#rhack? maybe

[kitkat578]

Jack is back!

flats under cut

[victorstoleyourorgans]

and ken

[krotiation]

i haven't seen anyone make rhys a bard in a fantasy au which is a crime frankly so i had to draw it... plus necromancer jack bc duh

[phenikas]

Part II

Click here for Part I

[phanztombzz]

More tales crap

[vole-mon-amour]

I don't know how to Google this and how to tag this, but can someone please recommend me a piece of media where the protagonist (probably more or less an average and good person, definitely sane and understands good from wrong) is canonically a good/best friend with the villain?

The protagonist doesn't want to kill the villain, nor do they want to fix them. The protagonist sees the villain's point and either thinks they're right or that whatever they're doing is kinda fun, why not let them and maybe even join them? They genuinely love their friend and aren't working with them because it'll help to save the world or whatever.

Think Batman and Joker (just like in Batman: Europa, Bat Jokes :). Think of Telltale's Batman where you can team up with Joker (a vanilla version of that, but still). Think of Bruce and Jeremiah, but Bruce loves even the post gas version of him.

Think Handsome Jack and Rhys ("I wanted to be just like him."), but Rhys teams up with Jack (and they're in love actually)

Think Pagan Min with Ajay that didn't leave at the beginning of the game, brought his mother's ashes where she wanted to be, and he's going to have a lot of fun shooting others with Pagan.

Think Joseph Seed and The Judge in FCND, except that The Judge came villingly and wanted to help.

Think of a vampire hunter that actually befriends the vampire they're supposed to kill and joins them. (Kinda Castlevania Netflix, but I want a more evil version. Like Isaac. "Because you all are so fucking rude!" Like Dracula. Yes, kings.)

I don't need two insane freaks. I want a sane person who shrugs and goes, "Why not?" And then joins their best friend who's the villain (that's maybe been right all along).

PLEASE recommend me media like that. I'll take books, TV shows, movies, VIDEO GAMES (!!! befriending the villain? let's go!). The hero saving the day? The hero fucking up the day and enjoying it!!

[quietwingsinthesky]

like not to turn into a rhack blog for a minute (holy shit this game came out in 2014, does anyone even still ship these two) but. Extremely gay for a guy to try and take over your body, trap you in the crashing space station you’ve sentenced him to die in, insert himself back into your skull just for a chance to choke you out even if it means killing himself in the process, and then get on his knees begging you not to kill him again.

[kidsomeday]

I would like You're Nobody Til Somebody Wants You Dead as a cat/writer treat please (love that visual for a writer!) Good luck with NaNo!

The reference to NaNo does tell you how long this ask has been lurking in my inbox, but here I am as promised, offering this piece of writing like a cat with a dead mouse. It may not be what you wanted to see on your doorstep, but I trot of please with myself regardless.

-

The next day was a blur of menacing various board members, pitting different factions of R&D against each other to keep them occupied (at this point it was practically enrichment), and making travel arrangements. If Rhys noticed that Jack was acting distant and more on edge than normal he did not comment. He kept the pistol though, which was good. Whatever emotional issues he was currently refusing to process Jack did appreciate having Rhys wear two of his weapons at his hip. Their relationship was nowhere near public but it satisfied the possessive itch in Jack’s psyche to see Rhys bear some mark of his power and influence. The fact that it was weaponry just made it even better. 

He pushed down the thought that the person Rhys most needed to protect himself from was Jack himself, and focused on just how hot it was when he causally yet pointedly rested a hand on the pistol if someone got too mouthy.

[snailmp3]

Timothy Lawrence finds his soulmate, unfortunately his contract with Handsome Jack means he doesn't get the happy ending he hoped for.

suprise! im a multi shipper! here have some tim/rhys angst-with-a-happy-ending ♡

[infinitybits87]

Really thinking hard about that “Rhys and Jack’s personalities merging together” idea and it’s got me so intrigued.

I love the idea of both of them kind of noticing it happening and being powerless to stop it while stuck together on Pandora. God they would both hate what it’s doing to them.

Maybe once they get back to Helios Jack manages to get out of Rhys’ head and into a body but a lot of Rhys is sticking around and the sanity/empathy/humanity is confusing and uncomfortable for Jack and making it hard for Jack to do what “needs to be done” (eg tie up loose ends and just freaking kill Rhys already)

And not that Rhys doesn’t already have some badass qualities normally but having a little extra Jack in him would make him much more ruthless and capable of dealing with Jack’s bullshit (particularly a Jack that’s been mellowed with a little normality)

My little Rhack loving heart also says this is good for your relationship possibilities. Reduces outright murder chance when you both care about the same things.

