SHORT DISCLAIMER -- I don't own any of the neopets characters...they're (c) the wunnerful people at neopets.com. Karma Leafbarer is an anthropormorphic yellow tree frog for those of you wondering....and if you don't like the insertion of owners other than humans in neopets fiction, you can all kiss me bum. =D
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Book By Its Cover
Karma fidgeted nervously in front of the desk, watching as the fair-skinned water faerie read over her application. She seemed to be taking more than her sweet time, as though she was hanging on every word the anthro frog had written. "Does she KNOW she's driving me crazy??" Karma wondered to herself, feeling a bead of nervous perspiration slip down the back of her neck. At long last, after what felt like an eternity had passed, the faerie's sapphire eyes lifted to drill into Karma's own.
"So tell me...what would you contribute as a citizen of Neopia?" the faerie inquired, her silver brows lifting a bit. Karma had known this question would come, but it blindsided her none the less as her mind desperately fished for ideas.
"Well..." the frog began, beginning to toy with a lock of her brown hair. "I'm willing to work hard, I plan to help people, and I'll take care of my pets...." she paused, studying the faerie's face for any sign of approval.
"That's not quite what I meant." she replied gently, but with a hint of firmness. "We've had a large increase in our crime rate lately, Ms..." she glanced at the form again. "Leafbarer. And we're doing our best to put a cap on the new people coming in to make sure that we don't have any further troubles. If we can't keep neopia a safe and fun environment, then there's no point in there being a neopia at all, if you know what I mean."
"Yes ma'am, I understand." Karma nodded. There was a pregnant pause as the two of them regarded one another solemnly before the water faerie smiled slightly.
"I don't see why we can't try you." she said at last. "You seem honest enough, really." Karma opened her mouth to thank her interviewer but was silenced by another sharp glance. "BUT--" she continued. "keep in mind that our rules are easy to follow and breaking them is not tolerated. If you're imprisoned because you've blatantly broken a law, don't try to appeal to me or anyone else. You've read over the rules and regulations of neopia, yes?" Karma gave a quick nod. "I won't bore you by going over them again then."
Karma watched with fluttering excitement as the faerie waved her hand, making a slip of pink carbon paper appear with a red number emblazoned on it. She recognized it as a registration code....she was in! "Take this to the city hall." she instructed. "They'll assign you your new living quarters and get you started. After you get settled in, you're free to do what you like."
"Thank you." Karma breathed, shakily reaching for the paper. As her fingers closed around it, she felt a surge of triumph pass through her. Finally....after reading about neopia and hearing about it from friends who had visited or been accepted as citizens, she was about to embark on her own.
"Safe journey." the water faerie called after Karma as she got up from the chair she had been sitting on the edge of ever since the interview had begun. The frog gave a wave over her shoulder as she hurried out, eager to get started. The water faerie watched her go before sighing and picking up a clipboard with the list of pending citizens yet to be interviewed on it. It was going to be a long day.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It had been two long hours of waiting in line, pushing, shoving, and dickering, but at last, Karma's tiresome duties of getting started were coming to an end as she fitted the key she had been given into the lock of her neohome's door. It slid in with no trouble and turned easily as she turned the knob and entered. The apartment was bare but seemed roomy enough...definately enough to live on. She already was mentally planning out where she'd put the bed and the sofa....
But there'd be plenty of time for that later. She had no doubt that she'd end up sleeping on the floor for the night, but right now she had her mind on other things...for one, heading to the stockhouse and selecting her first pet. She reached into her pocket, smiling as she withdrew the plastic bag of neopoints she had been handed with the rest of her welcome package. They were unfamiliar from the usual currency she used in her previous home. They were thinner than normal coins and gold in color, each of the 10 of them emblazoned with a "50". "So these are neopoints." she thought to herself, trying the word out. It sounded strange, but she supposed she'd get used to it.
Pocketing them again, she moved her attention to the box of items she had been given in City Hall that they seemed to be handing out to everyone. She opened the flaps, peering inside and felt her heart sink. One of her free gifts, what looked to have been a cookie dough slush, had melted and spilled over her other items, ruining the book and fuzzle she had been given. She gave a disgusted sigh and set the box aside, quickly forcing herself to brighten again.
No big deal, after all....if they gave the same items to everyone who joined, they couldn't have been terribly valuable. What was really on her mind right now was heading to the pet stockhouse and picking out her first baby. It had taken her months of debating on which kind of neopet to get back when she had started making plans to move to Neopia. At first, the obvious answer had been an elegant peophin. She had bought a handbook regarding the pros and cons of every neopet in existance, and had been entranced by the beautiful photographs of the faerie peophins she had seen....but after thinking it over a bit more carefully, and knowing her chances of ever coming by a faerie paint brush ("Highly sought-after and rare" the book had said) were nothing.
And so she had decided, with great difficulty, that her first pet would be either a kougra or a lupe. Not, so much, for the fact that they were popular, but because they were reputed as loving and protective pets...and given that she was a stranger in a strange land, they sounded just like what she was looking for. Casting one last look at the gooey mess inside the box she had been given, Karma got to her feet and stretched, already beginning to form a mental image of what her new neopet would look like as she bounded out of her apartment, closing and locking the door behind her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The pet stockhouse was packed...hundreds of baby neopets of all colors and breeds were displayed in large pens with people loudly clamoring for them. Karma sifted through the crowd as best as she could, the thick smell of sweat and sawdust making her eyes water as she eagerly sought the kougra source. At last, over the heads of some significantly younger neopians, she could make out the colorful flashes of striped pelt as the pen-ful of spunky kittens rolled and played with one another.
