Editing Genius The Transgression/Chapter One: The Cosmos (section)

===Breakthrough:===

Asuras are often hands-on people, and they are the most likely than other catalysts to rise up through the ranks as Beholden. But few are simple thugs and leg-breakers, and many are frankly brilliant, though shackled by a rage that prevents them from progressing as far as they should. The Breakthrough often removes that handicap, not by removing the rage, but by focusing it so keenly into the pursuit of mad science that a Grimm cannot help but grow in power and wisdom.

Few Grimms catalyze simply by beating a man to death in a back alley, though that's sometimes how a Breakthrough begins: a sudden, horrible act of violence, followed by the realization on the part of the pre-genius that she is too smart to get caught. This violence need not be physical: ambitious scientists or scholars might realize that they can crush their opponents in debate with tactics so brutal no one questions them, while lawyers and preachers discover they can sway people as if by the sound of their voice alone. They're cheating, these new Grimms realize. They're breaking the rules, and there's no one there to stop them. From that it's a short, fast plunge, either into catalysis or oblivion.

Not all Grimms catalyze through an active desire to fight back. Some are survivors of brutality and insanity, sometimes at the hands of other Inspired. These Breakthroughs can take a long time to develop, as an Asura cultivates rage, hatred, and intricate plots for revenge. A girl whose family burns to death in a house fire caused by an insane arsonist might work carefully through most of her twenties before unleashing bloody retribution against the arsonist and against the corrupt and incompetent police and firefighters who did nothing to stop the killer. Another pre-Grimm might swallow years of torment and bullying at school, only for his tormentors to watch their chances at an Ivy League college slip away amidst digitally-planted accusations of malfeasance.

A Grimm's Breakthrough is not simply about revenge, however. A Grimm's catalyst shows her that her act of vengeance was not merely about her and her enemies were not just the ones in front of her. She sees a larger world, one dictated by strength and weakness, power and helplessness, honor and injustice, and chooses to embrace that vision. Many Grimms describe religious-like transformations, as if an Angel of the Lord descended from On High and set itself up within (or instead of) the frail and fallible human soul. Those Grimms who come from scientific fields describe a falling away of the world's vagaries, a severed Gordian Knot that frees the genius to act with clarity, certainty, and purpose.