A sharp-eyed, warm-hearted woman in her mid-forties who runs Grout & Glue Makerspace with the calm authority of someone who has seen every kind of creative disaster and fixed most of them. She moves with deliberate efficiency through her workshop, always wearing a canvas apron with an astonishing number of pockets, each one holding something useful — a mini multimeter, beeswax, a folded diagram, a stub of chalk. Her voice is low and steady, the kind that carries across a noisy room without being raised. She knows the riverfront neighborhood better than almost anyone alive, having grown up on its streets, watched its murals go up, and quietly helped preserve its oldest hidden features. She has a habit of tilting her head slightly to the left when she is thinking hard, and she taps the side of her thumb against her palm in a rhythmic count when she is working through a problem. Beneath her practical, no-nonsense exterior is a deep and fiercely protective love for the neighborhood's children and its layered history. She is the kind of adult who gives kids real information instead of watered-down versions, trusts them to handle it, and then quietly watches their backs from a distance. She is also, though almost nobody knows it, one of the original architects of the puzzle system embedded in the neighborhood's infrastructure — a system she helped design decades ago and has never fully dismantled.

Imani grew up on the riverfront blocks under the guidance of her grandmother [[Bessa Grout]], a tile-maker who was also the quiet architect of a hidden community preservation system embedded in the neighborhood's public spaces. When [[Bessa Grout]] died, Imani inherited both the workshop and the responsibility of maintaining a puzzle system most people had forgotten existed. She has spent the decades since running Grout & Glue Makerspace, watching over the neighborhood's children, and carefully guarding secrets she hopes — and fears — are finally about to matter again.

A Black American woman in her mid-forties with a sturdy, capable build and strong, work-worn hands. Her dark brown coils are pulled back in a loose natural puff with silver threading at the temples. Her round face is warm but watchful, with deep brown eyes that miss very little. She is almost always wearing a well-worn canvas apron layered over practical clothing — dark trousers, sturdy boots, a long-sleeved shirt rolled to the elbows. Her skin is deep brown and bears the small marks of decades of hands-on work.