"That one! I want that one!" a young boy cried, pointing a finger at a red female lounging on her back near the large food dish that had been emptied by her and her littermates only moments before.
"I want him!!" a fat young man with his mouth full of potato chips cried, pointing wildly at a green male as it loped past and pounced on a blue cub. The cries for the pets battered the room in a constant clamor as the attendants scurried to unite the pets with their new owners. Though it seemed that, despite the hundreds of crying and pointing people, the number of neopets never once diminished from the pen.
As Karma pondered over this, one of the pen attendants, a red-haired human man with a wirey mustache smiled at her. "You've been standing there awhile...can I help you?" he called to her above the din of the stockhouse. Karma was startled to be addressed personally and eyed the cubs, now feeling obligated to choose one.
"I was just looking..." she called back, her eyes searching the cubs as they bounded and played with one another. They were all adorable but none of them seemed to call out to her as being her companion. And it seemed as quickly as she could settle her eyes on one, it had already been scooped up and given to someone else. The man, instead of looking annoyed, simply smiled and returned to his work. Personally, Karma didn't know how he could stand it and knew she would go crazy quickly if she were fitted with his job.
She watched a few minutes more as the scramble for the kougra cubs continued before passing by the pen. She was beginning to feel claustrophobic in the cramped stockhouse and took a deep breath, telling herself to calm down. She would find her perfect pet eventually, it was just a matter of patience and---
KER-SPLOOSH!!!
The frog gasped, suddenly enveloped in freezing water as a green flotsam, playfully cackling in a nearby tank teeming with flotsam hatchlings, swam back to the bottom of the tank in looping acrobatics. At the same time, a little girl giggled and announced that she wanted the jokester as her pet. Karma sputtered, grabbing the hem of her shirt and wringing the droplets out with a degree of humiliation.
Alright...maybe now WASN'T the best time to look for a pet. She decided she'd come back late at night when most of the younger people had gone to bed. Trying to be heard above the clamor and having the pets that caught her fancy being snatched out from under her nose was getting highly irritating. With some difficulty, she muscled her way out of the crowded stockhouse and manuevered back outside, taking a deep breath of the fresh air.
Around her, owners played with their new pets, giggling and excitedly chattering to one another as they led their new charges back to their respective homes and such. Karma silently envied them, but promised herself she wouldn't compete with that many people and end up settling for something mediocre. She wanted the perfect companion. A friend for life and someone that she could share all her most personal thoughts with and not fear rejection.
The mild aroma of someone's clove cigarette laced her nose and she wrinkled her snout in disgust. Who on earth could be smoking around so many young kids and pets?? Her eyes skated over the crowd, prepared to leer at the offending party. After a moment, she had singled him out and was surprised that it was an anthro creature like herself, though looked to be a breed of neopet or what once was one. The yellow lizard was seated on the front steps of a ramshackle building, his white hair in a gnarled mop on his head as he idly smoked, eyeing those who passed with contempt in his eyes.
The passersby seemed to give him a wide berth and pets cringed as they passed....Karma decided that this figure was one that was generally not well-liked, though she didn't know why. Did he make a habit out of skulking in doorways and blowing clove-scented smoke into people's faces? He felt her eyes on him and glared at her icily.
"What're you looking at?" he growled. She instantly felt a sense of forboding and turned her eyes to the ground.
"Sorry." she muttered. "I was just thinking---"
"Go do it somewhere else then." he spat. "I have enough problems as it is." Karma fixed her face into a frown, not caring for the lizard's tone with her. Her eyes fell on his cigarette.
"That's bad for you, ya know." she told him.
"I don't care." the lizard replied quickly, taking another drag and puffing it out of his nostrils. "I've heard it all, toots. Cancer, ruined vocal cords, bad for my lungs...there's nothing you can tell me that I've never heard before. Scram." Karma paused, blinking in bewilderment. How RUDE!!
"Just who are you anyway?" she asked.
"What? Were you born in a cave or something?" the yellow lizard inquired. Karma sniffed indignantly in reply.
"I'm new if that's what you mean...." she shot back. "And if this is how you treat people, its no mystery why you don't have any friends."
"Maybe I don't WANT any friends. Maybe people annoy me." the lizard replied, shrugging.
"Your choice." she replied acidly. They dueled with their eyes for a moment.
"My name's Dr. Death." he told her matter-of-factly. "No first name, before you ask."
"You act like I'm going to grill you or something." Karma muttered, crossing her arms over her chest. The lizard puffed on his cigarette again and then tossed the butt to the ground, crushing it beneath his heel.
"You wouldn't be the first." he grumbled. "That's all I get around here." he turned to walk away upon saying this.
"Where're you going?" Karma inquired, not nastily this time but simply curious. He flinched and looked over his shoulder at her.
