2. Character Information
Name: Benjamin (Delta)
Livejournal Username:
spinofthewheelFandom: Dollhouse (OC)
Image:
http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/96110223/19391081 3. Character Information II
Age/Appearance:
Late thirties/early forties (he doesn't know how old he is). Grey-brown hair long enough to fall down around his ears. The sort of blank, dark eyes that can seem completely black when he's lost in thought. Subtle musculature, gained from hard work and supplemented through the Dollhouse exercise regimens. And a physical presence that can be anything from cool and distinguished to rough and uncouth to threatening to cuddly.
History:
Benjamin's story begins with the birth of the man he used to be. The man whose body he now inhabits. Certainly there was a birth, but he knows nothing of what happens after that. Nothing of a mother or a father, or an education (hands that are halfway between soft and rough, a few stray scars that don't seem to denote anything in particular, nothing that would point towards a lifestyle this man must once have had).
What he does know for sure is that this man must have been, at some point, strapped for cash, or resources, or desperate to disappear or detox from a drug or abandon his life. And that was where the Dollhouse came in. They must have made the offer they made every active: you'll lose five years of your life, and in exchange, we'll provide for you, for the rest of your life.
When that man agreed to the Dollhouse's contract, his personality was wiped from his mind and saved on a hard drive, and Delta was created. Delta, a blank doll, ready for any personality the Dollhouse would care to imprint on him.
He was imprinted with a total of twenty different personalities, written here in order of assignment:
A priest named Adam, for a young, gay movie producer who wanted to duplicate his fantasy of seducing this one man he never quite managed to seduce.
A private doctor named Leo McCoy for an old-money rich family who wanted their daughter to deliver a baby without any awkward questions.
A cuddly, fantasy-husband named Owen for a powerful female executive who never had time for romance.
A psychologist named Thomas as a repeat engagement for a client who wanted discreet therapy with the promise of none revealing his secret.
A sailor named Aiden for a famous novelist who wanted to meet and romance a free spirit.
A ghost-contacting medium named Peter Alexandrov to pretend to speak to the departed spirit of a dead relative.
A set of Victorian-era personalities, including an escape artist/stage magician named William, a gentleman named Edward, and a street-thief named Christopher, for a rich female history buff with a fantasy of living in those times.
A sniper/weapons expert named Gibson (code-named Snapper) for a bodyguard assignment.
A man named Robert who perfectly fit the victim profile of a serial killer, in order to draw that killer out.
A babysitter named Elijah for the month-long care of two little girls while their mother and new stepfather were on a honeymoon.
The serial killer he drew out in a previous assignment, Jace, after he committed suicide in a cell before the FBI was finished interviewing him.
A businessman with an embedded sub-personality of a corporate spy, named Jack, to spy on the business rivals of the Dollhouse's parent corporation.
A chef named Zachary for the perfect wedding.
A homeless veteran named Campbell who could be saved from the streets by the love of a rich man looking for something more mature.
A bad-boy named Elias made to seduce a man's wife so that he would have grounds for divorcing her.
A man named Seth who recently lost his wife, created so that his male therapist could have the satisfaction of seducing a client.
Finally, Benjamin, the current dominant personality, made to be the best BDSM dominant possible. He was so good, in fact, that he realized that his client didn't really need what Benjamin was tasked with giving him. So, instead, Benjamin talked the client down, lulled him to sleep, and had sex with him in the morning. No BDSM at all. Because of this deviation from assignment, Delta was nearly taken off of active duty, but the fault was determined to be in the imprint, not in the doll, so he was allowed to continue to live.
The last personality in line was Nolan, a brilliant physicist sent out on loan to the United States government.
Unfortunately, Nolan was exposed to some kinds of energy that were completely unanticipated; that imprint was wiped completely, and all other imprints surfaced simultaneously, and began fighting for the body that was Delta.
Benjamin, as the most controlled of the imprints, gained a tenuous balance over them. Nonetheless, he does rule over a mind with twenty personalities that are not his own, all fighting for control.
Personality:
The result of this confluence of personalities, which is called a "composite event" in Dollhouse terms, is something similar but not quite like dissociative identity disorder. There are actually twenty-one whole personalities in his brain, all of them constructed to be complete people, and they are very much capable of communicating with one another and fighting for control.
Benjamin is the dominant personality. He's a man built of extremes. The base of his personality was built off of a torturer, someone who can see the weaknesses in another person and exploit them without a second thought. Added on top of that was an extremely high amount of empathy. Perception and empathy both, with a cool ability to act and think under pressure.
This combination could have destroyed him; no one with that much empathy could survive out in the world, feeling everyone else's suffering. To counteract that, Benjamin was given an incredibly powerful self-image.
