How Jacky Saved His Own Life

A greedy and gluttonous organization, better known as the Arasaka Corporation, had once decided Night City needed a beautiful and extravagant haven strictly for the elite. Within the borders of Night City, the wealth disparity was so vast that one moment you could be walking in a shopping plaza that would cost you half a lifetime's worth of work, followed by entry into the slums where even rat fought rat to survive another day. Arasaka sought to create a mecca for the wealthy and privileged, and so Konpeki Plaza was born from this idea - a hotel with a mantra stating they combined "American largesse" with "Japanese minimalism." The corporate elite loved stopping by on business and in-between, leading the hotel managers to constantly cycle in and out the hottest performers and entertainers Night City provided. While the clientele of the hotel consisted of a higher tax bracket, the same could not be said of the entertainers.

Enter Jacky, V's best friend and lifelong companion. While V was a levelheaded individual who knew when and where to make the right calls, Jacky was a loose cannon who fired first and asked questions later. Always scheming up new ways to make a quick buck, Jacky loved to think he was a criminal mastermind, willfully ignoring his poor success rate when it came to these operations. It just so happened that V usually accompanied him on these adventures and managed to cover Jacky's shortcomings and find a way to bring home a paycheck for the both of them. Unfortunately in today's tale, V was off on his own assignment, something about stealing a new cybernetic, which Jacky shortly lost interest in when V started nagging him about staying out of his way. What he did remember was that V would be at Konpeki Plaza, which Jacky had always dreamed of staying at. Once he realized V was heading towards a place packed with nothing but Night City's elite, he knew there was money to be made.

"And you're.... a magician?" said the entertainment manager, eyeing Jacky up and down.

"Why yes, of course! Best magician in my district, ask anyone from there. I like to consider myself Night City's David Blaine," chuckled Jacky as he spoke in full confidence that he'd be able to land a gig for tonight.

"Alright then. We're pressed for time to find new performers, so just do your thing and entertain the corporats," said the manager before handing him a stack of credits. "Here's half your payment. You'll get the rest when you're done on stage." Taking the credits from the manager, Jacky's heart rate spiked when he realized he was holding 100,000 credits.

"And I haven't even performed yet!" he thought to himself, waiting next to the bar for the comedian before him to finish up his act. And then, it was time.

Standing on stage overlooking a crowd of drunken corporats howling at anything that mildly entertained them, Jacky knew it'd be easy for him to pull out some of his classic tricks of illusion and impress them in seconds. He decided to start big, using some projection tech he programmed himself to visually change the appearance of anything he looked at. "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, if you could direct your eyes towards this watermelon," Jacky said, prepping his implant.

"And in 3, 2, 1, voila!" The crowd was silent. Then, someone screamed.

"Demon! Demon!" Confused at their response, Jacky couldn't understand why no one was impressed that the melon had transformed into the head of Arasaka's CEO. "Our pioneer and founding father has just died, and you think this is funny?" screamed another member of the crowd. Jacky's stomach sank as he realized that Arasaka's CEO had just been assassinated a week ago, and that he was entertaining a crowd staying in a building created by Arasaka. Security had already swarmed the stage to drag him off, with Jacky's only thought being that he wouldn't get the second half of his payment.

The head of security looked at Jacky, wondering what to do with him. The guards agreed he should be put to death for his offense, but the question was with what method. One suggested he be pounded to death by all the guards, and another said to cook him to death with some molotovs. Then, a guard who was afraid of being stranded in the Badlands said, "Leave him out in the Badlands to starve and die. There's no way he could survive out there." When Jacky heard this he said, "Please grant me a quick death! Anything is better than a slow painful rot in the dirt." Hearing this, the head guard laughed and drove Jacky to the outskirts of the Badlands, leaving him behind with nothing. Waiting till the guard's vehicle was out of sight, Jacky laughed and walked for a few minutes into the desert, before coming across the Aldecaldos' encampment. Panam spotted him, and came over to chat.

"Jacky? What're you doing out here?"

"Oh, nothing much, just thought I'd stop by to say hi and visit. Say, you got anything I can munch on? And could you give me a ride back to the city?"

Author's Note: I decided to take a break from centering all my stories around V, and take some time to write about Jacky, his best friend, instead. This is another story sent in the Cyberpunk universe, and I chose to combine it with the tale of How the Turtle Saved His Own Life. Originally, a king asks his men to bring some fish for the lake that his princes played in. Along with these fish, they bring a turtle, but when they see the turtle, they run in fear, calling it a demon. When discussing how to kill the turtle, one of the men suggests his own fear, but fortunately for the turtle, it is a situation that is perfect for his survival. The turtle is a trickster, which is how he was able to fool the king into allowing him to live.

I chose to follow the same plot with Jacky, but I changed some details, including how Jacky willingly came to Konpeki Plaza to perform for money, rather than being brought there for entertainment, and the choice for his death being thrown out into the desert rather than out into a river. It wouldn't make sense for hotel clients to look at a normal person like Jacky and scream demon on sight, so I wrote in a way for Jacky to make a mistake like he usually does and cause himself to get into a sticky situation.

Bibliography: Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt. Web source.