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Applications
APPLICATIONS
Since the game is in the closing process, applications are permanently CLOSED.
Reserves are currently CLOSED.
Please be sure to review our FAQ, rules, and taken page!
Player Cap: 38/60
Please note that reserves only hold the character for you to apply with. Should all player slots be filled before the end of the scheduled application round, applications will close at that time. Due to the limited number of player slots, revision requests will be given a 24 hour window for re-submission.
To submit your application during an open round, copy and paste it directly in a comment here. If your application exceeds the character length, please only use one top-level and reply to it with as many comments as needed.
Please title your comments in the following format:
CHARACTER NAME | CANON | RESERVED/NOT RESERVED
Player
Name:
Age:
Contact:
Preferred Pronouns:
Other Characters: If this is your second character, please list your first here.
Character
Name: Please include any known aliases as well.
Age:
Memory Option: (1, 2, 3 -- see HERE for more information).
Established Status: Y/N. If yes, please state for how long (up to five years, more information can be found here) and detail briefly what they've been doing since they've come to Overjoyed. Please note that no memory regains will be possible prior to game-start: this option is only available to allow you to better establish your character and their potential organizations/business/etc.
Canon:
Canon Point:
Citizenship: Please review the settings guide and job guide, as not all characters will have citizenship. This will be very important for plot events and will not be easily changed once accepted, so consider your options carefully.
Job: See our jobs, FAQ, and culture pages for more information. Who they work for--whether it's The Company, The RAC, or another option, will have a significant impact on their daily lives. The most important thing to bear in mind is that the job should make sense for the character--we probably wouldn't have Gundam Wing's Heero become a pastry chef (though that would be its own level of awesome), and likewise, Ash Ketchum probably isn't suited for biomedical engineering.
* Level: For characters who are applying as members of the RAC, please state the level you believe is the most logical starting point for them. Keep in mind that no one begins higher than a level 4.
Abilities: For an overview of how your character's canon powers can translate to Overjoyed, please review the FAQ, powers guide and/or hit up the brainstorming meme where a mod will be happy to work with you. In short, we will only be nerfing those abilities deemed game-breaking, but will require that magical abilities translate into more scifi iterations of themselves. Additionally, you will need to classify your abilities between minor and major and explain why you chose that classification. Minor abilities will be available from day one, but major abilities can only be regained through AC purchases.
This section should also include any standard physical or mental abilities that are noteworthy about your character.
Personality: We expect this section to be thorough and as comprehensive as possible. While we understand that the nature of an AU-bending game will skew a canon personality, we ask that you refrain from heavy use of headcanon and, in the instances where you do use it, provide your logic and reference canon to back it up. Things to consider in this section: How do they react to conflict? What are their strongest traits and their weakest points? In their worst moments, what are they like? How about when they're at their best? We want to see well-rounded characters--no one is perfect and no one is completely flawed.
CRAU: Yes or no. If yes, please provide a brief summary of the world setting they're coming from, the developments and/or formative experiences that occurred during the time they were there, and a link to the game's main navigation page.
AU History: This is the section where you will blend the world setting with your character's original history. Because we realize that this isn't the easiest task, we want to make it as painless--and as fun--as possible. If you're struggling for ideas, please don't hesitate to hit up the brainstorming meme. Your history does not need to mirror canon precisely--some things just won't translate well at all, but try to stay as true to the original path as you can. The people tasked with rewriting your character's memory would try to align it as closely to true experiences as they could.
Original History:
If canon: A wiki link is sufficient as long as it covers the pertinent details and pertains to the specific universe in which you're pulling your character from (anime, manga, game, etc).
If OC: Please provide a detailed account of their life and general world setting of their original universe. If possible, try to limit this section to no more than 1000 words, but know that this is more of a general guideline for your moderators' sanity than unbending rule (so if you feel that you need to write more to convey important details, we understand).
Inventory: Items that your character had on their person at the time of leaving their universe will be permitted, though some may change form when entering Overjoyed to suit the environment (i.e., if you had a magical pocketwatch, it would probably look slightly different now.) For application purposes, please list any items within their possession at the canon point you'll be taking them from, and describe any changes the items will undergo.