"Back to my job. At the pound. Likely you'll hear of me soon. I'm the "bad man that takes pets away" and all that lovely bunk." he said, giving a flick of his tail as he continued on his way. Karma, instead of staying where she was, followed after him. She wasn't sure if it was her intrigue in this bitter character in itself or her desire to see the pound but she managed to trail him all the way back to a large and dingy-looking building standing a short distance off of the pet stockhouse. Inside came the piteous wails and barks of what sounded to be a great number of pets.
The yellow lizard climbed the three steps of the porch and disappeared inside with a bang of the screen door. Karma hesitated a moment and then followed after him. As she stepped into the building, the first thing to hit her was the musty odor of long-kept creatures...the same smell that overcomes one when they enter a dog pound on a rainy day. The yellow lizard was settling behind his desk as he noticed her approach. He opened his mouth to speak...likely to ask what she thought she was doing following him, but was interrupted.
"Well hello there, dear!" a kindly voice bubbled as a pink unicorn trotted forward, giving a toss of her cotton candy-colored mane. "Can I help you?"
"Actually I---" the uni frowned.
"Why, you don't seem to have ANY neopets yet!" she exclaimed, sounding surprised. Karma nodded and stuffed her hands into her pockets.
"Is that a bad thing? I can leave if you want...I didn't want to cause trouble..." the yellow lizard rolled his eyes as if to say that was the single most idiotic thing he had ever heard.
"Oh you're not!!!" the uni insisted, giving Karma a nudge toward the back. "Tell you what...why don't we go in the back and see if any of these poor souls might be your special friend?" Karma looked over her shoulder at Dr. Death again.
"But what about him?" she asked.
"Don't you worry about that old grumpy techo..." the uni poshed, giggling. "He's happy enough to be causing misery."
"Yeah he said something about that too, but what's that supposed to mean?" Karma asked, still staring at Dr. Death even as a young girl with her hair pulled back in a ponytail edged up to the desk, a red acara cowering behind her legs and trembling. Karma could see the hashmark outlines of its ribs against his pelt and it likely hadn't been fed in days.
"Like, I need to give up little Creamypuffle here." she said, looking around the pound and wrinkling her nose up at the unkept state of the front room. The acara looked horror stricken as it cowered behind its mistress's ankles, apparently unaware that the one he was seeking protection from was the same one who was giving him up.
"I see." Dr. Death hissed, setting his papers aside with eerie slowness as he glowered up at her. The look in his eyes made Karma uncomfortable as he roughly seized an "Incoming" slip from the wire basket to his right and began to fill it out. "And why are we giving up little Creamypuffle?" he asked accusingly. The blonde looked at him like he had gone utterly crazy.
"Like, DUH!! Have you been living in a cave or something?? Heh...no wait, you probably do." she tittered at her own "wit". "Its all over the news! There's like, supposed to be a new neopet available soon and I totally want to be the first to have it!" She cast a look down at her acara for a moment as though she was considering her decision, but then reached down, picked the trembling pet up, and hoisted up on the counter. "And 'sides...I like, don't have time to feed a pet EVERY day. I need some, like, independant pets or something."
"You, madam, aren't fit to own ANY pets." Dr. Death snarled, his hand betraying him as his handwriting dissolved into angry scribbles toward the end of the form before he stood and seized the acara off of the counter. It gave a startled yelp and struggled in his arms. "Leave the payment with my assistant." he spat before storming into the back with the struggling, crying acara. The blonde stood a moment, as though awestruck by what had just happened, and then shrugged and walked out of the pound without paying the fee.
"How cruel..." Karma muttered, flabberghasted. The uni nuzzled her hand reassuringly.
"He's really not, dear, but he has a large temper problem." the pink beast began to explain. "And really--"
"I wasn't talking about him." Karma interrupted. "Do you guys get lots of owners like that in here?"
"Well, yes...." the uni replied, sounding a bit off-center about it. "But its not our job to question why they're giving them up as it is to make sure the pet finds a new home. It seems the good doctor forgets that sometimes." she smiled. "But anyway...if you come this way, we have all sorts of neopets looking for new homes." she prattled on, nudging Karma through a swinging door and into a large warehouse-type building where, in ten isles, were cages lined up, all fitted with animals. There had to be more than a hundred of them, Karma thought to herself. Upon seeing her, the pets began to straighten up and call out hopefully.
"Pick me! Pick me! Oh won't you please choose me?? I've been here for a week! A week?? HA! I've been here for three months!!" the barrage of hopeful noise made Karma avert her eyes in shame, knowing she wouldn't be able to save all of them and it made her feel incredibly guilty. Never the less, she found herself moving forward, her eyes scanning the cages from which all sorts of pets reached out to her with hopeful paws/flippers/claws.
"I'll be up front if you make a choice." the uni informed her cheerfully as she turned and walked away....though it sounded to Karma that she was a bit uncomfortable. Well, who wouldn't be? So many voices crying out...how horrible it must have been to work there! She stopped for a moment to examine a spotted pteri that sat in the corner of its cage. The bird lifted his head and looked at her a moment before giving a shriek and snapping at her against the bars, its beak closing loudly on nothing.
