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| “ | I am busy. How long are you going to do this? | „ |
| ~ Rhea telling the detective that she was busy when Detective S attempt to determine the true suspect of Dustin's killer. |
| “ | I... I was just returning their favor! | „ |
| ~ Rhea after getting arrested. |
Rhea Joyce, also known as Shim Jo-Hyeon or Ms. Shim in the original Korean version, is a supporting character of the 2020 android game Detective S. First appearing in the third stage of the game, "The Final Stage", she is a 26-29 year old woman who worked as the assistant director of K Studios about 10 months ago.
Her job is to prepare the snacks and manage the stage of K Studios where the idols such as the boy-band, BASTERDS X, perform there. Because of the fact that she was one of the people who discovered the lead dancer of BASTERDS X, Dustin, also known as Mr. Kwon or Kwon Mi-nam. in the original Korean dub, died on stage due to a sudden heart attack when he performed his ultimate choreograph, she became one of the main suspects that Detective S. and her assistant, Detective K. investigated.
Although having the alibi of checking the lights in front of the stage along with the producer, it was then revealed that Rhea was the one who murdered Dustin in the first place through Detective S' deduction of determining the suspect. It was also revealed that Rhea and Dustin had a very tense history with each other as around 6 months ago, she had a rather tense argument with Dustin during a group dinner with BASTERDS X.
Appearance[]
Rhea Joyce is a short, thin woman, standing around 157 cm (Around 5'2 ft) and 48 kg (Around 106 lbs). She has black hair parted in the middle of her forehead, a large nose, and rosy cheeks. According to the files, it is also stated that she has brown eyes. For clothing, she wears a large, dark brown hoodie, a wearable microphone, black tights, and red shoes with blue laces and soles. Around 6 months ago when she went to the group dinner with BASTERDS X, it is shown that she has a ponytailed hair. When she was a kid, it is shown that she wore a white, sleeveless dress.
Personality[]
Throughout the story, Rhea herself is a type of a person who keeps her professionalism intact. This is due to the fact that she abided herself to her job as an assistant director to get people on stage and keep things in order. This can be shown where she attempts to cancel BASTERDS X's performance once Dustin collapsed at the dance. However, behind the scene, it is also shown that she has a pure unadulterated hatred towards Dustin to the point she attempts to kill him. This is due to the fact that Dustin and his mother who also happens to be Rhea's stepmother let her father die in order to hoard the money from him as Dustin rubs it smugly under her face when she was older.
Much like the other suspects before, it is also shown that she manage to crumble under pressure when being interrogated by Detective S so much so that she attempts to evade several crucial questions about the Lasix tablet that she had or about the death of the CEO of Owl Food, revealed to be her father. Despite her seemingly murderous intent, she had a rather understandable motivation much like some of the suspect in the game because she wants to avenge her dead father in the end.
Biography[]
Born around 09 September 1993, Rhea Joyce herself was the daughter of the CEO of Owl Foods, Shim Byeongyak, or better known as Mr. Joyce. In her past, when she was 10 years old, Mr. Joyce remarries with another woman who is revealed to be the mother of the BASTERDS X boyband's lead dancer and Rhea's future victim, Dustin, making her the step-sister of Dustin. Despite remarrying with Dustin's mother, Mr. Joyce and Dustin's family seemingly lived together happily for the next 9 years.
However, despite Rhea's father's kindness towards Dustin and his mom such as giving the former his favorite biscuit, the two were only interested in his money due to his status as a CEO of Owl Foods. As a result, when Rhea turned 19 years old as she lived away from home due to her school's location, she then heard the news about her father dying of a heart attack in his library despite the fact that his condition was getting better. This is due to the fact that Mr. Joyce had episodes of seizures where he was unable to breathe as Dustin and his mom didn't even try to help him.
Questioning the validity of her father's death, Rhea also suspected that Dustin and his mother were behind her father's death as they didn't hear his cry for help. When the police attempted to investigate what happened, Dustin and his mother decided to evade suspicions by falsely reporting to the police by saying that they were just watching the TV in the living room. Although the police thought the alibi to be a rather far-fetched conclusion, they couldn't be able to do anything and dismissed Mr. Joyce's death as nothing but natural causes. After the death of her father, Dustin's mother then pressured her to move out, giving her around $10.000 dollars to do so (10 million won in the original dub). This resulted in Rhea never contacting Dustin and his mother ever since.
