![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
enodiamod ➼ bio
BASICS
nameDr. Enoch Arden Waldinger
alias
"Knock-knock" ONLY if you're his sibling. Also you don't have to call him Doctor, but he'd strongly prefer it.
division
Research
occupation
Physicist, specializing in Rift radiation and its effects on matter
age & dob
29 / Jan 30, 1994 / Aquarius ♒
pronouns
he / him
family
Crysta Waldinger, Operations & Research, younger sister.
Gavin Waldinger, Explorer, older brother (deceased).
CONNECTIONS
crysta → sisterparson → explorer who absorbed his brother's powers (and psyche)
annie → research friend
eureka → research friend
isaiah → research rival
raine → ex
CONCEPT
Arrogant wunderkind scientist weaves complex illusions, but can't lie to himself.POWERS
illusion manipulation;Enoch can create illusions and manipulate people to see, hear, touch, smell or taste things that aren't real. Theoretically, he has the ability to do anything with his illusions, but currently struggles when creating illusions that aren't totally grounded in reality and personal experience. He can put you in a perfect recreation of his research lab, but obvious cracks would show if he tried to place you on the moon's surface, and he'd completely fail at conjuring a bubblegum kingdom populated by cotton candy kittens.
He's strongest when it comes to sight and sound. Making an illusion that's convincing to touch, smell or taste is possible if it's only one person interacting with it (like a single apple), but things rapidly fall apart the more people he has to convince (like multiple cake slices).
His illusions are not real, and rely on other people believing them to have any external effect. If you believe getting shot by an illusory gun should hurt, then it will, but if you don't believe it, then it won't. Either way, his illusions can't actually inflict physical damage. If the person being manipulated actively rejects the illusion as fake, then it holds no power over them and may even disappear entirely.
truth perception;
Enoch can always see the true state of things. Currently, what this means is:
- seeing through illusions, including his own
- immunity to any sort of powers that would alter his senses or mental state to make him believe something that isn't true
- sensing when some kind of Liminal-powered deception is happening around him
- detecting lies (inconsistent; he must be able to hear the words, and has a better chance of success if he can also see the other person's face. this also works on Enoch's own lies, which is very annoying.)
- detecting shapeshifting (also inconsistent)
- knowing when he's dreaming
PERSONALITY
+ observant. analytical; endlessly curious about the inner workings of Rifts and Liminals. hard-working; spends long hours in the lab. detail-oriented. perfectionist. sociable, but not always nice. playful, if dry about it.– intense. dislikes messy emotions. arrogant; thinks he's better than most people. judgmental; highly critical of himself and others. proud. control issues; always wants the upper hand. will lie for any reason at all.
= book smart, not street smart. prizes objectivity; skeptical of anything that can't be observed and quantified. treats people like experiments to be prodded. dark sense of humour. penchant for drama. loves attention.
APPEARANCE
➼ 6'0 (just barely shy of). lanky build. easy to beat up.➼ dark brown eyes. brown hair, kept neat. always clean-shaven.
➼ lingering English accent, which he sometimes exaggerates for effect. odd and overly precise speech, emphasizing and enunciating words in a way that comes off as theatrical. doesn't stutter anymore except in times of great emotional distress.
➼ does not believe in dressing casually. this is a workplace! favors dark colours and tailored clothing.
➼ shamelessly uses illusions to smooth out imperfections in his appearance (skin clear, hair never out of place, clothing unwrinkled).
➼ vibes of someone who was bullied a lot in primary school and became a bully in response.
HISTORY
➼ Enoch's parents were social strivers and self-made millionaires who provided their children with luxuries but also pitted them against each other for scraps of attention. Enoch spent more time with nannies than with his own parents, and struggled with feeling like the forgotten middle child in between the responsible eldest son and the cute baby sister. He particularly resented his brother, whom he was constantly compared to. When he was 12, his family moved from London to Los Angeles. Gavin adapted well to the change, while Enoch did not.
➼ As a child, Enoch had a bad stutter. Even after getting treated by the best speech pathologists money could buy, it remained a running joke with Enoch's father, who saw his second son as dull and uncharming. Proving him wrong became an obsession for Enoch. When he wasn't hampered by a stutter, he was extremely bright and hard-working, and saw academics as his ticket for praise and attention. He started taking courses at Stanford University at age 15, and earned his Physics PhD by age 24. Despite his achievements, Enoch still came in second to Gavin as far as their father was concerned, which only worsened the brothers' rivalry.
➼ Between an emotionally withholding childhood, an intercontinental move right before his teen years, and rocketing through school way ahead of his peer group, Enoch's social skills were lacking. At 22, he developed Liminal powers, and went from being an awkward and intense young man to an awkward and intense young man who could use illusions to ease his way through tricky social situations. Want to seem fun but have extreme control issues? Drink an illusory beer or smoke an illusory joint instead. Need to escape a conversation? Create a hot babe calling you over to talk to her. Want to take revenge on a colleague who won't stop bullying you? Well.
