Aptom

* Masked
* Unmasked

> *"What are you looking for when you gaze into the abyss?"*
>
>

**Brian**, codename **Aptom**, is a supporting character and an antagonist in *Daymare 1994: Sandcastle.*

## Biography

Brian was a soldier who dedicated his life to serve his country. In 1985, he was discharged from the army due to PTSD but was hired for the secret H.A.D.E.S. to keep the Groom Lake personnel in check. In 1987, he met Helen Reyes who became his "light in the darkness". The two fell in love but kept their relationship a secret. In 1988, Brian became a test subject for the T-3 experiments and was injected with Ogre's DNA. Despite his fears, Brian managed to pass through the portal safely, but as a result he developed a religious-like obsession with the creature, believing him to be a physical manifestation of the god Hades. In 1992, Helen was transfered to live in the Castle's residential area, so the two could see each other freely. With Helen's help, who built a laboratory ("The Womb") inside the Sarcophagus, Brian was planning to liberate the creature.

On March 11, 1994, he finds out Helen had actually been planning to destroy the creature and tries to stop her but accidentally kills her as result. Struck by grief, he injects Helen's body with Ogre's DNA hoping to revive her using the creature's residual energy. Ogre's awakening creates an electromagnetic anomaly that reanimates the corpses of the former T-3 subjects, turning them into twisted murderous creatures that start killing the Castle's personnel, spreading the anomaly. "Aptom" becomes Brian's separate identity, a sociopathic killer obsessed with sacrificing people's life energy to Ogre. He forces his fellow H.A.D.E.S. soldiers to breathe the Daymare Toxin to make their minds susceptible to the creature's influence and murders them in cold blood, leaving their bodies hanging around the facility as ritualistic sacrifices.

He meets Dalila Reyes, whom he forces to breathe the toxin as well. He later attacks her when he discovers a sample of Ogre's blood in her possession but spares her life and brings her to the detention area, where the surviving researchers, the victims of Daymare toxin, locked themselves up. Reyes later discovers Aptom's lair and a series of ritualistic paintings of Ogre he left throughout the facility before confronting him in the Sarcophagus, Ogre's resting place. Aptom, brought back to his true self Brian, mistakes Reyes for Helen and hugs her. He reveals the truth about him and Helen to Reyes before his Aptom persona takes over again under Ogre's influence. In the hope of reuniting with Helen, Aptom shoots himself in front  of Reyes, sacrificing his life to Ogre.

## Gallery

* Concept art
* Brian with Helen
* Aptom's drawing of himself and Helen reuniting in the Abyss
* Sparker in Aptom's lair
* Aptom's paiting of the Abyss
* Aptom catches Reyes
* Brian hugs Reyes
* Threatening Reyes

## Trivia

* His name could be a reference to the character from *Guyver* anime. Alternatively, his name could have been derived from the Greek word "apotome".
* He was acquainted with Agent Crane.
* Aptom had compassion for the fellow victims of T-3, considering them "brothers". He brought a dying "brother" into his lair in an attempt to save him. A dead sparker can be found in a cage in his lair next to human organs presumably left as food.