Grayscale

> "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Grayscale. I'm a Protector. At least, an ex-Protector. I have founded this group that I'm looking at right now, and their members unfairly exiled me quite some time ago. My own second-in-command even tried to murder me for no reason. Anyhow, I'm planning to enact some sort of revenge. I'm not gonna tell you the details, because I don't even know you. However, if you want to kill Mario, I'd be happy to assist you. I have the Preservers in this city right now.
>
>

> -Grayscale [1]
>
>

**Grayscale** is the commander of the Preservers, a rival organization to the Protectors. She was the original founder and the first Commander of the Protectors before she was ousted from them due to her self-motivated ambitions involving unethical treatment of the members. She is known to be intelligent, witty, and arrogant, contributing to her sense of pride and her frequent condescending attitude towards people she does not respect, which is pretty much everyone, including her former second-in-command, Dark Light. Currently, she is the manager of Gray's Car Wash, which also serves as the current base of operations for the Preservers.

Grayscale is characterized by her tall, imposing appearance in relation to other diminutives, her mechanical suit being inspired from science fiction, and her giant axe, which she always carries around primarily to intimidate her opponents. Her name is self-explanatory: it is derived from grayscale, an image processing technique that represents only in shades of gray monochrome.

## Background

Grayscale had always been ambitious and bold, and the foundation of the Protectors was her idea. She wanted the diminutives to be more than just tiny guys who had always been dwarfed by rival species, and while she was far taller than average, she felt how condescending taller people, especially humans, act towards them, who were perceived as babies. She had undertaken multiple quests and adventures to cater to powering them up, and these escapades eventually led to the creation of a specific Protector energy, which was essentially a magical steroid that enhanced a diminutive's abilities. All of these were undertaken in specific training regimes Grayscale had set up, similar to military bootcamp, and it involved Protectors not only adjusting to these abilities, but also fighting the frequent monsters that inhabited the place Grayscale chose: Wild Woods. The specific techs and processes are currently still kept secrets that only Grayscale and Dark Light know.

The Protectors used to be solely composed of just Grayscale, where she initially thought she could handle the burden of Protecting all her own and she had trust issues with others. However, the burden proved too great of a deal for Grayscale; she recruited members though none of the original members survived the eventual purge and their current whereabouts are unknown. Regardless, the increasing workload and increase of her ambitions in her desire to grow more powerful, also inspired from entities more powerful than herself such as Bowser, eventually contributed to the environment that led to Dark Light expelling her and her loyal members from the group.

Grayscale and the rest of the Preservers were exiled after the trials, which stripped her of her superpowers. However, they cannot strip her knowledge and experience, so she quickly rebounded and got even more powerful as a result, and it led to her rescuing the exiled Preservers, who were told to regroup in Mushroom City as soon as she found out the Protectors were residing in Mushroom City.

## History

The very first mention of Grayscale was in post #5,404, infiltrating Dark Light's dream. She appeared as a disembodied voice in the dream, and Dark Light was in a trance. She mocked Dark Light's incapacitation, calling her "frail", made fun of the idea of Redshift being her "Prince Phillip" and suggested that her subordinates should not act this emotionally attached considering that they're warriors and the emotional attachment takes away from their main goals.

Grayscale then appeared post #6,645, where she now displayed herself as an imposing, ambiguous figure in Redshift's dream. In this dream she was also Redshift's "guardian angel" and also mocked his moment of weakness, claiming that he was overall a burden in the group. It is unknown how she found out about Redshift, though at this point, she was already aware of the Protectors and her dream seeking abilities were rather potent on Protectors, which can infiltrate their dreams easily (but not know their exact location). When Redshift was about to wake, she sliced Redshift in her dream with the axe to wake him up.

Grayscale then appears in post #7,033, where she barged into the Pasta Pit while Ray Trace and Chroma Key (who was embodied as a Mario at the time) were having an eating competition. She demands the location of the Protectors, where Ray Trace provided the coordinates. The coordinates shocked Grayscale since she did not expect to find the Protector base in Mushroom City out of all places, and it was her stroke of luck. The incident turned out to be a dream as Grayscale immediately left, waking up the characters in the Pasta Pit. When the characters went back to the Protector Base to describe what happened to them, as they feared for a future attack, Dark Light reluctantly clarified the details and explained who Grayscale is and why she was a threat to the Protectors.

