Fandom: DC Comics - Secret Six
Subject: Ragdoll II (Peter Merkel, Jr.)
Title: Scruples Removed
Notes: This is a mix for the son of the first Rag Doll, Peter Merkel, Jr. -- a character who took his father's name in more ways than one, but, despite himself, manages to be a better person than his father ever was. You can't call him anything but a villain -- he's certainly no hero -- but he is something of a tragic, hopeful figure. But he is one of the bad guys, and the bad guys are doomed.
Warnings: Spoilers are contained herein for the entire Secret Six comic series. There are also some mentions of child abuse, rape, incest, and lots of death and murder.
About: Peter Merkel, Jr., was one of the many children born to the first Peter Merkel, an opportunistic, sociopathic supervillain called Rag Doll, who developed a literal cult of followers. Peter Jr., unfortunately, was born without the blessing that his father and at least one of his brothers possessed: triple-jointedness, nearly unlimited flexibility. And, as an unfavorite child, his father was not kind to him. Not kind at all.
Growing up close to at least one of his siblings -- his sister, Alex Merkel, a beautiful girl who was beloved by their father, and whom Peter had at least one or two incestuous kisses with -- and not at all close with his father, Peter nevertheless wished to impress Rag Doll, Sr. and earn his approval. His way of attempting this was far from healthy: He spent a dozen years undergoing hundreds of surgeries, which honestly should have killed him, having all of his joints replaced with artificial ones, giving himself the triple-jointedness that his father and brother were born with.
He also decided to take his father's codename, fashioning himself as the second Ragdoll, and taking up the mysterious Mockingbird's offer to join a team called the Secret Six.
***
"Oh, dear, not slavers! Why, that's almost nearly sort of kind of barely a little bit about half as bad as the murderers and despots we normally work for! And here I thought I'd had my scruples removed already."
***
01. Introduction
"You really must excuse me. I'm told it gets worse before getting better. Pardon me. So very sorry for the inconvenience. Not much longer, I'm afraid. There. And we are done."
Scissor Sisters - Intermission (
x)
You fight for freedom from devotion
A battle that will always begin
With somebody giving you a piece of advice:
By the way, you're living in sin
Now there's never gonna be an intermission
But there'll always be a closing night
Never entertain those visions
Lest you may have packed your baggage
First impressions are cheap auditions
Situations are long goodbyes
Truth so often living dormant
Good luck walks and bullshit flies on
***
02. Ragdoll
"Unfortunately... I'm afraid there's really only room for one dandy freak on this team, Mr. Tetch."
Ragdoll is a very strange person. Nearly always bent and crouching, able to bend in ways that the human body should never be able to bend, able to take surprising amounts of pain and damage without really flinching, dressed all in a jester-like outfit with a blank mask and red yarn "hair," and bald, scarred, and terribly underweight underneath it all, he approaches life with a very offbeat (one might say unbalanced) view of things, an off-kilter moral compass, and a cheerful, whimsical personality -- even while committing various thefts, bank robberies, and murders.
Madness - Waltz Into Mischief (
x)
The latest and greatest
Amazing arrival
No conscience, no shame
For the game of survival
Thieves and villains
And fraudulent swindlers
Gathered in tribute
With masks of respect
A big hand, hooray!
Oh, come, all you trustful
Let the band play
A waltz into mischief!
***
03-04. Mask
"Never fear, old chum! The He/She Wonder is on the case! Holy capital punishment or some such!"
Ragdoll, you see, had made some extensive changes to himself. Besides those hundreds of surgeries, doing things to his body that were never meant to be done, he also distanced himself as far from Peter Merkel, Jr. as possible. He would prefer to remake himself, rather than remain "a helpless, cringing victim." He lost his mind, because losing his mind was easier; he became a showman, exaggerating his reactions and movements. Gender, too, became less important to him -- if it ever had been -- as he fashioned himself both male and female; he had his genitalia surgically removed as well (which helped him out in several fights). Perhaps it was not even that he became a showman. He turned himself into a show. And he obviously found it incredibly freeing when he did.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch - Exquisite Corpse (
x)
I got it all sewn up
A hardened razor-cut
Scar map across my body
And you can trace the lines
Through misery's design
That map across my body
A collage
I'm all sewn up
A montage
I'm all sewn up
A random pattern with a needle and thread
The overlapping way diseases are spread to a
Tornado body with a hand grenade head
And the legs are two lovers entwined
The Dresden Dolls - The Kill (
x)
I have a tendency to exaggerate just a little bit
I am a plagiarist apologist, a lawless calculator
I am an optimist, a closeted misogynist...
