Wilhelmina Grimm
From Literepetition
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Contents |
[edit] Original Incarnation
The Brothers Grimm (German: Die Brüder Grimm or Die Gebrüder Grimm), Jakob (January 4, 1785-September 20, 1863) and Wilhelm Grimm (February 24, 1786-December 16, 1859), were German academics who were best known for publishing collections of folk tales and fairy tales and for their work in linguistics, relating to how the sounds in words shift over time (Grimm's law).
They are among the best known story tellers of novellas from Europe, allowing the widespread knowledge of such tales as Rumpelstiltskin, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, and The Frog Prince.
Basically, he was a lawyer by day and a fairytale compiler by night. Or something. The Brothers also liked to protest and stand up for what they thought was right.
[edit] All About Mina
[edit] The History
[edit] (Not-So) Humble Beginnings
Mina Grimm is the younger, by several minutes, of the Grimm twins, born to a slightly affluent couple in Germany named Philip and Dorothy Grimm. Her brother Jake is everything she's not: strong, sturdy, outgoing and fearless. They, like many twins, have a special bond between them that nothing can break, stemming both from the fact that they are twins and also because of how they grew up. When Jake and Mina were five, their mother was killed in a plane crash while in the US visiting her family. The children didn't really understand what happened, they just knew that their mother wasn't home anymore. Their father took it hard. He was a writer, prone to locking himself away into his own world for days on end, anyway. Dorothy had been his saving grace, keeping his inner demons at bay, and without her, he fell into a deep depression. He stopped caring about anything, even the state of their house. Dorothy had been in charge of all the finances. They had a small staff there and when their paychecks stopped coming, so did they. The last one to give in was the children's nanny and soon they were more or less on their own. By the time they were seven, Jake had learned to take care of them both. During their father's lucid times, he was a loving father, but the times grew more and more infrequent until the children stopped avoiding his section of the house altogether. During this time they laid the foundation for what would eventually be their own language. It stemmed from a form of 'twinspeak' and around age 12, they began to assemble it into a full and documented language.
[edit] Sickness
It started off with an itchy elbow. Then nose. Then sides. Then arms. Before long, Mina and Jake were both covered in tiny red dots that itched all over. Mina, who had always been the smaller and somewhat weaker of the two, had the Chicken Pox worse than her brother. Once again, Jake was left to take care of them. They were afraid to let their father know, for in their childish minds, he would see them as more of a burden than they already were and they would end up causing him pain and trouble. So Jake thought back to what their nanny would do when they weren't feeling well or got hurt, climbed onto the counter to get into the cabinet and pulled out a small jar with pink chewy pills. If aspirin made everything else better, surely it would work for the chicken pox! Since Mina was the worse off of the two, he saved them all for her, giving her one each morning and one each night. But instead of getting better as he did, she slowly got worse.
There were fits of uneven sleep that left her unrested and twitching from nightmares. She would cry and Jake would curl up with her until she fell asleep again, sometimes telling her stories. When she would throw up, he would help her and then feed her peanut butter and cracker crumble sandwiches which were her favorite. Over the next few weeks, her twitching grew worse, to the point where she couldn't control it. She would forget things and get out of bed to slowly, lethargically, wander through the rooms looking for their mother. Sometimes she would talk to people who weren't there, or say her name was Will or Carla. Will would yell and push things off tables and Carla would laugh and laugh. Jake didn't know what it meant or what to do, so he took the empty bottle of aspirin to the store and asked them for more. When he got home, Mina was asleep and for once wasn't mumbling and twitching in her sleep. The only problem was, he couldn't get her to wake up. It was then that he decided to take action. Their father was passed out cold so Jake did the only thing he could think of to do. He carried Mina outside, put her into their little red wagon and pulled her to a neighbor's house. He knocked on the door and when they answered, he looked up at them and asked five fateful words: "Can you help my sister?"
