Shawn Thorton

Legally blind from a young age, Shawn was adopted by his best friend’s father, Bruce. As an adult, he has found a way to reach past his reclusive lifestyle, giving him the ability to find his true calling.

Background
Unable to remember his childhood prior to the age of 12, Shawn doesn't question his past or where his superhuman abilities come from. Bruce adopted Shawn without question when he picked up his son, Jaxon, at "an orphanage" in the late 90s after a horrific "work accident" that killed Shawn's parents and Jaxon's mother.

At Bruce's urging, he has kept his abilities hidden the entire time he's lived in Redborough with his adoptive father and brother, Jaxon. Quick to learn and goofy as hell, Shawn wants nothing more than to help people who can't help themselves. He's too caring for a superhero, honestly, which of course, is what gets him caught up in Emma's scheme to infiltrate his group of friends and family. But damn, does it make him likable anyway.

Shawn is extremely impulsive, which of course, also gets him into trouble. He tends to jump into fights before scoping them out, assuming his superpowers will protect him from anything fatal, which has worked...so far.

Speaking of his abilities, it's important to note that Shawn has super strength, heals very quickly, and can run faster and jump higher than any living human. The only people who know about his abilities when A Grim Trilogy starts are Bruce, Jaxon, and Cassie. After the events in Grim Inception, Shawn is filled with hatred for Vance and his employees, spurring his ambition (I had to) to create Grim. While Bruce is kept in the dark about his adoptive son's decision to become a vigilante, Shawn recruits his adoptive brother, Jaxon, to help him create the suit. Cassie is also in on the fight, who initially approaches Shawn about revenge against Vance after Alex gunned down a room full of people, including her sister, Julie, Jaxon's fiancee. Knowing she had ties to Vance's people through Henry, Shawn and Jaxon agreed to create Grim.

What sets Shawn apart from many other superheroes is that he believes letting criminals face the justice system is a waste of time, so, well, he just kills 'em. Bashes their heads in, cuts their throats, basically just wipes them out by any means possible. Which is kind of ironic when Emma, a Vance employee, begins to infiltrate his life, expertly seducing him and gaining his full trust. Boy, does that not turn out well. Is he going to kill her once he finds out she was a fraud? Or will the fact that she hates working for Vance and wants to help Shawn take him down be enough for him to break his own rules? Man, you should really read the books if you haven't already!

Personal Life
Shawn calls himself an introvert because he prefers to stay at home and tinker with his Grim projects. When he does go out, he likes to keep it to his close knit group of Jaxon, Cassie, and occasionally Bruce. Shawn is happy keeping his loved ones to a minimum, as most heroes do. However, when he meets Emma McRae in Grim Ambition, he topples head over heels...something she totally planned. Way to go, man.

Of course, once he finds out that Emma is a plant, things kind of, well, spiral out of control and into chaos (again, I HAD to!). Once Shawn and Jaxon find their way off the rooftop of Isaac's apartment in the end of Ambition, we see Shawn starting to question his decisions as Grim, something that does NOT sit well with his brother Jaxon.

Speaking of his adoptive brother, Shawn loves Jaxon dearly, regardless of Jax's constant irritability and gloominess. Shawn understands that his brother has always been this way, but since Julie's death, it's worsened. However, since simply talking with Jaxon doesn't ever seem to cut it, Shawn prefers to keep a positive, goofy demeanor and silently keep an eye on his brother, protecting him from a distance.

Shawn also gets along well with Bruce; he actually got his sense of humor from his adoptive father, and the two are quite similar when it comes to personalities, which makes sense, since Bruce basically raised Shawn before the adoption. Wait, what? I thought Shawn was adopted, what do I mean Bruce raised him before...? Crap, I've said too much...! Moving on!

=== Grim Inception (A Grim Trilogy 0.5) A Grim Short Story Prequel === Shawn's only appearance in Grim Inception is at the very end, during Julie's funeral. He comforts Cassie and Jaxon as Henry looks on from afar.

Grim Ambition (A Grim Trilogy #1) (HUGE SPOILERS)
Shawn is first seen in Grim Ambition as Grim, beating the ever-loving crap out of some Vance employees. It's pretty badass. He's attacking a bunch of higher ups in Vance's ranks, who grouped together after the Russian was attacked (poisoned by Cassie under Shawn's command). Unfortunately, this wasn't the plan Shawn, Jaxon, and Cassie came up with. After the poisoning, Shawn was to return home, but of course, since he's sooooo impulsive and vengeful, he goes after Alex and the other Vance employees anyway, even though he is greatly outnumbered ("I had a bomb. What, you wanted me to just bring it back home?"). At first, he is able to take out quite a few of the criminals, but is eventually shot (just a graze, don't worry!). When he's retreating, Vance's crooked cop, Officer Grant Halpern, gets the best of Shawn and beats his face with a metal pipe a few times before Shawn is able to get away. See, Shawn? Think first, don't just run in blind! (#punintended) He returns home to Jaxon, who cleans his wounds while basically telling his brother he's a dumbass for nearly getting killed. Cassie arrives with bad news: even though he ate all of the poison, Vance is expected to survive, and now his guards are doubled, meaning reaching the crime boss is now impossible.

