#Katagawa Junior

[phenikas]

Smh can't believe I forgot to post this shitpost on here as well. @sofiescarchy shared a pic on Twitter that I just had to recreate.

Original:

Also a little bonus:

[companylust]

@companywrath

After dear old dad had said, "No, Maliwan can't continue to allocate its funds to a seemingly neverending war with Atlas, you couldn't even crush one upstart CEO and I don't support your destiny to be with the love of your life, you're still somehow my least favorite child and you're literally only competing with memories at this point" (or at least, that's how Katagawa heard it), Katagawa was seemingly out of options. He had to lay low for awhile and tend to his wounds. The physical healed quickly, but the emotional... That took longer.

He spent a lot of time alone. He neglected his duties as an executive, delegating enough of it away that it looked like he was still doing something. He broke a lot of pleasure spheres. He tried not to keep an eye on Rhys, telling himself he should move on. That lasted for about twelve hours before it was late at night, the pleasure sphere by itself wasn't doing it, and he knew Rhys' face looking so vulnerable and soft and sweet while he slept was only a few clicks of the ECHO eye away.

After that broke down, Katagawa's addiction was back in full force. He revisited every old interview Rhys had ever done. He reminded himself of all the reasons he loved Rhys. He watched him constantly, day and night, wondering what it would be like if Rhys were dead, and came to one firm conclusion: It was better that he hadn't killed Rhys. Katagawa had just been mad, that was all. They could work things out.

That was the mindset Katagawa was in when it happened.

Of course he'd heard the news that Handsome Jack was back. Everyone in the six galaxies was talking about it. He revealed himself as seemingly back from the dead and immediately took over Hyperion again. The Maliwan board had an emergency meeting immediately after the news broke to discuss how the company would handle Hyperion going forward. Because of this and other stressors, Junior was keeping a feed of Rhys on his ECHO-eye basically 24/7.

He was watching Rhys's office when Jack came in. When... that happened.

What the hell was a dead man doing fucking Rhys?

Katagawa saw red. He jacked off about it constantly for days. He killed a lot of subordinates. Nothing was making it better. He needed answers. He knew any interactions with the CEO claiming to be Handsome Jack should be run past the Board first, but he didn't care. He was doing this.

Under his father's nose, Katagawa used Maliwan's vast resources to find where Jack slept at night. It was a turbomansion on a private Hyperion controlled planet, heavily protected. No big teams were getting in. Luckily, Katagawa was well-versed in slipping past security.

Jack's security was better than Rhys's, but eventually, slowly and so carefully, Katagawa made his way inside. He stood over Handsome Jack laying in his bed, or at least the impostor successfully pretending to be him. The man who had ruled the most profitable company in the universe and killed countless people doing it. The very same man Katagawa had watched on the security footage fucking the only person who mattered in this shithole world.

In repose, he was vulnerable. Everyone was. People looked gentle in their sleep. When Katagawa came close enough to see his face, he realized, of course, Jack didn't sleep in the mask. His bare face was revealed for Katagawa's eager eyes. If this was the real Handsome Jack, Katagawa was now in rare company, one of the few people to see what secret Jack kept behind the mask.

But he wasn't here to wonder at his big nasty scar. He was here to get answers about Rhys. He drew his katana--the most advanced Maliwan tech, with a mononuclear edge that could easily cleave Jack's head off his shoulders. Katagawa held the sharp side to Jack's throat.

"Tell me what you have to do with Rhys."

[mauserfrau]

Not Rhack Wednesdays On Thursday [24]

Not that there's anything wrong with Rhack, but variety is the spice of life!

First orders of business:

@lackpassion who did our splash images, now has a Patreon and an Etsy freshly restocked with slasher pride. More goodies on the way!

Today’s Recs: ( 🎨 = art | ✍ = fic | 🤔 = thinks)

✍ Rebirth/Fleshmeat by @theopiumteaden [NSFW] You know, I'm always happy to NOT be alone in the Troyreen tag, but what if Katagawa and panties and OH MY CRAP GO READ IT.

✍ Edge of Chaos Chapter 10 by @raidbossmadi Now with 15% more Muldoon! And also 20% more chaos.

✍ Finding Ava Chapter 8 by @frankenjoly Hold onto your shorts, kids! We've got adventure incoming!

🎨 ✍ Illustration for "The Stars Align & Stuff" by @michellespenscratchz It's GLORIOUS.

🎨 We also have this wonderful SFM of Pirate Fiona by @monday-headache

🎨 @exjekyll is killing it with some B3 Sirens this week. Damn!

🎨 @darkmagicdrag0n has brought us lots of B3 OCs and also my personal favorite, sad Tyreen.

🎨 @azzhole-and-troyglodite is back!!

If you’d like your work featured on Not Rhack Wednesdays On Thursday, the only requirement is that it not be Rhack (well, and you have to ask).  Calypso Twins angst is not required, but a plus.  Give me a jingle or @ me or whatever works for you.

