If I ever spring for the level of Kickstarterdom that involves a personal sketch, I now know what it must be!
And say; isn’t it getting to be time for another such extravaganza?
It would require a team-up of Jonah (& his quantum precog) with Nick and Nera”s hacking skills to counter Mr. Green’s nefarious plot at this point – whatever it is!
Mr. Green did go in to his office occasionally. But I wonder if he’d dare call Virginia from the guard shack as well?
I don’t see why not. Probably could’ve used some sort of relay to keep the call from getting traced back. And if anyone asks why Ira’s on the phone, he can just claim he’s calling into the Home Shopping Network or something.
I think Ira must sound quite a bit different to Mr Green, as Virginia didn’t realise that they were the same. It’s hard to spot distinctive ways of speaking with conversations like , though.
On an unrelated note, Nick told Violet Bee that he had copies of the Skin Horse archives when they first met.
Not exactly. Nick said he had “all their data”, but since Sweetheart’s final task before Skin Horse was dissolved was scanning the basement archives, it is reasonable to believe that Nick only had all of their current data, which included their previous encounter with Violet.
Now, he really has all their data.
(To be fair, it is equally possible that Nick really did already have all their data, and Sweetheart’s task of scanning everything was completely superfluous.)
(I was gonna say that’s where Ira learned it via Violet, but let’s face it, surely Mr. Green knew all A-Sig’s secrets at that point.)
(Although I wouldn’t put it past Ginny Lee to keep some kill switches to herself, so it’s possible A-Sig didn’t know that particular passphrase till this point.)
Ira/Ginny/Nick has the potential to be one really messy love triangle. Ira has the power and, presumably, the will, to keep them apart, if he pulls that “If I can’t have her, no one can” shit.
She, of all people, knew that if he had stayed in the VR till the end, he would have been a mindless killing machine. She had spent enough time with him inside his “apartment” to know that that wasn’t him. He’s just a kid who likes video games just a little too much… and swearing. Can’t forget the swearing. But he’s not a killer.
Apparently it’s the color scheme of Oz from the books (which I haven’t read):
“The regions have a color schema: blue for Munchkins, yellow for Winkies, red for Quadlings, green for the Emerald city, and (in works after the first) purple for the Gillikins, which region was also not named in the first book.” (https://www.colourlovers.com/print/blog/2009/03/11/the-colors-of-the-wonderful-wizard-of-oz)
As Rimwolf says, the 5 colors for the 5 regions of Oz (counting the Emerald City) is an important part of the books, and those readers who grew up on Oz and made the connection have been hunting for Mr. Green’s red secret identity for a long time – only to find out he was right under our nose all along.
Removing spectacles is another Oz books reference. If I recall right, the inhabitants of Emerald City all wore spectacles and when they removed them Emerald City didn’t seem so emerald. (I say “if I recall right,” it ‘s been some time since I read them.)
One rubbery smooch, followed by a convenient BSOD leaving Dr. Lee only a USB cable away from learning Violet is reused Nick/Unity software… info she needed to shut down the drone and repurpose it… Sometimes, you have to sacrifice a pawn…
So… he let Nick — a theoretical love rival — go simply because he had a crush on Dr. Lee? That’s… yeah, I don’t know if I buy that 100%. But maybe we’re not meant to?
Also, what is with Dr. Lee and Jewish guys? … actually, don’t answer that. I’m pretty sure I get it.
Let us hope that this Sunday is sketches of that last… Brass Bikini Leia, of course…
You mean Hutt-Slayer Leia? When she strangled her captor with her own chains?
“Hut-Sut Rawlson on the Rillerah…”
If I ever spring for the level of Kickstarterdom that involves a personal sketch, I now know what it must be!
And say; isn’t it getting to be time for another such extravaganza?
Guess this answers my last lingering question on if Ao/Green was the remote drone, or if Ira was.
Aha, Mr. Green and Goldbug are the same person, but I forgot the Dr. Ao part of the story.
It would require a team-up of Jonah (& his quantum precog) with Nick and Nera”s hacking skills to counter Mr. Green’s nefarious plot at this point – whatever it is!
Mr. Green did go in to his office occasionally. But I wonder if he’d dare call Virginia from the guard shack as well?
I don’t see why not. Probably could’ve used some sort of relay to keep the call from getting traced back. And if anyone asks why Ira’s on the phone, he can just claim he’s calling into the Home Shopping Network or something.
I think Ira must sound quite a bit different to Mr Green, as Virginia didn’t realise that they were the same. It’s hard to spot distinctive ways of speaking with conversations like , though.
On an unrelated note, Nick told Violet Bee that he had copies of the Skin Horse archives when they first met.
