Gregory Briggs

— Briggs speaking to Nikolai about the 'truth of the industrial age'

**Gregory Briggs** is a character in The Smoke Room. He is the co-owner and lead manager of the CSCG mining operation in Echo's Danicka Mine. Due to his affiliation with the mine, he is most prominent in Nikolai's route.

## Appearance

Briggs is a lean collie dog with long brown and white fur, including a prominent white ruff around his neck. He wears an unbuttoned overcoat and a dress shirt and pants, along with a newsboy cap. He is often seen smoking a large cigar.

Samuel describes him as having sharp eyes and an uncomfortable gaze that doesn't blink enough.

## Personality

Briggs is usually outwardly calm but eventually reveals himself to be arrogant and callous, especially when it comes to leveraging his position of power over others. He holds a deeply competitive worldview, and believes that the only way to succeed in society is by destroying others. He also dislikes immigrants, whom he seems to consider potentially seditious conspirators, and prefers that his workers assimilate as completely as possible.

Briggs takes great pride in his business and is a ruthless manager who puts profit and success above his employees' wellbeing, although he presents this strategy as being an absolute form of fairness and considers himself an honest man with a pragmatic view of the world. Yao calls Briggs a man who respects only power.

## Story

### Prior to The Smoke Room

At some point, Briggs became the co-owner of Danicka Mine and business partners with James Hendricks III. When he was younger Briggs worked under James' father James II, and he has been involved with the mine for many years. While James Hendricks III is often frivolously self-indulgent and preoccupied with appearances, Briggs takes the efficiency of the mine very seriously. William seems to believe that Briggs provides key expertise to CSCG, and that the mine would fail under the sole operation of James.

In addition to his business interests at the mine, Briggs operates a ranch on the outskirts of Echo. He has at least one child. Briggs' mother is alive, and he mentions at one point that his success helps to keep her living in comfort.

### Nikolai's Route

After Sam applies for a job at Danicka Mine, he is interviewed by both Briggs and James Hendricks III. In contrast to James' cheery façade, Briggs is stern and expects humility and gratitude from Sam in return for the position, and makes Sam swear not to join or support a labor union. When Sam tries to ask questions of his own, Briggs immediately shuts him down.

Later, as Sam approaches James' office, he overhears Briggs shouting inside. James says that the best course for their shared business is to reward loyal miners for their dedication, but Briggs asserts that any striking workers should be punished, potentially with violence. As Briggs storms out, he shouts to James that his father James II was better at running the mine.

After Dimitri is suspiciously injured on the job, Briggs' name comes up when the miners' union meets at The Stag to discuss the best way to make their grievances known to their bosses. Chang and Paul advocate for burning down Briggs' ranch so that he is forced to face weakness and fear, but Nik and Yao discourage this escalation.

On the day of the general strike that comes as a consequence of Dimitri's injury, Foreman Moore holds a meeting with Sam in the mine's management offices and they overhear Briggs arguing over the phone. His conversation is ambiguous, but he appears to be calling in armed reinforcements to quell the strike or possibly simply to punish the miners, and is irate that they will take 48 hours to arrive. The CSCG secretary Miranda later entrusts Sam with a telegram meant for Porter that confirms the National Guard has been summoned by Briggs and will likely deal with the strikers violently.

That night, Briggs arranges for one of his employees to access Nik's locker in the miners' bunkhouse and steal his precious carbide mining helmet. Nik is anguished to find it missing and learns from Ben, a staunch company loyalist, that Briggs is responsible and is sending Nik a message to come meet him in his office.

Briggs asks Nik to explain why some of the other miners refer to him as Nikolai instead of Nicholas King, the name Nik received upon immigrating. Nik says they mean the same thing but Briggs insists that Nik no longer answer to his birth name, and threatens a court case investigating his 'unpatriotic proclivities' if he fails to comply, since an ethnic name makes him sound like a 'conspirator' instead of a citizen.

Briggs corrects Nik when he says his hat was taken from his private locker, since the locker is company property. He then reveals that he can tell from the hat's construction that it was manufactured abroad, and says its nonstandard increased gas capacity represents a safety hazard. Nik pleads that the hat is one of the few things in the world that he owns and Briggs obliges when he asks for it back, with the caveat that Nik can no longer wear it while on duty for CSCG or he will lose his job.

The subject then turns to the strike, which Nik points out is a reaction to the kind of cruel inflexibility that Briggs is invoking to ban him from using equipment that has helped him survive in the mines. Briggs calls Nik intelligent but naïve, and makes it clear that he has no interest in making the miners' lives easier, which he calls a 'utopian dream,' or in saving individual lives. He explains his belief that prosperity in the industrial age means competing against and outperforming hundreds of other men, who are to be crushed politely and without remorse in order to keep oneself and one's own family living well. He tells Nik to get a new helmet and do better, or else starve, and then sends him away with the advice that if he feels jaded and vengeful then he is already better off than he was.

### William's Route

Briggs has yet to appear in William's route, but Will suspects that James is trying to consolidate control of the mine and push Briggs out of their business by implicating him in a crime.

At one point, Chang explains to Will that the Briggs and James each have a faction of workers loyal to them, and the two groups often come into conflict. James himself also references this schism, accusing the workers close to Briggs when William questions him about who might have put a hit on one of James' employees.

Later on, Briggs can be heard arriving at James' mansion for a meeting with him, but does not appear directly.

### Echo

During Flynn's route, while looking through archival records in Echo's town hall Chase finds a lawsuit against Briggs, which seems to have contributed in part to the eventual closure of the mine in the 1940s. According to the legal documentation, Danicka Mine had one of the highest casualty rates for its miners in the Southwest due to severe negligence on the part of Briggs, who paid his workers poverty wages and allegedly ensured they could not communicate well enough to unionize by hiring them from diverse national backgrounds.

## Relationships

### James

Briggs and James work together closely and have been business partners for an unknown number of years, but they have widely differing philosophies about how to oversee the mine and how to treat their employees. Briggs considers James stupid and spoiled, and James calls Briggs a 'dinosaur' for the antagonistic relationship he has with many of the miners.

In William's route, the simmering tensions between Briggs and James become a focus of the sheriff's investigation.

### Nik

Briggs knows Nik as 'Nicholas King,' the name he received upon immigrating, and is keenly aware of his affiliation with the union. Although Nik holds no prominent position within the company Briggs seems interested in him, targeting him for his use of unauthorized equipment and then meeting with him personally to discuss their differing views on the nature of society. Briggs considers Nik intelligent but naïve because of his willingness to cooperate with the union, and tries to impress upon him the view that every man is ultimately out for himself.

## Trivia

* Early in Nik's route Nate bullies Nik by taking his mining hat, which he calls a fire hazard, and threatening to report it to management. Based on the fact that Briggs eventually has the hat confiscated, it is very possible that Nate ultimately made good on his taunt.

## Gallery

DefaultTalkingEyes closedAngrySurprisedSmilingArtwork of Briggs posted alongside Build 29 of The Smoke Room.