November 2015

-Did you hear about the new Atlas Corporation? Apparently it’s run by some kid who was mentored by Handsome Jack’s AI before the Fall of Hyperion.

-Yeah? What’s so special about him?

-Well for starters, he single handedly resurrected Atlas within six months, and apparently he has some connection with a Bandit king on Pandora.

-What’s a CEO doing with bandits?

-No one knows, but when that CEO says “jump”, the Bandit king asks “how high?”

-So he has muscle on Pandora, that’s nothing new.

-Yeah? Then how about the fact that he’s demolished Jakobs and Torgue from the inside out?

-What?!

-Rumor has it there’s women applying to weapons manufacturing companies, transferring from Atlas, and wherever they go, the company crumbles afterwords. I think it’s just one woman though, the Chameleon of Atlas.

-She’s a myth.

-Tell that to Jakobs.

Explanations under the cut. Long post ahead.

A what if situation, where Rhys and Fiona either a) don’t disappear or b) are found within a reasonable time. Either way, Rhys takes the Atlas deed and rebuilds the company with the help of his new-found friends and his cult following of ex-Hyperion employees.

Vaughn stays on Pandora as a bandit, and many ex-Hyperion stay with him, with the others following Rhys as Atlas employees.

Yvette stays with Rhys too, helping him out with getting the company running smoothly, and Fiona and Sasha help as well, using their con artist skills to help Rhys gain the trust of other companies and potential buyers. Once New Atlas is established, it becomes a matter a time before it quickly rises to the top of the market.

Vaughn acts as his eyes and ears on Pandora, and Yvette infiltrates rival companies to learn their secrets. She passes along the information to Rhys and he does with it what he will, either leaving them alone or enacting plans to topple his rivals. He’s ruthless, and some suspect there’s someone else in the shadows pushing him to be that way. It’s all him, however. He just learned from the best.

(The center of pocket watch glows with a familiar blue, doesn’t it, though?)

As for color scheme, literally all I know about Atlas weapons is from the wikia page since I haven’t played the first Borderlands installment. In the description, it said they were know for their pearl handles, so I figured shades of pink would do nicely. And hell, if they could work for Hyperion with it’s honey yellow, they can deal with pink, right?

I could write so much more but that’s tipping into fanfic territory and I already have one monster fic to worry about so no.

-Do you think Atlas is haunted?

-Haunted? What the hell are you on about this time?

-Rumors, mostly. People keep hearing weird things around the CEO’s office, like laughter. Familiar laughter.

-Yeah? And whose would that be?

-Handsome Jack’s.

Small piece this time bc I’m on a tight schedule. BoY was it nice to draw in sai again tho hoooo boy. also don’t read too much into Rhys’ tattoos, he’s not a siren in this au

paintberri doods - 11/15- 11/17

rhys is probably whining bc he doesn’t want to go to meetings. shoulda thought about that before you decided to own atlas, huh

-So have you heard about the people the CEO calls up?

-I’m not in the mood for rumors today-

-Not rumors this time! R&D can confirm it.

-Okay fine, what is it this time?

-So we both know that the CEO only calls up people who’ve done like, really bad since they started here, right? Like Billy in Accounting, and-

-Get to the point.

Right, so anyway, Rhys is real sweet to them, I hear. All polite smiles and coddling, like he’s gonna give them another chance.

-What’d you think he do? It’s not like he’s Handsome Jack.

-Like I said, all nice and stuff, but it’s to make them feel safe, when in reality they’re shit outta luck.

-So what happened?

-Last guy called up? A few R&D technicians saw the CEO lead him into the experimental skag enclosure and lock him in.

Rhys is much more ruthless in this AU, partly because of my own headcanons concerning Hyperion employees and what Rhys was like when he was still one. That, and yes, Handsome Jack rubbed off on him a little bit.

The Chameleon of Atlas is just one woman with very good tech and a knack for backstabbing. Yvette was gifted with a cloaking device, handcrafted by Rhys, that allows her to change her appearance and voice at will. She puts this and her own natural talents to good use by acting as Rhys’ eyes and ears in rival companies, providing the CEO with crucial information about the competition.

just a really lazy yvette doodle that I’ve had sitting around for a few days