[edit] All Hail The Queen
The authorities became involved and took the children. Mina was immediately admitted to the hospital for Reye's Syndrome and Jake was admitted as well for more minor issues. By the time their mother's sister, Henriette, arrived from America, he was ready to be released into her care. Mina recovered quickly, but was never quite the same. Even after they returned to America with Henriette (who had made a not-small fortune in the advent of the information age selling property to the Silicone Valley crew, then retired with her fortune just in time to spare herself losing it in the fallout) to live in her huge house with an expansive yard and newly installed play areas and big sets of rooms all their own, she wasn't her usual self. Mina would break things and cry to go home and insist her name wasn't Mina, it was Will. Henriette was patient, even more so than most single woman saddled with two children not her own would be. But she adored the kids and though she knew Philip was still grieving his wife's death, she had thought the children were fine in his care. She had no idea things became so out of control or she would have come sooner for them. Henriette was a patient woman who tried her best to be a good parent to them and she still does to this day. She would spoil them, but did her best to instill a sense of humility and humbleness into them. She took them to church, but gave them the freedom to decide if they wanted to be a part of the church or not once they became of age.
The twins adapted well to life with Henriette, and they became very close with her. Henriette spared no expense with them, taking them to the best child psychologist in the area to learn to cope with everything they had been through. Mina went far more often, as it had become clear to everyone around her that she wasn't making up being Will or Carla, she actually thought she was. At first she was diagnosed with Multiple Personality Syndrome, which later became better clarified as Dissociative Identity Disorder. Though there were hints of there being others, those were the two who were the most present. Will is a male figure, prone to bursts of violent behavior. Carla is carefree and wild, giving no thought to what reactions her actions would have. Not to say that either of these personalities (or 'alters') are unkind, they just embody emotions that are hard for Mina to process. Will is the type who would want to jump into a fight to save a friend, whereas Mina would refrain from fighting because she knows she will lose. Carla is not afraid to see the fun side of life, the grasp the gold ring and live to the fullest each day type, where Mina is more reserved and thoughtful, more likely to observe life than lead it. Since being put on a round of medication that works well for her, these transitions have become far less frequent.
Over the past few years, Mina and Jake have kept in loose contact with their father. They know he loves them and now that they are older they better understand the rough patch he'd gone through, but he continues to be an alcoholic as well as having moved into harder drugs. He keeps venturing in and out of rehab and somewhere along the line he's had two more books published, plus keeps receiving royalties from his previous publications. He was, after all, a somewhat successful author for a while!
Physically, Mina has recovered well. She had significant damage to some of her organs for a while, namely her liver and kidneys, but aside from appearing pale, thin and weaker than average, she is physically fine.
After graduating from a specialty prep school that was paid for by Henriette, Mina thought about college. Jake had graduated a year ahead but had stayed home, not for lack of desire for college but so he could be with Mina when she started college. This left plenty of time to find a college they could attend together, one that would be challenging enough for them academically, but smaller and intimate enough that Mina wouldn't feel overwhelmed and lost. A friend of Henriette's suggested Meridian and they both applied and were accepted, so they moved into an apartment together just off campus.
[edit] Cult of Personality
Mina has DID, Dissociative Identity Disorder, which means that periodically in times of great stress or trauma or any of her other triggers, she transitions to another personality which is better equipped to handle it. Since she's been on medication, it happens far more rarely.
[edit] Mina
Mina is her primary personality. Each of her alternates stems from her and takes over when Mina isn't comfortable dealing with the situation at hand. As Mina, which she is most of the time, she is quiet and reserved, somewhat introverted and seems shy on the surface. The shyness stems from her being reluctant to let anyone be close since she's afraid they might not understand what happens when she transitions. She's had friends in the past and stays in contact with them, but she's very selective about who she lets get close to her.
[edit] Carla
Carla is the fun-loving side of Mina. She comes out when Mina is afraid to cut loose or she just feels the need to run from something. She acts, talks and dresses like a party girl, but at the center she still has much of Mina's morality. She doesn't engage in sexual activity because Mina wants to wait until she's married and Carla has enough respect for her to restrain herself for the most part. Carla is the one who took Mina to get a haircut that she hates. Also, Carla used to sing with a friend's Christian rock band sometimes as a backup singer who would take lead on a few songs. But since it was difficult to plan for Carla to come out for actual gigs, it didn't go far. She isn't the best singer and she idolizes Courtney Love's sense of style.
