Gil Grissom

Grissom is a human being from the CSI canon.

Personality

Grissom is knowledgeable in many fields, an avid reader, and often willing to try more unorthodox methods toward solving a case. He has a great appreciation for the bizarre and a quirky sense of humor—to the point that he often cracks one-liners about a crime scene. But despite this, he has a deep respect for many aspects of humanity. Human behavior simply fascinates him: the capacity for good, bad, and all deviance in-between. But at the same time, he is unnerved by the evils humans can commit. Former dominatrix Lady Heather analyzed him by pointing out his comfort in a fancy tea ceremony is a kind of reassurance that there is some civility left in the world, even despite all the horrific crimes he's picked through.

His respect for humanity pervades the way he works. He insists on following the evidence of a case through completely and stresses the importance of giving the victims a voice, as "the dead can't speak for themselves." For him, it's important to follow where the evidence leads you rather than where your instincts do. He enjoys the challenge of a case, but he never forgets why he's doing it: for the people.

In dealing with people, often others don't know what to think of him. He describes himself as a "ghost" as a kid, and in predicting his retirement, he affirmed that there wouldn't be a party to celebrate: "I'll just be gone." He tries to be a stoic in the face of so much death he's seen, and he encourages others not to let their emotions get the better of them, reminding them of the importance of detaching themselves from the horror in order to ensure that justice is properly served. But for the people who do know him, such as his team, Jim Brass, and Lady Heather, he's shown to be capable of deep relationships. He is a father figure to his proteges, Nick, Warrick, and Greg, and may have potentially been for Riley. He insists on standing up for his teammates and friends, and he is surprised and moved to see the hurt reactions his friends and the rest of the Crime Lab have upon his announcement of his retirement, not to mention hearing in a recovered tape from the late Warrick's posessions that he considered Grissom to be the father he never had and that he always tried to make him proud. Just like in searching for forensic crime scene evidence, he picks apart people's souls to find minute giveaways of the best in them, and oftentimes, he finds it.

Pre-Roleplay History

Note: This page contains spoilers for CSI

Even before becoming a CSI, Grissom's interests revolved around the intricacies of life and the mysteries of death. His father, who inspired his love of science, died when he was nine, and his mother was deaf due to otosclerosis. While he was raised Catholic, he eventually lapsed from the faith, adopting a less rigid, more spiritual approach to daily life that allows him to appreciate life in general. He was an outsider as a teenager but always interested in forensics. Eventually, he got his PhD and began to specialize in forensic entomology. He previously worked in a crime lab in Minneapolis under his mentor, Dr. Philip Gerard, before moving to Las Vegas. He also at some point met Sara Sidle at a lecture in San Francisco.

Grissom became night shift supervisor at the Clark County Crime Lab following the shooting of his newest CSI, Holly Gribbs, at a crime scene. Detective Jim Brass was demoted from this position in response to the murder, but even so, he and Grissom became good friends. To help solve Holly's murder, Grissom called on Sara, who eventually transferred to his team full-time. This became his team: Sara, Catherine Willows, Nick Stokes, Warrick Brown, and eventually Greg Sanders, and Brass as an auxiliary member within the police proper. Together, they caught serial killers like Paul Millander, the Blue Paint Killer, and the Miniature Killer, occasionally calling on help from friends such as “Lady Heather” Kessler, who ran a fetish club and had often gotten entangled in their investigations. Grissom was especially friends with her, though their relationship was damaged when he was forced to consider her a suspect in a case.

Things often got personal for the CSIs of Las Vegas. When advised to fire Warrick after Holly’s death for leaving her alone at the crime scene, Grissom refused on the grounds that he’d already lost one good CSI already and he didn’t want to lose another. Grissom was forced to leave Catherine in charge of a case involving her biological father when he needed to undergo a stapedectomy to correct his own otosclerosis. During a period when Crime Lab Assistant Director Conrad Ecklie split up the team, Nick was kidnapped and buried alive. Upon rescuing him, Grissom insisted that Ecklie put his team back together, which he agreed to. Brass was shot during a hostage situation, and Grissom learned that he’d been given power of attorney, and he insisted on operating on Brass to try and save his life. Greg was beaten by a gang of teenagers out “fannysmacking” tourists and faced charges when he ended up killing one of the kids, and Grissom had to assure the younger man that his overprotective mother would be proud to hear that her only son was a hero. Grissom began to suffer from burnout and had to take a sabbatical teaching a college seminar, putting Catherine in charge of the team until he returned. Not long after he did, Sara, whom he was dating, was targeted by the Miniature Killer. Ultimately, the CSIs rescued her and Grissom proposed (to which she accepted), but Sara’s personal issues became too much for her, and she was forced to leave Vegas to sort through everything.

