vincent mayer

appearance

Vincent could be considered a little short for a mercenary, with lean build, slim waist, and narrow shoulders. He has light, slightly sun-tanned skin with acne scarring on his face, back, and arms; regular flare-ups around the date of his testosterone shots leave some of the scarring more recent than the rest. He has olive green eyes and his brown hair is shaved in a buzzcut, decorated with a scar lightly cutting into the right side of his hairline.

Vincent has low top surgery scars that are covered by dark steel cyberware lines, and various cybernetic plating and decorations covering his torso. He has mantis blades on both arms and for a while in early 2077 has gorilla arms coating covering his hands; this coating is removed sometime after his return to Night City in August 2077.

biography

childhood

Vincent was born in the Glen, Heywood, as the youngest of five. His older siblings– Robert, Jason, Phoebe, and Riley– mostly took care of him, since their parents were too busy with their jobs; their father as a cop for the NCPD, and their mother as manager in a local grocery store. His complicated living situation helped him become relatively independent from a young age, and as the youngest sibling with a competitive family he quickly learned how to stand up for himself.

He was a lonely kid in school, mostly hanging out by himself, spending his free time in the park gathering bugs and trying to get rid of the trash littered around. He did not mind at all, being satisfied with the few friends he did have and generally showing no interest in whatever the other kids in his class were up to; he would much rather spend his time doing things he liked doing, rather than trying to fit in with people who thought he was weird anyway. His various vocal stims were often considered annoying and he more than often had to work on his schoolwork in the hallway rather than in the classroom, to “prevent others from getting distracted”.

teen years

Vincent’s teen years were mostly defined by change. His brother Jason left home promptly when Vincent was only twelve years old, which negatively affected the general atmosphere at home; these tensions rose when Vincent came out as transgender at fourteen years old. His parents and oldest brother reacted negatively to this, not outright transphobic but unwilling to take Vincent all too seriously and believing it was a phase he would grow out of.

Vincent managed to get support from his sisters and Jason, despite the latter no longer living at home and barely having contact with his family anymore. On top of that, the small friend group he still had around him pulled him through a lot of his initial worries, going as far as helping him shave his head and get clothes he felt more comfortable in.

Vincent was forced to redo an entire year in high school after he and his friends were caught selling "drugs" to other kids. The drugs in question were actually nothing but melted candies or mixed herbs and spices, and the money they got from it was used to buy better school equipment for themselves and other kids in need. Despite this year, he still ended up graduating high school at the age of nineteen, and never went back to school after that.

early adult years

With no desire to study further, Vincent began working in Night City. Over the span of a couple of years, he ended up having a variety of small jobs, sometimes even more than one at once; but nothing he tried seemed to stick for longer than a few months and he found himself restless and longing for more.

This is how he got involved in the mercenary life; a world that had always interested him from the stories his father would tell at the dinner table. Vincent’s attempts at entering the underworld often resulted in nothing, until a brief scuffle with some Valentinos led him onto the path of Padre, a name familiar to Vincent because of his residence in Heywood. Padre began offering Vincent simple runner gigs, which Vincent kept doing in secret for a while until he had gathered enough money to be able to move to Atlanta in May 2074.

In Atlanta, Vincent started HRT and got top surgery. He picked up self defense training and hung out on the streets in the nightly hours a lot, getting involved with more underworld activity to hone his skills. However, despite his initial success in town he soon ended up in more financial issues, occasionally leading to him running out of testogel and unable to afford a new bottle. He lost contact with his family and friends back in Night City due to the physical distance between them and because of everyone’s busy schedules. This is what inevitably led to Vincent moving back to Night City in August 2076, feeling homesick and exhausted of trying to start something for himself.

Vincent met Jackie Welles in October 2076, both working on the same gig. Vincent, going by “V” only at the time, had to team up with the other mercenary to escape from the cops on what turned out to be a setup for the both of them, after which the two went out for lunch. They befriended each other relatively quickly, clicking well with one another, and Jackie soon introduced Vincent to Vitali Dobrynin, a wealthy fixer operating from Wellsprings.

Vincent enjoyed working for Vitali and continued taking gigs from him after his initial trial period. He had moved in with Jackie for the time being, and by March 2077 had gathered enough money to be able to afford his own place in Little China, Watson.

the relic

In April 2077, Vincent got caught up in a failed heist launched on Konpeki Plaza to steal a piece of technology, the Relic, from Yorinobu Arasaka. The heist killed his friends Jackie and T-Bug and separated Vincent from Vitali, leaving him to return to their fixer by himself with the Relic in his head. DeShawn betrayed Vincent and shot him in the head, then dumped his body on a landfill– but the Relic rebooted Vincent’s brain before he could die, and the engram of Johnny Silverhand– initially stored on the biochip– began overwriting Vincent’s psyche.

