Now that I couldn’t raise those subjects without reminding him of what had happened earlier, I was lost.

“You shouldn’t have come for me.”

Oh boy, here we go.

I’m guessing he means because it put them in trouble too?

“What?”

“Should have left me there.  I was as good as dead.  Throwing away your life and the rest of the team, to try to rescue me?”

It’s because they care about you.

It’s not about numbers.

“You’re not thinking straight.  There’s no way I’d leave you behind.”

“Right.  Because you’re supposedly in love with me, so you go rushing off to rescue me.”

Oh shit, now he’s bringing it up.

I was getting an inkling last chapter that this subplot was resurfacing, because Brian kept doing things that seemed like they could, with shipper goggles on, easily be interpreted as him having feelings for Taylor that rivalled the familial love for Aisha in strength, even if he wouldn’t admit it. I’m not sure that’s what’s going on in his head, but here we are – it’s being brought up, made relevant again.

And who knows. Maybe he’s not entirely wrong in attributing this to Taylor’s attraction to him (if that’s even still a thing). However I don’t think that’s the full story, and I would be surprised to see her act any differently if it were Lisa, Alec or even Rachel who had ended up in Brian’s situation.

“Yeah.”  His reply was delayed, almost begrudging.  It didn’t sound gentle, or kind, or anything like that.  It was more like I’d expect someone to sound if they were giving up the password to a safe at gunpoint.

Turns out “Yeah” is, in fact, the password to Brian’s personal safe.

“Sorry,” I said.  I wasn’t sure exactly what for, but the apology was genuine.  The smile on my face was gone.

For a minute or two, neither of us said anything.

Awkward.

What had we ever talked about that wasn’t about our costumed life?

…fuck, good question.

…

…

…Aisha, but she’s since switched categories, was always relevant to Grue’s costumed exploits and is an especially sore subject right now…

…

…

…romance, but that would probably be the most awkward thing you could possibly bring up right now…

…

…

…itchy eyes…

At first, it had seemed like common sense.  I was new to the cape scene, it was exciting, he was experienced, and he’d wanted to share his knowledge.  We’d talked about our recent jobs, the implications, even jobs we were considering.  I could count on one hand, maybe two, the times we’d done stuff that hadn’t been centered around powers and fighting and violence.

And even then – 3.1, 4.1 to 4.3, 6.3, 7.5-7.6 – you ended up talking about it.

He shook his head.

“None at all?”

“Didn’t need to.  Didn’t want to.  Felt better about keeping an eye out for trouble than about sleeping.”

Didn’t need to? Weird.

“Trickster and Ballistic are out there.”

“I know.  I saw them step outside after Rachel came back.”

There’s no way they’d let him keep the lookout after what he’s been through.

I smiled a little.  “Wasn’t so long ago that you were getting on my case for not sleeping enough, mandating that I get a certain number of hours before we moved on the Nine.”

Look, on one hand, in all fairness to Brian, you didn’t.

On the other hand I can absolutely related to the satisfaction of turning the tables on the “Krix go to sleep” crowd.

He didn’t respond, and he didn’t move.  I couldn’t read his expression.  Had I said the wrong thing?  Should I not have mentioned the Nine?

I guess he’s not in the mood for vaguely humoristic nostalgia.

Oh, or what Taylor just said. That works too.

Maybe I should have left them in.  Risking an eye infection was small potatoes compared to fucking up this interaction.

you say that now but

Except I couldn’t put them back in without having to explain why.

Pfft, gotta follow through now!

Why was this so hard?

“You get any sleep?”

Imagine this conversation in a Telltale game.

– “You get any sleep?”

– (Put lens back in)

> (Put lens back in)

[Brian will remember that.]

“Damn it,” I groaned.

He gave me a curious look.  Or at least, that’s what I took it for; I was having a hard time reading his expressions.

“Forgot to take my contacts out.

Ohh.