Not exactly. Nick said he had “all their data”, but since Sweetheart’s final task before Skin Horse was dissolved was scanning the basement archives, it is reasonable to believe that Nick only had all of their current data, which included their previous encounter with Violet.
Now, he really has all their data.
(To be fair, it is equally possible that Nick really did already have all their data, and Sweetheart’s task of scanning everything was completely superfluous.)
And that was my last bit of sympathy for Ira burning away.
I’ve been reading some old strips with Violet Bee in St. Charlie… noticed a clue to who Mr. Green was hidden in plain sight:
http://skin-horse.com/comic/perpetually-under/
Well played!
Well-spotted!
Not to mention, we’ve got both GODOT and Rosenkrantz in the same scene. It’s like freshman Intro to Theater all over again.
Well, crap. It looks like that arc also foreshadowed Nick’s trigger phrase.
(I was gonna say that’s where Ira learned it via Violet, but let’s face it, surely Mr. Green knew all A-Sig’s secrets at that point.)
(Although I wouldn’t put it past Ginny Lee to keep some kill switches to herself, so it’s possible A-Sig didn’t know that particular passphrase till this point.)
Green, Violet, Ao, Gold.
Dude likes colors.
Seems like colors and flowers were his “tell” all along.
Ira/Ginny/Nick has the potential to be one really messy love triangle. Ira has the power and, presumably, the will, to keep them apart, if he pulls that “If I can’t have her, no one can” shit.
I’m a little unclear why he thought Dr. Lee wanted Nick pulled out of the VR early. I haven’t seen any real indication of that.
She, of all people, knew that if he had stayed in the VR till the end, he would have been a mindless killing machine. She had spent enough time with him inside his “apartment” to know that that wasn’t him. He’s just a kid who likes video games just a little too much… and swearing. Can’t forget the swearing. But he’s not a killer.
…. ROSEncrantz, GOLDbug, VIOLET Bee, Mr GREEN and AO. Was there ever an orange or indigo codename he used? He’s batting 5 out of 7 for the Rainbow.
(Ao can be Blue or Green in Japanese).
Apparently it’s the color scheme of Oz from the books (which I haven’t read):
“The regions have a color schema: blue for Munchkins, yellow for Winkies, red for Quadlings, green for the Emerald city, and (in works after the first) purple for the Gillikins, which region was also not named in the first book.” (https://www.colourlovers.com/print/blog/2009/03/11/the-colors-of-the-wonderful-wizard-of-oz)
As Rimwolf says, the 5 colors for the 5 regions of Oz (counting the Emerald City) is an important part of the books, and those readers who grew up on Oz and made the connection have been hunting for Mr. Green’s red secret identity for a long time – only to find out he was right under our nose all along.
Forgive me if this has already come up, but I just realized/remembered:
The proper name of the Tin (Woods)Man was Nick Chopper.
Well played.
It has, but it bears repeating. Zerhakker does mean chopper in German, possibly Yiddish, too.
Removing spectacles is another Oz books reference. If I recall right, the inhabitants of Emerald City all wore spectacles and when they removed them Emerald City didn’t seem so emerald. (I say “if I recall right,” it ‘s been some time since I read them.)
On reread, I see this was even called out at the time: http://skin-horse.com/comic/mesh-gloves-better/
Has he, personally, ever said he had the hots for her, or was that simply inferred from his regard for her?
As far as I recall, he has never personally said so, but others, including Nick, have assumed it.
“Omniscience. Chicks dig it.” Or something to that effect.
That’s not exactly a declaration of desire.
Maybe not desire for a specific person, but it does seem like a declaration of lust in general.
He hit on her while piloting the Violet Bee drone.
One rubbery smooch, followed by a convenient BSOD leaving Dr. Lee only a USB cable away from learning Violet is reused Nick/Unity software… info she needed to shut down the drone and repurpose it… Sometimes, you have to sacrifice a pawn…
So… he let Nick — a theoretical love rival — go simply because he had a crush on Dr. Lee? That’s… yeah, I don’t know if I buy that 100%. But maybe we’re not meant to?
Also, what is with Dr. Lee and Jewish guys? … actually, don’t answer that. I’m pretty sure I get it.
Maybe it’s the circumcision.
Aww yeah, gimme that sweet, sweet, millenia old religious genital mutilation tradition that arose to serve as a xenophobic shibboleth…
Yeah, baby, just like that! Now, pick up that donkey jaw bone and club one thousand dirty, filthy Philistines to death with it! Unnnghhh!
Hey, here’s a strip that just became retroactively ironic: http://skin-horse.com/comic/todays-comic-572/