Vance Lingolin (Classic Gerosha)

Vance Lingolin is an employee of Sleet Mountain in Blood Over Water. He is a romantic interest for Monica; as well as a coworker with Chris Kennal, Ashley Phillips, Kyle Tugrass, and Mark Stefflin.

Character bio
Vance Lingolin is an employee of Sleet Mountain in The Gerosha Chronicles of Dozerfleet Comics. He is a minor character mentioned first in the backstory material for Blood Over Water, and is given an expanded role in the novel adaptation. He is a romantic interest for Monica Shelly; as well as a coworker with Chris Kennal, Kyle Tugrass, and Mark Stefflin.

Miniseries history
Main article: Blood Over Water

Vance was ideally to be a character to bridge several gaps and explain several plot holes. But in spite of what direction may have been best to take him in, the miniseries' plot was not primarily decided by regular Dozerfleet staff. Instead, direct Chris Wilson set the major tone for creative direction, which affected how primary scriptwriter Angelica McClary depicted characters in her scripts. This allowed little wiggle room for Vance to play the best role possible.

Vance was shoehorned into the miniseries' backstory supplemental material as yet-another Sleet Mountain thug, one who tried to kill Mark Stefflin first on orders from CEO Clyde Spendelworth. But when Vance's efforts to kill Mark ended in him accidentally running himself off the road and killing himself, George Lawence was placed in charge of dealing with Mark. When George couldn't do it either, Chris Kennal was given the job. Chris then pays an accomplice named Ashley Phillips to impersonate a lost party girl looking for a different apartment number, so that he can get the jump on Mark. Vance is never elaborated on again afterward. This version of Vance is canon to both Classic and Comprehensive Geroshas.

Novel history
In spite his generally moral upbringing, Vance soon found himself caught up in the same hedonistic lifestyle as his coworkers at Sleet Mountain. Even so, there were fine lines he refused to cross. Little is known of his childhood. However, he was able to join Sleet Mountain at a young age. He quickly worked his way up in the company, and became the accounts receivable department head under CEO Bob Lusital's guidance. At a function Sleet Mountain held to promote itself to Ferris State students in February of 2009, Vance met biology student Monica Shelly. The two quickly became chummy and close friends. Eventually, lines were crossed when they got bored one evening. The two spent the next several months as friends-with-benefits. However, they started falling in love by August of 2009. Vance decided it wasn't right to be using Monica in that manner; and he offered to upgrade their relationship to something more monogamous. Monica replied that she would think it over. Her hesitation was due to her sister Betsy having had a bad falling out with the father of Monica's niece, Annabelle Shelly. This made Monica afraid to give her heart away too casually to just anyone.

Vance was supposed to attend the company party at Crooked Lake where Bob handed over the reins of power to Clyde Spendelworth, but chose to skip the party because he had an innate distrust of Clyde. He shares his concerns in bed with Monica later that evening. He spends the next month growing accustomed to the gradual changes Clyde implements at the Lower Northern plant. However, he finds himself being called into Clyde's office along with Mark Stefflin, Chris Kennal, and Kyle Tugrass. He has already discovered what appeared to be evidence of Clyde's involvement with Gleeful-N'-Young, but wasn't able to secure a copy of the evidence for himself. When Clyde mentions the cleanup fraud conspiracy, Vance accuses Clyde to his face of being involved with Gleeful-N'-Young. He also protests to covering for Clyde's pollution and fraud, resigning on the spot. He threatens to have Clyde exposed, and fights off Chris and Kyle's efforts to calm him down. He escapes when they give pursuit, with a confused Mark looking on. Vance is able to give both of them the slip, then escapes to his van.

Clyde calmly calls George Lawence on his cell phone, alerting him to follow Vance. George immediately follows through and does so. One car chase later, Vance is dead. Kyle is sent to help George eliminate the evidence. However, they choose a spot on campus where Monica observes them in the distance burning Vance's van. She waits until they leave, and discovers that they got sloppy and left the license plate behind. Yet, to her dismay, she was the only one who witnessed the arson. The police don't believe her story about Vance being murdered, so she vows to prove it. His body is never recovered.

Vance's death not only becomes a moral turning point for Monica in the story, but it prompts her to want to help out Aaron as he searches for answers in Mark's disappearance. Vance's disappearance is also the turning point that convinced Mark to betray the company himself, which put both him and Ashley Phillips in harm's way when Clyde sends Chris to deal with Mark's betrayal.

Personality
Vance's is shown to be hopeless romantic and a very ethical worker. His attachment to Monica begins early, with them meeting in class and becoming teammates. He understands that Monica's past tragic origin is partially why she is hesitant to commit to a relationship with him; and he's patient with her to the point that she declares him patient "to a fault."

Otherwise, Vance's brief presence in the story serves to make him moreso than anything else, a catalyst for other characters. He doesn't shy away from sexual trysts with Monica; and even has a slight deviant bent with regard to wanting to push sexual boundaries with her. However, he never proceeds on anything without at least her implied consent.

Vance suffers from arachnophobia. His keen moral awareness when it comes to business ethics, however, is dwarfed only by Aaron's strong sense of general morality. That being said, he is not very tactful about his desire to rebel against Clyde. He makes himself - and nearly also Monica - targets for George almost immediately, by not keeping his mouth shut. His recklessness prompts Mark - and later Chris - to be much more sneaky in their own acts of betrayal.

Development
Vance's introduction into the overall story had a bumpy beginning. In 2009, the original miniseries was produced. The wiki articles at that time were lacking in sufficient explanation for why Mark would be willing to risk being murdered for revealing company secrets. Also unclear is why Clyde would consider a pollution and cleanup fraud scandal to be worth murdering someone over. Background materials for the miniseries left those questions unanswered. What was answered, however, was why Clyde eventually pressured Chris and Ashley into disposing of Mark. This was explained in backstory material as having been due to the failure of an offscreen character named Vance to do the job properly.

The 2013 early proposal for the remake created a lot of room for character reinterpretations, and Vance was among many characters to be reinterpreted. He was changed into a hero for this version - and Mark's catalyst. Mark was made into a greedier individual with fewer ethics, having been corrupted by his friendship with Chris. Chris remains mostly the same, though his exact motivations at the company were altered.

Vance was also reimagined as a romantic interest for Monica, thus explaining her willingness to help Aaron discover Mark's fate later. The original miniseries referred to Monica as Aaron's "lady friend," when Kyle is taunting them. However, the term may have been used pejoratively. There is no evidence to suggest that Aaron and Monica were ever actually a couple. Instead, the remake rewrites Aaron and Monica to be explicitly platonic, and to have met in class some time before the story began. Monica is given Vance as a love interest, and Aaron is explicitly stated to be dating a new character: Meredith Celestine. Meredith's influence on Aaron further explained why he and Mark took different directions in life.

Trivia

 * In appearance, Vance has always been interpreted as being red-haired and with some facial hair, as well as skinny and having either an SUV or a minivan.
 * Little else was said or known of him until January 18th of 2014, when he was visually depicted for the first time in the Blood Over Water Story Pack for The Sims 3 - at what is now DzMD.