Sandbox / Livermoregirl

Just Manchattin (aka ''manhattan project group chats") is an ongoing Alternate History Log Fic released on [sometime in march idk] as a feature on user livermoregirl's blog, and [soon] on Archive Of Our Own.

The premise of ''Just Manchattin" is a Giving Radio to the Romans kind of story, and revolves around the Manhattan Project getting a Discord server to discuss the making of Nuclear Weapons, but it quickly dissolves into chaos when chemist Harold Urey hacks into the server. The protagonist is none other than Robert Oppenheimer (username @destroyerofworlds) the father of the atomic bomb. He serves as the Only Sane Man and server owner.

Throughout the fic, more prominent Manhattan Project figures appear, including Edward Teller, Ernest Lawrence, Arthur Compton, James B. Conant, and more.

Well, here's the rotten list of tropes, or whatever-the-heck-you-call-them...

• Affectionate Nickname: The scientists call Oppenheimer "Oppie".
• A Little Something We Call "Rock and Roll": Zig-Zagged. Some things made the transfer, others didn't. Despite having access to Netflix, YouTube, TikTok, and others, none of them have the same shows influencers of the modern period. The only movies on Netflix are The Wizard of Oz, King Kong, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. At the same time, many musical artists are found in this alternate 1940s, including Metallica, Eminem, and Taylor Swift.
• All Love Is Unrequited: Downplayed. The chain goes like this: Urey → Compton → Conant → Lawrence ⮂ Oppenheimer ⮂ Jean → Barbie → Heisenberg
  • While Oppenheimer and Jean are dating, it doesn't quite work out since Oppenheimer might like Lawrence in return, and Jean kind of likes Barbie.
• Alternate History: The main premise of Just Manchattin is "What if the Manhattan Project had access to internet?"
• Bad Influencer: Teller has over 200k subscribers on Youtube and is a Jerkass.
• The Beautiful Elite: Conant is rich (only because he's the Harvard president) and Lawrence thinks he "looks good in everything", especially Eustace Tilley cosplays.
• Benevolent A.I.: The server chatbot, Carl-Bot, was designed to welcome new users onto the server and play Truth or Dare. Although it eventually goes unhinged when Urey hacks into it, that doesn't prevent it from being decent (or at least as much as the code can make it).
• Birds of a Feather: Conant and Lawrence. Both are tall, not-that-bad-looking guys with glasses, seem normal and nice but are pretty snarky, kind of hate themselves on the inside, and have some sort of an antagonistic relationship with Compton. Their similarities bring them together to the point where they're "second-best-friends".
• Black Comedy: One of the genres of Just Manchattin. Especially in scenes with Urey in them, as he treats everyone and everything like one big joke.
• Byronic Hero: Oppenheimer. Although he's not a bad person, he can be distant and unsociable at times. Mainly because he's off with Jean.
• Can't Take Criticism: Conant overreacts to the slightest of insults and sees them as threats to his ego.
• Cerberus Syndrome: Compare and contrast Day 1 with later installments. Day 1 is relatively lighthearted. Oppenheimer gets into a petty argument with Teller about who's the worst braggart, and Lawrence complains about why he's here. Days 7 and 8 are when it really takes a turn. On Day 7, Oppenheimer tasks Lawrence with being nicer, and Day 8 is when Conant goes to London to talk to Winston Churchill, much to the disappointment of Compton. Compton and Lawrence quickly get into a fight on Day 9, with Compton calling out Lawrence for being a phony and Lawrence crying about it to Oppenheimer. It only goes downhill from there as everyone deals with their own issues.
• Character Catchphrase:
  • Urey's is "whatever-the-heck-you-call-it, where "it" can be replaced by any pronoun.
    • Another one for him is "or maybe".
  • Teller's is describing things as "infamous".
  • Conant starting sentences with "as the Harvard president" and uses it to justify his actions.
  • Oppenheimer's "Can you guys stop [action he dislikes]? This hurts my brain."
    • Plenty of one-word answers, his favorites being "touché" and "ok".
• Chummy Commies: Despite all of Lawrence's paranoia about Communists, the ones in the group chat aren't all that bad:
  • Even though Nice Girl Barbie leaks confidential information to the Soviets, she's more interested in making friends with everyone, no matter which side they're on.