She resided in the Dream World, being an ally of Wart, and her powers were enhanced, as she could use portals to move very quickly across and she had the ability to implant communication devices into people which can remotely detonate. The rest of the Preservers did not appear until post #7214 where they stated their hiding spots had been compromised and they need to regroup with Grayscale.

## General information

### Physical appearance

Grayscale has traits typical of a diminutive: she has a large, circular nose and she has beady black traits. However, traits unique to her include her very tall height for a diminutive, around the height of Mario, and her white hair, which is naturally white rather than age. She is the oldest of both Protectors and Preservers, and thus has wrinkles and other markings of age. Her attire consists of her gray-colored suit, which is modeled after sci-fi battle armor, first originating from a concept from *Spore: Galactic Adventures*. Her helmet contains a retractable visor, protecting her eyes in battle. She additionally has very large golden wings, a cape, and bracelets that house blades, which are typical Protector attire.

While she has no established voice yet, it is said to be deep, deeper than Dark Light.

### Personality

Grayscale is very cold, calculating, and distant. She does not care much for forming friendships and bonds, since she believes they would interfere with her work. The only reason she has recruited members to her group is entirely tactical rather than her being altruistic. While the foundation of the Protectors stemmed from her being altruistic and wanting to lend her powers to protect the weaker, it has since eroded over time as she developed her powers to be stronger than any Protector, and she does not respect people outside of her organization; she prefers to concentrate on herself since she believes that weaker people are now a waste of time. Her rewards are often the bare minimum, as she does not understand the concept of rewarding someone for their behavior.

Grayscale mostly gets her joy from the misery of others, whether they are fighting each other, if they are hungry, if they are seen to be terrified of her, or if they fell into a trap Grayscale had set up. She enjoys provoking mischief in others, especially the Protectors. Again, if her group members are shown to be miserable, her satisfying their needs is nearly purely for tactical purposes rather than making them feel happy.

Any positive traits she has are used for nefarious purposes. Grayscale is known to be intelligent and cunning, though she uses said intelligence to be manipulative and deceptive. Grayscale can be friendly, but she is just as prone to back-stabbing if the friend she has made is no longer a valuable asset. Grayscale is a quick learner, though the skills she learns are mostly for her benefit in her quest to grow more powerful. She is proactive and very self-confident, though she uses these to put them down. She is very ambitious, though she obsesses over her goals at the cost of others. If however, she shares a common enemy, she can be very negotiable, such as when she and Dark Light are required to team up to confront Azron, though in other situations, she can easily blackmail her opposition such as kidnapping Ultra Violet to blackmail the Protectors when Beryl Marine kidnapped Clement Cores.

### Powers and abilities

Grayscale is the most powerful of both the Protectors and Preserves and most likely the most powerful of all diminutives. She effortlessly carries her axe around, as she forged it herself (with the help of Clement Cores). She knows the secret behind the Protector blades and had passed knowledge to Dark Light; anything Protector-related, she has knowledge about. She can move quickly if need to be, and she does not tire easily. Prior to her being jailed for her incident in Mushroom City, she had the ability to traverse through dreams and influence people from them. If she and Dark Light were in a fight, Dark Light would likely lose against her; it is unquestionable that she would win should she fight any other Protector.

Due to Grayscale's age and her being the Commander of the Preservers and ex-Commander of the Protectors, however, she is in the midst of deteriorating quickly. She is far-sighted and requires glasses to read up-close, and it greatly irritates her to require to wear glasses, as others can interpret her as an old grandma, an image she rather does not desire. Her white hair and aged skin does not help. Because she wants to retain her power and authority over the Protectors, she has gained interest in cybernetics and magic, both to preserve her condition. She has seen some success in her magical abilities, though not much success in electronics: this was one of the reasons she trained Discharge to be part of the Preservers due to his ability in technology.

### Relationships with other characters

Despite being back-stabbed by Dark Light, Grayscale has a bitter, grudging admiration for her. She always reminds others that Dark Light was her former second-in-command, and the main reason Dark Light was very successful and powerful was mainly because she trained her up to be that way, and it is also something Dark Light herself acknowledges. Regardless, Grayscale does not hesitate to take pot-shots at Dark Light as she still despises her for, in her opinion, "ruining" the Protectors. Grayscale also believes that Dark Light spread lies about her, making people pre-disposed to hate her.

