He might conceivably be the one who signs their paychecks, but I’ve never worked anywhere where the person who signs the paychecks is also the person who approves the time sheets. He’s much too far up the ladder for that.
Split the difference – Mr. Ira got a report with the codes, and duly copied them into his personal record of other such codes that he keeps for this kind of event.
No, Nick, don’t tell him you’re streaming. And that you’ve turned on your location information again. And that you’re sending an email to the freckled whelp hag-born.
I’m hoping Ira’s motivation is to provide Nick plausible deniability on a mission to rescue Dr. Lee… Doesn’t seem likely, though. Mr. Green probably ordered her transfer!
That’s what I was saying yesterday. Nick hates everyone… in general. But he likes Ira… or he used to, until today. After all, Ira gave him a Christmas present (even though Nick is Jewish). It makes me wonder if there is yet an even more ominous reason that Ira felt he was going to need to keep Nick from being able to do anything on his own.
That’s one of the best methods I’ve seen for ensuring that no one can guess what you used.
I will sometimes pick pet words and phrases that were used by obscure family members. Weird things, like the nickname my great uncle used for his car when I was a kid. So not only would someone have to know my family tree, they’d have to know all those family members personally.
Of course, the trick here is that you have to not only know what Virginia likes to eat for breakfast, but you have to make sure you pick the right food for the action you want.
Somewhere under the rainbow, Nick will cry.
Ira reads a few phrases and proves his backstory a lie.
Somewhere under the rainbow right on cue,
When the will Nick thinks is free will fails and it makes him blue.
The duo flew from Annex One
And left the party just begun
Behind them.
Rice Krispies codes are read aloud
And Nick’s control is disavowed,
But will the others find them?
Somewhere under the rainbow, choppers fly.
Nick flies under the rainbow
High, then, oh high in sky.
Can angry censored choppers fly
Around the rainbow,
High, oh, high in sky?
—from, of course, “Over the Rainbow,” Harold Arlen and E. Y. Yip Harburg.
I’m not. This is nastier. At least when you’re mindless you’re, you know, *mindless* and thus not aware that somebody’s puppeteering your body. God, that sounds like a particularly horrific nightmare to have.
The least evil option would probably have been if it rendered him unconscious for the duration, but this way is probably necessary: the flight controls have been entirely subordinated to Nick’s brain so this particular aircraft won’t work without him. It’s not even clear that there are manual controls.
Depends how you look at it. It’s nastier if you can’t break out of it but the chances that someone who is mindless will break free are a lot worse then that somebody with a mind will break free. Since Nick is a hacker he might actually have a better chance then most would in a situation of this sort. ^_^
I agree that having your body controlled by outside forces is a nightmare scenario, but that combined with complete loss of self is even worse to me, even if I’d be okay with it because I was ordered to be okay with it.
In the Harry Potter books, this is called “the Imperius curse”, and it’s considered to be one of the very worst things you can do with magic, on par with murder, even when it’s temporary.
It’s been shown in-strip that Unity’s control phrase suspends her aggression patterns only temporarily. She can’t really resist the effect, but it does wear off after an unspecified time (which I get the impression is minutes rather than hours, but I don’t think it’s made explicit). Presumably Nick’s works the same way.
Either that, or Dr. Lee’s creations each have multiple control phrases with different effects, and she and Ira have both chosen to use the temporary ones so far.
Different phrases. When Virginia used “buttermilk pancakes” to shut down the Violet drone, she had Unity cover her ears – presumably because it would have shut Unity down as well. “Blueberry waffles” is the one that only suspends her aggression patterns.
Sweet baby Jesus!!!!! That’s positively DIABOLICAL!!!! I can’t sit on a secret for a week let alone however many damned years! I’ll be drinking a beer in your honor tonight, ma’am!
Glad to see I was right about Nick’s brain still being just fine. Now to see if he can figure out how to outsmart Ira.
Nick? Outsmart Ira?
Nick will need help, if only because someone needs to help for their own redemption.
So Sweetheart overheard Ira say “I should have taken him from the start” and didn’t bother to stop him?
This is Sweetheart we’re talking about, here. She’s not too bright.
Don’t forget, Sweetheart still thinks (thought?, seeing that she noticed he wasn’t surprised by her being a talking dog) Ira is brain damaged/silly.
I told you guys Ira was the one who had to sign their timecards.
He might conceivably be the one who signs their paychecks, but I’ve never worked anywhere where the person who signs the paychecks is also the person who approves the time sheets. He’s much too far up the ladder for that.
It looks like he occupies many steps of the ladder at once.
What I’d like to know is who gave him that book.
Also, yay, new chapter
“Figgs & Phantoms” is the title of a 1974 children’s book by Ellen Raskin. No I haven’t read it, yes I Googled and Wikipediaed it.
I suspect that the “that book” he was referring to is the book Ira is looking through to find the security phrases to control Nick.
If he is indeed Mr. Green — and therefore the real head of A-Sig — he would have had that book ever since Nick was designed.
It looks more like an address book to me. Kinda old-fashioned, but Ira is old enough to be old-fashioned.
Split the difference – Mr. Ira got a report with the codes, and duly copied them into his personal record of other such codes that he keeps for this kind of event.
No, Nick, don’t tell him you’re streaming. And that you’ve turned on your location information again. And that you’re sending an email to the freckled whelp hag-born.