➼ Upon finishing his doctorate, Enoch applied for a job at Enodia Research Station, and has been there since it first opened. His field of study (radiation) made him an ideal candidate for studying the Rifts. Gavin also became an Enodia employee, and they forever disagreed on who applied first. Enoch claimed that Gavin only came to Enodia to copy him. Gavin insisted it was the other way around. The brothers were infamous around the station for their antagonistic, competitive relationship, but in the last couple of years, Gavin made efforts to repair the bond between him and his siblings. Enoch responded with sarcastic jokes and resisting any suggestion that they might benefit from therapy, but secretly he was glad to be fighting less with Gavin and Crysta.
➼ Last December, Enoch's brother was killed in an accident out in the Riftlands. Gavin was at the time empathetically linked to another Liminal, Parson Starling, who emerged from this tragedy with Gavin's powers and an imprint of Gavin's personality. Enoch gave himself exactly five days to grieve before he began semi-stalking Parson around the station to observe his behaviour. Scientific curiosity, that's all.
➼ Enoch was in the research lab when the mysterious pulse occurred in February. His last memory before going unconscious was a sharp pain in his head, and how he'd thrown everyone in the lab into an frighteningly realistic illusion of somewhere in the Riftlands—or probably the Riftlands, as he's never been to that exact location and isn't even sure it's real. He hasn't been able to replicate the illusion since.
➼ Enoch returned to Enodia and discovered that his sister is now working there. She did not okay this with him beforehand, and he hates it! He's also been semi-stalking Crysta's activities around the station, and not because he's codependent or feeling protective or anything. It's actually because he's extremely busy analyzing the pulse and her presence is an unwelcome distraction, thanks.
NOTES
➼ Allergic to animal dander, and was the reason his siblings had to give up their dog when they were children.➼ Keeps files of personal notes and observations on his coworkers' habits, preferences, routines, Liminal powers, etc. This is his idea of a fun hobby.
➼ When trying to create an illusion of something he isn't as familiar with, he'll do a research deep dive and build a computer simulation to supplement his lack of knowledge. This isn't as good as personal experience, but it gets him closer than pure off-the-cuff creativity.
➼ When he's stumped by a problem, he conjures an illusion of a crow and talks through the issue with it until he arrives at a solution. The crow doesn't speak beyond making crow noises. Enoch calls it "Crysta."
➼ Fluent in English and German, and moderately conversational in French, Russian and Arabic. He learned mostly so he could communicate with researchers in other countries, and skim over foreign language abstracts or articles.
PERMISSIONS
WRITING: Third person present tense preferred, but I'm flexible. I love logging but I'm a very slow writer. Any length of tag makes me happy.
BACKTAGGING: Yes! I do tend to drop things fast once I'm overwhelmed by my inbox, but if there's ever a convo/log that you want to continue or you thought was important, you can poke me about it.
THREADHOPPING: Totally fine.
PRIVATE FILTERS (IN HIS POSTS MINUS HIM): Go ahead, but if it's getting long and/or no one is responding to the post anymore, please move it somewhere else.
SENSITIVE TOPICS: Honestly fine with most dark topics, but always appreciate a head's up if you're worried something might be too much to introduce in a scene with me. If I don't want to broach a subject IC, I will tell you. If I write a tag that puts you off, let me know and I'll gladly revise.
Potential sensitive subjects from Enoch's end: Emotionally abusive parents, sibling death, grief. Enoch finds emotions uncomfortable and does not want comfort from others, but he'll make flippant comments about it.
SMUT: Fade to black. Fine with innuendo and sexually explicit comments as long as it's funny.
CONFLICT: Enoch is almost always trying to provoke someone or just being a very arrogant and insensitive person, so conflict happens naturally. Feel free to either escalate or disengage if he's trying to start shit with you.
BADMOUTHING: Go wild. He badmouths other people quite a bit (either behind their backs or right out in the open), so you can call him an asshole whether or not it's justified.
VIOLENCE: Not at all equipped to handle a physical fight, beyond putting up illusions to try to escape. If he ever gets punched, he was probably asking for it. I'd like a head's up if you want to attack him, but I'll probably be ok with it.
SHIPPING & CRUSHES: I love to give my characters random crushes just for fun; I do not expect a crush to be reciprocated, and will gladly drop it if it makes you uncomfortable (let me know!). [marie kondo voice] I just love mess.
Enoch is open to both casual and long-term relationships, but is not emotionally demonstrative and dislikes being asked to prioritize other people over his work. (Just a terrible dating experience, really.) He does not mind flirting or frank discussion about sex, but will be uncomfortable if asked to talk about any kind of emotions.