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bluffmotel · 19 hours

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Got a question that's been rattling around in my head that I just can't get over!! So imagine we actually got the hostage situation to carry on throughout the entirety of book two, right? I would love to hear how you'd think Vince would feel and react if he may or may not start feeling *things* about Tyler. Honestly, I'm curious how you think Vince would react in general (to maybe mayhaps perhaps feeling something for Tyler) but ESPECIALLY in this situation because ohhhh the layers of it all...

this question is actually everything to me, i hope you know! i saw this in my inbox and was immediately tickled to see you in it, and while i was excited to answer any potential asks you left, this sure was one that hit me like a bus - - in the best possible way! as i’ve said once or twice, i’ve thought about hostage vince a lot in the past, and so i’ll do my best to squeeze all of my thoughts down. ( and also, quick shout out to @andonutty, who’s done wonders for helping me understand vince better as a character a year ago! they were kind enough to beta read this as well and give some input, so credit where it’s due <3 )

so, vince and his feelings towards tyler are an entire can of worms on their own, outside and within this au. while i’ve talked about the eldest holt’s peculiar and intense emotions where it concerns vince before, i haven’t done the same for him, and it’s because i like the ambiguity of it all. in a way, it’s something up to player interpretation, a glimmer of a thing you can either go all the way with or snuff out. but even though such feelings are a decision you can make, as the player or a writer or what have you, there’s no denying that there are feelings there. the nature of them is just complex and heavily entangled, and decidedly not a priority for vince when there’s much more pressing issues at hand like his actual family. so he’s subtle about it! it’s important to note that while vince plays the ‘everyday man’ trope perfectly, he can display some rather insane behavior himself! despite his pacifism and jokey exterior, he isn’t exactly the perfect picture of a guy who’s mentally well -- he’s just been through something awful after all, but even outside of recent events there’s implications of a childhood forged in trauma and there’s an intensity about him too. an intensity that bursts out around tyler and michelle respectively! and it’s so unlike him, these little moments, to the point where anytime i’ve seen these options my eyes kinda widen and i’m like okay! so! this guy’s a little fucked up! the most notable instances with michelle are during the flashback, where our protagonist has good reason to believe his wife is cheating on him, a scene in the game that has many different options and outcomes, but here are some that spoke to me specifically in regards to decidedly ‘not normal’ behavior.

for one, there are two moments where vince can choose physical intimacy as a means of forgetting about their current, rather big, problem. like at the start, where he can drop the bruce topic and reciprocate michelle’s advances and desire for sex -- which he’s rather aggressive about, to the point where he firmly tells michelle to just let the phone ring and will look irritated when she decides not to listen. again! at this point, vince has a strong suspicion she’s lying and cheating on him! so i find the reaction strange, it’s just a little to the left, you know? it’s not something a normal person would do, and this becomes more prominent when he gets real confirmation that michelle has, in fact, cheated on him and then tried to gaslight him about it, and in response he can just. kiss her like he wants to eat her alive! again, or even for the first time! this isn’t even mentioning how crazy he looks when he snatches the phone away from her and nettles at bruce only to be like “weird, he hung up.” as the call ends. i find these scenarios fascinating because they are just so crazy to me, they’re little hints that imply flaws and insecurities inside someone who’s genuinely a good guy and i love it. and i also think it’s rather interesting that michelle was initially unfairly antagonistic towards vince when they first met. through a selection of choices you can find this information out and it’s rather surprising, to say the least! if i remember correctly, michelle was lost at an airport and vince noticed this and tried giving her directions - - being his usual friendly and helpful self! but for some reason michelle called security on him? i cannot stress enough this is how their love story starts, canonically. like she was so rude at first and vince chose to date her anyway, probably came out of this awkward interaction liking her in spite of this and who knows how the rest went, but these two didn’t have the best start either and got married. obviously, tyler does way worse! though it’s not like vince hasn’t shown an ability to forge fondness or forgive someone despite being hurt, something we’re shown time and time again with michelle and jim and, to an extent, jay most notably. which is important to me, knowing this is a huge possibility rather than something entirely ooc for him to do. anyway! on a more lighthearted note, i simply believe vince is just attracted to people who are unreasonably mean to him at first but kinda want / need him around anyway. probably a symptom from being severely bullied all his childhood and a general feeling of unwantedness from the people who were supposed to kindly care for him since birth ( aka jim! ) … but i digress!

