Housepets!

Oh that's Marion's gf, cool cool.

Right, cops. We need them. Don't they have to wait 24 hours to classify someone as missing?

is this still a problem where you live? I mean, sure it is a joke, but I wonder if there are that computerilliterate policeforces out there.

TERRANCE!!! You're alive!!! I started to think Ralph had assigned you to crossing guard or something.

Wonder why Lois is reporting this and not his mom? Also, cute that we dont even get an initial for the city name.

oh my GOODNESS!! terrance is BACK at LAST, BOYS!!

Well, Wow. I'm speechless and to be perfectly honest despite how many times I suggested this, I didn't think it would happen. I hoped it would happen because it made sense but wow for it to happen. Okay then. It even pretty went down like suggested.

Terrance too. Happy now.

Definitely not what I expected her to look like.

Looks like Lois still isn't quite buying that the Squirrel is Marion.

Wow they are quite behind the times. Must make solving cases so much harder.

dr_eirik wrote:Also, cute that we dont even get an initial for the city name.

Oh my gosh, Rick! You mad genius!

So this is Marion's girlfriend right? Nice that she's trying to figure out what happened.

Gbr23 wrote:Oh that's Marion's gf, cool cool.

Right, cops. We need them. Don't they have to wait 24 hours to classify someone as missing?

I've heard that is mostly a myth. Police will move faster if there is suspicion of foul play. We also dont know what time it is. If its morning, then it's been about 24 hours.

leinglo wrote:Looks like Lois still isn't quite buying that the Squirrel is Marion.

I mean, to the rest of the world, there's no precedent for such.

Terrance, watch where you're going...

And now we meet Lady Lois,
Girlfriend of our Squirrel hero,
as she takes him seriously
but, for help, she’s batting zero.
She’ll get sent over to the K-9’s
and probably talk with Kevin
and, if she gets sense from him,
she’ll know Marion’s still living.
It’s good, it seems, to see her face;
it tells a story of it’s own.
The fact she’s now hunting him down
shows us how tight they’ve really grown.

dr_eirik wrote:

Gbr23 wrote:Oh that's Marion's gf, cool cool.

Right, cops. We need them. Don't they have to wait 24 hours to classify someone as missing?

I've heard that is mostly a myth. Police will move faster if there is suspicion of foul play. We also dont know what time it is. If its morning, then it's been about 24 hours.

Judging from the darkness it's probably night. I would guess this is happening while Marion is having his freak out over at Jess's.

It's about time, Marion's girlfriend takes action.

Gbr23 wrote:Right, cops. We need them. Don't they have to wait 24 hours to classify someone as missing?

An unfortunately widely believed myth, but a myth all the same. If you have serious concerns for someone's safety or welfare and you have no idea where they are, you can immediately make a missing persons report.

D-Rock wrote:

leinglo wrote:Looks like Lois still isn't quite buying that the Squirrel is Marion.

I mean, to the rest of the world, there's no precedent for such.

At least she told the cops right away. Too bad that Terrance is one of the few remaining K9s who dont know the extent of magic. I think literally any of the remaining either are directly or indirectly aware of the Game and/or King. (Leaving out Kevin and Ralph)

Not going to lie, absolutely love her hairstyle. Also, how out of date is this police department?

leinglo wrote:

Gbr23 wrote:Right, cops. We need them. Don't they have to wait 24 hours to classify someone as missing?

An unfortunately widely believed myth, but a myth all the same. If you have serious concerns for someone's safety or welfare and you have no idea where they are, you can immediately make a missing persons report.

As SO many cop shows actually tell you "The first 24 hours are the most important!"

Char89Charizard wrote:It's about time, Marion's girlfriend takes action.

is it? I rather see the mom taking action. It weights more than "just the girlfriend"...

dr_eirik wrote:

D-Rock wrote:

leinglo wrote:Looks like Lois still isn't quite buying that the Squirrel is Marion.

I mean, to the rest of the world, there's no precedent for such.

At least she told the cops right away. Too bad that Terrance is one of the few remaining K9s who dont know the extent of magic. I think literally any of the remaining either are directly or indirectly aware of the Game and/or King. (Leaving out Kevin and Ralph)

Detective Lois is on the case. Well now that she is at the police station either Ralph and Kevin or even Fox can pop up and help. Safest bet is Ralph and Kevin show up and see the photo and tell her about their run in with Marion earlier.

