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PLAYER INFORMATION
Your Name: Zo
OOC Journal: diffraction
Under 18? If yes, what is your age?: Yes; 23.
Email IM: roraroras (at) gmail (dot) com || aim: percolate this
Characters Played at Ataraxion:
Angel ; slipperysoul
Peter Petrelli [AU] ; triedtobe

C H A R A C T E R   I N F O R M A T I O N
Name: Jon Osterman ; aka Dr Manhattan
Canon: Watchmen
Original or Alternate Universe: Original
Canon Point: When Jon flees to Mars after the live television interview where he is confronted with the idea that he gave the people closest to him cancer.
Number: 008, if possible.

Setting:

Watchmen is based in a universe - or world - that is almost exactly like our own. It had the same wars and the same presidents (though they were able to run for more terms); the same historical events. Everything is the same save for the emergence of superheroes, something which began in the 1940’s. Not even their existence unto itself is as important, insomuch as the fact that people are fully aware of their existence. They were involved heavily in the Vietnam War and one even continues to work with the president (though it’s under the radar). After some of their retirements, one became well known as a business tycoon, one wrote a book, and while not all of them fade into obscurity, a few live out fairly publicized lives.

To even further impress up on this point of supposed stardom that these superheroes managed to achieve through their actions, the Keene Act was passed in 1977, an act that effectively illegalized superheroes and any of the vigilante acts they may try and perform. This makes it impossible for these people to thrive as superheroes and puts the last functioning ones into so called retirement.

One of the last things that, just barely, manages to separate the world Watchmen from our own is the incredible likelihood of impending nuclear war. Though our own world faces the threat of potential nuclear war, the threat of it in the world of Watchmen becomes so likely that saving the world by way of alien squid attack is a far better alternative.

History:

These are the facts we know of Jonathan Osterman’s life before he became Doctor Manhattan.

Jon Osterman was born on August 14th, 1929. Though nothing is known of his mother, his father was a watchmaker and Jon planned on becoming one as well. When Jon was sixteen, however, the US dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and his father was struck with the reality of the situation that their country had found itself in. Jon’s father was concerned regarding not only the political climate but the scientific one as well and the fact that watchmaking was a useless, outdated venue to pursue when nuclear war was on the horizon. Jon’s father decided his son needed to begin studying nuclear physics. Because of this Jon dropped watchmaking like it was hot and studied at Princeton University from 1948-58. He graduated with a Ph.D. in atomic physics.

In 1959 he moved to a particle physics research base and testing facility at Gila Flats in Arizona, where he met his two best friends, Wally Weaver and Janey Slater. Jon’s work here involved the possible removal of the intrinsic field from solid objects, a process which was done using an intrinsic field subtractor, a machine that utilized radiation to perform its task.

During the summer of 1959, July specifically, Jon and Janey take a vacation to New Jersey. Jon intends to visit old university friends and Janey wants to visit her mother. While they wait for Janey’s mother to get in touch, Jon and Janey kill time at an amusement park, left with nothing better to do. While there, Janey’s watchband snaps and a fat man steps on it; Jon tells her he can fix it. After returning to their hotel, and after inspecting the damage done to her watch, Jon and Janey end up sleeping together -- it is their first time making love.

Only a month later - August - shortly after Jon’s thirtieth birthday, Jon intends to give Janey back her fixed watch. However, he discovers that he accidentally left it in his lab coat, which he left inside of the intrinsic field chamber when they were resetting it earlier that morning. After returning to the machine to try and find it, the door closes automatically and locks down as a safety feature while the machine warms up for that afternoon’s experiment. Unable to open the door himself, and with it impossible for anyone else to open it, Jon is forced to stay inside the chamber while Janey flees, unable to watch as the countdown for the current experiment counts down. That afternoon’s experiment is meant to removed the intrinsic field from a concrete block -- instead, it removes Jon’s.

