162

"Nova! Absolutely qualitatively nova! I've been sooooo bored." Sasha whined at me, with a laugh throwing her arm over my shoulders only to wince. It was her chrome arm she had used, and there were obviously some issues with it.

"Still getting used to it?"

"It's nothing. I'm fine." She said a little too fast as she slipped her arm away from my shoulder and instead pulled a shower curtain away from what I was definitely not expecting to see.

"An Ice Bath?"

"Yeah! I'm gonna jump on the net obviously. Want to join me?" Sasha asked, her eyebrows moving in a waggling wave.

"I mean, I could go to my netrunner den I guess. I don't use a Ice bath. I have a chair." I said as I walked over and crouched down by the bathtub. It was already full of half melted ice cubes, I could tell it would be absolutely freezing.

I really didn't like the idea of using this method.

"You have a netrunning chair?" Sasha asked surprised and I nodded.

"Yeah I had a gig from Wakako to kill this guy. He was a runner, good too. Had a bunch of equipment, since I flatlined him, I took it for myself. Big server, Chair, everything I needed."

"You have a server!? How big!" I shrugged and sent her the details on the server set up and I looked up to see her choking on nothing.

"N-Not fair! Sasha doesn't have a server! How does her Kohai have one!" She whined childishly which had me laugh at her.

"You really don't have a server? Why not?"

"Eh. I'm not a data runner. The only data I grab is for a gig, or to immediately trade out." She answered calmly, the childish act disappearing. Then as suddenly as her calm answer appeared it disappeared. "Waaa! Maine! My Kohai is bullying me!" She whined loudly towards the stairs and then ran up the wooden steps.

"What?"

Then I blinked realizing I could hear her faux crying up the stairs that she had taken two at a time. I hurried after her, mostly because I was so confused.

Is this what it was like dealing with me, when I was being a little shit? No. Everyone liked when I was a shit.

Except Jun of course, but he doesn't count.

I made it up the stairs and blinked as Sasha was sitting on the couch besides Maine looking up at him with big crocodile tears in her eyes.

"-Need a server! I can't be bullied by my cute little Kohai! Just a little one is okay!" She begged and Maine took a sip from his beer.

"Maybe when you're older." Maine offered cooly. The look of outrage on Sasha's face at the absolute burn from Maine had Rebecca start cackling and Dorio's chest started heaving as well.

"Maine!" She eventually squawked out in outrage, slapping the larger man's chromed out arm, but that did less than nothing.

"Don't get upset when someone teases you back." He retorted and she huffed crossing her arms, but her chrome one didn't move as easily, and she sort of flubbed the whole thing. Looking down at her arm. A change went over her face.

I don't think Sasha was handling her loss that well.

"Next time I have to flatline a netrunner, I'll keep an eye out for another server for you?" I offered and my words startled everyone in the room but Rebecca who just looked thoughtful and then nodded.

"I gotta admit, Kitten, klepping everything after wiping a place, even the stuff bolted down, certainly made for a nice payday." Rebecca agreed and I nodded, throwing her a thumbs up.

"It's not klepping Becca! Once you kill them it's looting!"

She looked at me, I looked at her, and we both broke into cackles of laughter.

"'M I missing something here?" Maine asked, and Becca nodded.

"Yeah. While you guys have been out of touch. Kitten here called me up and asked if I wanted to join in on a gig. Let me tell you Maine. The payday took a few days, but when it came in? Way more than I ever made working under you. Maybe I'll find myself a new crew." Rebecca said but her tone showed she was teasing.

Even so Maine and Dorio both looked shocked while Sasha was just curious.

"You took a gig?" Dorio managed to ask first and Rebecca nodded.

"Wiping Scavs. Honestly the way Kitten here ran the gig it was… Pretty smooth. I still want a chance to play with that Minotaur." She said, turning to me.

All I could do was huff. "So do I. Ichi basically stole it! I'm the one that had to fight it while some Raffen gonk was using it while trying not to damage it cause… I mean it's awesome."

"Wait wait. A Militech Minotaur?" Maine asked, his sun glasses instantly sliding down his nose to lock eyes on first Rebecca and then me.

"Yeah. The gig that got me into the Afterlife? They shot down an Arasaka AV and captured a bunch of stuff, including an Arasaka brand Minotaur. It's mine now… When my choom isn't stealing it out from under me."