"Go AWAY!!!" the bird roared. "I'm not abandoned!! My master will come back for me!!" Karma compulsively backed away as the pteri continued to rave and rant about its master and how it wasn't really abandoned. The poor thing had gone crazy in its time there from its abandonment. She felt tears sting her eyes and moaned softly, overcome with pity for the neopet.
"And now you know how *I* feel." a familiar voice from behind her stated. She turned, wiping hurriedly at her eyes to see Dr. Death standing behind her, arms crossed and a sordid look of triumph on his face at her being distraught over the captive pets. "You think its hard to walk in here once to look them over? I've been working here for almost five years...I get to drag pets into the back that nobody wants and have to try and find good homes for them all. It gets to you after awhile."
"I thought that the uni..." Karma began.
"RoseMadder and I have the same job....but being that she looks friendlier and doesn't let her occupation bug her as much, she's reputed as being the hero that finds pets homes. I can find you a pet just as well as she can." Karma looked at him doubtfully and shook her head.
"I somehow doubt that." Dr. Death, gritting his teeth in anger, started toward her.
"Now you listen to me...just because I---" he was cut off by a sharp ding from the front desk.
"Hel-LO!! Anybody in there??" a nasal and rude voice inquired. The techo regarded her a moment longer before turning and heading up front. Karma waited, sure that the exchange was not over by a longshot as she heard the exchange of words, the end of the conversation ultimately marked by the squealing and begging of the neopet being handed over and the door being opened again. Dr. Death stepped in, clutching a white rabbit with a blue neckruff that was weeping openly.
"Mommy!! I want my mommy!! Mommy come back!!!" he wailed. Without pausing, Dr. Death shoved the crying pet into Karma's arms.
"There." he said with venom in his voice. "I found you a pet. Are you happy now?? Go away!" Karma, startled, looked down at the bunny whose sobs were starting to taper off into sniffles as he goggled up at her. The collar around his neck bore a tag reading "yahoo44".
"...where's mommy...?" the bunny whispered. Dr. Death, apparently disgusted with the whole ordeal, stormed back up front and left Karma alone with the animal.
"Your mommy left...she couldn't take care of you anymore." Karma told the neopet softly, trying not to upset him any further. "But I can care for you if you want..." the bunny studied her a long moment with large glistening eyes.
"I want my mommy..." he said firmly.
"I can take care of you..." she offered again, reaching up to gently skritch the rabbit between its ears. Yahoo purred softly, his back leg kicking reflexively. For the past two weeks, his owner had lodged him in Cockroach Towers to be cared for...and while he was fed and had the option of playing in the arcade, it had been awhile since he had been petted or loved. Seeing that the bunny wasn't going to put up a further protest, Karma snuggled him more firmly against her and carried him carefully to the front.
Dr. Death, already situated again behind his desk, glared at her from the corner of his eye as she approached. Before she had a chance to ask him for the adoption papers, she felt a warm muzzle poke over her shoulder.
"Oh!! A cybunny!! You're a lucky girl, aren't you??" RoseMadder bubbled as she noticed the pet in Karma's arms. "We don't get many of those in here do we, Doctor?" she asked, turning her smile in Dr. Death's direction. The techo snorted and returned to his paperwork. "Well, you come over here and we'll get you and your new friend all ready to go." Rose continued, motioning Karma toward her side of the desk where she began preparing a form to be filled out, signing the neopet legally over into its new home.
After a few simple questions and signatures, Karma found herself the proud owner of the cybunny. "We hope you'll come back if you ever decide to have a second pet!" RoseMadder told her as she turned to go.
"We'll see that cybunny again in a week, you just wait." Dr. Death growled at Rose, but meant for Karma to hear. His words stung, but Karma forced herself to leave without firing a retort. She had argued enough with the techo for one evening, she decided, as she left the pound in a huff.
"You didn't have to be so obnoxious to her..." Rose told Dr. Death huffily. "She's new, after all."
"She said as though I cared." the techo mocked. Rose shook her head.
"Someday you'll look around and find yourself all alone...and I bet you'll wonder why." she sighed. The doctor didn't answer as he fixed his eyes on a meek-looking boy who sidled up to the desk, a rather mean-looking skeith in tow.
"H-Hi....is this where you put your pets in the pound?" he asked. He had several bite marks on his arms and a bandage over his forehead. Behind him, the skeith grinned deviously up at Dr. Death, baring its needle-like teeth as the two pound-managers exchanged an uneasy look.
"You're not going to give this one the third degree?" Rose inquired as the doctor reached for an abandonment form.
"Sometimes, even *I* can see when something needs to be done." Dr. Death sighed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Thanks..." Yahoo44 whispered as Karma entered the apartment, the white bunny still propped on her shoulder. Karma smiled. It was the first time the cybunny had spoken to her since they had left the pound.
"Not a problem." she assured Yahoo, giving him a brief hug before setting him down. The cybunny cast a look about the apartment, his nose working the stale air. "I know its not much right now, Yahoo, but I just got here today."
"It'll work." the neopet shrugged. "As long as there's a sleeping bag or something..." Karma felt her stomach clench, wondering if there WAS a sleeping bag. Maybe she should have waited before bringing a pet into her home when it was so sparsely furnished. "Try the closet?" he suggested when she didn't move. Her eyes turned to the hall closet and she realized she hadn't checked it yet as she made her way toward it and opened it. Inside, folded against the wall were four cots and a number of pillows and blankets sitting on the shelf. Below them was a slightly dusty card that read "For our temporary tenants only...please do not take these items with you when you move out!"
