Grubbs Grady
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| Grubbs Grady | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | Lord Loss |
| Created by | Darren Shan |
| Information | |
| Species | Human (very small part demon) |
| Gender | Male |
| Relatives | Cal Grady (father, deceased) Sharon Grady (mother, deceased) Gretelda "Gret" Grady (sister, deceased) Billy "Bill-E" Spleen (half-brother, deceased) Dervish Grady (uncle) Bec MacConn (ancestor} Nadia Moore (distant relative) |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Powers |
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Grubitsch "Grubbs" Grady is the main character in The Demonata series by Darren Shan. He is the protagonist of the first book (Lord Loss), the third (Slawter), the fifth (Blood Beast) and the sixth (Demon Apocalypse). In Blood Beast Grubbs is afflicted by Lycanthropy.
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[edit] Family
Grubbs is son to Cal and Sharon Grady and brother to Gret and half-brother to Bill-E Spleen, all of whom died over the period of the series. After being institutionalised, Grubbs moved in with his paternal uncle Dervish, the pair share a cruel taste in pranks and a dark humour. His maternal family mentioned in Lord Loss are Mike and Rosetta (Sharon's brother and his wife) and their three children; Conor, Lisa and Laura.
The Garadex (or Grady, as they are currently known) family has a curse placed upon it. At any time in their teenage years, a Garadex child can turn into a werewolf. In the time of Grubbs, the curse's origins are unknown, but it is later revealed in the fourth book of the series that many years before, when the Demonata invaded Ireland, The MacGrigors had bred with lesser demons and thus created a lycanthropy gene that could appear in any member of the clan. As Bec was part of this clan it means that she is a distant ancestor of Grubbs, this was confirmed in the book Demon Apocalypse.
[edit] Biography
[edit] Lord Loss
Grubbs Grady (approximately 14-16 years old) grew up in Ireland (most likely County Clare, although not confirmed). He lives in a house where the playing of chess is enforced strictly by both of his parents.
When he hears his parents and sister talking behind his back and treating him differently, Grubbs gets suspicious that something is going on. One day, his parents buy ballet recital tickets, but Grubbs doesn't want to go, so he spends the evening at his aunt's house. Grubbs sneaks back home and finds his family murdered, as well as the demon Lord Loss and two of his minions, Artery and Vein. After fighting the demons, Grubbs is traumatized and admitted to a mental hospital. The doctors try to convince him that what he saw was a hallucination, but Grubbs will not believe them. After a few months, his Uncle Dervish visits him at the institute and tells him that what he saw was real and that he can explain to him the truth of it all.
Grubbs then moves in with his Uncle in Carcery Vale and befriends a child called Billy Spleen, though he prefers Bill-E. Bill-E confides that the reason he often spends time with Dervish is beacuse he thinks that he is actually Dervish's son.
Grubbs and Bill-E tour the house together and the come to a hall full of paintings, of dead family members. Grubbs and Bill-E are suspicious that there are a large number of children and young adult paintings and Bill-E tells Grubbs of his suspicions.
After looking through books and noting Dervish's behavior, Bill-E and Grubbs start suspecting that Dervish is a werewolf, but when the two of them follow him into the woods, Grubbs soon discovers that Bill-E is the actual werewolf. Dervish tells Grubbs that he always knew Bill-E was a werewolf as Bill-E is Cal's other son, he also explains to Grubbs about the family curse and the nature of Lord Loss being a Demon Master who, unlike other Demon Masters who enjoy death and brutality, enjoys feeding off the suffering and pain of people. Dervish goes onto explain that a family ancestor, known as Bartholomew Garadex, bargained with Lord Loss to cure family members in return for teaching him chess.
After a time Lord Loss grew impatient as Bartholomew would only play when he wanted a family member cured. After Bartholomew died, if a family member needed curing then two members of the family would be chosen to face Lord Loss at a midway point between the human universe and the Demonata universe. One would fight Lord Loss's familiars and the other would face him in five simultaneous games of chess. If they could win three of the games, the curse would be reversed, but the one who faced Lord Loss in chess would fight him alone in the Demonata's universe. If they lost the chess match or the fight with the familiars, then they would be killed. Grubbs and Dervish go to fight Lord Loss in the chess match.
