2019/12/13 - Pressing Buttons

[Welsh Halfwit]

Wait... does this mean Kitsune is friends with Jesus Christ?

I believe (pun not intended) that the friend shall remain nameless.

[Frank]

Wait... does this mean Kitsune is friends with Jesus Christ?

I believe (pun not intended) that the friend shall remain nameless.

...which would be the perfect setup to dropping the name before they leave

[Nobody]

Imagine how simple disposing of nuclear waste would be if there were sapient beings available who were immune to radiation.

Would they be servants or overlords? Immunity is a powerful weapon, y'know?

Nuclear weapons produce more than radiation. What kills you with nuclear weapons is actually the intense heat of the explosion, which literally vaporizes you. And I mean literally - your body turns instantly to gas from it. So they wouldn't be immune the weapons, just the fallout.

Wait... does this mean Kitsune is friends with Jesus Christ?

Honestly, assuming Jesus actually does exist in this universe, I can imagine him being friends with Kitsu pretty easily. Jesus in the Bible was super chill unless you were a hypocrite. He tended to get along with everyone who was honestly trying to do their best. Even Pilate was okay with the guy and only went ahead with the crucifixion because he was a moral coward who was more afraid of loosing his position in the Roman hierarchy if he let a rebellion happen on his watch more than he was afraid of killing a man who hadn't committed any crime.

[Argent]

Fortunately, gold doesn't literally vaporize people, that "root of all evil" stuff is a whatyacall metaphor.

There Will Come Soft Rains

[Nobody]

Fortunately, gold doesn't literally vaporize people, that "root of all evil" stuff is a whatyacall metaphor.

The quote is "The love of money is the root of all evil." Money itself doesn't cause evil, loving money does.

[SeanWolf]

Fortunately, gold doesn't literally vaporize people, that "root of all evil" stuff is a whatyacall metaphor.

The quote is "The love of money is the root of all evil." Money itself doesn't cause evil, loving money does.

Which is now leading me to think that the Miltons, specifically Lana, IS behind Lois and Marion's curse as I'm sure the Miltons are more interested in the financial gain of everything then legit helping out.

[dr_eirik]

Rather than focus on the Biblical portion of the comic, look back to what he tells Marion. Knowing who isn't going to help them with what they really need.

I'm assuming that finding out who transformed them would lead to the how and the why. But if finding the who isn't going to help them, then what the implication? I suspect that it's that there is no way back. So knowing all the details of what got them to this point isn't going to help them go forward with their lives.

If that's the case, and for the moment I'm going to assume that, then I think Kitsune would be underestimating the kind of weight that would hold over the two of them. Not only being aware that this wasn't some cosmic accident, but that someone did this to them intentionally. Right now, they don't even know if it's really safe for them to be around humans anymore. If they were to discover that this was caused by any of our rather extensive list of suspects, then they could at least put this phase behind them.

As for the references to the gold... It definitely brings Steward back to the front as a suspect, but that assumes that he's the only one with access to a coin. I rather hope that we find out the who before the end of the arc, but there are only four strips left before the Christmas one (which wasn't originally planned) so we're going to find ot one way or the other.

[Silly Zealot]

Wait... does this mean Kitsune is friends with Jesus Christ?

I believe (pun not intended) that the friend shall remain nameless.

Plot twist: He is actually friends with Billy Graham.

...

Actually, should I put that under spoiler tags? It's meant to be the Big Finale Reveal.
Don't ask how I know.

[FireworkFox]

Wait... does this mean Kitsune is friends with Jesus Christ?

I believe (pun not intended) that the friend shall remain nameless.

...which would be the perfect setup to dropping the name before they leave

With Rick being a Christian, I'd say that's entirely possible.

[fenrirblack]

Fortunately, gold doesn't literally vaporize people, that "root of all evil" stuff is a whatyacall metaphor.

The quote is "The love of money is the root of all evil." Money itself doesn't cause evil, loving money does.

