Story Arcs
- Comic
- 01. Imaginate!
- 02. The Game
- 03. Cat Tail
- 04. The Raccoons
- 05. The Adventures of Spot
- 06. Fido's Return
- 07. Mouse Mouse Revolution
- 08. Thematic Arc of Questionable Quality
- 09. The Zoo
- 10. The Grove
- 11. Housepets Christmas
- 12. The Yarn Ball
- 13. The Further Adventures of Spot
- 14. The Vet
- 15. A Mouse Named Spo
- 16. Zap!
- 17. Fall of the Pridelands
- 18. The Continuing Adventures of Spot
- 19. A Sinister Shadow
- 20. Roadtrip Woo
- 21. Down At The Farm
- 22. Money Sharks
- 23. n-ple Date
- 24. The Uncanny Adventures of Spot
- 25. The Visitor
- 26. Oops I Arced
- 27. It's A Wonderful Dog's Life
- 27.5 All the King's Men (prose)
- 28. Ocean's Two
- 29. Imaginate, Too!
- 30. The Present
- 31. Spot McCloud Presents Comics
- 32. Dog Days of Summer
- 33. Theme Park World
- 34. The Adventures of Stripe
- 35. Movie Night
- 36. Scaredy Cats
- 37. Noob Tube
- 38. Hope of the Pridelands
- 39. We're Snowed In!
- 40. The Preeminent Adventures of Spot
- 41. The Arc Specifically About Being Naked
- 42. Not All Dogs
- 43. The Great Water Balloon War
- 44. Let's Imaginate Macbeth!
- 45. The Interview
- 46. The Case of the Aztec Gold
- 47. A Respite In The Country
- 48. Spots and Stripes
- 49. A Holiday at the Zoo
- 50. Housepets Babies!
- 51. Show Business
- 52. What Money Buys
- 53. The Mall
- 54. The Critical Review of Spot
- 55. The Trial in Heaven
- 56. Let's Imaginate Guys and Dolls!
- 57. Testing Grounds
- 58. Taking Cover
- 59. PsyCon
- 60. Getting Physical
- 61. PsyCon2: PsyConner
- 62. The Retroactively Continuous Adventures of Spot
- 63. Temple Crashers
- 64. All Hallow's Ween
- 65. The Unbearable Lightness Of Being A Dog
- 66. One Cat's Treasure
- 67. Love And War
- 68. Jack Of One Trade
- 69. The King and I
- Guest Week!
- News
- Comic
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Details… XP
Tokyo, sunshine!
its 1 A.M.in tokyo bernard
details
minor details
major details, pff who cares about them?
butterfly effect!
A tiny detail can change the whole universe!
While the major details often go unnoticed behind a Somebody-Else’s-Problem field!
Haaa hitchhiker’s guide fun!
hitchhiker’s guide, not the only one thinking on that one
And here I was thinking that I was one of the only people here that would have caught that joke.
YAAAAAAY INTERNET
I lol’d at panel 7
How I’m reading it is that King is now off limits to pete. Because when pete does have a full avatar… he can’t affect King directly like he has been.
End result: King’s free and clear. Though… still a dog unless foxy or dragon are willing to change him back…
Oh he wasn’t conscious, details…
Devils in the details.
detail on the devil ; )
Lol “yes master”… “What just happened?”
tell me that’s not permanent.
*notices King’s speech in last panel*
Carry on.
Oh, I thought you meant the being minpin-sized in comparison to Pete
The fact of being, sorry. Not any particular being.
Why’d king’s eyes change color? frame 3 and frame7.
Frame 7 he was under Pete’s mind control
Don’t think too much on that name flub, my gf was using the comment system for friday’s comic
Joker and Harley. I c wat u did thar.
It’s actually our gamertags on xbox Live
haha
because his mind was overrided by pete if you pay attention his eyes are yelow like pete’s
I was wondering “Why yellow? Why not green?”
Thanks for that.
They’re Pete’s. Pete overrode his brain to say that, and I guess the eyes come in for effect.
and yet his smile is so cute in panel 7 XD
Avatar time?
yes, avatar time -_-’
“Avatar time…”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c4L4CPfQY8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGMCiyXR2O0
parodies are the best ^_^
If you notice, King’s eyes turned yellow to match Pete’s. Like how Tarot’s are green and match the Spirit Dragon’s. Hmmm. Interesting. :3
Thats because yellow eyes means Pete controls them green eyes means the dragon controls them at one part grapes eyes turned yellow which was why tarot told peanut that Pete was using grape too set him free
Exactly what I was getting at.
So that means that the Great Kitsune is someone with red eyes.
Uh. Good theory, guys. but there’s only one problem: Grape’s eyes are always yellow. They have been for many a comic, up to and including the last one we saw her in. Which would have been well after Pete stopped chasing after Grape as an avatar.
Which could make it easier for him to control her without anyone noticing. :O (Le gasp!!)
Since the eye color change is only a cue for the readers and not visible to the other characters (someone would have commented on it by now), Rick could use any kind of cue he wanted… like making her eyes solid yellow and pupil-less… if he wanted to have her brain-controlled by Pete.
I think it might be visible, at least in Tarot’s case; it seemed to go with Tarot’s other power-displays, and those seemed to cast light into the closet with Grape and Peanut.
Aren’t Grape’s eyes yellow anyway?
*facepalm* Already said!
You can see it with Tarot here in the Second Panel:
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/08/31/soul-scattering-will-do-that/
hahaha
Oh lord King! XD His face is so priceless at the second to last detail xD
panel* =P
Panel 7 is KY0000TE!
I’ll bet Pete will make King very happy when his brain is completely shut off to serve His Master Pete…
True, IF Pete is even allowed to do it XD
If his brain is shut off, how would he know?
Aha … NOW the eye-color-change makes sense! =P
… Darn. I’m good. Told’ja implied consent would work!
Even though it was a little late. Hooray! King is gonna stay King!
actually… he’s not… he might go back to being human because the fact that King was TRICKED into being changed. So, Pete has to look for a full avatar like the dragon.
But he did say that Pete was forbidden from doing anything more to King. Wouldn’t that also cover changing him back?
Possibily, that could be a Chekhov’s Gun that may come back to bit our favorite pseudo-Corgi in his stubby tail when it comes to getting back to being human.
Pete changed King BEFORE he imply consented (tricked). So the change shouldn’t have happened and therfore, be reverted back to his normal human self. (However, I see things differently later on ;P)
@Elwood: So he’d have to agree to be Pete’s avatar to ever get back to being human, because that’s the only way Pete will be allowed to change him back? That’s assuming he can’t find some way of getting Ninetails or Dragon to do it…
“The change shouldn’t have happened”… so you want to rewind to last Christmas? Who will get Bino’s exploding present then?
That would violate the “no weird time travel stuff” rule.
I think “full avatar” means like Tarot. Means if he can actually convince someone to let them use him as an avatar, he’s good to go. But he’s going to have to really do it… none of this “implied consent” stuff.
U GIZE IZ HUWTIN MAH BRAAAAIIIINNNN D:
Sorry, bad edit. Should read “… to let him use them …”
Except that it didn’t work; Pete’s claim was not accepted, and he was penalized.
Which also gets the Great Kitsune off the ethical hook – and leaves Pete far enough in the wrong that he’d need some rather spectacular justification to come out as anything but a villain. Given that he seems to prefer to cheat, rather than to explain, it’s hard to see him coming up with anything like that at this point.
I wonder… you think he’s gonna go for Fox as his avatar? It would make King consent fully if that were the case o3o
I have huge doubts, honestly. it’s difficult to consider who Pete will go for at this point, but i have a few hunches.
Only thing i’m curious though is if Pete minds if his avatar is a cat or a dog? Doubtful, but it got me thinking.
I hadn’t thought of using Fox for leverage. It would fit the pattern very nicely though – although King might just warn Fox, and count on the Great Kitsune continuing to enforce that “Free Will” clause.
Hopefully the Great Kitsune would find a way to stomp on Pete a bit if he did that though; players who keep trying to get around the game master rarely do well in the long run.
If pete were to use fox as his avatar who would take care of poor king
If Pete can’t manifest in Babylon Gardens any more, who’s going to pay for King’s kibble?
@Gamecobra: You think he’s going to go after the ferrets?
@Argent: My thoughts exactly. Not to mention the bills and taxes and, perhaps, the mortgage? I don’ think practically kicking King out onto the streets is going to make him feel much better.
King could go into business as “that guy who fixes things” for the other critters. He’s been on the streets before, without a group of people to support him, and without marketable skills.
Wait, what’s his marketable skill now? Being a cute little dog? (with emphasis on “cute” and “little”)
He went to college, which none of the other pets have done, and he can build stuff that actually works, which seems to impress them. As a human he’s pretty hopeless, but as a dog he’s got all kinds of possibilities.
