#arcade (dyvj)

[drinkyourvillainjuice]

Crack theory that Grant is Arcade and no I'm not delusionally finding any way to cope without my basic bitch lightly salted chip boy

alas one of these men is white and the other is not. so uh, this one might not have legs, chief.

[drinkyourvillainjuice]

Hounds' Altruist hot takes - Arcade

Architect

Behaviour: Fuck this guy. Took a civilian hostage, took him hostage. He's got this whole high and mighty attitude but he's as dirty as any villain can be.

Abilities: Damn he's quick on the draw with those barriers. Kind of wants to test how effectively they can hold up to his lasers at higher charge, but speaking practically it's hard to do that in a fight, making Architect's powers a problem.

Rampage

Behaviour: On the one hand, it spices things up when you get to banter with villains. On the other, enthusiastic villains always feel... weird. Cause it's like. OK they're just stoked to be hurting people?

Abilities: Dammit! Why can you just absorb my lasers? That's bullshit.

Fracture

Behaviour: What a miserable bastard.

Abilities: Damn but this asshole can take a hit!

Ghoul

Behaviour: Eh every villain team needs a couple flunkies.

Abilities: Okay but what do they actually do.

Wyrd

Behaviour: Dick cold cocked me with a baseball bat/views them as complicit with Architect's fuckery.

Abilities: Soaking a punch from Surpass is pretty impressive, ngl.

Dime

Behaviour: Either thinks they're an absolute POS asshole if they broke his face/brought a civilian into harm's way, or just is generally wary of them and considers them dangerous.

Abilities: What the fuck

[drinkyourvillainjuice]

who do each of the altruists view as the most dangerous/formidable hound to fight?

I have a few Hounds-thinking-on-Altruists asks! They're all on my radar but for now I'll address one of the easier ones (need to keep my actual writing time in mind!)

Portrait - depends how exactly his encounter shook out. If Ghoul absorbed a construct, he has them SUPER high on his list, otherwise it'd be competing between Paradigm, Ghoul, and Architect (i.e. if Paradigm got the drop on him, they're higher, and so on)

Surpass - usually Dime unless they ran away or she completely kicked their ass, otherwise Architect.

Vantage - Architect unless Dime is very violent. (otherwise, she views Architect as more dangerous for having a powerful underling)

Arcade - Rampage, as she significantly counters him.

Enfilade - Hand-to-hand specialised Paradigm, otherwise Fracture because he can tank her shit.

Phalanx - Architect, since she considers him the brains of the operation.

[drinkyourvillainjuice]

I’m gonna play wingman for Teddie and Arcade to get together. Neither of them get a say in this. Enemies to lovers 300k slow burn

gosh what a pair those two would be.

Sammy would have to tone himself down a lot and they've got very different problems. Like, I feel as if Teddie would find Arcade (on a personal level as opposed to combative) to be pretty full of himself.

Compatibility... exists? but I don't know if they could possibly put up with each other long enough to uncover it.

[drinkyourvillainjuice]

How do you think the various Hounds view the Altruists? Would it change much based on Dime's performance?

An interesting question! I think Dime's actions and performance would both alter the Hounds' perspective on the Altruists as a whole, though there's more nuance with the exact deeds than the performance. Simply put, if Dime is doing a lot better and battling more effectively, the entire team will view the Altruists as more of a threat due to the presence of a relatively unknown quality who is a dangerous combatant.

Some notable distinctions:

Vantage would view the entire group as significantly more dangerous/unpredictable if Dime was being particularly violent, as if a villain group is readily associating with somebody like that, then it appears they're willing to use that violence as a tool.

Arcade is anywhere between viewing the Altruists/Dime as challenge to overcome and holding a deep animosity for Dime specifically. That's based more off the very first mission, though.

The fightier and tougher Dime is, the more regard Surpass holds the Altruists in general, but this is much more heavily skewed towards Dime themself. And she hates Architect regardless.

(I don't wanna ramble so I'll stop here, but I'm happy to get into more specific nuances if anyone asks!)

[drinkyourvillainjuice]

Now I know there are a lot of romance options already but…

Is there a chance to at least flirt with with Arcade in a future book (if you do split the story into two)… maybe… pretty please?…

He just seems so nice

I feel as if I'd struggle to give Arcade appropriate justice as an RO, especially when I just set up the possibility of him having genuine beef with Dime. XD.

I dunno, never say never. I like Arcade a lot and I know him second or third best of the Hounds.

It's just like... there's a line ahead of him, I'm afraid.

[drinkyourvillainjuice]

"Crack theory that Grant is Arcade." "alas one of these men is white and the other is not. so uh, this one might not have legs, chief." GRANT confirmó mexicano 🎉🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽🎉!!!