After being brought back to Viktor Vektor’s ripperdoc clinic by Goro Takemura, Vincent needed a few weeks to fully recover from the incident. He began seeing Johnny Silverhand around wherever he went and was living on borrowed time by then, Relic malfunctions continuously causing him to black out and cough up blood. With the help of his friends– Vitali’s inner merc circle, as well as new people he met while trying to find a cure for himself– he eventually managed to gather enough information to know what he needed to do in order to separate himself from the engram of the long dead rockerboy.

In late June 2077, Vincent and his friends– including the Aldecaldos– launched an attack on Mikoshi, killing a lot of Arasaka security on their way in. Rogue Amendiares supposedly died too while fighting Adam Smasher; but despite their losses, they managed to make it to Mikoshi where Alt Cunningham successfully untangled Vincent and the engram. Johnny stayed behind with her and Vincent was returned to his body, but was told he only had six months left to live because of the damage to his body.

Following the attack, Vincent and Vitali left Night City with the Aldecaldos to travel down to Tucson, Arizona, in hopes to get help there to save Vincent’s life.

deactivating soulkiller

Vincent received many surgeries while out of Night City, stabilizing his physical condition to the point his body was no longer dying from the effects of the Relic. However, his overall condition showed no positive progress, and doctors presumed Soulkiller was still active in his system, presumably transferred like a virus while the Relic was stuck in his head. He was forced to return to Night City in August 2077, to try and find a cure within Arasaka itself.

Back in Night City, Vincent regrouped with some friends and began raiding various Arasaka facilities to gather data on the Relic and Soulkiller. During one of these raids, Vitali was shot in the chest and they were forced to leave him behind; since he momentarily stopped breathing, Vincent was led to believe his boyfriend had died, though Arasaka recovered his body and forced a heartbeat back into him, before adding him to their lineup of test subjects for the APEX program.

Due to the complications of the APEX program, Arasaka was forced to develop a stabilizer to turn Soulkiller dormant within a host; Rogue Amendiares, one of their test subjects, managed to fight off the brainwashing effects of it in November 2077 and returned to Vincent and his friends to tell him about the stabilizer, which would be the only chance at saving his life. By then, Vincent was actively being hunted down by the other test subjects of the program– Adam Smasher and Vitali, brainwashed and in control of the corporation.

The instability of the software eventually caused Vitali to snap out of the brainwashing as well, and in a final attack on one of Arasaka’s science labs they managed to retrieve the last sample of the stabilizer to give it to Vincent. His situation had worsened significantly by then, but once Soulkiller was turned dormant he began recovering in late 2077, and was already doing a lot better by the beginning of 2078.

the broker

Information pending.

future

Following the events of 2078, Vincent remains as a mercenary for Vitali and continues to do so for many years to come. He occasionally gets himself into tight situations or nasty gigs, though nothing compares to anything the past two years have brought.

personality

Vincent is kind-hearted, loyal, and a surprisingly affectionate man. He has a lot of love for his friends and intends to make sure they know; either through words or acts of service or physical touch, whichever is most appropriate for the situation. He is passionate about the things that interest him and this extends to his work as a mercenary as well, making him a reliable and skilled man to work with.

Vincent’s reliability shows in a different way than people might expect. He is not one to strictly follow a plan; often drops it in favor of decisions he deems better in the heat of the moment, or adjusts it accordingly when faced with an unexpected turn of events. Because of this, he may leave behind a bit of a mess, but he will always clean up after himself and is focused on making sure everything has been dealt with and resolved before returning to his employer.

Vincent enjoys spending time with friends, though their shenanigans together occasionally go too far which causes them to be disruptive. Individually, Vincent can be quite jealous and touchy– this as a result of growing up with siblings who often poked fun at him, touched his belongings without his permission, and generally had a lot more stuff and fun experiences than he himself ever did. Well aware of these flaws, he tries to work on himself to the best of his abilities; though occasionally has his bad days, on which he prefers to be alone until he feels better.

affiliations

factions

• Arasaka; antagonistic
• Bodytalk; alliance
• Inner merc circle; Vitali Dobrynin’s most trusted mercenaries
• The Crest; current workplace
• Valentinos; former alliance

relationships

vitali dobrynin

Vitali is Vincent’s fixer and best friend. They meet through Jackie Welles and grow close relatively quickly, bonding over similar past experiences and enjoying each other’s company. Sometime halfway through 2077 they begin dating and they have been together ever since.

Vincent looks up to Vitali in every sense of the word. He admires his passion and ambition, as well as the way he runs his business and cares for his mercenaries. He respects him and admires his patience, something he himself has struggled with for many years now; he recognizes he would not fare well in Vitali’s position and is glad that he is not a fixer himself.

mikhail koshechkin

Information pending.

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