The battle against Lord Loss starts with playing chess with Dervish and Grubbs was fighting the familiars. Half way through, Grubbs is struggling and due to Lord Loss's fondness of him, he decides to bend the rules this once and allows Grubbs to swap places with Dervish. At the start, Lord Loss beats Grubbs easily, but once Grubbs realizes that Lord Loss feeds off his discomfort, he loosens up and easily beats him resulting in Bill-E being cured and Dervish going to the Demonata universe to fight Lord Loss alone.
When Bill-E comes to, he doesn't remember turning into a werewolf, so Grubbs lies to him saying that Dervish has been cured but is under a spell to keep him calm. Dervish's body continues to function in the normal universe but with no discernible personality, as his soul is still fighting Lord Loss.
After many months, Grubbs wakes up to find blood-red stains on of his cheeks and dirt and hairs under his nails. He had been warned by Dervish before, that he could change into a werewolf at any given time. Grubbs thinks twice about calling the Lambs, the 'family executioners' who kill people/werewolves with the curse, but his troubles are put aside when he hears Dervish's voice and sees him holding a ripped woolen scarf, a tin of red paint and a pot of soil, grinning at him and apparently well and unharmed.
[edit] Slawter
Slawter is set about a year after Lord Loss takes place. At this time, Grubbs is about fourteen. When the story takes place, Dervish is having terrible nightmares and is attacking Grubbs in his sleep.
Horror movie producer, Davida Haym, offers Dervish a chance to work on the set of her new movie, "Slawter", a movie about demons. He quickly accepts the job thinking that it will be a good chance to help restore his sanity, so he and Grubbs move to into the town in which the film is set. Grubbs soon finds out that Davida has made a deal with Lord Loss that if she gets Dervish and Grubbs to work on the movie, she can film the the Demonata; giving her the movie of her life. But when Dervish, Grubbs, Bill-E and a psychologist called Juni Swan try to escape, they encounter a barrier which sends them into a dream world. In this dream world, Bill-E has been captured by the Lambs so they can learn the secrets of how his Lycanthropy was cured.
Dervish, along with fellow Disciples members; Shark and Sharmila, invade the Lambs complex and demand they return Bill-E. The Lambs refuse so they assault the complex and rescue Bill-E. Grubbs then realises too many convenient facts about getting into the complex, like Sharmila and Shark just so happening to have blueprints to the building and how they can all do powerful magic so easily.
He wakes up to find himself in a small room with Dervish and Bill-E, he wakes them using magic. The three of them then run into the town trying to warn people to get away by saying there is a gas leak and the town will explode soon.
No one heeds their warnings and Davida sets the Demonata upon the unwilling cast and crew, but Lord Loss betrays her and kills her. Most of the actors fight back - thinking this is a plot change - but soon realise its not and are killed. The three of them try to lure a demon closer to the invisible force field that surrounds the town, using Bill-E as bait, so they can blow it up, making a hole in the wall and allowing them to escape.
Finally, one does come - chasing a group of children who have also been staying in the town - a giant bee-like demon. Dervish and Grubbs subdue it but suddenly Juni reappears and kills it. To get another, the children lure a demon into chasing them, but are unlucky when Lord Loss finds them with Artery and a new cockroach-demon called Gregor, so the children run. When they eventually find the edge to the barrier, Dervish and Juni appear from under an invisibility shield and distract Lord Loss so Grubbs can move Gregor to the barrier. He manages to open a window by killing Gregor but has to battle multiple demons with power he never realised he had before; to buy time for the people to get through. An unlucky few are still trapped inside, left for the Demonata to slaughter.
After escaping, they see Davida's assistant director sitting on the ground; Grubbs tries to kill him but Bill-E stops him. When Juni sees him, she kills him with magic she'd discovered in the behind the barrier.