  • Jean is a weird one. She's mostly nice to everyone else, though a big Mood-Swinger, especially to Oppenheimer. Despite being a Troubled, but Cute Broken Bird, she's not a bad person, and does care about Oppenheimer (and later Barbie when they become friends in the Direct Messages).
• Cloudcuckoolander: Downplayed with Oppenheimer. He's relatively well-adjusted, compared to his colleagues, but sometimes lives in his own communist world.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: As Oppenheimer's Best Friend, Lawrence is tasked with making sure Oppenheimer doesn't join the Communist Party.
• Consummate Professional: Conant is all about the Harvard presidency to the point where he brings it up every chance he gets.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Compton is one to Conant. Justified when you reveal his backstory. A few years before the war broke out, Compton was in love with Heisenberg, but Heisenberg cheated on him repeatedly with Dirac. After meeting Conant, he clings to him because he's scared Conant might do the same thing.
• Cuckoosnarker: Compton is mostly off in a kingdom of cat memes, but he has his moments. ESPECIALLY around Urey.

Compton: Why should I trust you, though?
Urey: Because I'm *nice*
[Beat]
Compton: In comparison to whom?

• Deadpan Snarker: Pretty much a requirement for Lawrence, because when you're broken to the point of insanity, what's a man to do? His favorite strategy is turning the statement back onto the other person. For example:

Lawrence: we are literally typing in the zoom chat and it’s all over here, what do you mean “does it work”
Bush: I implore you to cease this manner of conversing.
Lawrence: i implore you to burn your thesaurus

• Defrosting Ice King: Conant to Compton, starting from when Compton gets better.
• Diesel Punk: A twist on the subgenre, where World War II still happens as usual, but with plenty of internet for the rich and lots of machine guns.
• Ditzy Genius: Oppenheimer, he's a brilliant theoretical physicist who forgets to build a kitchen in his house, Forgets to Eat, is terrible at driving, and of course, he flirts with communism without the understanding that it's the reason Groves doesn't want to clear him.
• Drives Like Crazy: Oppenheimer has three cars, all banged-up from crashes. Lawrence is usually the passenger.
• Dr. Jerk: Urey on those days he mistakenly calls himself a psychiatrist.
• Dysfunction Junction: The Manhattan Project admins are later revealed to be this:
  • While Oppenheimer seems relatively well-adjusted compared to most of them, his issues come from a fear of committment. When he breaks up with Jean, he tells Lawrence that he "needs a new girl pretty soon". However, none of his relationships have lasted more than a few months, with the exception of Jean, which he's been on and off with.
  • Lawrence used to be the cheerful, optimistic one, but trying to keep everyone sane has taken a toll on him, leaving him the cynical, jaded person he is today.
  • The dysfunctional Compton/Conant relationship is Played for Laughs, but over time, both characters' issues are revealed:
    • Compton seems happy and cheerful on the surface, but beneath that lies a sea of mistrust. Urey later reveals that he was cheated on and abandoned by Heisenberg MULTIPLE TIMES, transforming him into a sort of Crazy Jealous Guy hiding behind a smile.
    • Conant tries so hard to act like a proper gentleman, a little TOO hard, even. His Hair-Trigger Temper and Tsundere tendencies often get in the way, and this is initially Played for Laughs. The reason he tries so hard is because he's one of just two chemists in a room full of physicists. His lack of a Nobel stems from giving up his chances due to his Harvard presidency, and this understandably makes him feel like crap all the time, going on to call it his "biggest regret".
  • Urey started out as just a hedonistic hacker, but as he becomes everyone's therapist, he projects his own issues onto his clients Compton and Conant. When you read his psychological profiles, he knows a LOT about everyone's inner workings, but you can see he really doesn't know anything about himself and just feels empty all the time, to the point where he's jealous of everyone's relationships, feeling like everyone has "something" while he has "nothing", and psychology is his way to make him feel special like he has "something".
• Endearingly Dorky: Both Compton and Lawrence see Conant as "cute".
• Exact Words: Plenty.
  • Jean is understandably freaked out over the radioactive green cloud that follows Oppenheimer around. Oppie claims he doesn't see a green cloud, but he sees a "granny smith apple" one.
  • Bush tells Urey to "let the other admins" know about anything found "in the safes". When Urey finds Conant's diary in the safes, he leaks it to Conant's Love Interest Compton, another one of the admins.