And Like @caffeinatedowlbear said that is kind of the Rhys we got in BL3 and (however much I don’t want to think about any the rest of it) the Rhys in new tales. He really does seem like a middle point between Rhys in tales and Handsome Jack. I don’t believe that’s what gearbox intended but I can DREAM okay?

[shinakazami1]

Give me a 12, 13 and 22 for rhys, soldier 🫵

FELLOW RHYS ENJOYER (krotiation I LOVE YOUR ART TOO SM GAAAAH THIS FANDOM HAS SUCH GREAT ARTISTS)

12. What's the funniest or craziest AU idea you've ever come up with?

I have in total, three AUs I have to finally write anything for fhasfsa (I do plan on posting Tales AU first chapter this week tho!!). 1) RHYS AI AU is something you saw me post snippets of - in general, it's an alternative version of Borderlands 2, where Jack kills Lilith and Roland very quickly and survives. Due to mourning for Nisha, Wilhelm and Angel, he one day writes code for a companion based on an imaginary friend he had but also, gives him some trait of each one of those he misses. While Rhys was going to slowly become the silly personality we know and love, this was my typical 'give the character therapy when they don't want it, and end up with them hurting someone else and trying to change'. 2) JUST WING IT AU is my Tales AU that starts with changes in ep 5, with how Rhys handles the news about Jack wanting to get that exoskeleton in him and focusing on exploring Jack's loneliness and adding him as the third character, making sort of second season for the game. The additional driving point would be that Loader Bot would be able to grab Gortys and run off with her, so the search for Vault would become longer Yet the AU I really hope to start exploring in the future, is this one: 3) Loss of what once happened but never before AU. It's a Borderlands 3 Rhack au that would focus on Rhys finding out he is a siren with huge time-travelling powers and the costs that come with it. He would turn back in time, when Jack was still known as John during the nights, and watch some of the consequences happen in the present during the day. He doesn't know though just how strong the butterfly effect will be...

13. What's a character or ship you haven't written/drawn yet but would like to someday?

Characters: Timothy, Angel, Nisha, Zer0, Katagawa, Axton, Moxxi, Lilith, Roland

Ships: Rhysothy, Rhack, JackxNisha, MoxxixTimothy, Rhysagawa, Axton x Turret (cus she is my wife I luv her)

(The list prob isn't finished cus I still have to finish playing the second game and play the third one oifhaiof)

22. Give us headcanons for Rhys

He actually likes fashion and likes casual official style in general.

He has a sweet tooth but pretends to like spicy food in college.

He actually had a heterochromia before the echo eye and decided to keep it.

He admired Jack a bit but he laughed at psycho fans, as he has some critical thinking.

Even a few years after getting Atlas running again, he still tries to make some guns himself, even if he doesn't have as much time.

He was the one dumped by his ex girlfriend even if he didn't like their dynamic because he was actually scared nobody else would be into him.

He spends a lot of time in the morning preparing his hair. It's quite wavy which gets visible in wetter climates but fortunately for him, he lives mostly in dry ones.

He met Katagawa and at first, couldn't believe he had a fan even if he had some boosted ego but felt something off about him. He turned off an invitation to Zanara because he still thinks about his talk with Vaughn about being good at faking cool. That's why he is even more awkward in future games, since while chasing the younger years, he wants to show he matured, hoping that maybe that will bring Sasha back. That's also why he got the moustache - to show he is becoming more serious. Which fails miserably.

He seemed the most confident in his new Atlas CEO stage because he had to look like it. There was nobody else to help him at the time, so he tried his best to do what he had done - acted the plan out.

He still imagines his plans the same way he did in Tales - with fantasies.

[the-cpu-system]

Guys if I did a dtiys would anyone participate !! And should it be just Jack, or something like Rhack, or maybe even my oc !! Heeeelp !!!

[caffeinatedowlbear]

A Rhack plot that bumped into my head this morning. Up for adoption as my writing schedule is packed with the L&F multiverse (and probably that Devil Wears Prada AU that just won't let me go).

Here's the setup.

Hyperion has a corporate social network called Hype. Participation mandatory for all employees, obviously. Jack's official account is run by his PR team (Meg does the copy, Tim does the visuals). Same goes for Jack's 'personal' account.

Jack browses Hype from time to time, though (you've got to read something on the toilet, once you've run out of competitor quarterly financials), and seriously, you wouldn't believe how much people talk about stuff they shouldn't. Most of it is drivel, but in the end, it's less about what they say than how they're saying it. Minutiae are irrelevant. But attitude speaks to character, character predicts action, and if said action is likely to be an attempted stab in Jack's back, wouldn't it be great to know in advance?