"It was nova to have on that gig though. When you jumped on the back of it for mobile cover? Fuck it was preem. Made me jealous that I didn't think of it." Rebecca offered and I smiled because it had been fuckin cool.

"You just… Used a Minotaur against Scavs?" Maine asked, sounding a bit shell shocked.

"It was a big base. They were a major group. Selling XBD's of the people they murdered out on the market. Lots of eddies involved." I answered. "It was pretty effective in drawing attention, letting us wipe them out while they pissed themselves at the mech."

"And Becca you went on this gig?"

"Yep! Actually was one of the four solo's. Right up front.. Well second line. The Kittens brother is the Oni. You know the Tyger Claw one with the rep."

"Kamikaze or something right?" Dorio asked, looking worried. Between Rebecca and me. "It was okay?"

"Jun isn't a cyberpsycho." I butt in quickly. "He had some problems, he uh… Lost someone important to him and went a bit wild, but he's actually stabilizing really well."

Becca kinda snorted. "He seemed fine outside of the fight, but when shit got wild so did he. I get why they call him the Oni now."

"Yeah Jun is still a moron." I agreed, and Becca just scoffed.

"He's an older brother, are they ever not morons?"

"Nope." I said and we both looked at eachother with shared tooth filled grins.

"Right." Maine muttered seemingly a little lost.

"Well it was nice to be treated as part of the team at least." Rebecca suddenly added, rather directly, and Main stiffened.

"You are part of the team."

"Maine… You don't ever use me as a shooter. I can do it." Rebecca added and Maine and her both stared at each other for a moment before Maine looked away.

"We'll talk about it for the next gig." He offered, and Rebecca didn't look like she was going to accept before shrugging.

"I'll hold you to that."

"Ah! My Kohai is so skilled! She's even got Rebecca on her side!" Sasha interrupted rising up and to my surprise pulled me into a tight hug. Squeezed tightly at least with one arm into her chest. "I'm soooo proud!"

"Wha!"

Then before I could even start struggling I was pushed away.

"We should go on a dive together! I want to see how good you are!" Sasha demanded and I blinked.

She smiled.

I shrugged. "Okay? Sure, sounds fun."

"Yay! You can use the extra Ice bath… Unless you want to join me in mine." Sasha teased me with a big smile, but I scoffed and chuckled before remembering and stilling.

"Ah I can't today. I just got this Neural Link chipped in, and my ripper has me on a few days of rest before I can do anything heavy with it. So… Couple day rain check?" I offered and Sasha looked at me like I was crazy.

"You actually listen to that nonsense?" Maine asked suddenly, his rumbling voice cutting off whatever Sasha was about to say. "If you're tough you can handle it. Never seen someone actually listen to that garbage."

I instantly frowned. Deeply.

I turned from Sasha and marched right up to Maine. Maine that even if he was sitting on a couch was still nearly twice my height.

"Taking care of your health isn't weak! And ignoring doctors' experience with medical matters doesn't make you tough, it makes you dumb! I chipped in a new Neural Link, and a Sandy and was told to give it a few days to make sure it settles into my nerve endings. Of course I'm going to wait. Otherwise I could burn out or injure myself, making myself weaker over time!" I snapped at him practically poking him.

Maine didn't appreciate that though, and reached out, pushing my finger off him, which I let him do without complaint.

"Careful kid, don't go poking me like that." Maine rumbled out, but I had made my point and turned away from him.

"Hey Becca, I think I'm gonna head out. Sasha. Call me in a few days and we can do that net dive okay?"

"Sure Kitten." Sasha offered and Rebecca nodded, but didn't say anything, as my leaving was watched over by a silent grumpy Maine.

I don't think I liked Maine very much,

—--

I got home and flopped onto the couch. Jun wasn't around so I had the place to myself. I didn't really feel like doing much just yet. My neck had a weird tenseness that made me feel like I wanted to crack it, but couldn't. The larger Neural link didn't diminish my range of movement, but it did make me feel all stiff.

So I did what I always did when I felt a little annoyed.

I grabbed my guitar. I had to go easy with my Neural Link so direct programming with my cyberdeck was out, but I could still work on a new song.