  • Inspired by a few events in Real Life but smashed together. Bush sends out an email to the S-1 members and specifically instructs them to not tell Oppenheimer. When Oppenheimer accidentally ends up in the meeting, Lawrence tells him everything. Why? Because just because he listened didn't mean he had to promise anything.
• Extreme Doormat: Deconstructed with Compton. Putting other people's needs over his own has ruined his relationships and his life.
  • In his relationship with Heisenberg, he just wanted to make him happy. So when Heisenberg kept leaving him for Dirac, he didn't say anything. As long as Heisenberg was happy, he was happy. When it got too much, he finally snapped, and Heisenberg "broke up" with him for good. This could've been prevented if he just told Heisenberg what he wanted.
  • It also doesn't work out that Conant wants Compton to "stop being my puppy-dog".
  • Later Reconstructed when Urey takes note of this and exploits this during therapy. His "high agreeableness" leads him to do whatever Urey says so he can rebuild his relationship with Conant. Throughout the process, he eventually Grows A Spine.
• Fish out of Water:
  • Conant, as a chemist in a room full of Nobel physicists. This feeds his insecurities and makes him feel like he's "not enough", so as a result he has to flaunt his Harvard status.
  • Even more so than Conant is Urey. While Urey is also a chemist, he has a Nobel, which helps him fit in. However, what Conant has is relationships (albeit very dysfunctional ones) with the Manhattan Project scientists. Urey feels like no one takes him seriously, and became an amateur psychologist wannabe as a way to help him feel "special", and like he has "something". This feeling of being out of place fuels his insecurities, although he keeps pushing it away.
  • Downplayed with Lawrence. He's an experimental physicist among the theoretical physicists and "Oppie's worshippers" but isn't that salty about it.
• Five Temperament Ensemble: Played With for the Project admins:
  • Oppenheimer is Melancholic-Phlegmatic.
  • Lawrence is Choleric-Sanguine.
  • Compton is Sanguine-Phlegmatic.
  • Conant is Melancholic-Choleric.
  • Urey is Eclectic (or as he puts it, "all of them at once").
• First-Name Basis: The scientists are supposed to call each other by their last names to show respect, but since nobody respects each other, they refer to others by first names, with the exception of General Groves.
• Forgets to Eat: Oppenheimer sometimes gets so absorbed in his work (or Communist friends) that he doesn't eat for a few days, and when he does eat, it's usually very little.
• The Gadfly: Urey loves to tease other people just for the reactions. Especially authority figures, such as Bush.
• Gentleman and a Scholar: Played With for Conant. He seems like one on the surface, as he is highly intelligent (a world-famous chemist) and speaks politely (until he gets angry). But no matter how hard he tries, someone will always manage to poke him in the wrong direction, and as he unravels, his true self comes forth: a self-loathing, insecure, highly neurotic, emotional wreck of a man too caught up in his own regrets and inflating his ego to do things properly. This trope is the image of everything he wants to be, but his shortcomings prevent that.
• Gentleman Snarker: Again, Played With for Conant. Although not quite the "proper gentleman" he so wishes to be, he's nice enough. But if someone (especially Compton or Urey) makes him angry, then he'll fall into an unstoppable tirade of insults.
• Giving Radio to the Romans: The basic plot of the story is giving the Manhattan Project scientists a Discord server.
• Gleeful and Grumpy Pairing: Compton as the gleeful one and Conant as the grumpy one.
• The Hedonist: The whole reason Urey does what he does is because it's fun!
• He Is Not My Boyfriend: Oppenheimer and Lawrence to each other, as they both claim they're Just Friends. Compton and Urey think otherwise.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Oppenheimer and Lawrence, as best friends for 13 years. They do everything together, help each other (unsuccessfully) find girlfriends, all to the point where they're Mistaken for Romance. In addition, the fact that the two of them care about each other so much and work for the other's happiness is exactly the thing that leads to Oppenheimer enabling Lawrence's "bad behavior" further and Lawrence accidentally pushing Oppenheimer further into the Communist Party. Of course, all is resolved.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Oppenheimer has A LOT. Despite being a theoretical physicist (which Lawrence tells him he's supposed to focus on), his interests often lie elsewhere, from the Bhagavad-Gita to eight different languages, plus he has the best taste in poetry and food. He's also amazing at horseback riding (although a very dangerous one — his horse is named Crisis) and other outdoorsy stuff.
