#vantage (dyvj)

[drinkyourvillainjuice]

In-character Q&A - Vantage!

(she's still here for another week or so for patreon members to submit questions!)

1.) How did you get your powers? 

That's a gutsy question. I suppose I'll humour you.

In my early teens, my apartment block caught fire and my mom got trapped. I was shouting and screaming from the far side of a wall of flames and... I don't know. Everything just seemed to click at once.

I--it didn't go perfectly. I didn't understand how the simulations worked or how to recalculate on the fly. Mom had health complications from smoke inhalation and died younger than she should have.

I try not to dwell on it.

2.) What's the most interesting way you've used your powers?

If you believe Arcade, to cheat at video games. laughs

I once simulated hostage situation so effectively that the mask just turned themself in immediately. That was interesting because I had a psychological profile to work with. Having access to that much information is incredible.

3.) Do you actively hunt villains like the Altruists or do you just show up when they start to actually do crimes? 

That's complicated. It's usually a bad idea to go after villains in their secret identities, if they have them. That just escalates on both ends. However, if we know an enemy hideout, we'll hit it whether or not they're actively doing crime at that moment. It's a base of operations. The Businessmen are a wrinkle to that; they're too clever to leave evidence of wrongdoing at Masquerade, so we'd shoot ourselves in the foot.

It's been... more difficult lately for us to act preemptively. When your reputation has taken the kind of hit that ours did, you have to be careful not to lose the PR battle.

On a related note, I can't bring villains in based on what they might do. They have to have committed some crime first.

4.) What was the worst fight you've had? 

The Zone incident, without a question.

I miscalculated. Then I didn't salvage my mistakes. People died.

5.) What are your official (and unofficial) opinions on your fellow teammates? 

Surpass: Who wouldn't want a hero like Surpass? She can be reckless, but it's hard to argue with those powers, and we'd be a worse unit without her.

[Redacted]: She's a pain in the ass and I wouldn't change her for anything.

Enfilade: A consummate professional with a head for tactical thinking. She's been an invaluable addition.

Catherine: It's been good to see her come out of her shell bit by bit, although she'll never be a social butterfly. She's harder on herself than she needs to be. Speaking a little more cynically, it's good to have snagged someone from the DPR; it helps our reputation.

Portrait: His constructs offer superb flexibility in the field. He's a very useful teammate to have, and he cares deeply about helping people in a way few others do.

Troy: I like him. He could hold up better under pressure, sure, but that's not a huge deal. Maybe he could stand to believe in himself a little more too.

Arcade: He's a fantastic asset both for PR and in the field. He could stand to remember that he's still learning, though.

Sammy: I wish I hadn't forced him to grow up this fast.

Phalanx: She's razor sharp and pulls no punches, as well as having excellent mastery of her powers. She's a great hero.

Beth: Hah... Catherine would have been a tough nut to crack if I hadn't cut my teeth on Beth first.

6.) What were your thoughts when Bet- I mean Phalanx joined?

It was heartening to have someone flip after the Zone. Reminded me that it wasn't exclusively the Hounds--exclusively me--to blame for everything. i did have concerns that she'd cause tension, considering our losses, but the others treated her very well.

She was and is a very troubled person. Even more guarded back then, if you can believe that.

Honestly, it was a good reality check about my people skills.

7.) Do you think there's a possibility of tensions between the GH and the DPR to boil over into an actual fight?

Doubtful. Both sides would have everything to lose.

8.) (off the record) What are your thoughts on the DPR? 

They're self-righteous and government-backed, which is a dangerous combination.

I expect many, if not most of their heroes have their hearts in the right place, but the organization itself is completely rotten. It says a lot that they're more concerned with who does the heroing--who's seen to do the heroing--than the heroing itself.

9.) Have you heard of Coven at all? 

I can't say I have.

10.) Would you allow a sad, tentacle having, former villain to become a GH?

I'm willing to hear villains out if they're repentant. Would probably be a PR nightmare, but I'd rather take an opinion hit than lose the chance to help someone for the better.

What if this is the one and only time they believe they can be more than a person who hurts others? What if rejecting them just confirms what they think of themselves?

11.) Will you marry me?

I'm sure you're lovely, but even if I knew you, I have a dangerous life and an open identity. It wouldn't be right.

[drinkyourvillainjuice]

Saw this in another IF; How would the ROs react if MC and them were getting steamy and someone accidentally walks in on the two of them while its happening?

Also Vantage fling when?

Mal - Laughs it off. If the walkee is remotely flustered about it, then they're getting teased forevermore.

Kay - Highly flustered and diving for cover ASAP.

Exceptions: Teddie is getting mercilessly bullied for intruding, as he should know better. Wil, under some circumstances, might earn themself a flirtatious remark from her.

Wil - Is going to brazen it out and stare the intruder down while making no effort to hide themself. If this is a game of chicken, then they refuse to lose. However, if MC is visibly uncomfortable or distressed, the intruder is getting gently ushered out.

Alistair - Kind of laughs it off? His reaction depends almost entirely on MC. If they're upset, he's following Wil's lead. If they don't seem that bothered, he's more relaxed.

Teddie - Get. Out.

CG - Intruder just earned themself an absolutely furious tirade. Good job.

Beth - Mortified.

The only fling you're getting from Vantage is onto the ground. Painfully.

[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]

Hounds' Altruist hot takes - Vantage

Vantage

Architect

Behaviour: Clever and ruthless, which is always a dangerous combination, especially when simulations indicate that giving him the chance to talk is almost always a bad idea.

Abilities: Clearly experienced and knows his way around his powers, and the powers themselves are a roadblock.

Rampage

Behaviour: Classic rookie, all enthusiasm, and an obvious blunt instrument.

