Different Perspective

by Muas

I just don't understand.

I try to be a good owner. I play the games and take care of my shop so that I can buy toys and food for my NeoPets. I never let their hunger go beyond Not Hungry, and I give them a new toy every other day!

But I appear to have no luck whatsoever in keeping my pets happy, contented, and fulfilled. Every attempt to be a good owner beyond buying them food and toys has ended in disaster.

It wasn't always this way, of course; otherwise, I wouldn't have stayed. After two weeks on NeoPets, I had one beautiful pet, an Aisha named Zichena. I wished with all of my heart that I could somehow live in Neopia and experience what my pet and my Neofriends did. Then I woke up to find myself in my Mystery Island home, with my Aisha milling around outside the door, waiting for me to wake up.

Of course, I was ecstatic. My dream had come true! I had "Crossed", as I later learned to call it. I had wanted to visit Neopia so badly that a Faerie took pity on me and brought me here.

Unfortunately, as I began to find my way around Real Neopia (as I began to call it), I found that things were a tad different. Keeping your pets happy required a lot of extra work, and I found that little Zich's personality was quite different from that conveyed on the computer screen. She was picky, arrogant, condescending, and even mean at times.

One day, after I'd fed her some pizza and Faerie food and she was satiated, I overheard her talking to a friend of hers. "She never feeds me," my Aisha was complaining, "and she always goes off to play games by herself. I'm lonely!"

The next day, I made a point of taking her along with me to play the scratchcard kiosk and the Wheel of Excitement. Her new complaint? "She forces me to go everywhere with her! Why can't I have some time alone?"

This, of course, saddened me, as well as caused a little twinge of annoyance. No, I thought, she's a child. She'll grow out of it. And so I went to bed that night optimistic, looking forward to a time when Zich would be my best friend, like all the other NeoPets out there.

When I awoke the next morning, Zichena wasn't in her lavishly furnished room, nor was she anywhere in the house. One of her friends' owners called me in a panic, telling me that her pet, a Zafara whom Zich knew well, was missing. I called my Neofriends, and found out that a circle of Zich's five closest friends, as well as Zich herself, were all missing. They had, apparently, run away.

Of course, they couldn't hide themselves; a Star Zafara, three Disco Pets, a red Aisha and a Christmas Cybunny don't blend into the background all that well. They were found by a farmer on the other side of the Island, trying to construct a canoe. Most of them returned sullenly to their homes, except Zich.

I put her in the Pound because I knew she despised me. For some reason, she blamed me for all her problems, real and imaginary. After a long time I finally came to realise it hadn't been my fault, but back then, all I could think about were Neopian Times stories that featured cute, innocent pets running away from their cruel owners and finding peace and contentment. In my story, I supposed, Zich was cute and innocent, and I was mean and overbearing.

Still, I couldn't leave Neopia. It was beautiful and I felt truly content there. At the same time, I knew that I needed a pet. A user without a pet stuck out like a desert item in a tropical shop; I was different, and I somehow felt incomplete, even in such a wondrous world.

So one day, a week after disowning Zich, I headed for the pound. I stopped to check in on my Aisha, but she had already been adopted (I made a note to warn her new owner). Then I began to wander, to browse, the brightly lit Adoption Centre and look at all the wonderful pets.

It was hard at first; I thought every pet I saw was adorable and I just had to have him or her. But then I began developing a taste for what I needed, the perfect companion for me. I checked each pet out, learning about its personality and habits. I dismissed some (rough and tumble or extremely mean types) out of hand, lingering on others (caring, sweet, kind pets). I decided a water or air-dwelling pet would be a handful since it would require lots of extra stuff, like a pool, which I couldn't yet afford.

I had narrowed it down to Gelerts, Acaras, and Lupes. They had a room specifically for each of this type of pet, so I looked in the Lupe room first.

To my disappointment, none of the Lupes seemed right. Half of them were vicious fighting machines, and the other half were aloof. They had no puppies.

The Gelerts were next. "We only have one puppy," a worker explained to me as he pushed open the door to the cages. "His name is Miles."

He reached over into one of the cages and picked up a tiny little ball of fur, tinted a beautiful aqua blue. "Here you go, Miles," he crooned as he handed him to me.

I was immediately taken with this pup, and everything seemed to fit. He didn't have any behavioral problems, he was easily trained, and - when he was more awake - he was very active. I was just about to say that I would take him when I noticed a family standing nearby.

