bauerschweine are not usually antagonistic towards others and thus rarely find themselves at odds with the Grimms. They are the mythological basis for The Three Little Pigs. Bauerschwein is the combination of the German words for farmer and pig.
While not generally thought of as a Wesen species, Grimms share a bloodline trait separating them from normal humans: they are capable of seeing the true form of a Wesen, typically when the Wesen is startled, afraid or otherwise emotional. A member of the next generation receives the gift as the last approaches their deathbed or is murdered. It is a long-standing tradition that Grimms hunt Wesen who attack the general population - traditionally killing them by decapitation - and keep journals recording their encounters with Wesen for future Grimms to learn from. Although the protagonist Nick Burkhardt (from the programme Grimm) has been informed that Grimms only hunt "the bad ones" of the supernatural world, many of the creatures he encounters are instinctively afraid of him, due to the fact that Grimms are rarely seen by average Wesen and over the years have acquired a reputation as mythical boogeymen. Other than their ability to see Wesen as they truly are, Grimms also seem to possess a natural ability for profiling people and improved fighting abilities. They are also resilient to such magic as the Coins of Zakynthos, which makes ordinary humans and Wesen become overconfident, power-hungry and obsessive. They have been guardians of the Coins for many generations. It has been suggested that if a Wesen ingests the blood of a Grimm, it will strip them of their powers and abilities, essentially turning the Wesen into an ordinary human, though this has only been confirmed with a Hexenbiest.
Wesen (pronounced VES-sin with the first vowel short in the show Grimm, while the actual german word is pronounced with the first vowel long and the second syllable sounding like "sen" in sense). Wesen is German for 'creature' or 'essence'. Although the names of the Wesen listed below are compounds of German words, they are not German words in the sense that these creatures do not exist by these names in the Grimms' tales, nor are they referred to as such in spoken or written German. Further, the words are not always pronounced using German diction.
While most normal people cannot see Wesen, there are times when they can "allow" themselves to be seen. This is where the legends and stories come from and are passed down as fairy tales from The Brothers Grimm. So far, the only time this has happened has been when certain Wesen were victims of an experimental drug.
While most Wesen have been seen interacting with each other relatively casually - barring some tensions between particular species, such as Blutbad and Bauerschwein having a particularly tense relationship with each other - it is unclear if long-term relationships between Wesen of different species are possible.
Jay- Jay (from "jacine", the mold it is made from) is an opiate-like painkiller, often used for recreational purposes. The drug is highly addictive, and seems to elevate mood and induce drowsiness in Wesen. The drug is lethal for most humans, but not for Wesen. As it is unknown to most humans, there is no law prohibiting it. It is derived from a mold called jacine. It is the equivalent of mixing Meth, rat poison, and helium. Abuse can cause liver disease.
The drug can be acquired through dealers or through private clubs that resemble opium dens. Jay addicts will go to great lengths to acquire Jay.
As you can see, I've changed some elements of both Grimm and Sherlock. I apologise if my characters are OOC, but they're all new characters to me and Sherlock, in particular, is a difficult one to write with his leaps of logic that he doesn't explain. Once it's revealed I can see it, I'm just not very good at making it up. Ah well. Please enjoy and review.
funkyorange
PS: Neither show belongs to me.
PPS: Sources are Creatures of Grimm on Wikipedia, Jay- Grimm Wiki, and Google Translate.