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#39 - Ragdoll
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Clown.

Peter Merkel, Jr. is the son and successor of the original Ragdoll, Peter Merkel, Sr.. Given that his father was a sociopath and a cult leader, his was probably not the most conventional of upbringings. He indicates that his father was abusive due to disappointment at his not being born double-jointed. He has a sister, an extremely brutal (and insane) crime lord who goes by the name Junior. At some point he began thinking about having his bones altered to mimic double-jointedness. When Peter reached adulthood, he began having his joints replaced one by one with fully-rotating, self-lubricating prosthetics. After twelve years and hundreds of surgeries, he achieved a level of flexibility that his father could only dream about. Needless to say, the original Ragdoll didn't like the competition. Through unknown circumstances, Rag Doll joined the Secret Six, and helped them throughout a variety of adventures. His role in the Six is that of the demented smart-ass and is constantly trying to prove he is the weirdest and funniest of the bunch.

Don't let the comedy fool you - the tears of this clown are well-hidden, perhaps, but they certainly exist. Perhaps that's what draws me most to the eloquent, carefully self-sabotaging Ragdoll so much. Born into a world that presented pain as his only opportunity, Ragdoll both rebels from his father's sadistic behavior and embraces it at the same time. In fact, maybe very little separates the younger Ragdoll from the elder; both are unrepentant killers, after all. Yet the spoonful of sugar - in this case, a heaping helping of dark humor - makes the medicine that much more palatable. Knowing that Ragdoll's home life as a child and teenager was built on loneliness, abuse, and isolation allows the players to hopefully find sympathy. And even his wiles practiced upon the party are something simple and distracting from the darkness outside of Z'onn Z'orr. That said, Ragdoll is man of unique but unalterable convictions - something that is best represented in choosing to break from his father and sister by eschewing the Society's mandates. Much like Scandal, Ragdoll refuses to follow tradition, and he forges his own path in a world where such free-thinking has become quite literally outlawed.

Though they've been sidelined far too long, I have hopes that PCs will soon begin to send out the Secret Six as a unit to wreak havoc against the Society, and hopefully - HOPEFULLY - that will allow Ragdoll to hunt down his father, whilst also playing stepfather to the adorable Isabelle Rose Mahkent.

#38 Drops a top-third draft pick!