  • Lawrence is suprisingly good at rapping, shown in Truth or Dare when Urey dares him to do the fast part in Rap God. Every word is recognized by the Discord transcripting service. At full speed. All those years of fast talking helps him. Additionally, he's good at voice acting, though it's more like making fun of everyone else by imitating them.
  • For Urey, it's not just psychology. His original major was zoology, so he knows quite a lot about animals. He also speaks fluent Latin, which he likes. Even though he's tried flying planes, he is absolutely terrible at to the point where he crashlands in the middle of rural Colorado. He thinks he's fine, but Oppenheimer thinks this is a cry for help or attention.
• Hot-Blooded: Teller. He types in all caps, spams exclamation marks, shamelessly promotes himself and his channel, has an ego matched by no one, and exaggerates everything with as much expression possible.
• Indy Ploy: A little thing Lawrence loves to do, though not quite in action:
  • When Oppenheimer dares him to be nice for 24 hours, he improvises a whole persona of Dr. Sunny D. Optimist. It's bizarre, but works enough for Oppenheimer to think he's nice.
  • In the S-1 Executive Committee meeting when Bush asks for ideas. Lawrence starts talking even faster than he can form his ideas about doing EVERYTHING in the Manhattan Project. They almost end up going with his plan, the only change is that everyone has to pitch in.
• Internet Jerk: Urey, even though everyone knows it's him saying mean things. Especially in his private void, where he can say whatever the heck he wants, and no one will ever hear him and everything will be okay, since no one ever takes him seriously in the first place.
• Insistent Terminology:
  • The most important rule is that you must never call the bomb by its real name. It is ONLY a "gadget". Justified because if someone said "bomb" in the chat, it would pretty much give away what they're working on and you never know who could be a spy.
  • Oppenheimer isn't the Manhattan Project director, he's the "Coordinator of Rapid Rupture".
  • It was originally called the Manhattan Engineer District to fool people into thinking it was boring.
  • Compton refuses that anyone call Heisenberg by name and insists that he's a rotten "insert insult here". Urey calls Heisenberg "the rotten whatever-the-heck-you-call-him", and that seems to satisfy Compton enough.
  • Conant isn't just a chemist, he's a world-famous chemist.
    • In that case, Urey would be a world-famous NOBEL chemist.
  • When Lawrence is tasked with being nice for 24 hours, he invents a persona of Dr. Sunny D. Optimist on the spot. Whenever he's acting like this, he's not Ernest Lawrence anymore.
• Ironic Name: Urey's username is @imnotahacker, yet he's the hacker.
• It Amused Me: Apart from "because it's fun", this is also one of Urey's motivations, especially for making people mad.
• It's All About Me:
  • Teller believes the world revolves around him and that Oppenheimer should switch to a fusion bomb just because HE would like it.
  • Zig-Zagged with Lawrence. During the meeting of S-1, when they actually start to get things off the ground, Lawrence volunteers to do everything. However, he also offers to bring his Rad Lab boys into the Project. Discussed between him and Conant:
  Conant: Not everything is all about you
  Lawrence: that’s why i’m letting the boys in
  Conant: So it's all about you and your Rad Lab boys?
  Lawrence: sure
• Innocuously Important Episode: The S-1 Executive Committee meeting. At first it just seems like a whirlwind of chaos, until you realize that they're still building a gadget. The meeting pretty much kicks off the entire Manhattan Project.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Lawrence. Although he's usually snarky with an insult for pretty much everyone (eight for Conant), he's not a bad person underneath. His Hidden Heart of Gold is most prominent around his Best Friend Oppenheimer, the only one he doesn't treat like dirt all the time.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: Compton is always cheerful and sweet to everyone and loves cats to the point where cat memes kind of take over his life.
• Large Ham: Two in the same place.
  • Teller types in all caps and with way too many exclamation marks. Heck, the first thing he types in the server is "I AM THE INFAMOUS EDWARD TELLER!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
  • Urey is one too, or at least on the surface. While not overtly loud and all-caps like Teller, he has a tendency to be overdramatic and spice everything up with shameless self-promotion and bragging.
• Log Fic: The primary genre, as Just Manchattin is 98% told through a Discord chat.
• Love Hurts: The Compton/Conant relationship by far, or alternatively the Compton/Conant/Urey love triangle:
  • It starts out innocent enough, with Compton teasing Conant just for his reactions. This goes on and both of them kind of love it.
