App [El Nysa]

[rhygret]

THE CHARACTER

Character Name: Rhys
Series: Borderlands
Canon Point: After opening the Vault in chapter 5
Character Age: 27
Background: Here! Since the game has a few paths you can take Rhys down, the version I am apping:

-Told Loader Bot to save itself
-Didn't sell out to Vasquez
-Forgave Vaughn
-Trusted Jack
-Romanced Sasha
-Told the girls about Jack
-Accepted Jack's offer to rule Hyperion
-Saved Yvette
-Crushed the ECHOEYE implant

Personality:

Rhys is not a Good Person, but he also comes from a canon of People who aren't ranging from the megalomaniacal to the outright insane "meat buddies riding the death train for life" sort. In fact the only actual "good" people where Rhys comes from aren't humans but robot AIs, so that should really say something.

In canon Rhys works for the Hyperion corporation which he admits makes him the "bad guy" in his story. Hyperion is responsible for a long list of atrocities, the least of which is Ruining The Lives Of Everyone on Pandora. They bled the planet dry for rare alien minerals, destroyed entire settlements for profit and gain, and under Handsome Jack's rule went around murdering and killing anyone who got into their way. There isn't a single person on Pandora who's fond of them and for good reason. While Rhys himself may not have personally taken part in any of these atrocities, he has done things like brokering shady Eridium mining deals for his own gain and even tried to orchestrate a little corporate revenge on a company rival following a stolen promotion which resulted in "three years of wasted effort" when his former boss was vented into space. That was pretty much the extent that Rhys was broken up about it. Which? Not actually all that uncommon or unusual in Hyperion. Everyone gets somewhere by screwing someone else over, and the best way to get ahead? Be just as cold and scheming as everyone else around you. It's sink or swim in the world Rhys works.

Rhys willing to do whatever it takes to get ahead barring outright murder for a position (mostly), openly disdainful of Pandora and the people who live there, and at times just a little bit two-faced. Rhys did spend three years sucking up to Henderson in hopes of a promotion after all. It's all part of the Hyperion Experience^TM, and as much as Rhys hates it he's always wanted to run his own company (he made a club with his friends as a kid so he could print business cards. It's as nerdy as it sounds).

Rhys dreams of getting ahead: he wants to rule the Hyperion corporation and have all the perks that go along with it. More than the money (although it is a nice bonus) he wants the respect it'll grant him even if his best friend Vaughn reminds him that "the only ones who talk like that are poor people no one likes". Rhys has Ambition and wants to be just like his hero: Handsome Jack.

...Who is admittedly not that greatest role model out there considering he murdered and blackmailed his way to the top and then committed a number of atrocities including robot genocide, but. You know. He was also super-charismatic and funny about it which made it kind...of...?? Okay? Or something. He was mostly just killing bandits and awful Pandoran stuff so it's almost sorta justified to Rhys in the beginning. That particular mindset changes a lot after he meets the man for himself (see: uploads an AI of him into his brain and almost gets murdered). It's pretty disillusioning when your hero tries to kill you by shoving a metal skeleton inside your body for his robot army.

Luckily there's more to Rhys then just being Hyperion. He wants to reach the top sure, but he wants to bring his friends Vaughn and Yvette with him. The plan was for all three of them to take over and rule Hyperion; they work together to get Rhys into a position where he can move up, and then he in turn would promote them up with him. He may be a bit of an asshole but Rhys is actually incredibly loyal to his friends and tends to put a lot of his faith and trust in them. Even Vasquez offering him back his old job and splitting ten million dollars wasn't enough to even make Rhys consider betraying Vaughn and letting him take the fall. He tells Vasquez to go stuff it, because betrayal of the friend variety? Not Rhys's cup of tea.

In fact Rhys actually likes...having them. And being liked. Even if he's quick to dismiss Fiona and Sasha as being Pandoran and therefor a bit beneath him, he actually takes the chance to open up to Sasha about how Helios isn't all it's cracked up to be and tries to relate to her a little bit. Which may or may not have to do with a slight crush on her. But he's not a totally despicable person and once he starts to like someone and warm up to them (which honestly does not take much, this guy is starved for kindness jfc) he's actually...a pretty decent friend. Loader Bot helps him and Vaughn and Rhys grows attached. Dumpy helps him fight off bad guys and Rhys grows attached. Fiona calls him a friend and Rhys looks surprised and touched as all hell.