Samples: Please provide either (A) a sample written within the game verse or (B) two threads, only one of which may be network, wherein at least one is set within game verse (i.e., tdm).
Miscellaneous Notes: Is there anything you would like the mods to consider that didn't quite fit into the above sections? For original characters, please note your PB here. Otherwise, feel free to add anything pertinent that didn't quite fall into the above categories.
RHYS | BORDERLANDS | reserved
Player
Name: Dolly
Age: 27
Contact:
Preferred Pronouns: She/her
Character
Name: Rhys
Age: 28
Memory Option: 1, deteriorating.
Established Status: Yes. Rhys has been in the Quad for 4 years doing the Rich Relative thing and generally being a sub-par human being.
Canon: Borderlands
Canon Point: End of Episode 5: The Vault of the Traveller (After entering the Vault)
Citizenship: Qreshi
Job: High-level, zero-importance Trophy Position at The Company. Aka Senior Vice-President of Westerlyn Resource Acquisition & Management Inquiries.
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.
He does have some pretty sweet tech in his cybernetics though!
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 Rjhys 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 in canon).
Personality:
Rhys is not a Good Person, but then again 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 robots with AIs, so that should really say something. Borderlands is not a series about Good Guys doing Good Things but in fact one of "People are Doing Things to Kill For Money or Power Pretty Much Most of the Time," and Rhys is no different in that regard. Actually he pretty much just fits right in.
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 mine deals for his own gain and even went so far as to orchestrate a little corporate revenge on a company rival named Vasquez following a stolen promotion which resulted in "three years of wasted effort" when his former boss was vented into space. That was pretty much to the extent that Rhys was broken up about that before he decided he was going to screw Vasquez over by stealing his deal. 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.
So yeah Rhys isn't exactly a great person. He's willing to do whatever it takes to get ahead barring outright murder for a position, 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 ExperienceTM, 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. Greed and a want for the money and power that come with that sort of status drive Rhys in the beginning of the game. 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 and mass-murder, 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 (read: uploads an AI of him into his brain and almost gets murdered by him). 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 is 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 blaming the whole thing on 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, even tries to relate to her a little bit. Which may or may not have to do with a slight crush on her but the point is that yeah, Rhys kinda sucks. 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 August and his goons and Rhys grows attached. Fiona calls him a friend and Rhys looks surprised and touched as all hell. So I guess it's more accurate to say that he's vain jerk with more of a gooey center to him than you'd expect. But that's also because he's a giant nerd no matter how he tries to portray himself as the Cool Company Man.
Yes, 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 at the mention that Zer0 might fight the Vault monster alongside him and Gortys, Rhys is mostly concerned about getting to sit next to him. And getting told he did well?? "Ohhh my god, thank you"--yeah. This loser gets it bad.
I mean sure Rhys is good at his job. But he also initially has no idea how his stun baton works (but he remarks that it looks neat), no idea how to work Loader Bot initially, shoves a random ID drive into his head and electrocutes himself, and often forgets that he even 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 a aspiring businessman but in practice he's more like a dorky businessman whose idea of intimidating his rival is "I could be creeping up, behind you and" while stuttering and fumbling over what he's trying to say.
So yeah. Rhys is a little ways off from being 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. What it works out to be is Rhys presenting himself as totally capable without actually being prepared for the reality (see: all of Pandora). 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 getting Jack out of his head and thinking himself betrayed by Fiona and Sasha is to get himself a haircut and a new suit. He also kind of took the rights to Atlas and named himself CEO and starts making people President of Stuff and all that but there you go. He doesn't seek his friends out because he assumed they betrayed him--but when he thinks he's contacted by them? Rhys heads over right away, by himself, unarmed and unguarded, ready to work things out. And then gets kidnapped and stuff but yes.