Which is now leading me to think that the Miltons, specifically Lana, IS behind Lois and Marion's curse as I'm sure the Miltons are more interested in the financial gain of everything then legit helping out.

As much I agree it's Lana, the thing is that she was never really interested in material wealth as the others. She's the kind of person who is like "Just because I have billions of dollars doesn't mean it'll change me. No seriously that's it, there's no joke. It's not going to change me." She's more practical about the fact that she has money and more into the realistic prospects of it. Compared to her siblings. Poor Duke is so innocent and naive about the entire thing. Then you have Simon blowing up diving board with cannons and Pit dressed like he's going to Met Gala. Keene swimming in pools of nerds, jello, and chocolate mouse for some reason. Rock just doing his thing. Anyway, if it's Lana behind this then it has less to do with money than with something much more personal.

I'm assuming that finding out who transformed them would lead to the how and the why. But if finding the who isn't going to help them, then what the implication? I suspect that it's that there is no way back. So knowing all the details of what got them to this point isn't going to help them go forward with their lives.
I think that is the kicker though. Once they find out who dun it that will actually allow them to start figuring out a way to change back. Say it was a scroll or the coin, it would be possible to recreate the undo spell that was lost in the temple when it fell. If I was writing it I would have them use the mana from Dragon's Temple to change back but that's just my theory about the overall progression of the plot.

If that's the case, and for the moment I'm going to assume that, then I think Kitsune would be underestimating the kind of weight that would hold over the two of them. Not only being aware that this wasn't some cosmic accident, but that someone did this to them intentionally. Right now, they don't even know if it's really safe for them to be around humans anymore. If they were to discover that this was caused by any of our rather extensive list of suspects, then they could at least put this phase behind them.

I think that is the kicker though. Once they find out who dun it that will actually allow them to start figuring out a way to change back. Say it was a scroll or the coin, it would be possible to recreate the undo spell that was lost in the temple when it fell. If I was writing it I would have them use the mana from Dragon's Temple to change back but that's just my theory about the overall progression of the plot. It is still important for them and the reader to know that there is a mastermind. That small bit of knowledge will help them figure out who did and and allow them to begin finding a way to change back. It is a lot of pressure and suspicion but its better than the ignorance or hopelessness that there isn't anything they can do.

As for the references to the gold... It definitely brings Steward back to the front as a suspect, but that assumes that he's the only one with access to a coin. I rather hope that we find out the who before the end of the arc, but there are only four strips left before the Christmas one (which wasn't originally planned) so we're going to find ot one way or the other.

If Kitsune is being more blunt with his "clue" then Steward is a possibility. Something Jess and Ink said at the End of Year 10 has me wondering if they're is more to that relationship between the three of them than meets the eye. I don't think Steward is working alone if he was partially responsible.

[Cesco]

They got to know from Great Kitsune that got a curse, but now they're getting no more helping... Well, Marion, I wouldn't suddenly say that the curse is gone together with the temple... As seems, the only way to get help, is understand by themselves what they need to know, and who or what cursed them, instead than ask to a demigod... Boop a squirrel's muzzle must be so cute, though. Heaven's creatures have always the best privileges.

[NHWestoN]

Wait... does this mean Kitsune is friends with Jesus Christ?

Mark 1:12-13 which discusses Jesus going into the wilderness after his baptism has the line "and the wild beasts were with him". An acceptable alternative translation of that phrase is "and the wild beasts were his companions." Celestial and Infernal beings were present as well. So, as Tarot might say, "So, there you are."

[Welsh Halfwit]

Wait... does this mean Kitsune is friends with Jesus Christ?

Mark 1:12-13 which discusses Jesus going into the wilderness after his baptism has the line "and the wild beasts were with him". An acceptable alternative translation of that phrase is "and the wild beasts were his companions." Celestial and Infernal beings were present as well. So, as Tarot might say, "So, there you are."

There is that other bit with someone trying to tempt him...

