Thursday, August 9, 2007

Neopets!

Whoo hoo!! I love my Neopets fazes!!! I go on every day for about a year, then I stop for no particular reason. This seems to be my year.

I think this one is going to last longer though. I've just started RPing, which is the most fun thing in the universe. RP stands for Role Play. To completely understand it, you must understand Neopets' artist community.

Neopets' artist community goes largely unnoticed by the general public. This is the group of people who have collage degrees in art, yet instead of selling their pictures (which have been known to go for $200 dollars) they post them on their pets' free web-pages.

My idol, Mindsend, is one of the heads of a sub-group of the artist community. She is good friends with fatal_mantis2 and griffenrose, two other main artists. Unofficially, they are Mindsend, the Anthro Realist, Fatal Mantis, the Dragon Realist, and Rose, the Cartoon Anthro. If you do not know who these people are, click this link, go to the bottom of the page where it says 'Search', and type in mindsend, fatal_mantis2, or griffenrose. Then look at their pet pages. Go. Do this now.

Do you see what I mean? These people are phenomenal. There are other noteworthy groups of course, there are just different styles to choose from.

And there isn't just art, there's there story telling. Neopets provides you a basic world (go to Neopets, go to the top bar and click the 'Explore' button and select 'World Map' from the drop down menu) to choose where to place your character. Mindsend takes the world and tweaks it, making pocket dimensions that can be opened all over the surface. Fatal Mantis completely ignores the original world, not even really incorporating place into her stories, focusing on time more than anything. Rose follows the world to the dot, giving it new life and meaning.

And the favorite way to story tell in Neopia is through RP. One person starts with a few paragraphs, introducing their character and the setting that was chosen beforehand. Then the next person goes, calling in their pet to the story. The first person goes again, usually with noticing #2's pet and implying a topic of conversation. Then it goes on, back and forth, for however long you want it to go. Here's an example of one I started with a user named appyrodeo. I went first, look for double hyphens, they mark where appy started and ended. Marak is the Peophin savior of the boats, very highly regarded in Neopia. Jhundia is the Island Faerie on a Hawaiian-like island. :



Genre sighed, just wanting to get away. This meeting was dull AND pointless. All The Grand Idiot Marak could ever do was preen, and since Jerdana was gone, the only sensible one that you didn't need to wait four months to see, Genre was stuck with the stuck up prig. She would MUCH rather be negotiating with Jhuidah about the fishing boats that were decimating the wild Peophin populations. What Genre really hated was that Marak insisted on hitting on her. Apparently her coloring was in style. White hair on deep blue skin with glowing patterns on her stomach, back, arms, legs, and tail. It was handy for attracting meals, but got garish on land.



"So I just decided, well then, this can't go on, and I pounded their tails to pieces before they could hurt the boats!" Marak exclaimed. Genre had had enough. Time to make a run for it. Calling up the only true power she had, she made a quick soul transfer with the Buzzer that had been hovering near Marak's right ear throughout the conversation.



Poor Marak. Giggled Genre twenty minutes later. After the switch, in the Buzzer's body, Marak had gotten the well deserved sting on the ear. While he was moaning in pain, Genre had switched back into her own body and ran as fast as she could to the ocean. She was there now, in the middle of nowhere, swimming to Maraqua.



Whack.



What did I hit?
thought Genre.



(appy's post)--Neverwood looked aimlessly past his tribe's council. Although he had never wanted to be apart of it, he had somehow been chosen to take the place of a deceased member. He had often thought and spoke about leaving the village lands and exploring the seas, but every village member frowned upon his ideas. He was a popular peophin among the others, his coloring was much more intense than anyone elses. He mainly longed to leave because this was not his real village, in a way he was adopted.



"We need to rid our clan of him!" one member of the council spoke. Neverwood's ears fell to his head, he looked to the others. "You know I CAN hear everything you’re saying..."



The members looked at him, all sneering in a way. They continued on. "We've put our families in danger for too long. He must go!" One peophin spoke out above the others. "He has done nothing to bring our village to ruins. He is like every other peophin." This peophin was Neverwood's adopted father. Neverwood gave an awkward smile. Neverwood gave an awkward smile. "Why do you say I will do bad things?" he asked childishly. An old peophin, his age adding the look of craziness, eyed Neverwood. "Don't act like you don't know about the prophecy." Neverwood looked the peophin over. "No." he simply replied.



The old peophin shook his head in disgust. "It is said a peophin of YOUR nature is to lead a revolution against the seas." Neverwood shook his head in denial.



"No!" he said, tears filling his delicate eyes. He was growing upset at the fact that all peophins had turned against him. He slowly retreated from the council. He then turned quickly and swam from the group. The seas were dark, the moon barely shining through the waves. Neverwood swam, his eyes closed. He didn't care where he went.--



(now me again)



Ow. That hurt. What DID I hit?