[timothylawrence]

Katagawa every time the pair of 25 yr old twins he killed all his siblings for call him junior

[maliwan012remade]

new people tags

the only one left. | self. a blade that never stops cutting. | katagawa senior. is the daughter’s misfortune the mother’s triumph? | fuyuko. know that you are loved. | natsuko. father’s images. | brothers. mother’s mirrors. | sisters. stopped looking for the person i once knew. | katagawa junior. everything a goddamn ordeal in area family. | katagawa family. no one can hold the sky up forever. | rhys strongfork. my love is in the garden. | honey ayodele. strength and tenderness in the same body. | rakesh mhasalkar. scum / nothing else now. | exboyfriend. don’t let me die / thanks. | vault hunters. my little one–eyed darling. | nutmeg the cat.

[clonelyboy]

@fratricideal | mean boy starter call.

---------

Teddy gives the man a glance-over, up and down, his nose scrunched up, and mouth nearly a down-turned C-shape. “Jesus Cuh-rist,” he says, “Jay-Eff-Cee.”

[undergroundexits]

something about how naoko does sees jr as her brother + her (past) partner-in-crime in their youth + her enemy + just another part of her (especially more so bc i headcanon them as twins, but it depends on interaction obvsly) + her would-be friend if only he wasn’t such a prick (she understands why, doesn’t want to) + her mirror (perfect) + her mirror (fucked-up).

he is his own person, and that’s good!!! but he is a threat bc of his ambitions which wouldn’t be so bad if he wasn’t out to kill (wouldn’t have to kill his way to the top if their parents treated them like people, but it’s easier to, potentially, lash out horizontal against a peer than it is to rebel against your higher-ups).

so viewing him as an extension of herself (her mirror, multiple mirrors, multiple possibilities bc it’s only in her head, bc he’s his own person and she’s sort-of given up on the reality of ever healing their relationship) is... a daydream fantasy (of her helping him but only if he ever bothers to make the decision to actually change his mind -- can’t be too out of character). a shitty coping mechanism bc she hasn’t quite yet finished (or started) grieving the death/decline of her relationship with her brother.

[scoriasoil]

Maliwan family values

some stray thoughts on what we know of the organisation of the Katagawa family that I always found interesting

1) Despite the fact Jr wiped out his siblings, he gets no pushback from his parents. Instead, he’s either promoted/at least maintains control of an influential department. This seems obvious, given the fact he’s out there waging a war, but think about it for a second—he kills his siblings to get closer to the CEO position, but he does not kill his father, the actual CEO. He stops one murder short of becoming top dog. Why not go the whole way?

2) Well, I wouldn’t say it’s because he’s scared of his father. Just before Junior has Tyreen turn his siblings into decorative pieces, he tells them it’s because they were riding on the coattails of their parents, who gave them “everything.” It appears the Katagawas raised some lazy Rich Kids of Echogram, and Junior despised his siblings for that, while genuinely respecting his parents.

3) This would suggest he thinks he’s done them a favour by unaliving his idle siblings. He specifically criticises them for “coasting on [the] interest” of their inheritance rather than “acquiring new business ventures” to benefit Maliwan. It’s safe to assume the Katagawa parents completely agreed with Junior’s assessment (or even planted that seed in his head), because...

4) ...you can find Naoko, the sole surviving Katagawa, hiding out on Promethea, but nobody (except Junior) is looking for her. The Katagawa parents aren’t desperately searching. They don’t care. As far as they’ve concerned, they’ve found the horse they’re going to back.

This is within the wider context of the fact Junior has a literal barcode tattoo on his neck, numbering him as 13 in the birth order, as presumably all his siblings do. This is Disney-stepmother cartoonish levels of child abuse, but think what a number (no pun intended) that must do on a child’s psyche.

He, along with his siblings, was raised knowing they are fully disposable corporate assets, not people. It seems to me that Junior is not actually a ‘psychopathic’ anomaly that Naoko claims. Rather, it looks more likely the Katagawas were encouraged to turn on each other, and Junior was the only one (or perhaps merely the first) to get there first.

[companylust]

A headcanon about Katagawa:

He's got a lot of bodywork. Of course he has the cybernetics, an ECHO-eye and its accompanying head port, intended to be the same as Rhys's but on the opposite eye--two halves of a whole. He got them on an expensive impulse because of Rhys, enamored with visions of connecting their thoughts together with a simple cord. He also has minor cybernetics throughout his body, making him taller, stronger and more agile (these predate Rhys). He's tall enough to pass as Zer0 (who's 6'4") and I feel like that's unlikely to be natural.

(His dick is also enhanced. It's very big. Very obviously too big. He also has a piercing.)