There was a human, a Gelert, and an Angelpuss pet's pet. The Gelert was tinted exactly the same shade as Miles, I noted, and stared at him longingly.

"Pardon me," said the human. "Could we look at that pup for a moment?"

I handed him to the man, who knelt down and set him on the floor for the adult Gelert to sniff. "It's him!" the Gelert shouted, waking Miles up abruptly. "It IS!"

"Mrrmwh?" Miles mumbled, and then his eyes lit up. "Mom?"

The human must have seen my astonished reaction, because he smiled and laughed softly, explaining, "My Gelert's pups were taken from her a while ago, before I adopted her. We've been searching for a few days now to find the last of the litter, Miles. She just wanted to see him one last time."

I was immediately touched; this was a remarkable reunion between mother and son. When the worker asked if I intended to adopt the puppy, I stared at them for a while more and said, "No," then handed him 80 NP. "They are." The mom Gelert was overflowing with joy and the owner said, "This is the only pup she's gotten to keep...the others were taken before we could raise the funds to buy them all back. Thank you so much."

I smiled, mumbled a quick reply, and backed out of the room to look at the Acaras, my last shot. If I can't find one here, I thought to myself, I might as well call it all off and return to Earth.

Luckily, I didn't have to do that. I found a tiny Acara baby, named Timicin, who would become my next pet.

Timicin was a joy. He had boundless energy, enthusiasm, and wasn't hampered, like some other pets were, with differences in looks or dialects. He became friends with everybody he met, and was more of a companion to me than a pet, joyfully delighting in everything new he could find. He became a Genius in just two days, but nevertheless read his books over and over, scraping up funds to buy the newest ones, on an endless quest for knowledge. I had struck gold.

There was only one thing Timicin had not tried yet, and that was the Battledome. When he breached the subject to me over dinner one night, he seemed excited, and immediately dug into his savings to head for the Training School.

He was gone for three whole days, and came back energized and charged up. "Bring it on," he crowed when I asked him how he felt about fighting soon, moving into a boxer's stance. "I'm ready!"

I set him up for a fight the next day, at his insistence, against a level 10 Glass Shoyru; at the time, my little Timmy was Level 9, and felt confident of a victory. His energy convinced me that, if he couldn't defeat the Shoyru's advantage, he would overcome it by sheer will.

He couldn't sleep that night, he confessed to me the next day. "I'm too excited. I know I'll win, but I'm scared too."

I calmed him down, joked about butterflies invading his stomach, and felt assured that he was fine. We took a UniTaxi to the Battledome that morning and Timicin met his opponent, Runifin. They became fast friends and I felt bad to know they would be fighting each other in just a few hours.

And then it was time. I sat in the bleachers, tensed, gripping the guardrail. I was probably more nervous than Timicin then!

Runifin entered the ring first, powering up his numerous abilities while Timicin got ready. And then the attack was on!

Both of them seemed like a blur as they attacked each other with frost cannons, Neggs, and Swords of Domar, and defended themselves with premier defensive weapons. I was immediately proud that I had taken the time to research and plot out Timicin's battle plan.

And then, just like that, the fight was over. The Glass Aisha lay on the grassy floor, stunned and unconscious, while Timicin stood over him. I expected him to be grinning, but he wasn't; the expressions on his face were changing at a rapid rate from fear, to horror, to revulsion. He turned and ran out of the arena. I could hear his sobs from my seat.

I was, of course, shocked. What had caused such horror? I ran down the aisles, past the people staring and pointing, and outside onto the green grass. I looked around, and saw my pet sitting by a tree, sobbing to himself, refusing to even look up. "Timicin!" I called, concerned. "Timicin?"

I reached over, and the moment I touched him, a flood of emotions, more volatile than what I'd seen in the Battledome, poured out. "I can't believe I did that. I'm so sorry I hurt my friend! I don't want to hurt anybody anymore! I didn't think it would hurt him that bad, I thought he would just be a little dazed. If this is what fighting is like all the time I don't want to fight ever again, Ma." I hugged him and comforted him for hours there, but I knew he had reached a decision. From then on, he was an active crusader against the Battledome, sending in letters to the Team, organising peaceful protests, blocking anybody from entering some of the Domes. His quest for knowledge, and even his vitality and youthfulness, took second chair to what he viewed as an abomination to be wiped out. He was a zealot. I just hoped he didn't become a martyr.