All of the Protectors except Bluminescence despise her. Grayscale makes the most severe insults towards Redshift, always mocking his Spanish nationality at every chance she gets, and she takes pleasure in stepping all over him as she perceives him as soft. It does not help that Redshift has a relationship with Dark Light, making him especially easy to mock. Grayscale is not above mistreating the rest of the Protectors as well, and would even take shots at Bluminescence's weight, which would make him cry.

Grayscale especially hates Chroma Key, as she believes he's a mutant outsider freak who has no place being affiliated with the Protectors, mocking his inception and putting down his identity. Her favorite insult for him is "worm", because she believes that he is a writhing parasite who masquerades as a "real" Protector and a "real" diminutive and that he takes resources away from the Protectors while providing nothing in return. She also thinks he is very hideous, especially hating his eyes, and that his choice of attire is terrible.

The members of the Preservers are highly terrified of her, except for Cerulambert and Scatter. Grayscale trusts Phongik as her second-in-command, despite him having internal trust issues with her, though Phongik is always obedient to Grayscale, as Grayscale was the one who rescued him from his exile, was the one who provided him with a decent car wash, and appreciated her abilities as a Commander in the past. Cerulambert is her preferred brute when she needed physical activities to be done, as he always obeys her without question, unlike Phongik who can be a bit hesitant, especially in grungy situations. Grayscale does not like Scatter, as he attempts to flirt with her and she displays absolutely no interest in him whatsoever. However, if Scatter is in a situation that calls for fighting, even Grayscale can be impressed at his dedication to his leader. As for Crepuscular Beam, Grayscale is not sure why she kept him around aside from the fact that she gets pleasure from seeing him terrified and because of that, he does everything for her.

Recently, however, Grayscale took a little bit of fondness to her new recruits, Green Flash and Discharge. Grayscale even acted as her old self as she was training them both up, being a good, patient teacher while in Wild Woods, and appreciating when Green Flash arrived promptly on time and was excited to be a Preserver. Grayscale admires Discharge's abilities in electronics and hopes that one day, he can make some cybernetic implants to prolong her.

Grayscale hates both Blitz and Mija, as she had hostile encounters with them. She will never forgive the time Mija tried to scratch her own face off, and she takes pleasure in insulting their cat-like appearance.

