Grain

Real Name:Lots of them; originally Ambrose
Renegade Name:Grain
Title:None yet; Actions will speak for themselves.
Alignment:Lots, but they sum up to Lawful Neutral
Age:27
Gender:Very situational
Race:Human
Hair:Brown
Eyes:Green-hazel
Height:185 cm/6'1"
Weight:around 60 kg/130 lbs
Blood type:O+



A lanky human. Their face is unattractively ambigendrous, with both feminine and masculine features that do not work well together. The overall silhouette of the body is feminine, but they can also grow facial hair. Close inspection reveals several irregularities due to genetic disorders and other defects: a falling eyelid, a concave chest, a slightly bent spine, the list goes on - overall not a lucky fellow.

They dress for practicality first and comfort second. Many of their clothes are hand-me downs or stretched to their limit from years of use, but they have proper attire for when the situation requires it. Tends to avoid denim jeans.




Due to their powers, a comprehensive summary of the mind that houses Grain is impossible - there is an ever shifting cavalcade of personalities within, interacting and cooperating with each other in  obscure ways.
Grain themselves, however, is a particular arrangement of their greater whole, created to interact with the metanormal world, and in that, something akin to a personality can be found.

One could say Grain is a kind, compassionate being who sees value in all other living things. However, they only have passing respect for the free will of others, subtly influencing others around them, ostensibly to improve their lives, but more directly to benefit themselves. The consent of others is welcome... but not always strictly necessary. They are egotistical, with many of their constituent personalities suffering from a god complex. They have total confidence they can help anyone become a better version of themselves, and it doesn't help they're often correct in that assessment.

Criminals and other downtrodden, then, while treated as people, to care for and nurture, are also assets to them, faulty ones, who are to be fixed, refined and improved. In doing so, a rehabilitation of sorts is achieved, into productive members of society - the fact that productiveness often benefits Grain is just a bonus.

Ideology limits their darker impulses. When their opaque code allows for causing violence and pain, they relish in it. They are frugal and resent waste, but indulge with abandon in any comfort they deem necessary for their own optimal mental state. They also have a deep respect for how other people live their lives and do not interfere with them - until they find amendable flaws and preventable mistakes, in which case, they will very much interfere.


Once called Ambrose, this renegade was but a child of a no-name wetland, from a once middle-class family whose fortune fell steadily with the times. In early childhood, they(maybe he, back then, maybe she? They are not sure) found their talent. Details others would miss or would simply consider insignificant, now had, to Ambrose, an evident purpose, one to join together to create a greater whole, more than the sum of their parts.  In short, they have the ability to collect, and collate, granular data, the smallest building block of information available about something.
This power didn't come with enhanced senses, or intelligence(in most ways, Grain remains kind of dumb to this day). However, perhaps by sheer coincidence, Ambrose was born with odor-personality synesthesia - that is, crossed signals in their brain caused their impression of a person to also create the sensation of a particular smell. This made Ambrose acutely aware of what their empathy told them about someone.

Other people fascinated the young Ambrose. As this interest was hard for a child to explain, no one really knew it would fester into an all-consuming obsession. They became a hoarder, not of money or useless tat, but personality traits. Quirks, flaws, passions, pet peeves, virtues, sins, all were amassed within them, built into an increasingly bloated whole, with no concern of how they'd fit together once they are inside.
Ambrose's behavior became more and more erratic and unstable, as the many contradictory traits within them undermined an increasingly tortured and confused mind. Then, at the end, in a mind-shattering mental breakdown, Ambrose was no more, swept away in the tide of their own hubris.

The broken young person who was left behind spent its formative years in and out of schools, asylums and odd jobs, unable to get a grip on themselves, languishing in agony they lacked the sanity to comprehend. Why them? Where does it come from?

Eventually, from that mass of mental sludge, structure emerged. Then another. Then another. Then countless more. What one personality couldn't handle, many might. Like drew to like, and formed an army, all united by their shared experience, and their shared question. Eventually, the answer was found: They did it to themselves. All of it was their own damn fault.

