#brian laborn

The Nazis in Worm were clearly written as a symptom of the effect superpowers had on the world, an indication of just how much the existence (and the method of acquiring) superpowers had worsened things, because it had even resurrected discredited ideologies like Nazism. They were not written as a societal force in their own right that was then having a structural effect on the population around them, and specifically the minorities they target, in the 'oh shit, the Nazis have superpowers now, what does that look like for us?' way.

Now, it's been debated how reasonable a take that first one was around the time Worm was written, but I don't want to get into that right now. Suffice to say that for current readers, it leaves the sense that there's something missing in the text's engagement with the topic, but that doesn't mean we can't have fun reading it back into the text!

Brian is a fit 18-year-old black guy, who has practiced a variety of martial arts to a pretty solid standard, which makes him a poor target of opportunity for whatever wandering Nazi asshole is looking to do a hate crime. He is still, however, living in, essentially, the Nazi capital of the US, and the Nazis are a powerful enough presence that he very much needs to worry about, say, a march through his neighbourhood, let alone the guys with literal superpowers.

Some of them may pretend at standards and principles, but the brutality of Hookwolf, and the callousness of Kaiser commanding them is definitely something every minority in Brockton Bay is concerned about every hour of the day.

And now Brian is sitting in front of these monsters from his nightmares, and he needs them to take him seriously, because if he shows any weakness here, his whole team becomes a target. His reputation here means everything. Don't flinch. Don't flinch. Do not flinch.

They don't know he's black. They do know Skidmark is black. And sure, Skidmark's a piece of shit, but Kaiser's disrespect towards the guy is clearly not because he's a piece of shit. Yet Grue cannot show any solidarity with the man, because that sets their eyes on him, and if that happens his team's in trouble. Don't flinch. Do not flinch.

It helps that he's dressed head to toe in motorcycle leathers and his helmet leaves his face fully covered, so nobody can see his reactions to these people, and he can keep himself cool and collected throughout, present himself well, and not flinch.

And just as it seems like he's weathered the storm, that he got through this without incident, it turns out that Rachel went behind his back to piss off Hookwolf, and now those fucking eyes are set on him. He's caught with his pants down and has to scramble to defend himself and his team, to not become a target.

When he freaks out on Rachel afterwards, he clearly realises that he's reacting like an abusive asshole, with the violence that seems to be the only language so many of the men in his life speak as well. He tacitly admits to it being the only language he knows how to speak in moments like this, too.

He does not admit to being scared out of his fucking mind when Hookwolf was pissed at him.

Leviathan readied to lunge, stopped as a curtain of darkness swept over him, the majority dissipating a second later, leaving only what was necessary to obscure his head.  It took Leviathan a second to realize he could move out of that spot to see again, a delay that earned him another on-target series of shots from our ranged combatants.  Grue was here, somewhere. [...] He scampered back as his sight was obscured yet again by one of Grue’s blasts. He lunged forward, stumbling into and out the other side of the cloud of darkness.

Worm 8.5

I landed beside Grue.  He’d used his darkness to form a wall.  I wasn’t sure what it was for, but the smoke didn’t seem as bad here.

Worm 24.1

“Grue!”  I shouted.  The noise in the distance was getting worse.  If Behemoth was continuing the path I’d seen him traveling, he was wading through a series of buildings.  Grue didn’t hear me.  I raised my voice, waited until the noise died down, “Radiation!  Use darkness!” He did, and we were cloaked in it. 

Worm 24.2

It was only two or three seconds later, as the second wave of spheres drifted to Behemoth and began to cut into his torso and groin area, that he responded.  His ‘mouth’ opened, the craggy spikes of obsidian ‘teeth’ parting. And he roared.  A sound that was slow at first, growing steadily more powerful. Sound was a bitch of a thing.  It could be muffled, but blocking it entirely?  We didn’t have Grue.

Worm 24.3

I took another route, moving between floors, my search made harder by the fact the darkness on the floor above us was pouring down into the hole, so I couldn’t even stand in one hallway and look past to see the hallway on the other side. But it forced the Simurgh to make her plays blind too.

Ward 20.6