back to his intensity, it’s rather striking how differently he reacts to tyler and dante, the two figureheads he is constantly pitted against and is consistently paired with. he is undeniably mad at the sheriff no matter what route you take and reasonably so! you can see his distaste and his disbelief, but you can’t taste the anger usually. there is never a moment in adf where you feel as though vince is truly spitting mad at dante, just like there’s never a choice for you to purposefully chase after him with the intent of causing harm. makes sense, right? vince, even when faced with injustice and loss and awful treatment, usually never wants more hurt, never wants to cause it, he will always take an out that leaves everyone alive and in one piece. this is literally told to us via jim in the car scene, where he has this to say about vince’s methods of handling people who wish him literal harm :

so no, he won’t passively take these beatings, but he won’t get violent either -- he will always try and find another way. the only reason he attacks dante so viciously ( to the point of believing he might’ve killed him ) is because dante was actively trying to murder and / or torture him and vince knew this for sure. it was him or dante, no ifs, ands, or buts. but then there’s tyler, and i mean just him and not dale or jay or even sharon, where vince can get excessively violent or cruel, in ways that almost feel undeserving when compared to what dante has done versus what tyler has done. in the span of three chapters, vince can a.) despite knowing the man for a couple minutes or an hour at most, he can tell tyler, and i quote, “you know you’re going to jail after this, and when you finally die there, you’re going straight to fuckin’ hell.” which literally made me gasp when i first heard this because jesus christ i do not think vince has ever been more mean in his life, and b.) try to shoot him with a shotgun at close range, and then finally c.) bash his head into concrete multiple times. so! compared to the worst he can do or say to dante, this is so much more than any of that. and it’s so strange, all this violence and visceral anger, because he has more moments with tyler where there’s a somber sort of softness and an almost understanding, where they almost click, and so these bursts of intensity don’t necessarily strike me as hatred. tyler gets under vince’s skin like nothing else and it’s laughable that he does, because he’s so bad at being the bad guy. he is literally the worst criminal ever! he doesn’t have a plan and he can’t do anything right and vince can find out pretty early on that he could whoop tyler’s ass if need be. nothing about this man is threatening ( even though he tries so hard to be ) and the second sharon appears, he becomes what he’s always been : just sharon’s stand-in. but despite dale being able to actually shoot his wife and sharon promising to look out for his family only to lie, vince beefs with tyler specifically and it’s just! fascinating! how physical they are with one another and how up each other’s asses they can be. even in the aftermath of trying to kill one another, they will slip into little things, little touches, so inappropriate to what they are to each other on a surface level : enemies.

and while tyler leads a majority of their scenes and acts outwardly crazy, vince is just as crazy about him, it’s just less noticeable and comes out in scenes where it could be expected … if, again, vince wasn’t framed as someone so hard to anger and someone who’s a bonafide pacifist. at best i usually read vince as being physically attracted to tyler during the desert dream, and he’s a little annoyed about that, subconsciously. but it’s kinda hard not to be when this super handsome guy does strange things like call him ‘good boy’ for getting on his knees, grabs his throat, and presses into him to the point their mouths are just a centimeter away.