@GameCobra What about max? he and tarot both have grape/peanut relations, wich might play out interestingly, though i don’t see how
@frank what if he got taken in by fox?
I did think of that, but I thought it was too predictable. Too Winnie-the-Pooh-ish if you will. With Rick, you truly have to expect the unexpected. Maybe it’ll rain doghouses or something!
unless he becomes bino by tricking him into believing that consenting away his mind he will become cooler than his brother and other such fancies. much like a demon.
It would probably be easy – but I bet there are disadvantages to using a reckless accident-prone idiot as your avatar.
That wouldn’t even be a trick.
I’m pretty sure that Fox is going to be Pete’s next avatar, but King seems pretty attached to him. Seeing as how King doesn’t want him to be as miserable as he is, he would fully consent willingly to be Pete’s avatar instead of Fox.
Pete knows where and who has King’s been with and that the fact that it’s a potential “instant” avatar since King REALLY WOULDN’T have any other choice but to accept being Pete’s avatar (Before Pete tricked him that he didn’t have any choice).
What do you think? (Also, how come I can’t reply below mines?
I don’t get it. Why Fox?
I think he means that Pete would be letting King know that he’s after Fox as an Avatar – something along the lines of “since you’re unwilling, and I need an Avatar, I’ll just have to take Fox” – in an attempt to leave King with a choice between “volunteering” or agreeing to let Pete use him.
Hm. For clarification,that’s “use him” as in “use Fox”.
I think Sasha would be a more credible threat, since King can identify with her, has feelings for her, and based on what he knows of her personality and living conditions it’s more likely that she’d agree to becoming an avatar than the well-kept, popular, and strait-laced Fox would.
No, King isn’t close to Sasha like he is to Fox, since Fox was the first pet to even talk to King. King only spent that night with Sasha because he felt sorry for her, more than anything. While it’s true that Sasha would more likely agree to it, it’d be more of a threat to King if Pete were to go after Fox.
King also traded for and fixed up that doghouse for Sasha in the woods. He’s got to have more of a relationship with her than’s been shown on-camera.
I dunno, King seems to rather attached to Fox. Not in a romantic fashion, but definitely as a friend, and possibly even as a brother-figure…. which could account for all the “Fox and King” shipping there seems to be. But I digress.
The point is that if Fox were threatened in some way… Like Pete trying to convert him to an avatar, King would react in some way, I think. Whether this means that he would willingly become an avatar in Fox’s stead remains to be seen. However, something would happen, for sure. As self centered as he is, I don’t think that King would allow his one friend to fall under Pete’s spell.
Oh, sure, he’d react, I don’t mean he’d ignore it… I just don’t think Fox is a likely enough candidate for avatarhood. Though I could see one approach Pete could use.
Pete: OK, if I can’t have you, I’ll take Fox.
King: Hah, Fox would never go for it. (sweatdrop)
Pete: Even if I promise him Joel?
King: … (bigger sweatdrop)
King: Wait, who’s Joel?
LOL
More like:
King: You wouldn’t tell him that I’m King! I mean that I’m KING. Not KING, KING! AAAAAAAH!
Well, that’s the fun of it; at the moment, there apparently isn’t anything preventing Pete from saying “If you don’t agree to be my Avatar, I’m coming back to this world after the game is over and getting someone to push the nuclear button”.
Would it really matter whether or not Pete meant it? He seems to have the power, and King couldn’t be SURE it was a bluff.
The Great Kitsune probably wouldn’t be happy with that one, but an implied (and possibly fake) threat to someone King likes is pretty small in comparison.
is there any reason pete is inclined to pick king over anyone else? Why not settle for a more nieve person? did i miss something or am i just a little slow?
(i know thats not how you spell it)
@NobodyYouKnow:
Pete has shown a preference for King already. I mean, he could have just picked someone already IN Babylon Gardens, but instead, he went out of his way (however slightly) to grab King as an Avatar.
Now the question is: WHY does Pete have the preference for King?
Two possibilities:
1. Pete wants an avatar who has more experience than any housepet.
2. Pete wants an avatar he can blackmail.
I think he’d have done better picking one of the Milton heirs for the latter.
@Argent Stonecutter
I think it’s a combination of those and something else. We already can see how Pete works, most normal people wouldn’t agree, so he needs someone to blackmail. But also he wants to be the best, he wants an advantage, and a human turned into a dog has some advantages over the other pets. Kitsune talked about an “arena” but didn’t say WHAT it is. It could be a fighting arena, could be a brain teaser, could be a kids show o.O; Maybe Pet is just a jerk and doesn’t really care about the game, rather just wanting someone to hurt and King was an easy target to hurt very very badly.
I assumed the arena was a reference to either Babylon Gardens or our Universe.
I just assumed that the Arena was more of just a state of mind than a place, especially since at least Tarot seams to be able to do that whole holodeck thing.
My guess is that the Great Kitsune would have a sort of “Referee Avatar” who would lay down the rules and run the Arena/Holodeck/Whatever (Like what Tarot was doing in the Imaginate, Too story arc).
Personally, I think that Sasha is the best Avatar for the Great Kitsune, but only because she is deeper than she seems (“Sonata for my boyfriend who, IF HE EVER REGIFTS ME AGAIN, will wake up with his ears stapled to his eyeballs” in D minor)
But if they were just going to dream up an “arena”, why bother with using a lower-order universe at all?
Curse you! I wanted the cute slave King for my avatar. Oh well, I’ll just stick to the one I have now.
I’m considering doing something with some of the Great Kitsune and King images, and an early King image.
I find myself wondering how long that character’s going to stick around, or if he (or she) is going to be a permanent character. *engages in epic battle with graphics editing software*
She/he may already be a permanent character!
Check the cast page. You might be right!
Let me rephrase that: she/he may have an Avatar who is already known to be a permanent character. Simply appearing on the cast page doesn’t make it for me (Max’s dad is on there, and he’s only been in, what two panels?)
the only character with eyes even close to red is sasha, wich is cool
Yours represents the epic turning point anyway. That’s way better than just being “cute”
This is why I <3 MS Paint
Poor King…
and LOL, just finished reading the strip.
I’m sorry I don’t like The Cosmic Nerds (My personal name for there U&U group) at all there a bunch of jerks (I want to use a stronger word but I don’t want to get modded here) And I think I’m right about Tarot (the real Tarot) she might not have any feelings for Peanut at all.
Gah, just let Rick tell it!
Ok maybe my reaction was a little to quick
Dragon and Kitsune don’t really seem like jerks…
How are they not jerks there playing a game with the universe most likely because there bored gods that makes them jerks to me.
There’s a difference between visiting, looking at the scenery, finding a willing avatar (as noted earlier, presumably there are some benefits for being an avatar), and having a little fun that harms no one and might even help a few people (the Great Kitsune’s Policy of Intrinsic Benevolence there), and acting like Pete.
I can’t seem to post my comment this is a test to see if I can
Errr…
Spirit Dragon seems to have Tarot’s consent. That makes SD not a jerk, in my opinion.
I’m not even talking about the whole Avatar thing. The simple fact that they are using a universe period to play a game with makes them jerks (not as big of jerks as Pete but still jerks) Maybe I’m making a rash judgment on them and I might feel different after I wake up tomorrow or something but I doubt it.
Why not? I use our universe to play lots of games in. Why should I deny other creatures the privilege as long as they take care of the place?
I might be overly basing my opinion of them based on past experience with these sort of story lines because they do tend almost always end badly you know. Maybe I’m wrong this time
Oh and I don’t mean in the sense that the Gods play games with the Universe story line its self is bad but I mean for the Characters themselves.
So what you’re saying is, it’s like approaching someone on the streets and saying, “this is a stick-up, hand ‘em over”, and when they comply saying “Just kidding! We’re on candid camera!”
More like the difference between approaching someone in the streets and saying “this is a stickup, hand them over… chum“, and “this is a survey, fill out this form… please?”
they do it with consent and by following strict rules so no one is hurt or sad. i think they play a game. but are not jerks in how they do it (except pete)
how do you know that if they weren’t playing there’d be no universe?
It was stated outright a couple strips ago that the universe already existed, and they’re just using it for their ‘game board’.
oh
I love how Pete’s speech balloons go to “normal” black text on white when he’s mockingly imitating Joel. What a jerkwad.
You can just picture him speaking exactly in Joel/King’s voice as he does it. Clever touch.
Also nice “Kick the Dog” (not literally) moment for Pete in repeating Joel’s words but completely taking them out of context so they fit his viewpoint. With moves like that he should work for the New York Times or the Washington Post.
I’ve known a few people like that on Usenet and BBSes too.
When Pete first appeared before Joel, he spoke in normal speech bubbles.
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/11/30/and-the-sentence-was-going-to-be-time-served-too/
Though I also thought he must be imitating his voice exactly. It’s just that much cooler.
