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Keorin the mutant Lupe lay sprawled on his bed, reading
a magazine. His Droolik, Kitch, was snoozing on a pile of Keorin's junk. Three
Lost Desert Speakers played Twisted Roses loudly. But this peace was soon to be
shattered almost beyond repair.
"Keorin! Could you come downstairs?" shouted
Keorin's owner, darkspiritmoon, or Spirit for short.
"Coming, Spirit!" Keorin sighed and switched
off his speaker. He hoped this wouldn't take too long, he had been in the middle
of a neat article. Trotting down the stairs, Keorin's eyes met those of his
owner, and the 10 year old standing next to him.
"Keorin, this is my little sister, Ann. I'm
going to be away for a month at summer camp, so she's going to be taking care
of you. Ann, this is Keorin. I have to go, my ride is gonna be here soon. See
you in a month Keorin!" and Spirit left Keorin standing on the stairs, looking
at Ann nervously.
"Oh, we're going to have so much fun! And my
brother has lots of Neopoints, so we can do whatever we want!"
"Ummm, Spirit might not like you using up his
Neopoints…"
"Aw, he won't care. Besides, I'm not going to
use too many."
Keorin decided that he didn't like this Ann,
Spirit's sister or not. There was just something about her that bothered him.
Fortunately, she didn't do anything with him that day except feed him, but he
still went to sleep with a sense of impending doom.
***
"Wake up!"
Keorin looked blearily at his watch; it was only
6 AM, "It's too early to wake up…" he groaned.
"No, it's not! You have to come see the surprise
I have for you! Wake up Keo-weeo!"
"Keo…weeo?"
"Yes, that's your new nickname! Come on, get
up!" Ann threw open the curtains, letting the intense Lost Desert sunlight shine
straight into Keorin's face.
"AAAAAAAAAA!!! IT BURNS!!!" Keorin yelped as
he threw his arms over his face, "Close the curtains!"
"Only when you get out of be-ed!" Ann said in
a sing-song voice.
Keorin tried to jump off the bed, but got tangled
in his sheets and hit his head rather hard on the floor. Sitting up and rubbing
his sore head, he asked Ann crankily, "What is wrong with you?"
Unperturbed by the extremely grumpy expression
on the mutant Lupe's face, she answered brightly, "Well, since we live in the
Lost Desert, I went to the Fruit Machine before you were awake. And guess what?
I won a paint brush! Now you don't have to be an ugly mutant anymore!"
"Wha…"
"We're going to the Rainbow Pool, come on!"
"Wait! What kind of paint brush was it? Tell
me what kind it was before you do anything!"
Ann didn't answer, but dragged the protesting
Lupe to the Rainbow Pool, where she produced the paint brush.
"FAERIE!?! I DON'T WANNA BE FAERIE!!!"
"Of course you do, any pet would rather be a
pretty Faerie than an ugly mutant!" Ann tried to push Keorin into the Rainbow
Pool, but he was putting up quite a fight.
"WELL I DON'T!!! NOOOOOO-AUGH!!!" Keorin fell
into the Pool with a splash. Before he could scramble out, Ann had dipped the
paint brush in the water. Almost instantly, Keorin's fur turned lavender and
he sprouted shiny blue butterfly wings. He clawed his way out of the pool and
shook his fur free of the rainbow water. He looked down at himself, horrified
at his appearance.
"Look how pretty you are now!" Ann picked him
up and hugged him tightly.
"Gack… can't… breathe…" Keorin's face was beginning
to turn blue. Ann took no notice; it was a while before she finally dropped
him, and he lay, gasping, on the ground.
"Now let's go to the Beauty Parlor!" Keorin
was too winded to protest, and Ann dragged him through Neopia Central. The two
walked through the fancy doors into the heavily perfumed atmosphere of the Beauty
Parlor. All sorts of pets were there, trying on the different makeup and getting
their hair done up. Keorin nearly gagged when he got a spray of perfume right
in the face. Ann took him over to a green Uni wearing an apron with a name tag
reading 'Hi I'm Stacy' in curly, flowery font.
"How can I help you?" she asked in a high-pitched,
cheerful voice that made Keorin's eyes twitch.
"I want to give my Lupe a full makeover!"
"Right this way please!"