[NHWestoN]

Wait... does this mean Kitsune is friends with Jesus Christ?

Mark 1:12-13 which discusses Jesus going into the wilderness after his baptism has the line "and the wild beasts were with him". An acceptable alternative translation of that phrase is "and the wild beasts were his companions." Celestial and Infernal beings were present as well. So, as Tarot might say, "So, there you are."

There is that other bit with someone trying to tempt him...

Wonder if Kitsune is "good friends" with THAT fella? Marion and Lois probably think so....

[Welsh Halfwit]

Or is he that fella?

[FireworkFox]

Wait... does this mean Kitsune is friends with Jesus Christ?

Mark 1:12-13 which discusses Jesus going into the wilderness after his baptism has the line "and the wild beasts were with him". An acceptable alternative translation of that phrase is "and the wild beasts were his companions." Celestial and Infernal beings were present as well. So, as Tarot might say, "So, there you are."

Wow! That's incredible!

[FireworkFox]

Or is he that fella?

I don't think "that fella"(if you're talking about who I think you're talking about...) would EVER call Jesus his friend.
Also, how DARE you accuse Kitsune of being someone so... evil!

[Elwood Blutarsky]

Or is he that fella?

I doubt it. Pete and Dragon wouldn't have been one upped and beaten by somebody who could easily be beaten by a boy with a fiddle or a certain well spoken New Englander who was once the United States Secretary of State. Plus Kitsune making Joel into a permanent corgi King likely scored the latter eternal salvation.

[Amazee Dayzee]

Wow so I guess we know exactly how old and elderly Kitsune is now. If he was friends with the Gospels and hung out with Matthew enough to know that quote from him, he had to be around rather early after the Earth was created. Or he could just be jerking them around and find them getting frustrated amusing. LOL

[dr_eirik]

Wow so I guess we know exactly how old and elderly Kitsune is now. If he was friends with the Gospels and hung out with Matthew enough to know that quote from him, he had to be around rather early after the Earth was created. Or he could just be jerking them around and find them getting frustrated amusing. LOL

I suspect he is far older than that, perhaps not in his current form, though.

[Argent]

The game was already going on in 5000 BC in the late Neolithic.

According to Bishop Usher, that was BEFORE the Earth was created.

[VeryAngryDeer]

As a sort of Bible scholar, allow me to weigh in on this.

Kitsune quoted this:
Matthew 23:17 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?

The answer isn't obvious at first glance. The temple is greater; however, even the temple itself has no power without God. It was God's presence within the Hebrew temple that made the Hebrew temple a holy place. So, without God, the temple is nothing, and by extension, the gold is nothing.

By extension, in the comic, the demigod of the temple, Pete, is gone. If Bible principle was followed, Pete's absence would nullify the "specialness," so to speak, of the temple and the gold. However, this comic doesn't follow Bible principles. That means it's possible that even without Pete's presence, there may be some after-image of him still around, or something. Perhaps that after-image is still powering up the gold, or perhaps the curse (on the gold) is still somehow valid, despite Pete being gone.

Regardless, Kitsune is still a prankster, so I wouldn't put much weight in his words.

If we assume Mana follows the Law of Conservation of Energy (not guaranteed, but fits the data), then it wouldn't matter if Pete is no longer around to power the temple - as shown by Mana, magic can be stored as a physical object independent of the deity whose power created it, which will hang around long after the deity is gone. If cursed objects work the same way (maybe itsjust Mana with a control program and trigger built into it to make it do a specific thing), then they would also work without the deity, and that is what we see in the comic.

No need for an after-image of Pete.

[Silly Zealot]

The game was already going on in 5000 BC in the late Neolithic.

According to Bishop Usher, that was BEFORE the Earth was created.

Housepets! is full of historical innacuracies, confirmed.

Rather than focus on the Biblical portion of the comic-

Your request has been taken into consideration, peer-reviewed, and denied.

-look back to what he tells Marion. Knowing who isn't going to help them with what they really need.