Well, if he’s going to be talking to people and making vet appointments and stuff he can’t TALK IN A SPOOKY VOICE THAT GOES STRAIGHT TO YOUR BRAIN WITHOUT PASSING THE EARS.
Pete is a jerk, he always will be a jerk.
Although now, it’s more of a relatively harmless jerk … at least compared to how he seemed before the game was revealed.
Details XD
Yellow eyes, Tarot has yellow eyes, I’d say that explains alot…Tarot DOES have yellow eyes right? *goes back and checks* yep I’d say things just got complicated between Tarot and Peanut (well you know MORE complicated)
Oh and Pete is a jerk
Might also explain Tarot losing the remote: the Spirit Dragon wasn’t paying attention to minor physical details like that – or was taking over when Tarot set it down and didn’t notice where – and casually invoked her own powers to find it, just as she might have used them “at home”.
Well King knows about Pete, so it’s just as well that Tarot knows about the dragon. She was calling the spirits because she probably did lose it, and as a god like being who most likely can see everything, the Spirit Dragon helped her find it.
I was considering the notion that the Spirit Dragon was starting to share Tarot’s mind at that point – and probably wouldn’t be paying much attention to an electronic gizmo.
i thought tarots eyes were green *goes and checks* yeah green
They’re normally yellow, but green when Dragon takes over (what we used to call “Tarot using her powers”).
ohh thanks for clearing that up
They change between, so SD controls Tarot (presumably), hmmm kinda sad considering the last comic strip. Also if that nine-tailed fox does have an avatar who else in Housepets has yellow eyes…? Or possibly red eyes…
Sasha has red/pink eyes.
dang i thought i was the only one to have made notwithstanding of that
i mean note
I wonder, does the Kitsune have an avatar, or he’s the GM thus not allowed to be a player?
The latter, I think.
I wonder who was controlling Zach “opener of the ways”?
Zach is probably not part of the game. He just figured out how to open the cave. The feral religion has him in the spot he’s in.
The feral religion based on the weird temple that Pete was trapped in?
No red eyes in that strip, though the raccoon’s eyes are yellow. But then so are Grape’s.
And here she is, using her secret power of violence!
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/11/20/none-shall-pass/
I vote for the former. Let the speculation continue!
haha .. Pete is a monster .. hehe
I’m quite a fan of the speech bubble fade in frame 4.
This makes it sound like the Kitsune is in charge of the entire RPG concept going on with the lower universes.
Well, as any GM will tell you, when you GM, you are god. This is just a little more… literal.
you mean DM ?
I think it was unofficially designated “Game Master” for U&U. =P
THE GODS ARE FURRY! 8DDD
Meep, sorry, couldn’t resist. I’d say I’d agree to be an avatar in return to hugging that Kitsune’s big fwuffy face! XDDD Something is going to kill me in my sleep for this …
Why did this not go down at the bottom like I wanted?
Cause comments screw up a lot.
Yeah, I’d expect there to be at least one human. >_>
Oh, man, there’s all kinds of possibilities. How about Coyote/Raven the trickster or Hanuman the monkey king?
Too bad for Pete: I was expecting him to drag up something from Joel’s childhood, or some casual remark from years ago about wanting to try being a dog – and to try to get the Great Kitsune to agree that it was relevant.
Trying to claim implied consent after the fact is really kind of pathetic. He’d have been better off trying to imply some greater purpose or at LEAST that his actions were for Joel’s own good.
I know. Joel wasn’t so much implying consent as resignedly yielding in a situation where he thought he had no choice but to do so.
Hating Pete because he’s a real jerk is fun!
He WAS sort of going for a two-fer, implied consent AND the ‘for his own good’ clause, as once King was involved he was given a fresh shot at life. Given King’s stubbornness, though, Kitsune rules both arguments as being too weak.
Ah. Given that Pete’s initial justification didn’t make too much sense, I hadn’t thought that he was trying to imply a lesson that would really be to Joel’s benefit. Thanks for the clarification!
Nobody’s pulling the wool over THIS fox’s eyes.
I like the “We’re not MONSTERS, except maybe for Pete” line. A lot.
there has to be a pun in there somewhere
Gryphons are in the Monster Manual.
i meant the wool thing
OK … how long until someone has King’s face from panel 7 as an avatar? By the time I post this and the page reloads? XD
Well, last comic it took the best of five minutes for the kitsune to become an avatar, so…
I’m going to be a contrarian, and go for panel 5 King instead.
Or will when I get the hang of this whole Gravatar thing.
There it is, just took a while to switch.
Hm, so when is King going to go back to Babylon Gardens?
Friday I think
HORAY!!!! WE RETURN TO THE 3RD PLANE OF EXISTANCE!!!
Third… so which plane are we in now?
We are currently in the fourth plane where the Greater Spirits reside. Above this is the 5th plane where anybody could do ANYTHING even low-order beings from the 3rd plane. Of course it’s far too difficult to get to the 5th plane anyways.
We’re on Flight 186, heading to Atlanta. Here are your complimentary peanuts!
In fictional verses, there are 10 planes of existance
& 9) are too boring
1) all existance itself
2) the fiction story’s premise
3) the show itself
4) the viewers
5) show’s creater
6) References to other verse’s
7) Doesn’t exist
and
10) tuna
Great Zot!
So wednesday is the U&U wrap-up? Or is there more to it?
Note that Rick didn’t say U&U was wrapping up, just that Joel!King was returning to the mortal plane.
Though, without a mind wipe or something like that when he’s returned to “reality”, I suspect that Joel!King is going to be something of a game-breaker, thanks to his knowledge about the situation.
Or accused of being too drunk
Except he doesn’t have to tell anyone else about it to throw a spanner in the works, so to speak. He can act on his own, or talk with those he knows (all two of them, setting aside Tarot/Spirit Dragon
) to influence them in a way to manipulate things that he wouldn’t have concerned himself with were he not given “OOC” knowledge.
I suspect uncle fox there can convince Joel that keeping quiet about the whole thing is in his own interest. Those trickster types have the gift of gab.
yah i think 9-tails is gonna go all no-pupils u know O_O
Okay, King’s expression in the second to last panel is absolutely PRICELESS. He looks so HAPPY (and vacant).
King: Hi! I’m King!
Pete: No mind control there.
King: Hi! I’m King!
Kitsune: You have to leave him his own mind as well.
Pete: Spoilsport…
xD
With your avatar, that usually innocuous comment just became gold
Lol if it wasnt said in a comment id crack up over reading that in the comic/
So, Kitsune rules that King stays as King (since it’s for his own good) but that Pete can’t use him as an avatar since Pete failed to get consent?
Now what will happen to King? Will Pete continue to groom him as an avatar, or search elsewhere?
I suspect that it’s just that the Great Kitsune is not going to reverse a players actions, or deprive Pete of his choice of (potential) Avatar, rather than that he actually believes that associating with Pete might do Joel/King any good; that “We’re not monsters… except maybe for Pete” line is kind of suggestive there.
Especially since he banned Pete from manifesting in “the Arena” (Babylon Gardens).
Fox: I haven’t seen your dad around much.
King: No, um, he had to go… overseas.
Fox: Good thing he left you his credit card.
King: It’s amazing what you can get from Amazon!
On the Internet, nobody knows you’re really a dog.
So true Argent, so true…
This is even funnier when you consider it’s coming from a ferret
The ferrets are already rich.
Grooming… if he can’t appear in “the arena”, where will he do that? In King’s dreams? Heaven forbid! King will go without sleep for months!
Aw, come on! “Heaven” anyone? With this strip? It’s like a perfect set-up! Though maybe just by saying it, I’m killing it
I call hax
That Kitsune has officially become my favorite character because of the 1st nd 2nd panel.
Don’t expect him around to much though
But i love that second panel of him too.
All the more reason to love him now.
ai just gawda point it out is 9-tail in like a box or somethin or just behind it? :/
That’s the metaphorical GM’s screen. God doesn’t just play dice, sometimes he throws them where we can’t see them.
Pete just gained +50 in my Awesome Meter.
Btw, happy, dominant King is creepy.
don’t you mean submissive?
i think submissive would imply that he “gave up” his inhibitions though defeat, being over whelmed, or gave it up freely. What just happened to him was more of a mind control against his will or possession of Pete.
I think he was trying to say King wasn’t dominating over anything, It was he the one who was dominated.
The 7th panel just cracks me up… I’m mad at Pete cuz of it but it still does. XD
Heh still no info on who is this 9tails in the HP world, but it’s good to know he’s a good guy for a change.
Okay so as I get it the whole point is that King’s gonna have a better time as a dog from now on, but I’m still worried aboot that “full avatar” and the “arena” part… so what King and Tarot are goin to fight in the end? :O
9 tails has been guessed as the UM, so he can’t have an avvi in the Housepets world
I don’t think Rick has ruled the metaphor goes that far.
