#rhys;

[rowanendsley]

gallagher goes greek - 21/?

rhys cromwell as narcissus 

@cromwxll

[companywrath]

[the realization, with Rhys as a human and Jack as an immortal AI, that Rhys was going to die someday and Jack was going to be around to see it was a big part of his decision to try to skin Rhys alive and wear his skin like a puppet at the end of Tales.

A pinch of "I don't want to get attached to you because then it's going to hurt when you die (I know I'm already attached or I wouldn't be worrying about this but I can at least avoid getting more attached)"

And a large serving of "I have lost so many loved ones and it's the feeling of helplessness and lack of control that gets me more than anything; I decide when Rhys dies, it happens on my terms"]

[companywrath]

People Jack either dated in canon or expressed attraction towards

[companywrath]

[A lot of people want to characterize Jack as a bad guy who does bad things just for fun and I feel like that directly contradicts canon. He's not the fucking Joker. He felt that all of his actions were justified. He has line in canon where he says "everyone thinks they're the hero of their own story." He has always been trying to do the right thing, or at least he started out trying to do the right thing.

He genuinely wanted to clean up Pandora and make it a safe place for people to live. He wanted to kill the people making it unsafe, the people who would shoot you in the back just for fun or to steal a couple dollars out of your pocket, and civilians ended up as casualties. A lot of that was "70% of the people in this town are criminals, it's worth it to just blow the whole thing off the map," and a lot of it was jumping to solutions without addressing the root of the problem. If people are killing to get scraps to eat, address the fact that they don't have access to food or money to afford it- Jack viewed it all very black and white, if people are killing for any reason, kill them before they can strike again. He tried to rule through fear, punishment, and intimidation because he felt it was the quickest way to achieve his fairly altruistic goal.

The thing is, his goal was never rooted in empathy, and that's why it's been so easy for him to not notice or care about the innocent people getting hurt in the process. It's always been rooted in a selfish need to have people go "You changed my life, Jack! You saved me! You made a difference! You matter!" which is definitely rooted in his upbringing. Which isn't to say he was doomed from the start or that he had to be this way because of the abuse in his childhood; What I'm saying is that if he'd been more introspective and taken some time to look at his own motivations instead of constantly just plowing straight ahead without pause, this could've been avoided.

I really don't think he fully understood that he had, at some point, turned into the bad guy until his death. He was trapped alone with his thoughts for years and had a lot of chances to reflect. Which brings us to Rhys. He's very conflicted about Rhys; all he's really certain about is that Rhys is important. Rhys and him are very similar; ambitious programmers who want to do something more with their lives. He sees a lot of himself in Rhys and it's extra easy to live vicariously through him when Jack is living in his head.

He desperately wants Rhys to fail. If Rhys fails just as hard as Jack did, then it's evidence that it wasn't Jack's fault. That the odds are stacked against them. That anyone in his position would've responded the exact same way that he did and it wasn't his fault.

He desperately wants Rhys to succeed. Rhys is his do over. If he can guide Rhys to success, it's like he's succeeded. He can take credit. Rhys only succeeded because of his help. He got it right on his second try. 

Rhys is Jack's whole universe, everything's riding on him. And Rhys is just trying to survive. He did not sign up for Jack's mid-afterlife crisis but here he is.]

[companywrath]

[Jack's relationship with Rhys in my main verse, taking place after Tales, is complicated.

Rhys wouldn't be alive if not for Jack helping him from inside his head, and Jack wouldn't be alive if not for Rhys letting him hitchhike up there. They shared a body for awhile, and there's no coming back from that level of intimacy. Jack completely, 100%, thinks of Rhys as his property, and, to a degree, as an extension of himself.

Plan A back on Helios was to skin Rhys and wear his body like a suit. When that failed, plan B became to kill Rhys and himself. He doesn't like the concept of one of them existing without the other at this point. But, he's also not wildly manic in the burning rubble of everything he'd spent his life working for anymore, so the murder/suicide thing is being put on the back burner. The necessity of a skin suit, and the ability for Rhys to really get the upper hand on him if he's allowed autonomy, sort of disappears now that Jack has his own body again. So, for now, he's letting Rhys live.

After the deaths of Angel and Nisha, whatever complexes he already had from his first wife's death were only amplified. He's extremely hesitant to get emotionally attached to anyone new, but he also hates not receiving attention. Fortunately, Rhys already has a season pass to the shit show; Jack isn't risking anything new by continuing to engage with someone he's already attached to. Rhys is currently more useful to him alive than dead.

But, it does depend on the day. Sometimes Rhys tests his patience more than other times. Some days he seriously considers killing him, and he makes sure Rhys is well aware that a temporary truce doesn't mean he's safe forever.

For now, he allows Rhys to live his life and remain in control of the Atlas company. It's smaller than Hyperion and not a real competitor; it's like letting your kid play with plastic tools to keep them entertained while you're doing the real work. He can have his shitty little wannabe-Hyperion and keep himself busy. There's also an element of outsourcing; if Rhys does all the work of growing Atlas into a serious competitor, Jack fully intends to take it over and turn it into a subsidiary of Hyperion.

For now, Jack keeps a close eye on Rhys, and calls his echo communicator to ramble whenever he gets bored.]

[rowanendsley]

Did Rowan think this was a good idea? Absolutely. Was it because she was coming from a place of anger and not one of rational thought? Definitely. Of course, she would have to face the consequences later, but she wasn’t even thinking about any of that now. She had one thing on her mind, and it led her to none other than Caden Lucca’s dormitory. 

For once, though, she wasn’t there for him. 

Banging on the door, she waited to be answered. She put on her best smile when the door opened and it was Rhys who answered. “Just the man I was looking for,” she admitted, reaching out and pushing him inside the dorm and shutting the door behind her.

@cromwxll​