again, vince probably isn’t thinking about it, yet these things stack up and it does breed this interesting sort of physical reaction. in a world where they weren’t entirely free of one another ( like the au i promise i’ll be discussing here soon! ) i can only imagine the weird trauma response vince would develop for tyler! the holt barely allowed him breathing room and was never not touching him, or watching him, or just being there and demanding to know every little thing vince could offer -- it’s a bodily sensation that would stick around for a long time, all intense and squirmy, and if zoe’s trauma towards jay can be viewed as bordering on romantic / sexual all because he covered her mouth with his hand, like. vince is in some deep trouble! which isn’t me trying to necessarily romanticize how tyler has traumatized vince, but it’s undeniably there and i do think it’s an interesting element to their relationship, be it romantic or platonic or antagonistic. especially since i firmly believe that under normal circumstances vince would like tyler a lot as a person ; find him cute, admire his laborer mindset, think his quiet demure nature is endearing, relate to his devotion to his family and the bitterness that comes with it, etc etc. they mesh together so well as a pair, in the desert dream and outside of it as people, it’s just more heavy than it normally would’ve been, you know? ( which is the tragedy in a way, how they could’ve been good for one another ) though i also think vince recognizes what tyler is, which is someone in the same position as him -- someone who’d rather take the punches and cruelty because the people in his pack are under his care, not the other way around. and maybe that’s why there’s an unbearable amount of ire aimed at the eldest holt in particular, because he’s the responsible one, the one who takes everything on the chin just like vince himself. so naturally they clash, and when they clash, it’s horrifically violent since they’ve both presented themselves as the ones to ‘take it’, and so they do. dale, jay, and sharon are extensions of tyler to vince in the beginning, perhaps, and michelle, jim, and zoe are just the baggage vince happens to be carrying to tyler. the others might fall because of bad luck or circumstance but if there’s any intentional violence dealt out, it’s going to be at each other : as the figureheads, as the metaphorical leaders ( no matter how false of one tyler is ), and so on. it always comes back to their complicated similarities and stark differences, and to them being foils and parallels in every way.

anyway! to sum all that up, tyler and vince are both attracted to each other ( as people, as roles, as friends, as more ) but while these feelings are intense for both of them, they’re still shallow, and neither party is aware of these inclinations just yet or what they could become, they’re both just acting on it without any second thoughts. i once described how tyler’s thing for vince was, and it was like this :

but then he meets vince, which is an instant hit -- it's like a lightswitch that's been turned on for the first time. he sees the light, yes, but he still has to explore the room.

and vince’s side of things could maybe be read similarly. it’s infatuation and curiosity and probably lust but with everything weighing on both their shoulders, and the chaos around them, and everything they’ve done to each other and will keep doing, they have lots of ‘exploring’ to do.

and god i could talk way more about these two from vince’s pov, tyler’s pov, and in general, and there’s so many things i haven’t rambled about with them yet, but for simplicity’s sake, let's discuss the actual questions you asked! i just felt it was prudent to lay out what vince might’ve felt towards tyler before, so that the rest of my thoughts on this matter would make sense.

now, to delve into this concept, i will say that a lot of this would depend on what one would choose to do with it, you know? there’s a lot of things that could happen if vince had stayed with the holts as a hostage, so there’d be a ton of fun questions to ask! such as : would the holts still split up, if they had a working car? or would they lose the car some other way? would the cabin scene still happen if not, or would it change, or would such a blow up between jay and tyler happen later on? what would their plans be? like, there’s loads of ground to play around with! so to keep this easy, i’ll try and focus more so on vince’s feelings ( towards tyler and towards the situation in general ) as well as some potential scenarios i’ve thought of, rather than trying to map out how’d i write all this -- although hints of my own opinions will be sprinkled in here, as that cannot be helped haha.

the biggest hurdle for vince would be giving up his family and resigning himself to a life on the run, obviously. his actions during the beginning of book two make complete sense to me, because being willing to trade spots with his young daughter is not the same as fully committing to a fugitive lifestyle ; vince, naturally, will always want to leave and would do anything to achieve this, all tunnel visioned and desperate. and as we quickly see, he wouldn’t care about temporarily attacking one of the holts to achieve this goal, because this is where vince’s needs begins clashing with theirs rather than being on the same road. he needs his family, and the family he’s stuck with are planning on hauling him across the country without a second glance back, meaning they are at a crossroads. in order for vince to stay we need to make this desire impossible to achieve, which is way easier than many would think! while the holts couldn’t hold him down forever, the law certainly could, because when you really think about it, the game heavily implies that our protagonist might become a wanted man at the end of book one even if it’s unjust or unfair. not only does he physically assault a sheriff who’s known to spin stories in his favor ( if you side with the holts anyway ), he also says this to tyler and sharon :