Grissom’s career as Night Shift Supervisor seemed to come full circle when Warrick was murdered by Undersheriff Jeff McKeen. The entire team came together to support one another and solve the case, and the ordinarily stoic Grissom was especially distraught by Warrick’s death. He was shocked to learn that Warrick considered him the father he’d never had, and he broke down into tears delivering the eulogy, confessing both that the impersonal “I’m sorry for your loss” the CSIs are trained to give to victims’ families doesn’t offer much, and that he was going to miss Warrick so much. Following this, the burnout returned, and Grissom found it hard to concentrate on his cases. He decided to retire, once again leaving the Crime Lab in Catherine’s hands, but fate had other plans, a copycat of the Dick and Jane serial killer. Consulting Dr. Raymond Langston, a college professor whose criminology class offered a live videoconference with the original DJK, Grissom and the team raced against the clock on this last case, trying to find the last victim and the new DJK before the victim was killed. Ultimately, they succeeded, and the rest of the Crime Lab came to accept Grissom’s retirement while Langston began to question his career, as this was the second time he’d missed the evidence of wrongdoing right in front of his face. Grissom offered Langston a position at the Crime Lab as a new CSI to take his place, sympathizing with his worries that he couldn't find a new direction this far along in his life. Langston accepted, and Grissom took this as his cue to exit, walking out of the Crime Lab one last time and watching their world go on without him, just as it should. He then headed to Costa Rica to reunite with Sara.

Activity in the Digital World

Guess you won't be leaving just yet

Right off the bat after arriving in the Digital World, Grissom learned from Kat Simmons that Neon City had been attacked. His investigative instincts kicked in, and he began asking for information, being pointed to DATS Neon. Despite being retired, he joined their Crime Lab, though he was a little frustrated with the lack of forensic evidence he was used to in dealing with Digimon crimes. He confessed as such to the EMH Doctor, who agreed to help find some kind of forensic evidence specific to Digimon, like DNA and fingerprinting for humans. Soon after joining, he met Cornelius Fillmore, the head of security at the Silver Dragon, and began mentoring the young man, picking up on his burnout and love of their world of evidence and justice.

When Kat's apartment had been broken into and her charge, Yuma Kagura, disappeared, Major Alex Louis Armstrong put Grissom and Emiko Hiwatari on the case. However, Grissom had recently seen an image of one of the Digimon affected by the Only Human Virus, transformed into an exact likeness of Emiko and identified as the mother of Daisuke Niwa. Furthermore, the name "Hiwatari" came up in reference to one of Daisuke's friends. Despite this, Grissom didn't want to get ahead of the evidence and kept quiet about his suspicions about Emiko. Though Yuma reappeared soon, to all appearances safe and sound, Grissom was still bothered with the limits of forensic evidence in the Digital World, and he received from Sorcermon an upgrade to his D-Comm so that he could analyze Digimon data in an analogue to DNA-fingerprinting.

Another day, another invasion

Grissom got to experience his first invasion when he and other DATS members headed to Tetha to fight off LOT's forces. Coming to the aid of Martin Tubbs, Fran Madaraki, and Gwen 10 Tennyson, Grissom provided cover fire for Fran as she hastily operated on Gwen. Searchmon, meanwhile, assisted Martin's Blitzmon and Gwen's JewelBeemon in fighting the Sladebots and Billy Numerouses.

People may lie, but the evidence never does

Grissom didn't act on any of his suspicions about Emiko until Daisuke Niwa, a friend of Dark Mousy's, returned a missing EMT kit to Central. He claimed that Dark had taken it from his roommate, DATS Neon agent Ed Elric, but the logs said that Emiko had checked it out before. Knowing he needed to get the evidence away from potential tampering at their crime lab, he sent it to David Xanatos for analysis. Xanatos ran the DNA on the kit against a known sample of Emiko's and found an exact match. Emiko was actually Dark.