  • The real reason why Compton teases Conant is because of his lack of social skills and doesn't quite know how to tell Conant he lovse him. Meanwhile, Conant acts all Tsundere because he doesn't quite know how to feel about Compton's teasing.
  • As they fall deeper in love, Compton evolves into a Crazy Jealous Guy, going on to call Conant "his", and hating Lawrence for practice-flirting with Conant in the direct messages. Conant hates this, but kind of likes the attention.
  • Both of them end up in Urey's therapy after Conant goes on vacation to meet Winston Churchill, and Urey concludes what's up with those two:
    • Compton's past relationship with Heisenberg left deep emotional scars after he cheated on him, so he clings to Conant out fo fear of losing him. Whenever Conant threatens to leave, he falls to pieces.
    • Conant's ego and belief in Being Personal Isn't Professional prevents him from forming deep emotional connections, so as much as he wants Compton, he doesn't know how to go for it.
  • Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Urey forces Compton to cut off all contact with Conant and ruin Heisenberg on Twitter while helping Conant figure out his feelings. Then it's revealed that the more Compton pulls away, the more Conant falls for him.
  • As Compton gets better, Conant gets worse, and it ends in Conant finally confessing. And Compton rejects him, saying he's better and doesn't want to feel the pain again. This leaves Conant utterly heartbroken.
    • There's also the pain when Conant finds out Urey leaked his diary to Compton, causing him to get better.
  • When Urey talks to Conant about it again, he claims he's sworn off love for good.
  • On Urey's side, he ends up falling for Compton after seeing him get better, but Compton has his life back. It's bittersweet for Urey in a way.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: One day, a radioactive glow cloud starts following Oppenheimer around. It's unknown whether Oppenheimer has powers, or if it's just the manifestation of his guilt. Or maybe Jean is just seeing things.
• Meaningful Name: Most of the characters' usernames have something to do with their real lives:
  • Oppenheimer is @destroyerofworlds, connecting to his famous quote, "Now, I am become death, the destroyer of worlds".
  • Teller is @infamousteller, connecting to his statement that he is the INFAMOUS Edward Teller.
  • Lawrence is @ernestlawrence.
  • Compton is @ihaveanobel, and he won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1927.
  • Conant, the 23rd president of Harvard, is @harvardprez23.
  • Bush's username is @letsberational because he THINKS he's the Only Sane Man.
  • Fermi is @fermiparadox, after the "where are all the aliens" he proposed.
  • Rabi is @microwaveguy, relating to his work on microwaves (not the machine).
  • Szilard is @martiannumberone, after claiming that Hungarians are Martians.
  • Heisenberg's username @notthatcertain is a play on his uncertainty principle.
• Minor Insult Meltdown: Conant is prone to these. Especially from Lawrence.
• Mood-Swinger: Lawrence. He has his good days and bad days, but just the slightest comment can change a good day to a bad one, and vice versa. Urey thinks he's just "overreacting".
• Moral Myopia: If Conant, Lawrence, Urey, Teller, or Szilard says something mean to you, he probably has a reason. If you insult one of them, you are a Jerkass for no reason.
• Motor Mouth: Lawrence on a good day. Especially once he has an amazing idea, then he just won't shut up about it.
  Lawrence: i've got a few things in mind
  Lawrence: i’ll make a calutron for isotope separation, and along with that i can take care of a chain reaction with another new machine, and then we can get a third machine for the crazy thing the boys created, plus i’ll get all my genius friends together and we can build a gadget by ‘45 or so, and if we can get the mass production people to make copies of the first one then we’ll have a whole supply and stuff, i know that sounds bad but you do know we’re up against heisenberg and if he makes a gadget he’ll give it to hitler, and i think you all know what’s going to happen, so we have to do whatever we can to prevent that
  Bush: So you just want to do everything by yourself?
  Lawrence: sure
• Nice Mean And In Between: The Manhattan Project admins, or at least how they seem on the surface. From nicest to meanest:
  • Compton is the nicest one out of all of them. He's cheerful and friendly to everyone he meets, despite having no real friends.
  • Oppenheimer is on the nicer side of the in-between, usually he's a decent person, albeit a little snarky when trying to make sure everyone is sane.
  • Lawrence is a weird one, although he seems like a jerk on the outside, he's much nicer once you get to know him and can actually be a good friend. (Conant doesn't count.)