Shawn is almost fully healed the next day. While he's at lunch with Cassie and Jaxon, he starts to realize that he's seeing things. I mean, he can't see much more than a big blur without his mask on (for more information on how he sees while he is Grim, read up on the vigilante's page), but suddenly, shadows are flitting around. Shawn describes them to himself as "holes in his vision." It doesn't happen often, but when it does, it freaks him out (duh). He thinks he's beginning to lose what little sight he has, and decides to lay off Grim outings for a while to see if that helps. He considers telling Jaxon, but as his brother becomes more and more aggressive and depressed, Shawn decides to keep the information to himself.

Jaxon fixes up the Grim mask and adds a few tweaks to it. While his brother is working, Shawn lightly urges him to move on from Julie, as it's been two years since her death, and they are doing everything they can to get justice for her. Jaxon tells his brother not to push it, and begins to act odd, but Shawn dismisses it, assuming his brother is uncomfortable with the conversation. After a bit more probing, Jaxon confesses he hasn't been sleeping well, and doesn't mean to be such an asshole. Against his better judgment, Shawn decides to go out as Grim while Jaxon spends some alone time with Cassie.

Having caught wind of a weapons deal going down that night, Shawn strikes the meetup. He kills the Vance employees in some pretty fun ways, wiping out more criminal filth and leaving his signature logo at the scene.

Shawn decides to accompany Cassie and Jaxon at a local bar, The Ruffian, even though his brother is, yet again, mad at him (for how he handled the weapons deal take down). Jaxon is having a rough night, and still being a douche, forcing shots on Shawn and Cassie until Shawn tells him enough is enough. Unfortunately, the onslaught of booze begins to mess with his head, and when Cassie mentions she thinks they're being followed, things start to go downhill for our hero. They bar hop until they lose the two men, a dark-skinned man with a goatee and an older man with greying hair and a beard, but their success is short-lived.

With his head swimming, Shawn finds himself trapped in a very realistic flashback of a bloody scene. He watches as a woman he determines to be his mother is torn apart by a dark figure made of smoke, a kind of wraith. He realizes that the shadows in his vision look similar to the wraith, pulling up the thoughts that maybe he killed his own mother when he was younger, and suppressed the horror of the memory. In the vision, a terrified pre-teen Shawn runs from what he's witnessing, only to pop back to the bar in present time, on the ground and with vomit on his shirt. Jax and Cassie help him up and take him home, where they put him to bed. However, once they leave his room, Shawn tosses and turns, his mind and consciousness still swimming. Suddenly, his phone rings. It's a mystery caller, yay! As if Shawn doesn't have enough to worry about right now! This mystery caller basically tells him he isn't really blind, and hints at the fact that Shawn's sight could possibly be fixed. Of course, the call is disconnected before more information can be given, and the number no longer works when Shawn calls it back. Frustrated, scared, and druuuuunk, Shawn sits in the quiet darkness wondering what to do.

The next day, a hungover Shawn joins a hungover Jaxon in the kitchen and they finally begin to talk about what's going on with Shawn's spotty vision. He does not mention the phone call, which he decides was just a prank. He begins to question what is going on with Jax when the buzzer sounds, and they realize their father, Bruce, is already there for the Thanksgiving holiday. They put the conversation on hold. That night at dinner, everything goes smoothly until Jaxon freaks everyone out by dropping a metal shaker on the ground while attempting to make his father a martini. As Shawn jumps to his feet, crouched and ready for anything to be happening, a large shadow flits through his vision again. Okay, now he's freaked out.

Later that night, Shawn can't sleep yet again. #JustSuperheroThings right? He is worried about his vision. Do the spots and shadows mean his sight is getting worse or disappearing? Why can't he remember his past? Why is Jaxon being such a douchy little bitch? And what is UP with that weird phone call? Shawn had written it off as a prank call, true, but was it? Was it really, Shawn? Methinks everything in the Grim universe happens for a reason. Anyway, he gets up and wanders his house only to hear a muffled voice. He nears his adoptive father's room only to hear him say, "Promise neither will be hurt," and "send them," stuff like that. He confronts Bruce only to be have the issue dismissed. Shawn knows his dad is lying, but decides to deal with it later.

Jaxon and Cassie attend a re-opening of one of their favorite spots, The Dirty Martini. While there they meet a friendly, goofy bartender. Oh, and Emma. Emma's there, and she's ready to infiltrate the fuck out of them, which she does. And this, friends, is where everything begins to unravel into ... duh duh duhhhhh ... CHAOS! And no, I'm not spoiling the end.

Grim Judgment (A Grim Trilogy #2)
Coming soon. Like, after the book is released.

Grim Vengeance (A Grim Trilogy #3)
Coming soon. Again, once the book is released. Psh. Come on.