Ralph

Ralph

Ralph is run by DaFlipp and is a student at Xavier's School. He also plays Deacon Plain and Norton.

Biography

• Full Name: Ralph Peakes
• Age: 16
• Codename: Reflex (not earned yet)
• Family: Lambert Peakes (father), Amanda Peakes (mother), Patrick Peakes (older brother)

Ralph comes from Malden, a suburb north of Boston. He was raised by his parents, both very academic types (his father a librarian, his mother a university professor). They instilled in him a deep love of learning and reading, which served him well in academics and much less well in the social scene; combined with his naturally pudgy appearance, he grew up as something of an outcast in school, the overweight bookworm that no one wanteded to play with. As such, he never really got a chance to develop social skills, and to this day is very awkward around others.

His powers manifested during his junior year of high school. At first, he got into a good deal of trouble when his powers caused him to "start" a number of fights in the hallways and such. Fortunately, his older brother admitted he had been about to push Ralph when Ralph suddenly and violently counter-threw him. From there, they pieced together the basics of his power - that he was striking pre-emptively against people who were in the process of attacking -him-.

Fortunately, his family was fully supportive of his apparently mutant power, and began making inquiries about some way to teach Ralph to control his powers. When the invitation to board at Xavier's School arrived, Ralph accepted. Although he remains unsure of himself and terrified by the violent nature of his powers, he is determined to do his best at Xavier's.

And making a few friends couldn't hurt.

Powers

Ralph's powers rely on a subtle form of telepathy. He constantly unconsciously scans the brainwaves of everyone around him for violent actions directed against himself. Once a violent action is detected, generally just as the triggering action is starting to be performed, Ralph's powers override his body so that he can dodge and counter-attack. Though this is generally an excellent survival skill, Ralph is utterly terrified of his own powers, since he has absolutely no control over them - and he worries that one day, one of his counter-attacks will be lethal.

Ralph's counter-attacks benefit from absolutely no enhanced strength or speed, beyond general adrenaline. They do, however, tend to be very effective simply because they are executed with perfect knowledge of what the opponent was about to do (and is thus already in the process of doing).

Storyline

Still a new student, Ralph has slowly tried his best to acclimate to living apart from his family among a bunch of superpowered strangers. He is at least adjusting to the schoolwork well, having already been well ahead of the curve at the academically rigorous Catholic school he attended before Xavier's.

He also attended the Butterfly's final concert, but could only watch from the periphery as the chaos erupted. He now feels very downcast about the whole event, especially his utter helplessness regarding the incident.

He also attended Adam's birthday party, and after a round of peer pressuring he ended up giving alcohol a try. Surprisingly, being slightly drunk cured Ralph of much of his usual awkwardness, and he became much more mellow and social than he had been before. However, the slew of groundings, interrogations, arguments, and other repercussions following the party - combined with his having few memories of the party after drinking - have left Ralph terrified to drink again.

After his first semester ended with grades that were much lower than he was accustomed to . The bookworm had been a straight-A student before Xaviers', so his twin B-'s mortified him. He has spent nearly all of his second semester at Xaviers' studying and working on homework, at the expense of his already unimpressive social life.

While incredibly shy by any normal person's standards, he's met a few more people who are more at his level of social interaction, and he has started to become comfortable enough with some of his closer friends to even discuss such dangerous topics as relationships. To their mutual surprise, he even blurted out to Rahne that he liked her, which led to them going on a date together - that went surprisingly well, all things considered.

Most recently, Ralph has been grappling - mostly unsuccesfully - with his own negative perception of his own powers. He knows he needs to stop viewing his powers as a hindrance if he's ever going to live with himself, but is still horrified by the violence his body can perform against his will. Still, he's starting to gain some appreciation for his powers' utility, even if he'd much rather have it another way...

Friends and Enemies

Classmates

• Rahne: The first person Ralph met at Xavier's, she fast became one of his first and best friends at the school. Not only do they share a profound love of reading, but they even worked together as fellow assistant librarians for the school. When Ralph blurted out that he had a crush on her, he initially worried that he'd jeapordized their friendship - but instead, they have actually managed to start dating, a turn of events Ralph continues to find pleasantly overwhelming.
• Barbara: Ralph empathizes a good deal with Barbara - not only is she rather shy like himself, but she also has a power that, while useful in theory, can be more of a hindrance in practice. Of course, it's also slightly unnerving being around someone who can count the blood cells rushing to your face when you blush.
• Jill: The two seem to be stumbling towards friendship, despite their mutual shyness and clumsiness resulting in more than one embarassing situation. And hey, her thumb grew back, so it's not such a big deal, right?
• Laura: When Ralph took the regenerative degenerate up on her offer to help him train his power, he really didn't expect to break her nose like that. Fortunately, it got better.
• Adam: Ralph has a good deal of respect for Adam's self-confidence and apparent mastery of his own power, but has also grown wary of Adam's sometimes severe temper, especially since he's ended up unwillingly on its receiving end a few times. Still, he fully forgives Adam his lapses and is glad to have him as a friend.
• Nikki: Despite Nikki's wild and somewhat impuslive nature, she always seems to manage to find sympathy and advice for plain, humdrum Ralph, which Ralph appreciates greatly. She's also one of the few who got to interact with post-alcohol Ralph, who almost seemed to flirt with her at one point.
• Faith?: Ralph initially avoided Faith like the plague, since his first interaction with her led to her purposefully embarassing him into terminal blushing and he later heard almost nothing but bad things about her, but a more recent interaction where she was surprisingly sensitive and sympathetic has improved his view of her considerably.
• Wesley: Fellow schoolmate that Ralph doesn't know particularly well, but has so far been friendly and encouraging.

Teachers and Others

• Basset: Ralph is terrified of his squad leader and gym teacher. He recognizes that she's good at her job, but her abrupt, no-nonsense manner does not mesh well with Ralph's sensitive demeanor.
• Caitlin: She seemed like a nice girl, really. But... um... why was she dressed as a pirate?
• Xavier: The Professor called Ralph into his office to discuss Adam's party once. While the Professor was never actually unkind during this interrogation, Ralph was utterly terrified the entire time due to his own guilt and self-imposed pressure; as a result, while he doesn't necessarilly dislike the Professor, he's more than a little intimidated by him.

Inactive

• Saga?: A friendly girl who seems determined to break Ralph of his shyness by hugging him at random intervals, despite Ralph's constant stutterings and blushes. Even more dangerous since she figured out she could use her powers to nullify Ralph's; now she can -tackle- him with hugs, too.
• Topaz: Ralph was surprised to hear that Topaz wanted him involved with the mutant charity organization, but pleasantly so. She has since taken on the burden of giving Ralph a makeover, which honestly frightens the bejeezus out of Ralph, as do Topaz's moments of wearing her "blunt hat".
• John: Ralph has only briefly met the school librarian, but the fact that John hired him on as an assistant librarian has made Ralph absolutely ecstatic.

He's met a few other students and teachers, but hasn't really done enough with them to relate to them as friends.

Wanted

I'm not picky, but I'd really like to get involved in a plotline or two. If you need someone from the school to use in a storyline, feel free to pick Ralph! In particular, it would be nice to see him actually use his powers in a non-training/sparring context.

Also, it'd be very interesting to see Ralph end up in a relationship with someone. Won't be easy, since he's awkward around everyone and twice as awkward around girls, but playing off his inexperience is half the fun. Too late, ladies! Someone beat you to it!

Links

Ralph's IC Livejournal. Has recently turned away from ICness and towards log posting.

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Comments:

A bit impulsive and exuberant? Clearly Ralph hasn't spent enough time around Nikki. - N V.

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