Rhys is also a nerd. And a fanboy! He idolized Handsome Jack and kept posters of him in his room. He keeps a collection of ridiculously-colored socks. The very first words he manages to utter to Zer0 after witnessing him kill a Skag? Telling him how cool he is and later being super-excited to sit next to him. And getting told he did well?? "Ohhh my god, thank you"--yeah. This loser gets it bad.

Rhys is actually good at his Hyperion job. But outside in the field he has no idea how his stun baton works (but he remarks that it looks neat), no idea how to work Loader Bot, shoves a random ID drive into his head and electrocutes himself, and often forgets that he has a robot arm capable of doing stuff way better than his human one. Case an point: anytime it comes to punching someone or trying to strangle that one bandit who thought it was a joke at first. Rhys is Not Strong. And he comically messes up! A lot! Like a loooot, actually. Rhys can look he part of an aspiring businessman but in practice he's much less smooth outside his element.

Rhys isn’t exactly the awesomely capable figure he sees himself as but he never hurts for confidence! Even when he really shouldn't have any or it's kind of unfounded. Of all things Rhys still somehow manages that. Or well, he manages it whenever he doesn't manage to be awkward which is about a fifty-fifty split. He talks a good talk about how smoothly things will go with the Vault Key deal with Vaughn and then totally trips over himself trying to tell Sasha she's pretty. On Helios Rhys is actually perfectly capable! He knows his environment and doesn't even flinch when he gets cornered by accountants bearing finger guns. Put him on Pandora trying to ask for directions? And he winds up in a firefight with an entire town of bandits.

The best way to look at Rhys is someone who isn't Great, but who isn't Awful either. He has plenty of vices: he wants power and money, he's materialistic, wants recognition and he's vain! The first thing Rhys does after thinking himself betrayed by Fiona and Sasha is to get himself a haircut and a new suit. He also took the rights to Atlas and named himself CEO. He doesn't seek his friends out because he assumed they betrayed him--but when he thinks he's been contacted by them? Rhys heads over right away, by himself, unarmed and unguarded, ready to work things out.

Rhys is sarcastic and egotistical, overly confident at times and more than a little bit of a pain, but he's also someone capable of expressing remorse for past deeds (apologizing to Vaughn for their junior years), learning from his mistakes (trusting and idolizing Jack), and being genuinely sincere when he cares about someone. Once Rhys cares about someone he tends to care A Lot: he chases down a car and fights off bandits to get to Vaughn, he refuses to let Sasha fall when they're stuck hanging, and comes to view Fiona as an equal despite their rocky start and his bias against Pandorans. Rhys can forgive people and move on from his misgivings with people so long as he has a reason to which is something that sets him apart from a lot of people at Hyperion.

By the time Rhys enters the Vault with Fiona at the end of the game he's grown from someone whose drives and goals revolves entirely around advancing himself and his close friends, to somone who wants to work to make something better of himself. He knows exactly the kind of person he doesn't want to be: the sort Hyperion turned out under the rule of Handsome Jack, and exactly the person he had been shaping up to be before the Vault. Rhys wants to be better both for himself and to make up for his past mistakes.

Powers/Abilities: Great-looking hair.

...Which is a nice way of saying Rhys is about as supernaturally gifted as a rock. He does have some everyday skills which stand out however, first and foremost being hacking and data mining! Rhys predominantly uses his ECHO eye and cybernetic arm systems to do this and is actually pretty competent at it? Not Handsome Jack-levels of awesome mind you, but he does a fairly good job for someone with like, twenty years less experience than a programming CEO of a trillion bajillion dollar corporation.

Speaking of tech, Rhys has a...

Cybernetic arm: It comes with a holographic display, a light, slightly increased strength (nothing dramatic), and the ability to run hacking programs. It's basically a HUD.

ECHOEye Implant: This allows Rhys to see in the dark as well as scan any object he trains his eye on...provided there's information on it in his database/The Company's database. And provided he has the clearance for it.

EchoPort: A small port located on Rhys's temple which allows him to upload data directly to his brain--or download from it onto a computer (this is how Jack moves from the ID drive to Rhys's brain, to Helios, and then back into his brain).

Power Nerfs (if applicable): His ECHOEye's scanner probably won't work? He's not hooked up to the ECHONET because his universe is...dead...

Inventory:
-1 JR4000 Stun Baton

Incentives: Rhys would like to claim that he is a marginally better at being a human being than when he started this whole Vault Hunting thing, but he would be really okay with like, money. And a way to building up his own company again?? But also if he could be sure all his friends were safe too that would be really great.

SAMPLES

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