to be blunt, if vince didn’t die or get away from his captors as early as he did, and was stuck with them for a longer stretch of time, there’s just no way he wouldn’t be framed as someone as violent as the holts are. dante probably would sell the fbi and his department a story about how vince attacked him for two rock’s own wicked family, that he openly lied for them and stayed by their side until the very end … hell, he might say, he fuckin’ went with them willingly! that’s no hostage. and considering how callous the fbi acts when it comes to sweeping the truth under the rug, the likelihood of them taking this story and running with it is high. after all, it doesn’t look good to say a hostage attacked a police officer, that would imply the law was somehow worse than these would-be terrorists, and they can’t have that now, can they? this sort of plot would further hone in on adf’s overall ‘the law is just as bad as the people they’re trying to punish’ theme and it’d make it impossible for vince to go back to his family and live a normal life, something which would devastate us because we fought so hard for him to have a life he wants. whether that be with michelle or not, whether he forgives jim or not, whether he’s taking the settlement money or fighting the airline -- all those choices made for vince would be rendered meaningless in an instant, it would be something taken away from him simply because he’s a good dad and maybe felt too much sympathy for the holts, maybe cared for them more than he should’ve. the second vince learns of his real fugitive status ( which would be easy, they’d be all over the radio and the papers and tv ) he’d have no choice but to buckle in, accept his fate … an outcome that would finally allow for him to start thinking long term, start forming actual bonds with the holts, and all that fun stuff. his knee jerk reaction and pure primal instincts to go, go, go, would fade, re-allowing actual thought and opinions and feelings back in.

( this isn’t to say vince couldn’t, potentially, get out! if caught by law enforcement, he could always just tell the truth and throw the holts under the bus. he could always wiggle away from the family of misfits anyway, and figure something out on his own. but this is the bed he’s made and he’ll lie in it, probably, at least for a little while )

this situation also wouldn’t do him any favors mentally, per se, if we’re to tinker with how he’s dealing with all of this! but a lot of his struggle would be internal, just like how we see in the desert dream -- less likely to air his baggage, all compartmentalized, constantly preoccupied with moving forward rather than what he needs to sort through. throughout the game we consistently see vince struggle to confront his problems or his trauma in particular! michelle mentions as such in their fight, claiming he never talks to her about his struggles with finding a job, that he’s completely shut her out, and we see him withdraw from telling her about his dream regarding his current issues. now, do i think that michelle made it hard to talk to her about these things? yes! but vince still has an avoidance problem, and if left with other options, he will always be tempted to choose a path that avoids his insecurities and fears and wounds being exposed. jim also offers the ( rather obvious ) insight of vince using humor to deflect and to hide how badly he’s been hurt by something or someone -- like, this is a core aspect of his character. so it’s safe to say that while vince would be spiraling, it’d probably be pretty secret and he’d be shoving it down for the sake of his, and the holts’, survival. it’d definitely still weigh on him though! i feel like loneliness would settle in on vince hard, a sense of grief that would be tripled tenfold if michelle had died that night, because he has lost everything. and that sort of pain doesn’t leave no matter how skilled you are at avoiding it ; his skin would burn with how much he misses michelle and zoe and even jim, which would throw him for a loop, missing the company of someone who he thought was dead up until six months ago. but he would! he’d want that stupid house in missouri and to see zoe off to her next grade, whatever grade it is, and to give her back her owl and tell her it worked wonders for him when he was totally scared in the dark. this longing would bury itself under his skin and it’d never fully lighten up, despite the fact it wouldn’t feel like it’s inside him at all. he might forget its existence, too caught up in half-assed plans and living another day and the holts and their addictive orbit, but it’d be there. along with regret ( him lamenting on choices he’s made, for a brief moment, would be interesting and likely -- but it’d also be fun, in the sense of vince wishing for different outcomes, outcomes he could’ve made, given adf’s choice based medium ) and anger, though he wouldn’t aim it at the holts anymore at that point. just at himself, and the cops, and dante, and maybe even michelle or jim or the airline for making them move at all, just this general discontentment with everything around him. all this exhaustive irritation but no one to really blame … oh he’d be a mess, but just like in book one, he’d power through so fiercely it’d be hard to remember he’s just as broken apart as tyler and jay, and sharon i suppose.

