Information

[blithelyamoral]

Character Basics:

Character Name: Topher Brink
Age: 27/01/81 (28/29)
Fandom: Dollhouse

Canon Character Section:

History: http://dollhouse.wikia.com/wiki/Topher_Brink

Personality:Topher likes to think of himself as a genius. While this is applicable and he is one of the great minds of his time, he will never be published anywhere. This is partly due to the simple fact that Rossum would never allow information about most of what he does to be released willingly into the public domain. At least not unless they thought they had full control of the circumstances, even then it would be doubtful. Just like many a scientific mind, Topher is more driven by curiosity than a need to be published widely in scientific journals. He sees most things as a puzzle waiting for him to solve. Though it is not limited to things on paper or even hypothetical talk, Topher can be seen to go so far as to include people and minds being analysed in this manner as well. To go along with this way of viewing everything he has a very active imagination. This allows him to go through a problem, situation or challenge which may be new or old with a unique perspective on things. When one of the results is something he can solve, Topher does tend to go with the more unusual way to solve things. There are examples of things he's created becoming a reality which is not necessarily a good thing (Or: how he accidentally caused the thoughtpocalypse).

It was an unfortunate consequence that he didn't realise what the technology was going to be used for until it was too late. Even when they tried to stop it getting out it was too late. He'd invented it. The technology had been created. He had done that. Not intentionally, but his lack of forethought about what could happen had come too late. At a key moment he asks a rhetorical question: "If I think I can figure things out, is that curiosity or arrogance?" Topher doesn't have a grasp on consequences in general for his actions until they are very much in his face and he is faced with a very rapid learning curve to deal with. One of the main moments for this with Topher is when made to follow direct orders from Adelle about sending out Sierra on a permanent engagement. He tries to do the right thing but it ends up with him making a bigger mess out of it all when he puts Priya (the actual name of Sierra) back instead and she kills Nolan. He then has to face living with the consequences of that night but she doesn't. She can go back to being a Doll and forget about it. His reply to her asking him if he can keep a secret is "I can keep it, but I don't know if I can live with it."

He doesn't seem to mind being on his own or being left to his own devices. This can be reflected in the way he can be when he first meets a person. He can easily come off as standoffish, awkward and childish with people, which falls back to the way he views people. He also has a habit of throwing himself at people and saying things without engaging his brain-to-mouth filter. This way he can appear to come off as insulting along with condescending even if it's not always meant that way, he just has a bit of a god complex. He sees himself better than most people. In one scene he displays this when he never directly says he's a genius but instead remarks that he would never object to others saying it about him. This is when he is with his boss Adelle along with others when he makes a discovery he is particularly proud of.

Upon first meeting Topher can be taken to being an extrovert, which he is in some ways, though he could also be called a brat. He is demanding, bossy, and awkward which all make him come across as childish, and he does like the attention. He has problems with authority, he see how far to push, to challenge and see just how far his boundaries go. Not always because can't fully relate to people but on some level he enjoys it. There is also a sense that he wasn't quite set enough boundaries at a younger age so never fully developed in this area which is why it continues. At the opposite end to this there are definite times he shows he can't quite understand why others are exhibiting certain feelings, but again there are times that he clearly does. Topher has his own way of dealing with problems, which isn't ideal. He has a tendency to go quiet and hide away from situations, preferring not to deal with them, ignoring them completely up to the point this isn't feasible any longer. Even when he's looking down on people and acting like a child he is still intelligent.

Going back to when he first arrived in the LA house, his reaction to the way they had the imprinting process was to immediately see flaws with it and put it down. He made claims that he could improve the process, beat the house record that was then two hours to make it a matter of minutes. In the show it can be seen to take mere seconds to download an imprint into an actives brain, this implies that it could be that Topher improved the process down to five minutes and kept going to refine it further still between joining the house initially and what is shown in the show. During that first meeting he asked for a fridge and a trampoline, then later it can be seen that he has a number of toys and other less professional things around his office, not to mention that it would seem that he leaves bits of clothing lying around as well. He seems to sleep in what would appear to be a server room off the imprinting room in the Dollhouse, leading to the conclusion that he is there for the majority of his time and doesn't appear to have another place to go. His fridge is stocked with juice boxes along with beer and he has a drawer of inappropriate starches. He also uses pop-culture references when trying to explain things to others, though most of these references only he seems to get. This means that more often than not it leaves what he's said needing a translation from 'Topher-speak' to a more user friendly one. When this does get reversed he is surprised and happy about it.