[edit] Will
Will is the male personality. He's gruff, angry and prone to breaking things to get his point made. He usually only comes out in times of extreme stress, when Mina just can't handle things on her own. When they were children, if someone tried to lay a hand on Jake, Will would come out and fight. And usually lose because Mina's body has always been smaller than the other kids and she's fairly weak. But he'd still fight!
[edit] The Players
[edit] Family
Aunt Henriette (Königin/The Queen) - Henriette is Mina's second favorite person in the world (second only to Jake). She took the twins in when they needed someone to take care of them and she adores them as much as they adore her. Mina and Henriette are very close.
Jake Grimm (Zwillingsbruder/Brother) - Mina loves Jake more than life itself because he's her brother AND her best friend. He literally saved her life by taking her to get help and she wishes she could be stronger so he wouldn't be burdened with her. After all, he put off going away to college to wait for her to graduate! They even have their own language that they made up as children, then later documented and expanded upon.
Philip Grimm (Verbannter/The Exiled King) - Mina never really knew her father, despite having lived in the same house for years. He was strange and eccentric and secretive and hid in his room almost constantly. He never recovered from his wife's death and Mina feels a great, deep sadness at the tragic ways his life has gone. She knows he loves her and he's just broken. And Mina knows all too well what it's like to be broken.
Dorothy Grimm (Königinmutter/The Queen Mother) - Mina doesn't remember much about her mother. Just mainly images and sounds and sometimes scents that trigger a feeling within her. She has many pictures and thought her mother was beautiful and while she feels a certain loss at her mother's death, it is almost as if it has always been that way so she doesn't bother feeling sad about it. It just... is.
[edit] Friends
Ron (Lernender/Scholar) - Ron was the first person of note that Mina met at Meridian, having spoken to him online and then met him briefly in passing at Ink Noir just before Christmas Break. After Break when classes resumed, she ran into him again and they've been rather often in each other's presence. He's a very interesting, well-read individual. And he knows German! He is very smart, rather handsome and as gentlemanly as he is tall. (And he's very very tall.) He wrote her a poem and asked her to the Snow Ball so of course she said yes! At the Ball, she asked him if he would consider being her boyfriend and to give her an answer in three days. Then they (briefly and chastely of course) kissed just to ensure that nothing bad would happen if they did.
Ailey (Gardien/Fylgja) - Ailey is a friend of Ron's and Mina sensed an immediate kinship with her on some level. Perhaps it's because she's always high and doesn't quite inhabit reality fully, just as Mina has a slight disunity with reality of her own. But it is obvious she cares greatly for Ron, and Mina appreciates that and embraces that. Mina has recently shared her secret with her after Carla decided to pay a visit in Ailey's presence.
Mr. Lovecraft (Mysterium/Enigma) - He is a tall gentleman that Mina ran into at a book store in town. He's a friend of Ron's and Mina intends to ask Ron about him. After all, he was nice! Plus she wants to meet more of Ron's friends. She wants Ron's friends to like her, see...
[edit] Other Stuff
[edit] Rumors
Rumor has it...
- ... she and her brother are really fallen German royalty.
- ... she and her brother really like gingerbread.
- ... she's been seen hanging out with some friend of Ron's who is even TALLER. She must have a thing for tall guys.
(feel free to add something)
[edit] Schedule
Mina has a literature class and a history class. Instructors are not yet determined, hit me up if you think we should be in the same class!
[edit] Gallery
 Mina sitting on the bleachers near the track. |
 My what a big (comfy) chair you have! |
 Carla used to sing in a Christian rock band. |
 I'd rather be compiling syntax in dead languages. :( |
 So I packed mostly books except for these clothes...what? |
 In California in the Pastel Palace (AKA her room) |
 Look, Jake, I packed you a lunch! |
 A Very Grimm Dinner. |
