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Johnny!

Whatcha think the legal ramifications of music rights contracts are after one party dies and then after that both parties find themselves on an alien planet?

Wanna make sure we have an agreement about what to do with the old tunes here.

[Johnny’s voice is that of gruff amusement mixed with a hint of utter dismissiveness.]

Pretty sure Earth contracts mean shit once you’ve gone and traveled across the universe. Doubly so if one party’s technically dead.

Why don’t you tell me? Thinkin’ of charming the alien audiences with some oldies but goodies?

[Kerry had expected dismissiveness and teasing. He seems amused more than anything.]

No, dumbass. Wanna make sure you know it's still all yours. Gave you everything that was Samurai back home, plan to do so here too.

Just want to make sure you have it in writin' if you want it.

Christ, Kerry. Figured death would have saved me from needing to have another conversation about legal contacts ever again.

Don’t need it in writing. Not exactly trying to accrue fame and fortune for myself, and it’s not like you won’t give credit where it’s due.

[Johnny’s got the same idea re: throwing himself onto the music scene, but it’s all a means to an end. Work to earn resources, a name that can throw around some weight; add it all up and maybe it’ll turn into a way find a solution for V — or just a way back home.]

‘Course, if you want to denote an axe to my cause, instead, I won’t complain.

[He kids.]

Figured you'd say as much but had to offer anyway. Unlike you I got 50 years worth of music to play and a new album that's been rattling 'round my head to boot.

[The new stuff won't make as much sense without his career to reference, but the point stands.]

Hell, if I had an extra axe I would. I miss my collection...

[Then, in a suggestive, teasing tone,] Could help you make Mana to get scratch to pay for one.

Stop you right there before you go feelin’ sorry for me. [He knows that’s not what Kerry meant, but Johnny says what he says.] I can compose my own music just fine, even without the extra fifty years. Figure that bein’ stuck in soul prison for that long’s provided ample inspiration.

[Huffs, amused, cocking a brow which goes unseen over a voice feed.]

Got V to help with that. The guitar, not the Manna. Though it don’t mean that I’d say no to some pocket change now and then. [Teasing:] Gonna come over and hold my hand?

Yeah, Johnny. 'Holdin' hands' is exactly where my mind went. There and nowhere else.

[He really missed teasing Johnny and now that he can without V being a middle man it feels oddly satisfying.]

You seriously gonna have my input klep and axe for you?

[He should find that less hot than he does, but he doesn't feel too guilty about it.]

[He can tease them as they come, and it feels as natural as before; like 50 years between them never passed.]

Well, if you get a spark of imagination, let me know. Won't turn down some pocket change, and it's better if we startin' looking at all of this as quid pro quo, anyhow.

[But that's something he's going to leave up to him. Given the knot of history between them, plus the history between him and a certain input of Kerry's, what a tangled web they all weave; and not one Johnny wants to make a noose out of just yet. He's trying to be a little better, you see, 'least when it comes to the people he knows.]

Why not? Not like he hasn't done it before. Give him somethin' to focus on, and maybe I'll go along for the ride.

[Well, that's not how he expected that suggestion to go. He also can't really respond to it right now. He needs time to process just what Johnny is suggesting. Instead, he'll focus on Johnny and V going on heist together.]

Yeah, I believe he could pull it off, no problem. He's really made a name for himself since he came back. King of the Afterlife. It's hot as hell.

[Well, then, he’ll just let that little nugget of an idea settle as planned. Maybe germinate for a bit. Either way, he’s not going to pretend that it isn’t overly complicated, and if that thought wants to die on the vine, so be it. He’s got plenty of other choices to keep him from going broke (and turning into a rock) in this place.]

King of the Afterlife? [He actually huffs out a dry-sounding laugh.] You know, I can believe it. Told him to not stop fighting after we split; guess that’s one way of takin' it to heart.

Hm-mm. [He has a tone like he's judging Johnny for taking credit for V's success... because he is. Judging Johnny is a fun hobby of his.]

Either way, can't wait to hear the music you come up with here. It's bound to be fuckin' wild. [That part is also true, though, because Johnny's art always has weight to it. He's missed it the last 50 years.]

[Is Johnny still narcissistic enough to take even a sliver of credit? You bet. They had shared a body for the biggest portion of V making a name for himself, after all; he's damn well going to take a little bit if asked.

The smile's probably heard in his tone.]

'Course it'll be. [What was that about narcissistic. Though-] Same goes to you, Ker. Bet you've already been comin' up with somethin' new in that head of yours. Wanna hear it sometime.

I was finishin' up the new album back home. Which... I suppose you were there for the start. Heard a bit of the half-formed ideas from your viewpoint in V's head, yeah?

Since bein' here, though... I mean, fuck, how can you end up on a totally new world and not want to create somethin' about it? Only so many ways a person can express how fucked and amazin' a sich like this is.

Yeah, more’s the pity if you end up with an album full of songs about it.

[Mild sarcasm.]

Dig your heels into the city and somethin’ new will strike eventually. Somethin’ you’ll wanna yell about.

[Or maybe that’s Johnny’s take, but Kerry gets the idea.]

I’m sure trouble’s just ‘round the corner, anyhow.

Trouble's always around since you're back.

