Cannot write metadata to root object

[drewcassidy]

Describe the Bug

I have the following call. The input items are batched so "VersionFIle" at this point is a single item. it does have the "a" metadata variable

    <JsonPoke Content="{}" Query="$" Value="@(VersionFile)" Properties="a">
      <Output TaskParameter="Content" PropertyName="_JSON"/>
    </JsonPoke>

Expected Behavior

Output json would be

{
  "a": "Value of a"
}

Exception with Stack Trace

0>/Users/drewcassidy/Code/Shabby/KSPBuildTools/KSPCommon.targets(89,5): Error MSB4018 : The "JsonPoke" task failed unexpectedly.
System.InvalidOperationException: The parent is missing.
   at Newtonsoft.Json.Linq.JToken.Replace(JToken value)
   at JsonPoke.Execute() in /_/src/JsonPoke/JsonPoke.cs:line 207
   at Microsoft.Build.BackEnd.TaskExecutionHost.Microsoft.Build.BackEnd.ITaskExecutionHost.Execute()
   at Microsoft.Build.BackEnd.TaskBuilder.ExecuteInstantiatedTask(ITaskExecutionHost taskExecutionHost, TaskLoggingContext taskLoggingContext, TaskHost taskHost, ItemBucket bucket, TaskExecutionMode howToExecuteTask)

Version Info

JsonPoke 1.2.0

Additional Info

using a different query like "$.thing" does succeed