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, tells Loader Bot to save himself when attacked, and comes to view Fiona as an equal partner/friend despite his bias against Pandorans and being conned by her. Rhys can forgive people and move on from his misgivings with people, 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 an individual who wants to work to make something better of himself and Atlas, who cares deeply about the tight-knit group of close friends he made during his time on Pandora, and who 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. When he rebuilds Atlas it isn't going to be like Hyperion was: he's determine it not be.
no subject
Rhys was born to a surrogate with a silver spoon in his mouth, quite possibly literally thanks to his fortune of having been part of Land Kendry and a rightful citizen of Qresh. This status would give him wealth and comfort, a snobbish upbringing with plenty of disdain for the lower classes on Westerly, and the ever-looming knowledge that he would never be an heir to Land Kendry. He was the only son of a cousin to the main line, meaning there were plenty of other heirs in line before he could even come close to dreaming of that kind of power. Rhys was important, sure, but only so much as any other member of his family as insurance and back-up if tragedy should befall the Head or main line. His status as Qreshi royalty was just that: a title which would afford him a lavish and comfortable living without any need for hardship.
And Rhys did grow up comfortably. Materialistically, anyway. With both parents entrenched in the politics and workings of The Nine, Rhys was often left to his own devices. For them, having a child was simply a way to ensure that their accumulated wealth and status was preserved for the future; it was never about a want to raise or even entertain the idea of caring for a child. Especially one who was...fortunate, enough, to have so many familial genetic connections within the Kendrys. But with second-cousins as parents it really shouldn't have surprised them. Inbreeding to keep the lines pure had been causing certain "less desirable" traits in the family, but somehow it never occurred to them that their own son might be one of those cases.
While he was outwardly fine and indeed born healthy, Rhys suffered from nerve damage due to birth defect in his right arm. The limb was almost effectively useless and hampered the boy's ability to perform even the most basic of tasks, an embarrassment to his parents. It was quickly arranged for his arm to be replaced with a cybernetic one specifically tailored to look as realistic as possible. A hack-modded family member was only slightly more desirable than a useless one after all. But for Rhys it was one of the few profoundly excellent moments of his childhood where his parents put time and effort into him. The arm was never a source of shame to him; he wore it proud and became ever-more interested and intrigued by the technology which had given him back the use of his arm, and what would ultimately have him arrange further modifications to himself: he would go on to replace his left eye as he became an adult, and installed a data port into his temple.
With these mods and his arm combined however Rhys would be pushed over the legal limit for hack mods to sit firmly at 35% modded. Legally he wasn't even considered a citizen anymore, and if found out that would mean no more inheritance, no more status. So he had his eye made as close to human-seeming as possible and kept his arm covered in synthetic to make it appear flesh.
With his childhood spent largely in neglect with far too much time on his hands, Rhys quickly threw himself into the hobby of data mining and hacking. He didn't specifically aim for those two things specifically at first of course, but happened upon it as he fiddled with diagnostics of his arm, the home security systems, and the AI designed to be both companion and caretaker to him in his parents' absence. Rhys began to learn the ins and outs of systems, how to bypass low levels of security and how to dig for what he wanted inside the coding of the system. If his parents weren't going to tell him anything, then he'd find it for himself.
That drive to do things on his own, to overcome others and feel himself as superior would be what motivated him for years and had Rhys ultimately come to the understanding that no one would ever see him as anything beyond his claim to the Kendry name. Rhys wanted recognition for more than that. He wanted it for himself, for people to respect him because of his own efforts and accomplishments. So Rhys replaced his eye to give him that sleek, insubordinate edge that would allow him a leg-up on anyone he encountered, and made enough noise until his parents caved in and pulled strings to get him a position at The Company where he could finally work to seize the status he wanted:
Senior Vice-President of Westerlyn Resource Acquisition & Management Inquiries.
Or, more accurately, "that job where even a brick could succeed because there isn't actually even any real work to do, it's just a bunch of paperwork and sitting around in an office and basically your parents are hoping you get this nonsense out of your system and go back to being rich and complacent."