speaking of sharon … if vince knew her for a prolonged period of time and was stuck around her sons as well, he’d quickly start to dislike her to be honest! as someone with a child of his own, i just can’t imagine that his hackles wouldn’t raise when seeing how she treats tyler, and how she will passively sit by and allow her sons to fight as they do, let them talk to each other like that. he’d pretty quickly figure out what their deal is and unlike tyler, who can understand how fucked their lives have been but can’t accurately place the blame, vince would realize sharon is just as culpable as their dad was for why they’re like that. he’d see through her facade and her lies, perpetually unable to fall for her smokescreens and woe-is-me attitude, because he’s not desperate to appease her, familially or sexually or romantically. i adore sharon, but she is extremely selfish despite her claims of just being a mother and a wife who cares too much -- and vince, who’s selfless to a fault where it concerns his own family, someone who’d jump in front of a train three times over for his own kin, wouldn’t be able to forgive that sort of nature. especially knowing what it’s done to tyler, jay, and dale. her entire relationship with her eldest son would squick him out almost, i think, since he’s now forced to see it all the time ; how badly tyler thinks he needs her, how he’s devoted to the point of sacrificing anyone else for her sake, the mental image of him giving his life away and still taking her punishments like he’s six instead of twenty-five. things would click for him finally and the picture isn’t pretty! this sort of disdain would also stem from my personal belief that vince’s relationship with his own mother was -- not super similar, but she leaned on him a lot after jim left, maybe was even struggling with some mental health problems of her own. given how uncomfortable he gets when his childhood is brought up and how little he ( or michelle or zoe ) speak of his mother, i just see the relationship as strained! like, he’s been there, being an adult woman’s dependent when he shouldn’t have been, and vince actually realized that and wiggled away, whereas tyler has not. so it’d be personal to him for a lot of reasons!

vince looks at tyler and sees someone he could’ve been had it not been for the better resources he probably had, and there’s no real way to easily describe that sort of feeling ; staring into a warped mirror and seeing someone who so clearly isn’t you, but is, and seeing scenes play out that make your skin crawl because that’s you. it was almost you. but it’s not … so, yeah, he simply isn’t drinking the ‘sharon is basically the queen’ kool aid and while he’d try to work with her, maybe even pity her to some degree in spite of himself, they’d most likely start butting heads sooner or later! and i also wouldn’t put it past sharon to try charming vince either, given her track record with all the known men in her life and her own subtle desperation to not be alone, but he couldn’t be less interested, so thankfully if she tried most of these attempts would just go over his head lol. in a scenario where vince was forced to stay, his and sharon’s dynamic would be interesting! mostly because they don’t exactly have one, and his thoughts on her ( and her thoughts on him ) are vague enough that you could do whatever with. but! i personally believe vince wouldn’t like her based on who he is as a person, which leads back into his relationship with tyler and jay, who are people he can already be sympathetic to.

honestly, after getting to know them better and seeing how they ( more specifically tyler ) have been treated their whole lives, i could see vince becoming rather protective of them. he’d be inclined to where jay is involved anyway, given his baby faced appearance and overall meek nature -- and it isn’t like jay hasn’t tried to look out for him and zoe wherever he could back at the motel. jay is a good kid and vince knows this! tries to give him hope even in his hopeless situation, an idea for a better future someday, one that involves seeing yellowstone like he wanted to do. it’s lies at this point, but we see how soothing vince can become ( and how much his sympathy increases ) when he gets to know the boy just a little better. it helps humanize the holt boys, finally giving vince that last stretch of understanding he was almost getting but ultimately lacking, and he’d be all the more compassionate for it. tyler can only tell him so much in the back office ; vague footnotes about how their hand was forced, this impression of death hanging over his family from ‘these people’, it’s enough in the moment to garner his commiseration, yet tyler isn’t telling him “our pa was a deadbeat who gambled our money away, tried killing himself to fend off mafia-like loan sharks, only to then leave us with thousands of dollars in debt we either have to pay or be slaughtered over.” you know? then there’s a childhood bathed in emotional and physical abuse, a life lived as an outcast in their small town because of their holt heritage … it’s, frankly, a lot! and while jay nor tyler would be jumping at the opportunity to talk about this, there’d be signs and little tells and emotional explosions that could paint a pretty vivid image. if vince saw the cabin scene, for example, everything i’ve mentioned thus far would ring true : he’d feel for and understand tyler’s predicament and jay’s entire life being a lie, as well as looking at sharon with distaste over how she’s treated them both and how she’ll let the fight between the two escalate into genuinely concerning violence. like, you know vince would’ve broken that fight up entirely! and he would’ve chased them into the woods to try and stop tyler ( from potentially killing jay ) and jay ( from running away ). would he be successful? who knows! his mere presence might make things worse, since tyler can’t even try being normal around him, but this sort of peacekeeping and general sense of looking out for them both would be prominent. call it him being protective, call it his nature, it’s still an aspect he’d carry when forced to stick around. they’re all victims of circumstance in his eyes after a while, and they’re all just trying to make due with what life’s given them. of course, this isn’t to imply he couldn’t grow angry or irritated or frustrated with jay or tyler! that he couldn’t hold resentments. but he’d be a bit softer than what we usually saw in the desert dream. i mean, how could he not be? it also helps that vince would quickly start viewing them as a unit rather than hostage vs captors since things get more serious and i could see him trying to use them as a way to ease his yearning for his actual family.

