Topher had hit the stage of 'WHY IS EVERYONE YELLING' part of this entire situation, even if he was contributing to it somewhat. He ran his hands through his hair and sighed in an over-exaggerated manner and then dropped them back to his side as soon as the conversation whirled back to him.
And somewhere in all that, he manged to get offended that Wheatley of all people called him an idiot until it occurred to him that he was an idiot. A big idiot. And if that didn't slap him in the face with how bad things had gotten, then nothing could. It calmed him a bit, but when he started talking, his tone still had a bit of a hysterical edge to it.
"You want to know the whole sordid tale of Dr. Claire Saunders?" He said. There were a lot of things he didn't explain in great detail to people, even after being here for as long as he had. In fact, when it came down to it, very few people really knew everything. And every time he explained it, he expected more and more people to react like Dave did. But since Dave heard and Dirk would hear his version eventually if Topher kept any details out, he had to just do the whole gory mess of a story.
"Okay, fine. Once upon a time, there was this girl. It doesn't matter who she was- what matters is that something bad happened to her. And she wanted to go away for awhile, just forget everything for five years, so she came to the Dollhouse. She signed a contract, selling away her life. They'd put her mind on a wedge, put her in storage, and for the next five years, they- we- got to imprint her empty little brain with whatever our clients wanted. And she was a great active- the best one we had. But then one day, one of our other actives went completely mental and sliced her face up with a pair of scissors before going on a mass killing spree through the entire house, including murdering our doctor." He paused to take a breath. "That's when my boss turned to me while I was still covered in the blood of half my staff, BTW, and told me we needed a doctor. She gave me the call. I could either imprint the broken doll or she'd..." He didn't want to explain the Attic, so he didn't. "...She'd be sent somewhere else. So I helped her. Gave her a permanent imprint and she became Dr. Saunders and everything was fine, except I felt horrible for what happened to that girl, so I... gave her an extra protocol. Advanced hacking skills. If she ever began to doubt what she was, she could hack the computers in the Dollhouse and find out. One day she did. She's been a little nuts since. In hindsight, that was probably not the best idea, but she deserved to know."
He pawed at his face with his hands. "I'm not a bad person. I worked for bad people. The tech's got issues, but all I wanna do is do something right with it. That's it. Claire doesn't understand that and her freakin' bodyguard really doesn't understand it, because all he's getting is a mishmash of crap from her." He threw his hands up. "The end."
no subject
And somewhere in all that, he manged to get offended that Wheatley of all people called him an idiot until it occurred to him that he was an idiot. A big idiot. And if that didn't slap him in the face with how bad things had gotten, then nothing could. It calmed him a bit, but when he started talking, his tone still had a bit of a hysterical edge to it.
"You want to know the whole sordid tale of Dr. Claire Saunders?" He said. There were a lot of things he didn't explain in great detail to people, even after being here for as long as he had. In fact, when it came down to it, very few people really knew everything. And every time he explained it, he expected more and more people to react like Dave did. But since Dave heard and Dirk would hear his version eventually if Topher kept any details out, he had to just do the whole gory mess of a story.
"Okay, fine. Once upon a time, there was this girl. It doesn't matter who she was- what matters is that something bad happened to her. And she wanted to go away for awhile, just forget everything for five years, so she came to the Dollhouse. She signed a contract, selling away her life. They'd put her mind on a wedge, put her in storage, and for the next five years, they- we- got to imprint her empty little brain with whatever our clients wanted. And she was a great active- the best one we had. But then one day, one of our other actives went completely mental and sliced her face up with a pair of scissors before going on a mass killing spree through the entire house, including murdering our doctor." He paused to take a breath. "That's when my boss turned to me while I was still covered in the blood of half my staff, BTW, and told me we needed a doctor. She gave me the call. I could either imprint the broken doll or she'd..." He didn't want to explain the Attic, so he didn't. "...She'd be sent somewhere else. So I helped her. Gave her a permanent imprint and she became Dr. Saunders and everything was fine, except I felt horrible for what happened to that girl, so I... gave her an extra protocol. Advanced hacking skills. If she ever began to doubt what she was, she could hack the computers in the Dollhouse and find out. One day she did. She's been a little nuts since. In hindsight, that was probably not the best idea, but she deserved to know."
He pawed at his face with his hands. "I'm not a bad person. I worked for bad people. The tech's got issues, but all I wanna do is do something right with it. That's it. Claire doesn't understand that and her freakin' bodyguard really doesn't understand it, because all he's getting is a mishmash of crap from her." He threw his hands up. "The end."