I'm assuming that finding out who transformed them would lead to the how and the why. But if finding the who isn't going to help them, then what the implication? I suspect that it's that there is no way back. So knowing all the details of what got them to this point isn't going to help them go forward with their lives.

I think he was trying to say that all this is distracting Marion from what he truly needs.
A haircut.

[NHWestoN]

The game was already going on in 5000 BC in the late Neolithic.

According to Bishop Usher, that was BEFORE the Earth was created.

Housepets! is full of historical innacuracies, confirmed.

Rather than focus on the Biblical portion of the comic-

Your request has been taken into consideration, peer-reviewed, and denied.

-look back to what he tells Marion. Knowing who isn't going to help them with what they really need.

I'm assuming that finding out who transformed them would lead to the how and the why. But if finding the who isn't going to help them, then what the implication? I suspect that it's that there is no way back. So knowing all the details of what got them to this point isn't going to help them go forward with their lives.

I think he was trying to say that all this is distracting Marion from what he truly needs.
A haircut.

Well, after you've been changed into a squirrel and had your nose "beeped", there's nothing else left but to get a haircut.

[Nobody]

The game was already going on in 5000 BC in the late Neolithic.

According to Bishop Usher, that was BEFORE the Earth was created.

I do not know who this Bishop Usher is, but he sounds misinformed.

[NHWestoN]

Bishop Usshur was the primate of the British-sponsored Church of Ireland, a linguistic scholar, historian, philosopher, and theologian. He died around the year 1656-1657. For all of his political and religious works, he is most noted for calculating the month, day, and hour of the Creation. I believe he determined Creation occurred in the evening of October but don't remember the year (4004 BCE, I think) - and how he explained this determination before the Gregorian calendar was fixed, I don't know. His work, however, is often behind the belief of many Jews, Muslims, and of course Christians that the universe is no more than 6, 000 years old.

Today, people are much more interested in identifying the date/time for the end of the world/Apocalypse and the identity of the Anti-Christ, Satan's agent who will help bring about that cataclysmic event.
The results of these speculations sometimes have comical, tragic, or educational consequences. No one seems to have got it right yet. When they do, we'll probably know.

[Vertigo Fox]

I'm not exactly religious myself, but I have read the whole Bible at least once (a long time ago) and what stuck out to me was a passage that said basically "no one but God will know the day or the hour that the world ends".
I always took that to mean that anyone who tries to figure it out will get it wrong, and the better way to go about it is to live each day like it might be everybody's last.

[Amazee Dayzee]

Just want to point out that in the 20th century alone, we predicted the end and got it wrong 62 times and in this century we predicted it 19 times and got it wrong, so those are definitely some wise words.

[Startrekfan47]

[ Presssing Buttons ]

Title Text: that's not an elevator button you know

Is that what some people might call "A Clue?" What constitutes a clue, anyway? Is this source credible? Why trust a trickster?

Why truck a truster?

[Nobody]

I'm not exactly religious myself, but I have read the whole Bible at least once (a long time ago) and what stuck out to me was a passage that said basically "no one but God will know the day or the hour that the world ends".
I always took that to mean that anyone who tries to figure it out will get it wrong, and the better way to go about it is to live each day like it might be everybody's last.

As I understand it, that's pretty much exactly what it means. Also, it's a warning to not be deceived. If someone is claiming to know when the end will come, you know they are lying.

Bishop Usshur was the primate of the British-sponsored Church of Ireland, a linguistic scholar, historian, philosopher, and theologian. He died around the year 1656-1657. For all of his political and religious works, he is most noted for calculating the month, day, and hour of the Creation. I believe he determined Creation occurred in the evening of October but don't remember the year (4004 BCE, I think) - and how he explained this determination before the Gregorian calendar was fixed, I don't know. His work, however, is often behind the belief of many Jews, Muslims, and of course Christians that the universe is no more than 6, 000 years old.