"Guess these are for us." Karma said aloud to Yahoo.
"Ayup." the cybunny smirked, stretching a bit. "I think I could get used to this...you know, it was scary leaving at first but I have a good feeling." He smiled up at Karma. "Last time I had a good feeling, I found a thousand neopoints under one of the Scorchy Slots machines."
"Well, let's hope this one's just as good." Karma chuckled as she hoisted a cot out of the closet and set it on the carpet, fumbling with the folded legs. Yahoo watched placidly as she set it up and wrestled a blanket out of the closet to fluff over it. When she was finished, she looked over her work a moment. "I gotta get some real furniture in here...but not with only four hundred neopoints."
"We can go to the game room tomorrow..." Yahoo suggested, stepping forward and leaping onto the cot, circling once and flopping onto his belly. "If you learn how to do it right, you can make big money playing Meerca Chase."
"You sure know a lot about Neopia." Karma remarked. The cybunny pricked his ears.
"Mommy was a big fan of games..." Yahoo replied softly, his eyes misting over. For a moment, it looked like he was going to cry but he got himself under control again. "If you don't mind, I'm kind of tired." he told Karma. "Is it okay if I sleep now?"
"Of course." Karma smiled, reaching down to skritch him between the ears again. Yahoo purred his appreciation. and then settled his head onto his paws and closed his eyes. The frog watched him a moment until she was sure he was sleeping and then got up, her interest shifting from her new pet to the doctor in the pound.
She didn't know why she thought of him so adamently, really....so he was a misunderstood crackpot, so what? So was she. And then it hit her...
"Ahh no, Karma....not him." she scolded herself, slapping her forehead. It all clicked into place....her inexplicable following him back to the pound, her unsureness around him. She had a crush on him. This was far from the first time something like this had happened either...she seemed to, more often than not, fall for men who were either unobtainable or completely not right for her....but the bright side to it was usually after she got to know them better, she lost all interest in them.
Likely, the same thing was going to happen here. She imagined it would only take one or two more run-ins with the grouchy techo to change her mind in a hurry. After all, he was old enough to be her father, first of all, and probably had no interest in contact from another person at all.
Yes...things would sort themselves out, she was certain, as she stifled a yawn behind her hand. Yahoo had the right idea, she decided, as she went to the closet again, taking out a cot for herself and padding it with a blanket and pillow. As she settled down into it, she smiled and decided that her first day in Neopia hadn't been entirely bad at all as she cast one last look at her new neopet before allowing herself to drift off to sleep.
TBC...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Book By Its Cover
Karma fidgeted nervously in front of the desk, watching as the fair-skinned water faerie read over her application. She seemed to be taking more than her sweet time, as though she was hanging on every word the anthro frog had written. "Does she KNOW she's driving me crazy??" Karma wondered to herself, feeling a bead of nervous perspiration slip down the back of her neck. At long last, after what felt like an eternity had passed, the faerie's sapphire eyes lifted to drill into Karma's own.
"So tell me...what would you contribute as a citizen of Neopia?" the faerie inquired, her silver brows lifting a bit. Karma had known this question would come, but it blindsided her none the less as her mind desperately fished for ideas.
"Well..." the frog began, beginning to toy with a lock of her brown hair. "I'm willing to work hard, I plan to help people, and I'll take care of my pets...." she paused, studying the faerie's face for any sign of approval.
"That's not quite what I meant." she replied gently, but with a hint of firmness. "We've had a large increase in our crime rate lately, Ms..." she glanced at the form again. "Leafbarer. And we're doing our best to put a cap on the new people coming in to make sure that we don't have any further troubles. If we can't keep neopia a safe and fun environment, then there's no point in there being a neopia at all, if you know what I mean."
"Yes ma'am, I understand." Karma nodded. There was a pregnant pause as the two of them regarded one another solemnly before the water faerie smiled slightly.
"I don't see why we can't try you." she said at last. "You seem honest enough, really." Karma opened her mouth to thank her interviewer but was silenced by another sharp glance. "BUT--" she continued. "keep in mind that our rules are easy to follow and breaking them is not tolerated. If you're imprisoned because you've blatantly broken a law, don't try to appeal to me or anyone else. You've read over the rules and regulations of neopia, yes?" Karma gave a quick nod. "I won't bore you by going over them again then."
Karma watched with fluttering excitement as the faerie waved her hand, making a slip of pink carbon paper appear with a red number emblazoned on it. She recognized it as a registration code....she was in! "Take this to the city hall." she instructed. "They'll assign you your new living quarters and get you started. After you get settled in, you're free to do what you like."
"Thank you." Karma breathed, shakily reaching for the paper. As her fingers closed around it, she felt a surge of triumph pass through her. Finally....after reading about neopia and hearing about it from friends who had visited or been accepted as citizens, she was about to embark on her own.