"There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so." Topher quotes from Hamlet, which can be used to sum up the way that Topher's sees himself morally. He is vocal in the idea that it is society that programs behaviours into people, which he explains in detail to Boyd when he asks him why he wears a tie. But while he's doing his work he believes himself to be more humanitarian in his actions though it's clear that he puts the science first. Science is one of the things he does love to do most of all and in the Dollhouse he gets to work at the very forefront of the technologies and make advances in them. Topher himself doesn't seem to fit in within the societal programming that he mentions, his moral compass is a lot more dubious. He really does just want to do science. However, this doesn't mean that he doesn't have any morals at all.

In fact, although Adelle tells him that she picked him because he had none to speak of, saying to him "you always take very good care of your toys." this shows that she realises he does care, but it isn't in the way he wants. Reflected in the reaction he gives her then is that he was very obviously hurt by her remark. He also has a similar reaction to his discussion with Claire when she makes the comment about how he doesn't care if people get hurt. He does. He just isn't always able to make it a visible reaction. His programming shows he cares in his own way. He goes above and beyond when he's creating profiles for imprinting. He works up from the smallest details, though he has made a few mistakes with languages as one example. He does make very sure that any active he sends out will have the necessary skills to make it safely through the engagement and return to the house.

Topher has no issue with what the Dollhouse does to people, though this lies in the key point that as far as he is aware that everyone who agrees to become a Doll signed up for it willingly, knowing what they were getting into. He isn't really part of the process of signing forms, that is left up to Adelle in the the security of a private room. The fact is that he does enjoy his work, with the exception of a few direct orders from higher up. This keeps him going and not questioning so much the legality of things. As he develops more through the series a sense of doubt emerges about the people who agreed to be Actives and if they knew every detail. It could be said that he wasn't told every detail about the job and in a way he's in a similar situation of his own there but he seems to have nowhere else to go. When questions are raised about Topher's moral code or lack thereof this tends to result in an unhappy programmer. It might not be a vocal reaction, but he can't hide his emotions from his expressions. So it would be clearly visible for all to see. He wouldn't be very good in a poker game at all.

While Topher expresses interest in women he has no further interest in doing anything more than look at the Dolls in the house. This changes when he meets Bennett Halverson, the programmer from the DC house. He is taken with her instantly and even admits to her that even when he thought she was male that he still had a crush on Bennett. So it could be concluded that Topher isn't bothered by gender when he has a crush on someone. He liked her for her work and mind, without knowing that she was in fact female, it was the brain that was important to him, not the packaging. Even after Bennett tried to kill Echo he still those feelings for her. It would seem that this would be the first time that he's genuinely had such emotions about someone else, making Claire's betrayal and murder of Bennett all the more poignant for him, where he shuts down temporarily until he's shaken from it. Not fully, but enough that he finally makes an effort to show he does care about Ivy, his lab assistant who he treated like a gopher mostly until then so that she can get out of the Dollhouse. Warning her not to become him and that she needs to keep her mind. This, in a sense, is foreshadowing for the future he faces as he slowly slips deeper into his breakdown.

Topher's strongest and most important bond falls with Adelle DeWitt, the head of the LA Dollhouse, who he views as a mother figure. He's her "number one son". This connection is hinted at forming from very early after Topher's arrival and getting the job. Adelle is the one who makes sure he gets his fridge. Adelle seems to let him get away with more than he should be able to and even when she's telling him off or to be quiet Topher doesn't change what he thinks about her. So when she betrays him by giving away the blueprints for the remote wipe device he is genuinely shocked and calls her "the coldest bitch on the planet." But their relationship does seem to be able to be mended. When Topher's mental health goes into decline Adelle is the one who takes on the caregiver role for him. She is the one who can get him to try and take his medication where Dr. Saunders can't. Adelle is also very quick to defend him later on when one of the survivors of the thoughtpocalypse, Zone, turns up at their door for shelter and makes a offhand comment about Topher. She also gets very upset about what he's about to do in order to fix everything. Even when he tells her she has the harder job to do.