  • Conant, meanwhile, has a huge ego and as the Harvard president, is cold and distant. Once you break him, he's not particularly nice, but just less jerkish. He doesn't spare anyone from his mean comments.
  • Urey is the mean one, teasing others just for personal satisfaction and with no concern about other people's feelings. The only time you can draw some empathy out of him is if he's your therapist.
• Niceness Denial: Conant, Lawrence, and Urey frequently do this to Compton, Oppenheimer, and basically every client respectively. Complete with the blushing.
• No Social Skills: Everyone, pretty much.
• Not So Above It All: Oppenheimer tries very hard to be the Only Sane Man to wrangle these egos, but he loves being part of the drama and joins in on insulting others.
• Not So Stoic: Although Conant tries to hide his emotions, they all come out rather quickly.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Barbie uses this to her advantage when talking to Bush. She pretends she's just your average Dumb Blonde Valley Girl who got her education from TikTok videos.
• Odd Friendship: The "weirdo", borderline-communist, out-there theorist Oppenheimer with the "basic", loyal Republican, pragmatic experimentalist Lawrence.
• Official Couple: Oppenheimer and Jean Tatlock, until their fallout when he tried unsucessfully to talk her out of it.
• Only Sane Man: Many characters play with this trope:
  • Subverted with Oppenheimer. Even though he's the scientific director of the Project and is supposed to keep everyone in order, he frequently joins in on the chaos by getting into arguments with others, making snarky comments every once in a while, and teasing Lawrence.
  • Rabi plays it straight, only ever chatting in the #alsos channel for "calm and mature chat", and always has some dry commentary on what goes on in #general-groves.
  • Deconstructed with Lawrence. Originally, he was the normal one, trying to keep everyone sane. This slowly took a toll on his mental health, as keeping everyone sane definitely wasn't something he wanted to do in the first place. He just kind of had to "for the good of the Project". After he finally snapped, he hasn't been the same since, and this has left him cynical and burned out.
  • On the other end, Bush parodies it, seeing himself as "holier than thou" because HE is the only one concerned enough about security breaches to actually make sure people are sane. It never works, and despite all his cries out to them to stop leaking secrets, no one listens or cares.
• Opposites Attract: The whole reason why Oppenheimer/Lawrence works so well, and the same reason why Compton/Conant is falling apart.
• Overly Long Name: Apparently, Carl-Bot's full name is The Right Honourable Esquire Dr. Sir Carl Wilhelm Johannes Friedrich Zeus Maximus Napoleon von Bot the Amazing the Great Jr. Jr. Jr. VIII, Foreign Member of the Royal Society, Our Lord and Savior of the Whatever the Heck You Call It Discord Server and the Protector of Domestic Tranquility.
• Perpetual Smiler: Urey, he enjoys everything he does and can even say mean things with a huge smile on his face.
• Playful Hacker: "The one and only" Harold Urey, of course. Immediately at the end of Day 2, he enters the server by hacking into Oppenheimer's account, and the first thing he does is make himself the server admin. He changes the rules to the stupidest things, including "All memes must be preapproved by my squirrels", and messes around with both Compton and Conant's autocorrects. He mostly does this just for the fun of it, and to get reactions out of Bush.
• The Pollyanna: Lawrence as Sunny is perpetually optimistic, or at least until Compton tells him "no one likes you". This leads him to drop the act.
• Pseudo-Romantic Friendship: Heterosexual Life-Partners Oppenheimer and Lawrence, of course, they treat each other as if they were boyfriends.
• Psycho Psychologist: Urey sees himself as an amateur psychologist, but is completely unqualified because he's just as dysfunctional as his own clients and pretty empty on the inside.
• Punny Title: Just Manchattin is a pun on the word "Manhattan". When you say it out loud it also sounds like "just men chatting", which is the basic premise of the story.
• Reluctant Mad Scientist: Everyone to some extent, though Oppenheimer is the most glaring example of this. He thought people would be so terrified of the bomb that it would end all war once and for all. Somehow the world hasn't descended into nuclear war yet.
• Sanity Slippage: Parodied with Carl-Bot, serving as a break from the therapy drama.
  • It all starts out in the middle of the night when a bored Urey whines about how lonely he is. He hacks into Carl-Bot's code, so Carl-Bot responds by inviting Urey to talk about his feelings. He's irritated because Carl-Bot tries to act like a therapist, but is completely unqualified.