I began to see him less and less as he journeyed far and wide on his protest marches and such. He'd write, of course, but they were short letters, sparse with details. I learned to fill in the blanks, infer things from otherwise innocuous-sounding details, and knew what he was doing most of the time. But I kept quiet. I didn't want to lose Timicin for any reason.

Then one day he arrived home as a surprise. "Hi, Ma!" he said, now nearly adult, a few months old. I greeted him joyfully, happy that I could see him after all this time.

But it wasn't just a routine visit to an old owner; this was sad, as he informed me while we ate a light snack at the park. "I've come to say good-bye," he said softly.

"Good-bye?"

"Yes. There's an A.D. - Anti-Dome - group forming in Faerieland, and they've invited me to join them. We would focus our efforts in Faerieland, trying to gain the approval of the Faeries, so I'd almost never get to see you."

"Oh..." I said, trying to make sense of it.

"So, I figured, why make this hard for both of us? I've come to ask that you disown me, so that I can be free to work with the group exclusively."

I was shocked. I felt a cascade of emotions coming on, but I didn't want to cause a scene. "Timicin," I whispered. "How could you..."

Of course, he could. He didn't even know about Zich, had no clue that he was anything other than his owner's first pet. I had worked hard to keep him from knowing anything about what had happened before I adopted him. Has that backfired on me now? I thought. By not telling him, did I actually let him off the hook as far as feeling guilty is concerned? Had I told him, would he have stayed?

He left anyway. I disowned him sadly, watched him walk away to the UniTaxi, knowing I would probably never hear from him again.

I stayed pet-less for quite a while after that. I could endure the stares from people who thought everybody had a pet, but I couldn't endure that pain, the pain of loss, again.

But eventually, my Neofriends, my oldest pals who had supported me through Zich's rebellion and then through Tim's departure, convinced me that the only way to heal was to move on. So I found myself back in those Adoption Centre walls, unsure, yet again, of what kind of pet I wanted. Too nice and I'd get a Timicin clone, ready to fight against a perceived enemy in the name of peace; too angry and I would get a Zich, perceiving hatred and despair in my every action.

"I want a pet who is mild-mannered," I told the doctor in charge. "Not too nice, and not too edgy."

"What species?"

I ran through the list in my mind. No Aishas or Acaras this time. A Kau? No, I didn't have enough grass on my little plantation. A Cybunny? No, they didn't have any of those. A Buzz? They rather scared me. A Lupe! Yes! What I had wanted before. "A Lupe," I said, "any colour."

"All right. We have three Lupes who meet your criteria. Right this way." I was led into a small room, and three Lupes - a green, a white, and a blue - were put in there with me. We regarded each other guardedly. Finally I asked, "What are your names?"

The green one was Sarkina; the white one was Udo; and the blue one was Reggia. "Nice to meet you all."

For the next hour, I got to know them all. Sarkina was pretty edgy, I thought, paranoid about something or other. Udo was calm, but rather boring. And Reggia was aloof.

I liked them all, though. Their little quirks seemed endearing to me. I could put up with a little edginess and aloofness, and they would provide a distraction, while Udo would remain a calm in the middle of a storm.

What am I thinking? I thought. You're acting as if you plan to adopt them all!

Of course I was, because my subconscious had already decided that these were a great trio, and I could care for them lovingly.

So they all ended up on UniTaxis that afternoon, flying home with me, ecstatic that they had been adopted together. Almost immediately they proved a handful, when Sarkina tried to maneuver her Uni into a tree and caused a chain reaction that ended up with three vending carts broken, a Uni with a broken foot (luckily, fixable), and a 5,000 NP fine by the city for such damage. They were quiet, obviously ashamed, all the way home, but did I care? No! I loved this; it was such a difference from my everyday life so far.

At home, they all developed different interests. Sarkina loved the Battledome, but she stuck to one-player challenges; Udo buried himself in books and researched every topic imaginable; and Reggia began collecting plushies, hoping to create a collection of every single plushie ever made. All of them went by the Employment Agency daily, raising funds for their projects.

One day, we were all at the Training Centre, waiting for Sarkina to finish a defense lesson. Udo had brought along a new Faerie book, and Reggia was grilling the other NeoPets in the room about the plushies they had. She was getting frustrated because nobody had what she wanted, a magical silver Kougra toy. "Is it really that rare?" she demanded. "No! People just sell it for 100,000 NP. It's one of the last ones I need to complete my collection."

