Yeah, I’m with Virginia on this. These people know the nature of their employer, and they choose to continue working there. The Skin Horse team *could* reveal themselves, and offer the staff at the base the opportunity to defect, but if that fails, not only will they lose their opportunity to get the Osprey back, they will have to fight their way out, and they might lose. That’s a really big risk to take for people of highly questionable moral character.
No, Virginia, hold on. Tip has a point. He and his team has fought like Hell to *not* take the “kill ’em all” route in the past, and also resolve other little moral quandaries in ways that *don’t* require them to drink themselves to sleep every night. So keeping that is kind of important to them, and very possibly even more important than your need to get your love interest his old body back so that you won’t have to tell him after all that he’s your love interest.
Then again, she feels (quite rightly) responsible for Nick having the helicopter body in the first place, and she also feels (at least indirectly) responsible for him losing that body. She made a promise to him to get it back, and she is doing everything in her power to make that happen.
As for Tip’s “moral quandary” here, a) there’s a very good chance that the A-Sig people’s whole “nice” thing is just a facade. They are trained, after all, to be deceptive. And b) they are at war here. Killing the enemy yourself is one thing, but that’s vastly different from leaving them to live, assuming that their own side might kill them anyway. You don’t risk your own people to rescue the enemy, especially when the enemy are not even in immediate danger.
Oh, I’m not saying that they eventually won’t have to justifiably burn the place to the ground and salt the ashes. But Tip’s desire to not sink any lower than he can help it is a reasonable auxiliary goal to this mission. One that’s more reasonable than Virginia’s auxiliary goal, which is to further avoid dealing with the consequences of her past behavior.
Virginia is getting Nick’s body back, as she promised. It may not be exactly how you’d like to see things go, but she is dealing with the consequences of her past behaviour.
Putting it in is one kind of unethical. Taking it *out* and just throwing it in the sewer is … up near the “attempted murder” and “manslaughter” end of the scale.
(Putting it in VR instead, a la extirpation, wouldn’t be murder, so I guess Ira cares about not murdering people *he* sees as human.)
Bryce, I get the impression Ginny’s line in panel 4 is a dry manner of acknowledging she knows she’s just as bad as the people at the base and hasn’t the luxury of seeing herself as being any better. Which is all true but at least she’s not lying to herself.
Just wondering…In case any of the “nice” A-S staff would like to skip the Loyalty Pits and defect, how many Anasig-refugees can an Osprey hold once the Skin Horse team is on board?
Would it be possible to offer them the choice once the SH team is on board, motors on, ready to take off?
Sounds mor like one of those things that sounds bad but if you examine it it isn’t actually bad.
Tip remembers the codename!
Do they know that, Dr. Lee? I can’t recall it coming up in conversation with them before.
Yeah, I’m with Virginia on this. These people know the nature of their employer, and they choose to continue working there. The Skin Horse team *could* reveal themselves, and offer the staff at the base the opportunity to defect, but if that fails, not only will they lose their opportunity to get the Osprey back, they will have to fight their way out, and they might lose. That’s a really big risk to take for people of highly questionable moral character.
No, Virginia, hold on. Tip has a point. He and his team has fought like Hell to *not* take the “kill ’em all” route in the past, and also resolve other little moral quandaries in ways that *don’t* require them to drink themselves to sleep every night. So keeping that is kind of important to them, and very possibly even more important than your need to get your love interest his old body back so that you won’t have to tell him after all that he’s your love interest.
are we sure she isn’t evil?
I don’t think Virginia is evil; just grimy as hell, and unwilling to admit that she needs a bath.
I’m a little inclined to “clueless.”
Then again, she feels (quite rightly) responsible for Nick having the helicopter body in the first place, and she also feels (at least indirectly) responsible for him losing that body. She made a promise to him to get it back, and she is doing everything in her power to make that happen.
As for Tip’s “moral quandary” here, a) there’s a very good chance that the A-Sig people’s whole “nice” thing is just a facade. They are trained, after all, to be deceptive. And b) they are at war here. Killing the enemy yourself is one thing, but that’s vastly different from leaving them to live, assuming that their own side might kill them anyway. You don’t risk your own people to rescue the enemy, especially when the enemy are not even in immediate danger.
I fully expect the “nice guy” thing is just an act to allow time for Mr. Green to arrive. The boss battle approaches, maybe.
Oh, I’m not saying that they eventually won’t have to justifiably burn the place to the ground and salt the ashes. But Tip’s desire to not sink any lower than he can help it is a reasonable auxiliary goal to this mission. One that’s more reasonable than Virginia’s auxiliary goal, which is to further avoid dealing with the consequences of her past behavior.
Virginia is getting Nick’s body back, as she promised. It may not be exactly how you’d like to see things go, but she is dealing with the consequences of her past behaviour.
They might have known that aircraft had a human brain it…
But you were the one who put that brain in there!
Methinks the ex-minion of evil doth protest too much.
Putting it in is one kind of unethical. Taking it *out* and just throwing it in the sewer is … up near the “attempted murder” and “manslaughter” end of the scale.
(Putting it in VR instead, a la extirpation, wouldn’t be murder, so I guess Ira cares about not murdering people *he* sees as human.)
you could take the stance that if it’s “just a brain”, the person’s already dead
especially when you ask that brain “are you human” and it says “no”
Bryce, I get the impression Ginny’s line in panel 4 is a dry manner of acknowledging she knows she’s just as bad as the people at the base and hasn’t the luxury of seeing herself as being any better. Which is all true but at least she’s not lying to herself.
That’s very much my reading as well. But at least she’s trying real hard to be the wizard
OK, I might be being a little hard on her. She *is* trying.
OMG, the wizard thing was your line from 5 years ago. That was/is so great.
🙂 Still, you made a good point.
Exactly. She knows that she sold her soul to the devil for the chance to work on projects that challenged her genius.
Just wondering…In case any of the “nice” A-S staff would like to skip the Loyalty Pits and defect, how many Anasig-refugees can an Osprey hold once the Skin Horse team is on board?
Would it be possible to offer them the choice once the SH team is on board, motors on, ready to take off?
the real inspection team should show up soon, and there will be no cake for them.
…..soooo, the cake is a lie?
THE. CAKE. IS. FAKE!!! If you want lye, try the pie
A: “All the way… with all of them.” Oh Wait, sorry, I thought you asked “How far do you want to go WITH them”
Okay, I have to admit that is actually something that Tip would say and/or hear given that situation.