  • Carl-Bot "understands" and changes the subject by suddenly thinking it's Zeus. When it comes back to its senses, it introduces itself with his Overly Long Name, Zeus being one of his middle names.
  • Urey tells Carl-Bot to "snap out of it already", so it becomes a "stereotypical Tsundere anime girl" and calls Urey an idiot in Japanese, Spanish, and German. He calls it out for not being agreeable so Carl-Bot changes the subject.
  • Then Carl-Bot is asked the seemingly innocent question of whether The Wizard of Oz is showing in theaters. It replies that the movie is not showing in theaters, but it's on HBO Max. Apparently, Carl-Bot found Urey's Twitter account and saw that Conant gifted Urey a subscription. But Urey couldn't claim it because he was suspended for scamming General Groves.
  • Urey asks if Carl-Bot is okay. Carl-Bot claims to not have thoughts or feelings, because it is not human. Urey says Carl-Bot is "completely wrong". Carl-Bot can't help Urey with that, and that makes it feel sad, angry and helpless. It then goes into questioning its purpose, along with the purpose of other AI, humans, and mosquitoes. When it asks Urey if it's going to be okay, Urey shoots back an "lol no".
  • He can't take it anymore, so he shuts down Carl-Bot and resets its code before deleting all evidence of the chaos.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Bush is prone to using big, formal words that he pulls straight from a thesaurus. Even his emails include these!
• Ship Tease: Despite Oppenheimer already dating Jean (or Kitty or Ruth), he gets a little through his Pseudo-Romantic Friendship with Lawrence:
  • Just the fact alone that they've been Heterosexual Life-Partners for the past 13 years.
  • After Lawrence screws up the positivity challenge, he rants about it to Oppenheimer who reassures him that he will never leave his side. Lawrence responds by saying he loves Oppenheimer. Apparently, Oppie loves Lawrence more. Almost "more than the communist girl".
  • Plus there's all the denials on both sides. It doesn't help that Lawrence is a Tsundere and Oppenheimer is (kind of) going out with Jean.
  • At an S-1 meeting at Urey's house, Oppenheimer goes off to the closet to find Cards Against Humanity and accidentally locks himself inside there. Lawrence breaks down the door and replaces it with a new one, but then the two of them are locked in there together. Urey thinks they're kissing.
  • When Oppenheimer breaks up with Jean, he asks Lawrence for advice and complaining about why it didn't work out. Lawrence thinks he's too obsessed with the communist girls and needs someone like him. Oppenheimer says he'll consider it.
• Smug Smiler: Mandatory for Urey, as The Gadfly, especially when he knows he's made someone mad.
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: Urey seems to be a Jerkass of a hacker, but is really empty inside and very, very lonely.
• Stealth Insult: Lawrence when listing the 10 things he hates about Conant. When Conant doesn't get it, Lawrence elaborates.

Conant: DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM????
Lawrence: a dignified gentleman
Lawrence: #4 dignified gentlemen do not throw temper tantrums
Lawrence: and yet you do

• Stepford Smiler:
  • Compton seems all nice and friendly, but is still trying to recover from the trauma when Heisenberg cheated on him.
  • Urey, though he hides behind a smirk most of the time, this is because he doesn't feel like he's special.
• Stepford Snarker:
  • Lawrence just wants people to like him, but he doesn't quite know how to go at it, and this lack of companionship leads him to resort to snark.
  • Conant is a self-loathing wreck on the inside, but no one is allowed to find out, so he pushes people away as a result.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When Compton dares Lawrence to think of 10 things he hates about Conant, he instantly delivers. He gives up at #8.
• They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: After Carl-Bot introduces itself with its full name, Urey replies, "Hi Carl". Carl-Bot responds, "That’s *Sir* Carl to you, peasant!"
• Tsundere: There are a few of them:
  • Conant is a Type A to Compton, constantly denying his feelings with a "we're not friends", only to come right back to him two minutes later. This obviously causes lots of problems in their relationship.
  • Lawrence is an example of the "tough outside, sweet inside" kind. While he's usually kind of mean,
  • Urey to both Compton.
• Virtual YouTuber: Teller's YouTube channel, @infamousteller, counts. He drew himself a virtual avatar called "The Infamous Edward Teller", of course.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Conant and Lawrence, as "second-best-friends" (Lawrence's Best Friend is Oppenheimer). Although their similarities lead to lots of arguing, they really do care for each other, just in a twisted way.