Now I think of it, his role might be similar to Tarot’s role in the imaginating. She was Jeijan and Saso and little bits of her were in random hyenas.
Please. Can you imagine how much damage Pete can do if he was able to control people like that?
Pete isn’t the GM, though. Ninetails is.
I agree with “the metaphor not going that far”, but it seems there is no single GM. Since the universe is a “real” universe, it doesn’t need a GM or someone to run “a little bit of everyone else”. Therefore, the reason the Kitsune (I just can’t say “ninetales” without cracking up Wahahaha! Ok, I’m good now) had to come is because complaints usually resolved by the GM here have to be resolved by Majority Rule (or, since there’s only three players, everyone-except-the-player-they’re-complaining-about rule)
Ninetails! Ninetails! Ninetails!
Nope, didn’t work. It needs to be in the midst of an otherwise serious context
Woot I made ppl use my own way of talkin.
…
… …
I’m in CONTROLL of the universe! I’m a freakin GM!!! >:D
ps.: Joke. X3
What if Fox was his avatar? XD (Food for thought) *watches the debate rage on* >:)
Wha? But… The…
Look, my thoughts weren’t that hungry! Screw the world cup. I need a BSOD avatar.
And some counterarguments. If somoeone could bring me some counterarguments it would really help
Well, there’s been no evidence at all that Fox is anyone’s avatar.
How many of the pets have had supernatural experiences? Zach, Grape, Peanut, Tarot, King, possibly Sasha (in the piano scene).
Um… and Sasha has red eyes.
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2010/05/21/they-always-know/
No they are pink… or I just didn’ get what ya meant. XD
BTW anyone else had thoughts aboot Kings change of eyecolor? I sure had, started lookin through some important events to see if I missed any but wierd as it is most of the characters in those events have yellow eyes to begin with… OR they are manipulated from the start! :O
Hemmehearyeroppinions!
Thank you, Argent! Always there ready to rescue! I’ll just put your arguments here and here, and this one up high…
Wait, what am I even doing here? I’ve got stuff due tomorrow!
@Gaboris: Joel’s eyes were originally brown
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/05/27/im-never-going-to-understand-humans/
When he became King, his eyes became blue.
Yellow is the color of Pete’s eyes, showing he’s “overriding his brain” at the time
@Gabby – They’re the closest to red of any character I could find.
@Frank: Okay again I couldn’t make myself clear sorry. XP
Not that change but the change in the 7th panel and I know it’s yellow cuz of Pete, but maybe it realy means the control itself.
So what I meant is that most of the important eventcharacters have such eyes. This may mean somethin don’ ya think?
BTW nice avi. :3
@Argent: … If ya take it that way we could say that blue is the nearest to purple when ewerithin else is red. XD
Kay-kay just a joke. :3
The GM CAN have an avatar but usually the game isn’t done that way because the GM could rig it so he gets like a level 17 weapon and like a miracle gets an item that makes his level high enough to wield it. ETC.
I just noticed that King’s panel 7 expression really resembles that of the Milton ferrets when they learn of their inheritance.
Or Daisy, just about any time.
true
Yay for socially-inhibited, power-gaming rules lawyers…?
Seriously, people like Pete were why, back when I was gaming (Star Wars, not D&D), the local group had a meta-rule that the GM was authorized to chuck a set of fuzzy dice (like what’s sometimes shown hanging from automobile rear view mirrors) at rules lawyers, generally referred to as “throw 2D6″.
(It used to not be the plushie kind, but the plastic game dice.
)
…?
……?
Apparently I slipped into geek and didn’t realize it…
Powergaming is, very basically, trying to force the RP to go your way. The mind control of King in panel 7 was pure “I want it my way, RP conventions be hanged”.
Rules lawyering: Overly strict interpretation of the rules, looking for any loophole to force things to come out the way you want. This generally annoys GMs, and if they’re sufficiently vicious they’ll let you know by causing the party with the rules lawyering player know in particularly unpleasant ways. See “Rocks fall, everyone dies” for an extreme, impatient take on the situation.
I’ll grant you that I may be reaching on “socially inhibited”, but Pete doesn’t seem to be, if you’ll pardon the expression, a “people person”, and is using his powers to try to compensate for an apparent inability to gain cooperation through social means other than deception.
Does that clear things up? (not being sarcastic, here)
Of course he’s not a people person. He’s a monster. Technically.
Maybe a monster.
And I guess you didn’t pardon the expression after all.
Why do I need to pardon it? I don’t think that expression has anything to be embarrassed about!
I think powergaming is an socially inadept way of trying to force a RPG to go your way using the rules as a tool. Plenty of rules lawyers are smooth enough to present their points without annoying everyone – and sometimes without even really being noticed. You see one of those in action wherever the game master tends to ask one of the players “how does that work again?”.
Using your out-of-character social skills, or the fact that you bring the snacks, or being friends with the GM, or knowing some useful facts that the other players don’t, or taking endless notes and trying to keep track of every fact that might be useful later, or being good at presenting choices the way you want them, and a dozen other methods are all tactics to try and get the game to go your way. They’re also all equally grating if the player using them isn’t smooth enough to do it without being obvious and annoying.
Hm… well its good to know that these higher beings have a strict benevolence policy. Kinda stink if these players were less observant of the consequences they have onto the lower kind. Can you imagine if this was with a less cautious group… like say… accidentally spilling a drink onto the world battle map? Crab Juice Apocalypse. D:
Just kidding really! Makes you wonder how boring it must be to be a higher level being if they set up these games themselves. You’d think they do more “important” things, but then again there seems to be alot of nothing all around them…
I’d imagine I am going to see about five or so avatars changed to the expression King has in the second to last panel. Darn his Corgi cuteness.
Actually, Great Kitsune said that he held a benevolence policy. No mention was made of other supernaturals, though between the follow-up “we’re not monsters” (and its possible exclusion of Pete
) and her actions Great Dragon seems, at least with what little info we have available, to possibly have a similar policy.
You’d think they would try to figure out the question to life, the univerce and everything… or something.
It could be they already have figured that out (and that it’s not “42″
), and are just killing time with the game. I mean, if you’re a (probably) immortal being, you have to do something to pass the centuries once you’ve figured everything out. 
According to Douglas Adams, the perfect way to do that is to insult the universe; everyone living in it in in every planet and do it in alphabetical order
I gotta say. King in frame 7 is both horrifyingly creepy and disarmingly cute at the same time.
I think creepy; none of his own personality coupled with what’s effectively temporary brain death and external control. Remote-controlled zombies are never really cute.
And yet, he still looks like that… How can you say no to something that looks at you like that? =P
Easily.
I’m gonna have to call that facial expression horrifyingly creepy without any chance of cuteness. I get the heeby jeebies just looking at it.
Mind-controlled zombies are never really cute.
Nope. They’re ADORABLE!
Overriding his brain doesn’t necessarily mean he wasn’t thinking or aware, just that his brain wasn’t controlling his body and voice and stuff.
Which is creepier.
So since that’s now your avatar, does that make you “horrifyingly creepy”?
Yes – until it changes anyway.
I LOVE THIS COMIC!!!!
ME TOO!!!
ME THREE!!!!!
Me Four!
Me six!
…Wait…
Nine!
…Thousand!
Me Fourty-nine trillion, ninehundred six billion, six hundred twenty-nine million, five hundred eighty-eight thousand, three hundred and four! =D
If anyone has access to base conversion software, convert that to base 36! =3 You need at least 14 significant figure calculating, but it should be obvious even if you don’t.
That’s, 49906629588304. ^^
… And here’s a good page for that: http://www.convertit.com/go/convertit/calculators/math/base_converter.asp
Base 36 is amusing, but that kind of character set has actually been used. Back in the ’70s DEC stored file names and symbols in a format called either Radix-40 or Radix-50 depending on the operating system, which was 3 base-40 characters jammed into a 16-bit integer. Why was it sometimes called Radix-50 instead of Radix-40? because the assembly language operated in octal (base
and 40 decimal is 50 octal.
Not base 8), base 8 !
Stupid smiley.
Really? Oh, that’s cool!
Did anyone notice that for a few strips the bump on his head got HUGE, and now it’s almost not even there?
Not really, it’s just partly hidden by the ruff of headfur in all but two frames (one showing the back of his head with King’s right ear blocking the view, the other from a distance that reduces detail in general).
Its there, just kinda hidden behind some brushed over hair. Guess it kinda seems smaller when its not displayed out front.
King’s just healing really quickly.
Cheap explanation #17:
A wizard did it.
“I don’t think it’s magic, there are no nearby wizardmen”
http://fulltimeink.com/archives/8284
Of course, the Kitsune, the Dragon, and/or Pete could agree that this bump is bad for the game and just cure him
I don’t know what’s creepier.