On top of that, I've seen a lot of fanart where he's covered in yakuza-style tattoos, and it's too sick not to adopt. He's covered in intricate, beautiful tattoos. I'll have to do some more research to decide what exactly they are. (I feel like Maliwan is just as much Yakuza as it is business. It's cut throat and violent. Junior had to be tough to get to the top, even starting off as a Katagawa.)

Most of his tattoos are in a traditional Japanese style, but he does have an exact copy of Rhys's neck tattoo on his heart. Right around his nipple. It's very weird.

Katagawa's a weird dude. I feel like there's so much room to expand on it from the weirdness we see in canon.

[chocochipbiscuit]

Opening Lines Game

I was tagged by @fireandfolds, thank you for the tag!!! This was a welcome distraction from actually writing ;)

rules:

list the first lines of your last 20 stories (if you have less than 20, just list them all)

see if there are any patterns

choose your favorite opening line

tag some people to play the next round

IR-8 doesn’t drink booze ‘cuz it fucks with their meds, so they nurse a ginger ale and cherry. (Berlin Burns)

Sometimes he dreams that he’s back in the labyrinth. (lost)

Manuela awoke with an aching head and a cramped, hot feeling on her chest. (the youngest we’ll ever be)

“Troy, no! I can’t—” (never gonna say I’m sorry)

“Where. Is. Olivia?” (Mirror Dance)

Audran hits ‘brew’ on the coffee maker, starting another pot of the expensive beans that Vauclair likes. (what tenderness remains)

The Kreuzbasar has always been a broken sigh, syllables stuttering on the verge of collapse. (worth waiting for)

“Tell me who did this to you,” IR-8 growled. (All Mouth and Bad Ideas)

Back when Penny was a little girl—back when she still wore pants and cut her hair short, back when the bus still ran to Calico Desert and Mom still drove, back when Dad still swept Penny in his arms so the eucalyptus smell of his aftershave tickled her nose—Penny caught a jarful of fireflies. (Fireflies)

“It looks like a flower!” says Sera, poking at the green vegetable sitting on her plate. (A Most Edible Thistle)

Hawke hisses between her teeth as she rocks first one way, then the other, knees twisting in an attempt to dislodge Meredith. (Blood and Iron)

Jack thinks of poetry as pain, as want, as something raw and measured in equal parts. (nothing like poetry)

“Shut the door, shut the door!” Verna screamed, boots skidding across the wooden floors of the forgotten library.  (Primary Sources)

Katagawa—the only Katagawa worth mentioning now, not Junior, not eleven other siblings wrestling for the family name, and even Naoko is a soon-to-be-dead memory—sprawls back in the opulence of his king-sized bed, curling his toes against the silk sheets. (His Favorite CEO)

“Restraint does not become you, my love,” Vivienne said dryly, leaning against the balcony with a glass of wine in her hand. (Restraint)

“You are the Lady of Iron, and you remain unconquered,” Svarah said, blood on her teeth as she smiled around a split lip. (Unconquered)

“I’m the Butcher, and you’re the Hatchet. Frankly, I don’t see how it was gonna be any other way.” (any other way)

“Holy shit, Miri! We might not make it out of this one!” Vera shouts, snakes whipping past her shoulders as she spins the getaway car through a tight corner. (Spousal Privilege)

Danse blinks as he enters the Atomic Wrangler, the dust from his boots drifting to settle between the worn floorboards. (Danse Does Vegas)

“Go away, I’m dying.” (where you sleep at night)

Most of my opening lines are short and to the point, interrupting the characters mid-scene and establishing the set-up. The longer ones tend to for longer or more thoughtful, introspective fics, which I hope calibrates audience expectation appropriately.

That said, 9 is currently my favorite. It’s longer, meandering, and incorporates memory as an emotional touchstone in a way that I think really fits the mood of the fic. I also like 7, though I still waffle on whether the mood of the fic and the prose really match the canon.

And if you want to play... @anneapocalypse, @bittylildragon, @sioirsebhan, @psykopsy, @deacons-wig, @h1bernate, and @fireferns? :D

[katagawa-jr]

Been thinking about Katagawa Jr’s name recently. I dug up some information on this from an old tweet convo between the Borderlands 3 writers and some fans back when Borderlands 3 was newly released. 

Looks like it’s canon that Junior is named after his father, Katagawa Sr. 

There is no information on the birth order of the siblings though. They don’t use names like Ichiro (1st born) Jiro (2nd born) for any the siblings. A main theme of Borderlands 3 is family so I think they were just focusing on the business family aspect of the story and because calling him Junior is funny 😂

[murmeloni]

Since it's gonna take me a while to get this next one finished... Have a little snippet ❤️

Hope you guys have a great weekend.

--

“If you leave right now there's still a chance we'll both survive this."