Later, they find that Juni went and left a note saying that she had to be alone for a while after what she had done, and didn't want to be contacted.
Back at Dervish's house, Dervish tells Grubbs about what his future would be if he did have magic. Dervish scans Grubbs for any sign of magical power, but Grubbs' subconscious hides it from him. Later, he decides to check if he does have powers and manages to switch the light on and off without using the switch and make his reflection disappear. To have the power to conceal his powers from Dervish and to use magic in the human world away from the Demonata can only mean one thing - Grubbs is a magician.
[edit] Blood Beast
Blood Beast is set about a year after Slawter. Grubbs is maybe fifteen at this time. It begins back Dervish's house where Grubbs begins to feel alarming symptoms in connection with the full moon. He is having dreadful nightmares full of Demons and his sister Gret who keeps coming close to killing him. Also in these dreams he has changed to a werewolf. However, Grubbs attempts to convince himself that these nightmares are only normal. On top of this, his magicians prowess is growing all the time. He makes water change direction as it goes down the plughole (defying gravity) and claims to have woken from his nightmares levitating
Grubbs has got back to life as usual, and has got a crowd of friends, including a new best friend, Loch Gossel, who constantly bullies Grubbs half brother, Bill-E. At school there is a certain girl he likes called Reni Gossel, the sister of Loch. After Dervish has to go away for the weekend to say goodbye to Meera Flame, Grubbs throws a big house party. Reni, Loch, Bill-E and a few more stay the night. They play spin the bottle and Grubbs kisses with Reni for the first time. He is so excited by this, he accidentally uses his magic powers. The bottle starts levitating and then explodes. He freezes the bottle in time and turns the shattered glass into Butterflies and flower petals. Half way through the night, Grubbs wakes up to a howling noise. He finds himself in the bathroom. He then realises the growling is coming from him. He looks in the mirror to find that he has become a werewolf, but somehow he changes himself back to normal.
The next morning, Bill-E and Loch decide to go and look for Lord Sheftree's treasure, but Grubbs isn't feeling well and protests greatly, but eventually gives in. The three set about digging and just as Loch is about to go home, they find a spot that Grubbs remembers Dervish at before. They start digging, but there are big rocks in the way which are hard to move. The boys go home but make a pact to come back after school every day until they find the treasure. Dervish returns home, but was drunk the previous night and fell into a deep sleep, so Grubbs couldn't tell him about the nightmares and fear of lycanthropy.
Grubbs goes to sleep, but later wakes up and finds himself at the hole moving the heavy rocks, by himself. He runs back to the house and goes back to sleep. When Bill-E and Loch see the hole the next day, they are amazed and believe that Lord Sheftree planted bombs to kill those that tried to get his treasure, but the simply were old and detonated late. As they are digging, they begin to get very angry at each other and bicker, even try to kill each other. Grubbs feels magic in the air, and feels that it may be affecting the three, but tells the other two that it must be chemicals in the soil.
Loch and Grubbs climb out of the hole and start to talk to each when they hear a scream. The floor has given way and Bill-E is hanging on for his life. They hoist him up, and look down. The rocks gave way to a deep tube, but one that might be able to climb down. After a debate, the three decide to go down. At the bottom, they find a cave full of stalactites and stalagmites with a large water fall. They start looking for the treasure but find none.
Bill-E and Loch decide to climb a wall of the cave. At this point, Grubbs begins to feel very ill (possibly because of the full moon) and looks to the floor of the cavern. He see's a girls face in the rock similar to his sister's[1] whispering in a strange language, but then she suddenly goes silent. Grubbs hears a scream from behind him and a thud. He turns around to find Loch's lifeless body lying on the floor, blood seeping out of his head. Grubbs attempts to heal the wounds while Bill-E leaves to get help. While Bill-E is gone, Grubbs needs to resuscitate Loch several times. The first two times it works, but then on the third, Loch stops breathing, his heart stops beating, and he dies. The whispering starts again and Grubbs starts to freak out. When he calms down he looks at Loch, and lifts up his head and notices something odd - all the blood is gone.
