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Clouds luxury dolls and BD's for those that can afford it, leave you're weapons and worries at the door!
Mama Welles hadn't talked to Vincent for a week when he'd told her about getting the job, he argued that she'd told him to get a job, so he got the first job he could find. Jackie Welles, the soft lug that he was, had found V on the street getting bugged by some scavs. He'd come in all macho bravado, gun swinging and scared them off. He'd taken V straight to Mama Welles after he'd made sure he had not a scratch on him. The first thing out of her mouth was a complaint to how skinny he was, that he looked like he hadn't eaten in months, which wasn't far from the truth.
Vincent was getting comfortable with the day to day, he'd stumbled a bit at first, found himself shined to by the clients that wanted that shiny new shy doll. It was awkward at first, and then Tom had come over to talk to him, friendly and easing. He'd been introduced to Evelyn the next day, and he'd taken to hanging out with them between each of their clients. He was getting used to his client sessions, they weren't allowed to do any serious damage, at least not too much, and Vince had his doll chip up activated right before the client would come in, and then as soon as they'd left and he could get himself back together again, the interaction was wiped out straight away. He had a healthy balance to it all now, his job was his job, and as soon as he left Clouds he was free to be himself again. Between working and hanging out with Jackie he had it easy to keep the two separated.
Outside of Clouds he was free to hang around with Jackie more, get to meet Misty, a free spirit who always offered a free tarot reading. Vincent wasn't blind, Jackie clearly had a thing for Misty, he'd hang on her every word like they were spoken from a Goddess. Viktor, Jackie's ripperdoc, always let Vincent in while the two would fawn over each other. Vincent was always interested in cybernetics, he didn't have the eddies for them before coming to Night City, but he enjoyed seeing new ones in action and asking Viktor a million questions about them. So V became a permanent fixture of Misty and Viktor's shops while Jackie was off doing god knows what. Jackie would always come back with some mad story, some fight with scavs, a run in with a gang. Vincent wondered about some of them, thought about what it would be like to be a mercenary and not a doll. He'd work along side Jackie for sure, Vince was tall but skinny, not as much meat on his bones as Jackie. Maybe Vince would take more of the brains of the operations, or maybe he'd become a netrunner, Jackie mentioned T-Bug, he'd never met her but she sounded cool. Maybe Jackie might let him join him for a ride one day.
For now Vince would just try to enjoy another day at work. He was chatting with Tom between clients, enjoying a few drinks and snacks while they waited. Evelyn had been off again seeing her Arasaka big wig, or maybe she was hanging around with Judy again. Vince was hoping for a calmer night, he'd only had 5 client so far in his 3 hours who stuck around for longer than half an hour, the other 4 so far had been over in 10 minutes or less. The VIP section wasn't as busy that night as it usually was, someone had mentioned some big corpo conference's going on, the Dolls in the VIP section pretty much had the night off at this point compared to their usual numbers. Maybe they'd even get to leave early, if not Vince could maybe sneak out without anyone noticing. He was already messaging Jackie and Misty, Jackie was out on a job, saying it would be easily over in an hour, and Misty was saying he was free to come by and hang out. Jackie even said he could slide T-Bug in to Clouds, make it look like he was still there but wouldn't get any matches. Easy as that, Vincent offered to do the same for Tom, but he didn't mind sticking around, at least so his disappearance wouldn't be as noticed.
So Vincent managed to slip out no problem, and found Misty in Jackie's car waiting out side. "Boy, am I so glad to see you Misty! Work has really been a drag tonight." Misty smiled as he slid in beside her, ready for a relaxed night with his favorite rag tag trio. Hopefully without more of Jackie's blood painting Viktor's workshop floor. "Well maybe I put out in the universe that you're working too hard. Seriously V, you've worked every night this week." Vince shook his black hair out of the slicked back look he'd styled it into that night for work. "Well thank you for putting that out there. You know I'm trying to save up for a new place, 멍청한 (stupid) elevators broken again, the thing brakes down every other month, it's fixed for a week or two and then breaks again." Misty kept her eyes on the road, letting Vincent rant as he shook himself out of the flimsy red pvc jacket that squeaked as he moved, pulling down the zipper of his black turtleneck to loosen it up. "Didn't Jackie say Mama Welles wouldn't complain if you moved back in again?" "Yeah, but who wants to move back in with their mother at 25? Besides, don't get any privacy. 'When your under my roof hijo, then I will enter any room I please.'" Misty recalled that from one of Jackies moment's of embarrassing the younger. "Well maybe don't bring your first output back to her house, besides he was a horrible choice. Didn't he end up becoming a scav?" Vincent rolled his eyes, they just loved bringing that mistake up. "Yeah, heard he got offed in a raid a month back, tried picking up a corpo from Militech. 항문 (asshole), didn't even have half a brain to realize that was a bad idea."