According to Rhea, it was revealed that she also left with a mutual consent as she didn't feel like living with anyone who wasn't related to her. As time went by, she then took a job as an assistant director of K Studios around 10 months ago prior to the main story. When she was working as the assistant of the K Studios, Dustin then debuted as the member of BASTERDS X and became the most popular member there. However, 6 months ago, around March 4, when she was having dinner with the BASTERDS X members, Rhea then went out for some fresh air. However, she then meets with Dustin outside who was smoking. Meeting with Rhea, Dustin then smugly tells her about the circumstances about her father's death, seeing that Rhea really thinks his mother and him didn't hear a thing that night where Mr. Joyce collapsed. This also resulted in Dustin telling her that the sound of someone's collapsing would be loud enough to hear. This resulted in Rhea getting angry and demanding Dustin to answer more questions regarding her father's death. However, she was then stopped by Dustin's manager, Scout "Sugar" Manger, or better known as Mr. Park or Park Dae-ki, in the original Korean dub, in order to negate the quarrel, making Dustin seemingly getting off scot-free.
After hearing what Dustin had said, Rhea's doubts turned into certainty as she had known that either Dustin and his mother had done something bad towards her father or just plain out ignored him when he was at death's door. In addition, she also torn the photo where she is together with Dustin and her mother in rage. This resulted in her executing a plan to murder Dustin in the end. To that end, she decided to become a writer online and wrote the details of Dustin's characteristics. This resulted in her getting approached by an unknown sender via email and as they decided to manipulate Rhea under their thumb using her anger towards Dustin by sending her a pink envelope sent to her home a week later. In said letter, it is stated that Dustin had taken a muscle supplement known as "Cretine" and a kidney medication consumed together with Cretine would resulted in heart attack.
As a result, Rhea then bought several Lasix tablets, a type of diuretics, and plans to give it to Dustin every time he visits the studio. To execute her plan with the help of the unknown sender, she then dissolved the Lasix tablet in water, creating a solution and injected it to Dustin's favorite biscuits that her father used to give him when he was a child, knowing that it is Dustin's favorite snack. Knowing the fact that someone else would eat the snack, she decided to inject every snack with the diluted Lasix tablet. She is also aware of the fact that Lasix won't cause harm to someone else unless they took the Cretine supplements.
However, when she attempts to execute her plan, it is revealed that there are rumors about Dustin beginning to leave BASTERDS X for a solo career, which puts his teammates such as Igor Twain, or better known as Mr. Lee or Lee In-Ja in the original dub, and his manager, Julie Y. Plush, or better known as Mrs. Choi or Choi Yeon-sa in the original dub, at risk. As a result, Rhea decided to increase the dosage of the Lasix tablet.
This causes the people that were staying in the performers' lounge such as Igor and Scout to go into the bathroom that day due to the fact that they ate the snacks Rhea prepared for them. It was then revealed that as Dustin attempted to perform his second debut, he decided to work hard for it and also drink a mug of Cretine for his own health to perform his second debut. Once Dustin ate the biscuit Rhea provided, he then had a heart attack when he attempted to perform his powerful dance solo on stage or better known as the poisoned chalice solo.
Despite seemingly going according to plan on murdering Dustin, Rhea acts as if she was concerned about Dustin's condition due to her job obligations which resulted in her asking the manager to turn off the spotlights while beckoning Mr. Manger to the stage in order to check on Dustin's condition. As she tells Igor about the incident, the latter then orders Rhea to call 911 which causes Detective S and her assistant K to investigate the whole ordeal with the help of their friend, Police P as they received a report around September 6 at 3:14 regarding Dustin's death. Due to the fact that Rhea being one of the people at the studio to record the BASTERDS X's performance and has a history with Dustin, she becomes one of the main suspects of Dustin's murder case.
As S, K and P decided to investigate Rhea's belongings, they then found Rhea's photo being torn apart due to the fact it also includes Dustin and her mother and also the Lasix tablet. Finding the Lasix tablets to be suspicious and so is the torn photo, S then interrogates Rhea about it which causes her to crumble under pressure and refuses to answer some of the questions that S gave to her, although she also gave the information to S that she was Dustin's half-sister. As a result of Rhea crumbling under the pressure when interrogated, S then manages to arrest Rhea in the end. After the arrest, all Rhea could ever do was lament about her dead father and how Dustin and his mother only cared about his money.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Rhea Joyce's name is a pun of the word "Rejoice". It is also possible that one can interpret her original Korean name, Ms. Shim, as a pun. This is due to the fact that it can be also read as "Miss Him" as the naming makes sense in context about Rhea's circumstances of murdering Dustin due to her father's death of heart attack with Dustin and his mother didn't even tried to help her, solely so that they could get his fortune for their own.