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All it takes is a single spark to set a fire blazing…
Laurensama sighed again, rolling over on her Regal Oak
Wood Bed and staring at her sketchpad, the pitter-patter of rain on the roof
soothing her and inspiring her. Peace and quiet at last. Perfect for drawing
comics. For the longest time, the only sounds were the sounds of pencil on paper.
Sccrtch-sccrch. Scritch-scritch. Sccrch scch scctch.
A pause. A picture in Linny's mind, of a Weewoo
of pure white. Maybe you could say fate put it there. Or delusion. Why weren't
there white Weewoos? Such wonderful creatures should exist.
Gliding softly as a ghost through the blackness
of night, it looked upon the Neohome with eyes like golden moons. Storm clouds
obscured the moon and stars, plunging the streets of Neopia into almost total
blackness. Yet still it saw everything from its position in the sky, from the
thundering of an Elephante crossing the street to the scurrying of a Miamouse
in the grass. Gliding in the air outside Linny's house, hardly more substantial
then air itself. It was no more than a dream, an idea, and an impossible one
at that. Its soft, haunting cry echoed throughout the neighborhood.
"Weeeeeeeeeeewooooooooooooo."
* * *
The rising of the sun saw Linny packing her backpack furiously and stuffing
pieces of omelette into her pets' mouths. Her double-ended pencil. A yellow
lined notebook. A learn-to-paint set for sketching comics. Her bike helmet and
bike. "You take care of the other pets while I'm gone, okay Tahoshi?" she asked
her Christmas Lupe. A curt nod. That was as close to an answer as Linny was
going to get from her grumpy Lupe. "You know where I'll be. Emergency Neomail
addresses are on the fridge. Don't eat too many sweets and be nice to your siblings.
I'll be back before 5:00."
"You're going to that underground place again?"
Harri asked.
Linny nodded. "The catacombs. I'm going to see
if they can help us get a white Weewoo. How's that sound, Harri?"
"Sounds awesome," Harri said with a goofy grin.
His sister Kuraiiro called to him in the living room and he was off.
With one last wave to her Lupe, Linny was off,
pedaling down the street to the entrance of the Art Centre, which was no more
than a ladder leading downward behind a bronze statue of a Chia with a feather
pen and scroll. Swiftly and surely, she climbed down the ladder and hurried
through the winding, twisting tunnels of the catacombs. She knew her way around
here by heart. She practically spent more time in the catacombs than she did
at home.
"Hey guys!" she said cheerfully, throwing her
backpack on a red beanbag chair.
"Hey Linny," replied a chorus of people. It
was one of those slow sort of weeks. A lot of people, myself included, were
feeling uninspired and were sitting around a cheap table playing Cheat! Oily106
and Roxycaligirl101 were doing each other's nails, filling the room with the
vile smell of nail polish. CreggaRoseyes2000 and RoxyFoxyRoxy were nearby, Roxy
applying blush and looking at herself in an Aisha Compact Mirror and Cregga
talking to her owner about Kacheek Seek. Stoneman3x and Tdyans were listening
to the Gormball game on a radio that we had purchased from the Space Station.
Reallyconfused was wrapped around Stone's legs and Achilles81 was barking frantically
at the radio as if that might cheer his favorite player on. "And the fire
faerie gets the Gormball… Boom! That ought to douse her flame!" A few people
in the corner were trying to figure out the answer to the Volcano Mystery on
Mystery Island but that was about the height of the excitement.
Linny tried to get our attention again. "Guys,
I have a beyond-brilliant idea!" She flopped down on the rainbow beanbag chair.
"How would you guys feel about a white Weewoo?"
Silence.
Suddenly, uproar broke out. "That's the most
wonderful idea I've ever heard!" "What are you crazy? It'll be impossible!"
"White Weewoos would be pretty!" "Oh yeah. Pretty ugly!" Cards flew. Chairs
were kicked. I found out that Stal0s had been cheating all along. I threw a
pillow at him. I missed, and his Meerca LtKettch got it in the face. Hard.
Patjade, the "responsible adult" of the catacomb
writers climbed onto the table, upsetting a bottle of nail polish. "QUIEEEEEEEEEEET!"
More silence.
"Thank you. Now Linny, tell us about your idea.
I want absolute silence. Save all comments until the end, please! Stal and Kettch,
pick up the cards and Roxy, clean up the nail polish, please!"
I stared at Pat's leather boots. My Uni RubyRainbow333
pawed at the nail polish-stained ground, commenting, "Pink is a good color for
you, Pat. And your boots should sparkle more often."
She replied with an exasperated groan.
"Well I thought, why can't there be white Weewoos?
They'd be absolutely gorgeous, don't you think?"
"No, we don't think." Snapped a voice in the
back of the crowd. A few sharp glares shut him up quickly.
Ignoring the voice, Linny continued. "I know
I sound so random… but white Weewoos… can you imagine? Pure beauty in petpet
form. Can you imagine?"
