Robert Brankovic

Registry of the Evolved Database

File #16 Jan 2010 16:28

Name Dr. Robert Jurek Brankovic Aliases None
Status Unregistered Evolved Ability Magnetism
Gender Male Race/Eth. Macedonian
Birthdate 7 July 1956 Age 53
Height 6'0" Build Tall, lean.
Eyes Brown Hair Black, going grey
Residence Homeless
Employment Unemployed, former geneticist
Parents Luka and Aida Brankovic (deceased) Siblings N/A
Marital Status Single Children N/A
First Seen Last Seen
Profile Before the bomb went off, Robert was a medical researcher looking for a cure for cancer with a lab run by St. Luke's. Robert had his life turned upside down by the discovery of his powers and the subsequent explosion of the bomb and now splits his time between a park bench and a cardboard box, heckling passers-by at times but generally attempting to remain below the radar of anyone interested in the Evolved.
Robert Brankovic
portrayed by
Jean Fornerod

Appendices

Skills

  • [Big Reader] Before he became a displaced person Robert spent quite a lot of time and money on his hobby of reading pretty much anything he could get his hands on. He spends far too much time in the brainier sections of local bookstores, picking up sociological, psychological, and historical texts purely for the improvement of his own knowledge base, and still haunts libraries and book shops where he can find them for as long as he's tolerated by the staff of those institutions.
  • [Demilitarized Zone] Robert hasn't ever touched a gun in his entire life. No, seriously. He has no experience with firearms or swords or what-have-yous, and probably wouldn't have the first idea of what to do if a weapon was shoved into his hands other than perhaps to imitate what he's seen in action films.
  • [Is that an MD in your pocket?] Robert hasn't had to act in the capacity of a doctor outside of a laboratory in quite a few years but he does have the benefit of modern medical training. He knows his way around the human body from puncture wounds and broken bones all the way to leukemia and pulmonary embolisms, though it's unlikely that the latter pair would show up in his everyday life. He's also still quite adept at drawing blood since he did it regularly in his capacity as researcher, and is intimately familiar with the latest research methods and biological testing equipment.
  • [Multilingual] English, Macedonian, French, and Russian. Macedonian was spoken in the Brankovic home when Robert was a child. He took classes in French from middle school to college, and Russian became a light hobby formed during the Cold War that was an easy learn for Robert because it is so similar to Macedonian.
  • [Streetwise] Living as a homeless person has given Robert a trial by fire regarding survival on the streets and he's managed to successfully assimilate plenty of little tricks and helpful techniques to keep himself safe and fed. He's also become very familiar with the ground level of the city and knows a lot of alleys and shortcuts to help him disappear when he needs to. Most of his personal needs are taken care of through public services, and those needs that fall more under the categories of luxury (like a weekly shave) are arranged through exchange of labor with local shops. Eating at soup kitchens and on the street also means that his stomach is practically made of steel - the man can stomach eating just about anything the worst culinary failure could cook up.
  • [Tickling the Ivories] The Brankovics insisted that their son have a well-rounded education. To that end, amongst other gambits, they made him take private piano lessons. He's an accomplished amateur musician, though he hasn't had the opportunity to have a go at a piano in a long time.

Notes

  • [Family] Robert's parents, both now deceased, were Holocaust survivors from Belgrade, Yugoslavia, who had been married before the war and emigrated to America a few years after it ended. His father Luka, born in 1914, was an astronomer who was sent to Mauthausen during the Nazi occupation. He spent the war there and was eventually liberated by the Allies in 1945. When he resumed his career in the US he was harassed in the 50s by communist-hunting American crazies. Robert's mother Aida was a 1918 birth who was sent to Jasenovac and then put on a transport to Auschwitz until she too was eventually liberated. About two decades after the war ended she wrote and published a memoir of her experiences. Both of them recorded their testimonies with the USC Shoah Foundation Institute before their deaths in the early 1990s.
  • [Jewish Guilt] His parents had the Holocaust on their side. Don't ever think for even one itty bitty second that Robert ever stepped a toe out of line as a child without hearing about how easy he had it since his sleeping area wasn't a bunk in Auschwitz. He now passes that guilt on whenever he can manage it out of spite.
  • [No Accent] Robert grew up speaking English and Macedonian more or less equally, and has no readily detectable accent to hint that his overseas heritage is only one generation away.
  • [Practically Unreachable] With no address, no phone number, no phone (much less a cellular one), and no reliable ways of contact except to catch him at one of his hangouts - Robert is a man who is difficult to find, and that's just the way he likes it. If his loose scheduling gets too predictable for comfort and he starts seeing the same old faces too many times in a week, Robert tends to pull up stakes and find other haunts. Because he's paranoid. This tends to irritate people who want to talk to him on a regular basis.
  • [Radiation Poisoning] Robert's exposure to the bomb left him lucky as far as radiation went, or at least luckier than a lot of New York's other denizens, since he was exposed to only around 2 sieverts of the stuff. He was diagnosed with light radiation poisoning with symptoms including nausea, vomiting, fatigue, temporary sterility, and a depressed immune system. Thankfully this has all cleared up with the passage of time.
  • [Religious] If you're a Jew and you go to temple on Saturday, you might see a scruffy guy hanging around in the back of the main sanctuary in a yarmulke and tallit borrowed from the synagogue. You might wonder what the heck he's doing there beyond the obvious answer of praying but odds are that if you've asked him about it he's given you some sort of snippy answer. This man is Robert, and he still attends services on shabbat every week because it's what his parents would want and he's a bit of a traditionalist and it's not like he has anything else to do.
  • [Scars are Unsexy] Robert had his appendix out when he was 14. No, you can't see the scar. Other members of his scar collection include quite a few suffered in the car accident that came with the manifestation of his ability.

People

bao-wei_icon.gif
Bao and Robert went to Columbia's Physicians and Surgeons College together and were (un)fortunate enough to share the same living space during their medical schooling. A chance meeting after several years of no contact has prompted Robert to think very seriously about helping Bao out with his crazy pseudoscientific research, even if he thinks it's all a bunch of hooey.

Timeline

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