Eventually Dervish and Bill-E turn up at the cave, however there is nothing that can be done to save Loch's life and Grubbs soon realises that there is no ambulance. Dervish says that they cannot let an ambulance come to the cave. The boys protest, but he says that he will explain to them later. The three of them move the body of Loch to a nearby quarry and throw it over a cliff edge.
Dervish explains later the Grubbs why this is necessary - the cave is one where demons can create a strong doorway into the human world (presumably the same cave from Bec). Dervish has been given the duty to protect the cave and make sure nobody else can unleash the Demonata. Although hard to accept at first, Grubbs and Bill-E play along after being investigated by the police.
One week later Grubbs returns to school. The psychologist has left the school, and a new one has come as a replacement. Grubbs is sent to meet her and finds out it is Juni Swan, a psychologist that Grubbs and Dervish met on the set of Slawter. Juni helps Grubbs, Bill-E, and their friends to cope with Loch's death, and soon everyone seems to be dealing fine. However tensions increase as Juni meets up with Dervish and both become romantically involved, eventually moving in with Dervish. Juni tells Grubbs and Dervish that since Slawter, her magic has advanced tremendously. This encourages Dervish, and he teaches her more spells and continues to see her more and more.
In the following days Grubbs becomes more aware of the impending doom of his curse. Not only that, but he begins to notice a tramp coincidentally appearing around Carcery Vale. The tramp has an appearance nearly identical to Beranabus from Demon Thief, and may in fact be him. This is supported by the fact that Dervish attempts to contact Beranabus slightly before the tramp appears. On one of his late night jogs, Grubbs notices the tramp near by the cave, the tramp tells him, "It won't be long." This immediately leads to Grubbs suspicion that Dervish called the Lambs. Grubbs gets Juni to ask Dervish about this for him, and she claims that Dervish did call them, but also goes on to tell him that she'll do whatever it takes to stop Grubbs from being killed, and that she sees him as her own son. It is not known whether Dervish did actually call the Lambs or if the people Grubbs attacks while escaping the cellar are actually Lambs, as Juni may very likely have lied to Grubbs about Dervish's call.
For several nights around the time of the full moon, Grubbs has what he describes as a battle between his human and werewolf sides. During these times, he is in extreme pain while Juni and Dervish need to hold him down. Grubbs suggests that they put him in a cage that Dervish owns for the next night. During that evening, while in the cage, Juni suggests that Dervish leaves while she performs a dangerous spell to help Grubbs. Once Dervish is gone, she frees Grubbs from the cage, then passionately kisses him when he shows his desire to die at the hands of the lambs, claiming that she will not let him be killed while there may be hope. She says that they should go to meet up at the cave. he then breaks out of the cage, and battles 3 of what he believes are Lambs, dispatching them easily.
Grubbs runs to the cave, where he loses control again and turns into a werewolf. When he returns to his normal state, Grubbs finds that he has killed Ma & Pa Spleen, Bill-E's grandparents and legal guardians. Not wanting to kill again, Juni says that the two of them need to run away from Dervish and the Lambs to protect Grubbs, both from his own death and the deaths of others.
The two of them go to an airport, and board a plane, all of which is very distant to Grubbs. He falls asleep while on the plane. When he awakes, the plane is shaking, apparently due to turbulence. However, soon the cockpit opens and demons appear on the plane, Artery first and then the scorpion-like creature from the front of the book, along with another rabbit-like demon. They both begin killing the passengers on the plane. Finally, Lord Loss appears in the plane, stunning the passengers. Juni appears next to him and reveals that she summoned him and is actually an agent of Lord Loss. The book ends with her declaring, "He's all yours, master." The book ends on a 'to be continued', with the words "What the hell's coming next?" underneath the title Book Six...