Well, that’s another thing to add to my list of reasons I don’t want to try contacts. At least when I forget to take my glasses off before I fall asleep, my eyes are fine afterwards.

My eyes are going to be sore for a while, and I don’t have a spare pair of glasses to wear.”

He nodded.

Oh yeah, I suppose she couldn’t go back easily even if there wasn’t a risk of Shatterbird breaking out of Regent’s control. The Shattering would have broken her glasses whether she was wearing them or not.

“Sorry.  So small a problem in the grand scheme of things.”

Ahh, that’s how it’s important. It leads into this observation, which might prompt further discussion between Taylor and Brian.

“You need to be able to see.”

I reached into my utility compartment and got a small case with the spaces for the individual contacts and contact lens solution, then pried my right eye open to pinch the thing out.

“pried my right eye open” is a phrase I would like to not read ever again, thank you.

A few seconds later, my other contact was out, and I was half blind.  The way the shadows fell over Brian’s face, the shadows of his eye sockets made him look like he was wearing sunglasses.

Hah!

I couldn’t see the lines of tension, anger or anxiety.  Whatever it was that’d had him awake, sitting up and staring into space at ten or eleven in the evening.

In my case, it’s Worm that has me sitting up and staring into a computer screen at half past ten in the evening.

(I’m going to end the session soon.)

He shook his head.  “No.”

Wait, what?

Was that somehow a fraction of Taylor’s power?

“No?”

“She wasn’t in my darkness, I’m almost positive.  And my power’s weaker than whatever I’m stealing.  It doesn’t make sense that I was able to form myself as fast as I did.  It wasn’t like she’s described it, either.

Yeah, that’s a good point.

Remember, I worked with her when we were dismantling the ABB.”

I nodded.

“It was more like… a forcefield.  Except not.  A hole in reality, and it took something out of me to feed and shape itself.”

Maybe one of the civilians running around as decoys had a trigger event before the Undertravelers got there?

It’s not Night, is it? No, I think that would just result in Grue himself changing into something slightly monstrous.

I blinked a little in surprise.  If Brian was stealing a share of other people’s powers, then-

I blinked again.  My eyes were itchy.

…alright, so the itchiness is important somehow.

Also, one thought that I forgot to write above because I dismissed it: What if he somehow borrowed the power of a Dandelion?

“So the healing?”

“Othala.  I was so worried she’d escape my darkness before I finished giving you guys regeneration.

Ohhh.

Right, there’s more than one healer in this city.

I couldn’t just use her power on each of you, because it was only lasting a few seconds after I touched you.”

“a fraction of a power.”

“And the regeneration was… Crawler?”

That sounds like it would result in a much more monstrous Brian, unless Crawler’s super fast regeneration counts separately from the power that replaces his parts with stronger ones.

He nodded.  I could see that dark look pass over his face.

Maybe something did change because of that, just not something visible, because the part of the regeneration that would make him monstrous was also just a fraction.

“And then the duplicate you created would have been Genesis.”

…damn, that was honestly the coolest thing he did, so it’d have been neat if it stuck around. Guess we won’t be seeing that again, at least not very often.

I wonder if “circuit” implies that the access to the powers in the darkness is shared with the other people, with all the powers going through everybody in the circuit. I doubt it from what we’ve seen and the fact that that would be a huge double-edge, but it’s worth considering given Brian’s odd choice of words.

“Right.”

“And when it works, I feel… a circuit?  It’s like the darkness comes alive, a cord or wire between me and the people in my darkness, and I can actually see it.

Huh. Some kind of connection? But circuit, cord and wire imply something similar to electricity…

If I focus on it, it gets bright and hot, and I have access to whatever my power’s sapping from them.

Oh fuck, that’s awesome! He can weaken powers and then use them himself! That’s such a good power.

So where did he get the healing from, if that was something he used this ability to copy? Was Panacea within darkness range or something?

A fraction of a power, one power at a time.”

Reasonable limitations. Still awesome.