I lay there on my back tapping on my guitar as I ran through all the songs I knew, which one did I want to play right now?

Strumming a few notes here and there as I considered, before I could even figure it out, the door opened, and I sat up to see. Jun and… Alice. Rockerboy girl herself.

They walked in, although it was obvious to me that it hadn't been planned. Jun was looking a little awkward as Alice followed along behind him.

"Hey Jun. Alice."

"Hey kid! You like music, tell your brother he should take my advice! I'm inviting him to a recording session! He gets to hear professionals at work!" Alice called out to me, and Jun sent me a look.

Ah, that's right.

Jun's taste in music was trash. He probably hated Alice's sound.

"Jun! I'm disappointed in you!" I called out, as I rose up, smirk already stretching across my face. "You love music!"

Jun's pleading look turned into a promise to murder me after this, but that was fine.

"See! You love music!" Alice agreed, uncaring about the truth. "Come with! You'll get to meet some famous Rockerboys and enjoy some music! As my plus one of course." She offered and Jun continued to prove he was the densest person in any room he entered.

"I wouldn't want to intrude, if you are doing music stuff, I'm not good with that sort of thing. But if you want someone that will be good with the music, you should take Motoko! She's amazing with that stuff." He offered, and I could literally see the look of frustration on her face as he continued to not notice she was into him.

"Oh no I couldn't Jun. Alice is your choom." I replied doing at least a little to keep Alice from just dying on the spot at my brother's inability to notice interest in him.

"I see." He said and Alice's face brightened up in delight as he seemed like he was finally understanding.

He didn't of course. I would have told her that, but Jun did it himself before I got a chance.

"Why don't we all go then? Motoko likes music, it'll be a good chance for her to meet some other musicians. Maybe get someone to 'jam out' with you?" He said, looking at me.

Jun. Brother of mine with the mental density of a black hole. I don't want to 'Jam out' with people, and the way you said it was super cringe.

Alice had a similar look on her face, the full body cringe was there.

But Jun's charisma was stronk. Before the disgust could kill her ardor he turned to Alice, and smiled.

Damn Jun. Throwing deadly smiles like that around, you were going to melt hearts… Along with something else.

Not that Jun was attractive or anything. He was ugly, and fat, and he ate XXL Burritos.

"How about it? Wouldn't that be more fun?" He asked, smiling at Alice and she broke.

"S-sure? Sounds fine I mean. Yeah. I can uh… Get her a pass in too?"

"I didn't even say I wanted to go?" I offered but Jun just threw another look at me.

"You've been practicing your music stuff so much, but you never do anything with it! This is a chance to meet other musicians, and maybe you'll like the idea of joining a band." Jun offered and I realized what was going through his mind.

"Jun, you gonk, even if I join a band, which I'm totally not. I'd still do merc work."

"Maybe." he said with a shrug.

I rolled my eyes and rose up. "Alright, fine. I'll go." Only because I knew if I refused he wouldn't want to go, and I felt some distance sympathy for Alice right now.

Which is how I ended up sitting in the back seat of Alice's run down Mahir Supron. Practically riding on top of her band equipment.

"This is an interesting ride." I commented as we went over a bump, my head nearly slamming into the roof.

"It's cheap, and I spend most of my money on music stuff." She answered back a little hotly. "It runs on hopes and dreams, and carries my shit."

"It's fine." Jun tempered her. "It wasn't until recently that either of us had a car. We just used our bikes for the longest time."

"You'll have to give me a ride sometime." She shot back flirtatiously. "Uncle always threw a fit when I said I might get one."

"Uh… Sure? They aren't the best bikes to start on, but I can-"

I rolled my eyes as I zoned out Jun's misunderstanding. He thought she wanted a lesson on driving a Kusanagi, instead of just wanting to ride one…

Heh. A very specific Kusanagi in fact.

—--

Alice drove us down into City Center, and then into a small strip mall, but instead of going into a shop she walked down an alley and towards a side door, up a small set of concrete steps.

"Don't tell people about this place." Alice suddenly said. "A lot of big names come here, so they don't want fans and stuff to know about it." Then she opened the door and I relaxed.

