The needle in the vein of the establishment
- Eddies
- 125
INFO
Name:
James Ronaldo Hosaka
Alias:
Saint Jimmy
Age:
21 (Born 2060)
Ethnicity:
Half Japanese/Half Mexican-American
Languages:
Spanish (Native)
English (Fluent)
Japanese (Conversational)
Height:
5"8'
Build:
Lean
Empathy:
7
Humanity:
67
BACKGROUND
Birthplace:
Heywood, Night City
Family Ranking:
Gang Family (Valentinos)
Parents:
Deceased
Childhood Environment:
Streets of Heywood
Jimmy is a half-asian half-latino young man with brown eyes, tanned skin, and a mop of black hair atop his head. He's lean in the kind of way life on the streets of Night City makes you, always on the run and fed only by sawdust-packed street food. These days his styles vary, sometimes his fits will still rep his Valentino origins, rarely seen without his jesus piece or a cross, but he also gravitates towards fashionable streetwear, usually whatever he's able to steal or thrift.Jimmy has several tattoos:
- A small but ornate bronze Cross on his left thigh,
- 3WOOD in bold black letters wrapped around his right bicep, in reference to Megabuilding H3 In Heywood, where he has lived most of his life,
- A red star on his right heel,
- 罪人 on his right hip in red ink
- 武士 on his left hip in black ink
- A flowery Calavera on the back of his left shoulder
PERSONALITY
Though Jimmy outwardly appears as a relaxed and carefree youth, behind the facade he holds both a lifetime of trauma and deep convictions that burn passionately in his heart. Friendship and community were values instilled in him by his upbringing in and around the Valentinos of Heywood, and though he no longer directly affiliates with the gang, the kind of trust and reciprocity sought by members of the Valentinos still guide his social interactions in the new scenes he finds himself in.
Jimmy is a bleeding heart punk, radicalized against the corporations after a life of poverty and the loss of many people close to him as a result of wealth inequality. He holds strong opinions against corporatism in general, which drove him away from the life of a ganger and towards that of an edgerunner. He's always quick to remind others what they're up against, more often than not to inspire hope, but his passion can come off a little overwhelming to the less radical.
Due to his childhood traumas and a gang-affiliated upbringing that didn't allow him much time to process his demons, Jimmy is quite an angry young man, something he covers up to strangers with his apparent nonchalance, and worse, frequent drug usage and partying. He is deeply troubled by his lack of parentage growing up, and though he found family in the course of his life, he has never forgiven Night City for taking his family from him at such a young age.
HISTORY
James Ronaldo Hosaka was born on the 10th of March, 2060, in Heywood, to Kenjiro "Ken" Hosaka, a Japanese ex-pat, and Xochitl Aguinaldo, a native daughter of the Valentinos. Kenjiro had been a notable edgerunner across Asia before his arrival in America, and though he would never be a made member of the Valentinos his marriage to one of their own made him family, and both he and Xochitl worked for the Valentinos as solos for years until Jimmy was born. Jimmy, like many children in Night City, experienced the tragedy of losing both parents quite young.
First, when Jimmy was just 4 years old, was the death of his mother. Xochitl's wayward and troubled sister had become a doll, and one night was murdered by an irate client. Ken and Xochitl tracked down the killer, only to discover that he was a Sixth Street gang member, the sworn enemies of the Valentinos. Overnight the internecine turf wars of Night City enflamed once again, and in her fiery vengeance to repay the debt of her sister's murder, she too was gunned down in the conflict.
The loss of his wife destroyed Kenjiro. For another 4 years he did his best to raise his son, but his grief turned into a quest for the bottom of the bottle. Alcoholism quickly claimed the man, until one day he broke. Leaving Jimmy with trusted friends in the Valentinos, Kenjiro hopped a flight back to Japan, only being heard from again sporadically. That was the case for a half decade until Jimmy was 13, and another Japanese man came to darken his abuela's door. Delivering a message on behalf of the Yakuza, he informed that Kenjiro had been killed on a job he had taken in order to repay them for his extensive gambling debts. By this time, Jimmy was already a reckless streetkid, bucking the authority of his grandmother and other extended family that had taken care of him after his father left.
