unforum

[rose]

[SPEC] What is the real story here? Opinions and thoughts

[maxim]

I still have one problem with this whole thing being the Nisha Chronicles -- if Virgil is making it, why on earth would he make himself out to be so horrible? Wouldn't he want to appear as a good guy throughout? And why would he include his own emotional history in the game, surely he'd keep that private... I mean, wouldn't you?

[rose]

virgil

[Cookster]

I have come round to the idea that Virgil is pulling the strings here - getting Ian and Nisha to act out a 'real life' version of The Nisha Chronicles as part of his own twisted fantasy. If he set up the supposed heist at the Uffizi it was an inspired choice - something that an art retrieval expert would blindly follow without asking questions, almost as if it were the holy grail.

However, I don't subscribe to the idea that the LRR website is a 'fake' - for that to be the case, Nisha and Ian would both have to be in on Virgil's game, and I don't see any evidence of that yet.

By the way - I think Worry is great. He's thrown in a really interesting turn to this story. I can't wait to see what he does next

[maxim]

Well, rose, you've pretty much persuaded me. I'm still not completely sold on the idea, but it seems a little more plausible now. I agree completely that Virgil is a brilliant character: I mentioned in my post (here) how it is possible to understand him, whilst not necessarily liking him. But I don't think it is as clear cut as to say he is the evil one here, but some people have taken it that way, so maybe it rubbed off on me too. I think he is without a doubt the most talented from a writing point of view, his site is fascinating. I can see now the way his talk about the Nisha Chronicles fits in so well with what is happening. Maybe reading into it further we can get an idea of what is to come. Nevertheless, even assuming this 'is all a game' or a game 'within a game' does not mean that there will not be a story regarding the 'reality' or 'alternate reality', such as Virgil and the 'real' Nisha & Ian. As for Worry... I don't know what to make of that.

[HitsHerMark]

[rowan]

1. I just don't like the idea that we're playing an ARG within an ARG. It just seems too contrived. The story is compelling enough without giving it a twist like that. It's tantamount to this whole thing just being a dream. The characters can be put through hell and back, and it doesn't matter what the outcome is because for them it's just not real - making this whole beautifully planned ARG ruined by a Deus Ex Machina. I would hope for better plot planning than that.

2. Love can make you do crazy things, and Nisha is in love with Ian, even if she doesn't come right out and say it. Yes, she's working for Audi, but only to keep everyone off Ian's trail. If she wasn't following her heart, she would have taken Marla's lawyerly advice - cut and run. But she didn't. She helped him out in Pittsburgh and even left him so that Audi wouldn't know where he is. And now that she's seen the evidence of what's going on, it gives her another reason to say on the case when her love for Ian might not be enough.

As for the other cases: Fred's is basically a cold case and as such I don't think he'll be looking for weekly progress reports. Ian does have Jin working in Okinawa tracking down leads, so it's not like there's nothing being done. I am a little surprised we haven't heard from Vanessa though. She been quite bitchy about how her painting hasn't been found yet.

3. I have no problem with the Uffizi heist. Gunter is a scout and an upfront guy. Him doing the legwork and background on a heist like this is totally within characters. It's not like an art heist just happens. There's a lot of planning, scouting of locations, and general busy work that needs to be accomplished. All of which needs to be able to be passed on to the people actually carrying out the heist. SD cards are a perfect way for Gunter to gather his information and give it to those who need it. He puts the information on the cards in such a way that if someone gets one that hasn't been encrypted, it won't be screaming "Art Theft Information!"

4. Nisha's whole business is based upon the fact that she doesn't just locate - she recovers. If she merely located, she could always do the legwork, find out where a certain item is, and then call in the cops. I really don't see her changing MO now simply because it might be easier. As you said, she would be giving up control of the information to Audi. And if Audi decided to turn that information over to the police, she would be cut out of the loop and any greater glory to be found for LRR would be gone with it. As she told Virgil: "This case could be huge. I mean bigger than anything we've every done. It would definitly put us on the map." I don't see her giving that up simply because it would be easier. If you read her jorunals, you know that danger doesn't scare her off. She lives for it.

5. He put the information in the Audis because he didn't have any other place for it. It's late at night, the police are at his door and he has all of this art heist information on him. He needs to get off of him and someplace where the actual theives can get at it, but if he just leaves it at his place, chances are good the cops will find it and that won't be good. So he takes off running looking for someplace to dump the stuff. He ends up at the Audi warehouse (which he may have known about beforehand if he had taken the time to scope out the area he was staying at). He puts the cards in different Audis to prevent someone finding the entire stash accidently and leaves a trail with the VIN numbers so that the cards can be recovered by targeting specific Audis and not just every A3 that comes along. It's just bad luck for Gunter that the garage door didn't open faster and he got nabbed. But I think the fact that he took the time to make sure the information got out shows he's a professional and not some rank amateur.