with jay and sharon aside, let's touch back on tyler and vince again, since there’s so much more to say about them in this situation. sadly, while they’d be allowed to explore their intense emotions for each other more than usual, i don’t believe they’d ever naturally come to any real conclusion about it, even still, not unless it was a couple years down the line and honestly? they might just be comfortable in their blurry relationship, content with it while still navigating ways to survive. though i’m getting ahead of myself! so, firstly, tyler would become unbearably suffocating with vince had he stayed, an echo of his constant hovering and watching in book one except now it’s all the time. i don’t need to cover his various moments with vince in book one ( as much as i’d love to ), but this behavior extends very briefly into book two as well. here’s another snippet of me discussing tyler’s thought process and mindset and the implications of this tiny moment, as shown below :

like this is sharon, of all people. holt's personal patron saint. their reigning dictator. the usual object of tyler's blind admiration and respect. and she is talking to him, about dale, about things he brought up first ... and he almost looks distracted. fidgety. in ways he never usually is when it comes to soaking in her words, much less when paying rapt attention to her commanding gestures. but that's waning. because tyler can't help himself, when it comes to vince ; has to keep glancing back towards the car, in a desperate attempt to keep said man in his line of sight. and doesn't that just prove tyler's mind isn't entirely there for sharon to begin with? if he's so worried and concerned and drawn towards something else? there's this permanent etch in his brain, this growing crevice dipped deep within, that's dedicated entirely to instinctual needs and vince walker. it comes as easy as breathing. it's not about just how little tyler trusts jay to watch over vince, it's the fact he thinks himself the only one capable of it. that he wants to be the one chaining vince down, or keeping vince in his place, keeping vince around him. this need to share the same space, have him in his eye as a forever fixture is very … um! controlling of him. embarrassing yes, since it's beyond needy, but possessive and controlling nonetheless. behaviors all of which tyler displayed earlier too, when he was constantly up vince's ass over minor things : what're you doing? he's always asking, hovering near. taking stock in where vince is and his name and his family and just him. it's about how the first time tyler is in a room full of hostages he never stopped looking directly at vince. not once. this second sense would increase tenfold in a fugitive au ... and it'd be good, since nobody would find it weird or sniff out his true intention. his obsession. so on. he's just keeping their hostage in check! he's just distrustful, he's cautious, he's being responsible and sensible when he laments that he'll share a crappy motel bed with vince because, can't be you, he'd tell sharon so earnestly, cause what if vince hurts her? they need her. that can't happen. and jay ain't got what it takes. too soft, too bleeding hearted for vince already. but we all know his true intentions don't we lol <3 anyway im normal i just think vince has such a chokehold on tyler, even before ... anything serious. he's making tyler do things he'd never do before. acting out, being violent and petty and childish, longing for companionship, wanting, and he's. making tyler drift from sharon, of all things. like this picture kills me that woman is this man's sole reason for everything, she's his identity, and despite that he's still sneaking glances at vince. isn't that insane?

