Dr. Grinker (from Psi High)

Ear icon By Filipos Trineros in the Noun project.

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Dr. Grinker (23)

Project: YA Novel (Psi High)

Known as: Dr. Grinker

Real name: Lenard Grinker

Group affiliation: School staff

Physical description: Grinker is in his 50ies, though he looks more like he is in his 60ies. He is overweight, mostly bald (though he wears a terrible toupee which is dark brown on his remaining gray hair) and has a scraggly beard. His eyes are small and watery, and he sniffles a lot (maybe the poor guy has allergies).

Personality: Grinker seems perpetually distracted, as if he’s always thinking of something else no matter what he is doing. Furthermore, he can be testy when someone pushes him to pay more attention to the matters at hand. This carries over to his teaching, where he has memorized lectures to the degree that he is almost on autopilot when lecturing. Questions from the class disrupts this autopilot so he is often cranky and dismissive of questions when they come. Thus he is a lousy and mean teacher.

He is smart but not brilliant. He considers himself quite brilliant and feels the world has failed to properly recognize it. He is distracted as he’s thinking about his inventions and believing that one day they will succeed, and he’ll get the respect he deserves. So, add a little arrogance and delusion to the mix.

History: Grinker was a biology professor at a mid-level university. An Electi (hyper hearing) doing research on Electi, he managed to have some luck securing grants for his research. Largely around using biofeedback to enhance Electi abilities and the effects of certain herbs/chemicals on Electi. The problem was his work did not yield anything useful and both the likelihood of tenure and his grant prospects were starting to look grim.

He foolishly began to fudge research data to keep his prospects alive. While his “results” started to get him so notoriety, the inability for anyone to replicate his results called them into question. Not bothering to falsify the raw data, his subterfuge was eventually uncovered. A minor scandal emerged, and he was summarily dismissed.

However, he had used his abilities to overhear some information about and exchanges between key people. Some vague threats did help him get a position as a science teacher at one of the Electi high schools (Coldwater of course) as well as some minor funding to continue his research in a semi-informal way.

A terrible and irritable teacher his mind is usually on his half-baked ideas to enhance Electi abilities. Students can volunteer for his studies for mild compensation and privileges. This usually means the poorer and less successful students tend to most often be his test subjects. Several of the Omegas are practically forced to as part of their scholarships. Ironically, this does not include Jeep as his unusual physiology causes Grinker to not want to use Jeep in his studies.

Grinker has occasionally made a few students feel ill but otherwise has accomplished nothing with his efforts at Coldwater. He knows not to falsify data again but students (and even some of the faculty) fear he might start experimenting more wildly.

Role in the narrative: Grinker will drive some plot (Mateo will be falsely accused of theft by him). Largely, however, he is a bit of a red herring. The administration keeps enough of an eye on things that his more excessive impulses will be kept in check. Still, he will seem like a bad guy (because he is one) but he is not moustache-twisting evil. More of just an ineffectual jerk.

He will seem like a likely candidate to the students for more sinister events that occur.

Abilities: The most common form of Electi power is SSP. Where ESP (extra sensory perception) is rare, Super Sensory Perception is not unique. Someone with SSP can usually enhance only one of the senses, and it takes focus and concentration to do so.

Grinker can enhance his hearing with concentration, roughly to that of a canine. He does have to be careful, as a sudden loud noise close to him will cause him pain.

Inspirations: A little bit of Snape, I suppose, though Grinker isn’t effective enough to really be as sinister as Snape. Also, he has no personal axes to grind he’s just frustrated.