I have a wishing well, a living will, a magical eight ball
Say what you will, I am the kill
The only thing that keeps you really truly safe from being real
***
05. Family
"Wish you could see this, father. It's beautiful. An odiferous masterpiece. Magnificent."
If it's possible to explain Ragdoll, the roots of everything about him seem to lie in his childhood. He has little to say about his father: "Not a kind man at all" is his main verdict, a man who was disappointed in the birth of a "normal" baby and made said disappointment very clear to him. He wanted desperately to be like his father nevertheless, straining his body to its limits with surgeries and wishing that Rag Doll, Sr. could see his accomplishments. When the two Merkels finally met up again, unfortunately, Rag Doll, Sr. attempted to kill his son, sneering that he could never replicate his talents with surgeries, and that the attempt made him sick. He would not find acceptance there.
Marina and the Diamonds - Guilty (
x)
I was dreaming something dark
Hiding body parts
A broken dog, a broken leg
I left it cold, I left it dead
Oh, I'm a guilty one
And I know what I have done
Yeah, I'm a troubled one
And I won't be forgiven...
I was just a kid that you could not forgive, because it's harder
I was just a kid and all I really wanted was my father
***
06-07. Alex
"But... But you were-- You were so beautiful, Alex. Everyone thought so."
"Ugly inside, Peter. Like you. Like father. Just brought it all out where I could look at it."
"Alex... I'm sorry I couldn't protect you. If the card belonged to me? I would set you free, I swear I would."
Peter's little sister came back into the scene abruptly, in an unexpected fashion: She was trying to have them killed. The Six had been hired to abduct and escort a villain named Tarantula, who had in her possession something called the Get Out Of Hell Free card -- which was exactly what it said it was. A one way ticket that could save someone from damnation... and Alex knew exactly how bad everything she was doing was. Alex, you see, had also gone quite insane. She had mutilated herself, and then turned outward, wanting to do to everyone in the world what had been done to her. Torture, rape... And eventual murder. Peter learned things about what their father had done to his "beloved daughter" that he had not known. And no matter how he tried to reach out to her, he could not save her.
Shorterz & Enigma ft. Little Palm - Rag Doll (
x)
When I first saw you, I thought you were beautiful
Then we grew and grew and it turns out you're not at all...
When I first touched you, I thought it was wonderful
Then we touched some more, and it turns out you don't like being touched at all
You took away my motivation
Left me in isolation
Took away my dedication
So I...
Snow Patrol - On/Off (
x)
I couldn't believe what I was seeing
Faces all screwed up like what I'd done
I didn't mean to hurt you so much
I knew it would hurt you, but not like this
We all make a mess from time to time, dear
But it'll take me a lifetime to get this cleared
Somebody muttered something under their breath
But I let on like I was a little deaf
"Nobody's perfect," that's what I say
"No one has hurt me so much," you say
I'm sorry
***
08. Black Alice
"KILL HIM!"
"Yes, but not the girl. I don't threaten bad things, priest. Not as a rule. But don't touch that girl."
When Black Alice came onto the team, she pushed her way in: Followed them, made a big mess showing off her skills to show them that they needed someone like her. She was a goth, a strong magic user, and attracted to Ragdoll from the get-go -- to everyone's surprise, including his. They grew closer after she truly joined up, and he came to consider her one of his only real friends -- the only friend he'd made in his life, besides the now-deceased Parademon -- and even began treating her as he might a younger sister. But he never returned any of her flirtations, never responded to any of her hints... Unlike with Alex, it was obvious he didn't intend to mix up "familial" with "romantic." That, perhaps, he didn't want to make the same mistakes again, end up screwing up, end up hurting Alice. He did care about her, after all... And as he grew to care about her, he started to have moments of clarity, moments of protectiveness and pride. Sane moments.
Stars - The Loose Ends Will Make Knots (
x)
A heart suspends, then bends it into three
A broken piece of what we used to be
I'm a knot, but I'm never alone
I'm a mountain that's mined and filled with holes...
Don't say it's all, don't say it's all been lost
Will you shift everything you thought?
Don't say it's all, don't say it's all been lost
We'll pretend we've got that much
Don't say it's all, don't say it's all been lost
Already my throat gets caught
The loose ends will make knots, you're all I've got
***
09. Sanity
"I found the harder I looked, the harder it was to find myself. Scandal, dear Scandal. We are friends. So perhaps you can understand what a terrible, vile thing this is for a man like me. I'm afraid. I'm afraid I'm going sane."