A bright wash of light takes over the chamber as Jon is torn apart from the force of the experiment -- all of his atoms separate and he is seemingly vaporized. He is declared dead.

It is September. A funeral service is held for Jon despite the fact that there is no body to bury.

It is October. Janey places a photograph from New Jersey of her and Jon inside of a display case in Gila Flats

It is November. A nervous system appears briefly in the bathroom behind two men in Gila Flats.

It is November 10th. A circulatory system is seen briefly walking through the kitchen.

It is November 14th. A partially muscled skeleton is seen standing by the perimeter fence of Gila Flats. It screams for only thirty seconds before once more disappearing.

It is November 22nd. A fully reformed Jon appears inside of the cafeteria, taking everyone by surprise. Surprise is an understatement.

After his transformation, Jon discovers that his view of time is no longer in a linear, or ‘quantum’ fashion. He implies that he’s capable of viewing all of his own life simultaneously, both past and future alongside of present. While this does not make him omniscient, the amount of sensory data he’s able to understand has dramatically increased to such an extent that his emotional range decreases dramatically. While Jon is quick to understand this, no one else is quite so understanding.

Jon spends the Christmas of 1959 with Janey. While it seems as if they are back together as a couple, Jon admits to himself that when he’s telling Janey that he’s the same person and that he will always want her, that he knows he is lying.

In February of 1960, Jon begins donning the persona of Dr. Manhattan for the United States government. They give him a costume - which he dislikes- and he gives himself the symbol of hydrogen atom. It is also at this point that Jon has begun to realize that he will ‘never feel cold or warm again,’ thus realizing that he’s becoming more and more apathetic to not only himself, but to the world around him. It’s only a month later that he goes public, shown on television and declared as a real life Superman. The Pentagon declares that Jon is able to control atomic structure itself and is seem dismantling different weapons of war - a rifle, a tank - to further impress upon the point that Dr. Manhattan is capable of being a weapon himself.

With his help, the United States is able to to help the west win the Cold War.

In June, Jon attends a charity event along with other costumed heroes. Jon admits to only himself that he has nothing in common with them, pointing out once more that he has broken way from humanity.

In November, Jon has been stated to be a ‘crimefighter’ in the press, and so the Pentagon informs Jon that he must fight crime. Destroying Moloch’s underground ‘vice den’ is barely a blip on Jon’s radar, nor does he even understand the morality of his own actions anymore.

In September of 1961, Jon is photographed shaking JFK’s hand -- Jon is fully aware that two years in the future, president JFK will be assassinated.

In 1966 Jon attends the first meeting of the Crimebusters along with Janie. It is there that he first meets Laurie, who he cannot take his eyes off of most of the meeting. Janie is aware of this and asks him if they can go; it is only after they leave that Janie accuses him of chasing jailbait and Jon cannot deny the fact that she is aging more noticeably while he is not. While Jon is frozen in time, the world seemingly continues to move around him.

In May of 1966, Jon and Laurie kiss for the first time while he joins her out on patrol. Janie later leaves Jon

In 1969, Jon receives news of his father’s death. It 1970, on Laure’s 20th birthday, Jon and her move into an apartment in Washington. Jon later reveals his true name to the press.

It January of 1971, President Nixon asks Jon if he will intervene in Vietnam. Two months after arrival, in May, and the Vietcong is already expected to surrender. Most people ask if they can surrender to Jon personally. In June, Jon attends V.V.N night along with the Comedian, and he watches as Blake kills a woman that he impregnated. After somberly telling off Blake for his crime, Blake reminds Jon that he could have done anything to stop him except he didn’t. He could have changed his gun into something else, teleported them both away, but he didn’t and Blake tells Jon that he’s out of touch with humanity and that he doesn’t give a damn about human beings. Jon doesn’t disagree; he says nothing.