For a moment Jack doesn’t know how to respond to this touching little monologue. Then his eyes land on the Maliwan logo stamped into Rhys’ collar and he feels white-hot fury bubble up inside him. Snorting derisively, he abruptly shoves away from Rhys, creating a foot or so of distance between them - just enough so that the kid's stupidly intriguing scent won't affect his judgment anymore. Jack’s convinced that that’s the only reason he even considered buying into this absolute load of trash the kid’s been feeding him. God, Jack can practically hear the way Katagawa laughed his ass off when he came up with this little puppet theater. And Jack nearly fell for it too. He grits his teeth.

"Yeah, right. First of all, I've never even heard of sirens, so nice try on that front. Though A plus for the sob-story, kiddo, a real tearjerker. Unfortunately for you, I’m not swayed by your sad little doe eyes.” Jack bites out, drawing satisfaction from the way Rhys recoils from him as if struck.

“Second of all, do you really think someone like Katagawa friggin' Junior could kill me? Me? Handsome Jack? I've been murdering snotnosed little brats like him for decades now and if he really plans to screw with me? Let him try - I'm just gonna shoot him in his dumb face, princess. But again, nice try. And good acting, too. Kudos and all that. Now run back to your master and tell him you almost had me before I decide to kill you too."

[theopiumteaden]

About that time, the man the twins had dubbed Junior was approaching. He stopped at the low table dividing him from them, trying to fathom where the hell Troy had managed to get his hands on chicken wings. The club, DeSade, didn’t serve such unsophisticated finger foods, nor welcomed them. The Calypsos had their ways of puppeteering the masses, though, being the infamous cult influencers that they were. And the greasy container on the table labeled Cluck U told him all he needed to know. He salivated, despite his distaste for such foods. Maybe it was just the sight of Tyreen in her dress, though.

“You’re early, Junior,” Tyreen remarked, swirling the alcohol in her glass.

“I pride myself on my punctuality,” he said. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

“Just Troy’s dinner and my plans to get hot and sweaty on the dance floor.” Tyreen made sure to emphasize the words hot and sweaty.

“You want some, Katagawa?” Troy asked, brandishing a small drumstick. He smirked with a mouthful of chicken flesh.

“No, such food is not to my liking,” Katagawa said in a cordial tone.

“Aw. More for me, then.”

Katagawa adjusted his tie, and thank fuck he wasn’t wearing that tacky one in Maliwan orange, navy, and blue. He primped his pompadour and straightened the lapels of his suit.

[diavolodigitale]

L’appel Du Vide: 01 What a Way to Start

Not that anybody is really reading it here, but I decided to follow through with this story no matter what.

All chapters: 00 - 01 - All stories in PDF

Rhys is the CEO of Atlas and Jack’s AI is back, surprise, surprise! Now Rhys is dismayed, Jack doesn’t care much, and the events of Borderlands 3 are just beginning to unravel. Is there any way to fix the plot of this game? Would it be any better if Rhys had to cooperate with Jack this whole time? Well, this is your chance to find out!

Spoiler: yes, dammit, it would. Everything’s better with a bit of Handsome Jack in it.

Genres: Fix-It, Developing Relationship, Alternate Canon, POV Third Person, Humor, Drama, Plot-driven (kind of? well, it has plot)

Pairing: Handsome Jack’s AI/Rhys (they’re still just talking, dammit)

Characters: Handsome Jack’s AI, Rhys

Rating: M for Mature but not in this chapter lol

Size: around 3000 words (chapter 2/11)

Sun set and rose, another day began. Rhys shaved off his moustache.

“Mornin’, sleeping beauty,” said Jack, who was sitting in Rhys’ chair when the latter one entered his office wearing only red bathrobe and home slippers.

“Morning,” replied Rhys, eying Jack wearily. Jack almost expected him to be surprised by his presence all over again, but it seemed like Rhys did not, after all, convince himself that the events of the previous day were just a dream, which, depending on how one looks at it, might even be considered personal growth. “Let me say how much I appreciate you not stalking me while I sleep. Just so you knew,” he said, painfully aware of Jack’s realness and determination to stay.

“Actually,” began Jack, idly following Rhys’s movements around the room with his gaze, “I watched you for some time, but your face looked so stupid that I started having these fits of hysterical laughter, so I left not to wake you up accidentally. I care for you so much, after all, and… Hey!”–he suddenly sat upright in the chair and pointed at Rhys’s hunched miserable figure–“that thing from your face disappeared! I could’ve sworn I saw it yesterday...”

“And now it’s gone,” concluded Rhys with a sigh.

“Phew, great job, pal. It was so awful, I cannot even begin to describe.”

“What? I thought you liked it,” said Rhys, nonplussed.

“Yeah, about that… I lied. Didn’t want to tell you this, but with that moustache, I wouldn’t let my kids anywhere near you,” said Jack and cackled.

Rhys scowled. He got rid of his moustache precisely because Jack told him he liked it, even despite the fact that it was particularly hard for him, considering the meaning it supposedly held. Since the day before he had this strange desire to do everything in opposition to Jack. Perhaps, it was deeply rooted in his former traumatic experience with the AI. Or in the fact that he had always been kind of mischievous, either one of those two.