Vincent was real reluctant to bring anyone back to the Welles house after that, most of them hand ended up at the no tell motel after that. He'd tried once to stay at a guys place, but said guy turned out to live with 4 others who had the idea Vincent could entertain the whole group. A doll he might be, but he called Jackie instantly to get him the hell out of there. Ragging on him the whole way back, Jackie had helped him hunt for an apartment after that, made sure he let Jackie know if he was having someone over, and Vincent was sure that he was camping out with how quickly he got over if he was having trouble. "I want somewhere I can see myself actually living in, not just existing. I don't need some fancy corpo place, or one of those big sellout homes in Westbrook. I just want a working elevator, a nice city view, without hearing the next room fucking like they might as well be in the same room." Vincent imagined just that as they pulled up by Misty's shop and got out into the Night City rain, running in before they both could get soaked in the heavy down pour. "Is Vik working tonight?" Vincent didn't need to look at Misty to know she was rolling her eyes. "He was with a walk in when I left, might be done with them by now, they only had a faulty optic."
Vincent might have a little crush on the older guy, even if Viktor was old enough to be the 25 year olds father, Vincent had a thing for older men, sue him. Everyone knew about it, and Viktor, while he didn't encourage him, didn't mind that it meant the young man was pretty much wrapped around his fingers. Viktor could tell him to bark at someone in the alley and he'd do it without a second thought, had done it once just to scare some kid off from kicking his ball repeatedly into the back door of Misty's. "Alright, save me a reading for later? I'm hoping for a good string of eddies tomorrow." With a cheeky little wave, Vincent deposited his jacket behind Misty's counter for later, and crossed the alleyway that separated Misty's shop from the basement Viktor rented from her for his workshop. The door was unlocked, which meant Viktor's client had left already, and the older man was setting all his equipment back into place. "Viktor, how's my favorite handsome older man doing tonight?" Viktor didn't even look up from sorting out his stuff, throwing tools back into draws before dropping into his rolling chair. "Well I was hoping it would be nice and quiet now, but you're here so that isn't going to happen." Vincent was used to him being dismissive, but he knew the old man had a soft spot for him really. Vincent just laughed him off, following Viktor as he rolled over to his desk. "It might not be quiet but we can sure make it nice."
Vincent knew Viktor would never take him up on his offers, but as usual he didn't complain as Vincent pressed and massaged away the tension in his shoulders. Vincent had started flirting playfully with him as soon as he met him, even if he'd cut him short and gave clipped replies as first. He'd grown used to it by week 2, enjoyed some of the extra attention, joked with him now and then, but he knew Vincent respected his boundaries. If he told him to stop at any time he would, and they'd still be cool with each other. "So, work on anything fun today? Or was it just a gonk with a wonky eye?" Vincent rolled out a harsh tension in the base of Viktor's neck, making the older man groan before he could reply. "Not yet, I have a guy coming around later for a few switch outs and upgrades, though you might want to stick around long enough the watch?" Vincent leaned a little of his shoulder then, as Viktor pulled up the specs for the cybernetic work the guy was coming in for, resting his chin on top of Viktor's head. "Hmm, I've always wondered what having mantis blades would be like, like if you sneeze during a handshake could you accidentally stab someone? Does it feel weird when coming out?" Viktor brushed off his hands with a huff like he was annoyed "Why don't you ask them when she comes in, she should be here in the next half an hour." Half an hour was a little to wait, but he had an hour to kill before Jackie would be done with what ever job his fixer had sent him on. "I've got the time, how about I do a run to Tom's? All I've had for the last hour was stale work snacks." "Sure, there's an umbrella by the door if you need it. Get us the usual, and an extra coffee." Vincent gave him a little squeeze of his shoulder before unwrapping himself off Viktor's shoulders, picking up the mentioned umbrella for the walk.
He popped in on Misty to ask if she needed anything as well, but she waved him off with a mutter about healthy food and how much grease Tom used on his food. So Vincent wondered over to Tom's Dinner like Viktor's little runner boy. They went to Tom's so much that they practically knew their orders off by heart now, so Vincent was free to just wonder in and take a seat at the bar while their orders were getting worked on, so he looked up to see what news was going around lately. A new episode of Watson's Whore, some mention of the corpo conference going on that Tom flicked through, then came up something that only caught Vincent's ear from how much Jackie talked about the old band Samurai. The clip was about one of the former members, Karry Eurodyne, some mention about him being a recluse now after trying to delta himself. Vincent didn't believe half the rumors the news put out half the time, and he knew how messed up even being a celebrity could be in this world. Everyone always had someone they had to answer to, and he expected Eurodyne wasn't in any different a boat as everyone else. Sometimes Vincent's clients would come in just to have an ear to complain to, he never remembered the conversations, but sometimes you could tell in their faces after that they felt like a weight was lifted off their shoulders. Maybe that's why he'd heard Eurodyne himself sometimes ordered a doll or 2 to his place. Vincent had met a few who'd bragged about it, but he didn't trust half of them, they wouldn't remember if they had met him out not.
Who was Vincent to think about all of that though, he'd learned from Evelyn not to take notice of the rumors other dolls spread around. Though the thought crossed his mind, Jackie would have a field day, tell him to ask so many questions, and he wouldn't shut up until Vincent did or he got to meet the man himself. That would be the better option, he could badger the musician and Vincent could just sit back and watch for which one squirmed first. Tom clicked him out of his thinking and set down the order for him to take back, not taking another moment to think about the struggling musician for the rest of the day.