Discouraged, but this time unbroken, they retreated into the mind. While only moments passed outside, they lived and prospered for generations in an imaginary world of their creation. And from this, they learned. They improved, themselves, and each other. Each a drop in a shallow ocean, a grain of sand, forming part of a greater whole. They could never unify into one, single personality again, not with so many incompatible ideas - but this would be the next best thing.

And finally, after eons from their own perspective, emerged Grain. They were broken, and they fixed themselves. Now they knew how to fix others. They would fix everyone.


Data Collection
Grain notices new information at a rate that puts supercomputers to shame. They can effectively process several million minute details at any given moment without breaking a sweat, and tell the smallest difference between two objects or abstractions just as quickly. It can recognize impending threats such as disguises, concealed weapons, or even just ill intent, giving Grain precious time to prepare for a confrontation.

People are more nuanced - grasping someone's surface features is not the same as knowing them -, but Grain will, at least, know what to do to open them up and learn everything they need, given enough time. Even extremely fine detail can give Grain useful information - the only way to truly avoid giving them intel is to never talk to them in the first place. The more Grain knows about a person, the better they can influence that person in turn. This can take the form of advice...or something more insidious(see below).

Much of what this ability can achieve relies on Grain's previous experiences. An average Joe is easier to learn about in this way than a super, who often lead unique lives with features Grain might not have encountered before. But they can get a working knowledge of anyone, eventually. They will routinely have something useful in about two hours, and everything they need to manipulate an average person in a day or two.  Just being near someone is enough, but interacting with them in private is optimal.

The Scent of Your True Self
Synesthesia by itself is not a power - plenty of people have it, and most of them are not supers. Combined with Grain's previous ability, though, Grain's impressions of others are superhumanly accurate. Even a perfect physical disguise may fail before their nose if the person underneath is someone they know, and false pretenses do not fare much better under their scrutiny.
This ability doesn't require the target to have a literal, distinctive scent, but it does require Grain to have a working sense of smell. It works better in sterile environments, while particularly strong smells around them hinder it.

Identity Creation
Perhaps Grain's strongest ability, they are able to remake people, piece by piece. This is not, strictly speaking, a superhuman power. Every person can influence others, and Grain does it the same way, but they Are supernaturally good at it, easily sneaking new ideas into people's heads without them realizing it. Given enough time, Grain can make alterations in anyone, but considering the time investment and the risk, using it on supers is a dangerous undertaking. It is best used on the vulnerable and the unsure. Though, someone stable and confident cannot be taken down a peg in a pinch...

An inward application of this ability allows Grain to add another personality to their roster, or change those they already have. The former is excellent for infiltration and making friends. Using the latter, they can work through personal flaws they discover about themselves very quickly - even in an instant, if they know enough about the flaw itself.

It is also possible to impersonate someone, at least in text, and replicate personality prerequisites of some magical artifacts(Rightful kings, pure of heart, that sort of thing). This usage isn't reliable. If its creators thought a gestalt entity might cheat their prophecy on a technicality and made preparations in accordance, Grain would be out of luck. That said, a magical item with a mind of its own might still be persuaded to treat them as a rightful wielder when their interests collide, even if it recognizes Grain isn't the genuine article.

Life Simulation
Grain can run realistic scenarios in their head, to amass new skills and wisdom.
Knowledge gained in this way is purely mental. While Grain could, say, replicate existing martial arts, or invent new ones(as a matter of fact, they have invented several), and they know the right mindset for it, they would lack the physical discipline or muscle memory to be truly competent at it until they put in the work. In other words, a combination of instant, exhaustive knowledge, and some idea of the emotional experience, but no practical training.
They can become slightly better than a novice in a given skill after few seconds of real time, as long as Grain's grasp of the fundamentals is correct. They can also use it to play at being an expert, though an actual expert will easily see through them flailing about with knowledge Grain doesn't truly understand.

Mind of Many
What's contained inside Grain's mind is vast beyond normal human comprehension. Psychics who try to interact with it carelessly are in for a nasty surprise, overwhelmed by sheer volume.

