#i also tried editing them ages ago with photoshop (which i don't even have anymore!) but...idk how to edit photos so i don't think it helpe

[glampacked]

goddd i have so many disposable camera photos to upload from the past TWO YEARS...the last photos i took are now officially a year old lol and then it took me forever to get them developed (fear not the film was already expired before i used them). maybe i'll start uploading them in batches

[elvenbeard]

2067

"My childhood, let’s see… Nights spent lookin’ for a star - any star… All dimmed by city lights. Silent lullabies sung by the flickering neon signs of Charter Hill…"

Born into Night City's corporate world to upper middle class managers Marcella and Kousuke Ezaki, Vince lived a very comfortable and sheltered life growing up. Nice corporate apartment in Charter Hill's bustling Grant Avenue, excellent education, always the newest clothes, the fanciest tech, the best cyberware money can buy from a young age on.

It was almost too comfortable and sheltered really. With what they had invested in him and his future, his parents demanded perfection and performance - and obedience. While Vince was eager to deliver at first, being naturally ambitious, it always felt like something was wrong, something was missing... He just never quite fit in, despite trying his hardest.

Vince's father died when he was 13 - by suicide in the company bathroom, or so it seemed at the time. The pressure had gotten too much for him to bear and he saw no other way out; that had been the official explanation. The supposed truth though, which Vince would uncover many years later, was more complex and even darker than that.

On top of it, Vince's parents had never led the happiest marriage, worn down by stress and growing disagreements. It started over smaller issues: which car to buy, when to go on holiday, which school was best for their child. But soon they fought daily, constantly, about everything... And Vince fled into the arms of kids his age and older that never had the best intentions with him, but lured him in with a sense of belonging somewhere finally.

After his father's death, Vince's mother grew increasingly paranoid and controlling - her focus shifted from her husband to her child, whom she did not want to lose as well. Simultaneously though, she refused to accept that Vince had become his own person and would never be who and what she'd wanted him to be. The harder she tried to hold on to him, do her bidding, obey, the further she ended up pushing him away...

Vince through the years (1/9)

Little BTS rambles below the cut here!

Remember these? XD Yeah, I'm finally getting around to doing my "Vince through the years" project I teased a couple months ago. I finally decided on a format! xD I wanted something diary-entry like, but not too long and complex, otherwise I could probably sink months into this, do some cool lorebook-like graphics and whatnot...

I might still do that in the future, revamp some shots, or maybe one day make a character page or something in a more complex graphic style... but for now I just really wanna share some lore actually 👀 And get these shots published before they go bad!! (read as: before I don't like them anymore cause I'm getting better with my VP XD)

Also, a little comparison - vanilla vs edited shot:

Aging him down around 10 years was hard, but also fun XD I did this a while ago and meanwhile I might do some stuff different, but I'll leave them as is now xD But yeah, I tried some other complexions first that look younger than his 2077 one, but they made him look like a completely different person, so I went with the Photoshopping approach instead. Does he look like a pre-T teenager? Eh. If you squint XD But I'll take it!

Back then he already loved his massive coats that made him look bigger and wider than he really is. Hair dyed blond mostly because both his parents have dark hair, for that good old teenage rebelliousness and self-expression <3

I kinda implied it in the text but... yeah his parents were both pretty messed up. They did see him more like an investment than a kid most of the time. It was in the end damaging to all three of them, but most to Vince, leading to him becoming a little fucked up as well.

And when I say "investment" I literally mean, they invested money into making him as flawless as possible. Got him cyberoptics and whatnot installed as a 5-year-old to combat genetic eye-problems running in their families (when glasses couldve done the trick), things like that. His mother had planned some more things for as soon as he would finish school, but he ran away from home before that.

Before that already he went on to destroy all these perfect things they tried to achive with his body, got stick-and-poke tattoos, pierced his own ear, found a semi-shady Ripper who would install him a cyberdeck *he* wanted, not the one his mother got him, etc etc. XD

He spent a lot of time with the wrong pepole, too, but the connection to them at least helped him realize that he's trans - obviously one more thing that his mother did not plan for with her "perfect child" and tries to first ignore then actively shut down as best as she can. This is a hate-post for Vince's mom <3

What really happened to his dad is gonna follow in a post to come ooooor maybe I'll leave it a secret until I finished writing his background story fic 👀