"Safe journey." the water faerie called after Karma as she got up from the chair she had been sitting on the edge of ever since the interview had begun. The frog gave a wave over her shoulder as she hurried out, eager to get started. The water faerie watched her go before sighing and picking up a clipboard with the list of pending citizens yet to be interviewed on it. It was going to be a long day.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It had been two long hours of waiting in line, pushing, shoving, and dickering, but at last, Karma's tiresome duties of getting started were coming to an end as she fitted the key she had been given into the lock of her neohome's door. It slid in with no trouble and turned easily as she turned the knob and entered. The apartment was bare but seemed roomy enough...definately enough to live on. She already was mentally planning out where she'd put the bed and the sofa....
But there'd be plenty of time for that later. She had no doubt that she'd end up sleeping on the floor for the night, but right now she had her mind on other things...for one, heading to the stockhouse and selecting her first pet. She reached into her pocket, smiling as she withdrew the plastic bag of neopoints she had been handed with the rest of her welcome package. They were unfamiliar from the usual currency she used in her previous home. They were thinner than normal coins and gold in color, each of the 10 of them emblazoned with a "50". "So these are neopoints." she thought to herself, trying the word out. It sounded strange, but she supposed she'd get used to it.
Pocketing them again, she moved her attention to the box of items she had been given in City Hall that they seemed to be handing out to everyone. She opened the flaps, peering inside and felt her heart sink. One of her free gifts, what looked to have been a cookie dough slush, had melted and spilled over her other items, ruining the book and fuzzle she had been given. She gave a disgusted sigh and set the box aside, quickly forcing herself to brighten again.
No big deal, after all....if they gave the same items to everyone who joined, they couldn't have been terribly valuable. What was really on her mind right now was heading to the pet stockhouse and picking out her first baby. It had taken her months of debating on which kind of neopet to get back when she had started making plans to move to Neopia. At first, the obvious answer had been an elegant peophin. She had bought a handbook regarding the pros and cons of every neopet in existance, and had been entranced by the beautiful photographs of the faerie peophins she had seen....but after thinking it over a bit more carefully, and knowing her chances of ever coming by a faerie paint brush ("Highly sought-after and rare" the book had said) were nothing.
And so she had decided, with great difficulty, that her first pet would be either a kougra or a lupe. Not, so much, for the fact that they were popular, but because they were reputed as loving and protective pets...and given that she was a stranger in a strange land, they sounded just like what she was looking for. Casting one last look at the gooey mess inside the box she had been given, Karma got to her feet and stretched, already beginning to form a mental image of what her new neopet would look like as she bounded out of her apartment, closing and locking the door behind her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The pet stockhouse was packed...hundreds of baby neopets of all colors and breeds were displayed in large pens with people loudly clamoring for them. Karma sifted through the crowd as best as she could, the thick smell of sweat and sawdust making her eyes water as she eagerly sought the kougra source. At last, over the heads of some significantly younger neopians, she could make out the colorful flashes of striped pelt as the pen-ful of spunky kittens rolled and played with one another.
"That one! I want that one!" a young boy cried, pointing a finger at a red female lounging on her back near the large food dish that had been emptied by her and her littermates only moments before.
"I want him!!" a fat young man with his mouth full of potato chips cried, pointing wildly at a green male as it loped past and pounced on a blue cub. The cries for the pets battered the room in a constant clamor as the attendants scurried to unite the pets with their new owners. Though it seemed that, despite the hundreds of crying and pointing people, the number of neopets never once diminished from the pen.
As Karma pondered over this, one of the pen attendants, a red-haired human man with a wirey mustache smiled at her. "You've been standing there awhile...can I help you?" he called to her above the din of the stockhouse. Karma was startled to be addressed personally and eyed the cubs, now feeling obligated to choose one.
"I was just looking..." she called back, her eyes searching the cubs as they bounded and played with one another. They were all adorable but none of them seemed to call out to her as being her companion. And it seemed as quickly as she could settle her eyes on one, it had already been scooped up and given to someone else. The man, instead of looking annoyed, simply smiled and returned to his work. Personally, Karma didn't know how he could stand it and knew she would go crazy quickly if she were fitted with his job.
She watched a few minutes more as the scramble for the kougra cubs continued before passing by the pen. She was beginning to feel claustrophobic in the cramped stockhouse and took a deep breath, telling herself to calm down. She would find her perfect pet eventually, it was just a matter of patience and---
KER-SPLOOSH!!!
The frog gasped, suddenly enveloped in freezing water as a green flotsam, playfully cackling in a nearby tank teeming with flotsam hatchlings, swam back to the bottom of the tank in looping acrobatics. At the same time, a little girl giggled and announced that she wanted the jokester as her pet. Karma sputtered, grabbing the hem of her shirt and wringing the droplets out with a degree of humiliation.
Alright...maybe now WASN'T the best time to look for a pet. She decided she'd come back late at night when most of the younger people had gone to bed. Trying to be heard above the clamor and having the pets that caught her fancy being snatched out from under her nose was getting highly irritating. With some difficulty, she muscled her way out of the crowded stockhouse and manuevered back outside, taking a deep breath of the fresh air.
Around her, owners played with their new pets, giggling and excitedly chattering to one another as they led their new charges back to their respective homes and such. Karma silently envied them, but promised herself she wouldn't compete with that many people and end up settling for something mediocre. She wanted the perfect companion. A friend for life and someone that she could share all her most personal thoughts with and not fear rejection.