It was not the dream job Rhys had envisioned propelling him to the top. He had underlings sure, but the work was dull and unimportant and no one would even notice if he never showed up. Nothing he did in his job mattered: it all amounted to stamping on X and filing. It was just report after report on the most mundane and honestly boring stuff in the entire existence of the Quad. Why this job even existed was beyond him and Rhys really was about to give up, to march on back to his parents and demand something actually fitting his skill set...when he noticed The Discrepancy.
It was what could have simply been a small resource allocation error. Nothing big or worrisome and if he wanted he could've just easily written it off. But Rhys was beyond bored, beyond Done with the monotony of his job and decided hey, finally something to do maybe it'll actually be something I can kill the afternoon with! What he didn't expect was to follow the paper trail and discover a fellow high-end employee not only embezzling money, but apparently allocating resources to what he assumed were smugglers. It was The Break Rhys had been looking for: turning this guy in would bring him the recognition he wanted. No one could ignore how awesome he was if he blew this things wide open and exposed a lower class for their treachery and ruined their chances on Leith forever. Because there was nothing the Kendrys enjoyed more than depriving the lower classes of anything and everything.
Now realistically, all Rhys had to do was report it. He just had to send word upstairs in The Company and their enforcers would handle it and everything would be peachy. He'd get maybe a bonus, maybe his parents might even bat an eye at the dinner table.
But no. Rhys wanted more than that. He wanted to prove how capable he was, and what better way to do that than by uncovering the deception and bringing it all to light himself?? He would insert himself where the traitor was meant to be, take over the deal, expose the smugglers and then get the traitor and everyone they ever worked with kicked off of Leith and onto that dirt hole of a moon, Westerly. It was a brilliant plan that was perfect and could totally never fail in any way whatsoever.
So naturally it failed in every single way conceivable.
Both Rhys and the traitor showed up. Then the smugglers showed up. Then the smugglers shot the traitor, who died just in time for the Resistance to show up, take out the smugglers, save Rhys...and take him for their new Informant. By the time Rhys realized that he was never dealing with smugglers as the problem to begin with it was too late: he'd already been implicated, the Resistance knew about his hack mods, and there was no way he was going to be able to cover up his involvement in any of this without exposing the fact that he never reported it in the first place. If anything, from all sides it looked like the traitor had been killed trying to rat Rhys out and that all along it was Rhys pulling the strings.
He was going to have no choice but to go along with things and put up with their demands for help. There was too much at stake for him either way...and thus Rhys basically joined the Resistance by accident and without meaning to, therefor hating his life forever and ever.
Especially once he realized if he'd never shown up at all the traitor would have just gotten killed on his own anyway and Rhys could've been at home enjoying being rich.
CRAU: Nope!
Original History: Here
Inventory:
-1 JR4000 Stun Baton
-Dumpy
Samples: TDM 1, if you need more just let me know!
Miscellaneous Notes:
A Vaughn plans to app next round, so we're going to assumed history between them both where Rhys's parents basically hired Vaughn's family to shell their kid out to be friends with him. Like rich people do.
ACCEPTED
Congratulations! You've been accepted into Overjoyed.
We’re so excited to have you join our community. Before we can get started, please do the following:
- Request to join the following communities: Logs · Network · OOC · Memes
- Friend the mod account, thenine, and respond to the player contact page.
- Reply to the taken page.
- Fill out the job registry.
- (Optional) Follow the mod plurk here to stay up to date about upcoming plots, community discussions, and more!
- (Optional) Put your application, IC contact/inbox, and permissions post in your journal, then introduce yourself to the OOC community!
- Second Round Applicants: You've caught us in a bit of a transition period! The new chapter/plot will launch on January 10th. In the meantime, you're free to create pregame CR or play around with the current setting and get your character established until the next plot installment. Thanks so much for joining us!
All characters will start with a balance of 100 bonus HP. This balance can be used towards AC bank purchases, but may not be used for satisfying monthly AC requirements.Note: All of his 'abilities' fall into the minor classification and will not require AC purchases for access.
If you have any further questions or comments, please don't hesitate to reach out to us by PM or on the contact page.
Once again, we’re so happy to have you, and thanks for joining us!
Yours,
Overjoyed Mods