Genre was completely confused. She had hit it so hard that she didn't remember seeing what had whacked her. She knew it was fast and that it was hard, but that was about it.



Swosh swish. Swosh swish. Whatever it was, it was leaving. Curiosity got the better of her. Hoping the Whatever It Was was friendlier than the Giant Slugawoo of Which No One Liked, she turned.



--Neverwood flinched. He hit something, but no matter. He was swimming and didn't care. He wanted to go to his sanctuary.--



End Rp. This is really addicting. I haven't finished any RPs yet, they can go on for literally years. That was my first ever RP.

By far, the best part about RPs is making the other person laugh, or just getting your pets in trouble. Here's an example of the first with a different RP (Same rules as above):

"Yeah. Try imagining reversing the spell to turn an enemy into stone. All spells are- in theory- customizable, and this one had a spot where you put your enemy's name. To fill in that little spot I put the spell-word for 'pencil', but I got it wrong and instead put 'writing utensil'. There was a period of about two weeks in Maraqua when the dumps were overflowing with stone pens and pencils. I couldn't stop it because I needed to use the same pen that I wrote the spell in to reverse it. I finally had to go to Kauvara to undo the curse on my pen so I could stop the 'Statue Epidemic' in Maraqua."



--Tire was rolling with laughter, "Oh man I could just see that happening. Sounds bad, but sounds funny. At least you got it sorted out."--



"Eventually. My neighbors didn't seem to think of it that way, I got some rather interesting phone calls in those two weeks. And once you've had a five year old wave his finger in your face you know something's up. His parents sent him over because I put a curse around my house that made anyone over the age of twelve who went into my property have the word 'Convicted Criminal' stamped to their forehead. Coupled with a rumor that the National Aquatic Holding Center had a new way for marking prisoners, it made for some exciting 911 calls."



--Tears of amusement ran freely down her face as she heard the stories that Genre told her.--



End RP. I still giggle to myself when I read what I wrote. Getting almost hurt is another good one. My pet, Genre, has already had some nasty encounters before in her life, why not add some close calls? Another completely different RP. A Maraquan Grarrl is basically a shark, Blandfish are basically sardines, and Puppyblues are basically a blue puppy that you can buy for your pet to play with. The Fertile Zone is something about the Neopets world that I made up, it's the part of the ocean where all the large schools of fish travel, therefore it's the most fertile. Onwards!:


" 'sokay." She saw that they were getting closer to the most active part of the Fertile Zone. "Wait a sec, I have to warn you. If you hear a distant-sounding whirring or sloshing noise and I don't seem worried, TELL ME! Whatever it is won't stay distant for long, and if it's not a boat it's probably a wild Maraquan Grarrl and that can be even worse. I've had close calls with both and I barely lived. That's me who was born here, can swim quick as anyone, and has no respiratory issues. Don't keep it too yourself; if you hear something, you tell me. Got that?"



--Kits sweat dropped - only a little bit. "Okay, I will..." He groaned when he heard grarrls. He didn't like predators under the sea, they always show no mercy, and very quick with their meal too. It was really hard to get past them without you being seen with ultra sense or being sniffed out. --



"Good." Genre tried not to show it, but she was tense. She had only been here two times, once when she was nine- she got her scar from a fishing boat and lost her parents- and when she was eight-teen- she was attacked by a Maraquan Grarrl. But even though she had bad luck, it was rare for either of those to happen, right?



Suddenly a school of Blandfish with the population the same of that of Neopia Central swam past. A school that big never got that scared unless-



"WE'VE GOTTA GO NOW!!!



--"Is that a Maraquan Grarrl?" He said as he pointed at the figure in the distance.--



"NO, IT'S A PUPPYBLUE, YOU MORON!!! I SAID MOVE!!" It wasn't one Grarrl, it was a pack, which meant a Feeding Frenzy!! Genre went over the best plan of action… don't swim down, it'll think you drowned and will kill you when you surprise it with a death rattle as it bites down- don't swim with the school it'll get confused and eat you instead- NEVER swim towards a Grarrl- the only way left was... "Hey, you can fly right?"



End RP. And yes, he could fly, they got out Ok. Some people use RPs to create romances between pets. Also, 'long lost siblings/children' are discovered. You need a the other person's permission to start these, the story has to be decided on beforehand. I'm not crazy about these, I don't think I'll be doing this any time soon.



My most exciting bit of news is... I've just started an RP with Mindsend!!!!!!!!! I am SO happy! Anyway.....



All of those are my reasons why I'll be staying on Neopets for a bit longer than expected :)

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