***
Keorin exited the Beauty Parlor with eyeshadow, lipstick, blush, nail polish,
mascara, and braided fur. He was mortified. And then, to top it off, he saw
a group of his guy friends hanging out nearby. If they see me like this,
I'll never live it down. Never in a million… Keorin's unhappy thought process
was interrupted when he tripped over a rock and landed flat in a mud puddle.
"Oh no, Keo! You've wrecked your makeover!"
"Keorin? Is that you?" Cipher, an orange Lupe
who was one of Keorin's friends, trotted over and helped him up. Thinking that
it was Ann, Keorin answered in a sour voice.
"Don't call me Keo."
"Hey, it is you! And…" Cipher snickered, "you
look like a girl, Keorin!"
Keorin's life flashed before his eyes as Cipher
called the other guys over.
"Hey, what's with the makeup, Keorin?"
"Since when have you been a Faerie?"
"Who's that girl you're with?"
Keorin whispered, "She's the pet-sitter of doom,
aka Spirit's 10 year old sister."
"Ah, tough break, man. See ya later, she might
turn us into Faeries, too!" Laughing, Keorin's friends ran off. Keorin sighed,
and ran to the transport for the Lost Desert before Ann could do anything else.
Once there, he took a shower to get rid of all the makeup and mud, but couldn't
do anything about his Faerie-ness. Even Kitch had barely recognized him when
he walked in. After a long time, Ann stomped up to Keorin's room.
"Why did you run off like that?!? Do you know
how worried I was? I had to search all over for you, and finally came back here
hoping you would be here!"
"The transport was, like, five feet away, you
saw me go right into it."
"And another thing, look at this room!" Ann
quickly changed the subject, "It's horrible! Get out of here while I fix it!"
"Shouldn't I be the one to do that?"
"You wouldn't know the first thing about decorating!
Shoo!" Ann shoved Keorin out of his room and slammed the door.
"Decorating? Hey, wait!"
"Go downstairs and don't come up until I say
so!"
Sighing, Keorin trudged down the stairs. He was
going to strangle Spirit when he got back. That was, if he didn't strangle
himself first; the way things were going, that actually seemed preferable.
Nothing much happened for a few hours; mostly
Ann just ran back and forth between Keorin's room and the Item Box, and a few
times the Shop Wizard. The highlight of this time was when Ann screeched and
chased Kitch around the house with a broom until Keorin rescued him, explaining
that he was a petpet and not a giant killer rat. Finally, Ann proclaimed herself
finished. With a sense of impending doom, Keorin slowly opened the door and
his eyes were thrown out of focus by an veritable explosion of pink. Pretty
pink pillows covered every surface, his funky blue and orange bed had been replaced
by a beauty bed, his knickknacks were now neatly organized atop a Pink table,
a pink vanity desk took up the space where his speakers had been, Usukicon posters
covered the walls, and he even had lacy pink curtains on his window. He moaned
and covered his face with his paws; it was worse than he had thought it would
be.
Ann walked up behind him and said brightly, "Isn't
it pretty? And just think, we have a whole month ahead of us!"
Keorin whimpered in fear; he was doomed.
***
"Keorin! Ann! I'm back from camp!" Spirit walked through the door and stopped
dead. The sight that met his eyes was his sister chasing a Faerie Lupe around
the room with a hairbrush and some lipstick. He blinked a few times before the
Lupe ran up and tackled him.
"Spirit! You're back! I'm saved!"
"K-Keorin? Since when have you been painted…"
"You don't need to go any farther than that.
Just get me a Lupe Transmogrification Potion so I can go out in public again.
And for the love of all that is good in the world, please get my furniture back!
I can't stand the pink any longer!"
"Ann? What have you been doing while I was gone?"
"I made your Lupe pretty! And I redecorated
his room!"
"How much did the paint brush cost?"
"Nothing! I won it from the Fruit Machine the
day after you left!"
"So he's been a Faerie for a month?"
"Yep!"
Spirit gave Keorin a look of utmost sympathy
and ushered Ann out the door. Fortunately, Ann had not sold Keorin's furniture,
so it wasn't very long before the Lupe had his room back to its usual messiness.
And Spirit was able to get a Lupe Transmogrification Potion within a week, and
Keorin was his old, mutant self again. Right after drinking the potion, he turned
to Spirit.
"Spirit?"
"Yeah?"
"Promise that you'll just put me in the Neolodge
next time?"
The End
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