I love his blue eyes but I miss his natural eyes he used to have; they were so cuteeee gahhh 😭💕 so I did a lil brown eyed version to see what he’d look like if he never switched to blue 👉👈
(A whole Ted talk about him + full sketch below 🙌)
A B O U T V : : .
Name: Vincent Saito, “V”
Age: 23
Gender: Male (he/him)
Background: Corpo
Job: Merc
Body type: Twink. He’s fairly lean, and agile. He doesn’t look physically imposing but is actually stronger than he looks, as he has Gorilla arm cyberware installed that he can rely on instead of his own strength when the need arises.
Skills: He’s a skilled netrunner and sniper, preferring to keep a distance.
Personality: When on the clock he tries to be professional and carry out his client’s requests perfectly, desiring nothing but a flawless review of his performance… but has a hard time ignoring his moral compass which can compromise his resolve. He’s often naively optimistic, and gets hit twice as hard by the curveballs of Night City. He fears rejection and wants to trust people. If he doesn’t like someone or feels lied to he’ll become quite snappy, short fused leading to impulsive trigger happy responses.
He enjoys teasing and joking around to spark reactions out of people he likes and can be quite a brat. He’s very gentle and soft with animals and kids.
B A C K S T O R Y : : .
Pre-2077 History: His parents were both Japanese corpo that migrated to Night City by Arasaka’s request. V was born and raised in Night City as a nepo baby being fast tracked into a future with the company with private tutoring. His parents had high expectations and were abusive in their intensity. In public they’d carry an image of being perfectly normal loving parents making V doubt their abuse, but the moment he was anything other than perfect they’d retract any love. They’d always put their career first before him, which meant they’d often not come home for sometimes up to months at a time. Causing V to grow up highly independent and desperate for approval.
V spent a lot of time alone and often ended up picking fights with strangers on the streets if he felt injustice was being enacted.
One day he saw a kid a few years older than him getting bothered by some gang members and V stepped in, demanding they leave the kid alone. Ultimately V was powerless to stop them at that age without any cyberware to compensate so they beat V instead. 🥲
However, the kid was grateful for having been stood up for and introduced himself as Jackie. They quickly bonded and over time became best friends.
Jackie became protective of the younger scrawny teen and they’d often hangout at his Mama’s house. (Although V had invited Jackie over to his parent’s place several times, it was a lot less lived in and Jackie found it unsettling.)
Jackie’s mother, Mama Welles noticed the signs of neglect in V and her concern for the kid grew each time she saw the kid.
At one point V’s parents stopped coming home altogether. He didn’t know when or why or if they were even still alive, and Mama Welles offered V to live with them until they came home. As far as V knows, they never did, after sometime his access to the apartment was no longer valid and learnt his parents had apparently stopped paying the rent.
Overtime Mama Welles became like a mother to him and he saw Jackie like an older brother. V mellowed out over the years and became very well put together. He was constantly trying to improve his skills and work hard, aiming to get into Arasaka one day to find what happened to his parents, and if they needed it, to save them and maybe they’d finally approve of his efforts.
He did a lot of self reflecting and realised he was trans (he was assigned female at birth) He first came out to Jackie who was very supportive and would let him borrow his clothes to let him explore his gender identity. The clothes dwarfed V, but he appreciated it and felt more at home in his body until we would get his own attire.
Soon after he came out to Mama Welles who also immediately accepted him and he permanently left the closet as a man thereafter.
Jackie joined the Valentinos to help bring in money for the family and V would occasionally accompany him (although not being a Valentino himself) on small jobs and Jackie would quietly split the earnings. V continued studying hard and in his free time outside around the small jobs in Heywood V and Jackie did together.
Steadily V saved up for his top surgery, meanwhile Jackie started dating a girl called Misty who told him she knew a guy who had experience with doing it and was reliable. Which is how the two boys met Viktor. Shortly after turning 18, V got his top surgery done by Vik and he became the only ripperdoc that the two trusted. Vik adored the two youths and over time mentally began to adopt them.
Vik and Jackie had a lot of common interests and would often watch boxing games together. Whilst V was typically much quieter and shy. Vik could tell that V was very intelligent and emotionally mature and appreciated both of them equally and knew they were a good team together.
