OOC: Application

[keepcalmanddontgetmad]

Name: Sparky
Age: 24
Journal: sparkay
Contact: Mods have this!

1. Character's Name: Bruce Banner
2. Fandom: The Incredible Hulk (2008 movie)
3. Time Frame: While he's being chased by Emil Blonsky in Brazil.
4. Age: Age isn't explicitly stated. But I'd say early to mid 30s.

5. Background:

We don't see anything of Bruce's childhood during the course of the film. As a matter of fact, the only glimpse we get into Bruce's past is the lab accident that injured his then girlfriend Betty Ross and turned him into the Hulk, a huge green creature fueled by rage.

So there's a mix of 616 comic canon and headcanon in blue.


Robert Bruce Banner was born to Dr. Brian Banner, an atomic physicist, and his wife Rebecca. Brian was consumed by his work. His family saw him very rarely. And this afforded time for Rebecca and Bruce to bond and form a very closeknit relationship. Rebecca loved Bruce very dearly and doted on the boy, who eagerly returned his mother's affection.

Brian took no notice of this at first. But soon his work slowed, and he found himself spending far more time at home than he used to. He also began to notice how often he was excluded from his family's activities. There were some days when Bruce and Rebecca didn't even seem to notice Brian was there at all.

Being ignored at home and unneeded at work was a tremendous blow to Brian. He began drinking rather heavily and nuturing a jealous hatred of Bruce for being the object of his wife's affections. It didn't very long for Brian's anger to finally reach its boiling point. In a fit of rage, Brian attacked Rebecca and killed her in front of their young son.

Brian was later sent to a mental institution while Bruce was sent to live with Brian's sister, Susan Drake. For the most part, Bruce seemed entirely unaffected by the entire ordeal. He was so young, Susan simply assumed he had blocked out and forgotten the experience. Though the truth of the matter was, Bruce was only internalizing his rage. Susan and her husband tried their best to give Bruce as normal a life as possible. After realizing the boy was incredibly gifted, they enrolled him in a private school that catered to children like him. He seemed to thrive there. He made friends, though not without trouble, and graduated at the first of his class. After high school, he began attending Harvard University where he met and began dating a woman and fellow scientist named Betty Ross. After earning his doctorate, he began working at Culver University as a professor, alongside Betty.

Bruce's life was very uneventful, that is until he was approached by Betty's father, General Thaddeus 'Thunderbolt' Ross. At General Ross's insistence, he began working on an attempt to recreate the Super Soldier serum that created Captain America, the war hero from Warld War II. This is, in fact, the flashback we see at the film's opening. Bruce was convinced the serum would make humans immune to radiation and that the gamma rays would unlock the original Super Soldier formula created by a man named Abraham Erskine.

General Ross, however, had other plans. He intended to use Bruce's findings to create super human weapons. Bruce was unaware of this and continued his research undaunted. He was so sure of his assumptions, Bruce injected himself with the experimental serum and then exposed himself to extremely high doses of gamma radiation. Combining the two proved to be disastrous. Instead of killing him, a change was forced in Bruce. He became a green, overly muscled giant, fueled by all of the rage Bruce had kept bottled inside of him. It finally had an outlet. A very dangerous and destructive outlet.

Once he became the Hulk, Bruce attacked and destroyed the lab he was working in, severely injuring Betty and General Ross in the process. After calming down and reverting to his human form, Bruce discovered the truth of what he had been working on. He now realized that General Ross was not trying to enhance human radiation resistence. He wanted weapons for warfare and Bruce had given him just that. He visited a comatose Betty in the hospital after this discovery. She remained largely unaware of his presence and before she could wake, General Ross had discovered Bruce and attempted to capture him. Bruce knew he couldn't remain in Virginia with Betty. He was far too dangerous and General Ross wasn't going to stop hunting him. So he left and went into hiding.

The movie opens up with Bruce getting breakfast. It's been five years since the lab accident and he has been on the run from the US military and particularly, General Ross, ever since. He's settled in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and working for a soda bottling company, all the while avoiding capture and trying to find a cure for his condition with the help of an anonymous internet personality named Mr. Blue. Bruce also undergoes rigorous training to learn how to keep his emotions, and especially his anger, in check. This has helped him to go without a transformation for five months.

Meanwhile, Bruce's anonymous friend, Mr. Blue, has suggested to Bruce a possible cure. A special flower that may hold the key. Bruce spent a great deal of time searching for this apparently rare flower and when he found it, he was beyond relieved. He went to work immediately, using all of the flower's petals to concoct a serum. He tested the serum against a drop of his blood and hoped there would be results. Unfortunately, his mutated blood won out over the serum. The flower was gone, so he had no means to try again. He contacted Mr. Blue to tell him the news. Mr. Blue suggested they meet and when Bruce refused, he asked for a blood sample instead. Not seeing any other options, Bruce agreed and sent Mr. Blue what he asked for.