A few brave people nodded in agreement. The
doubters criticized the idea under their breath. These muttered comments soon
turned into full-fledged arguments. Only one person remained silent. Snowflake,
the Neopian Times editor who hangs around the forum sometimes. Sifting through
Neopian Times submissions in a corner, listening to the debates flying thick
and fast around the room, occasionally making marks on submissions with a red
pen and humming a tune to herself. I didn't pay her much heed, mainly because
I was defending my Weewoo sketches against Weewoo haters.
* * *
For several weeks, the battles raged; the comics were drawn, the comics were
vandalized, the stories were written, the stories were criticized, and a Weewoo
was accused of kidnapping the Mystery Islanders. Neo_Tomi wrote up a white Weewoo
petition and got a fair number of signatures. The haters of white Weewoos, dubbed
the "Black Weewoos", started a petition for black Weewoos. The Black Weewoos
never really gained power, though, because so many influential writers were
white Weewoo fans.
Also, Linny learned how to turn the Weewoo white
without a paint brush.
The white Weewoo soon became a bit of a joke
in the Neopian Times, not unlike Chet Flash. (Who, by the way, wuz here!) But
at least Chet Flash didn't have to put up with people like sirussblack.
"This is so silly," Sirius groaned, glaring
wrathfully at yet another picture of a white Weewoo that had been hung on the
wall. The picture just stared back with innocent coal-black eyes.
"Leave my picture alone!" Adoriblelapin hollered,
snatching it off of the wall and hiding it behind her back as if Sirius might
shred it with his eyes.
I don't care about your stupid picture," Sirius
snapped. "First, I don't like Weewoos, second, I thought white Weewoos were
even sillier..."
Stal0s gasped, eyes wide with shock. "You didn't
just say that."
Sirius nodded solemnly, knowing that his Weewoo-hating
ways were tearing poor Stal up inside. "Yup. I seriously do hate Weewoos...
for some reason... I also hate Phnards..."
Well that was the lost straw for poor Stal.
He lunged, knocking Sirius off his feet. For a few moments, all was enveloped
in a dust cloud. (It's been ages since the floor of our little cave has been
swept.) Kettch panicked, attempting to pry Sirius off of his owner with his
stubby Meerca arms. Mial_2000 the Christmas Gelert bounded to his owner's aid,
battering Kettch with his antlers. Harri_koibito (who had decided to come with
Linny to the catacombs today) leaped into the fray, teaming up with Kettch against
Mial. This spelled trouble for poor Mial, whose stats were nowhere near as good
as those of Harri alone.
My Uni, RubyRainbow333, and I watched from the
Cheat table, mouths agape with shock. Never before had a controversy in the
forum resulted in violence. Some people dashed over to break up the fight. Ember188,
one of the peacekeepers of the forum, seized Stal's shirt collar, prying him
away from Sirius. Lapin seized Sirius's collar and her Pteri, Lappinny, protected
Mial, diving at the other two pets, pecking frantically. Plushieowner's Faerie
Scorchio HeartofPlush grabbed Kettch's tail and watched in amusement as he attempted
to run away while Heart was holding him firmly in place. Plushieowner was attempting
to wrestle Harri to the floor. "What in the name of flamin' faeries is going
on?" Tdyans groaned, looking up from her random Weewoo doodles and glancing
over at the snarling pets and their owners. Stal was giving Sirius a look that
could crack the Tyrannian Plateau. "He…he…"
Linny interrupted the stuttering Stal with a
wave of her hand. "I didn't mean for this to become such a big deal, Stal."
"Well, it is," Stal replied. "It's a big deal.
To all of us." Wriggling free from Ember's grasp, he looked Linny in the eye,
his expression fierce as flame. You could practically heat the Catacombs with
the passion pouring from his mouth. "Weewoos are cute and all, but that's not
what this is about. This is about us. The writers of Neopia, making a
difference."
I nodded, walking over to the scene of the fight.
"It's about our voices and the power of words. After all, if words can't change
the world, what can?"
"Nothing." We all turned to see Snowflake standing
nearby, her hands behind her back and a mysterious smile on her face. "A single
word can move a mountain. A note from a song can touch a heart. A spark can
start a fire that warms you in the cold… or burns down a city. If you put your
will behind it, words can do anything. And it was using words and will, Linny,
that we got you this." Stepping aside dramatically, she held out her hands.
Sitting there was a Weewoo, feathers white as new fallen snow. It blinked its
beady eyes and struggled to stand. Shifting its weight uncomfortably, it balanced
for a moment before tumbling down again in a poof of white feathers. The Weewoo,
solidified and made real.
Linny's initial reaction: "jhfiefkjhref!!!!!!!!IWQY
HREOIHJ3J44
R098U43O
IFEIRHFKJHRFJKH!!!
EKHFRKJEHF
KJREH!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"Congrats, Linny," Snowflake whispered, her
voice soft and sweet as the Weewoo's gentle coos. "You did it."
"No," Linny said quietly, stroking the Weewoo's
feathers. "We did it. Together."
A moment of brief silence. By now, the entire
forum had its eyes locked on Snowflake and Linny. It was Stal who started the
cry. "Speech!" He called. Soon, others joined in. "Speech! Speech! Speech! Speech!"