like, tyler would want to be fully responsible for vince and would see that as his job, as mentioned above! they’d be squeezed together all the time and vince would most likely grow used to this constant company, it’d be something that’s already wormed its way into his new life and routine. there’d be a level of : of course it’s tyler, it’s always tyler, a sentiment heavy with exhaustion and bemusement and shaky acceptance, perhaps. he’d maybe even seek out his company, given the inherent trauma response embedded into their watcher and watched dynamic! and there’d be plenty of new peculiar moments … they could be alone for extended periods of time or crammed together in a car, a room, a bed, a bike -- there would be no more laws or wives or troublesome hostage negotiations to really get in their way, and they’d finally be on the same side, even if everything’s still so strained. but as i said, they probably wouldn’t fully understand what any of this means, because there’d still be something important, their actual priority, which would be survival. they’d be in survival mode all the time and when you’re constantly pumped with adrenaline and fight or flight instincts and you’re always paranoid, there’s not a lot of breathing room to properly explore any potential fondness or chemistry. vince would be too preoccupied with living to notice anything amiss with tyler in particular, and tyler ( despite all his obnoxious wanting ) would still believe he sees vince as a troublesome brother figure rather than anything else, or some sort of personal problem. so that’s what i mean by saying their relationship would blur and they wouldn’t think of deepening it, per se. there’s a lot they could brush off or simply just not think about when constantly on the run, dealing with their own baggage, and the other two people they’re saddled with! if they shared a bed or a section of the floor and vince got handsy? well, vince just spoons in his sleep ( a canon fact, btw ), and he’s held his wife in bed for a decade plus, so it’s just instinct for him and it can’t be helped, and tyler’s warm and insists on being that close anyway. if tyler’s touch lingers when helping vince stitch up a wound, or when he’s checking for injuries after a car crash? he’s just thorough like that, and isn’t done belittling vince, and if it’s a burn that lingers that’s just the actual wound, not the touch itself. if vince tries figuring out what jokes get tyler to stare blankly or which ones rile him up and make him spit out a “you damn idiot,”? if tyler presses a little too close when randomly deciding vince needs to learn how to shoot a gun proper? if the two of them have moments in the night inbetween smokes and rests where one of them blurts out a story, or a regret, or a thought they’ve kept close? it’s definitely not weird or charged and they simply wouldn’t think too hard on it, much less vince, who’d be fighting to keep them all afloat i’m sure. like i could see tyler maybe dwelling on vince more than vince would dwell on him, though it’s not because our protagonist isn’t feeling whatever heavy thing is rumbling between them. he’s just busy, and traumatized, and since his last relationship ended so poorly he’s not really thinking too hard about being back on the market. and these two would be more likely to kiss each other on impulse ( which, isn’t that all they’ve ever done with one another? react and react passionately? ) then they would be to come to the rather normal conclusion of huh, i might like that guy! though if they ever got that far, vince would probably take it better than tyler would, besides the occasional reasonable thought of ‘isn’t this kinda concerning?’ and he might have an overall nervousness about their age gap, which vince would probably be more aware of due to the whole ‘fat pervert preying on young hotties’ stereotypes, so he could feel a little weird and gross about it! but he’s also more emotionally mature than tyler by thirty miles, so i don’t see him getting too hung up on that for long.

tyler on the other hand would probably lose his mind! mostly because wanting something is horrifying as a holt, but also because he’s tyler, and he’s realizing the depths of his desire and it’s rather. scary and new and different, to say the least! and they’d still be on the run with his mother and jay … so, it’d be overwhelming already on its own, much less when they’re living a life so unbelievably dangerous. however! to not put it in so many words : yes, i believe vince would start feeling things for tyler since he already was back at the motel, they’d just become more overt and would cement more firmly, and he wouldn’t be aware of them until he was, and he’d handle it maturely for the most part. if tyler wants it then he’s down. if tyler doesn’t then, yeah, that makes things weird because they’re stuck together and now he feels like a creep, but he’d try hard to respect his wishes. he might not succeed, though an honest effort would be given! again, vince has leagues of relationship experience and was literally married with a kid, he can handle some puppy love or a little fooling around. it’d be weird and disconcerting that it’s tyler holt of all people, a young man and someone who’s been his literal captor ( they’ve hurt each other, badly, worse than vince has ever hurt anyone he loves before ), but oh well, he’s way past normal at this point. they’ll never exist within the law again so why not be a little crazy and stupid about it?

