4l UFT For Anything

     I'm having so much fun! Kayla’s had me for several months now, and I'm having a great time! She painted me Stealthy and we did some Faerie Quests, even one for the Fountain Faerie! I haven't been in the Rainbow Fountain yet though, she wants to save it for my birthday. I'm looking forward to it, I want to be Transparent and see through myself! She’s also been training me for the Battledome. I'm really good at it now, I was even granted access to a secret ninja training school, and it's super cool. I'm really proud of myself, and I know Kayla's proud of me too, she likes to go on the Neoboards and talk about me! I don't know why she's doing it on the Pound Chat, though, it's not like I'm up for adoption. But the people there seem really nice, it looks like they’re talking about the awesome stuff their Neopets have done too! I don’t know what all the acronyms they’re using mean, though...I’m a pretty with-it Neopet, or at least I think I am, but “UC”? “HSD”? “RW”? Those just sounded like nonsense.

     Shortly after she was done training me, Kayla decided to adopt me out. Was she leaving like my old owner? I waved at her as the Robot Hissi directed me to another owner, who was waiting for me. I noticed that one of their pets was going to Kayla...that’s weird. Why would she want another pet if she was leaving and couldn't keep me? My new owner didn't do as much as Kayla, but she was still really nice. She zapped me with the Lab Ray every day, which was cool sometimes, like when I turned into an Alien Aisha, but really scary because I thought I'd disappear or explode or something. She also entered me in the Beauty Contest, which was a lot of fun. I didn't place, but it was still great to get dressed up all fancy and paraded around the Art Chat. She adopted me out too, and again, a pet from the person she was sending me to went to her. Why did this keep happening? Was there a new adoption agency or something where two people adopted each other's pets?

     My next owner didn't do as much, he just started talking about me on the Pound Chat as soon as he got me. I guess I must have been really popular, because a lot of people responded. But they were telling him the name of one of their pets. Why? Were they talking about who their favourite pet was? And if they were, why did my owner keep saying “no thanks” after they talked about their pets? It seemed really mean to reject them like that. I didn’t understand, but I assumed I was going to get adopted to someone else again. That’s what happened with the last several owners, after all. And of course, eventually, he took me to the Pound. The Robot Hissi directed me to the transfer room, where I blankly stared at another owner and another Neopet. They were starting to blur together at this point. I didn’t know what was happening. I had to have done something wrong for all my owners to have gotten rid of me. Did I talk too much? Did I make messes in the bath? Had all the trophies I’d won made me spoiled? I wanted to know what was happening. Is this what my first owner wanted when she left? I wondered where she was now. Where were her other Neopets? Were they just as confused and scared as I was?

     More owners kept coming and going, continuing to adopt me to other owners. At some point, I bothered to actually read one of their Neoboard posts. The title: “4l UFT for Anything.” I didn’t know what a 4l was, so I kept reading. I’d seen the acronyms they were using before. On the Trading Post and NC Mall chats. Apparently, I wasn’t in some sort of new adoption agency. Rather, I was being traded. Like an item. And apparently, 4l just meant that my name had 4 letters in it, which mattered for some reason. None of my owners had ever cared about me. It was just my name. They just saw me as a step on the way to some other pet, or as a way to prove how good they were as Neopians. Even when they entered me in the Beauty Contest or trained me or painted me, they didn’t love me. They had never loved me. I was nothing except a name. That was all I was and all I would ever be.

     Eventually, one of my owners seemed to give up. They used a different acronym for once. UFA, which apparently meant “Up For Adoption”. I knew it wasn’t really adoption, I was just going to end up getting traded again. Besides, it was all about my name. I sat on her account for a week, staring at a wall and waiting for the Robot Hissi to lead me away again. I hated that Hissi, it embodied my destruction and the love my owners had pretended to feel for me that was really just for my name. Eventually, the Robot Hissi inevitably went up to me, leading me to a female owner. Her appearance wasn’t important. I wasn’t going to be with her very long anyway. I think I was a Shoyru at that point...I don’t remember. I’d been so many things. Customs, apparently. Ways to make me more valuable. I could be whatever would get a trade. Who cared what I thought? I was just a commodity to be traded. The new owner had other Shoyrus and seemed genuinely excited to get me. She customized me, entered me in the Beauty Contest, and trained me. Just like Kayla had done before she got rid of me. She tried to reach me, to groom and play with me, to make me relax. But I couldn’t because I knew that I was going to get traded. That Hissi would slither up to me, and I’d look at the last glimpse of her in its soulless eyes. Not sad like someone adopting out a pet, but with the calm smile of someone trading an item. I never talked. What was the point? As long as I could be paraded around the Pound Chat and look pretty, I didn’t need to say anything. She eventually asked for my name. I was ready for the inevitable, and decided to say the last thing like a name that I could remember.

     “My name is 4l, and I am up for trade. No thank you to Tier 1 mutants and uncommon RWs.”

     The End.