6. I don't think we've seen enough of Worry to determine their motivations. Worry is obviously someone who likes to play with peoples minds and has some sort of connection to Gunter. But beyond that, we just don't have enough information. I'm sure it's just a matter of time before we do.

7. I think you mean Virgil's rants and raves. To me, Virgil is the most maniuplated character so far - in the fact that he is a spokesperson for our PMs (though why they would choose such a creepy one is beyond me. Maybe it's a cry for help ). I think it's part of the reason it can appear that "Virgil is the Puppetmaster for Nisha the ARG". The PMs are telling us about the game through Virgil. They even give us slapdowns in his rants about not hacking passwords. Virgil is their way of telling us what we need to concentrate on and how this might play out. The "idea that all of the three main sets of characters are implicated" is just telling us that our characters are not black and white. It's not good Ian & Nisha vs Bad Gunter/Virgil/Worry - it's everyone against everyone else and themselves at the same time. It's telling us that Ian could be capable of planning a heist and that Nisha could succumb to tempation and cross the line from recoverer to thief.

8. I haven't heard this idea before. The only theory I know is that CG might be Virgil. I really can't see CG being Gunter. It would either mean really great internet access in prison, or Gunter broke out and no one has seen any reports.

9. Beyond being a friend/acquaintance of Virgil? Who knows. But then again, it might not even be important - just window dressing.

[rose]

oops :)

[lazarys]

My two cents

[thatgirlmeghan]

Is anyone else feeling MAJORLY confused right now???


If I could GAIN brain cells by banging my head against the wall...I totally would! Arrrrgh!!!

So what is heck does everyone think?

Is LRR a real business? No---I wish it was, but it's most likely not. Is Nisha a real person? Well, yes. I met her. But is Nisha a stolen artwork retriever? Who the hell knows...??

Is Ian for real? Don't know.

Is Virgil real? Yes and I'm beginning to question if is part of the game or not. If he isn't affiliated with Audi in any way...then I am definitely scared for Nisha! Virgil is way too creepy.

Can someone simplify their thoughts for me?

Cause...I don't know what I think as of right now!

Thanks.

Meghan

[rose]

simplify

[HitsHerMark]

I can attest to the fact that Virgil is only real within the "game world". There is no game designer of that name that I know of... And if there was, I think I would know.

But he is a well crafted character, and (I believe) based on several real people. (Except those people aren't as freaky as this buy... I wonder if he goes for that Billy-Bob Thorton vibe or what.)

I think that these three people are all who they say, withing the "game world", but that there's more to their relationships then they're telling us... Or eachother.

Which is why we're talking about it in this thread.

1. I think that Virgil is up to something and is pulling strings of some sort.
2. I think that Ian is being manipulated, probably by Virgil. Ian seems to be the kind of guy who has a lot of pots going at once. Things have started to boil over because he's off on his quest to Prove Himself... And it's all starting to catch up with him. Virgil, or whomever, is taking advantage of that.
3. I think this has something to do with Virgil's up-comming game (which will probably be late and over budget.) There is some kind of publicity stunt here somewhere for Virgil's game... Whether everybody is in on it or not.


I agree with rose, and I did kinda start to say this before. If everybody was in on it, and this is a complete ARG within an ARG... That would be rather dissapointing. Because... We're already playing an ARG... Ya know?

But, even if he's not running the show, Virgil does have an angle on this.

[Nadif]

As I already said, I think that the whole "alternate reality universe" is real (Virgil and his life&career, Nisha, Ian and LRR etc.), BUT Virgil's new game is not just a regular game featuring Nisha: the real game, in Virgil's twisted mind, is what Nisha and Ian are going through right now, in (their) "real" life; id est, the whole trail of events we are witnessing and taking part in too. That is due probably to Virgil's enormous, weird and traumatized ego and his consequent insane (literaly) crush for Nisha.
Other than that, and after reading all your very interesting speculations, the only thing I can add is:

[maxim]

(It seems there is a group of people doing all the leg work around here, and this group thinking too hard about it all. Brilliant!)

Something else popped into my head concerning Heist being Virgil's creation. In the emails, Virgil talks of this e-Nisha which he has built up. Now, if this was just a computer game, would the creator really get so attached to the character? I mean, it's not like a book, or a film. This leads me to think that the e-Nisha is more than a virtual character; she is the person we keep meeting, the person he talks to, the character central to all this.

I don't find it at all contrived or stupid that the game is Virgil's creation; just very confusing, maybe a little implausible. At the same time though, I can't quite get my head around this mysterious 'Virgil' character, who is making a computer game about some people he knows (iffy-sounding to me), and yet getting involved in their lives, which just 'happen' to have got all interesting when he showed up AND he has bearly commented on it despite being so dumbfounded by LLR when he found out what their ordinary work involved.

There's more to this than what we can see.

[Ehsan]