The inside scoop on Jelly W-argh! *choke*

Circulation: 197,445,760

Issue: 981 | 21st day of Eating, Y25

Your questions answered!

Read the answers to the most commonly asked Neopets questions this week in the Editorial section. Each week the most popular questions will be answered by one of the creators of Neopets, so keep checking back to stay updated.

Quote of the Week

"Grey is a beautiful colour and often it can be a beautiful feeling. Sometimes grey is simply enough. We need to learn to appreciate grey so we know how to appreciate the rainbow."

-- surging

Writing Lesser Known Neopian Characters

Many characters cast their shadows far and wide across the face of Neopia and its enduring lore. Dr. Sloth for his (ultimately failed) plans of world domination, the benevolent Queen Fyora, the valiant Jeran, and the intrepid Hannah are but a few. Everyone knows Illusen, Jhudora, and their complicated relationship, Brynn and Hanso’s less complicated relationship, and of course, Jazan and Nabile’s whirlwind relationship which only took the span of a few comic panels. These characters are everywhere – in the Neopedia, depicted in avatars, on greeting cards, and a multitude of other items. However, other characters remain in their shadows – side characters in plots and events who get little more than a few speaking lines, if any. They are characters who are mentioned in passing on trading cards, or characters confined to their respective games or site features who do not even get merchandising deals. Yet these enigmatic figures manage to spark our imagination and pique our interest – precisely because they are more mysterious due to their obscurity. Plus, when you like to write stories about the world of Neopia, they are fun additions to your plot whether as passing cameos or more pivotal players. But if they do not have Neopedia articles or plots from which to derive their characterization, how would one go about bringing them to life? How does one flesh out a character who does not even have much flesh to begin with?

With Grey Day fast approaching pets all over Neopia are looking to try on new styles to be in on the latest fashion trend. After all, anyone who is anyone is constantly refreshing their closet and outfit in accordance to the Neopian calendar. Grey might not be fashionable year-round in the eyes of many but once a year it does get the glory it deserves. Grey can be quite fashionable if you know how to style it. Grey does not equal boring nor does it equal a bad time. Grey pets in particular can be sensitive to this notion so please keep an open mind when selecting your latest outfit or picking out your new colour before going for a swim in the Rainbow Pool. However grey is not just for grey pets. Pets of every colour can benefit from appreciating the gloom in Grey Day and the hue of grey clothes. Once Grey Day is over take a look around you tomorrow. Doesn’t the air smell better? colours look brighter? Food tastes better? Just because it rains at your picnic does not mean the day is ruined. And just because your outfit favours a neutral colour does not make you neutral. You just have to know how to wear your grey. Basic Grey Cardigan Basics are great for a reason. It is a nice neutral top that can go with any colour bottom, any colour Neopet, or even on top of more grey. It may be a little warm this time of year for a cardigan but sometimes it is still chilly enough to want to bundle up. It is a great fashion piece year round.

50 Things to Do In Neopia When You're Feeling Grey

Time and time again, I see Neopians who are feeling grey for whatever reason. Maybe the Pant Devil stole your paintbrush. Maybe you find yourself bored and out of things to do. Or maybe you’re trying to achieve a goal, but it’s difficult, so you need to take a break and try something else. Therefore, in honour of the Grey Day issue of the Neopian Times, I present 50 things to do in Neopia when you’re feeling grey: 1. Morph and paint your pet into the pet of your dreams. 2. Trade for a new pet that you always wanted. 3. Give your pet a makeover by means of customization. There are plenty of affordable Neopoint wearables! 4. If you have Neocash, buy NC wearables or trade for the perfect NC wearable. 5. Buy your pet a new Petpet, and paint it if desired. 6. Buy your new Petpet a Petpetpet and refresh with the corresponding Neopet active until it attaches. Maybe a nice random event will come your way while you’re refreshing! 7. See what your pet can fish up at the Underwater Fishing Vortex. I hear that some of the prizes are actually worthwhile! 8. Get your pet off the couch and into the Faerieland Employment Agency to help out and make Neopoints at the same time. 9. Go to one of the training schools to build up your Neopet’s stats. 10 Defeat opponents in the 1 player Battledome for 15 item prizes and 1500 nps per day. Premium members can get Nerkmids from the Cosmic Dome, and everyone can get their fair share of codestones.