General Ross discovers Bruce's location after Bruce suffered a cut on his finger. A single drop of his infected blood fell onto the conveyer belt below where he was standing. Bruce demanded that production stop until he found that single drop of blood. And he did. He wiped it up and sealed the wound. Unfortunately, he had not cleaned all of it. Some of it landed in a bottle that was later packaged and shipped to the US where it found its way to a consumer in Wisconsin. The news reached General Ross rather quickly and he immediately leaped into action. He employed a Russian-born British special operations expert, Emil Blonsky, to track down Banner and bring him in.

Meanwhile, Bruce recieves a message from Mr. Blue, claiming to have found a way to cure Bruce. But he needed more data, data Bruce left behind in Virginia. After a spending a moment debating, Bruce thought it may be time to return to the USA.

During the night, Bruce's dog became agitated and began barking at the door. Blonsky and his forces tracked Bruce to the apartment where he was staying. Bruce had heard their approach long before they blew the door off the hinges and escaped through the window. He got down on the street and took off immediately after being spotted by Blonsky. Their pursuit would lead them through the town and through people's laundry and across their roofs. Unfortunately, they would not find Bruce. Because he had been zapped to Holloway's Keep.

6. Personality:

After the lab accident, Bruce has really come to appreciate blending in. Being on the run and having to constantly look over his shoulder has taught Bruce that it is better to be just another face in the crowd, as opposed to somebody who stands out. He refuses to be put on the soda company's payroll, despite the manager's insistence. However, being on the payroll would produce a paper trail and would compromise Bruce's anonymity and that was something he simply could not afford.

He chooses to live with the barest minimums in the slums, though his intellect could perhaps give him a much better standard of living. Bruce would rather keep it this way, living where nobody knows his name and he's just another factory worker. It leaves him free to work on a cure and to live a...relatively normal life outside of General Ross' clutches.

He tries very desperately to keep his anger and emotions in check. He's learned to control his breathing through rigorous martial arts training and even wears a heart monitor to keep a close eye on his heart rate. He's forgone sex to avoid becoming too excited. This is all to keep the Hulk at bay. He warns people, especially when the situation is getting beyond what he can control. It doesn't always work, people don't always listen, but Bruce does the best he can.

The lab incident has also instilled in Bruce an obsessive need to cure himself of his mutation. It is hinted that Bruce may have the capability to control the Hulk. He has little recollection of things that happen while he is the Hulk, but the fact that he can remember anything at all suggests that he has some kind of presence in the Hulk's one-track mind. He explains it as his brain being overcharged. It's static-y, but he's in there somewhere. Despite this, Bruce has no desire to control the Hulk. He wants to be rid of it. Period. The end. He knows General Ross would like nothing more than to get his hands on the Hulk and use it to his own selfish ends. Bruce could never allow that, allow something he created to be used as a weapon. That was not what he went into this experiment for. It was to help people and as far as Bruce was concerned, the Hulk would only do more harm than good. So it would be best if he was simply rid of it altogether.

Hulk business aside, Bruce is a decent guy. He is a doctor, so he has an innate need to help people, even if that puts him in jeopardy. He interrupted a group of co-workers harassing a woman. These men obviously had no love for Bruce and were more than happy to let him know this. Reluctant at first, Bruce finally stepped in and came to the woman's aid. He doesn't like seeing people hurt or harassed and will do what he can to help them, provided he can avoid being provoked.

As stated previously, Bruce describes becoming the Hulk as his brain overcharging. Despite Bruce's presence in the Hulk's mind, Bruce appears to have very little control over the Hulk's actions. The brute is fueled by rage and while Bruce himself doesn't seem to be a particularly violent or angry person, this couldn't be farther from the truth. Bruce is still filled with a lot of unresolved feelings about his parents, his father in particular. The years he spent bottling up how he was feeling has only lent itself to fueling the Hulk's rage. As the Hulk, he knows only anger and he filter out everything else as white noise. There are occasions when Bruce is able to break through the static and it is shown that the Hulk does seem to have some capacity to learn, despite Bruce's assertions. He can recognize people who are important to him in his human state and will protect them, stopping long enough to acknowledge the person in question. The Hulk will go to extreme measures to protect these people and it is shown that people particularly close to him have a calming affect on him and are able to help him revert back to his human form. But it does beg the question: which of these is the real Bruce Banner? The mild mannered, quiet scientist? Or the raging brute who knows nothing but violence and anger? It's a question that troubles Bruce and one he's not sure he wants to know the answer to.

7. Previous Game Developments: N/A

8. Appearance:
Bruce and The Hulk

As a human, Bruce is a kind of skinny man with short brown hair and blue eyes. He's scruffy looking, since he doesn't really have the option of shaving. As the hulk, Bruce is enormous. He's extremely muscular and very very green. His clothes don't usually survive the transformation, but he usually wears jeans and button up shirts.

9. Abilities:

As a human, Bruce is extremely intelligent with expertise in nuclear physics and Biochemistry.