Jackie quit the Valentinos after a job went badly and struck it out to become a merc instead.
V’s hard work paid off and passed Arasaka entrance exams and was offered a job. Jackie was anxious to see V take the job, knowing how cutthroat the industry was but ultimately he respected V’s choice and supported him.
With the job came a place of his own and he moved out to live independently. He worked there until he was 23 and the events of the game began…
Game Prologue Chapter: Working at Arasaka gave him severe anxiety, he’d give it his everything and work to the bone looking for approval. The job was extremely fickle and he knew one mistake could cost him everything he’d achieved.
His boss of the department, Jenkins noticed his efforts and would solicit sexual favours from him. V, desperate for approval and fearful of the consequences of saying no, gave in. Over time V gained feelings for Jenkins and came to care about him, ignoring the glaring red flags. Others in the office would secretly snidely refer to V as “Jenkin’s boy.” Seeing that V got special treatment.
V honed himself into a loyal dog that when asked to jump would ask how high. He finally began to feel like he was getting the recognition for his efforts he’d always craved. He didn’t mind the dirty jobs Jenkins would send him on, spying, stealing, killing. Nothing was off the table. He didn’t care that he was being used and was a dirty secret for Jenkins and nothing more. He felt seen.
V would tell Jackie everything, and Jackie grew increasingly concerned for V’s well being. V stubbornly ignored Jackie’s well intended concerns and swore he knew what he was doing. (And besides, it’s not like he had the choice to say no even if he wanted to.)
Eventually Icarus flew too close to the sun when a large data leak spiralled out of control aboard; Jenkins’ temper rose and V was unable to please him. Jenkins demanded V kill off Abernathy, another high ranking member of Arasaka, to clear the path for Jenkins’ promotion. And for the first time V hesitated.
Previously he’d never questioned who he was sent to kill, it was easier not to, just blindly trusting Jenkins. But this time, attacking a target within Arasaka? It was treason. He knew it was bad but what could he do about it? He’d have to decide if he was more loyal to Jenkins or Arasaka. His feelings for Jenkins clouded his judgement.
He met up at Lizzie’s Bar with the only person he knew he could trust, Jackie, to ask him to take on this mission with him. V couldn’t bear the thought of Jenkin’s rejection. Jackie could also see it was a bad mission. But before they could agree to take it on together, Abernathy’s unit stormed the bar to take V out having been ratted out from within Arasaka.
V was miraculously spared his life but everything he had built for himself was seised. V despaired believing Jenkins resented him. He never got to achieve anything he’d set out to in Arasaka. He lost everything. But Jackie assured him this was the best thing that could have happened to him and he was free to start fresh.
Blah blah blah events of the game unfold as per usual 🙌 V rebuilds, becomes a merc with Jackie, temporarily moved in with him again until he saved up for his own apartment again. Ends up with a pet cat, an iguana, and befriending a rockerboy terrorist from 50 years ago (Johnny Silverhand) in his head that’s slowly killing him. 🎉 (and down the line ends up dating said rockerboy’s former bandmate, Kerry Eurodyne!)
A P P E A R A N C E : : .
Hair: Iridescent sunset gradient, blonde to rose gold/salmon pink.
Eyes: Pale lilac kiroshis
Piercings: Both lobes, and some helix piercings + left eyebrow
Scars: Across his face, and top surgery scars.
Tattoos: The Johnny + V in a love heart tattoo that Johnny got him whilst drunk
Cyberware: Gorilla arms in case he comes into close contact with hostiles or needs heavy lifting, but prefers to avoid hand to hand combat if possible. Also has Kiroshis, and Netrunning chips and stuff idk who cares
Clothes: Pink aviators, Yorinobu’s shirt because he likes to act like a classy high end merc, shiny iridescent white trousers because he likes to be extra, white shoes with gold accents for that extra ✨class✨ and he also wears his output’s leather jacket because he likes to subtly flex that he’s dating the Kerry Eurodyne 💅
Main Weapon: Archangel. The revolver Kerry gifted to him and he keeps good care of it religiously.
I think that’s everything I have to yap about…? If anyone has questions my ask box is always open 🙌
