By the way jack being just a slight bit shorter than rhys is the best or even noticeably shorter its just great.
Cause jack would totally have a problem with it. He would be offended that this fuckin bean stalk from programming is taller than him. How dare this fucker be taller- and hes even wearing heels to make himself even taller. Jack feels threatened standing next to him bc it makes jack look like a tiny beefcake and rhys is a tall stick.
He confronts rhys about it as if its gonna change anything- like rhys would actually be willing to slouch to make himself shorter. He goes to rhys and hes all like “how dare you be tall” and “you make me look like a tiny beefcake” and “you cant be taller than me wtf”
rhys is confused by it for a sec but then hes like “i thought big things came in small packages” and winks and jack fuckin turns red and somehow becomes even more offended bc not only is this kid taller than him, hes better at flirting too.
Rhys working as Jack’s PA and being a little ass-kisser, trying to make jack respect him enough to give him a raise to something that maybe isnt a PA, bc rhys went from middle manager to PA and it sucks
He kisses ass whenever but he also walks next to jack when following him places. He sits to jack’s right in meetings, and gives his input even if hes just a PA. Whenever Jack teases him or belittles him or just does something stupid, Rhys speaks up. Jack /is/ impressed when the little shit talks back cause theres literally only like 4 people who have lived after sassing handsome jack. It might excite him just a little bit
It might excite him when Rhys gets close to him and their shoulders brush or when he walks some papers over to jacks desk for him to sign and he leans forward over the desk just a smidge and jack can look down his shirt and see a little glimpse of a blue tattoo. It might excite him when rhys chides him the next day when the papers arent signed and rhys has this cute little angry pout.
Rhys just wants a raise, and when Jack starts hitting on him he flirts right back. He wears pants that are just a little tight around his ass, leaves the top buttons on his shirt open more often, gives jack sly little looks. When jack blows him a kiss he might feel his heart flutter. He might make dirty innuendos at jack in public, making jack speechless for a moment and it feels better than a raise because he made the almighty handsome jack speechless.
There might be rumors in every branch of the company about them being a couple and not being open about it. Theres definitely rumors that they’re fucking. Every time someone catches Rhys giving jack The Eyes or hear jack call Rhys a pet name, a new trash article is posted about the budding romance between the ceo and his assistant yada yada yada
They start fake-dating. They’re Hyperion’s power couple. They’re in the news all the time for stupid shit like “jack took Rhys to dinner ooooh are they gonna get engaged soon??!?” And yet at the same time having the two of them in a meeting is literally the scariest thing for everyone else in the room bc they both radiate pure authority and dominance.
They play footsie under the table during meetings and are too occupied with eye-fucking each other to notice anything happening around them
I’m sure someone has talked about this before, but I don’t know why it never occurred to me that Fiona and LB almost certainly know that Rhys kept the eye (in a universe where he did).
How much would admitting that have cost him, that he held on to the ghost of the man that tried to murder him and succeeded in causing the deaths of more people than we can accurately count? The ghost of one of (likely the) most powerful men in the universe?
Imagine the suspicion and the pity and the hatred and the compassion and the determination to help Rhys let go of this self-destructive, dangerous bit of technology that would come of all the different decisions Rhys has made with these two and how much they trust Rhys. Imagine the way it could have spun out into their treatment of him after they get to the downed Helios.
Hell, it would give Fiona a reason to be upset with a Rhys who was her friend that wasn’t just “you’re crushing on my sister.” (Still doesn’t make any sense if you crush the eye, but hey, progress)
Maybe the fact that Fiona and LB never bring it up is enough to prove that we were looking at the game’s narrative rather than Rhys’s, but the game /did/ spend the entire first episode telling us that they can distort their story as they see fit, so it seems a waste to just accept that explanation.
The alternative, that Fiona and LB think Rhys is a ticking time bomb of self-destructive behavior and start taking measures to help or stop him or just leave him alone based on how much they like him and the player’s decisions, is /way/ more entertaining.
TheSpaceCoyote 