Angry, sad, and confused, Jimmy turned to a lifestyle of partying and drugs with other street kids that led to him dropping out of school and rarely coming home. He became a hazard to himself and others, a vandal and a thief. A very angry young man. On his 16th birthday, a squad of Valentino's apprehended him on the request of his abuela, and offered him a choice: he could either become a persona non grata of Heywood, an exile as it were, or he could join them and get his life in order. He was a legacy after all, and his mother would never be forgotten by her people.
He was taken under the wing of the Valentinos again, though he struggled to completely give up his drug dependencies, but the gang gave him something to direct his anger towards. Though apprehensive at first, Jimmy realized that on that day he had been saved, and he wanted to pay back the Valentinos in kind. He became a trusted member despite his age, both a quick shot and quick to escape when the shit got deep, but on jobs where he worked with others, he never left a man behind if he could help it. At 18, he earned his moniker Saint Jimmy when he was recognized for the several narrow escapes from dire straits he'd helped facilitate, his gang brothers calling him "a miracle worker with that iron."
Yet, the gang life exposed him to even more of the cruelty of Night City. In a few short years, he watched friends and cousins die in the unending territorial conflicts, or to police brutality. He saw Trauma Team swoop into busy city streets to save the wealthy suits, but never once saw them save a gang-brother lying bleeding out on the very same streets. The final straw, the event that radicalized him, was the diagnosis of his abuelita, his closest kin, with terminal cancer, and the refusal of her health insurance to pay for treatment. The disease claimed her life only months later. An insurance man had the audacity to show up to her offrenda with condolences, a huge mistake that cost the suit his life when Jimmy shot him dead in front of a crowd of Valentinos. The man's body was never found, and the Valentinos were hush to the cops.
Only 20 years old and Jimmy had experienced a lifetime with the Valentinos, by Night City life expectancy. A hatred for the corporations burned in his heart, and he decided that day he had to leave the Valentinos. Even though they would go through hell and back for one of their own, he couldn't ask any of them to join him on the edge and start fighting the corporations. Gang life was a life of its own, and he would leave them to it while he took to the streets to find other like-minded punks hell-bent on fighting back, who would understand that his experiences were not just some tragic statistic, but a fucking problem that needed a fucking solution, no matter what it costs...
BELIEFS
Jimmy's beliefs and worldview have been influenced by religion and philosophy, as well as street wisdom. His mother was Catholic, from a Chicano family deeply rooted in Southern California. Some of his extended family had brought over syncretic practices of Santeria from Cuba when they came to Night City alongside many other Caribbean climate refugees. His father, like many Japanese of his generation, was largely irreligious, but found some solace in his wife's fate even if he didn't really believe in anything but money. Overall it has been various flavors of 21st century Christianity and esoterica that form his sincere, if morally challenged, faith.
Politically, Jimmy's beliefs have been heavily influenced by punk rock shows and netspaces, and though he's attempted to grasp some greater knowledge of actual socialist theory, reading is underdeveloped skill for him. He burns hot with anti-corporate punk slogans and dreams, but he's still learning what it actually means to take on corporate capitalism.
CYBERWARE
- Neuroport
- Basic Skinweave (-2H)
- Artifical Liver (-1H)
- "Bet a hunnid they'd panic, my shooters only speak Spanish": Jimmy's gang ties means he will always have a Valentino to call if he finds himself in deep shit.
- "The sharpest lives are the deadliest to lead": Drugs, sex, rock & roll, and of course gang warfare, have characterized Jimmy's life to the point where danger doesn't pahse him very much. He's seen enough shit to know that this shit ain't nothing.
- "He'll rekindle all of those dreams it took you a lifetime to destroy": Jimmy is an unabashed optimist in the face of corporate oppression. Maybe he's crazy, maybe he took too many drugs, but nevertheless he believes that a man with a burning spirit and steady aim can change things, and he likes to impart this belief on others when he can. There's still hope.
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