In 1977, the people of New York are protesting masked vigilantes. The police are on strike and people, succumbing to fear, are on the brink of complete anarchy. Jon is helping to keep the mob’s at bay along with Laurie and in an attempt to do something, Jon teleports a massive crowd straight back to their homes. Two of these people suffered heart attacks upon finding themselves back inside.

On August 3rd 1977, the Keene act is passed and Vigilantism becomes illegal. Agreeing to act only under the US government, Jon is considered exempt from the act, along with Edward Blake.

In 1981, Laurie and Jon move into their quarters at the Rockefeller military research center in New York.

On Saturday, October 12th, 1985, a Comedian dies in New York. Later that day, Jon and Laurie are informed of Blake’s murder.

On the 13th, Rorscach arrives to speak to Jon and Laurie about his theory on who killed Blake. After upsetting Laurie, Jon teleports Rorscach out of the facility and instead of discussing things with Jon, Laurie leaves to go have dinner with Dan. On the 16th, Jon attends Blake’s funeral alone while Laurie goes to visit her mother. Three days later, while making love to Laurie, she discovers that he has multiplied himself in an attempt to stimulate her, stating that he no longer understands what does. Becoming upset and running out of the bedroom, she discovers that he’s also multiplied himself in an attempt to continue working on an experiment. They argue about whether or not he even understands her anymore and she runs out, leaving Jon to later attend his television interview that same night.

An interview in which Jon is confronted with the information that a number of the people he was close to now have cancer. Janie has been diagnosed and Wally died a number of years ago from the disease, something that Jon already knew. Moloch, a villain that Jon fought back in the day also has been diagnosed. After terminating the interview early, a flood of people attempt to question Jon and in a fit of rage, he teleports them all outside of the studio before leaving first for Arizona - to Gila flats - and then to Mars.

[ The cancer scheme is, however, a frame that was arranged by Veidt that was meant to make Jon leave Earth so that he wouldn’t interfere with his plans. Veidt gave Wally, Janie, and Moloch all cancer specifically so that it would upset Jon. ]

Personality:

Not too much is known about Jon Osterman before he become Dr. Manhattan save for the bits and pieces that are shown of his past. However, from what we do see of him, he seems to be a kind man, softly spoken, and interested in other people’s lives. He doesn’t seem overly encumbered by stress and/or life itself, and he’s incredibly intelligent -- he graduated from Princeton with a doctorate in physics, after all, after only deciding he was going to go into science when he was sixteen. This shows that he has an intelligence that comes fairly easy to him, though he never brags or claims himself to be of abnormal, or above average, intelligence. He simply decides which direction his life is going to go and then he seemingly acts upon it without great distress.

The fact that he grows up with a father that is a watchmaker and intends to become one himself gives him a unique sense of time. This further adds to his later perspective on time and how he believes his own life to be predetermined, and therefore the other people’s lives that he come in contact with, just as determined within his own life. Becoming a watchmaker has little bearing on Jon himself, but as Dr. Manhattan it becomes much more prominent as to how he views the world around him.

Jon is also seemingly a gentle man, someone who’s not overbearing or forceful in any way though he does seem to be invested in his choices. He’s not someone to change his mind once he’s made a decision, though he has an easygoing way about how he approaches things. His relationships as well as his professional and academic careers are things that he takes slowly but invests himself fully in, not veering from his path once he’s made his decision.

“ In my opinion, the existence of life is a highly overrated phenomenon. ”
As Dr. Manhattan, however, he is an entirely different man because of what’s happened to him and because of the abilities he’s acquired through his accident. After his accident, he notices an immediate alteration in the way he views time and the way that he reacts to the world around him. Over time he only becomes that much more apathetic and distanced from humanity because of how his newfound abilities force him to not only see the world, but time as well. Psychologists at Rockefeller theorized that there is little keeping him grounded anymore, and that Laurie is required to give him a reason to stay attached to humanity. Humans have been turned into only the parts that create their whole - atoms instead of people with feelings - and time has become something that Jon doesn’t see as a threat or something to concern himself over.

