Funny, you see the occasional bit of hesitant speculation in the comments, but you don’t really see people insisting they had it all figured out, and naming Ira.
It’s a good twist, and one that I think fooled darn near everybody.
Eh, I don’t recall my occasional speculations about Ira being *that* hesitant even if, as you say, I didn’t insist that I had it all figured out. This isn’t a Clue game so we don’t have to name the instrument and the room when we name our suspects. And please keep in mind that I was not the only one who thought that way or even the first or even *close* to the first 20 or 30. I was merely gripped by the feeling that in an Illuminatti-like and Spy versus Spy-like world they were taking someone who might be practicing the “Claudius option” a little too lightly particularly when his moments of lucidity seemed a little too convenient. So blame my suspicions on Robert Graves rather than on me. What blindsided me was *Shelby* also being a “almighty janitor archetype even though he was an actual janitor. He fooled me by seeming competent as well as being competent. ^_~
I also had the impression that it was sort of the standard speculation that Ira was Mr. Green, if only because there weren’t many (any?) other good candidates and he’d shown some sort of temporal insight in helping Chris so clearly he wasn’t just comic relief. http://skin-horse.com/comic/upper-mustache-2/
Which takes nothing away from the great setup and reveal of course.
I was actually referring to Sweetheart being the first one of them to figure it out.
My own first clue, if I recall, was when he helped Chris/aka Captain Beyond, and actually called him “Dr. Sanders”. I was thoroughly convinced when he called Dr. Lee “Virginia”. With constant mind-wipes, Ira shouldn’t have been able to remember Chris at all, but he did see him every day, so one could write that off as residual memories that he would know him as “Dr. Sanders”. However, the very few times he had seen Virginia, she had always (or almost always, at least) introduced herself at the guard shack as “Dr. Lee”, so it should have been virtually impossible for him to remember her name was Virginia. But he called her that instinctively, and Mr. Green had called her Virginia all the time on the phone. But my knowing it in my gut isn’t enough to convict a man, and Jeff and Shaenon weren’t giving anything away, so I, like everyone else, had to wait it out.
So I know that I suspected it at least two years ago. A couple weeks ago, I looked up the first time someone mentioned it in the comments, and that was almost four years ago. So Ira’s been leaving little clues all along. It’s just that none of the other characters had noticed.
Just because he’s the big cheese doesn’t mean he’s not an agent. She may not have figured out yet that he’s the man at the top, but she’s still the first one to identify him as the A-Sig mole.
I’ll give Sweetheart credit for being the first one to figure it out.
So… that’s plus 10 for figuring it out, but minus 1,000,000 for not figuring it out until he was ready for you to.
Well, to be fair, he had everyone fooled, including a lot of readers. 🙂
…a lot?
Funny, you see the occasional bit of hesitant speculation in the comments, but you don’t really see people insisting they had it all figured out, and naming Ira.
It’s a good twist, and one that I think fooled darn near everybody.
Eh, I don’t recall my occasional speculations about Ira being *that* hesitant even if, as you say, I didn’t insist that I had it all figured out. This isn’t a Clue game so we don’t have to name the instrument and the room when we name our suspects. And please keep in mind that I was not the only one who thought that way or even the first or even *close* to the first 20 or 30. I was merely gripped by the feeling that in an Illuminatti-like and Spy versus Spy-like world they were taking someone who might be practicing the “Claudius option” a little too lightly particularly when his moments of lucidity seemed a little too convenient. So blame my suspicions on Robert Graves rather than on me. What blindsided me was *Shelby* also being a “almighty janitor archetype even though he was an actual janitor. He fooled me by seeming competent as well as being competent. ^_~
I also had the impression that it was sort of the standard speculation that Ira was Mr. Green, if only because there weren’t many (any?) other good candidates and he’d shown some sort of temporal insight in helping Chris so clearly he wasn’t just comic relief. http://skin-horse.com/comic/upper-mustache-2/
Which takes nothing away from the great setup and reveal of course.
I was actually referring to Sweetheart being the first one of them to figure it out.
My own first clue, if I recall, was when he helped Chris/aka Captain Beyond, and actually called him “Dr. Sanders”. I was thoroughly convinced when he called Dr. Lee “Virginia”. With constant mind-wipes, Ira shouldn’t have been able to remember Chris at all, but he did see him every day, so one could write that off as residual memories that he would know him as “Dr. Sanders”. However, the very few times he had seen Virginia, she had always (or almost always, at least) introduced herself at the guard shack as “Dr. Lee”, so it should have been virtually impossible for him to remember her name was Virginia. But he called her that instinctively, and Mr. Green had called her Virginia all the time on the phone. But my knowing it in my gut isn’t enough to convict a man, and Jeff and Shaenon weren’t giving anything away, so I, like everyone else, had to wait it out.
So I know that I suspected it at least two years ago. A couple weeks ago, I looked up the first time someone mentioned it in the comments, and that was almost four years ago. So Ira’s been leaving little clues all along. It’s just that none of the other characters had noticed.
Sweetheart still hasn’t quite figured it out – she thinks Ira is an agent, not the big cheese.
Just because he’s the big cheese doesn’t mean he’s not an agent. She may not have figured out yet that he’s the man at the top, but she’s still the first one to identify him as the A-Sig mole.
Actually, the idea of Nick whispering armpit honey does sound pretty scary.
I’ll say! The notion of armpit honey in one’s ear seems pretty creepy to me. Sticky, too! ^O^
The notion of armpit honey at all seems pretty creepy.
That two-faced son of a jackal!
What? What did Unity do? And ‘two-faced’ is a bit of a hurtful thing to call her; after all she didn’t choose how she looks.
Oh, wait, yes she did. As you were …
What an interesting book of command override codes… lets see…
Meanwhile, where is Gavotte? Just because her swarm isn’t in the office doesn’t mean there aren’t bees around…
t
Are you saying that the place might be bugged?
command: playsound; value=“rimshot.wav”
Came over here looking for another days’ worth. Ah, now the day may unwind well.