Enter a small digital army of bots. There are surveyors, which track user sentiment over time and flag any particularly egregious whining or seditious talk. And there are provocateurs, which, posing as real people, inject anti-Hyperion/anti-Jack messages into various conversations and track the response. (Agree with/upvote them one time too many, and you'll end up on the Most Likely to Get Airlocked Next list. Argue against them too often and too passionately, and you'll end up investigated just in case you're a spy that's trying too hard.)

The system works pretty well. A bunch of whiners get canned, a few traitors get executed, the margin of error is minimal, and no-one suspects a thing. Until one day, Jack's informed that some no-name from Data Mining is demanding--yeah, demanding!--a personal meeting with him. Says he has strong evidence of an anti-Hyperion internal conspiracy, and will only speak to Jack himself about it. (Does not back down in the face of threats of being fired from Hyperion or from the moonshot cannon.)

So Jack takes the meeting. (At 3:30 am on a Saturday.) Thirty seconds into the long-legged kid's rambling about a wide-scale infiltration of algorithm-driven bots into Hyperion's social network, it's obvious exactly what's going on. And what's going on is, some entry-level loser has figured out his, Jack's, brilliant design, and he's got a board full of pins and digital red string to show it.

The obvious solution would be to shoot him in the head here and now. But damn, if he really did figure the whole thing out on his own, it feels wrong to let such a brain (and the face attached to it) go to waste...

P.S. Obviously, Jack's provocateurs' posts are written by an 'AI' writing thingamajig, because, pff, who's got the time? And now the kid is standing here and explaining how it's actually easy to see that all those bot posts were automatically generated, once you know the patterns to look for. The fricking nerve of this noodle. Maybe he should just shoot him and get it over with.

[phenikas]

"Mornin', pumpkin."

Rhack Week 2023 | Day 1 - Early Morning

Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6

[owlbearwrites]

WIP Wednesday (24/07, part 2)

Catching up with last week's asks!

All snippets from Shadows, a Borderlands/Don't Starve crossover, heavily Rhack-centric, but also featuring Angel!

CW: non-graphic, but violent fistfight

@eriquin

“Uh. ‘evening, kiddo.” Jack raises a hand in a tentative greeting. The next thing he knows, there is a fist flying into his face. “Whoa!” Jack ducks out of the way of the punch, just in time for Rhys’s attack to land a glancing blow on his shoulder instead of crashing straight into his jaw. “Hey, hey, we don’t need to—UGH!” Before he can finish the sentence, Rhys spins around and slams a fist into his stomach. This one lands dead on, causing Jack to drop his bag and double over. He coughs, or tries to, to get his breath back.

@1attheedge

“Okay… okay!” he manages, one hand thrust in front of him, palm open and, hopefully, placating. “I deserved—kheh—that one. But can we—ow—talk now? Maybe?” Rhys closes the distance between them, grabs the lapels of Jack’s coat and drags him upright so their faces are level, and only a few inches apart. “I’ve heard enough of your goddamned talking,” he hisses, teeth baring into a snarl, “for a goddamned lifetime!”

@scifikimmi

There’s nothing Jack can do to evade the next hit. Except squeeze his eyes shut and then, a second later, try not to bite his own tongue off as he hits the ground. His teeth haven’t even stopped rattling from the impact yet when Rhys is upon him, landing punches without rhyme or reason. Twenty years ago, Jack would’ve been able to give as good as he was getting; the way things are, his best bet is dodging what hits he can, blocking the ones he can’t, and hoping that Rhys will tire himself out before any teeth get knocked out, or bones broken.

@aparticularbandit

A few poorly-timed blocks later, Jack is reconsidering his strategy, as Rhys appears to have all the energy and ferocity of a rabid squirrel. Not to mention that he—rather unsportingly!—definitely does not shy away from using his still-animated prosthetic arm just as much as the real one. “Hey!” Jack snarls, barely managing to catch a blow from the wooden knuckles on his arm instead of chin. “I was the one who put magic into that blasted arm of yours, you little shit!” He uses a momentary pause in Rhys’s attack to grab the arm in question. “How about some goddamned professional courtesy, huh?”

@post-and-out

“Oh, where are my fucking manners?” Rhys spits. He yanks his arm free and grabs Jack by his front again. “You want my thanks, Carter? Here it comes! This”—he slams Jack’s shoulders into the ground—“is for teaching me how to make infernal machinery that almost killed me! This”—a short lift, another slam—“is for giving me the unique opportunity to go on an expedition that has actually killed me, at least three times! This—” “Fine!” Jack tries to pry Rhys’s hands off of him. “You’ve made your point! Enough is enough.” “Oh, you don’t get to tell me when enough is enough, Carter.” Rhys shakes his head, nostrils flared. “You don’t get to tell me anything anymore. We’ll be done when I say we’re done! And I still haven’t decided if you’ll even still be alive by that point!”

