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The "True" Story of the Vanishing Pound


by supergirl1057

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     As far as Dr. Death and Rose could tell, the entire incident must have been in the works since before the fall of Faerieland. They estimated over five hundred pound pets were involved in the greatest accident anyone could remember in all of the pound’s history. Some called it the worst thing to happen since the conversion, others touted it as the largest practical joke in Neopian history to date. I could go on and on explaining how what happen changed the course of time and made it into the history books.

      But that wouldn’t answer the real question you’re all wondering, which is how a mild mannered Red Kyrii like me ended up sitting in front of Dr. Death being blamed for the entire debacle. Well I can assure you, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I had nothing to do with it at all. If I’m lying may Fyora kick me out of Neopia and force me to restart my life on Kreludor in a Grundo costume working in the Virtupets mines for all eternity.

      My owner given name is pretty pointless, it’s got no real meaning and no real consideration, but most of the pets in the pound called me Sweetie. I was part of the large collective of pets that were considered "stuck" in the pound. Thanks to some great workings of cosmic forces, I did not get a chance to be noticed by owners. I didn’t even show up on most of their radars, which is a shame for them, honestly. Everyone should be excited to meet me, I’m a downright joy.

      Well for some unknown reason I’d been stuck in the pound for about four years now, give or take. Time tends to blend together after you’ve been in the pound for longer than a day, and for those of us who don’t even have the active pound rotation to help pass the time, four years might as well be forever. Now this whole stuck pet thing is key to why I can prove to all of you that I had no part in the great Pound Vanishing that took place in Y19.

      See the pound doesn’t just roll vats of invisible paint on lories around on a daily basis. Most of the pets in the pound are basic, after all, and giving us an invisible paint job would frankly be a step up in my humble opinion. This all makes me think, personally, that maybe someone brought in the paint from the outside world for the express purpose of this prank. I haven’t left the pound in ages, so it’s not like I know anybody on the outside anymore. As far as I know all my old buddies are Elderly pets by now! See the real pets you should be looking for are the repeat pets.

      In case you don’t know, repeat pound pets are pets that well-meaning owners take out of the pound, have around for a couple weeks, and then drop back in the pound. It happens all the time. Sometimes the pets are lab rats and come back a new color, only to get zapped basic and dropped off again by their new owner. Sometimes they have a fairly nice name and get snagged only for their new owner to get bored of them. Either way, these guys are in and out of here more often than the owners who "pound surf" before breakfast. Now Sweetie, you’re probably saying to yourself (not that I can hear you, of course, I’m not THAT incredible), what makes you suspect the repeat pound pets? Isn’t that a bit baseless? Aren’t you being overdramatic?

      Well first thing, there’s no such thing as being overdramatic. Drama is an art form all on its own. But secondly, I’m going to let you in on a secret: I have an inside man.

      Now because this particular Kacheek trusts me and I trust him, names aren’t incredible important in this whole story. The only name you should remember at the end of this is Sweetie and that she was innocent, okay? Anything else is just details for the Defenders. But this Kacheek, well he’s been in and out of here like crazy, always a new owner, too. He told me it’s because he’s tough, and what with the whole "resistance against the darkness enveloping Faerieland" deal going on owners are happy to get a pet with higher-than-normal stats. Anyways, he told me that a bunch of these repeat pets were being given small containers full of invisible paint. Not enough for a full color change or anything, whoever was planning this was smart enough to not just hand out invisible paint brushes willy-nilly. He told me that the idea was to try and get rid of some of the color bias in the pound, y’know? Take down the playing field so that every pet looks the same. Not that I believe him fully, I think there was more to it than that, maybe some kind of Sloth involvement that was going to end in him taking over Neopia once and for all, starting with an army of invisible pets. If that wasn’t his plan, man I should be number one on his team because I’ve got ideas, I’m telling you. Don’t underestimate Sweetie here, you’ll be surprised. Still innocent, though, don’t doubt me on that one, just planning my future and all.

      The whole thing was supposed to go down on April Fool's day. What would be a better day to turn the whole pound invisible than the best prank day of the year, am I right? But like I said, trying to coordinate days of the week with pets in the pound is harder than making Ol’ King Skarl laugh, so it seems to me that one of those repeat pets got the dates messed up, or thought that they had plenty of invisible paint so they were going to move the day up.

      So right before the pound was supposed to open that morning, all the pets meant for active duty (and those of stuck pets who have nothing better to do) were all lined up near the front of the pound, when there was this rushing sound from the back of the line. All the sudden, poof! All the pets are gone. And I mean all of them, from the smallest Xweetok to the biggest Skeith, everyone was just plain gone. Weirdest thing about it was that even pets that couldn’t be painted invisible still found themselves vanished, along with a lot of the furniture. Maybe it was something about the paint being in a vat and not in a brush that made things go all weird, who knows. I’m just making my best guess here, you guys are the experts after all. It wasn’t like I know what’s going on at all before it happened.

      Well with the pound in that kind of state and everyone running all over the place not being able to see the other until they ended up hitting heads, there was no way they could open the doors for the day. Rose was at a loss, and she’s used to a lot of shenanigans over the years, and Dr. Death didn’t even want to bother trying to sort it out until after his morning Borovan. So here we are, still trying to sort out this mess.

      Now see, I’ve told you what I know, so any accusations about me being involved should be dropped, right? What do you mean I’m still under suspicion? Just because I’m the only pet left in the place that’s not invisible, or that you have this so-called "footage" of me pushing the vats outside of the pound doesn’t mean that I’m to blame, now does it?

      Does it?

     The End.

 
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