His own life is something that’s happening simultaneously and he no longer sees himself as having an effect on anything that will occur. This has no effect on how he behaves in the moment, but only provides commentary as to how chains of events unfold, and to Jon, he looses his perspective on human emotion because he can no longer see the rationale behind it. Not only does he no longer understand the meaning behind life itself, unless it has something to do with Laurie, he doesn’t understand why others behave the way they do. Life, to Jon, has become purely science based -- people are only the atoms that make them up, and considering the fact that energy does not disappear, it is merely transferred, then life has no more bearing than death. People have the same number of particles living as they do alive and actions have no more moral basis than inactions do.

While it can be said that Jon is out of touch with human kind, it can’t be said that he’s completely emotionless. While he, oftentimes, no longer understands the basis behind the actions others expect him to perform, and while he had no intention to save the world after Laurie leaves him, he is able to find the miracle of life within Laurie herself. She is his reason and when she leaves him, he leaves Earth. She is his tether to the human world, as are some of his other relationships. When he is confronted with the idea that he’s given some of the people he cares the most about cancer, he becomes enraged as he’s flocked with questions that he doesn’t want to answer. Strong emotions such as love and anger are things he can’t help but feel. Things such as morality and sensuality, that have more ambiguity, are therefore are lost on him when he feels as if there are other things in the universe to busy himself with.

Jon is heavily influenced by the abilities that he gains after his intrinsic field is destroyed. This doesn’t change some of the core parts of his personality however -- Jon is still focused and driven and he still loves. Even after Blake kills the woman he impregnated, Jon seems distressed that he’d do such a thing. There are small moments that occur over time that seemingly distress him when other things fail to do so. He might not understand the morality behind certain actions, such as fighting in a war that he believes he has no stake in, but he does still seem to understand certain values that he perhaps once believed in..

He does not, however, try and change things that he has already seen occurring. In discussions he has with other people, if he knows how something is going to turn out, he doesn’t try and affect it simply because he knows he can’t. The fact that he can see his own life doesn’t affect him so much as confuse everyone else, something which he doesn’t seem to understand. He’s driven by his own life, so much as he’s driven by his own abilities, and while he doesn’t try to achieve what he sees, he doesn’t actively try to stop it either. This is likely due in part to the fact that his emotions have no bearing on his future, and also due to the fact that he knows his own future is something he has no control over. If he already knows what’s going to happen, what is there to change?

Abilities, Weaknesses and Power Limitations:

[ note; well i’m aware that Jon will have to be nerfed quite a lot, I want to just list out what he is capable of doing and we can go from there. please do just let me know what he definitely isn’t allowed to do - teleporting him through walls I know will be axed - and if you just want to leave it vague/open for discussion/have me ask you what’s okay and what’s not okay later on, just let me know! ]

Abilities:

Particle manipulation; This is John’s main, and only ability, garnered from the fact that he had his intrinsic field destroyed and was able to somehow reassemble himself. Though it’s the only ability that can be named, it’s a skill that branches off into numerous abilities, making him practically invincible in the world of Watchmen.

This ability gives him control over all atomic particles. John is able to manipulate not only his own particles (giving him the ability to control his own size, skin color, density and therefore strength), but the particles of other people and the objects around him. He can put objects back together that have been broken and he can destroy things by ripping them apart atomically. He can move or ‘teleport’ (by assembling and reassembling a distance away) people and objects over great distances -- shown by his ability to move himself and Laurie both onto Mars.

Other factors of his particle manipulation (though, these may just be similar to those already stated) include the ability to produce identical copies of himself, that are all capable of acting of their own - controlled, since they’re still him - volition. He can create force fields around himself and others. He can create and transmute matter, can move objects without touching them - telekinesis - and can supposedly create life itself. He is also capable of reverse entropy:

(Entropy is a thermodynamic property that has to do with the amount of thermal energy in a system per unit of temperature that is not available for doing useful work. It has a lot to do of the transfer of energy, therefore the transfer of energy from a higher temperature to a lower temperature [ie, ice melting].