Okay, I’m missing something here. “Freckled whelp hag-born”? Is that a wrongswear or a reference to another story?
Nick and Caliban would be an interesting team-up.
Well, Ira could’a just *asked* Nick to take him somewhere (over the rainbow?) Doesn’t Nick owe Ira a favor?
I’m hoping Ira’s motivation is to provide Nick plausible deniability on a mission to rescue Dr. Lee… Doesn’t seem likely, though. Mr. Green probably ordered her transfer!
Then again, he may have locked her up simply to keep her safe. He does like her, after all.
That’s what I was saying yesterday. Nick hates everyone… in general. But he likes Ira… or he used to, until today. After all, Ira gave him a Christmas present (even though Nick is Jewish). It makes me wonder if there is yet an even more ominous reason that Ira felt he was going to need to keep Nick from being able to do anything on his own.
but that wouldn’t be evil!
Also Ira lost his cap.
Dot’s right! Und any plan vere hyu lose hyu hat iz a bad plan!
Here’s hoping.
Hyu iz correct awgiedawgie, iz hay terrible plan!
HEY ALL—IF YOU HAVEN’T READ SUNDAY’S ENTRY, PLEASE DO SO.
HOLY-
*tip hats off*
Shaenon, you one magnificent writer.
Oh. My. God. Thank you, I usually just skip past the Sunday strips.
Sunday was magnificent, like waiting 18 years to find out what “Sluggy Freelance” means.
Oh! Good thinking.
So… Ira is the real Mister Green? Or maybe he was another remote drone this whole time…?
Then there’s the issue of “that woman.” If it were the Sherlock Holmes books, I’d know.
“That Woman” is likely Ginny Lee, who (AFAIK) selected the override codes.
It sounds like Dr. Lee’s rejection of Mr. Green’s crude advances has soured his opinion of her “unique value”…
She likes breakfast food names for override codes.
Either that or she selects them when she’s hungry.
Both. She selected them when she was hungry — after working all night. Hence… breakfast foods.
Geez. Whenever I need a password, I just pick random words and letters off whatever happens to be around my computer at the time.
That’s one of the best methods I’ve seen for ensuring that no one can guess what you used.
I will sometimes pick pet words and phrases that were used by obscure family members. Weird things, like the nickname my great uncle used for his car when I was a kid. So not only would someone have to know my family tree, they’d have to know all those family members personally.
Of course, the trick here is that you have to not only know what Virginia likes to eat for breakfast, but you have to make sure you pick the right food for the action you want.
“Ira, come back!”
“I can’t come back, I don’t know how it works! Goodbye, folks!”
Fun fact: Looking up the filter’s choice of words today, I found out that butterflies drink turtle tears.
Coincidence?
Actually, disabling Nick’s free will doesn’t seem all that evil…
We could experiment on those with “locked-in” syndrome and find out.
Inevitably,
Somewhere under the rainbow, Nick will cry.
Ira reads a few phrases and proves his backstory a lie.
Somewhere under the rainbow right on cue,
When the will Nick thinks is free will fails and it makes him blue.
The duo flew from Annex One
And left the party just begun
Behind them.
Rice Krispies codes are read aloud
And Nick’s control is disavowed,
But will the others find them?
Somewhere under the rainbow, choppers fly.
Nick flies under the rainbow
High, then, oh high in sky.
Can angry censored choppers fly
Around the rainbow,
High, oh, high in sky?
—from, of course, “Over the Rainbow,” Harold Arlen and E. Y. Yip Harburg.
I’d always assumed disabling Nick’s free will would make him permanently a mindless slave and I’m kind of relieved.
I’m not. This is nastier. At least when you’re mindless you’re, you know, *mindless* and thus not aware that somebody’s puppeteering your body. God, that sounds like a particularly horrific nightmare to have.
The least evil option would probably have been if it rendered him unconscious for the duration, but this way is probably necessary: the flight controls have been entirely subordinated to Nick’s brain so this particular aircraft won’t work without him. It’s not even clear that there are manual controls.
Depends how you look at it. It’s nastier if you can’t break out of it but the chances that someone who is mindless will break free are a lot worse then that somebody with a mind will break free. Since Nick is a hacker he might actually have a better chance then most would in a situation of this sort. ^_^
*knocks on wood*
I agree that having your body controlled by outside forces is a nightmare scenario, but that combined with complete loss of self is even worse to me, even if I’d be okay with it because I was ordered to be okay with it.
In the Harry Potter books, this is called “the Imperius curse”, and it’s considered to be one of the very worst things you can do with magic, on par with murder, even when it’s temporary.
It’s been shown in-strip that Unity’s control phrase suspends her aggression patterns only temporarily. She can’t really resist the effect, but it does wear off after an unspecified time (which I get the impression is minutes rather than hours, but I don’t think it’s made explicit). Presumably Nick’s works the same way.
Either that, or Dr. Lee’s creations each have multiple control phrases with different effects, and she and Ira have both chosen to use the temporary ones so far.
Different phrases. When Virginia used “buttermilk pancakes” to shut down the Violet drone, she had Unity cover her ears – presumably because it would have shut Unity down as well. “Blueberry waffles” is the one that only suspends her aggression patterns.
Sweet baby Jesus!!!!! That’s positively DIABOLICAL!!!! I can’t sit on a secret for a week let alone however many damned years! I’ll be drinking a beer in your honor tonight, ma’am!