Abilities: Would be easy to handle if not for the wrinkle that she can facetank Arcade pretty well. Still, someone to keep an eye out for as she could get very dangerous with more experience under her belt.

Fracture

Behaviour: Stubborn, which is one of the worst traits for a villain to have cause it makes everything into a battle of attrition.

Abilities: High floor, low ceiling, which makes him most threatening within a larger team. Oh look.

Ghoul

Behaviour: More data required: seems to be a follower type and is the least overtly villainous of the group.

Abilities: Mostly depends on whether they tagged Portrait or one of his constructs. In that case, Vantage considers them highly dangerous. Otherwise, more data, again.

Wyrd

Behaviour: I hate quippy assholes.

Abilities: Believes they're playing their cards close to their chest about their powers and can do a lot more than presently seen. In addition, Vantage is aware that someone on the Altruists has to be good with tech and Wyrd's her prime suspect.

Dime

Behaviour: N/A, too much variance.

Abilities: Clearly has training, which intrigues her given the general lack of information about them. They're too good for a newbie. (even if Dime has fucked up a lot, she deems that as being limited practical experience to back up the fundamentals)

[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]

The Vantage Q&A was eye opening. Since we play on the other side, we tend to forget they're actually heroes, not just an opposing force. In my defense, there's a big chance the heroes could be self righteous bastards on a power trip. But she recognizes that possibility and talks about heroes the people and not the institution, which can be totally corrupted.

Now I want to talk to her more in depth without the whole beating each other up. I'm sure a more diplomatic Dime can make for interesting conversation. But first we need to spill the beans! I'm frothing at the mouth, rattling the bars of my enclosure until I can snitch on the Coven.

Right!

I think for sure in the setting some heroes are not in it for the right reasons; the DPR poisons the well a lot in that regard, but also just like, culturally, there's a lot of celebrity to being a hero.

A couple of the Hounds are more spiky/antagonistic and probably lend themselves more to dulling the 'oh right they're heroes'. Looking at you, Surpass and Arcade. It was fun in the current chapter writing Arcade and Portrait doing hero stuff without the lens of being opponents at the time.

Vantage and Dime would have a very intriguing interaction for sure! Wonder when that might come up...

[drinkyourvillainjuice]

the q&as are so fun ty for making them!! vantage is so cool and nice i really like her even if we are on opposing sides. if i was a kid in this world i would have her action figure 100%

Honestly I just gotta remember to keep polling them on patreon for who gets asked! I'm happy to share, and it's stimulating to have questions to think about to develop the characters. Vantage is an interesting cookie.

I do have a goal to like... demonstrate that Dime and the Altruists are villainous and let the player lean into that too. The Alderbrook heroes are imo all genuinely good people, even if they have their flaws.

[drinkyourvillainjuice]

Wait do the glory hounds have public identities? I guess at least Beth wouldn't because we tried to look her up and it looks like Surpass doesn't either but i am a confusion

Vantage has an open identity, but not the team as a whole! It's a direct statement on certain DPR policies that she forgoes wearing a mask. Enfilade is also publically known, but it's a little different with her because with augments, the mask and civilian identities tend to blend together.

It's not impossible to be an augment with a secret identity but not all cybernetics are easy to conceal.

[drinkyourvillainjuice]

The Vantage + Surpass fights are both incredible damn!! For a Vantage who lost the fight to mc, how were they feeling afterwards?? Are we now Prime Target Number One?

Thanks! They were a lot of effort, but it was really rewarding to see them working properly.

Vantage's threat assessment of MC is based on a combination of factors: they're definitely second biggest after Architect if they beat her down, but the gap is much smaller if MC is very violent.

Vantage has very analytical tendencies, so her line of thought is "Right, Architect managed to get a powerful underling, what's the incentive?"

[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]

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]

I guess you could call, being able to rapidly make predictive models foresight. Can Vantage use this power in other ways or does it just make predictive models? Also would she be just completely hard countered by someone with the power to manipulate probability or would she be able to account for that?

It's limited to these 'simulations', though she can in theory run quick/less detailed simulations to make a quick and dirty prediction, but these are hazy. (She uses percentages more because it helps her ground the information/keep it centred than because her power just spits out "10%")

I think probability manipulation would screw her up until she knew to account for it in her predictions. However, in that instance, she'd just plan for not being able to use her power properly. She has a whole team, after all.

[drinkyourvillainjuice]

Gonna be honest, it took me a minute to realize that anon mean eat Vantage literally and did not mean it the other way.

OF *COURSE* IT TOOK YOU A MINUTE. OF COURSE.

/lh

[drinkyourvillainjuice]

Actually same Vantage fangirl anon, I know you're pretty much full on ROs but I still chose to read that fight dialogue as flirty even if it wasn't really intended that way. I hope she's super frustrated by the delicious loss I served her.

sdfhs I suppose one can read flirtiness into the bit of banter at the start if you squint.

If she loses, Vantage will be very analytical about it, but there would be elements of frustration for sure, especially if she got completely wrecked.

(if a previously not violent Dime used the option to try and seriously wound her, she's not mad, she's just disappointed)

[drinkyourvillainjuice]

Is there going to be a RO for Vantage? Or a super hero RO at all?

what have I done

Vantage is a no; I can't see her getting enough screentime for it to be satisfying.

Hero - uhh

So there's a particular hero where It's Complicated with Dime. There's a history, we'll say.

[drinkyourvillainjuice]

Actually I like Vantage, I want to give her a big slimy membrane hug because she's absolutely hate it

Oh yeah she really wouldn't enjoy that. Can you imagine getting ichor on a white bodysuit? That shit's never coming out.