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Johnny Silverhand
— Cyberpunk 2077 —
"A good ending, for folks like us? Wrong city. Wrong people."
Other Physical Traits.
At first glance, Johnny looks like some washed up greaser with a bad attitude. However, he's a little bit more than just your average rockerboy with a dream and couple of eddies in his pocket. He has a number of intricate tattoos and scars that he collected throughout the years, each one possessing its own unique meaning. The symbolic nature of his tattoos was something of a mystery until recently, especially since many of Johnny's tatts just seem to be random numbers and symbols, but that couldn't be any further from the truth.
The "G20" tattoo most likely refers to the real-life "G20," which is essentially a group of 19 countries plus the EU that deals with issues like climate change and economic stability. It is an organization that has received widespread criticism for its lack of legitimacy as well as inadequacy in dealing with global concerns. The "A"-looking symbol on the right appears to be a delta symbol. In cyberpunk jargon, "delta" means to leave or go, therefore you can imagine what that tattoo represents.
As for the miu symbol "µ", it typically means coeficient of friction aka resistance of motion, or viscosity aka resistance of deforming in liquids. In simple terms, "resisting". Everything about these stattoos indidicates Johnny's willingness to resist the status quo.
IC Permissions.
Background.
Born Robert John Linder, Johnny Silverhand was a well-known and influential rockerboy and the lead singer of the band Samurai before its disbandment in 2008. Silverhand, a military veteran who founded the rockerboy movement in Cyberpunk 2077, was the most visible figure fighting against the corrupt NUSA government and megacorporations, and he was frequently labeled a terrorist as a result. Despite his charisma and charm, he was notorious for being erratic, impetuous, and manipulative.
Personality.
There's only so many ways I can describe Silverhand as a bastard, so let's focus on his good quirks first before things get nasty. Johnny is a sometimes morally inclined fellow who utterly hates the megacorporations with his entire soul. He sees how these corporations suck the lifeblood out of Night City and is morally opposed to all of their underhanded bullshit. Johnny is well aware of just how evil these corporations are and will stop at nothing to bring them down a peg. He's a champion of the common man, the kind of guy who doesn't hesitate to raise some hell for a good cause. After witnessing the horrors of war during his deployment to Venezuela during the Second Central American Wars, that the government is nothing more than a business willing to sacrifice American lives for the sake of profit. His heavy anti-corporation stance coincides with his heavy anti-war agenda. Johnny utterly hates what has become of humanity and will stop at nothing to change the status quo.
Now let's get into why Johnny Silverhand is honestly a manipulative asshole with a 'messiah' complex. Silverhad got his nickname from his silvery bionic left arm he had implanted shortly after losing his actual arm during deployment. It's heavily hinted that Johnny was probably one of the earliest victims of cyberpsychosis and, as a result, became very temperamental and unpredictable. He is described in various bits of lore as "ambitious and dangerous" despite his dedication to rid of big corporations.
He usually doesn't care about the people around him unless he sees them as useful. The manner he handled Rogue, as well as his relentless manipulation of his bandmates, demonstrated this. While Johnny appears to be unaware of this personality trait, he gradually realizes that he is the core cause of all of his troubles. This is why he holds himself responsible for Alt's untimely death. Alt died as a result of his recklessness and refusal to seek help. However, how could Johnny seek assistance when he was so intent on exacting revenge against Arasaka for kidnapping his girlfriend, Alt?
Johnny could think of himself as a huge badass hero at first, but he soon realized he was simply a pawn in a bigger game. Even after his death, Johnny is nothing more than a pawn claiming to be king. His memories of the night of the Arasaka Tower Bombing remain muddled. He claims to have faced the Adam Smasher, a legendary mercenary who has been in service since the late 2000s. However, past media coverage of his death in the Arasaka Tower Bombing contradicts this. Johnny is not a great hero, but rather a confused and distraught man who had no fighting chance against the megacorporation, Arasaka.
Despite everything, Johnny is a brilliant artist and songwriter who is well-liked by many people. Even 50 years later, his hits like "Black Dog" and "Never Fade Away" are remembered and adored. While few people remember who Johnny Silverhand was as a person, his name holds some weight decades later making him a legend among legends.
Powers & Skills
Combat Related Skills
What Johnny lacks in supernatural abilities, he compensates for with the numerous skills he possesses and unexpectedly takes from his previous host, V. While he is nowhere near as powerful as Cyberpunk 2077's main character, he is well-versed in fighting and weaponry. It should also be noted that Johnny is a veteran of the Second South American War, meaning he does have a lengthy combat history.
Musical Skills
Outside of combat, Johnny is a seasoned performer known for his vocals, songwriting, and skills with the guitar. His band, SAMURAI, was rather popular back in the day and well beloved by Night City.
Engram/SOULKILLER
Aside from Johnny's remarkable ability to be an absolute tool at times, he possesses no groundbreaking powers. Even as the Relic, his talents were truly restricted to his current host, V. He was able to entirely take over V's body at will, almost like a body-snatching virus that kills its host. Despite practically being "born again" in a brand new body, Johnny still possesses the same body-snatching ability of his engram counterpart.
Except this time, he doesn't need to be downloaded into Soulkiller to do so. All he needs to do is to touch you and bam, suddenly he's jacked into your cyberbrain like the virus he is. Thankfully, this is a temporary ability, one that can only be used for a limited amount of time (30 minutes at max) and only used against player characters (with explicit permission).
This ability is limited to NPCs and kaijus, so you won't be seeing a Kaju verison of Johnny Silverhand attacking anyone. No one should be allowed such power, especially not him. (![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
synflux specifically)