It really was a music studio. We just used a back door for some reason. White hallways dotted with doors. Small pieces of the door were glass letting me see inside to small studio rooms full of sound equipment. I could just make out the small performance rooms as well. No sound escaped them though as everything seemed to be soundproofed.

We walked pretty deep into the building, passing by door after door, that inside I could just see through the small window on each door were often occupied.

I guess music was big business in Night City.

No one I recognized was inside though, but then I could only really see the editing room and not the performance box.

Then Alice waved at a man that I did sorta recognize. I'm pretty sure he was one of Alice's bandmates? I vaguely remembered him from the gig I watched.

"Hey, sorry I'm late." She called and the man looked over at Jun and I with a quirked eyebrow.

"Don't even. This is Jun, The Oni." She said proudly at Jun's nickname, which even Jun looked a little embarrassed at being called out like that.

"Riiiight." The guy shot back. "Who's the kid?"

"The kid is… Actually pretty good. Jun's sister." And I realized that Alice probably forgot my name.

"I'm Motoko. Don't mind me. I'm mostly here because my brother thinks I need to get into music to escape my life of crime."

The man blinked and then laughed a bit at my joke.

"Funny. Too many late night joy rides in klepped cars?"

"Nah. I have my own car. Mostly it's the shootouts." I answered truthfully and then looked at the door. "So what's going on exactly?" The guy looked a little off but shrugged it away after a moment.

"A friend of ours got a big gig, making a song for a Ni-Cola advert. He wanted us as his band. So we get to set up here." He explained with a curious look to Alice. "You brought them without explaining?"

"It sorta went that way." She shrugged completely unashamed at the situation. She wanted to hang out with Jun after all. The way she entwined her arm with Jun's said a lot.

So did Jun's very confused look towards his arm wondering what was going on.

"Well alright. C'mon, Tessa is already in the booth." He offered and opened the door. Inside was a small studio, a few chairs and a ton of equipment. And beyond that the small room that was soundproofed where a man was seemingly already working.

I didn't recognize him. Or anyone else in the room.

But that was fine. It was kinda just interesting to see a real studio like this.

"Ah, there you are!" A heavyset man in an ill fitting suit and enough gold chains on his neck to hang himself with pointed a set of pudgy fingers at Alice. "Kept us waiting."

"I'm on time. You just wanted me here early. Violent Hemorrhage is here to perform."

"Well get to it. No, hold on. This is a good line." He ordered and turned back to the equipment. A headset half off put back on, as he hit a few buttons.

There was a man, the sort of guy that looked like a titular Rockerboy fancy clothes, and styled hair, and probably a grand or more on accessories, and even more on fancy chrome. His styled hair buzzed with electricity as he sang.

But I couldn't hear him so I just shrugged. Alice pulled Jun inside, and we were put into a corner, as Alice was prepping to enter the booth, but at least she gave us a pair of headsets so we could listen.

I put it on, and instantly frowned. Electro-hair was doing the same shit that Alice did. It was all the chrome's work. His voice was shit.

Sure, it sounded okay, but if you knew what you were listening for you could hear him missing notes or just slurring the song a bit too much.

Bad auto-tune. That's what it reminded me of. The fatty producer didn't seem to mind, and I could tell Jun didn't seem to notice bobbing his head a bit to the song. Then they cut, and Alice and her bandmate entered, quickly grabbing some instruments already set up, and this time they played together with the singer. Checking harmony and timing from what I was hearing the producer guy, and another guy on the equipment mutter to each other.

Honestly it was kinda interesting I guess. Similar to what I do, but I don't need some weird guy to do it for me.

I sighed. That was just because of the system. So I shouldn't bad mouth people just trying to do their thing. I shook off the sense of arrogance and instead listened. What would I do to improve the song?

I'm actually not sure. Rockerboy gives me a lot of information to work with, but I've never tried to edit a song that had bad singing before.

So instead I focused on what the producer? I'm not sure what his actual job was, but I watched him work.

It was interesting, and made me want to play with it too. But I kept out. No way he would want some teenager messing with his equipment while he was putting together a song.

I wouldn't want someone interfering in my work. So I stayed back, Jun and I listened for a good thirty minutes as they ran through the song multiple times before they took a break.

When they finally took a break, Alice came out of the sound stage and nearly bounced her way over to Jun.

She was sweating a bit, but looked amped up, energized and excited.