Today, people are much more interested in identifying the date/time for the end of the world/Apocalypse and the identity of the Anti-Christ, Satan's agent who will help bring about that cataclysmic event.
The results of these speculations sometimes have comical, tragic, or educational consequences. No one seems to have got it right yet. When they do, we'll probably know.

Oh. That guy. I knew someone did this thing, but I've never knew what his name was. I'm really curious as to how he calculated this, exactly. What did he put forth as evidence for his claim?

[Amazee Dayzee]

If he didn't put any evidence up to show exactly how he came to his reasoning, you know he pulled it out of his back door so to speak.

[Vertigo Fox]

[ Presssing Buttons ]

Title Text: that's not an elevator button you know

Is that what some people might call "A Clue?" What constitutes a clue, anyway? Is this source credible? Why trust a trickster?

Why truck a truster?

I don't know, but you can never trust a trucker. Or a cat, especially a ship's cat who tells you who not to trust. He's always gonna have his own reasons for what he wants you to think...

[Silly Zealot]

I bet the one who cursed them was [insert your favourite transformation storywriter's name here]

I'm not exactly religious myself, but I have read the whole Bible at least once (a long time ago) and what stuck out to me was a passage that said basically "no one but God will know the day or the hour that the world ends".
I always took that to mean that anyone who tries to figure it out will get it wrong, and the better way to go about it is to live each day like it might be everybody's last.

There's the accompanying parable about the land owner who leaves his farmhands in charge of the farm, and now it's up to them to do what the landowner told them to do until he gets back. And thus they must do it everyday, because if he finally comes back and finds them lollygagging, it will be like...

you can never trust a trucker. Or a cat, especially a ship's cat who tells you who not to trust. He's always gonna have his own reasons for what he wants you to think...

I was recently informed that learning why my new cat can talk is not important; having fun with it is.

[Argent]

If he didn't put any evidence up to show exactly how he came to his reasoning, you know he pulled it out of his back door so to speak.

He showed his work.

[GameCobra]

Rick, stop giving us reasons to read the Bible =P

Took me awhile to figure this out, but I'm taking it that Kitsune is saying the cure is in the coin itself somehow.

[Frank]

I have to admit, I've been wondering what the bible would read like in this world
"And seeing the multitudes, he taught them saying: Behold the fowls of the air
"And doth the birds interrupted: He's talking about us!"

Rick, stop giving us reasons to read the Bible =P

Took me awhile to figure this out, but I'm taking it that Kitsune is saying the cure is in the coin itself somehow.

The only cure we actually know of is the countercurse scrolls buried in the temple ruins, which is kind of the solution to the original "riddle": the gold (coin) is not important, it's the temple that is.

[Vertigo Fox]

Oh but please don't turn Thomas back. He deserves this *sooo* much.

[Silly Zealot]

I have to admit, I've been wondering what the bible would read like in this world
"And seeing the multitudes, he taught them saying: Behold the fowls of the air
"And doth the birds interrupted: He's talking about us!"

"Genesssisss isss very offensssive to sssnakess"
-Margarita, the black mamba.

Oh but please don't turn Thomas back. He deserves this *sooo* much.

You mean because he gets free food and shelter, while as human he'd probably end up on the street because he hasn't come back to his house or paid his bills in over a year?

[GameCobra]

The only cure we actually know of is the countercurse scrolls buried in the temple ruins, which is kind of the solution to the original "riddle": the gold (coin) is not important, it's the temple that is.

I have thought about that second temple, but I have doubts we'll see that temple this year...

Unless someone magically looted that temple already and brought scrolls home?

[fenrirblack]

So I'm guessing Lois has some Christian Fanatics in her family somewhere, potentially herself at some point in the past which she now regrets, as she says she had gotten Mental Whiplash from the bible quote.

That's a good point. Maybe this is what leads to Lois & Marion living in the new ECP boarding house: Her family won't accept her for what she's turned into, and Marion decides to move in alongside her in solidarity.

As much as that would suck, I can see Rick doing that.