Kevin: "Oh yeah, i saw that squirrel earlier today. She was about human's turning into animals or something like that."
Lois: "What? Did she say anything else like she was going."
Kevin: "No, nothing like that."
Lois: "Can you be more useless? My boyfriend is missing this squirrel is my best chance at finding him. And oh, there might be a chance that the squirrel is my boyfriend."
Fox: "Excuse me, did you say something about your boyfriend being a squirrel?'
Lois: "I already explained to the officer that I thought he was pulling a prank by telling me that he was suddenly changed into a squirrel but now he's missing."
Fox: "Umm..."
Lois: "Yes, I know it sounds crazy but he really is missing."
Fox: "Funny thing. It's not as crazy as you might think. There's someone you need to talk to."

If I'm not reading too much into this (and the department doesn't simply have abysmal kerning), the location of the P on the crest means there is only one obscured letter before it. That rules out both BGPD (Babylon Gardens) and RRPD (River Ridge).

fenrirblack wrote:Definitely not what I expected her to look like.

Agreed, though I'm not sure what I did expect. I'm also not sure what this says about us.

dr_eirik wrote:

D-Rock wrote:

leinglo wrote:Looks like Lois still isn't quite buying that the Squirrel is Marion.

I mean, to the rest of the world, there's no precedent for such.

At least she told the cops right away. Too bad that Terrance is one of the few remaining K9s who dont know the extent of magic. I think literally any of the remaining either are directly or indirectly aware of the Game and/or King. (Leaving out Kevin and Ralph)

Kevin did magically drop a boat on him. Someone should've filled him about at least magic welding ghosts. Even if he never got officially briefed about what really when down in those caves, he would've asked off duty or in the locker room.

fenrirblack wrote:Safest bet is Ralph and Kevin show up and see the photo and tell her about their run in with Marion earlier.

I wouldn't count on Kevin remembering every squirrel he chased.

Man it's been what, 6 years since we've seen Terrance? That's a fairly large gap though I think the record for longest break goes to Rufus

Champion Wallace wrote:If I'm not reading too much into this (and the department doesn't simply have abysmal kerning), the location of the P on the crest means there is only one obscured letter before it. That rules out both BGPD (Babylon Gardens) and RRPD (River Ridge).

Seems strange that the city doesn't have a name. I mean the state is a long running joke among the fans but to not even bother making up a name for the city seems silly. That tells me that Rick is setting this somewhere where everyone knows or he's pulling what Regular Show did and not bother giving a name to the city for whatever reason. My money is still on Chicago or Springfield.

Champion Wallace wrote:

fenrirblack wrote:Safest bet is Ralph and Kevin show up and see the photo and tell her about their run in with Marion earlier.

I wouldn't count on Kevin remembering every squirrel he chased.

Either that picture is going to jog Kevin's brain cause I mean, how many squirrels could he have chased that wore jewelry AND asked him questions about magic. Or Ralph is going to have to step up for once.

mr_abomination wrote:Man it's been what, 6 years since we've seen Terrance? That's a fairly large gap though I think the record for longest break goes to Rufus

It was long enough that he died!

I had wondered if he'd been written out in favor of Mungo, but if full time forensic liaison, then there haven't been many stories for him to appear in.

He probably should have sniffed out Keenes limo rather than Fox, but that would have radically changed the story.

dr_eirik wrote:

Gbr23 wrote:Oh that's Marion's gf, cool cool.

Right, cops. We need them. Don't they have to wait 24 hours to classify someone as missing?

I've heard that is mostly a myth. Police will move faster if there is suspicion of foul play. We also dont know what time it is. If its morning, then it's been about 24 hours.

We know atleast one full day has passed, since this strip mentions that h/she has a curfew, and Marion has slept for quite a bit.

Not even equipped for online reports?! I swear, this police station belongs as a museum!

Mr. Whisper wrote:Not even equipped for online reports?! I swear, this police station belongs as a museum!

I think, at least to some extent, that he's taking the rip.

He'll probably palm this 'potential nutter' off on the K9's.