There are indications that he doesn't make friends very easily, if he's really had any true friends previously at all. Adelle chooses to look the other way once a year when Topher needs one active to run diagnostics on. Which translates to that day is his birthday where he's allowed to imprints that doll as his friend and they spend the day playing games, some he has modified and generally finding someone he can have a connection with and he can have seemingly trivial geeky conversations with them. She seems to be acutely aware that it's something he needs. It again highlights the connection that they have and why she puts up with so much from him. When she's away from the house under the pretence of being at headquarters she gets a call, her response to it is "It could be very urgent, or it could be Topher calling to tell me that his sweater's itchy." Emphasising how much she actually looks after him.

Later though he does refer to some of the Dolls as his friends. Echo, Victor and Sierra specifically. When he does get called out on this he does try to down-play it. He does care about Whiskey, who he imprinted as Dr. Claire Saunders. He created her to question him about his choices but it was inevitably her that turned that into the hatred she felt.

Topher has a number of phobias that affect him. He is acutely agoraphobic, this could be one of the main reasons he sleeps where he does and rarely ventures out of the Dollhouse. He does exhibit anxiousness when he's outside his comfort zone. When he accompanies Adelle to DC he gets nervous and more erratic than usual. He's afraid of the dark, which is brought up when the house was put into darkness and he stands with a little glow stick for light seeming rather reluctant to leave his office. There is also his fear of rats which Claire exploits by putting some in one of the cupboards for him to find, leaving Ivy to clean the mess up while he kept as far away as possible.

It shouldn't be said that Topher is exactly a coward, even when he does get punched and knocked out a lot. He is actually quite brave in the circumstances he faces. While he doesn't seem all that strong he does have a stubborn streak which serves him well in persevering against insurmountable odds. He challenges Adelle even if it means he could face being sent to the attic, which is a frightening place to be sent. Being forced to live nightmares over and over so the brain can be used as part of a processor for a supercomputer. In his future he's held captive and watching a person get shot for every day that he doesn't make what he's expected to, he holds out though it all, while it does gradually take more of a toll on his mental capacity he lasts out to be rescued.

For all of Topher's arrogance and self-importance he does internalize a large amount of self-loathing. He tells Claire she's better than he is for example. He does seem to be somewhat aware of his self created loneliness but he doesn't know quite how to fix this or change his behaviours to begin to rectify it. This self awareness seems to arrive at a point where it appears to be too late to avoid the fate that he has inevitably created for himself without realising it. This isn't helped by his mental health. While he can be seen to be smiling and happy on the outside the truth is that he is an unstable element in the Dollhouse. He's just learned some not so great coping mechanisms to deal with everything. The changes he ends up facing and the consequences to his actions unfortunately tip the scales out of his favor for these working sufficiently. Between losing Bennett, rescuing Priya (Sierra) and the issues with Boyd at the end he has already been pushed so far, causing the thoughtpocalypse was the final straw for him and that was when he went into a downward spiral. His final breaking point was when he was held captive and forced to watch people being shot if he didn't invent things for his captors. In a way it did help him come up with a solution to the problem. It gave him determination to fix what he'd done wrong. Even if it means giving up his life to rectify the situation.

There are a lot of gaps in Topher's early life before the Dollhouse and how he came to work there. Some that are used are from information gathered from the online game Dollplay, though just how canonically this is can be debated as Joss wasn't involved in it. The rest of it is made up more from headcanon based on things that are hinted at. Main examples of this are with his parents. They don't seem particularly bad people, in fact I go with that they loved him very much and tried their best to support him in everything but at the time he was growing up they weren't quite sure how to cope with a child like him. The other being Whiskey, there was some prior connection between the two of them and they both arrived at the LA house under separate circumstances.

Powers/Abilities: He has no powers. He's too smart for his own good. And loves sudoku.

Appearance:This is what he looks like.

Samples:

Actionspam Sample:
Topher's arrival to New Dodge.
His reaction to when Claire let rats out into his lab.
Claire tormenting Topher more. He lost that badly.

Prose Sample:
Topher and Whiskey on the TDM at Boomtown.
Topher and Adelle
Topher and Adelle at Milliways
Topher and Echo