The mild aroma of someone's clove cigarette laced her nose and she wrinkled her snout in disgust. Who on earth could be smoking around so many young kids and pets?? Her eyes skated over the crowd, prepared to leer at the offending party. After a moment, she had singled him out and was surprised that it was an anthro creature like herself, though looked to be a breed of neopet or what once was one. The yellow lizard was seated on the front steps of a ramshackle building, his white hair in a gnarled mop on his head as he idly smoked, eyeing those who passed with contempt in his eyes.
The passersby seemed to give him a wide berth and pets cringed as they passed....Karma decided that this figure was one that was generally not well-liked, though she didn't know why. Did he make a habit out of skulking in doorways and blowing clove-scented smoke into people's faces? He felt her eyes on him and glared at her icily.
"What're you looking at?" he growled. She instantly felt a sense of forboding and turned her eyes to the ground.
"Sorry." she muttered. "I was just thinking---"
"Go do it somewhere else then." he spat. "I have enough problems as it is." Karma fixed her face into a frown, not caring for the lizard's tone with her. Her eyes fell on his cigarette.
"That's bad for you, ya know." she told him.
"I don't care." the lizard replied quickly, taking another drag and puffing it out of his nostrils. "I've heard it all, toots. Cancer, ruined vocal cords, bad for my lungs...there's nothing you can tell me that I've never heard before. Scram." Karma paused, blinking in bewilderment. How RUDE!!
"Just who are you anyway?" she asked.
"What? Were you born in a cave or something?" the yellow lizard inquired. Karma sniffed indignantly in reply.
"I'm new if that's what you mean...." she shot back. "And if this is how you treat people, its no mystery why you don't have any friends."
"Maybe I don't WANT any friends. Maybe people annoy me." the lizard replied, shrugging.
"Your choice." she replied acidly. They dueled with their eyes for a moment.
"My name's Dr. Death." he told her matter-of-factly. "No first name, before you ask."
"You act like I'm going to grill you or something." Karma muttered, crossing her arms over her chest. The lizard puffed on his cigarette again and then tossed the butt to the ground, crushing it beneath his heel.
"You wouldn't be the first." he grumbled. "That's all I get around here." he turned to walk away upon saying this.
"Where're you going?" Karma inquired, not nastily this time but simply curious. He flinched and looked over his shoulder at her.
"Back to my job. At the pound. Likely you'll hear of me soon. I'm the "bad man that takes pets away" and all that lovely bunk." he said, giving a flick of his tail as he continued on his way. Karma, instead of staying where she was, followed after him. She wasn't sure if it was her intrigue in this bitter character in itself or her desire to see the pound but she managed to trail him all the way back to a large and dingy-looking building standing a short distance off of the pet stockhouse. Inside came the piteous wails and barks of what sounded to be a great number of pets.
The yellow lizard climbed the three steps of the porch and disappeared inside with a bang of the screen door. Karma hesitated a moment and then followed after him. As she stepped into the building, the first thing to hit her was the musty odor of long-kept creatures...the same smell that overcomes one when they enter a dog pound on a rainy day. The yellow lizard was settling behind his desk as he noticed her approach. He opened his mouth to speak...likely to ask what she thought she was doing following him, but was interrupted.
"Well hello there, dear!" a kindly voice bubbled as a pink unicorn trotted forward, giving a toss of her cotton candy-colored mane. "Can I help you?"
"Actually I---" the uni frowned.
"Why, you don't seem to have ANY neopets yet!" she exclaimed, sounding surprised. Karma nodded and stuffed her hands into her pockets.
"Is that a bad thing? I can leave if you want...I didn't want to cause trouble..." the yellow lizard rolled his eyes as if to say that was the single most idiotic thing he had ever heard.
"Oh you're not!!!" the uni insisted, giving Karma a nudge toward the back. "Tell you what...why don't we go in the back and see if any of these poor souls might be your special friend?" Karma looked over her shoulder at Dr. Death again.
"But what about him?" she asked.
"Don't you worry about that old grumpy techo..." the uni poshed, giggling. "He's happy enough to be causing misery."
"Yeah he said something about that too, but what's that supposed to mean?" Karma asked, still staring at Dr. Death even as a young girl with her hair pulled back in a ponytail edged up to the desk, a red acara cowering behind her legs and trembling. Karma could see the hashmark outlines of its ribs against his pelt and it likely hadn't been fed in days.
"Like, I need to give up little Creamypuffle here." she said, looking around the pound and wrinkling her nose up at the unkept state of the front room. The acara looked horror stricken as it cowered behind its mistress's ankles, apparently unaware that the one he was seeking protection from was the same one who was giving him up.
"I see." Dr. Death hissed, setting his papers aside with eerie slowness as he glowered up at her. The look in his eyes made Karma uncomfortable as he roughly seized an "Incoming" slip from the wire basket to his right and began to fill it out. "And why are we giving up little Creamypuffle?" he asked accusingly. The blonde looked at him like he had gone utterly crazy.
