Ralph Rager

Sierra Rager (Sister)

Arzu Rager (Cousin)

Laura Batt (Cousin)

Lionel Batt (Uncle)

Julie Batt (Aunt)

Donna Rager (Mother)

Andre Rager (Father)

The younger brother of Brock Rager, **Ralph Rager** is better at holding in his rage, but he still has years of it built in his system. Though he is quite good at keeping his cool, it's only a matter of time before the powder keg in his soul goes off.

## Biography

### Early life

Ralph Rager wasn't your average child. In fact, he was born with quirks that would affect his life for years to come. The first indication that there was something atypical about Ralph occurred on June 3, 2006, in Kindergarten. He was able to vividly remember and remind his teacher about something she'd forgotten to tell the class earlier that morning, even being able to recite her words verbatim, something his teacher initially brushed off as nothing. In First Grade, 2007, Ralph was again revealed to have an atypical memory-related gift when he reminded his childhood friend Methuselah Locke that he'd left his pencil sharpener in his cubby weeks ago, able to relay to Methuselah in vivid detail the exact place he'd left it, even though Methuselah himself had forgotten. Years later, in sixth grade, the truth came out: Ralph was formally diagnosed with hyperthymesia, a condition that leads people to be able to remember an abnormally large number of their life experiences in vivid detail.

### 2023 San Francisco Incident

In 2023, Ralph Rager is on vacation in San Francisco, California, during his winter break, when he encountered a seemingly abandoned military prototype submarine. Upon further investigation, he finds to his horror that everyone on board the submarine died of mysterious and violent causes. Examining the corpses, he makes another shocking discovery: the submarine was manned by North Korea. Unbeknownst to him, he'd stumbled upon the aftermath of a North Korean attempt at both cyber and biological warfare targeting the United States of America, which had been thwarted by an unknown third party organization.

Sometime after this, Ralph Rager ends up becoming recruited into The Ascendancy, a private intelligence organization led by Mehmet Ozberk, former Turkish intelligence director and a friend of his father Andre Rager. According to Mehmet, an anonymous source notified Ascendancy operative Sedef Gollu that China and North Korea had been collaborating on a naval conspiracy against the United States of America. However, before she could blow the whistle on the operation, she had been captured, coincidentally as part of a series of kidnappings and murders committed by the People's Republic of China and North Korea targeting US-based hackers. He decides to recruit Ralph and his sister Jordyn into the Ascendancy, intending to use their skills in detective work and crime fighting. Ralph accepted, but only because he was struggling to find work ever since the beginning of the fall semester, along with Jordyn.

### Indianapolis Operation

Thanks to intel from the Ascendancy, Sedef Gollu is tracked to Indianapolis, Indiana, which coincidentally is hosting a religious retreat. Mehmet finds intel from Sedef indicating that each of the victims of the violent attacks against the US-based hackers were last seen at the hotel. In response, Mehmet orders both Ralph and Jordyn to infiltrate the conference and obtain evidence of Mehmet and Sedef's suspicions.

During the course of his investigation, Ralph finds himself attacked by agents of the Reconnaissance General Bureau and the Chinese Ministry of State Security, both of which targeted Ralph after he stopped an attempted kidnapping by agents from both organizations targeting an old high school friend of his, Tasneem Rubio. Later, he discovers a news article claiming that former CIA officers Jason Bourne and Adam Hayes were suspected of aiding North Korea and China in the naval operation prior to it being thwarted.

During this operation, Ralph is also introduced to Campus Crusaders, a Christian college ministry organization hosting the religious retreat in Indianapolis. He is exposed to Christian theology for the first time and, though he remains skeptical of their beliefs, is willing to hear people out when they attempt to share with him and openly shares his own beliefs.

Later on, under the guise of going on an urban exploration expedition with friends, Ralph discovers a hideout for Jörmungandr, a right-wing cabal that intel claims was involved in the North Korean submarine incident. As they explore the hideout, Ralph and Jordyn once again encounter Bourne, who engages in a vicious hand-to-hand fight against both siblings. This time, it is Bourne who manages to come out on top and is minutes away from killing Ralph and Jordyn when they are stopped by a fellow Jörmungandr operative named Arzu Rager, who is also revealed to be a half sister of Ralph and Jordyn that they never knew about.

Arzu reveals that both Jason Bourne and Adam Hayes were recruited into Jörmungandr and that it was Arzu who was responsible for the horrifying events aboard the submarine, which are in turn revealed to have been part of a scheme by Jörmungandr to thwart a naval conspiracy concocted by both North Korea and China against the United States of America and South Korea. Arzu and Bourne further elaborate by revealing that both Bourne and Hayes were activated as part of Jörmungandr's own mission against North Korea and China, that Jörmungandr intended to use Bourne and Hayes' skill set as a show of force in order to coerce the two countries into abandoning any retaliatory ops against the United States.

## Personal details

### Personality

Ralph Rager is described as an "outgoing child to a fault." His anger issues make him intimidating at times but when he's not in his "rage state", he is actually a pretty cool guy to get to know. Just make sure you don't get on his bad side, or give him a reason to beat your brains in.

### Habits and beliefs

Ralph is an absurdist; he believes that life is absurd and has no meaning, and yet paradoxically people actively seek to find it because deep down, they *want* to believe meaning in life is still possible. He claims on multiple occasions that all historical events-both tragedies and events that ended positively-have the same starting point: they all begin with humanity trying to find meaning in a world that has none.

## Skills and abilities

### Skills

* **Multilingualism**: Due to having visited Turkey a couple times, even before he officially joined The Ascendancy, Ralph is fluent in Turkish, although his accent is quite poor.

### Abilities

* **Firearms handling**: As a relatively new Ascendancy operative, Ralph Rager has rudimentary firearms handling skills, although he is an accurate shot.
* **Martial artist**: Ralph trained in jiujitsu during his pre-teen years. In his teen years and into his adult life, he has taken up MMA, Boxing and has even dabbled in US Army Combatives, Systema, Judo and Aikido.
* **"Beast Mode"**: If Ralph sees something that will enrage him enough or should something happen to him that causes Ralph to reach his "rage-breaking point" in a fight, he'll enter a state he calls "Beast Mode"; he'll literally begin seeing red, he'll take deep breaths through his nose, and he'll start shouting and screaming angrily as he engages in combat with the aggressor.

## Notes and trivia

* Ralph has a habit of shouting or screaming loudly in hand-to-hand fights, as if the blows he's taking are a lot more painful than they really are. He claims it's to channel "the beast within".