“I see you’re in a good mood today,” said Rhys, making himself a morning coffee. He couldn’t say the same thing about himself – half of the night he spent persuading himself not to bang his head on the wall until Jack left for good. As a temporary means, it was as good as anything, but certainly wouldn’t be a reliable way to get rid of the AI forever. In any case, it seems not to have worked for Rhys previously, so he had to come up with something else. Changing the prosthetics took time, and he didn’t have that precious resource at his disposal in the needed amount.

In the end, when he finally managed to fall asleep, it was at the thought that he was actually a little sorry for what happened with Jack’s hologram during their last confrontation. Despite all the evil Jack had done, he used to be a significant part of Rhys’s life and helped shape him into what he was now. Most importantly, he taught him not to trust anybody and to always swing for the fences. Now, being the CEO of Atlas, Rhys could clearly see that this strategy worked perfectly.

“Oh, by the by, I took some time to look through your files and check out this Kawatagi guy we talked about yesterday. Must say, he’s a very promising candidate. Maybe, I should’ve chosen him as my successor instead of you-know-who,” said Jack in a conspiratorial tone, stroking his chin and narrowing his eyes. “Instead of you, I’m talking about you,” he added in a normal voice.

Rhys sighed, gently lowering two sugar cubes into his coffee. Here we go again.

“First, why the heck did you rummage in my computers without my permission? Second, his name’s Katagawa, more precisely – Katagawa Junior. And a candidate for what? Wait, don’t say anything, I don’t even want to know. Now get out of my chair,” said Rhys and proceeded to try and shoo Jack away with a few careless waves of his hand.

“It’s not like you can’t sit here. I’m just a hologram, you know.”

Jack was grinning, of course. Rhys looked down at him with his tired sleepless eyes and sighed the fortieth time this morning.

“Remember when we first met, you called me weird? Now you’re the one being weird, congratulations.”

“Oh, come o-o-on, don’t be so bo-o-oring.” Jack disappeared from the chair and reappeared on the sofa, lying on his side with his head resting on his hand. “You know, I think I’ve now seen enough of you to bet with confidence that you don’t have any friends. I bet I was your closest friend (and don’t forget that I was your imaginary closest friend), ‘cause I don’t see how someone can tolerate that attitude for long.”

Don’t worry, Rhys, he won’t get to you, you’re thick-skinned now, you know that, thought Rhys and put his mug on the table. He sunk into his chair and turned on the ECHO device to check for any new messages.

“Actually, I do have friends,” he said in his best I-am-not-offended tone.

“Yeah? Anybody in particular?”

“Zer0, for example. I am proud to call him my friend and I’m sure he’s proud to be called mine.”

“Zer0, yeah… wait, who’s that again?”

Rhys rolled his eyes. Some things just never changed.

“One of the vault hunters who… took part in your elimination, so to put it,” he answered carefully.

“Oh, yeah, that filthy bandit, I remember him! Well, not him killing me, of course, but I think I saw him somewhere. Didn’t he have that mental condition? I remember him saying some gibberish instead of speaking like normal people do. Yeah, right,”–Jack laughed–“I can see you two dorks being friends.”

“How could I have survived this long without you trying to offend me all the time? Unbelievable.”

“That’s exactly what I was thinking! Or was that still your thought? I always forget I’m in your head. Anyway, to summarize our conversation so far, we’ve established that you’re a pathetic loner with only one creature in the whole world you can call a friend of sorts. You never seize to amaze me, Rhys.”

“There’s also Vaughn,” said Rhys through his teeth, beginning to lose his patience.

“And that is…?”

“You remember Vaughn, don’t you?”

“If I’m asking who that is, then, apparently, I don’t,” answered Jack, making the irritation in his voice sound as blatant as possible. “Why do you carry around that thing people call a head, huh?”

“He used to work for Hyperion with me.” Rhys threw a quick glance at Jack, looking for any sign of recognition on his face, but there was none. “Is short, wears glasses?” Still no signs. “Has a six-pack?” he said in his last desperate attempt to make Jack’s memory serve its purpose.

To his surprise, it actually worked. Jack snapped his fingers and rolled over on the sofa.

“Oh, that ne-erd, yeah, I remember him. Where’s he now?” he asked, not even trying to pretend that he really cared about the answer.

“He’s on Pandora, doing some bandit stuff. Guess he is working for the…” Rhys suddenly stopped, hastily thinking about what he had almost let out.

“For whom?” asked Jack indifferently. The answer still didn’t matter much to him, but he just couldn’t bear the thought of Rhys keeping something hidden from him.

“For the… err… for, well, you know… coughmson coughders,” replied Rhys, sounding like he was choking on something, and started loudly typing on the table, pretending that he was incredibly busy with his emails.

“What? Didn’t quite catch that.”

“Rimzon raide-ez,” indistinctly said Rhys into his fist and cleared his throat.”