Laughing dryly, Stone handed Linny a microphone. Gingerly, Linny touched the
microphone, blowing into it. "YAY!
"Really though, I have all of you guys to thank
for this, I really do. I have wanted a white Weewoo so badly for this past year
or so, and I'm sure that if it was just me sending in things, then either I
would have given up or been banned for being so annoying with all those editorial
questions.
"Because of you guys simply pushing asides in,
Patjade talking to Snowflake (who we can assume passed the word along) something
was actually created! It had totally changed my viewpoint on Neopets when people
cry and yell that you can never get anything done by the team, because they
actually made the one thing that, as odd as it may seem, occur.
"I don't care about the credit nor if I get
an aside in the news or anything. To simply have a Weewoo and, you know, maybe
have it for PPL, is enough that any rabid Weewoo stalker, I mean, lover can
hope for!"
Cheers erupted throughout the Deep Catacombs.
I exchanged high-fives with my friends and nearly strangled Plushieowner in
a bear-hug. "One person's dreams can come true if you have the will, and the
friends to back you up." I said gleefully. Ruby was galloping around the Forum
in joy. Speck started a party. Lapin got a Weewoo and painted it white, becoming
the first person in our little social group to officially own a white Weewoo.
Rishiy seized the microphone from Linny's hand, shouting,
"WOOOOOOOO! WEEEWOOOOO EVEN! THIS DATE SHALL
GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS WHITE WEEEWOOOOO DAY!
It shall hereby include:
-The Linny appreciation parade.
-The others festival (a show of all the other
white Weewoos created throughout time, e.g. Lapin's)
-The fighters drinking competition (In memory
of all who fought for the WW)
Now... Quoth the Stal... Now what?"
Random_Joy stood on top of a table, doing a
giant happy dance and singing, "Come brethren, rejoice for we have done it!!!!!!"
Leb388 changed her signature to: "WEEWOOS EXIST!
October 29, 2003, will go down in history along with August 5, 2026, when Neoschools
will come out!"
Neo_Tomi broke out the peachpa cocktails and
Dandelion and Burdock Drinks. Stone poured himself a cup, saying to Linny, "LOL
-- oh great! Let's start spamming the NT with White Weewoo PLUSHIES now..."
Alenta, who had overheard Stone's comment, nodded. "And then we can take the
White Petpet Paint Brush Plushie and apply it to our Weewoo Plushie to make
it a White Weewoo Plushie and give it as a plush petpet to our Plushie Zafara
Plushies who were painted with the Plushie Paint Brush Plushie... and then we
come to Petpetpets. Oh yeah. Only in Neopia..."
Ember 188 went back to her house, and according
to her, "I ran to the top of the staircase in my apartment and started shouted
'WHITE WEEWOO!' then ran to my room and locked it and shouted 'White Weewoo!
White Weewoo! White Weewoo!' Then I went over to the window, cupped my hands
against it, and shouted into them 'WEEWOO! WEEWOO! WEEWOO! WEEWOO! WEEWOOWEEWOOWEEWOO!'
until my dad called my name in a very threatening manner. I went down stairs
to take my medicine and whispered 'White Weewoo.'
'What is that?' my brother asked. 'Something
that makes me very, very, happy,' I said, then ran back up here to my room."
I even caught a glimpse of Roxy dancing around
in her White Weewoo mascot T-shirt saying, "HUG MEEE!!!" "WEEWOOS!" she cried,
hugging the Weewoos and dancing around."WE LOVE WHITE WEEWOOS!" She hugged everyone.
"We fought the power and won! YAY!"
The other mascots of the white Weewoo movement
were Tomi in a donkey suit and Teghan62 in a bunny costume. Very entertaining.
Donkeys never looked so good in dreadlocks.
We even came up with Weewoo symbolism. "You
could probably use the white Weewoo thing as a example of achievement… and an
encouragement for trying to succeed," said herp14.
Stal nodded. "Or maybe (we can say) 'Once in
a White Weewoo,' when a rare event occurs, like 'Once in a blue moon...'"
To Oily106, the White Weewoo became a symbol
of being courageous enough to be different.
To me, it became a symbol of dreams coming true.
A lot of comic writers still referred to the
Weewoo as a joke. Linny still says it's "just another symbol of my sick and
possibly unhealthy Harry obsession."
Time may have passed since then, but the legacy
of Weewoos is still fresh in our minds. Hopefully, this tale of mine shall help
the story of Weewoos stay alive. Because Neopia must never forget that once
in a white Weewoo, a dream can come true.
The End
Author's Note: Most of the quotes are directly from the NTWF, or Neopian
Times Writer's Forum..
P.S. Thanks to the NTWF for helping me compile all of this information
on white Weewoos and putting up with my Weewoo obsession. Thanks also go out
to Linny and all of the characters who allowed me to make fun of them. (And
Sirius and I are friends. He allowed me to portray him as a villain. So please
don't pitchfork me, all you Sirius-lovers!)
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