## Quotes

* "*Good morning, Dark Light! My little police officer who's been in the hospital more times than anyone else and still managed to survive all the times for some reason. How was it?*" [2]
* "*Who am I? Why, I'm your guardian angel of course. You're gonna wake up soon, you know? You've been sitting on the hospital bed being useless for everyone and weak and pathetic for a long time now. Just look at Flora. She's up and about and making herself useful and actually fending off threats while your frail butt has been sleeping and you need your Prince Philip to come rescue you! Who is he again? Redshift? More like..Redshi-you know that's an easy insult to make. I'm sorry for my lack of creativity around here.*"
* "*Hello there, you Mexican moron. Or whatever your nationality is. How's your siesta?*" [3]
* "*You really are a moron. Do you not know what a "guardian angel" is? How is it that Dark Light made YOU second-in-command despite of how moronic you act like, I will never know.*"
* "*YOU? A Protector? Where are your wings, cape, markings, and bracelets? Aside from that, you're just about the most hideous Protector I had ever seen.*" [4]
* "*Because it's funny. I don't know why you would bother associating yourself with the Protectors. They're weaklings. I've seen you do all sorts of marvelous things, like, say, your trial has demonstrated. You should start your own group instead of helping those pathetic beings out. Conquer more weak people, subjugate them to your rule. I admire that.*" [5]
* "*No worries. You proved to me that I couldn't trust you. I'm terminating your voice chip via remote detonation. Have fun with that.*" [6]
* "*It's intentional. I have a feeling one of my spies is relaying important information back at the Protectors may be a double agent. When I bluffed and lied about sending you all to Sarasaland, I suspected there may be a welcoming brigade and it turns out there was. Tourists don't come in helicopters and limos. Idiots.*" [7]
* "*I'm not planning attacking you, little man. Did you forget that I was stripped of all my powers? I don't have my axe. I don't have my dream traversing. I'm just as weak as you are. Except of course...if you want to spar me, I still have my experience behind that to snap your spine in half. The government can't take that away from me.*" [8]
* "*Can't be as bad as the countless amount of vodka you drank, Russian.*" [9]
* "*Look at how well that paid off, with you now needing to pay for medical bills. That's a clever marketing stunt. What else can I expect from a second banana?*" [10]
* "*Oh, stop trying to scare me. You're not good at that. Go back to a mansion, baby brother, and rescue your dear big fatso plumber man to learn real scare tactics.*" [11]
* "*You should just leave managing a business to the adults. Preferably your older brother, who has the guts to be able to run one, unlike your cowardly self.*"[12]
* "*No, it's chemistry....OF COURSE it's magic you brainless moron.*" [13]
* "*Oh. It's you. The Protector fanboy. I remember you. Shouldn't you be busy kissing Ray Trace than disrupting me on my job?*" [14]
* "*Oh. It's my faithful second-in-command again. Are you here to stab me in my sleep again? Well, this on-duty moron did ask for me to speak in private, so you're not invited. Sucks not being on duty for you.*" [15]
* "*Take care of your stupid little boy here. He should be doing his homework than disrupting **me**.*" [16]
* "*Oh? And where's your proof of that? You're not even on-duty right now you little worm.*" [17]
* "*Why even show it up when all it takes is some sweaty fat Italian plumber to kill their leader?*" [18]
* "*Do you kiss Ray Trace with that mouth? You don't sound cool and edgy when you use grown-up language.*" [19]
* "*Once a kid """Protector""" always a kid """Protector""".*" [20]
* "*That's because you had some help from your own momma. You want to 1-v-1 me now? I'm ready for that.*" [21]
* "*The stupidest Protector is smarter than you are, you little worm. Make sure you take note of that!*" [22]
* "*Hello there. You idiot Spaniard. I heard you screaming for your little buddy. I have an arrangement for you. Come meet me at my Car Wash, and we can talk things out. Don't worry, Ultra Violet will be in one piece the entire time, and he will be taken care of, and he will return safely if you follow my demands. And I will ensure you that I will not capture you. I will send our friendly Preserver to retrieve you to prove to you that I'm not lying.*" [23]
* "*You act like you've never heard my story with your stupid kissy girlfriend before who was once my second-in-command. You don't know anything, Spaniard. One day, I will eliminate my opposition to my quest to become powerful and perfect, such as yourself.*" [24]
* "*Right. Get yourself lost. You made a deal. Now go stab a bull to death or something and get out of my sight.*"
* "*I said. You should put that blaster down if you know what's good for you, little baby. Why are you here again?*" [25]
* "*I don't care about your dirty money, you stupid little slug.*" [26]
* "*It's called "blackmail" you little worm. Try it out some time.*" [27]
* "*Your co-workers? Are you talking about the Protectors? I've already told them about this, I directly blackmailed Redshift myself. I think he's gained weight since I last saw him before today. I don't know. I think it would be great if he got dissected again to make him lose some of that fat, don't you think?*" [28]
* "*As the original Founder of the Protectors, let me tell you one thing: you have absolutely no idea what you're doing, you hear? You have literally zero connection to the Protectors.*" [29]
* "*Right. I'm going to continue denouncing you, and I bet Dark Light wouldn't be too happy to see you ripping off both of our efforts to make your own bootleg. I guess I had my talk now. You'll never be a Protector thanks to your cruddy life decisions.*" [30]
* "*If you're so bored, a car wash isn't the right venue. If I were you, I'd go to a pet store and look at all of the unadopted cats in their cages.*" [31]
* "*And if Chroma Key thinks he's clever to think he can sneak around the car wash, hide in the reception desk, and listen to our conversation while pitifully attempting to eavesdrop us, he's got another thought coming.*" [32]
* "*Oh honey. I would never consider you to be a rival of mine. You're more like an annoying housefly. Complete with maggots.*" [33]
* "*Of course I don't like them at their current state. Dark Light lets idiots run around the base. I don't think we've ever had someone as stupid as that stupid Russian as a member. It's a disgrace.*" [34]
* "*Has your **special other** gotten any new Protectors lately hmm? I suppose she's making the group worse, is she?*" [35]
* "*I'm not the one who looks like an ugly Frankenstein abomination cat with taped-on wings that look like they can't even lift you.*" [36]
* "*Are all of you cat people like this, willing to attempt to outright murder me when I do something as minor as insult your physical appearance?*" [37]