“God dammit, Rhys, what the fuck are you saying there?” shouted Jack with annoyance and jerked up from the sofa. “Should I stand right behind you all the time to know what comes out of your mouth? Even your thoughts are more distinct than that.”

Perhaps, scared by the prospect of Jack constantly following him closely, even closer than he already did, Rhys gave in.

“It’s the Crimson Raiders, for god’s sake!” he yelled and landed his fist heavily on the table. He then took a deep breath to calm down and added, “He works for the Crimson Raiders. I just didn’t want to tell you.”

“O-oh. O-o-o-oh, I see how it is. He’s with team idiots now, isn’t he? Well, good to know. Now we’ve proven that all your friends are either stupid or nonexistent. Great.”

Rhys’s left eye was glowing as he was interfacing with the devices in his office. He took a sip of his coffee, scrolled down the list of new casualties reports and tried not to take what he had heard close to his heart.

“Now that I got my daily dose of humiliating you, let’s talk business,” said Jack and laced his fingers together as if he had a very profitable offer for his interlocutor. “I think we can squeeze something out of this Katamaga,” he began, and Rhys immediately exerted himself. He did not like the sound of that. “I think there’s more to him than you see. He doesn’t just want Atlas, you see, he very obviously wants you to work with him. What a fool! That’s a perfect opportunity for us to rob him of everything he has, including his pathetic corporation. I mean, I never liked Maliwan, but if it’s a gift horse… Who am I not to take it on your behalf, right?”

“I appreciate the thought you put into it, but I already have another plan, and it definitely isn’t allying with Katagawa Jr. He’s an obsessed psychopath and I don’t want anything to do with him,” replied Rhys confidently. He shivered even at the possibility of having another Jack-like associate.

“Enlighten me then. What genius idea has your corporate mind produced?”

“First, you have to promise not to yell at me. My head aches and I won’t endure any more than you already being here and talking to me,” said Rhys patiently, already predicting Jack’s reaction to what he intended to share. There was no way to keep it a secret, so he wanted to at least soften the blow.

“Yeah, whatever,” said Jack and yawned.

Rhys braced himself. Discussing this would surely be no easy matter.

“I want to make a deal with Lilith. She helps me defeat maliwans, and I give her something she wants in return.”

There was silence. Then there was a snarl and a nondescript squeal.

“WHAT. THE FUCK. ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?! MM, RHYSIE, WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN?” Jack appeared standing on Rhys’s table right before him. The sight made Rhys spit out a bunch of his coffee. “You’re joking, right?” Jack squatted down to see Rhys’s face when he spoke. “Out of a-a-all people in these 6 goddamn galaxies you choose her? I see you’ve been a very bad boy in daddy’s absence, completely out of your mind!”

Rhys raised his index finger and burbled, “You told me you won’t yell. I specifically asked you not to yell, Jack.”

“What am I supposed to do then, huh?!” Jack disappeared and in the next second was already standing at the window with his arms crossed, thoughtfully observing the Atlas soldiers running around outside. “I thought you can’t disappoint me more than you already have, but it seems like you always manage to conquer new heights.”

“Look, there’s really no point in talking about this. I’m my own boss now and this is my decision. I was the one to rebuild Atlas from ruins, so I’m sure I’ll be able to take care of it. Please, Jack, I’m tired and sick and I don’t want all this.” Rhys sighed wearily and rubbed a coffee stain on the table with the sleeve of his bathrobe.

“Okay. Okay-okay-okay-okay, hear me out. Just this one time, just once, let me tell you something.” Jack turned to Rhys and Rhys gave him a little nod after considering for a few seconds. It’s not like he really had a choice, he just liked to think he had a firm grip on the situation. “Tell me, do you remember Lilith doing something, anything for the sake of somebody else?”

“Um, yeah, she killed you, actually,” replied Rhys confidently.

“No-no-no, honey, she didn’t do it for somebody, she just wanted to have her revenge on me,” said Jack, stressing what he viewed as essential pieces of information to make sure Rhys REALLY got what he wanted to say. Were he not a hologram, he would probably be shaking with rage as he did it. “She wanted to destroy me, because I destroyed her boyfriend who just wouldn’t let me wipe those bandit asses, which, by the way, included his, off my planet. She couldn’t care less about all those people that died, about Crimson Raiders, about her other “friends”. She is a murderer, just like you, me, like any other person on that goddamn planet. The only difference is that she, unlike us, didn’t have ANY good will.”

Jack’s intense stare made Rhys turn away. AI’s words made him consider what he knew of Lilith, but he felt almost wrong when doing so. He shook his head, trying to scare the thoughts away.

“You just hate her, that’s all. She may not be the best option, but when choosing between her and Maliwan, I believe, the choice is obvious.