hmm, i don’t think i can word the rest of my thoughts into words right now? this seems like a solid beginning, and i think i’ve left plenty of things to mull over and unpack already. i always get nervous at the end of these answers because i can’t fully tell if my rambling is coherent or not -- and i always have to hold myself back from dropping every tiny bit of evidence on minor opinions i've formed, or derailing from the answer so entirely to make a bunch of separate metas about these characters or relationships at once. what can i say! i love being thorough and my passion for what i love can’t be contained! but yeah, those are my thoughts on what vince might generally feel like in this situation, or towards tyler when they’re in such a tense predicament. naturally, i have more notes and random situations i’ve toyed with … just little things! like, vince being a surprisingly better criminal than the holts for starters, it’s in his blood after all given how good at crime jim was, and vince is overall competent and has a good head on his shoulders already. he can also adjust to a tense situation. etc. and if it wasn’t obvious, i enjoy a good situation where vince and tyler are forced to share a bed. mostly because you could swing it in a way that makes sense, but also because vince literally says :

so. awkward spooning is a go! i absolutely adore it, since vince clearly would and tyler would be so utterly appalled by such a loving gesture -- though he’d be unable to turn it away at the same time. he’d just go really still, like he’s been confronted with a wild animal that’s gonna kill him … and he wouldn’t sleep a wink, and maybe he’d get all hot under the collar and. well. you get the point! it’s fun! and can happen in a fugitive vince au. i also think they’d probably head north towards canada as a flock or just agree to go to belize, because vince would hear them say that they’re still going to mexico and reasonably would be like “are you nuts? you told the police you were going there! we should be heading in the opposite direction!” and vince might have to actually kill someone for the holts, for real this time, and having that genuine blood on his hands ( blood he’s carrying for a family that isn’t his ), and knowing it’s further proof he can’t go home? that’s juicy! thinking about how they’d get food, gas, how they’d rotate for rest, the way their bodies would crumble beneath their never ending march forward - - it’s interesting to me! there’s so many angles you could take with this au and so many scenarios you could cook up, meaning it all just feels like so much fun, you know? maybe jim, michelle ( if alive ), and zoe are looking for vince, maybe sharon still tries chasing after paul, maybe tyler’s leg still gets busted somehow, maybe jason fucking dorland and vanessa try helping our wayward fugitives but jason’s only trying to save vince who he believes to be falsely framed due to witness accounts and vanessa just does it because she wants her totally sexy boyfriend. maybe vince dies at the end, maybe he goes with jay to canada or travels to mexico with tyler or ends up in belize with sharon and paul or maybe he’s by himself and the missing is suddenly worse because he does miss the holts, in some sort of fucked up stockholm syndrome way. maybe jim’s stalker locates vince in the pursuit of his father and everyone from book one is brought back together due to this, somehow. maybe we go back to the abandoned remains of the desert dream motel for a finale and get joyce involved in the plot once more. again, the world’s your sandbox when it comes to this au because of how much book two would change fundamentally, and who doesn’t love some good creative freedom? we could be here all day discussing possibilities! but uh, i think i answered the actual questions here, which was less about that and more about vince’s feelings, so i hope this tangent was an inspiring bonus!

as always, thanks so much for this ask! it means the world to me that someone cares for my thoughts, especially in regards to this niche game, but i enjoy airing them and keeping this tiny fandom alive as much as possible. feel free to send in more ofc <3 and enjoy this behemoth of an answer. sorry for the multiple tangents.

#as dusk falls #answered asks.#oh my god this was. so much longer than i expected it to be but i loved every second of it!!!#and im only just realizing you might’ve wanted a tyler/vince essay rather than a fugitive au one in general but oh well <3 #if needed i’ll answer any other questions about them because i could talk about them for hours #and the fugitive vince au has been scratching at my brain because of you so! i HAD to get this out there #( and feel free to take any inspo from this if you DO write this au like you’ve mentioned btw 👀 just saying )#but yeah. phew. can you tell that i love vince and tyler’s parallels and i love the fact vince canonically spoons in his sleep yet?#i only mentioned it 100 times LMFAO um #god yeah i know this is a lot. sadly my essays are just built like that #and i swear i had things to say for the tags here but my brain has fallen out of my ass so <3 just take this for now!!!#also yes i copy and pasted some of my discord ramblings to my partner and miscellaneous servers in here dont mind me #the amount of content i have hidden in my notes app and discord alone is probably insane. thank god i could include some of that in here #WAIT EDIT : it’s important to me that tyler meeting vince is a catalyst for him realizing he wants more for himself #like there is just something about that. god.

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