The second law of thermodynamics states that the entropy of an isolated system never decreases because isolated systems spontaneously evolve towards thermodynamic equilibrium (aka there is no flow in the matter of energy, no state changes, and no unbalanced potentials within said system). It states that in an isolated system, it is going to constantly strive to achieve balance by way of entropy. Because of this, entropy is seen as one of the only quantities in physical science that occurs in one direction for time, also called the ‘arrow of time.’ As time progresses, the entropy of an isolated system increases. Therefore, entropy is seen as a way to distinguish the past from the future.

In laymen's terms (sort of), in relation to how this applies to Jon, entropy is seen in only running in one direction. For most humans, we are only able to see time as something that progresses forward, but never backwards. To Jon, reverse entropy is possible, meaning that he’s capable of seeing all of (his own) time, as a constant, more cyclical process. He doesn’t see time as an arrow pointing in one direction, he sees it instead as something constant in all directions, his past and future as prevalent as his present, and his past as something that’s occurring just as much in the ‘now.’ He has a non-linear perception of time, though this seems to be something he’s only able to see of his own life, considering he doesn’t claim he has omniscience.)

Though it’s never stated as a part of his particle manipulation, Jon doesn’t need to breathe, eat or drink. He is seemingly immortal and unable to age or to be injured. Though he is capable of walking, he seemingly spends just as much of his time hovering just above the floor, appearing that much more impending.

Lastly, his blue coloration is from Cherenkov radiation, not so much an ability as a side effect. Cherenkov radiation is electromagnetic radiation that’s emitted when a charged particle, like an electron, passes through a dielectric (an electric insulator that can be polarized) medium at a speed that’s grater than the phase velocity of light in said medium. The charged particles then polarize the molecules of this medium, and then turn rapidly back into their ground (or original) state, emitting radiation in the process. This does not mean, however, that he is radioactive and Jon is not capable of giving others radiation poisoning. It’s possible that this simple states that he is the medium in which the electrons are moving rapidly through simply because he has no intrinsic field to keep his atoms held tightly together.

Limitations / Weaknesses:

It could be said that Jon’s major limitation, and therefore weakness, is his apathy towards mankind. His relationships are what ground him to this world and are what connect him to what he still is, in part, but considering the way he behaves makes him lose what few relationships he does have, it’s an incredible weakness and one he can do very little about.

Another weakness is that he struggles to view the world the way most people do and has far more in common with morally ambiguous people than he does with morally driven people, on either side of the spectrum. Those that don’t so much as pick sides as straddle the line, Jon is able to understand far better simply because he has no moral definitions himself. While some might view this as a flaw, others might not, simply because it doesn’t cement him down into one ideal. Though, it does mean that if the US government wasn’t telling him what to do, it was likely that someone else would be attempting to do so.

Because of this, it means that he was able to agree with Veidt’s attempt to save the world via squid attack, simply because he could see the benefits in it (giving the world something to rally around), and therefore the benefits in not going to the media with the information. He was told to try and save the world and when Veidt explains that’s exactly what he was trying to do, Jon can only see the reasoning in it. Though this isn’t so much of a physical weakness, it is far more of a character flaw -- Jon isn’t able to connect with most of humanity, and for humanity itself, this is a problem. Jon doesn’t care about protecting the one thing that everyone wants him to protect, and he doesn’t understand why it matters in the first place.

People matter very little to him, and for the people in the world, this is a problem.

One last weakness, and a true ability limitation for him is the existence and use of tachyons. A large burst of them can seemingly block or 'jam' his ability to see into the future and therefore confuse his perception of not only future events, but present time as well. They don't affect his other abilities, so much as hinder his ability to see time as non-linear.