1) King’s submissive additude.
or
2) The fact that Rick nailed the personalities of my brother and his D&D nerd group so hard that now I can’t think of my brother without imagining Pete…
well you say nerd like its a bad thing. I mean come on, hate to break it to you, but you regularly follow a anthro web comic…your just as big of a nerd im afraid. But dont let that get you down, embrace it! one of us…one of us…one of us.
How many times do I have to say it? WE PREFER THE TERM “GEEKS”!!!
well you have to understand there is a difference between nerds and geeks. both are awesome however into different things…unless your into all things int hat case your just better than normal geeks and nerds.
I mean the stereotypical one, pimple face, cooked glasses, love for every last card game/video game, creepy laugh, and yes I do have a brother with friends like this (hell he has a friend who freaks out if you mispronounce Naruto).
Is it nah-roo-toe? or nah-row-toe?
Whoops that 2nd one should’ve been nar-oo-toe
Pretty much everything in Japanese is pronounced syllable by syllable, because the phonetic “alphabets” are syllabic.
Unfortunately katakana and hirigana don’t map precisely to the latin alphabet. That would be too simple. But it’s almost certainly “na-ru-to” and not “nar-u-to”.
is your avatar from cave story? sorry if thats kind of random…
It is. Oddly enough, that character is named ‘King’….
yeah i knew that
good game
Facepalm~.
I’m not gonna do the “It’s wasn’t a facepalm, it was a facepaw“. I’m not gonna–
Darn it, I just did.
Strangely enough, I think King/Joel looks even cuter when under mind control. So is Pete going to spend the next while trying to get King to work with him? Or is King turning back into a human? The human thing would probably be even worse then his current situation. Seeing as Joel’s life is crap. It would probably end in him begging to be Pete’s avatar, if only to escape his pursuers.
Well, the next obvious strategies – presuming that “doing anything more to King” covers direct threats – are blackmail by threats against his friends (Fox, Sasha, Etc) and probably-insincere bribery.
Whoa, check out his eyes in the 7th panel.
Huh… didn’t notice that earlier.
But time is not a linear construct of cause and effect!
It’s more like a big ball of wibbley wobbley timey wimey… stuff.
Yeah.
oooo arff… that’s brilliant …. you’re brilliant !!
BTW: Bowties are cool.
*Cough, cough* allons-y is cooler than Geronimo. *cough*
haha … i just thought how funny would be if grape and peanut were to appear there in a little blue box
Fez are cool too.
But what about the “no wierd time stuff” rule?
THE GODS ARE FURRY! 8DDD
Meep, sorry, couldn’t resist. I’d say I’d agree to be an avatar in return to hugging that Kitsune’s big fwuffy face! XDDD Something is going to kill me in my sleep for this …
And that something will be Kitsune’s Avatar… or just a magical bolt of lightning sent by him…
I’m trying to see what advantage Pete would (have) gained using Joel/King as his avatar over someone else, Tarot seems to be able to /share/medium for/with the dragon spirit and gain powers to do her bidding so I’m guessing she had some inate abilitys propr to the dragon’s asking her. Joel/King just seems to have personality issues that have actually backfired in Pete’s face, or at least it seems that way. For that matter I’m not surte what reason he’d have for choosing Grape, altho she does seem to be able to do as she pleases reguarding the other pets….hummm…..
There was a bit of speculation on that back on the last strip, here: http://www.housepetscomic.com/2010/07/09/and-nothing-but/#comment-34900
King has the secret powers of experience and attitude.
Grape has the secret power of violence.
Maybe… TAROT DOESN’T EVEN EXHIST!
Hear me out people: If there was no Tarot in the first place, it would be easy to create her, and Dragon would be able to completly control her like a puppet without any trouble at all.
But then how would she be able to act on here own, which is shown when she has her own eye color! We’ve seen her have deep conversation when NOT under Dragon’s green-eyes influence.
@Pax: Yes, the “Tarot doesn’t really exist” thing is what has been creeping me out in the back of my mind throughout this sequence.
@Flexico: Maybe they’re Vingean Powers, who can “write programs as simple as you and me”? Tarot could be what Ravna thought Pham Nuwen was, a merely-human-level program created by a transcendant power.
(If that doesn’t make sense to you, go read Vernor Vinge’s novel “A Fire Upon the Deep”)
A perfect Turing machine!
Technically, vacuum tube computers were already perfect Turing machines. Turing Test machines on the other hand…
Only if you have an infinite number of vacuum tubes.
Nice touché, Argent.
Then the Spirit Dragon wouldn’t have a “Full Avatar”.
Is this a reference to “If there were no Benny Cemoli”?
I love panel 7! But I also love panel 2. I have a huge weakness for evil grins, especially on cute male furries. *giggles*
Kinda ironic that the guy with the evil eyes is the one who wants to protect the lower creatures and the world they are in!
I think the Kitsune archetype usually has red eyes. Don’t quote me on that, though.
“I think the Kitsune archetype usually has red eyes. Don’t quote me on that, though.” -txteclipse
Too late, already did. MUA HA HA HA HA!!!!!
O, such wit the world has never known.
This comic is making leaps and bounds to the top of my favorite webcomics list.
I love a comic with some depth to it. And they way you did it, while continuing to keep it comedic is a huge feat. Well done.
You mean it’s not already at the top!? WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT FROM RICK, WO/MAN!?
All I have to say is that I really love the ninetails. His design and expressions are great, and I just want to cuddle him! x3
(srry) I just noticed, when king said, “what if I didn’t even want to play” it reminded me of how you start -> the game
heres a question that should raise a few eyebrows and make everyone re-read the colored strips (if the question hasn’t already been asked). which character has red eyes…because there is a chance that that character is great kitsune’s avatar.
The creepy red-eyed hobo who lives down the street in a cardboard box.
Apparently only if under continious control. In any case, the game master doesn’t have to obey all the rules – and if Pete can mind-control King in violation of them, then that’s a power these creatures have available – and the Game Master could simply manifest through pretty much anyone as needed.
Look at Sasha’s eyes:
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2010/05/21/they-always-know/
her eyes are pink, so it might not be her. i’m thinking it kevin or spo
neverming, i just checked the cast page, tarot only has green eyes when using her powers, so we have no way of finding out if GK has an avatar or who they even are
Details.lol XD
I also like the Great Kitsune.
*giggles and notes no facepalming kitsune icon yet*
AmericanOtter got it a couple of hours later
also one more thing !!!
Rick don’t you think you’re spoiling your fans a bit .. i mean that’s the four Double strips in a row! (if we were playing four in a row game you won)
but can we expect it will go on like this … arff ?
Nope. He’s just getting our hopes up so that he can crush us later.
“We’re not monsters, except maybe for Pete”
– ‘Great Kitsune, in Housepets’
“I’d like to help you Tom, in any way I can
I sure appreciate the way you’re working with me
I’m not a monster Tom, well, technically I am
I guess I am”
– ‘Bob, the zombie, in Re: Your Brains’
ALL WE WANT TO DO IS EAT YOUR BRAINS
*grabs a bucket of popcorn* ooooohhhh! this is getting interesting!
We’re not unreasonable, I mean, no-one’s gonna eat your eyes.
We’re at an impasse here, maybe we should compromise.
If you open up the doors.
This was a triumph!
I’m making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS
Cake, followed by grief counseling, will be available at the end of the testing period to all surviving avatars.
Except there won’t be any OOPS DID I SAY THAT OUT LOUD?
He’s like the white nine tailed fox. (In geek mode)
Near as I can tell from the legends, all foxes became white or gold once they get their ninth tail.
So there’s no rainbow nine tails?
Only in Second Life.
or on MUCKs, or on FurAffinity, or on…
When you’re a shapeshifter and a transformation/illusionist mage of awesome power, and may have many more abilities, I think that getting to look however you like is a very minor part of the package.
MIND GAEMS
TAKEN TO A WHOLE NEW LEVEL.
LOVE GAMES?
Is that a Cerebus reference?
LOL on frames 7 and 8.
This arc gets better with each new comic! I love the banter in this one, as well as Pete’s mind control.
Mind control’s AWSOME!
you know something? being able to not read Housepets! for a while and come back and read two months worth of material in 10 minutes was fun cuz i didn’t have to wait but now im all like aawwwwww..,
Thou hast discovered the joy of a simulated printed book. Now thou must forgest it and returneth to reality.
Which reminds me, I never did continue the “old english” translation of Housepets! on the forum
OK, I call “Pete is going to switch attention to Bino”.
1. Bino will agree to be an avatar in exchange for phenomenal cosmic powers in a *snap*.
2. It would really tick off King. Bonus!
That… makes SO much sense.
wow… it does….. I didnt no it wuz possible for argent to make sense
GOOD JOB ARGENT U GET A BIG COOKIE AND A FREE HUG!!
*hugs argent*
“Phenomenal cosmic powers… itty-bitty living space”?
Why are you looking at me like that? You can’t beat Robin Williams when it comes to needing a great quote!