Oh my. Jun brother of mine, you might finally understand that Alice is interested in you tonight if you aren't careful.

"How does it sound Simon?"

"Sounds smooth Carmen my boy. I'll send this copy down Ni-Cola and see what they think ya?" The producer offered up pulling out a shard and throwing a heavy arm over the Rockerboy who looked excited.

"Great! Let me know what they say, we can definitely make some changes, and-"

"Hey hey no worries kid. You let me handle that." He waved off and then the two left along with most of Alice's band.

"Hey Jun! What do you think huh? I mean it was kinda cheesy stuff, but our music might be all over the city next week." Alice offered with a chirp in her voice.

"It was nova. I liked it." Jun agreed, and Alice beamed, even if she didn't realize that Jun's bad taste in music meant he wasn't saying she did good, but that he did actually like the commercial music.

I cringed down to my toes at the idea. But Jun's taste in music was well known to me.

"Thanks, hey, listen, everyone is going to be going back and forth over and over. There's a bar upstairs we can use. So why don't we go relax for a little." She gestured for us to follow and we headed out, back down the white hall.

Alice had Jun's arm in her grip as she tugged him along.

For once Jun just seemed happy to go along with it, obviously picking up how happy she was at that moment.

We went up an elevator and came out in a large bar. The cozy atmosphere was actually pretty nice. Much more classy than some of the places I had been dragged into.

High end too. With the entire wall having open windows, and a stage up in a corner, although it was empty for now.

But the bar wasn't. Lots of Rockerboys hung around, some drinking, some chatting, some drugging. I ignored them all, instead splitting off from Jun and hitting the bar, sliding into a stool.

"Something for you?"

"Just a soda is fine." I answered and I got a funny look from the bartender, a very pretty woman that was a bit obsessed with silver chrome, but I got my drink and that was good enough for me.

I noticed Alice looking at me from a booth with Jun and the rest of her crew and threw her a wink.

There. That's all I will do to help you with Jun. Don't say I never did anything for you.

She nodded in turn and then focused on Jun smiling.

"Not a regular are you?" The Bartender asked, and I noticed I was the only one still at the bar itself.

"Nope. Following my gonk of a brother and the Rockerboy girl that's into him, not that he noticed. Bit dense. Place is kinda cool though. Wouldn't mind using a sound stage like that sometime."

"Hey. Well the prices are crazy, but you get some perks. There's an instrument room downstairs you can use."

"Instrument room?" I asked suddenly, because that sounded more fun than just sitting at a bar.

"Yeah, they got everything. Rental comes with the membership."

"Hmm." I mumbled. I wasn't about to pay a membership, but if this place ran that sort of stuff off a computer…

I got up. "Thanks." I threw her a few dozen eddies and wandered back downstairs. I should be able to track down the instrument room without too much issue.

—--

I walked into the instrument room. The computer beeped confirming my access. I smirked at the noise.

Finding the control room, and breaching in from inside was easy peasy. The place did have some pretty solid ICE, if I was attacking from outside the building I might have been troubled by it.

I felt the back of my neck. No overheating issues, or problems from my Neural Link.

I rolled my neck as best as I could and while it still wasn't comfortable, the actual performance had been fine.

The instrument room lights turned on, and I whistled.

That was a lot of gear. Guitars, drum sets. Common Rockerboy things were there, but that wasn't all.

Piano's, a full brass section, and some other string instruments, were all stored in the room.

I understood why they had such high security for this room. It would be an expensive heist. Luckily I didn't steal things. Only looted. So it was all safe from me.

Instead I was just perusing. Mostly just wasting time as Jun was flirted at. I popped open a case that had a trumpet, and just snorted. It wasn't a normal trumpet, but an electro trumpet.

Something that seemed utterly silly to me, but I did have the instincts on how it worked as I thought about it.

I put it away. I didn't need a trumpet that would do all the work for me. Instead I opened another case, older, much older.

It was worn, and probably needed a good polish, but it was a trumpet all right.

I moved on, checking out different instruments. Trombone, Saxophone, the list went on.

Not that I was all that interested. I didn't have a lot of songs that I had any interest in that used a brass section.

I started humming, an ear worm in my mind as I checked on the Piano, tinkering on the keys and shaking my head. Just an electric Piano pretending to be an antique.