[edit] Demon Apocalypse
At the end of book five Grubbs Grady was on a plane with Juni Swan (who betrays Grubbs and his uncle) when Lord Loss opens a window to the plane and along with a few of his familiars, who attack the passengers. Grubbs then learns of Juni's treachery, and he seems to be doomed. He is saved just in time by Beranabus and they both jump from the plane. During Grubbs' free fall Beranabus teaches him how to fly and also tells him that he is a magician but concealed it from everyone, even himself, his entire life. They both fly to a cave in a desert. They enter a room below the cave which is closed by magic. There Grubbs meets Kernel Fleck for the first time. Kernel has lost the tips of two of his fingers, and appears disdainful of Grubbs.
Grubbs still thinks he's a monster, believing that he killed Ma and Pa Spleen. However, Beranabus tells him a spell he can use to see what really happened. It turns out that while he was in the cave before he and Juni fled, Juni subdued him with magic and did something odd- she chanted a long spell and cut Grubbs, smearing his blood on the rock. Grubbs tells Beranabus this and Beranabus supposes it must be some way of contacting Lord Loss. However nothing happens and Lord Loss's voice can be heard saying "Billy Spleen". Juni goes to fetch Bill-E, leaving Grubbs in the cave, but while she is gone, Grubbs breaks his bonds with magic and goes to try and protect Bill-E. When he gets there he discovers he is too late- Juni has already killed the Spleens and is dragging an unconcious Bill-E back to the cave. Grubbs fights her and is about to kill her when he regains conciousness and Juni convinces him that he killed Ma and Pa. Grubbs ends the vision, elated that he is not the killer he thought he was.
Beranabus convinces Grubbs to go to the Demonata's Universe. When faced with danger, Grubbs escapes back to the cave and leaves Beranabus and Kernel to kill the demon. Grubbs waits seven weeks for them in the cave. Whilst in the cave waiting for them both to return, Grubbs hears knocking from above but can not open the cave door as its magically sealed. Once they return Grubbs sees a picture which Beranabus owns, depicting a girl, and tells Beranabus he has seen the girl in the cave at Carcery Vale. When Beranabus teaches Grubbs a spell to remember and repeat what the girl's face said to him while he was in the cave, the girl speaks through Grubbs in a language only Beranabus understands. He is troubled by what is said and whilst discussing it they are disturbed by the knocking again. Kernel lets the woman in who turns out to be Sharmila. She informs them that the demons entered through the tunnel and are being organised to take land as well as kill. The government is involved and are bombing the demons with little impact. The Disciples are helping as much as possible.
The four take Sharmila's private jet to meet the remaining disciples to fight the demons at Carcery Vale. The plan is to enter the cave and destroy the tunnel opening. Beranabus, Kernel and Grubbs head directly to the cave opening while the others battle demons. Lord Loss appears and taunts Grubbs by showing him the heads of his uncle and his friends, however Bill-E is not there. Kernel has his eyes stabbed out and filled with maggots by the demon Spine. Bec appears in the ground at Grubbs' feet and they connect hands. A magic barrier protects them from the demons and the sky begins to come down. When Kernel joins them the three form the Kah-Gash (a weapon that could destroy a universe, when Kah-Gash is formed neither Grubbs, Kernel or Bec have control over their magical abilities) but they use it to reverse time. Beranabus, Kernel and Grubbs arrive back to the night the tunnel is opened.