Well, it would be hard for Pete to find a much more cramped and petty (but still sapient) living space than Bino’s brain in the Housepets universe.
The Milton heirs?
Perhaps just as petty, but less cramped and less focused too.
Personally, if I was going to share someone else’s mind, I’d go for any one of the ferrets over Bino.
How about Fatty?
Hm. Hard to say, since we didn’t really see that much of him. Probably less cramped, but even more obsessive.
Sasha, of course, is so open-minded that things fall out all the time and people throw random trash in.
Daisy perhaps? On the other hand, I’m not TOTALLY sure that she’s not simply unable to speak much english (or a simulation or a transformed potted plant for that matter). Still a good possiblity though.
Just for fun: What kind of dog should the Miltons or fatty get turned into?
The Miltons? Probably one of those incessantly-yapping breeds; seems fitting. Fatty? Probably a daustchound; mainly because it would be funny.
The Miltons… I’d go for a hound of some sort – possibly a basset hound – and a poodle.
Fatty? A droopy St Bernard. Obsessive, out to rescue the world, and totally misdirected.
Well, I was right. The end of their game does not mean the end of the world.
OR DOES IT!?
“And I fear that day for all without love in their hearts will perish”
DUN dun DUUUN!
Wait, did I say that?
All who know fear will burn at the touch of the beast!
Unless Pete destroys the world after losing. Would you necessarily put it past him?
Heh. That’s hilarious. Pete’s just like a player who tries to exploit every loophole. And I know what players like that are like… *Shudder*
NAUGHTY BIRD!!
nooo, it’s “NAUGHTY NAUGHTY BIRDIE!! : P
THOU HAST SOLDEST TO ME A DECEASED PARROT!
Wow….
Just wow….
From “We’re not monsters…. well except for Pete” Was awesome to King losing his mind for a panel, to how the GM works… ((The Ninetales reminds me of one of my GM, who was the father of one of the players.))
Rather fun and cool time, but he was always fair.
My ideas, this comic is actually making me think of predictions, things that I normally don’t do for a comic, but I can see Pete using trickery on other people to get King to accept being an Avatar…. but My question, would Pete use his Avatar all the time? Does the SD do? ((I love the short hand for that))
Or do the Avatars still have some free will in it? and could Tarot have already liked Peanut, and it was the SD that broke the ice and caused her to speak to Peanut? So many questions, so many questions that I cannot wait to be answered.
Ok… now I’m officially confused.
In the previous comic “Free Will Will Free You” King mentions that “… You can’t read my mind or mess with my free will!”. http://www.housepetscomic.com/2010/06/18/free-will-will-free-you/
But as you can see in panel 7 Pete was able to control King into saying what he wants. …Isn’t that messing with someone’s free will?
Either King was dead wrong about his declarative statement or that’s a contradiction… or something.
Yes, it is messing with one’s free will.
hav u ever tried to mess w/ some1s free will it’s so much fun but wen i say that i mean without mind control ; )
I’d just say King was wrong. XD That comic was all speculation on his part anyway!
I think King was right, except that it’s “you can’t” as in “you’re not allowed to” rather than “you’re not able to”.
The rules are a voluntary; there’s a rule against drinking milk straight from the carton in most houses, but that doesn’t make it impossible – just something you’re not supposed to do.
You bring up an interesting point.
Just because someone tells you, for example, “You can’t go swimming after eating.” doesn’t mean you can’t. You can totally do it but it is breaking the rules.
But if that’s true my point still remains valid that King was wrong about Pete in that he CAN mess with people’s free will.
If you buy all your milk in jugs or bottles, then it is impossible to drink it from the carton
Just harder. Now you have to go and get a carton. Of course, if you really do only purchase milk in jugs and bottles, you’ll just have to beg, borrow, or steal some to obtain some in a carton.
But it’s just as gauche to drink it from the bottle or jug, mister picky nitpicker.
Ah, but the rule says “from the carton”! Therefore, if there’s no carton, the rule doesn’t apply!
With this ability to find loopholes, I maybe should’ve been a lawyer
The rule isn’t literally against drinking from the carton. That’s a metaphor. Like the map. And the giant can of coke.
does king oddly look different in panel 5? :l
Poor King! Pete, stop playing with him in that way!
Said the guy/girl with the pawn-sized king in her avatar.
How can one not play with him?
Guy
Well, being so cute and runt is difficult to don’t play with him… but not in the nasty ways that Pete do! XD
“A mental mind**** can be quite nice.” – Dr. Frank N. Furter.
Pete is a jerk. Thankfully, Ninetails isn’t.
However, Pete is not reckless enough to choose Bino. I’m sure he knows Schiller’s remark: “Against stupidity, even the gods contend in vain.”
I wonder, though: Would Fido agree to be his avatar in exchange for the whereabouts of Joel?
You know, I was just thinking of that phrase over the last two strips, with their titles “The truth, the whole truth” … “And nothing but”. It reminded me of Asimov’s tripartite novel “The God’s Themselves”, with its three sections “Against Stupidity”, “The Gods Themselves”, and “Contend in Vain?”.
I was expecting this strip to be titled “The truth”, but no, Rick isn’t that predictable.
You should see Ninetails in Naruto’s Universe game board. He’s kind of a big jerk there.
King has seen the whole thing through! This whole purgatory act was void!
…Though it still maintains several loose ends and WTF moments.
Hmmm. When Tarot is playing Jeijan and Saso she’s got green eyes, does that mean Spirit Dragon is role-playing GM-ing a role-playing game inside a role-playing game?
And a nice cut straight from Tarot-as-hyena-with-green-eyes to Tarot-as-Tarot-with-yellow-eyes:
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2010/04/19/game-over/
… unless Tarot’s psychic on her own account …
Well, it would fit with the notion that Avatars get some reward OR with the notion that she was chosen as an Avatar due to her pre-existing powers.
On the other hand, Dragon role-playing a role-playing game player is kind of amusing.
And, here’s Tarot with yellow eyes cuddling with Peanut with a little heart floating over her… so it’s not just the Spirit Dragon that likes him.
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/09/04/i-dare-you-to-do-otherwise/
Yep true but also true is that it was the real Tarot and not Dragon who said that she would leave Peanut if Grape developed feelings for him I doubt that means anything really important (I think that Dragon would easily leave as well) its just something I found interesting for some reason.
Yellow eyes = possession?
It’s a very visual way to see that Pete possesed him. Pete has got yellow eyes.
King is so cute in frame 7
King is so cute ALWAYS! *chuckles*
That’s ’cause CORGIS are ALWAYS adorable *grins*
TOTALLY and ABSOLUTELY agreed
he he… parrot face… a parrot who’s a monster, I think I like this kitsune’s sense of humor…. or the actual description. Whatever the case you laugh at what’s true
Kitsunes are tricksters. Of course he’s got a sense of humor.
Isn’t it strange how foxes are ALWAYS tricksters in folktales? It makes sense though
Except in North America, where Coyote and Raven get that job.
And in Africa where Anansi is a spider.
And Br’er Rabbit, where the fox is the goon and the rabbit is the trickster.
Except that the fox, unlike Anansi and Coyote, always gets his way
I think that’s just sour grapes.
Naw, Grape also gets things to go her way pretty much the whole time
Grape’s not a fox. Except to Peanut.
Ah spider. The only character I know with a fable illustrating why it is unwise to eat stolen boiled beans from your hat.
SPIDER! AAAAAAAAAH! KILLITKILLITKILLIT! *sprays with his Low-Order Bugspray!*
Oh, don’t forget the Stone Monkey.
Okay, I know a bunch of pepl have already cooed over the different panels …My turn.
OMGosh! THE KITSUNE IS SO ADORABLE IN PANLE 2!!!
Now…
Is Kitsune going to rule in King’s or Pete’s favor?!?
I iz confused again.
He already ruled in Kings favor with “Sorry Pete, He’s Right” – at least as far as he’s going to; hopefully Pete not being allowed to “do anything more to King” doesn’t imply putting him out on the streets – although it does imply that the Fox is not going to revert him to Joel; otherwise there’d be no point in ruling out doing anything more to King aince “King” would no longer exist..
Well, Kitsune simply forbade Pete from doing anything to King.
And they’re only saying King because they don’t know who Joel is, from the fact that the dragon didn’t even know about King’s past until recently.
Kitsune can still turn him back if he wanted to, maybe. But it’s just too vague at this point.
Somehow I suspect that – as soon as the matter became of interest or wa brought to their attention – they could find out.
Having to have a rule against manipulations of time, or being able to play under a set of rules that are too complicated to fit into a normal universe (even if that is a metaphor) implies that they’re quite capable of both those things. Ergo, they’re free to meddle with time and have – from a human standpoint – an immense ability to acquire and reference facts. (Whether or not they’re actually good at processing those facts – a.k.a. “smart” – is another question entirely).