When angered, stressed, or otherwise extremely emotional, Bruce transforms into a giant green rage monster. As the Hulk, Bruce has these abilities:

Super strength: This is the Hulk's primary power. His strength is fueled by his rage, so the angrier the Hulk is the stronger he becomes. He's seen splitting a car in half with two punches and Emil Blonsky describes him as throwing a forklift like it was a softball. He can plow through brick walls with little difficulty. His legs are strong enough to allow him to leap great distances. Clapping his hands creates shockwaves and smashing the ground with his fists creates tremors. While in the Keep, the Hulk's strength will be shaved down. He will only be able to lift up to 500 pounds.

Superhuman Durability: The Hulk's skin is extremely thick and therefore extremely difficult to pierce. Bullets bounce off him, he can withstand fire and explosions, and military grade weapons are unable to do any real damage. Only Emil Blonsky as the Abomination is shown to be able to pierce his skin. The Keep will soften the Hulk's skin up considerably, but it will still take a good bit of force to hurt him. If you can get close enough, that is.

Regeneration: The Hulk is capable of healing from wounds at a rapid rate. This grants him an immunity to disease and gives him incredible longevity. Ironically, this is the Hulk only and not Bruce. In the Keep, his regeneration will be significantly slower. What would normally take a minute or two to heal will now take an hour.

Fighting: The Hulk has not had any formal training. He relies very heavily on his sheer physical strength to overpower his opponents.

He will revert back into a human when he's calmed down, or when the four hour time limit has expired.


10. Languages: English, Some Spanish, and broken Portuguese.

11. Items: His clothes, his backpack that has his computer and various scientific equipment in it, and a heart monitor that he wears around his wrist.

12. Weapons: No weapons. I don't think he needs one.

13. Writing sample - Third Person:

It had been a nightmare. A well calculated nightmare. Perhaps Fate was still conspiring against him. It felt like it anyway.

Bruce had been a fool. Even with all that knowledge tucked away, he had been an optimistic fool. The cure had been a simple equation away. He had been so close, he could almost grab hold of it, could almost see himself boarding the plane that would take him home. And Betty. He could feel her embracing him, holding him again. He almost had his life back. But almost never counts, does it?

The machine had been easy enough to envision and build, spare parts were even easier to come by. It was a little more unstable than Bruce liked. But the conditions weren't condusive to scientific breakthroughs. He had done the best he could and could only hope it was enough. Desperation was finally setting in and at this point, he was willing to try almost anything.

He had counted every figure, took into account every variable he could possibly imagine. Checked and rechecked every equation. The numbers added up, the math was correct. Everything was perfect. This should've worked. Why hadn't it worked?

There was no dramatic puff of smoke. There was no stroke of lightning to disrupt his work, to throw off his perfect equation and answer why everything had gone wrong. No, Bruce Banner had simply walked into his machine, flipped a switch, and vanished. There one moment and gone in the next.

He woke when he felt the sharp prick of a needle pressing into his skin. It startled him and he jolted up. Or would have were it not for the leather restraits strapped tightly around his wrists and ankles. He twisted his hands, while his eyes adjusted to the bright fluorescent lights. Had Ross finally captured him? Could be. But it was better not to leap to conclusions. "Where am I?" He squinted up at the doctor (was he a doctor?) hovering over him. The man didn't seem the least bit interested in answering his patient's question, so Bruce asked again, in Spanish this time. Perhaps he simply hadn't understood.

The doctor looked down at him, an insincere smile creasing the corners of his mouth. "We will talk soon, yes? Rest for now."

Rest. That was a joke. It had to be a joke. How was Bruce expected to rest when he was strapped to a gurney and being wheeled to only God knew where? He was quiet for a moment as the gurney began its journey down a long stretch of hall. The doctor was at the helm and two guards were on either side of them. Bruce had heard their voices, listened to them talk in a language he didn't understand. It was German, he was sure. But sometimes it was Spanish, with just a hint of French.

"Please, just...tell me where I am." That was polite. Bruce was polite. Surely the doctor had no reason to object if he stayed civil, right? "I said later, amigo," the doctor replied, though he sounded a little less friendly. It was clear Bruce needed to get away. Fast. He began working his wrists against the restraints.

"Ah, ah. Do not do that, my friend." The doctor warned. All friendly pretense had been dropped, made clear by the guards showing their weapons. Bruce was liking the situation less and less.

"Why won't you answer a simple question?" Still civil! There was no need for anyone to be hurt here. The doctor frowned and slowed the gurney to a crawl. "He only wanted to see you. He did not say you had to be awake." He turned to his armed guard. "Shut him up."

The butt of the guard's gun struck Bruce hard across the forehead. He could feel the blood trickle back into his scalp and he pinched his eyes shut.

The last thing Bruce would clearly remember was the sound of seams of his shirt ripping.

14. Writing Sample - First Person:

I remember somethings. Everything else is just...noise.

It's fragmented. Bits and pieces of people and places. There's just too much and he--it crowds me out. An old lab partner thinks I'm still in there. My brain's just overcharged. She thinks I can control it. I don't want to control it. You saw what it can do. Something like that needs to be destroyed before it does permanent damage.


15. Tattoo: Around his left ankle.

16. Room Preference: Stick him anywhere.