The ear worm was digging at me. Something my brain was trying to remember, but not getting there. Right on the tip of my tongue.

The door opened, and a man I didn't recognize entered carrying a guitar. He didn't notice me, and I took two steps to the side sliding in amongst the racks, and now he never would.

"Get everyone together, and the stuff! Don't leave anything behind this time asshole!" He yelled out as he popped the guitar into the case and then headed out.

The brainwave connected.

"Get everybody and the stuff together… Okay, Three, two, one, Let's jam." I repeated softly the only lyrics from a song I remembered vividly. One that every ounce of my being wanted to recreate.

I loved that song.

Instantly I went to work. I would need a space, and luckily I was in the perfect place to get this done. I walked out of the room, and headed back into the empty control room that quickly opened at my approach. There I simply accessed the system, and checked which of the sound stages would be open.

A small adjustment and the one empty room was now reserved.

Okay, let's blow this scene. I practically giggled as I hurried back to the instrument room and started gathering what I would need. Trumpet, Trombone, Sax, Drums. That took a few trips back and forth. Chello, I had to grab an electric one, but it would do.

Back and forth I hauled everything inside the soundproofed room, and then since I would be doing this solo, I walked over to the equipment in the production room and slipped my personal link in.

Ah good. I wasn't the only Rockerboy that wanted to handle the editing in real time, or by themselves.

I unplugged and headed inside, plugging into the internal connection and then started setting everything up. I hummed the song as I prepped, going through every line, every note.

I started on the chello. No bow, just plucking the strings, I activated the recording, and played the notes perfectly to what I knew they needed to be. I had heard this song before after all.

I knew it. As intimately as I did the palm of my hand, chrome or not.

Drums were next, then trumpet, to really get going. All the while I was using my personal link to manage the song recording in real time. Recording, pausing, cutting all as I played through the song. Copying it all to a single track when I was sure it was right. Some tracks needed multiple copies, trumpets, and the like. It wouldn't sound right without multiple players, so I played just that slightly differently on another track, merging them together into a big band jazz sound.

Over and over I played the song. Getting every track with real instruments, and just blasting out the noise of Yoko Kanno and the Seatbelts, remade.

I was doing another play through on the Sax when I caught it out of the corner of my eye.

I stopped.

Someone was in the control room.

I looked on, and they looked at me.

That… Holy shit.

I recognized her.

She looked none too pleased either, and seeing me stop she walked over and opened the door.

"Lot of chrome tits to walk into my Studio klep my personal recording booth, and grab about half my equipment." The woman offered arms crossed.

"You're Denny. From Samurai." I said, because that was honestly all I could say.

She quirked up an eyebrow at me, under her massive afro and then just rolled her eyes.

"Yes. How the hell some teenager recognizes me from Samurai, and not any of my other bands. Sure whatever. Now focus gonk, cause I'm deciding whether to kick your ass out with a boot between the ass cheeks, or call security and let them escort you out the hard way."

"Let's not get your security killed for something this stupid. Sorry, I was just bored, and I did a bit of hacking, noticed this booth wasn't reserved, so I figured no one would mind. Honest, didn't mean to cause any trouble. Figured I would put everything back after and no one would even know."

Denny's eyes scanned me down. Literally, they glowed as she obviously checked me out, and I could see her notice my weapons, armored clothing.

"You're either a psycho little shit, or you aren't a little shit at all."

"Motoko Kusanagi, Mercenary… Ah, well I guess technically I'm an Afterlife merc." That didn't get a visual reaction, but Denny was thinking, and thinking hard.

"Was listening to you play. Weird shit. Then I saw you putting the track together. Finish it. I want to hear. If it's shit, I'm not taking calling security on your gonk ass off the table." She demanded and then to my surprise she walked out of the room, and then I watched as she put on the headset and started messing with some settings. I was still plugged in so I saw what she was doing. A few adjustments, that… Yeah that probably would sound better, on the track.

I nodded and then restarted the Sax track. Adding it into the piece.

—--

"Okay, three, two, one, let's jam." I spoke into the mic, making my voice as husky as I could, I checked the vocals and nodded. Sounded good. Different from the original but good.

I was finished. I took a moment to play the completed song, letting the sound of Tank flow through my agent into my ears.