But the real danger ahead are the many personalities comprising Grain. They will handily notice a intruder, have exceptional self-control, and many are all too eager to practice their manipulation skills on someone's mind directly, remaking the hapless attacker in their image.

In short, Grain is extremely resilient to telepathic attacks, and can retaliate by using their powers over personality more directly, rewriting the attacker's mind.




Grain's ability to alter people's identity, though subtle, relies on entirely mundane channels. In turn, mundane training in mental resilience can block it out entirely. This is readily available to secret agents, diplomats, military attachés and the like.  Teaching one of Grain's targets such techniques does not undo or reveal changes they have made in the target's mind, but it will prevent further tampering.

Grain, furthermore, suffers from an abysmal spatial sense. This makes them extremely poorly coordinated. They misjudge distances, often colliding, fumbling or falling onto obstacles or other people. While they can dodge incoming attacks just fine, in doing so, they can accidentally throw themselves off a cliff.  They also have trouble exerting fine control over tools and weapons. They could, for instance, wield a sword effectively, but in attempting fancy maneuvers of dramatic flairs with it, they are more likely to hurt themselves than anyone else.

Opponents whose powers can create obstacles can use it to severely damage, slow down or incapacitate Grain. Too many powers are capable of this to count, but the list includes elemental powers, gadgets, tele- and psychokinesis, and more.

Finally, Grain has a crippling fear of brain trauma. Far as they're concerned, their brain contains many people, perhaps what amounts to a small civilization, and the idea of it entering decline after everything they've done to build it is more terrifying than its eventual destruction at the time of their death. In other words, their life suddenly snuffing out is a bearable idea; falling apart from brain damage is very much not. They will sacrifice anything at hand to block a blow to the head;  when the threat of such attacks is too frequent or ever-present, they will escape to find shelter from it; if such an attack would be otherwise unavoidable, they will surrender. Similar reactions are elicited by similar threats, such as lobotomy, radiation, powers which can cause brain tumors, and so on.



Nothing in particular, though Grain can easily hustle together some mundane equipment ahead of time for a given mission, and they are reasonably competent with any weapon meant for humans. If they do not have a way to contact their wider network of minions, they are actively working towards gaining access.



Grain has plenty of mundane people as their contacts, and using their abilities, they can easily get many more. They do not have people everywhere, but they Can get people anywhere by putting in the effort. Their influence over these minions vary, as does the minions' awareness of that influence.



With so many personalities, many of whom excel at obfuscation, they are very good at hiding it, but Grain is, as a whole, pretty stupid.

Doesn't really play volleyball, but they do have an excellent underhand serve. Not so great at the rest of the game.


'Heeey' Grain's cheery voice rings in the not-so-far distance, getting her to finally raise her head from her slump. The door opens. 'I brought cookies.'

'I don't want any. Take it away.'

'You have your job back.'

'I - what?' She said in palpable shock. 'How-?'

'Yeah, well, your boss wasn't exactly keen to fire You in particular in the first place. Just downsizing, you know? But without all that pesky severance and what have you.'

Grain takes a seat beside her on the bed, resting their chin on their hands. The cookie jar between the two. A stomach rumbles.

'The speech HR gave you about your behavior was just a smokescreen. They've caught on to your record and thought they could smear you with it.'

'That's good to know...' Her tone turned from showing disbelief to curiosity, wanting to see where this is going.'So..?'

'So I wasn't super happy about them firing one of my proteges over a fabricated reason. Anyway, it's a crime. I moved my weight around a bit. There is a you-shaped hole in your old department.'

'I'm not sure I want to go back anymore. If that's what they did to me...'

'Oh, I wouldn't worry about that. Your boss is one of mine, now. Take the cookies, would you? Your blood sugar is down. It will make you feel better.'

With some reluctance, she finally reaches for the cookie jar.

'My "blood sugar"?'

' You forget to eat when you are sad. You hate the cafeteria. No takeout. Pantry's empty. And the dishwasher's bone dry. I can go on if you want?'

'Heh...'