Brian

**Brian** is the alias of the main subject of season 8 of Within the Wires, **Greg**. He was the recipient of ten "personalised" cassette tapes produced by Tony Tollinger containing a seminar aimed at growing leadership and corporate advancement skills.

> *"Maybe you knew someone who wore vintage cravats and you thought they looked interesting and unusual so you started wearing vintage cravats and now you still wear them every day. You let people think it was something you just thought of on your own. Even your husband thinks it’s something you just thought of on your own."* **--Tony in *Cassette #5: Trust Your Instincts!***
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## Biography

Before becoming Brian, Greg was enrolled in Haverstock University in Baltimore circa 1956 until graduating in 1960. He initially began in an arts course, after having shown aptitude for drawing in the Childhood Centre, but switched to composition and literature after one semester. He went on to change to biology, then physics, and his eventual degree contained credits from twelve different fields of study, rejecting specialisation. When interviewed, none of his instructors remembered him. He potentially took the name Brian from a student of advanced biochemistry, who was a classmate of the man who would become Tony Tollinger.

Greg seemingly floated between parties and events without invitation, always assumed to be the mutual friend of somebody else, and made no strong impression on Tony until he turned up to a shared space one day wearing a expensively-recreated replica of Tony's blazer. Greg took a keen interest in Tony's style and ambition, began imitating his outfits totally, using the same cologne, and even dating people that Tony expressed interest in. He took note of Tony's aspirations, notably his desire to restore a pre-Reckoning farmhouse, marry someone well-traveled, and own a Catahoula Leopard Dog.

Greg once dogsat Tony's dog, Siouxsie, claiming to want a test run to see if he was ready to own his own dog. After one week, he told Tony that she had passed away after being hit by a truck. Greg never returned her body to him, and it left Tony distraught and enraged.

One thing Greg allegedly did not copy from Tony was engagement in anti-Society activities. His involvement in "extremist" groups led to the IID arresting Tony and imprisoning him on a treason charge for close to two decades. It is unknown if Greg was aware of this at the time.

Brian left his first job suddenly and apparently without warning. The coworkers and supervisors that remained to be interviewed had speculation of a scandal but nothing specific, consistent, or provable enough for Tony to believe in. Tony suggested that Brian might just have meant to preclude an awkward exit interview.

Brian got married to Andrei in around 1976, after a somewhat "whirlwind" romance. When they moved in together, Andrei wanted something small, simple, and modern, perhaps an apartment close to his work. Without ever arguing about it or even discussing it, they went with Brian's choice, the fixer-upper pre-Reckoning farmhouse outside the city. They also got a pet, a Catahoula Leopard Dog.

At his job, Brian was the third top salesman for two nonconsecutive months out of the calendar year. Brian's ultimate goal in completing Tony's tapes was to gain the skills and confidence to become Vice Director of Sales in the Rubber Division at the company where he worked, Carter Supplies Inc., after receiving recognition for his work and being given a company car. While on the cassette programme, Brian was 39 years old and based in Atlanta, and had been married to Andrei for about a year.

Brian looked up to Ndegwa Mwangi, the President of Sales at the company, and felt hindered by Mark Ramirez, the Chief Vice Director of Sales in the rubber division. After the fourth tape, a formal complaint was leveled against Brian for bullying and harassing his coworkers, and sneaking around to read confidential files, after presumably having taken to heart Tony's instructions to notice and record everything he could about the people around him. Tony encouraged Brian to find out who made the complaint and determine why they had done so (why they were "jealous") so that it could be used to his advantage. Tony later implied that Mark Ramirez was responsible for the complaints, after being the subject of Brian's harassment.

On the day of receiving the fifth tape from Tony, Brian would be eating alone in the evening because Andrei had plans with a new friend who Brian did not know. The next week, Tony chastised Brian for unproductively shouting in his empty house while Andrei was out, loud enough that the neighbours heard. The following weekend, Brian hosted a party at his home, which unbeknownst to him Andrei had invited Tony to. As a result of Tony's insinuations about his close relationship with Andrei, the couple had a prolonged fight.

At some point, Brian began trying to find Tony, unsuccessfully. Tony was aware of this, and challenged him to keep trying.

By the time he received the next cassette, Brian's life had fallen apart. Enraged by Andrei's infidelity and stressed by his questioning about Brian's mysterious past, he got drunk at a bar and reciprocated interested he received - from Tony, although he did not know that at the time - in sex. As a result of the affair being discovered, Andrei moved out of the house and cut off contact. Around the same time, the farmstead was discovered to be infested with termites, Brian's dog went missing, he was demoted at work, and his health was deteriorating rapidly.

Tony confessed to knowing that Brian's real name was Greg. He promised answers, and enclosed a map with the tape that would lead Greg to a cabin upon a mountaintop to get what he "deserved".

Greg hiked three hours to the cabin, where he found one final cassette from Tony, who suggested saying where he was to listen, an instruction that the very suggestible Greg presumably followed. Tony revealed that the entire cassette series was a retributive plot to ruin his life for the events that had occurred twenty years prior.

Tony lamented how easy it had been to ruin Greg's life, and that Greg followed everything he said to a T, despite blaming Tony for everything going wrong. He had continued taking the "vitamin supplements" he bought from Tony, evidently poisoning him. Tony asked Greg if he could hear the IID's helicopters. He believed that Greg would be unable to stomach prison, both emotionally and physically, as his health had worsened even further, but was open to being surprised by him. As Tony bid Greg farewell, he remarked that despite everything, Greg still wore his vintage cravats.

## Additional info

* The meaning of the name "Brian" is uncertain, possibly derived from the Irish for "high" or "mighty". The meaning of the name "Greg" (short for Gregory) was derived from the Greek meaning "watchful, alert".
* In the Director's Notes for Cassette #10, Jeffrey Cranor stated that while creating season 8, he and Janina referred to him as Briangreg, undecided between the two, and eventually compromised by having him use both. He was potentially going to be named Craig (pronounced the American way, "Creg") but this was deemed to similar to a character from Jeffrey Cranor and Joseph Fink's *The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home*.
* As Brian graduated from university in 1960, his birth year can be roughly calculated as 1938, assuming that he went to university at the typical age. Based off this information and the fact that he is 39 years old on receipt of the tapes, this would place the events of the season in 1977.
* Brian is mentioned to have dated both men and women.
* Tony's surveillance revealed several details about Brian's daily life, although as the cravats have personal relevance to Tony, it's possible these are all habits that Brian/Greg took from Tony:
	+ Brian took half a teaspoon of sugar in his coffee
	+ He shined his shoes with three upward strokes and two down
	+ Brian wore vintage cravats daily, inspired by somebody he once knew, and let everybody, including his husband, think he thought of it on his own.
* Carter Supplies Inc. was the fourth largest supplies firm in North America. It was the first job Brian had that lasted more than two or three years.
* Brian is only introduced by name in the second episode, however, due to the nature of the season, it's safe to say that Brian was targeted from the start.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Season 8, Episode #6: It's All About Balance!
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Season 8, Cassette #10: Learn from Your Mistakes!
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Season 8, Cassette #7: Cultivate Your Brand!
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Season 8, Cassette #2: Inspiration, Aspiration, Actualization!
5. ↑ Season 8, Cassette #3: Journal Your Life!
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Season 8, Episode #5: Trust Your Instincts!
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Season 8, Cassette #8: Invest in Yourself!
8. ↑ Season 8, Cassette #9: Sell the Idea of You!