“Is it? Is it, though?” asked Jack furiously with his eyes almost bulging out. “Let me tell you one thing. Two things, actually. Despite how surprising it might sound to you, I’m actually happy that she killed me. You know why? Of course, you don’t, otherwise we wouldn’t have this conversation now, dummy. So, I’ll be kind enough to explain. Even after her betrayal, I didn’t finish her off, which means I am better than her. “What is the second thing, Jack?” you might ask. Well, here goes: she is a stinking bandit. A bandit, and the only thing you should do with bandits is kill them, but I’m sure this much you should know by now.” After finishing his rant, Jack exhaled loudly and adjusted his unmoving hair with a swift motion of his hand. To top his speech off, he asked, “Still better than Katagawa?”

Rhys, however, still remained unimpressed.

“Jack, he killed his entire family to become the CEO of Maliwan. I imagine you would think it’s a reasonable thing to do when you want to run the corporation so bad, but I’m sure you know I disagree with that.”

“And what do YOU know about his family?” asked Jack, clearly upset by the lack of expected reaction. “Do you even know anything about the way he runs Maliwan? The only thing I know is that now they are more successful than ever (even though I hate to say it). Use your brains, kid, and you’ll go further than you could’ve hoped. One of these two alliances will bestow endless opportunities upon you while the other one will almost certainly get you stabbed in the back.”

“I hear you. I hear you and I disagree. I’m sorry, Jack,” said Rhys and shook his head apologetically. He was already imagining what would such a start of his day lead to.

“Oh my god, how can you not see that you have more in common with him than a skag and a grinder! He sees something in you, and that something makes him crave for your favor with such persistence. Just imagine how much you can squeeze out of him if you give him the tiniest thing in return. It’s simply a gold mine!”

“He wants us to merge, that’s enough of a reason for me to refuse him,” said Rhys with utter disgust.  

“So what? Don’t worry about that, cupcake, you’ve got me, and I’m here to help. Who says we’re gonna merge?” Noticing how Rhys was shaking his head again, Jack leaned closer, trying to make the atmosphere more… companionable, and continued in a calmer voice.  “Believe me, I know that Atlas is your child and you would never sacrifice it. We’re gonna… adjust the conditions a little, little tiny bit. No merge, only the alliance. How does that sound?”

Rhys thought that Jack was once again confirming what a masterful negotiator he was. No matter what objections Rhys had, he always did his homework and learned his weaknesses. The long-forgotten feeling of a threat sitting right at his side returned to Rhys as he caught himself thinking over the possibility of allying with Maliwan. Don’t budge, Rhys, don’t let him see that you have second thoughts, he’ll eat you alive.

“Completely unachievable,” he was only able to utter.

“Come on, stop screwing around, will you? You’re wasting time with your fidelity to stupid principles. Have I ever given you any bad advice?”

Rhys chose not to say anything. It was as good an answer as any other. The leftover coffee in his mug already went cold and he frowned in disgust when sipping on it.

“Okay then, I’m beginning to grow real tired of this, so you better listen here, you little dipshit, and listen carefully…” Jack’s tone was once again peremptory and his eyes were drilling into Rhys’s soul. “I’m tryna help here, so stop pretending you’re a princess who lives in a tower filled with her little cute ponies and chooses to believe there’s no filth around her. Just do what I say and you’ll be on your road trip to success. And you’ll thank me later, believe me. If you choose not to do this, however, I’ll follow you around all the time, saying what a sore loser you are. All day, all night, Rhysie. You know me, I’m restless, and I can come up with millions of ways to make you hate your life. You won’t sleep, you won’t talk to anybody, you won’t eat your fucking lunch without me standing one centimeter away from your ear, whispering how much you suck. Now let that sink in. Once it has, give me your final answer.”

Jack’s eyes were glowing. His whole body was glowing because he was a hologram, that’s just what holograms do. Yet even though it was his permanent state, an unchangeable condition, his eyes looked different.

He really is serious, thought Rhys to himself. Well then, guess I’m going to die of starvation, sleep deprivation, and lack of human contact.

“Fuck you, Jack. Fuck. You.”

“Is that a yes?”

[chaosmultiverse]

☕, for Junior & Naoko

Katagawa Jr drank the tea.

It tasted like Sencha on a cold winter night from long ago, shared over paper work.

Heals +50

[lycanomancy]

The DeLeon Dad Debate

Based on this ask I sent this person. 

Q: Is Typhon abusive?

My personal answer: Yes. Was he meant to be? 

No way in hell. 

Typhon DeLeon is compared to Jack by some people. Here’s the thing: Jack was meant to be A: the bad guy, and B: an abusive father. Typhon? I don’t think so. 

The parells between Jack and Typhon are in the third link, so I’m skipping them. Besides, they aren’t what I’m really complaining about. I am complaining about the entire DeLeon brood. Except Troy and Leda, because they are not the players in this game. 

I recommend reading Border-Spam’s response/analysis first, because it provides more context and insight. 