It sounded good, not perfect. It lost something with only one instrument for the brass section, even repeated over and over, but it was tank. Unmistakably so.

*100 Rockerboy XP Gained.*

*Rockerboy skill level up!*

Slowly I let out a breath as I checked my system. I did it! Another level! Level 9. There wasn't much left of Rockerboy for me to learn. I let the information flow into me. More and more on how to play to bring the best sound out. How to maximize my charisma on the stage. I shook it off.

I looked up. Denny had been listening to it as well. She had done some work on the song as I worked, adjusting a few things to make the different repeats of the brace sound slightly different, understanding what I had intended.

I slipped my personal link from the connection port in the room and then walked out. Denny was still listening, a head set slid into her afro. Then finally the song ended and she took it off her head.

"You got some real soul kid." She offered and I just shrugged. Hard to explain that jazz wasn't my usual preference, but everyone loved Tank.

"Sorry again, about the whole taking your space thing."

"Clean it up." She demanded suddenly. "Put everything away, clean it up, and maybe I'll forgive you."

"Sure." I answered back without really minding. I had pulled the instruments, of course I should put them back.

"Afterlife merc huh? You play with Violent Hemorrhage?"

"Oh, no. Alice, the lead singer, is our neighbor. She likes my brother. Jun wants to get me out of merc work, so he tries to drag me into Rockerboy stuff. It's my hobby. Playing music." I shrugged.

"Right." She offered, obviously not that interested in my life. "Well damn. I was expecting this to be another shitty teenager thing but this isn't bad. It sounds old. Sort of jazz I'd have heard a century ago."

"Yeah well… I just had it stuck in my head."

"Had to get it out?" She asked back and I nodded.

"More like I had a chance to get it out, I only have a guitar and some equipment, hard to do brass with that."

"Yeah electronic brass never sounds right. Especially for Jazz." She agreed, but her foot was tapping and she was looking distracted. "Alright. Clean up, and don't let me catch you in here again. You want to use the equipment? Then sign up."

"Right. Sure." I answered but it looked like she wasn't completely ready for the conversation to end. Her finger tapped on the equipment as she watched me.

"What's that song called?"

"Tank." I answered back instantly without really thinking.

Then I hurried to clean everything up. Hurrying back in and packing up a few instruments, and walking out, past Denny who was fiddling with the equipment, ignoring me as I entered the white hallway, which wasn't empty.

"Hey Jun." I said as I walked behind him to the instrument room.

"Motoko! There you are! Where've you been?"

"Mostly getting in trouble!" I called back and entered the equipment room and settled the cases into place before hurrying back.

"Motoko, what did you do?"

"Broke into a room that belonged to the owner. She wasn't happy, but she let me finish the song I was making." I said as I hurried past, but he followed, and so Alice did as well.

I entered, and Denny was now inside the booth, tapping away at the drums.

Weird. I looked at the track and realized she was playing to Tank!

I jerked and hurried inside, not really caring about the sound proofing.

Inside Denny was in the groove. Slamming the drum beats, while my rendition of Tank played through the speakers above.

"What is that?" Alice asked, having come up behind Jun to see what was going on, but I just ignored her.

Denny was jamming out…

Fuck it.

I walked over to the Sax that was still out, and threw it on, and plugged into the system. Pausing the sax track so that when it came up.

I just played it myself.

Denny wasn't playing the exact track instead jamming out, and I did the same. Entwining the sounds with her drums. We jammed out, ignoring anything else for a few minutes until the song ended.

"Not bad kid." Denny agreed and then looked over Jun and Alice with a frown.

Jun only had eyes for me, smiling proudly, but Alice was looking at Denny in awe.

"Denny." She uttered in shock at seeing the woman step away from her drum set.

"Random gonks that all wandered into my private space. Jeeze what kind of night is this where every street kid has the chromed out balls to just move about as they please?" The woman scoffed out looking at me. "How much?"

"Hmm?" I asked as I was breaking down the sax, pulling out the mouthpiece, and the reed.

"For the song kid. How much?"

I stilled because that was a random and very uncomfortable question.

"What?"

"Wait, that song? Is that something you wrote Motoko?" Jun interrupted, definitely not knowing who he was in the same room as. Jun didn't like Samurai to start with.