Arcade: *cries in Japanese-American*

[drinkyourvillainjuice]

I've been replaying the game from the start to refresh my memory for the latest chapter. I fear that this was a mistake because I immediately and out of nowhere fell in love with Arcade </3 Something about him calling my MC creepy has bewitched me. (I love your game by the way ^^)

Arcade's a good boy. He's done nothing wrong. He doesn't deserve getting bullied by the weirdo.

[drinkyourvillainjuice]

I feel sorry for Arcade, he wants my dime so bad post fucking his face but i dont know if hes got it in him to tame these tendrils😭. Lil bro wants the smoke but got Asthma. Still 3rd best hound. #Freebutchbiker #giveKayagun

ph...phrasing??

[drinkyourvillainjuice]

How would the glory hounds (and altruists) treat their fans? (Phalanx especially. If Phalanx had a million fans I am one of them, etc etc etc)

oh I've got thoughts on this.

Vantage is a consummate professional, meaning she can come across as a little distant, but she does make time for fans and puts her whole heart into representing the Hounds well.

Enfilade is a deer in the headlights. She's comfortable in combat, she's not comfortable in social, and she comes from a background where anything she had to say in public was rigorously scripted and planned out. She's nervy enough about it to be accidentally rude at times.

Surpass loves the spotlight. A little too much, probably. She likes to show off and wow the fans, though there's also a like... tangible barrier she prefers to maintain. Crowds are fine, one to one is less fine. She can do it in short bursts, but she'd rather not spend a lot of time. She gets uncomfortable.

Portrait is great with fans and as mentioned in his game bio, does a lot of outreach within Alderbrook, so he probably has the most direct involvement with fans out of anyone (though he'd say that it's more involvement with people, you know?). Always ready to make out a personalised autograph.

This is Arcade's *scene*. He's the poster boy for the Hounds a lot of the time. He's charismatic and good with people, and he has an image as The Guy for the fans. It's a bit more... calculated than it may come across; like, the corporate side of the Hounds put him into those positions on purpose. He does genuinely like doing it though, he's just conscious about his image.

Phalanx is guarded with fans. A little like Enfilade, there's complications around her ditching the DPR for independent heroing. She did not like having obligations to interact in the DPR. So yeah, in general she's pretty distant and has low tolerance for bullshit. She'll be polite but not warm.

[drinkyourvillainjuice]

arcade romance when....need him to fix ME!!!

Bold of you to assume he's not neurotic too.

[drinkyourvillainjuice]

Rare Arcade question from me, but if you tricked him into shooting at civilians is he more mad about civilians being in danger or that he was made to be a fool. Also what percent is he mad at himself (and possibly projecting) vs mad at Dime.

He's significantly more mad about the civilians being hurt/endangered.

It's like...

80% - A civilian was harmed. vs. 20 % - I looked stupid.

60% - I fucked up. vs. 40% - That villain is a POS.

[drinkyourvillainjuice]

If I were gonna team up with any heroes, it would be the park vigilantes or Arcade. No one else meets the trust threshold. Very "No Hounds Allowed! I'll make an exception for Arcade because he seems polite."

I mean that's reasonable.

Arcade might be kind of a hothead if his buttons are pushed, but his heart is in 100% the right place.

Bearing in mind, guy only gets pissed with you if you make a point of kicking him while he's down, intentionally endanger civilians, or go out of your way to mess up his face, which might kind of sound vain but hits up a really specific insecurity of his.

The Patrol are dorks but you can't say they're not trustworthy!

[drinkyourvillainjuice]

hounds for the dnd question?

Sure!

Surpass - Takes mild offence to the implication that she'll only play a class that walks around whacking things with sticks, proceeds to take a 'whack first, questions later' approach to everything. But I could see this being either a barbarian or a sorcerer. Because y'know, what is a fireball but a big exploding stick?

Arcade - A smooth-talkin' disaster rogue.

Portrait - Wizard. Immediately gets a familiar. Protects familiar with his life. Somehow adopts half the animals the party encounters.

Enfilade - Plays paladin because it seems to make the most sense with her morals. Really tense about the whole roleplaying thing, and struggles to loosen up.

Vantage - Unholy cross class munchkin who will break the entire game given half a chance, and so restricts herself to DMing instead.

[drinkyourvillainjuice]

New alternate POV piece - To The Arcade

So, what have our heoric hounds been up to lately? An Arcade POV piece is now available on patreon.

[drinkyourvillainjuice]

dont know if you've reblogged this before but in case you havent:

https://www.tumblr.com/jame7t/770396687274508288?source=share

this post reads like arcade with the rest of the glory hounds to me.

Aww don't be mean to the other Hounds! Portrait summons dudes! Surpass is a tank!

but yes Arcade would probably still make fun of them because let's face it, lasers are cool.