"Excuse me," said a young boy on Reggai's left. "A Magical Silver Kougra Toy?"

"Yeah. Know where I can find one cheap?"

The boy smiled. "It just so happens that I'm leaving NeoPets. I was trying to find a way to get rid of my items, but haven't found anybody I think deserves it. I'm just here to up my pet's stats one last time - give it a chance in the Adoption Centre. Do you want my toy?"

Reggai's eyes lit up and she grinned. "Of course. But why me? Do I strike you as somebody who deserves it?"

"Yes," the boy said in all seriousness, pulling out the toy and handing it over.

"But remember, don't play with it or let anybody else play with it. You'll turn into a silver Kougra if you do."

Reggai nodded, taking the plushie and setting it down while obviously concentrating fully on not playing with it. She had absolutely no desire to become a Kougra, and was terrified of the prospect. But she kept a grin on her face that was infectious, and before long I was grinning like a maniac too.

Finally Sarkina emerged from the training room, slightly damp and beaming. "That was so fun," she gushed. "I can't wait to try out my new moves...hey, what's that?" she asked, meaning the plushie.

I couldn't blame her for being interested. At first glance it looked like a normal, glinting Silver Kougra Plushie, but if you stared at it, you could see a kind of aura surrounding it, an ethereal glow. It was definitely magic.

But before Reggai or I could stop her, she had grabbed the toy and was gleefully moving it about like she played with other things. But something...strange...was happening to her as she did so.

The first change was her colour. Her beautiful green coat was slowly becoming darker until it appeared almost black, and then lightning...lightning...to a grayish silver, in all parts except for her back, where black stripes appeared. She appeared as a mutated, but sort of cute, Lupe, until she began to really morph.

She hadn't seen her colour changes, so she didn't know anything was wrong until she felt her paws suddenly expanding and her claws growing larger. Her face contorted and her ears grew wider. Suddenly, we were looking at a Kougra.

"AAAH!" she yelled as soon as she gained control of her voice again. "What happened to me?!"

"You turned into a Kougra," I said softly and reassuringly. "It's all right. I'll find you a Lupe Morphing Potion."

But she refused to be consoled. Crying and angry, she ran outside, where she stayed for hours. We left in the meantime, knowing she would return when and if she wanted to, and she did.

She still looked strange to me, and I wasn't surprised that Udo and Reggai acted strangely around her. But she told me that she was sorry she played with the toy, but that she had been unhappy for a while now, and that this provided a way for her to escape. She said she would try to break into it on her own and see if she could. She said a few tearful good-byes and left.

I didn't know what to do. It all seemed so sudden. I had been sure she would gladly accept a morphing potion and just forget about the whole thing. Had she really been unhappy? Had I been that dense?

This time, things weren't so bad. I had Udo and Reggai to comfort me...or I would have, if they hadn't been so shocked themselves. Udo admitted that Sarkina had been acting oddly, and that perhaps she was better off as a Kougra. "Perhaps she'll even enjoy it," he added hopefully, "although who would enjoy being a Kougra?"

I moved on. Just as I had with Zich and with Tim. It all seemed so long ago...

Udo decided I needed something to take my mind off the loss of a third pet, and figured we should go to a book fair. He firmly insisted that it wasn't for himself, no matter how it might have seemed; it was for me.

The book fair, to Udo's credit, was immensely fascinating. Not only did they have hundreds (if not thousands) of books, they had the authors of these books, and we could meet them all. Specifically, Udo wanted to meet the author of Jubjub Know How, a book about Skeiths. No, seriously, it's about Jubjubs, and Sir WilJub the Second, the author of the book, was an expert on them.

Udo finally found him after hours of searching and sat down to talk with him, a conversation that went on and on. I finally pulled him away, said thanks to Sir WilJub, and we gratefully headed home.

Two days later, Udo, who had been in constant communication with Sir WilJub, asked if he could leave to be the Sir's official assistant in his library in Maraqua. "It's an amazing opportunity," were his exact words; "please?"

Of course, I did not disown him, but I let him go, and the feeling was exactly the same. Make it four now, I thought, and glanced at Reggai. I just hope it isn't five.

So far, Reggai has shown no signs of wanting to leave, but I figure she will soon. That's what happens with all of them. Well, all of mine, anyway.

So what is it? Am I just a victim of terrible circumstance, doomed to lose pets for various reasons for all my "life" on NeoPets? Or will I find a pet who can stay with me forever someday? I don't know. I hope so...

The End