Other Stories
"The Neverending Grey Day" by iwonder It was not a dark and stormy night. It should have been, but that shows how much you can trust the weather. In fact, it was a bright and shiny morning, the sun glittering in the Rainbow Fountain, the beekadoodles and weewoos chirping from the trees, and the sweet floral fragrance of the blooming lemon trees wafting through the air. All in all, it should have been a great day in Neopia. But not all its inhabitants were as cheerful as their surroundings. Baelia woke up later than usual, took a quick glance out the window from her bed, and promptly pulled her covers over her head. “Not this again,” she muttered, trying to will the fast dissipating night to return, to whisk her away into a deep slumber. Any day the sun started burning this early it just reminded her of being stuck in that awful cage, without food or water. The feeling of dread never truly went away, she would just mask it in the presence of others and pretend to be fine. But when the weather was dark, gloomy, and rainy, she at least wasn’t reminded of what had happened to her. She could curl up on her sofa with a good book, a cup of flaming hot coffee, and hear the smattering of rain against the windows of her own little home. On those dreary days she didn’t get many visitors, if any at all, and she knew she’d be left in her own safe bubble. When the weather on the outside matched her internal feelings, a calm came over her. It was as if the elements of the world understood her, and cried with her. But this was not one of those days. This was a bright, sunny, horrifyingly warm and joyous day. And she knew what that meant. Visitors. More »	"Life on a Foreign Planet" by greencheese79 Hannu spent countless nights staring at the blue planet from his bedroom window, wondering what life would be like on Neopia. Residing on Kreludor, the Orange Grundo seldom found a chance to leave his home planet. Occasionally he would travel with his mother to the Space Station to play some Gormball or other games while she did her shopping. It was at the Space Station where his fondness for the planet grew with its beautiful blues, greens and whites. Hannu found the view much nicer and it was possible to make out some of the many settlements. On Kreludor you were lucky to see Faerieland before its fall. Many tourists visited the old rock Hannu lived on and he failed to see why. It was virtually void of life with the only true lifeforms, other than Grundos, being sentient rocks. There was not much to do either. He wondered how Kreludor was promoted down on Neopia: ‘Come take a tour at the forbidden-to-enter mine, buy a book and an overpriced Neocola, then eat at the Kreludan café with all of the food you can stomach.’ Food that many Grundos would easily pass up on. Home-cooked food was much better. Yet they came anyway, sometimes for more than a day, with smiles on their faces and excitement in their eyes. If they were that excited about visiting a little rock in space with very little to offer, how exciting must it be to visit their planet which contained a large variety of life and things to do. These were the thoughts going through Hannu’s head during his unplanned flight to Neopia. He had some regrets about boarding the shuttle, but the allure of visiting Neopia was too much... More »	"Quadrille for the Grey" by barnowl42 “Mother,” Aubadie said, racing in as fast as her little Gelert feet could carry her. “MotherMotherMotherMother!” “What is it, little one?” Aubadie’s mother laid the spoon she was using to stir their stew back in the pot and turned to nuzzle her daughter. “What has you so upset?” “I was with Bornar in the Bazaar earlier,” she said, “and I was singing and he was dancing and playing the trumpet. And it was so much fun! But then we took a break and he told something just, just, just awful.” “Tell me, sweetling,” said Aubadie’s mother, picking up her spoon again to give the stew another stir as she listened. Aubadie summoned a deep breath and then let it all out in a rush. “He said that there was a beautiful faerie who was kind and helpful and, and, and nice, and then something happened and a really, really bad faerie captured her and took away her wings and now she doesn’t have magic and she’s sad all the time!” Aubadie’s long ears drooped. Aubadie’s mother paused, and then she put the spoon down again and turned the fire to low under the stew pot. “But,” Aubadie said, ears perking again. “That can’t be right. Right? Bornar was making things up. Like—like scary stories! Because Queen Fyora would never let that happen! She’d fix it! Because it’s not fair and it’s not right!” Aubadie’s mother dropped her head briefly, and then she squared her shoulders. “Come sit with me, sweetling, and let’s talk a little,” she said. *** Aubadie would come to remember that day as the day that she learned that things were sometimes neither fair nor right. That sometimes, bad things happened and there was no easy way to fix them. When she was older, as she became a grown Gelert, she would remember sobbing into her mother’s fur over the plight of a faerie she had never met... More »