Grissom confronted Dark about his identity and learned the thief was maintaining the Emiko alter ego to protect himself and his friend, Daisuke Niwa, from their enemy, Krad. Grissom promised not to make any judgments about Dark, as he really was trying to turn his life around, and he agreed to keep his identity a secret.

I want my guys back

Greg Sanders managed to find his way to the Digital World, and Grissom and the Doctor had to go take care of his injuries. But when Greg found himself adopted by a bunch of Japanese android idol singers, Grissom had to help deal with their issues by proxy. At the same time, the DATS Neon team was dealing with issues from the homunculus Gluttony, an old enemy of Ed's. Agents Sarasim and Sabine Alshire were injured facing him, leaving everyone at Central stressed.

And then Gluttony and Barry the Chopper (another hostile from Ed's world) murdered Mary Jane Watson. Because Sabine Alshire found the scene, Grissom put Greg (her boyfriend) in charge of the investigation. But the stress was rising, and Grissom had to put Greg on a forced vacation until he could think clearly. Soon after that, DATS assignments were changed around, and Ed was moved to Tactical under Touma Norstein. Grissom found himself delivering quite a bit of therapy throughout the month, first helping Ed realize that Gluttony and Barry were not his responsibility and even though he was now on Touma's team, he was still part of the Neon family. This advice was passed along to Sabine and then to Greg, who thanked him with a package of Blue Hawaiian coffee. When Sabine's cousin Horatio was worried about Sabine and Greg's family handling the stress, Grissom advised him that sometimes he just had to wait it out and help when they truly couldn't stand on their own. And when Taranee Cook at the Silver Dragon nearly burned down her apartment in fury over DATS's decisions regarding the vampire Karin Maaka, Grissom managed to talk her down before the Guardian set anything aflame.

Of course, things weren't exactly quiet in Neon either. In addition to the Mary Jane case, Neon City found itself targeted by other hostiles. Grissom and Lelouch Lamperouge were defeated by Sky-Byte when he attacked the Foundry Factory. And about a month later, Signum, under the influence of the Demon Seal of Lust, attacked Neon with her partner dark-evolved to the Ultimate level, Argomon. Grissom spent Argomon's siege helping evacuate the wounded either to a lightpost or to Central.

Cross-Jurisdictions

Tim Speedle of the Miami Crime Lab arrived soon after, and though he hadn't yet officially joined DATS Neon, his expertise couldn't have come at a better time. When Hana Asakura was attacked in D'Ango Forest, Grissom was assigned to process the scene. Knowing it would be a difficult case due to time delay and contamination, Grissom asked Tim to help collect the evidence. Sadly, even with two CSIs from different labs processing the evidence, they couldn't prove much other than corroborate Hana's partner's story, though it could also exonerate the attackers.

On top of this came the Hinata Inn eviction. Though it was legal, Grissom had some suspicions about the mercenaries Xellos had hired. Sure enough, Sky-Byte was on the security footage as one of the attackers forcing the residents out. Furthermore, Martin Tubbs had recovered two Chrome Digizoid hammers that the Troopas had used, and through cross-referencing sales receipts, the stolen merchandise logs, and analysis of the metal composition against evidence recovered at the Foundry, Grissom was able to prove that the weapons used were indeed stolen during the Foundry attack a month before.

And while Nick arrived to the Digital World and Greg suffered from Sabine being sent home, Grissom decided to take on a few more students, recommended by Fillmore: Luna Lovegood, Jason Scott, and Ben Tennyson.

This plot is still on-going.

Trivia

  • Birthday: August 17
  • Knows sign language and lip-reading
  • Doesn't like to carry a gun, but is a good shot
  • Upgraded D-Comm allows him to run Digimon trace evidence for a data match, like DNA.

Items

Scans

Stored items

Other items

  • Forensic kit and camera
  • Sidearm (at Tentomon and Emiko's insistence)
grissom_details.jpg
Series Canon CSI
Journal grissom1liner
Role-Player Akino Ame
Age 52
Digimon Partner Tentomon
Affiliations DATS Neon
D-Comm Colors Black and silver
D-Comm Symbol Silver fingerprint
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