"Yeah, I uh. Snuck in here and started it, but this is Denny's private booth. Which makes sense in hindsight, being the only room without a reservation…" Really smart there Motoko.

"Yeah yeah, explain after. How much for the rights to the song. I like it. Not really modern, but because it isn't I think that's why I want it."

I opened my mouth to give some blaze answer. How was I supposed to know how much a song could be worth? But then in my head, an image of Hiromi popped up. Black chrome gleaming as she frowned at me.

"Don't make any decisions about money Motoko! You are terrible with money! Let me do it instead!"

Right. Mind Hiromi was probably right…

"I'll have to ask my manager?" I questioned, not at all convincingly.

"You have a manager?" Denny asked, emphasizing her disbelief.

"I have a manager… Probably." I answered back, only muttering the last part.

She snorted and flicked me a number. "Have your manager call my firm. Mention the song name, and they won't just hang up on you. Now really… Clean up and get out of my booth!" Denny demanded and everyone except Jun jumped. He just looked like Christmas came early.

"Right, let's go… Don't want to ruin your vibe or anything." Alice spoke, trying to sound casual, but it was obvious she was a bit star struck. "Come on Jun, we don't want to bother Denny!" She demanded but could barely tear her eyes away from the woman to grab Jun's arm to pull at him.

Jun didn't budge an inch instead looking at me.

We did the sibling communication thing, I just threw him a small smile.

"I'll finish cleaning up." I offered and Denny nodded as if that was obvious.

Jun nodded and let Alice pull him out, and I got to work, packing up the instruments and moving them back. Denny didn't stick around, instead leaving back out the door.

Ten minutes later everything was put away, I wandered over to find Jun. The moment I opened the recording room Alice was on me.

"What the hell was that? You know Denny?"

"We just met tonight." I answered, and frowned as she was tugging on my jacket.

"What the fuck! Denny talked to you! Wanted to buy your song? What song!?"

"Tank."

"What the fuck." She exhaled and shook herself. "I want to hear that song again. Pop it in." She demanded pointing at the recording booth.

I didn't move.

I kinda, sorta, maybe a little liked Alice. She was doing the musician thing, and while she was bitchy she had the charisma it came off more amusing than anything.

But I didn't just play music on command, and certainly not when ordered.

"Motoko?" Jun interrupted as the moment between Alice and I stretched and she realized I wasn't going to do what she wanted.

"Jun?"

"Can we hear your new song? I only heard a bit there."

I scoffed at Jun's obvious attempt to settle things, but I also couldn't just deny Jun like that.

I pulled a shard out of my neck and stuck it into the recording booth system, and set it to play. The speakers in the booth came alive. Instantly with the sound of horns, and then a thrumming chello.

Alice jerked at the instant noise and then settled in to listen. Looking to me at the vocals, but then just listening foot tapping at the beat.

"That's certainly different." She said finally as the song ended, but Jun just threw an arm over my shoulder in a side hug.

"Awesome job Motoko."

"It's nothing." I mumbled, a little embarrassed that everyone had heard it. I hadn't wanted anyone to hear it! I shook it off. "I'm going to head home Jun."

"Hmm. I guess it is getting late. Let's go home." He agreed, and I could see Alice twitch at his words, but he then did something that surprised me. He turned to Alice and threw her a smile. "Thanks Alice, this was interesting."

"Ah… Yeah sure! Anytime!" She agreed, and Jun and I headed out.

What a weird night.

----

A/N So I've been writing a snippet thread recently to help me relax. Because I've been a little writers blocky with GitC. I haven't managed to really get much done in the last two or more weeks. It just isn't flowing. So, I know I just had a break over Christmas, but I'm going to go on a week break. with GitC.

Hopefully during this time, I'll be back on the GitC train. I plan on playing some 2077 to help get me back into the swing of things. Until then. I did just write a whole bunch for that VtM story if you have any interest and haven't read it yet, it's here.

Seras's dumpster of random snippets.

Sorry to drop this all on you. It's been rough for me, but at this point I'm basically at a very shortened Backlog and I really need the backlog to properly write things out. That means, expect chapters again probably the 20th? Let's say the 20th. Thank you all for your support, and I'm sorry to do this.