And yep, that’s as far as he’s apparently going to penalize Pete – at least at the moment.
Actually, King is stuck no matter what; if he DOESN’T agree to be the avatar, Pete isn’t allowed to change him back — and if he DOES, he can’t be changed back anyway, because the avatar has to be a cat or dog. No, King is King for good, pretty much.
Is it possible for the hero to hoist his own petard, Joel wanted out from under Pete’s control and appears to have done it but may have just extended or possibly sealed his doggie fate.
Interesting hypothesis. So they fake “Gaspar”’s death and leave King to be taken in by one of the other BG owners?
Doubt it would work, King has a hard enough time keeping his cover as is. Imagine if he had to live with another dog, his non-canine behavior would blow it for him.
Wouldn’t that imply some sort of will saying his possessions can’t go to King? Children usually get their parent’s possessions by default, even if its their adoptive parents. The government only gets it when the will specifically mentions someone who can’t take it.
And BTW, your avatar fits your comment perfectly!
It worked for the ferrets.
…Said the ferret
Unfortunately, pets are property. The ferrets have a court-administered trust set up for them. Since Pete probably has no known relatives, and probably no will, his possessions – including King – would go to the state.
King could spend the rest of his life fighting that.
And, if Terryson Vs. Florida was what I think it was, Pets are allowed to sue.
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/05/25/i-kid-people-i-kid-youre-a-good-crowd/
Terryson Vrs Florida would have been about the validity of police dogs giving an arrestee their Miranda Warnings.
In that case, Terryson (a human, since that same strip indicates that animals don’t get Miranda Warnings) would have been disputing the validity of his arrest on the grounds that Miranda Warnings delivered by a police dog did not count. The ruling was against him, and now serves as a precendent for simply rejecting similar suites.
If pets possessed the legal standing to sue, you wouldn’t find pet carriers, vets working without getting the pets signatures on release forms, or Sasha being casually locked out.
Yes, it’s bizarre given that the pets are sapient – but so are the horses, cows, and assorted other animals that get butchered and eaten. Evidently the Housepets universe is pretty ruthless in spots.
In my interpretation, those things can be sued over (and most likely are sued over… repeatedly), the pets just happen to lose the cases, either because it’s determined to be “for their own good” (the whole parents can choose for their children deal) or because “there ain’t no law against it”
Oh, they can file all the papers they like – but without legal standing, those papers will go straight into the trash.
We’ve already been directly informed that Ferals don’t have any rights and we know that farm animals don’t have rights (although I’d presume that animal cruelty rules apply). Pet owners have rights; but pets don’t get Miranda warnings, don’t get to refuse treatment, do get selectively bred (or there wouldn’t be all those different breeds), can’t make their own decisions even when trained for police work, etc, etc, etc… Baby pets get taken from their parents and sold or given away. We have shock collars, pet carriers, a noted inability to get married, petnapping being considered a minor crime (against property) rather than a major offense (kidnaping a minor), the fact that the ferrets have a trust that likely would have been overturned save for Mr Milton being very through, and more. They have to carry licenses showing who they belong to to avoid being picked up by animal control. We even have LEASH LAWS.
We’ve got lots of examples of pets being indulged, but I can’t think of a single example of them actually being shown with any kind of legal rights.
Yeh. Creepy, isn’t it?
Yes indeed – although mostly only because the comic is so well-developed now.
Don’t forget there is alway’s the pound
and when that doesn’t suffice, there’s always the Kilogram
Okay, where are the new King avvies with the shot in panel 7? It’s been over 5 hours. That’s way too long. X3;
Comic itself: Can I hate Pete any more than I do now? Wait–don’t answer that…(Wait, he just broke the rules in front of them. Isn’t he gonna get his tail kicked now?)
The whole override brain thing is pretty disturbing, too…Poor King…
Wait, found it. See Mukavich.
It was for the sake of the punchline. I guess that’s allowed.
Oh, Rick, check his collar on panel 1.
So I wonder who Pete will use if they make him leave King alone… Hm…
What strikes me about Pete is… he’s really not as bad as Dragon and Kitsune make him out. He’s been a good owner to King in every way (except possibly the clothing pictures), he keeps a good home, and he hasn’t done anything to threaten the other inhabitants of Babylon Gardens.
I’m starting to think the reason he’s such a pain is because Dragon’s the GM’s Girlfriend.
Uhm… Ethically, it’s hard to get much lower than kidnaping someone, rendering them helpless, and abusing them for your own amusement – or simply because you can’t be bothered to actually work with someone. About the only way to make it worse is killing them afterwards – and, as was noted long ago, unless Pete’s made special adjustments to King’s canine body with regards to aging, he’s stolen most of Joel’s life too, so I think we can probably throw that in too.
Legally we have Kidnaping. Forced Transformation (probably criminal assault at the very least), Unlawful Imprisonment. Unlawful Trespass. Jailbreak and a variety of counts of interference with the criminal justice system. Probably Counterfeiting, since he apparently has lots of money and no source of income. Illegal Immigration I suppose. There’s probably a lot more, but my last civics class was decades ago.
Pete COULD still make himself into a good guy, but he’d need some really overwhelming reason why it was necessary to act this way – and preferably one that was actually accomplishing something that Joel wanted very badly before his transformation.
Thus the old speculation about Pete setting King up as a civil rights leader for the pets; that was one of the things that Joel was obsessed with, and getting it for him and the rest of the pets might be enough to justify Pete’s behavior. I don’t see many other ways at this point.
Yeh, that’s about the only thing that would repair Pete’s reputation at this point.
Dunno. I think it’s taking the “performed for your own good” deal a bit too far.
I think in that case it would be a “I have granted your wish as best as possible” not “performed for your own good”.
But I’d have to agree. At this point it wouldn’t be easy.
Immigra– so Pete could press charges for having the temple moved while he was still in it?
Nope. No legal standing. We already know that Ferals have no legal rights, so I doubt that there’s any precedent for granting legal rights to an unowned non-human sapient.
He has, however, illegally entered the country a number of times. That might not count since he’s not human, but his presence might be illegal since he’s not a member of a native species.
Quarantine violation.
Very true – and I hate to think of what higher-order spiritual diseases might be like.
Perhaps a communicable psychic disorder that makes you an unrepentant jerk?
Okay, now you’re creeping me out.
FINALLY! Someone else gets it!
Well, that discussions been going since “It’s a wonderful dog’s life”. Why finally?
For now, I’ll just say this again.
I love this comic.
I just had a crazy idea concerning Sabrina. Remember back in the arc where Pete was released? Tarot was talking to Peanut through telepathy (http://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/11/23/so-cool/) and Sabrina was there with her, reading from a certain book in panel 5. Perhaps SD wanted Sabrina at first, but it would have meant Sabrina losing her relationship with Fido, so she declined, and suggested Tarot, who agreed to be SD’s avatar.
On an unrelated note, I like how the map that they are using used to be a map of ancient Babylon, but they just wrote “Gardens” in red marker and underlined it to change the setting (http://www.housepetscomic.com/2010/07/07/the-truth-the-whole-truth/). Look in panel 7.
crud, I used the forbidden word… plz don’t make me have to repost this. T.T
Actually you put two links in a post
… I… didn’t realize that required moderation.
It’s because you can tell a number of spambots by their putting in multiple links into a post
Makes sense
It takes two? In the past I’ve had mine moderation delayed by just one link, put in a formal “a href” thingy instead of just posting the URL as a plain text line all its own.
Not a complaint, by the way. I understand not wanting the comment section being turned into what you find in the bottom of an outhouse pit.
yes, with <a href…> you can have a conveniently short explanation for what you’re linking to, or something completely deceiving. A spambot could, in theory, say “hey, it’s just like [this strip] from last year where everything is explained”
except that clicking [this strip] takes you to an offsite page with a zillion popups or something. It’s hard, I know, but that’s the world we have to live in.
@Frank: That’s why there is a status bar at the bottom.
It always says where a link leads to.
Shinmera, someone not clicking the link doesn’t kill the problem, though. Google ranks search results by (in part) how often it’s found on other pages. Spammers try to spew their stuff everywhere in part to increase the search engine ranking on the URL for their drek.
(On a UBB board I used to admin, there were hundreds of scripted spamtard registrations, just so they could put the URL in their account info, even if they never posted a single thing.)
@Shinmera
Of course, people click those links anyways, despite only having to move their eyes an inch. It makes you wonder if there’s hope for humanity. Only YOU can prevent forest fi– ahem, the spread of SPAM.
(and yes, Nohbody, I did read your post. I just wanted to do the Smokey Bear thing
)
Yah, that’s why we were speculating over whether Mr Milton had moved the temple from Iraq to his estate and named the residential area “Babylon Gardens” after it.
Good thing, too, they’ve just kicked off a huge crackdown on strays in Baghdad.