Now that Lois is REALLY in the comic now and not just a bunch of texts, I want to take a moment to recap the events that have led us to this point. Marion wakes up as a squirrel for reasons unknown. He calls his mother who doesn't answer and he can't leave a message, coincidence? No, this was done so that Julia would not have any reason to believe that the squirrel she finds at her home is Marion. He texts Lois who doesn't believe him but sends a picture that we see now. She is skeptical and still is probably but now is worried enough to actually do something like show the pic to the officer and most likely Kevin and Ralph down the line. Any other option to reclaim a sense of normalcy or find help was shown to be useless such as driving or books showing that Marion had little to zero knowledge of what to do in these situation (clearly he's never been on FA) which propelled him to check the internet where he was discovered by his mother who kicked him out of the house. This led to the involvement of Kevin and Ralph meeting him where he asked about magical transformation but didn't actually explain that he was a victim leaving them no reason to press him further so they left. Marion was knocked out of the tree eliminating the option of getting help from fellow squirrels where he wondered to the treehouse and met Truck and Falstaff. They steal a pie due to Marion's hunger because from what we saw with the cereal meant that food was not a real option for him as well as the "nut allergy" which gives Marion an excuse to go to Jess's house where surprise surprise Steward was there waiting. Thanks to Pete and Dragon no one there would believe his story about being human leaving him no other option but to turn to Steward who, being the villain, would be delighted to lend a sympathetic ear about how hard his day was and how miserable he is being trapped in a female squirrel body. Now Steward can use Marion to his advantage while Lois is trying to find him.


Theories
Is Steward A Villain: YES.

Steward's Goal: Revenge or Regaining his Old Life

Did He Change Marion: No

Does He Know Marion’s True Identity: Maybe. Marion was not subtle during his shouting fit.

Who Changed Marion: Dino-Demon or another new supernatural character that has not been introduced.

Will Marion Return Home: Yes. Soon if Lois has anything to say about it.


The Marion Part
As a fellow therian, Steward is going to convince Marion to talk to the Miltons'. Marion sees this as his best option to return to his human life so he joins Steward. With the ECP the Miltons' can not only help him graduate but even help him get into college or find a job.

Marion's tantrum has convinced Steward that Marion is like him and will now use Marion to his advantage by getting him to join the ECP and get back into the Milton's good graces:
A. He lost his job and his life and the Miltons are the best chance at regaining some type of normalcy like being rehired or finding a new job.
B. Steward wants to get back in the Milton's good graces so he can get something from them like a method of returning too human.

Steward is going to discover that Marion was once human and gets the idea in his head to use the coin to turn other humans into animals (again the coin DOES have to be used eventually) so they will follow the same logic of Marion and see the ECP as their best chance at retaining normalcy.

The Lois Part
Lois meets Ralph and Kevin who explain the the conversation they had with Marion earlier.
A. Lois is curious about what the squirrel said and decides to investigate the possibility of therianthropy in Babylon Gardens
B. Fox shows up and leads Lois to King and possibly Kitsune. They then explain to Lois about the secret magic happenings in the neighborhood and possibly the threat of a new evil magic being lurking in there mitts.

Lois tracks down Marion and Steward. Steward sees this as an opportunity to blackmail Marion with the coin but threatening him to do what he says and join the ECP/any other task he needs or he'll use it on Lois and whoever else he has too.
Lois tracks down Marion and Steward and the coin is "accidentally" used on Lois who becomes *insert animal here*

Gbr23 wrote:Right, cops. We need them. Don't they have to wait 24 hours to classify someone as missing?

I think it's safe to assume that at this point it has been 24 hours.

I hope Ralph and Kevin hear about this squirrel, since they saw Marion so they could help without problems.
They also do know Marion asked them certain things, which could tip them off something big was going on.

Yo, Fen, I'd say "theories" should include the 6 underlined points, since even the first one (while exceedingly likely) isn't even a 100% and the others really aren't knowable yet. If it's going to be a "recap", it just seems like speculation should be clearly labeled even if you feel pretty sure about it.

fenrirblack wrote:Definitely not what I expected her to look like.

She'll make a cute squirrel.

dr_eirik wrote:Too bad that Terrance is one of the few remaining K9s who dont know the extent of magic.

But he does know that magic is a thing.

Well, we’re back to Marion’s story. Nice to see Terrance again, and nice to finally see Lois. Hopefully, Sgt. Rex and Kevin will hear of Marion’s disappearance.

So not only are we getting to see Marion's girlfriend, but we also get the return of Terrance! I wonder if he'll play a bigger part in this arc!

Argent wrote:

fenrirblack wrote:Definitely not what I expected her to look like.

She'll make a cute squirrel.

dr_eirik wrote:Too bad that Terrance is one of the few remaining K9s who dont know the extent of magic.

But he does know that magic is a thing.

He does, but in that way so do Ralph and Kevin. They were all involved in the Aztec Gold arc, but it seems that none of them have given it much though or discussed it with the other officers. Well, I guess we don't know about Terrance. Its possible he knows or believes more than the other two. I

I didn't realize how long it's been since we've seen Terrance. I guess binging the comic in a few days distorts the passage of time
It's good to see the story starting again, I expect real progress now that the gf is involved

Well magic DID hit Terrance like a ton of bricks boats.