The two characters I’m going in on for existing are Tyreen and Typhon. These two are the primary problems in the DeLeon lore, because the only detailed explanations for what happened comes from them. We do get Troy’s take on things on Eden-6, but he doesn’t really go in depth or beyond “Yeah, we had a hard childhood and dad didn’t make it any better.” Troy isn’t lying, unlike either Ty or Typhon could be, because he literally has no reason to. He also has no reason to be telling the player what he does - he seems like he’s venting there, after having a fight with Tyreen. 

Now, before I really get into this, abuse is the practice of hurting your children, in any way, shape or form, regardless of your actual feelings towards them. It isn’t always physical, and more importantly, an abusive parent can still feel love toward their kid. Keyword: feel love, not actually love. Typhon was an abusive parent who felt love towards his kids. I think he was supposed to, anyway.

The DeLeon Debate has two sides: Tyreen’s side, and Typhon’s. 

Typhon is implied to have doted on Tyreen multiple times, and admits that he was a terrible father. Typhon calls the Twins monsters not for Ty’s powers, but their actions. Typhon’s side is that he was a clueless father trying his best, but ultimately failing despite his best efforts and intentions. 

Tyreen is, in contradictory, implied to have been ignored in favor of taking care of Troy. It’s also canon (not in the actual game, screw you Randy) that Typhon refused to touch her after Leda’s death. Tyreen’s suspected ordeal is that, because of her distance from her father, she turned cold and out of touch with her own humanity. 

Against Typhon, we have him physically and probably emotionally neglecting his child, possibly hating or fearing her after Leda’s fridging. Border-Spam pointed out that both of the Twins believe that Typhon saw Tyreen as a monster, which hints that something happened that instilled that belief. Probably the “No hug for you” thing. Also, TYPHON LITERALLY CALLS THEM MONSTERS IN GAME. Just a thought. Troy apparently wasn’t spared either, saying that Typhon thought he was a freak - and the little amount of concern when he learns of his son’s death supports this. 

Against Tyreen, we have...

Nothing to do with her relationship with her father. A lot against her as a person, but in regard to who was the problem in the family? Everything points to Typhon. 

So, we sided with and hero-ified an abuser. 

Remember Borderlands 2? When the bad guy was abusive to his daughter and it was like, the real reason you had to kill him? Like, everything else he had done didn’t matter, he had to die because he was an abusive dad? 

I don’t even know how to explain or justify or figure out how the hell this happened. I don’t know what went through the writing team’s head. I can’t tell you what they tried ot do - I can only tell you what they messed up.

They tried to make every single character sympathetic. 

Example: Katagawa is, arguably, the better-written villain in BL3, just because he’s entertaining and consistent as a character. However, this is one of the examples of the writers trying to make everything angsty. 

His name. His name is Junior Katagawa, or reversed, whichever way. We never learn what the ‘junior’ part is. This is because the writers wanted to make him look and feel insignificant. Tyreen mocks him during that quest on Skywell by calling him Junior. They tried to take his individuality away from him by making him a pawn of his father and the company. 

The bar code on his neck. The thing with that was to demonstrate how little Maliwan cared about it’s employees. But Katagawa isn’t an employee, he’s the head of Mergers and the next in line to inherit the company. It’s another attempt at devaluing him as a person. 

Finally, we have the fact that, apparently, Katagawa has so little ability in friendship that the entire Atlas-Maliwan war was because he wanted to be friends with Rhys, and befriending him by force was the only way how. 

That’s all fine and dandy, but did we need that? Why couldn’t he have just been a spoiled Daddy’s Money baby? He already is in game, because none of the things I listed are actually mentioned or are barely hinted at. What was the point? 

Sympathy. Sympathy was the point. 

Ava? No one likes her, but you’re supposed to because ~her parents died~ and you need to feel sympathy for her. 

What they did with Typhon and Tyreen, was that they started by making Ty’s Sympathy Points based of of an abusive, negligent father. You could kinda get her if you thought about it. Jack was implied to be abused, too. 

Tyreen could have been brushed off as just lying to you, but when Troy comes in and confirms it without any drama or flair, just quiet, awkward, and shy? Their backstory is an abused one and you can’t argue against it. 

Then Typhon comes in. 

When Typhon comes in, the writers have to undo and reverse all the damage against his name and parenting skills. Someone realized they can’t make an alleged abusive father look like a good guy, so they make him admit he was bad and hope for the best. They tried so, so hard to give Typhon Sympathy points that they ended with a merry-go-round of He-Said-She-Said where neither Typhon nor Tyreen come out sympathetic. Tyreen comes out a manipulative brat who abused her brother, and Typhon as an abusive, pig-headed egomaniac, and you can’t find anything likable about either. 

I think Typhon was meant to be a bad father - I don’t think he was meant to be abusive. My bet is that the writers went overboard trying to make the Twins sympathetic, and when they added Typhon to the story, realized that they couldn’t make the player side with an abuser and get away without scathing criticism.