Interview With An Avatar Collector's Pet

This night's edition has a special guest: Fluffy, a Cloud Gnorbu that lives with an actual avatar collector! Hello, Fluffy!

Fluffy: Hello, Celine, nice to meet you.

Celine: Nice to meet you too, Fluffy! Wow, isn't he just so nice?... Anyway, you live with an avatar collector. For privacy, we will not reveal his name, so I'll say he is John.

F: But his name is really John.

C: ...Is it? Oops, sorry. Nevermind. Can we start?

F: Sure.

C: You are the only pet living in your house with John. Do you know why has he kept it this way, why hasn't he asked you if you wanted a brother or sister?

F: Although he has never told me directly, I understand. Actually, he isn't the only avatar collector that does this; lots of them do, for various reasons. One of them is that avatar collectors want a pet that can beat several 1-BD opponents, because they award avatars; they usually train us with the lab ray, and if we are the only pet on the account, all the faerie's quests' rewards and the random status increases from random events affect us, without fail. This is useful, because then they don't need to use NP to train us; that NP is usually used to win some avatars. The lab ray also changes our colors and species from time to time – they are always hoping to get some avatar color.

C: That was precisely my next question: do you like to be labbed every day? Some pets consider those changes terrifying.

F: I myself am already used to it. I've been many different species – some of them were really strange , like when I was a Skeith and felt this urge to eat things like tombola keychains or old boots. Then I changed to a Kyrii and it took some days to get used to normal food again. But, in general, I think it's a good experience – do you know how they say you should always see both sides of a problem? Well, the lab ray has the ability to make you see things differently... I was born as a Lupe, but now I know what a Flotsam feels when he swims for hours just to visit Maraqua; I know what a Pteri feels when the winds blows; I know what a JubJub feels when he plays Cheeseroller (yes, I did try it once – but I won't try it again, EVER). As for colors, I've been Invisible (that one was funny, but unfortunately it only lasted for three days), Chocolate, Robot, and so much more. But the best thing is when I look to John after the zap is fired – and he's so happy, because I just got him a new avatar! I feel so proud and happy – it really makes my day. To us, the lab ray is a win-win situation.

C: Well, I didn't know some pets actually liked it, but I'm glad they're out there! Now, our next question is about something you've already mentioned – briefly. Neopoints, which equals saying: your bank account. How is it? Are you one of those pets that have to eat omelette every day because your owner spends all your savings on the Lever of Doom?

F: Haha, no, he isn't like that. Well, actually, he may spend all of our savings in the Lever of Doom, but he has never left me without food. And I'm not talking about omelette: he actually makes a check-in at the hotel every month – and he only goes to that Lever after that. I know some avatar collectors let their pets starve and they don't care about them, they don't feed them, don't play with them... I'm glad John isn't like that; he cares about me.

C: That's lovely, but do you think that John is a minority in the big world of avatar collectors?

F: Actually, no. I've met lots of pets that also live with avatar collectors and none of them had problems with that – well, a few of them have to eat some omelette and desert food once in a while, when their owners forget that they can't sleep next to the wheel of excitement and be at home giving food to their pets at the same time.

C: So, either they are more caring than the Neopian public thinks, or maybe the ones who aren't have little success as avatar collectors. What do you think?

F: I think both are true. I believe no avatar collector can reach their goal without the help of their pet right next to them. We're their motivation – we are so proud of them, we always support them and that makes them continue the search for that last missing avatar.

C: Great statement, Fluffy! It's good to know that you two go along so well. But now for a tricky question: what happens when you disagree, for example, if John wants you to eat a Snorkle Snout and you find it disgusting?

F: Well, we usually don't fight over those things. But that same situation you're describing happened to us, actually.

C: How did you solve it?

F: I agreed to eat it if John ate a Hot Dog Flavoured Yogurt.

C: Ugh. Did he do it?

F: Yeah. The funny part was that I didn't even find the Snorkle Snout disgusting, I was just kidding. Well, and I wanted to take a little revenge because of that day in which he made me eat a Brain Wrap for some Lenny avatar.

C: ...

F: Is it that bad?

C: No, no, not really. I just haven't ever heard anything like that before. *laughs* Let's continue. What about your petpet?

F: My petpet also goes to the lab ray on a daily basis, except when he changes into something that gives an avatar, we wait for it to get aged, then he is zapped again. Most of the time, however, he is a pile of soot, and I have to be really careful. If I sneeze, he goes -poof-.

C: But the petpet lab ray is known to make petpets disappear once in a while. As this happened to you? Aren't you afraid of it?

F: No, it never happened to me... I'm not really afraid, because some people lose a petpet like every week – we've been using the petpet lab ray for two years now, and it never happened, so we believe that strange Kookith likes us. Maybe he even makes petpets disappear just as a revenge for those who are afraid of him, I don't know... But I don't think it will happen to me or Type Mismatch Error.

C: Some people are lucky, aren't they? What about UFT?

F: UFT? What does that have to do with anything?

C: I mean, Up For Trade Neopets. Aren't you afraid John would trade you for a pirate Draik with great Battledome stats or something?

F: No. If he does not create a pirate-royal-plushie Draik, it's just because he doesn't want to, because we have plenty of spare neopoints – we already won that doomed lever avatar some weeks ago. Also, I'm John's friend since he appeared on Neopia, so I believe he would never trade me – he also wants to keep me so that he can take me to the lab ray. He couldn't do that with a pirate-royal-plushie Draik, now could he? *evil cackle*

C: Well, I agree that taking a pirate-royal-plushie Draik to the lab ray isn't exactly the smartest thing to do. One last question. Do you believe avatar collectors are just normal Neopians that happen to have a strange urge to collect those 50x50 pixels boxes?

F: No. Just take the words “do you believe avatar collectors are just normal neopians that happen to have a strange urge to collect those 50x50 pixels boxes” from that sentence and I may agree.

C: ...

F: ...Is that all?

C: I was just trying to fully understand what you just said.

F: Did you succeed?

C: I don't think so, no.

F: Nevermind, then.

C: Our time is running out, so thank you for coming to our show, Fluffy, and we'll all be cheering for you and John to be on that shiny High Scores table next month!

F: You're welcome, and thank you.

C: And thank you, dear watcher, for being with us. See you next week, where we will be interviewing a TNT staff member!

Disclaimer: Just because Fluffy's Type Mismatch Error hasn't disappeared even after two years of using the petpet lab ray, it doesn't mean you'll be that lucky. So, for the sake of PPL, please don't take your petpet there. Ever.