Unfortunately, sanity slipped him further back into insanity. Alice inspired feelings in him, normal feelings, that left him struggling to figure out who he really was. He could no longer figure out the difference between himself and his masks, and became terribly afraid of becoming sane again. Using the Get Out Of Hell Free card himself to try and bring back Parademon, Peter found out, unexpectedly, that he was welcomed there as a Prince of Hell... and decided to betray his team and stay there instead, not able to face returning to Earth and potentially just becoming Peter Merkel, Jr. again -- weak, pathetic Peter Merkel, Jr. Sanity and normality was, to him, a curse.
Scissor Sisters - Return to Oz (
x)
Three o' clock in the morning
You get a phone call from the queen with a hundred heads
She says that they're all dead
She tried the last one on
It couldn't speak, fell off
And now she just wanders the halls...
The patchwork girl has come to cinch the deal
To return to Oz
We've fled the world with smiles and clenching jaws
Please help me, friend, from coming down
I've lost my place and now it can't be found
***
10. "So they went out the hard way."
"STOP! Please. Stop. We are worthless. We are the scum of this planet. We have only one redemptive trait, my dear, sick, wounded friends. We don't know how to surrender."
In the end, Ragdoll could not bring himself to really hurt his friends, to have them tortured in Hell. He sided with them again, calling him his family, and gave the card over to Scandal so that she could save her love, Knockout, instead -- simply asking her to forgive him, and to say that love existed, even for people like them. They all made it out of Hell, but their newfound happiness couldn't last: When a grand attack against Batman, planned by Bane, went sour before it even began, and they had to face off against legions of powerful heroes... Once again, they stuck together as a family. They refused to surrender; they all took Bane's Venom, and went out fighting. Things had been hopeful for them for a while, but in the end, the two rules of the Secret Six held true: They never back down, and they never win.
Stars - Life 2: The Unhappy Ending (
x)
Life was supposed to be a film
Was supposed to be a thriller
Was supposed to end in tears
But life could be nothing but a joke
Could be nothing but a con
Where's my unhappy ending gone...?
Why can't the ending be happy?
Why must it always resolve this way?
Fade in:
A cabin in the woods somewhere
Our hero strokes his lover's hair
Says, "Don't worry, love, we're almost done"
Says, "I could have really been someone"
Outside, they surround the house with pistols drawn
It's a waiting game until the dawn
Sergeant says, "He can't go on
We know now that he can't go on..."
***
Bonus #1: The Six-Guns Blazing
"Wait. Everyone. Please. I... I've been keeping a terrible secret. And you're all going to die. Tonight. Tonight. Like hogs at the slaughter. My sister is coming for a visit, sheriff."
In another universe... It's the Wild West. Peter lives in a small mining town, telling stories to children in the streets, outcast due to having murdered his father and married his sister. His sister, who is insane, and ruthless, and cruel, and wants the town's mines. His sister, who will do anything to get them. The town is doomed, and in this life, the Six -- who barely know one another, for the most part -- have no hope of fighting them off. They all die there, in the streets of the town. Peter appeals to his sister, if she ever cared for him, and is shot as she replies that she never did.
Snow Patrol - Fallen Empires (
x)
Frightened, under attack
Fallen flat on my back
Arms and legs, I'm too scared to beg...
Razing cities to dust
Faces dripping in lust
Fallen empires and raging bush fires...
Ruined everything right
So good I can't see the light
From my cave I can see the wave
Fallen empires and raging bush fires
***
Bonus #2: Deadman & the Flying Graysons
"They are killing everything up there. What do we do?"
In another universe... Peter Merkel, Jr. was not raised by his father. Instead, he was a contortionist, a freak for the same circus where Dick Grayson and his parents performed. They were, in fact, like a little family -- the Graysons, Ragdoll, Doctor Fate, King Shark, and Boston Brand. When Amazons attack the circus, determined to get their hands on the Helm of Fate, everything goes wrong, and they are killed one by one, until only Dick Grayson is left. Peter tries to help his family, tries to save King Shark, keeps the peace between Dick and Boston, stands by Dick as he mourns his father's death. When they are fleeing, an Amazon catches him and breaks his spine.
The Hush Sound - Lions Roar (
x)
The lions roar and young men soar
The flames all scorch the circus floor
Puppets on strings all dance and sing
And flap their wings, trumpets play sick lullabies...
We didn't know, we could not go
The circus songs just carried on
Out of the crowd, three men rush out
And scream and shout, "Everybody stop!"
***
Bonus #3: Elvis Presley - Blue Suede Shoes (
x)
"You sure you're ready for this?"
"Three to get ready, now go, Cat, go."
***
Bonus #4: Final Fantasy IX - Jesters of the Moon (
x)
"Now, don't let's fuss. And please don't call me 'clown.'"
***
D O W N L O A D