you can take the rat out of corpo

OOC
Name: Shaz
Contact: fizzier
Other characters: n/a

OU IC
Name: V
Canon: Cyberpunk 2077
Canon point: Midway through the Devil ending, onboard the orbital Arasaka lab
Age: 27

History: Wiki entry for V. His main story choices were:

• Corpo lifepath: V was once embroiled in Arasaka drama until the corporation turned on him, as it had so many others before him. Having sold his soul to the corporations, V's life ended and started anew as he left the corpo world and became a mercenary gun for hire on the streets of Night City.


• Unromanced: If you can't love yourself, how the hell are you going to love anyone else? V was too preoccupied with a certain rockerboy terrorist living in his brain to see the amazing people in his life that he would have easily fallen in love with had he not been so distracted. His loss.


• The Devil ending/Where Is My Mind: You can take the rat out of corpo... but you can't take the corpo out of the rat. V chose to make a deal with Hanako Arasaka to work for her and have the chip removed. As a result, Mikoshi remained intact, Johnny calls V out for his betrayal before being permanently destroyed, and V loses what feels like half of his soul. Ultimately this was a terrible idea.

Personality:

One of V's most defining traits is the one shared by so many ruthless young dreamers in Night City: he's fiercely ambitious and will do any number of questionable things to not just survive but get to the top of the pile. V's rebirth from corpo-rat into small-time petty merc came with a healthy dose of ravenous death-or-glory hunger. He's driven to survive, to succeed, to become a living legend among legends in a city that demands her heroes push themselves to the very limits. Does that make "ambition" a positive trait or a negative one? It has certainly kept him alive and helped him to achieve the impossible more than a few times... but it's also led him to make some terrible actions along the way. It's a blessing and a curse, sure, but definitely more the latter.

Those questionable steps on the path to infamy have made V pretty shady as a result; laws are what happen to other people, people who don't have places to be and heists to pull off. Back in his corpo days he was a maverick, a rulebreaker, which was something he took with him when he was plunged into the depths of Night City. By his very nature V is a thief, a merc, and (some would point out) a murderer too. V has a moral compass, sure, but it’s tuned his own way. He's mercenary by name and mercenary by nature; there are a few golden principles that he'll stick to when it comes to jobs, but for the right price he'll pretty much do anything. That's how you stay alive in Night City. As V said to Johnny before he was shredded: I’m the V that chose to survive.

As a result he's pretty damn rough around the edges - and who isn't in Night City? But beneath that rough exterior and alarming trail of blood in his wake, V is fiendishly charismatic. He can charm his way through most things, and the things he can't charm his way out of he can solve with his fists. But that doesn't mean he's entirely peaceable - sometimes it's just quicker and easier not to kill his way out of a situation. If the job gets done, it doesn't really matter how you got to the end result. Sometimes sweet-talking your way past a security guard is just as good - and fulfilling - as dropping them.

That certain brand of roguish, rough charisma makes V pretty easy to get along with. And he's certainly very sociable - V can strike up a conversation with pretty much anyone and he'll buy a drink for anyone who asks. Through no choice of his own he's been forced to bounce from tribe to tribe - from corpo to edgerunner - and it's through the help of a network of contacts, fixers and friends that V has managed to fight for survival in Night City. He's quick to befriend new people and apart from one noticeably big misstep he's loyal to a fault. V is by no means a lone wolf; his people are his people. Once you're part of his gang, you're part of his family.


Powers/Abilities:

A regular human being by nature but carrying some souped up cyberware:

• NULLED WHILE ON BOARD: Cyberdeck: Neural cyberware installed in V's skull that allows him to interface with anything electrical. Using this he can scan computers/hardware to show their weaknesses, hack to mine them for information, ping them to show other connected computer systems, or upload various nasty quickhacks (malware).


• Monowire arms: No (ex-)Arasaka counterintelligence operative would be seen dead without their trusty assassins monofilament wire embedded into their arm. This awful piece of cyberware gives V a high tensile electrically-charged wire, pulled from his palm, that can be used as a ligature or a whip.


• Other body cyberware: V is kitted out with some other handy implants including titanium bones for increased stamina, reinforced tendons for better flexibility and reach, subdermal plating for increased durability, and Kiroshi optical implants to give him better eyesight. He's not by any means invulnerable, however; all of these things merely make him above average for a twenty seven year old human, not a superhero.


• General skills: As a skilled counterintelligence operative, V knows his way around weaponry; he's a skilled marksman and ruthless with a katana. When it comes to technology and engineering, V is also pretty handy - he can craft small gadgets and MacGuyver his way out of most situations.

Regret: Choosing to work with Hanako Arasaka to remove the Relic and therefore choosing to permanently destroy Johnny's engram in the process.

Inventory:

• His clothes: leather trousers, worn leather boots, a black button up, white tank top.


• His gun: or rather, Johnny's gun. A Malorian power pistol, 13 rounds remaining.


• A 2x2 Rubiks cube.

Sample: TDM Sample