@lizhly

”Okay.” Jack holds out his hands, palms out. “You want to keep yelling at me, fine. You want to keep whaling on me, even though by this point you’re just beating on an old man? Fine. But may I suggest we take this closer to the fire? Because the light is going, fast, and at this rate, even if you kill me, you won’t live long enough to enjoy it.” “Oh, don’t give me this crock!” Rhys scowls. “‘You’ve got to stay out of the darkness, kiddo’, ‘there are powerful beings in this realm, kiddo’,” he sing-songs, in a terrible imitation of Jack. “That only worked when I didn’t know that the powers, and the monsters, and the darkness, and everything I was supposed to be afraid of in this nightmare land is all just your DAUGHTER!”

@madnessfromthemountains

“You… you’ve met Angel?” Jack raises himself on an elbow. “When did you see her? Is she alright?” Rhys stares down at him with an expression that suggests Jack has grown at least three extra heads, but lacks the brain to fill even the original one. “Yes, I’ve met her. But judging from your questions, I’m not sure you have. How could she not be alright? She is some kind of shadow… goddess!”

@adhdavinci

Jack winces. Then winces again, because it hurts to wince. “It’s… more complicated than that, kid. Believe it or not, there are still things here that you don’t under—” A fist smacks into Jack’s jaw without a warning. “What the hell?” “No, go on.” Rhys gives him a poison-tipped smile. “Tell me more about all the mysteries of this realm that I still don’t understand. Starting with your darling Angel. Incredible name, by the way. Just perfect to fool saps like me into believing she’s a poor little girl who needs help. Was it your idea, or did she choose it herself?”

@enigma-the-mysterious

A cold pit opens in Jack’s stomach, and is filled with lava immediately after. His hand moves so fast, he only registers it when his fist is buried in Rhys’s side. Caught entirely off-guard, Rhys coughs out a muffled ‘urk’ and topples sideways. Jack shoves him off the rest of the way and pulls himself to his feet. Once he’s up, he looks down on Rhys. The young man, still a bit stunned, gawks up at him. “Her mother picked the name,” Jack says. Then he turns around and walks towards the dying fire.

[vole-mon-amour]

"Chick's got taste. Except for one thing." "Whats that?" "The way she looks at you. Don't pretend you haven't noticed. Makes you all mushy inside. I can feel it."

Johnny, I would rather romance you, Rogue, and Kerry at the same time than Judy again. (And I don't mean it as a bad thing, it's that no, Judy doesn't make me feel all mushy. :) And her diving quest makes me very anxious.) I'd romance Evelyn, too, that would be interesting. I'd even try to romance So Mi.

Basically, I'm into all the non-romanceable options and not into the romanceable ones. Kerry would've been my thing if the developers didn't fuck him and all other bisexual players over. (But fret not, I'll try modding when I finish the game. This V is for Kerry for sure. Maybe for Johnny. Or maybe I'll use my first and main V for that. For now I'm more curious about Kerry. Oh, but this V with Rogue... 🤤😍)

Also, I still can't get over the fact that both Johnny and V share feelings. Seizure? Food? Pleasure? It goes both ways. Sure, there's a lag ("Takes a while before I know you burned the roof of your mouth"), but I still see Rhack in them. Same concept.

Which also leads us to: they no longer give you the option to either smoke or not smoke after saving Evelyn? (I'm not actually sure when this was added, but since I remember the first patches and played my first run a long time ago, that option was there & I miss it. I think it was better at giving you the option to role-play.)

Is this the game they wanted to create in the first place? That V takes on Johnny's addictions and bad habits and partly his personality this fast?

Because V starts smoking and merges with him VERY fast, at the time Johnny's still getting used to V and tries to figure her out (while in the beginning V clearly states she doesn't smoke & saving Evelyn is not that far from the beginning of the main plot quests. Like, I'm literally lvl 19 rn, it's nothing compared to how high you can climb that ladder.)

Plus, "Once I start something, I don't quit." That is LITERALLY Johnny. That is such an audible, loud nod towards Johnny and his personality. How he called Kerry a pussy because, well, "he didn't have the guts to go through" with his suicide attempt while Johnny went on a suicide mission just like that.

Lastly, there's this thing:

"Becoming Johnny Silverhand means absorbing his memories, his goals and his insanity. Long before you're wiped, you'll stop being 'you'."

I try reading how the relationship with Johnny levels up & it's very curious.

She becomes him, he becomes her, they swipe their treats and personalities. She makes him feel calmer, more understood, and safer to the point that he can drop all the pretense around her and speak up his mind and feelings.

Again, I think about Johnny in the Temperance ending and post Phantom Liberty talk A LOT.