April 19, 2077
Vincent had slowly stirred awake at… presumably some time in the morning, his eyes first catching the ceiling fan in his apartment before he looked out at his window, raising his arm to shield his eyes from the sunlight shining in. Vincent thought to himself (Note to self, start making it a habit to shut the blinds before I go to sleep.) before proceeding to sit up, feeling the bed creak under him.
He'll admit that the apartment was a big change of pace from his old pad in Corpo Plaza, but six months had turned this place into a home Vincent could feel comfortable in, which was already a big plus in comparison to his old pad mostly holding memories of crashing into bed after a shower following an exhausting late night working, or needing a heavy drink or two just to drown the nerves away, and don't even get him started on all the times when he wanted a smoke but chose to hold steadfast to his commitment to quitting with that shit.
Deciding he needed to take his mind off the negative reminiscing, Vincent got up and decided to start up the record player sitting by his bed, a record of Samurai slowly spinning as Black Dog began to play. People at Arasaka could talk whatever shit they wanted about Johnny Silverhand, Samurai still played some nice shit that was good for letting out anger to, as opposed to breaking stuff or any of that.
"A blind man lost in the streets. A pattern here that I need to see…"
Vincent just let his head sway a little as the song reached the lyrics, letting the ever familiar tune slowly wake up his brain. Right when the song started picking up he heard his phone ping over on the nightstand, prompting him to walk over and pick it up to have a look at what was up. To Vincent's surprise it was a number designated under "Mama Welles", reminding him that Jackie gave him her number in case he ever wanted to come over for dinner. And that was when he had a flashback to when he heard the news about Jackie's death from Vik a few weeks ago… of all the shocks he'd been through in his life, that one had to be the worst of them. Not even Saburo Arasaka's death on the news could compare to losing the guy who was like a brother to him.
Vincent's attention was brought back into the moment when his phone pinged again, proceeding to look at the texts.
Mama Welles: "Vincent, you there?"
Mama Welles: "Can you call me soon, please?"
Deciding there was no point in putting this off, Vincent walked over to the record player to turn it off and move the needle off the Samurai record before dialing Mama Welles. He heard her speak up once the call came through "Vincent, it's been a while since we talk. How long has it been since Jackie brought you to the Coyote? Introduced us." To which Vincent responded "Six months… Viktor told me about what happened to Jackie. I'm sorry for your loss Mama Welles." Personally wishing he could've done something… it felt so weird not having Jackie around anymore. Mama Welles then spoke on the other end of the line "Gracias Vicente, but I did not call for your condolences. I am preparing an ofrenda for Jaquito, many of his friends will be coming. I believe he would wish for you to be there as well."
The request honestly shocked Vincent a little. An ofrenda? Standing beside the people Jackie meant something to? After a moment Vincent said "I… thanks Mama Welles, I'll be sure to come by. For Jackie." To which Mama Welles responded "Mhm, the ceremony will be at the Coyote Cojo. Ahi te veyo Vicente." Before she hung up, Vincent briefly recalling afterwards how the Spanish iteration of his name turned into a little bit of a nickname for him over at the Coyote, chuckling a little at the thought.
He then took a moment to just process a bit about the event… yeah, if he wanted to do this properly he'd need something to just lie at his casket, not to mention a ride. Lucky for him he had a feeling he could do both, and he then put his phone in his pocket before quickly heading to grab something and stepping out of his apartment.
After a brief walk he buzzed the intercom to one of his neighbors, a younger voice on the other end "Yeah, who is it?" And in response Vincent says "Hey Steve, it's me, Vincent. Need to talk to you about something."
After a couple seconds Steve had stepped out of the apartment, wearing the t-shirt that Vincent gave him about a month ago when they first met. Steve then said "What's up choom? You lookin' for something?" To which Vincent responded "Not much, aside from a ride. Got somewhere to be later." However all he got out of that was just a nervous look from Steve as he started poking at the chipping paint on the door frame "Um…" and when he figured out what was going on Vincent just sighs before saying "Problems with your dad again?" And when Steve nodded Vincent just said "Alright, I'll talk to him for a bit. Promise to do my best not to screw anyone over."
Bonus: V was still kinda reeling from the sudden crash that's left her ride in a less than ok condition. She was still trying to wrap her head around the fact that she got T-boned by a Delamain cab of all things... and now there also went the easy way to get to Heywood for the ofrenda. Guess she was gonna be taking the metro while hoping she wasn't going to run into any Arasaka suits or overzealous street punks who might try taking her Lexington.
Author's note: Hey look who's back finally! Sorry for the wait, but it looks like after a while of trying to keep my focus together I'm finally picking back up on this, fingers crossed it sticks and just in case any of you wondering I do plan on picking up on the Edgerunner angle of this story but consider stuff around the ofrenda for Jackie more or less an interlude/prelude/whatever before we jump back into things. Hope to see all of you soon!