Descent into Deviant Behaviour

Faceclaim: Vladimir Averyanov

[Name]

His first name is Miloslaw which means merciful and glory in Slavic

His last name is Novaković which means “The new one” in Serbian

[Nickname]

His background makes him an easy target for ethnic slurs and nicknames. Yet, one that has stuck with him is Vuk. This means wolf. It is a nickname that he picked up during his time as a child soldier.

[Age]

He is currently twenty-three. (It is also possible to have him when he is older. Age is relatively flexible in that regard.) His birthday is on the twenty-first of April.

[Appearance]

He is not extremely well built for that matter. His physique allows him to slip away into most crowds. Due to a lack of food in his youth, he did never grow to his full potential in weight. He reaches 195 centimetres and weighs 65 kilograms. Yet, he is not the type that one would want to encounter in a dark alley during the night after pissing him off. Despite his relative low weight, he is still rather compactly build with a clear hint of muscle despite the things that he wears.

There is one thing that makes him stand out from the crowds rather easily. That would be the star-shaped scar on the right side of his neck. This scar is one of the many dark relics that are from his past. In the past, he did grow his hair long enough to hide the scar but in recent months, he has decided to no longer hide when it comes to things like that. The scar on his neck is not the only one as there are a few more across his body.

When he would wear short sleeves, there is another distinct feature that makes him stand out. That is the coat of arms of Republika Srpska which is tattooed in colour on his upper right bicep. On the back of his left shoulder, there is a tattoo of an F-15E Strike Eagle.)

His eyes are blue and always shifting to observe the entire area in front of him, to the sides of him and behind him. This is yet another remnant of his past. He is rather rigid in his posture. Again, a remnant from his forced conscription, corporeal punishment for not standing in the right posture and his injury which has left him in a strange state.

[Clothing]

There is no distinct style to describe his clothes. It can vary wildly from formal to informal within the same day. However, he refuses to wear a tracksuit and other similar informal wear. This is again something from his past. As the commanders and soldiers in the conflict did wear tracksuits rather often. Which means that he tends to stick to formal and semi-formal clothing.

[Voice/Speech]

His voice is relatively low for someone of his age. It also has a slight scratchy sound due to inhaling all sorts of fumes in his time as a child soldier. He does tend to keep his volume to an acceptable level and his speaking pace in English is slightly slower than average but there are no interruptions.

Yet, if he starts to talk in one of the Slavic tongues that he knows, his speaking pace is quite high. His English has a very slight accent to it.

[Sexuality]

His sexual orientation is pansexual as he does not care regarding the gender of a potential bed partner which is quite unusual given his uprising in the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in which such practices were frowned upon and even illegal.

His romantic orientation is panromantic.

[Significant Relationships]

Due to his biological parents perishing in a NATO bombing run, he has barely any significant relationships. His relation with his adoptive parents is strained at best. To a degree, he does resent most western people due to the involvement of NATO in what he saw as an internal conflict.

He does not tend to open up to other people that quickly.

[Psychology]

While not being officially diagnosed with any form of mental health problem or issue, he also never received proper treatment for his traumatic past. His adoptive parents did figure that his condition would improve with wealth and better living conditions. Yet, this was not the case.

He is prone to having anger issues in the form of not being able to hold back in a physical fight. It is not likely for him to stop until he has beaten his enemy into a bloody pulp. This did almost lead to him ending up in jail but because of his past, the judge did decide to not sentence him to jail as it would only lead to worse mental conditions.

In public, he is always looking for escape routes and he scans windows on high buildings every minute or so. His biggest fear of the war was snipers. He also prefers sitting with his back against a wall so he knows that his six is safe.

[Hometown/ Residence]

He was born and raised in Sarajevo, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia until he was ten years old. At that point, he was forcibly recruited into the Army of Republika Srpska. It was only two years after the war when he was adopted by an American couple who lived in Springfield.

[Hobbies]

There are a few things that he does enjoy. The first one is to go for long runs. Especially in the winter and early in the morning. The darkness and the cold is rather comforting to him and there are barely any other people around this early in the morning. It also does clear his head quite well.

The second hobby might seem somewhat contradictory given his traumatic past but he finds comfort in shooting guns. He feels comfortable around these weapons and especially those that he used in the past. They are something that does connect him with who he really is.

The third hobby is cooking. He enjoys making meals for himself and very rarely for other people. Especially Slavic dishes. It once again comforts him and helps him clear his head.

He does enjoy reading books as well and challenging himself to increasingly difficult puzzles which results in him being a big fan of puzzle games and strategic games as well. To him, war is also a puzzle of its own.