I wonder what Lois is going to think when she realizes that she flashed her boyfriends nude pics to everyone?

I don't know why Rick doesn't like drawing humans (or was that mainly conjecture?), because he's pretty good at it; I love Lois' design. I wonder if she has an L & M bracelet (like I've been speculating about a lot) on her left arm? Would make for a neat reveal if she has to go up to the treehouse and confront some people.

Her design (her accessories like the bandana, glasses, and purse, her relatively unique hairstyle, her jacket) also makes me think that Lois, as a human specifically, is going to be a long-term character. I can't see her being transformed into a squirrel or other animal, at least not anytime soon. Or having her face hidden behind objects constantly. If Lois was willing to go to the police station in what looks like the middle if the night during finals week of her senior year of high school to work on getting a missing person's report filed and eventual search going for Marion, then he and Lois must be thick as thieves. There's a possibility that Marion might wind up living with Lois after all in something similar to the "Lois goes to college right there in River Ridge and Marion lives with her" scenario I cooked up the other week.

Although, someone on the Housepets subreddit mentioned that almost every other human that's gotten a right-proper introduction like this and factors heavily into the story gets transformed into an animal sooner or later. And who knows where Steward is headed off to with the coin at the end of the last arc... We could be actually looking at squirrelified Lois on the sooner side, rather than later. I fully agree with Argent:

Argent wrote:She'll make a cute squirrel.

The coin(s) are magic, and based on what I've seen, they might like turning people into rather fitting and/or ironic. Thomas got turned into a camel because he was with Sofia and wanted to haul all that gold out of there, and camels are pack animals. Steward probably got turned into a badger because he wouldn't stop badgering Keene about burning through money. If the coin was indeed used, Marion may've gotten transformed into a squirrel because a squirrel with a tree nut allergy is highly ironic. If Steward sneaks the coin into Lois' hands (it has to be in their hands to take effect, right?), the coin might go "Alrighty, what do we have here? Lois, girlfriend to Marion who I turned into a squirrel earlier... Man, it's getting late tonight; I'm just going to turn her into a girl squirrel too so they can both spend the rest of their lives cursed to be bushy-tailed and climbing trees together."

Ash Greytree wrote:I don't know why Rick doesn't like drawing humans (or was that mainly conjecture?), because he's pretty good at it; I love Lois' design. I wonder if she has an L & M bracelet (like I've been speculating about a lot) on her left arm? Would make for a neat reveal if she has to go up to the treehouse and confront some people.

Her design (her accessories like the bandana, glasses, and purse, her relatively unique hairstyle, her jacket) also makes me think that Lois, as a human specifically, is going to be a long-term character. I can't see her being transformed into a squirrel or other animal, at least not anytime soon. Or having her face hidden behind objects constantly. If Lois was willing to go to the police station in what looks like the middle if the night during finals week of her senior year of high school to work on getting a missing person's report filed and eventual search going for Marion, then he and Lois must be thick as thieves. There's a possibility that Marion might wind up living with Lois after all in something similar to the "Lois goes to college right there in River Ridge and Marion lives with her" scenario I cooked up the other week.

Although, someone on the Housepets subreddit mentioned that almost every other human that's gotten a right-proper introduction like this and factors heavily into the story gets transformed into an animal sooner or later. And who knows where Steward is headed off to with the coin at the end of the last arc... We could be actually looking at squirrelified Lois on the sooner side, rather than later. I fully agree with Argent:

Argent wrote:She'll make a cute squirrel.

The coin(s) are magic, and based on what I've seen, they might like turning people into rather fitting and/or ironic. Thomas got turned into a camel because he was with Sofia and wanted to haul all that gold out of there, and camels are pack animals. Steward probably got turned into a badger because he wouldn't stop badgering Keene about burning through money. If the coin was indeed used, Marion may've gotten transformed into a squirrel because a squirrel with a tree nut allergy is highly ironic. If Steward sneaks the coin into Lois' hands (it has to be in their hands to take effect, right?), the coin might go "Alrighty, what do we have here? Lois, girlfriend to Marion who I turned into a squirrel earlier... Man, it's getting late tonight; I'm just going to turn her into a girl squirrel too so they can both spend the rest of their lives cursed to be bushy-tailed and climbing trees together."

I'm probably looking to far into this but what if the coin (and this is just me speculating) transforms someone into an animal that is based on their personality and/or soul? If true, then maybe Lois would probably turn into something other then a squirrel.