Inventory:

(+) Nada... you should probably throw his black loin cloth in there, just for fashion sense.

Appearance:

Doctor Manhattan, formally known as Jon Osterman, usually stands somewhere around 5’9” (if only because that’s how tall Billy Crudup is) but it’s hardly his height that makes him seemingly stand as tall as he appears. Considering Dr. Manhattan can change his height at will, it’s more of how he appears that’s of importance. With abs of steel and more muscles than he knows what to do with, Manhattan is incredibly well built and cares not for how he looks or even for clothes -- he prefers being naked, thank you ever so. He glows a prominent blue, which he can also change the hue of at will. His eyes are raccoon’d in black - mimicking the skeletal depths of eye sockets - and he has the symbol of a hydrogen atom burned into his forehead.

Age: 56


S A M P L E S
Log Sample:

It is 1985.

Was.

He was meant to be on Mars, the red sand filtering through his fingers, he was meant to be watching his own life pass by in the same instance that it was going to occur and yet here he was, in an entirely indiscernible plane, in an entirely unrecognizable place. If he was meant to be here, he would have been able to see it from a distance -- and yet if he is here, than he was meant to be here in the first place.

Something was blocking his ability to see -- tachyons interfering with his understanding of his own life's path, though if they were tachyons, he would know of those as well. They were the only things that could interfere with how much of his own existence he could see and now he had been caught off guard, more than he ever should have been.

Perhaps something else was wrong.

It would require in-depth investigation. But for now, Jon was merely invested in finding more out. If anything, he was simply curious as to the reason behind it -- something else that could stop him in his tracks and he wanted to know what it was, plain and simple. Scientific curiosity was his impetus and there was little reason to try and stop himself from understanding what was impeding him this time.

Even more curious, perhaps, was his inability to move himself from outside of the ship. Every attempt didn't end with failure so much as a lack or a viable result. There was far more occurring here than simple tachyons and as Jon moved his way through the ship, footsteps quiet as he padded down towards the science department, movements fluid as they were silently calculated, Jon had already decided he was going to find out what exactly it all was. It wasn't as if time was of importance and as far as he knew, there was no one here that had any reason to expect anything of him.

Despite the fact that he wasn't where he’d intended to be, he could still use the equipment he’d been told about to do as he pleased, and no one should want anything from him in return. And if they did, Jon would be hard pressed to see the reasoning behind it -- he knew no one here, and even if he did, there was no need to be involved. Life outside of Earth, though it proved that there was no reason to believe that Earth itself was anything special, was simply more life. More energy and particles that hardly defined the space they inhabited.

Perusing the equipment available, Jon didn't have to make himself comfortable when the idea of it was lost on him and he easily made the space his own, setting to work on understanding where he was meant to start investigations he hadn't thought he would have needed to begin.

Comms Sample:
[ video; ]

[ there is a naked, faintly glowing blue man standing a short distance away from where his comm device is holding steady in the air. he’s hardly bothered by the fact that he’s naked... nor is he bothered by, well, much of anything. ]

It has become clear to me that while I am entirely capable of moving my own matter both through time and space, I have been moved into a plane that has hindered my ability to alter my own particles to such an extent that I have become accustomed to. It seems that this is not true in all instances, however. [ his tone indicates a shrug might go here, but he doesn’t move an inch. ] I was not able to forsee this event, likely a cause of whatever is altering my intrinsic field.

[ Jon almost sighs, almost looks dejected, but mostly looks nothing too terribly different. ]

While I am aware that this is possible, I have yet to understand exactly how it is occurring. Once I have, however, I intend to make it stop. I have begun research in the science department. [ he’s still as blase as ever. ]

I am curious, however, as to how this affects the atoms of others. It can only serve to further advance my own research if I understand how other atoms have proven to react in such a place. [ he tips his head slightly, and then proceeds to wait for his answers. ]