[He doesn't seem to mind, though. He even sounds fond of the idea. Johnny did something massively fucked up as the last act of his former life, but honestly, when Kerry thinks about Johnny's antics now he thinks about being young in the early 2010s and getting away with shit they shouldn't have gotten away with.]

But, know what you mean. We find ourselves with these fancy rocks that ain't even proper chrome and those doctors in orbit were mighty cagey with some o' their facts.

[A huff.]

This isn’t exactly the kinda trouble you can pin on me.

[This time!!

But if they’re going to delve into the realm of cynicism and distrust lobbed at the local authorities, then of course Johnny will wholeheartedly agree that there’s plenty they’re in the dark about.]

Not countin’ the fact that there’s a lack of explanation all around. How any of this is possible — how the dead can be living and breathing like it’s nothing new.

And yeah, the gems. Don’t like any new mods I can’t account for.

Literally the stuff of horror stories. [Because being implanted with tech you don't know could mean death, invasion of privacy, re-writing your entire personality, losing control of your limbs... And all kinds of awful things.

After a moment, he sighs, and braces for Johnny to dismiss the next question that he still feels like he has to ask.]

How're you copin' with all of that? Bein' real again, I mean, and bein' away from V?

[Now that earns the first real weighty pause in the conversation, probably the only question that Johnny wouldn’t have an immediate, quick-fire answer to. How can he really put it into words what it was like to share a body with someone else, his own personality trying so hard to override V’s like some kind of invasive tumor, to the point where sometimes it was hard to tell a difference between the both of them? Where the line was drawn, and where it started to fade at the edges?

Real existential — whether or not he’d label it a crisis is debatable.

Finally-]

Didn’t feel like I wasn’t real when I was in V’s head. Shared a mind and a body, so his felt like mine, too, in a way.

[Probably not helpful. He tries again.]

Near the end, there, you know, it was hard sometimes to tell a difference. I wasn’t erasing V so much as my engram [him? whatever] was overriding, taking over piece by piece. Assimilating, and at the end it was going to be me behind the wheel, but not because he was gone… just changed. Into me.

[Probably too esoteric. Johnny exhales.]

Basically, bein’ separated feels like losin’ a limb. Another limb. Big part of myself gone quiet. But I’m adjustin’ just fine, all things considered.

[All of that sounds miserable, and he isn't sure what he can say. He wants Johnny to know that he is here, if he ever needs someone to vent to, but saying so feels uncomfortably sappy.]

Shit, man. All of that sounds fucked up.

But... I'm glad you're you and he's V.

[A pause, as he realizes that's not the case for both V's here.] You ever talk to the other V about this shit? He says it's the opposite for him.

[It is fucked up, but Johnny's already accepted it's how it's going to be. He can't deny that his is a second (third?) chance at living, when he should be nothing more than code floating around on the net at the behest of whatever Alt had up her figurative sleeves. Issues of identity and existentialism can be unknotted in time, and it seems like they've got plenty of that to go around.

Still, he appreciates the unspoken sentiment, Ker.]

Nope, haven't talked to this other V yet. [Figuring out what to say, but it's not like Johnny's going to admit that much out loud.] Heard he hates my guts, though.

Not your biggest fan, at least.

[He sighs because this topic is disturbing to him.] Didn't stop him from handing his body to you. Only the two of you really get what you're goin' through, Johnny. Least when it comes to being with, you know, that Alt AI, and then suddenly finding yourself not.

Don't know if that means anything to either of you. If that's somethin' you need.

[This time, a hint of disbelief.] You serious? The fuck would I have agreed to that?

[He had decided, a while ago, that he'd be handing V's body back to him; let him live out the rest of his days with the hope that something could be fixed, someday. Why would this other version of him agree to the opposite?

This isn't something that Kerry can answer, not really, so he doesn't bother expecting an answer.]

I'm hearin' a little concern coming from your side, Ker. I don't need it. [He appreciates it, but.] I can handle the hand I've been dealt. It's V I'm worried about... and this other one, too, I guess. Don't worry. Plan on talkin' to them sooner rather than later.

Sounds like he didn't give you the option, man.

[He knows that Johnny would hate it, though. Johnny was many terrible things, but he wanted people to be able to think and act for themselves. That idealogy was at his core. He would have hated the idea of taking over someone else's whole identity.]

Being worried 'bout V is my new favorite pastime. That reckless, beautiful input o' mine sure does like to put new gray hairs on my already gray enough head. Being worried about you, however, is an old nasty habit that I'll try to kick again so as to have more restful nights and to annoy you less. [Said with much affection]

Anyway, the other V's brain is whole. He got a shiny new body to live in. Means there's only one brain we gotta figure out how to fix at least.

[Kerry’s right about that; the whole idea just makes his skin crawl thinking about it. Stealing something that didn’t belong to him, something that no man should ever wield in someone else’s stead. Even if he wasn’t given a choice, he hates the idea. Almost can’t believe that in some other reality, such a thing would’ve come to pass.

What the fuck would he have done afterwards? Just the very thought feels draining.]

Guess that makes it less complicated.

[Not worrying about him, not worrying about the other V. But at this point, maybe worrying about V in whatever form they come in is Johnny’s new favorite pastime, too. Something about sharing a brain and body with a guy that makes that a thing.]

Any leads on making a brain less broken?

Nada.

[Somehow that one word sounds so incredibly tired.]

Though, Sapphires are supposed to heal folk right? Maybe we do something with that magic shit?

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