[Personality and Attitudes]

He is not a huge fan of democracy. This is partly because he has seen first-hand what happens when people are no longer ruled by an iron fist. Yet, his biological parents did also tell him stories how life was so much better under the iron rule of Josip Broz. These stories were of course influenced by nostalgia. Yet, they left a mark on the young Miloslaw.

He is not as naïve as some people of his age. Every offer of help has to have a catch according to him. People do not offer help without wanting something in return. This does still apply to his thinking.

He tends to have a rather dark outlook on life but he also tries to enjoy every day as he has seen how fragile human life can be. It could all be over one day and he does not want to have regrets at that point about not doing something or not getting everything out of life.

If he does let a person inside, he is inclined to be very loyal towards this person. It is rare though that he trusts a person enough to let him or her hear his story.

[History]

Born to a Serbian airline pilot and a Bosnian-Serbian midwife, he had a relatively easy childhood. His parents did live rather comfortable and they were supporters of Josip Broz. Everything used to be better under his rule. At least that is what they told their only son. However, when the first fractures in the Republic started to appear, his parents were one of the first to support the newly formed Republika Srpska. Yet, their newfound admiration quickly vanished when their only child was forced into a militia unit.

Without going into too much detail, he got used to the gruelling battle that would become known as the Siege of Sarajevo. Yet, after two years of fighting, he was rotated out from the urban landscape to the countryside where he learned many new skills that a boy of his age should not know. During the NATO intervention and consequently bombing strikes, his parents were killed. This did enrage the young boy as he did not know why these foreigners got involved on the side of the enemy. The enemy that was planning to exterminate all the Serbs.

During the waning days of the war, he got injured in an IED attack on the convoy he was travelling with. He did receive a rather shoddy treatment which resulted in a cervical spinal fusion of the C3, C4 and C5 vertebrae, a 2-level posterolateral fusion in which bone graft is placed between the transverse processes in the back of the spine and the vertebrae are fixed using metal screws or wires attached to a metal rod on each side of the vertebrae to provide stability. As a result, he has a range of physical disabilities: an inability to turn his head, rigid posture, a limp, and chronic pain. He describes the pain, based on a 1-5 scale, as being "on a good day, three." Yet, he did not let his disability stop him.

After the war ended, there was a lot of confusion and due to his malnourishment, he was seen as a younger child. Due to a lack of papers, they could not positively ID the child and therefore he was placed in an adoption program. Yet, due to his closed-off behaviour, it took him two years to get adopted. At this point, he was fourteen years old. An American elderly couple had adopted him.

Despite his lack of schooling during the war, he did manage to pick up the American education without too many problems. Yet, he could not undo the damage that the war had done. His appearance and heavy accent made him a target for bullies at first but as soon as he got in a few fights, they learned to pick on weaker prey for then on.

Due to very persuasive adoptive parents, he did apply for Harvard despite the idea that he knew that they would not want some broken ex-child-militia member. Yet, he was proven wrong.

Harvard did accept him but he had one demand. His records would be sealed. No one had to know about his past.

(When used at an older age, he has graduated from Harvard and working for the Red Cross as an Emergency Relief Coordinator for the Red Cross.

For plots that have a criminal background, he did turn into an international arms trafficker.)

[Intellectual attributes]

Based on Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, his attributes are as below

Musical-rhythmic: He is capable of quickly recognizing patterns and differences in tone. Yet, he is not able to quickly recall melodies or even understand the musical structure. He could tell you what kind of artillery piece is firing and how close the shots are landing based on the sound of the explosion but that is as far as his skills go.

Visual-spatial: He has little trouble imagining or visualizing the positions of objects, their shapes and how they are related. Yet, he does struggling with understanding the movements that they can make to create new relations.

Verbal-linguistic: He has had the chance to immerse himself in the melting pot that the Republic of Yugoslavia was. Therefore, he has picked up many Slavic languages and he is still able to speak most of them and write them as well.

Logical-mathematical: This is where he does not perform rather well. In due time, he will see patterns appear but it takes him time to see it.

Bodily-kinesthetic: He has very good control over his movements and rarely seems to stumble or trip over something.

Interpersonal: This is something with which he has a lot of trouble. He is not the type to wants to work together that easily. Especially with Bosniaks. Ethnic tensions are still a major thing for him.

He is not one to ignore the massacres that his side performed in the war but he is also quick to note that the other side was not much better. Understanding people and their point of view is something he has not had a lot of practice with

Intra-personal: Again, not a strong side of himself. He has trouble with performing self-reflection and considering the consequences his own actions have.