Why would he pay mega-bucks to move it to the United States and put in the middle of a forest where nobody goes. Of course the guy left all his money to his ferrets so it’s not like he wasn’t eccentric.
Like I said in the previous thread… a guy who leaves billions to his ferrets and leaves billions more with a treasure map (complete with comically precognitive warning) doesn’t need any more reason than “hey, I felt like it”.
Guy would need an ego bigger than Richard Branson’s to pull a stunt like that though but again wouldn’t put it past him…or Branson for that matter.
I still say if he did move it he put it in the woods to hide it from so the game would be delayed or stopped. But it is possible that it was just for fun but right now I believe my theory because its more exciting.
Well, figuring a 5% return on his capital, and a base of eighty billion dollars, he’d be making a bit more than ten million dollars a day.
I’ve occasionally spent a days salary on some random whimsy. Haven’t you?
Pete is SUCH a jerk.
A web comic has suddenly become a novel, filled with complicated, mind numbingly boring, long winded text.
Like i can be bothered to spend over a minute reading dribble, sorry but no thanks.
We’ll wake you when the arc is over, then. This probably won’t seriously change anything for the other characters.
I think Mr. TL;DR is saying that he’s not coming back, actually. Speaking solely for myself, I’m heartbroken.
No, really.
Honest.
*snicker*
… the kistune avatar…. IS FOX?!?
Kitsune is Japanese for “fox”, but that doesn’t mean Kitsune’s avatar is Fox.
That, and if Fox were Kit’s avatar Pete would have been in trouble much sooner. Think back a few strips where Tarot says “I don’t date humans.” Kit would’ve been able to tell that King was really Joel and made Pete change him back much sooner, and at least one arc would have never occurred.
don’t use big word ai got Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia
ahh king. so awesome in so many ways. even when controlled by pete.
Alright, so not who has red eyes… also, cutest King face EVAR right there.
….aaaaand YES, he made it over the shark!
Trust me, you do not want to mess with sharks
http://www.sandraandwoo.com/2009/11/12/0111-shark-jumped-the-woo/
or else u’ll get a rake handle to the face!! XD
They’re going to have to get a bigger shark.
A whale shark?
whale sharks eat like plancton and stuff like that -_-”
And a bigger boat to take on said bigger shark
Remember back when he stopped the catnipping storyline short cuz he was afraid he’d suffer from Cerebus Syndrome? At this point, we have jumped so far over the shark we are in orbit.
It’s posts like these that make me sometimes think tvtropes.org should never have been made (and I say that as a regular contributor there; I have it open in another tab as we speak, unrelated to this post). Everyone thinks that reading entries there makes them apply that reading to anywhere it looks even close to being relevant.
Oh, come on! Surely you recognize a joke when you see it?
And by the way, “jumping the shark” was originally a Wikipedia page. (Actually still is; know what that means? It’s considered notable! …by a handful of Wikipedia admins…) And apparently, that, in turn, came from a website created in 1997.
The key words being “when I see it”.
It may be plain text impairing sarcasm recognition, but it seems like he’s saying that perfectly seriously, and not as a joke.
On further thought, though, it’s possible I am misreading things, so if that is the case,my apologies to randomfox.
@ nohbody
ur avie always makes me think ur yelling at us <:(
Your avvy makes me think you find this funny
Not that there’s anything wrong with that; we’re all trying to have a good time here
Actually Jumping the Shark predates the internet, it’s TV slang that orginated in 1970s after that oh so infamous episode of Happy Days where Fonzie did just that.
I know it predates TV Tropes by a good bit. TVT is, however, where I suspect many who post-date Happy Days by decades have learned of it.
JumpTheShark.com probably did more for popularizing it in the internet age however that site is long gone after TV Guide bought it and basically shut the site down.
FWIW, I knew of the phrase “jumped the shark” long before I discovered TV Tropes. And when a comic strip that was originally about the hijinks of anthropomorphic pets veers into cosmic beings playing DnD with the universe, then I feel comfortable saying it has quite definitely jumped the shark. (My opinion only, of course.) Frankly, I felt it was strapping on the waterskis when the “psychic” Tarot was introduced, but I figured I’d hold out to see where it went. I do not like where it went.
I know, I know. I’ll show myself out.
So THAT is how he ended up saying he was King. Fun stuff. Awesome arc is awesome.
Nope, because you weren’t bold enough. Being italic might also help
…and the comment I was replying to was deleted.
On its own, my 11:53 comment makes no sense, but now that you can’t see what was before it, the mere act of having to guess what the other comment was makes it funnier!
I get that a lot to
u using a WII, DSI, others? I do!
see? (look below WITH A BIT OF LUCK)
no luck
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/monologues/15comicsans.html
For the info of anyone following that link, there’s quite a bit of NSFW language there. Not to be browsed if your boss or little kid is in the room.
(And in the former case, you’re probably hosed anyway, as most bosses wouldn’t want you browsing a web comic site in the first place.
)
Erm, my last was supposed to be a reply to Argent’s mcsweenys.net comment.
Comments are messed up again. My Comic Sans link was supposed to be a followup to Frank’s “Nope, because you weren’t bold enough. Being italic might also help”. Sigh.
Kind of off topic but I have a question. When is Sasha’s owner going to get taught a lesson? I mean of all the humans in their neighborhood, he’s the biggest jerk. I know it’s all fiction but every time I see him mistreat Sasha I want to smack him around a bit. Or is that a future story arch?
We don’t know for certain he’s a bad dude, it’s possible he’s an okay guy who just strikes out a lot with the ladies and enjoys a beer from time to time. For all we knew that cold night he threw Sasha out of the house she had done something really bad earlier during his party.
I didn’t say he was bed necessarily, he just treats her bad:
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/12/25/housepets-christmas-edition/
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/12/23/since-weve-no-place-to-go/
Pete Says that shes protected; how? By who?
I think he’ll turn out to be an alcoholic
LIking Pete less and less.
Ah well
LOL
King in panel 7 looks like a girl!!!
but stil panel 8 is the best
*what just happend?*
AND he looks drunk again(side-effect of brain override?)
Ok as soon as I get new ink AND this story is over, I’ll print this one
(doing every week a trip Belguim -> Germany and back by car CAN be boring…)
who we need now is thde case is Ace Ventura the Pet Detective!
Anyone else notice that any time something good happens to King it is almost immediately followed by something worse…
Kidnaps a dog but decides to stop running and owe up to his mistake…gets tackled by over-eager Doberman cop
Does his time, ready for trial that may free him…kidnapped by griffin and turned into a corgi
Finds out dog food better than expected…finds out he’s got to do his “zoning” outdoors
Befriends Fox…has catnip bomb set off in his face
Helps out Sasha, told by Pete that he’s proud of him…then told he may not ever get to be human again
Invited to party…told he can’t go
Goes to party anyway…gets drunk, flirts with dogs, has Tarot discover his secret
Freed from Pete…???
Oh yes. Joel/Kings life seems to maintain a pretty consistent level of gray despair and understandable resentment.
As for the problem that would come with being “Freed from Pete”? Well, perhaps he’s not being changed back and is either (a) still stuck with Pete as owner; it’ s just that Pete is forbidden to do anything supernatural to him, (b) finds that Pete turns his attentions to Joel/Kings (few) current friends so that he can blackmail King into being his Avatar, (c) he finds that the Higher Beings can’t undo each others acts, so only Pete can change him back – and that he’s aging as a dog, or (d) he’s staying a dog, but is now essentially a stray – so he will be a small dog on the streets, on his own, pursued by animal control, and with no experience surviving on his own. None of those seem like fun.
Actually he does have experience living on the streets, that’s how he got scarred and it started his transition from cute kid to misled man to confused Pembroke Welsh Corgi.
Yep, one week, as a child, and at least initially being cared for by his pets. Of course, if he had been making a substantial contribution to their survival in that situation, he probably wouldn’t have been quite so vulnerable to bullying.
That really isn’t relevant however, since scenarior (d) starts off with him being a small dog on the streets, which is not a situation he’s ever had any serious survival experience with – unless we count spending a night out with Sasha.
i love how griffin does his eyes: in tarot’s first appearance, before she goes full-on medium, you can notice just her irises turn green, and here, when Pete’s got king under his thumb, his irises turn yellow. look out for red irises, the kitsune’s still a wild card…
Pete really is sort of a jerk… Also, Tarot = Dragon and Tarot = Spiritually Aware Already. So, is Tarot conscious of the Spirit Dragon’s presence at all times? Are they even technically 2 people?
The Kitsune said that he can’t do anything more to King OR enter the arena UNTIL Pete gets a full avatar. So does this mean Pete can start using his magic on King when he gets his avatar?
The great Kitsune looks exactly like a Ninetales.
Heheh King’s expression reminds me of Stitch for some reason in panel 7
It apparently happens when the comment you were replying too gets deleted. Everything that was attached to it falls to the bottom of the sort… Now to see if this does the same thing.