According to his constructed background, Benjamin was one of those incredibly rare people who faced horrific circumstances as a child, overcame them, and moved on to live and act and be without ever letting that rule his life. This makes Benjamin an incredibly kind and good person, underneath a cool, ambiguous shell that makes him seem, more often than not, that he's simply indulging in a game of Machiavellian manipulation.
The strength of his own personality allows him to keep the others in line, and, to some extent, access their abilities without allowing them control. However, despite his incredible sense of self, doing so repeatedly will slowly cause him to wear down, take on their personality traits, and eventually cede control to them, for a time. The composite nature of his mind means that sometimes the decisions he makes are not his, but done by a sort of majority vote in his consciousness.
Sexual Preferences/Orientation:
Benjamin loves toying with desire. Uncovering another person's desire, ripping them apart and piecing them back together again better than they were before. The gender doesn't matter in the least. And, in fact, often he doesn't seek physical gratification in sex. Just mental and emotional.
Powers:
Benjamin has no exceptional powers, but he does have access to the experiences and abilities of twenty-one people.
Reason for playing:
Benjamin is fascinating. Not only is his particular form of odd, perceptive dissection absolutely perfect for a place like Bete Noire, but his way of doing good, of expressing empathy, is precisely the way Bete Noire will slip in through the cracks and start to wear him down. Slow corruption, in his case, will do bad, bad things, especially if it involves releasing the serial killer within.
4. Original Character Supplement
World History:
Wiki Link (Dollhouse)
Character History: See above.
5. Samples
First-Person:
This city speaks to you. I can see it; it speaks to everyone. Tales of sin and pain, of pleasure and indulgence. Come with me, take my hand, and I'll show you the true extent of your desire. We'll find out what it is you really want, we'll unleash it, and I -- well. I will help you survive it.
What do you say to that?
Third-Person:
The city changes shape around him. Dank and dirty, broken glass and spray-paint, hopelessness cloying like a stink around the too-thin, too-beaten population that lingers on the sidewalks.
At first, Benjamin isn't sure it's real. Then, he changes his mind.
Overflowing dumpsters. Alleys clinging with shadows. Nighttime that isn't just darkness but suffocation, a thin hand of fog damp and thick over every surface.
Parts of Benjamin rejoice at this. (Jace is eager.)
Parts of him recoil. (Adam murmurs the Lord's prayer in the back of his mind.)
Parts are curious. (Like Benjamin himself.)
He slips into Jack all too easily, when a tough comes charging at him. Doesn't know, precisely what the man's intent was, but Benjamin is agile. And Jack is trained to kill.
He steps away, straightening his sleeves.
Enters a bar, smoothly, dignified, and glances around for a target. (Ah, there, says Christopher, a fair lady, pale as daybreak; she should be sweet enough for us to take.)
(Fucking pansy-boy, says Aiden. We'll take our chances on our own, yeah?)
Benjamin chooses a man, instead. A man with dark circles under his eyes, and pain in his posture.
He takes a seat.
"Hello," he says, with a small, smooth smile.
Third-Person #2:
Yes, that. That's the perfect state, the one that Benjamin has spent so long coaxing Rush towards. So he's not thinking of what he's hearing or what he's touching or his worries, the fracturing of his mind. The only thing in his world is one thing, one thing only, and it's in Benjamin's hands to give or withhold, now.
But he wouldn't withhold it. He wouldn't hurt Rush like that, not when he's this vulnerable. And he wants to see him shatter, wants to see what happens when everything that Rush is is given fulfillment.
And so that's what he does.
(And Rush shivers and shakes, buckles, the noises ripped from him without consciousness or leave.)
Lets go of him, and for an instant, Benjamin doesn't know what to do. Because this hasn't just hit Rush hard, it's hit him too, like a punch to the gut. Heartbreaking, to know that he pushed Rush this far, and terrifying to wonder if maybe he went over the line this time.
But, none of this shows; he strokes the backs of his fingers on the inside of Rush's hip, then the same, on his cheek. Now is the time for tenderness, if there ever was one. Steps away, and returns in moments with a damp cloth. Damp, not wet. And he starts slowly clearing that sweat away, the semen, the traces of the encounter that might be too much to bear. He doesn't make a move to untie him.
"Nicholas." Voice is soft, easy on the ears. Warm. "You can talk as soon as you want to, or stay silent as long as you want to. I'm going to leave you like this until you ask me to release you. As soon as you ask, as soon as you want to leave, you can. As long as you're silent, you'll stay safe. You'll stay here."
He falls silent, moves the cloth in long sweeps, until he's had every inch of Rush, every part of him. And then he settles next to him, not watching, just waiting. He's patient.