Inside the cave Bill-E and Dervish are being held there by Lord Loss, Juni and his familiars. As Juni performs the spell to open the tunnel, Beranabus, Grubbs and a blind Kernel battle the familiars. Lord Loss and Artery battle Beranabus who changes colour whilst battling. Beranabus questions who Lord Loss is working for as Lord Loss thrives on human misery and by unleashing millions of demons on the world he will soon lose his prey. Grubbs frees his uncle and his brother. Previously, Bill-E has been told the truth about him and Grubbs by Lord Loss. Dervish battles with Juni and her glamour is wiped by Beranabus who reveals her true identity, Nadia Moore. Eventually after trying to be seduced by nadia as juni, Dervish kills her by dropping her on a stalagmite. However, the spell is not broken and Grubbs understands that it is really Bill-E who is the "key" to the tunnel's opening, due to his unintentional sacrifice of Loch (as Loch clung on to the rock, Bill-E had offered a hand to help but then whipped it away, just as Loch plunged to his death). Grubbs makes the hard decision to kill his brother to stop tunnel from opening. They catch a glimpse of a huge demon trying to enter. Bec enters Bill-E's dead body (she had travelled back in time inside Grubbs) and casts powerful spells destroying Artery and Spine. Lord Loss flees taking Nadia's/Juni's body with him.
During the battle Grubbs figures out what Juni was doing in the cave when she cut him. She was trying to open the gate-way, and thought Grubbs killed Loch, that he turned into a werewolf in the cave and murdered him. However when she cut him and nothing happened, Lord Loss realised it was Bill-E who killed Loch, not Grubbs, and sent Juni to fetch him.
Bec transforms Bill-E's body into her own and is reunited with Beranabus, previously called Bran (as in 'Bec'). Beranabus reveals that the reason he's lived for so long is that he is half demon (as his mother bred with the Demonata), and battles with that evil side of himself every day, just like Grubbs has to fight his inner werewolf. Beranabus and Kernel are set to leave to go back to the Demonata universe to find out why this all happened, and Grubbs joins them leaving Bec to catch up on the last thousands of years and look after Dervish.
[edit] Powers
Grubbs Grady is a magician even though he hid it from himself. He has large amounts of power at his fingertips, even when demons are not around. He was even able to hide his magic when Dervish probed into his brain, something that is supposed to be impossible. The exact extent of his powers is unknown, but he was able to severely hinder Lord Loss in Slawter while Dervish couldn't even cause Lord Loss to flinch. Dervish believed he might be a magician like Beranabus or Bartholomew, this was confirmed in Demon Apocalypse.
Some people have magic with in them, however it usually remains dormant unless the person sees something magical like a Demon attack, or uses magic in an area where lots of mystical energy is present, and they become aware that they have powers. From this the Disciples, (others that have become aware of their powers and answer to a magician known as Beranabus), can contact the person that has become aware and attempt to recruit them in to the ranks of the other Disciples to travel around the world and stop demons from passing into our Universe. Some people choose not to get involved and some do.
Most of the disciples have very limited powers unless in the presence of the Demons or in the Demon universe. However, Grubbs managed to disable large security flood lights and turn concrete blocks to mud-like sludge so they can be scooped out of a wall. There were demons there inside D workshop in the book Slawter so he might have been able to tap into the demons magic at that time. He does a few spells that are average in power but near the end creates a barrier that demons cannot pass, something which Dervish could not do. At first Grubbs believes he was only able to use magic in the presence of demons but at the end of Slawter he tests his powers, where he is not in the presence of demons and finds that he can make his reflection disappear and change light. Only a few people can use magic outside of the demon universe, and to be able to do it without training means that Grubbs is extremely powerful and is also a magician like Beranabus. He is told this in Demon Apocalypse, by Beranabus when falling to the ground after being attacked on the plane by Lord Loss. Grubbs confirms this by flying to ground with Beranabus.
He has shown great cunning, emphasized in his chess match with Lord Loss. When he realizes that the demon master is feeding off his disappointment in losing pieces, he puts on a happy facade and defeats him. Although he wasn't as good at chess as Lord Loss, he confused the demon which caused him to make mistakes.
He also has the powers to fight off his own wolfen gene, which no other Grady has done before, and is able to retain at least a certain degree of awareness when he turns into a wolf. He can also turn glass into flowers or butterflies, as well as being able to fly.
Due to this potentially immense power, it is confirmed Demon Apocalypse that, like Kernel Fleck, Grubbs is part of the Kah-Gash when, in that book, he, Kernel and Bec link hands and travel back in time.
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