"Like, DUH!! Have you been living in a cave or something?? Heh...no wait, you probably do." she tittered at her own "wit". "Its all over the news! There's like, supposed to be a new neopet available soon and I totally want to be the first to have it!" She cast a look down at her acara for a moment as though she was considering her decision, but then reached down, picked the trembling pet up, and hoisted up on the counter. "And 'sides...I like, don't have time to feed a pet EVERY day. I need some, like, independant pets or something."
"You, madam, aren't fit to own ANY pets." Dr. Death snarled, his hand betraying him as his handwriting dissolved into angry scribbles toward the end of the form before he stood and seized the acara off of the counter. It gave a startled yelp and struggled in his arms. "Leave the payment with my assistant." he spat before storming into the back with the struggling, crying acara. The blonde stood a moment, as though awestruck by what had just happened, and then shrugged and walked out of the pound without paying the fee.
"How cruel..." Karma muttered, flabberghasted. The uni nuzzled her hand reassuringly.
"He's really not, dear, but he has a large temper problem." the pink beast began to explain. "And really--"
"I wasn't talking about him." Karma interrupted. "Do you guys get lots of owners like that in here?"
"Well, yes...." the uni replied, sounding a bit off-center about it. "But its not our job to question why they're giving them up as it is to make sure the pet finds a new home. It seems the good doctor forgets that sometimes." she smiled. "But anyway...if you come this way, we have all sorts of neopets looking for new homes." she prattled on, nudging Karma through a swinging door and into a large warehouse-type building where, in ten isles, were cages lined up, all fitted with animals. There had to be more than a hundred of them, Karma thought to herself. Upon seeing her, the pets began to straighten up and call out hopefully.
"Pick me! Pick me! Oh won't you please choose me?? I've been here for a week! A week?? HA! I've been here for three months!!" the barrage of hopeful noise made Karma avert her eyes in shame, knowing she wouldn't be able to save all of them and it made her feel incredibly guilty. Never the less, she found herself moving forward, her eyes scanning the cages from which all sorts of pets reached out to her with hopeful paws/flippers/claws.
"I'll be up front if you make a choice." the uni informed her cheerfully as she turned and walked away....though it sounded to Karma that she was a bit uncomfortable. Well, who wouldn't be? So many voices crying out...how horrible it must have been to work there! She stopped for a moment to examine a spotted pteri that sat in the corner of its cage. The bird lifted his head and looked at her a moment before giving a shriek and snapping at her against the bars, its beak closing loudly on nothing.
"Go AWAY!!!" the bird roared. "I'm not abandoned!! My master will come back for me!!" Karma compulsively backed away as the pteri continued to rave and rant about its master and how it wasn't really abandoned. The poor thing had gone crazy in its time there from its abandonment. She felt tears sting her eyes and moaned softly, overcome with pity for the neopet.
"And now you know how *I* feel." a familiar voice from behind her stated. She turned, wiping hurriedly at her eyes to see Dr. Death standing behind her, arms crossed and a sordid look of triumph on his face at her being distraught over the captive pets. "You think its hard to walk in here once to look them over? I've been working here for almost five years...I get to drag pets into the back that nobody wants and have to try and find good homes for them all. It gets to you after awhile."
"I thought that the uni..." Karma began.
"RoseMadder and I have the same job....but being that she looks friendlier and doesn't let her occupation bug her as much, she's reputed as being the hero that finds pets homes. I can find you a pet just as well as she can." Karma looked at him doubtfully and shook her head.
"I somehow doubt that." Dr. Death, gritting his teeth in anger, started toward her.
"Now you listen to me...just because I---" he was cut off by a sharp ding from the front desk.
"Hel-LO!! Anybody in there??" a nasal and rude voice inquired. The techo regarded her a moment longer before turning and heading up front. Karma waited, sure that the exchange was not over by a longshot as she heard the exchange of words, the end of the conversation ultimately marked by the squealing and begging of the neopet being handed over and the door being opened again. Dr. Death stepped in, clutching a white rabbit with a blue neckruff that was weeping openly.
"Mommy!! I want my mommy!! Mommy come back!!!" he wailed. Without pausing, Dr. Death shoved the crying pet into Karma's arms.
"There." he said with venom in his voice. "I found you a pet. Are you happy now?? Go away!" Karma, startled, looked down at the bunny whose sobs were starting to taper off into sniffles as he goggled up at her. The collar around his neck bore a tag reading "yahoo44".
"...where's mommy...?" the bunny whispered. Dr. Death, apparently disgusted with the whole ordeal, stormed back up front and left Karma alone with the animal.
"Your mommy left...she couldn't take care of you anymore." Karma told the neopet softly, trying not to upset him any further. "But I can care for you if you want..." the bunny studied her a long moment with large glistening eyes.
"I want my mommy..." he said firmly.
"I can take care of you..." she offered again, reaching up to gently skritch the rabbit between its ears. Yahoo purred softly, his back leg kicking reflexively. For the past two weeks, his owner had lodged him in Cockroach Towers to be cared for...and while he was fed and had the option of playing in the arcade, it had been awhile since he had been petted or loved. Seeing that the bunny wasn't going to put up a further protest, Karma snuggled him more firmly against her and carried him carefully to the front.
Dr. Death, already situated again behind his desk, glared at her from the corner of his eye as she approached. Before she had a chance to ask him for the adoption papers, she felt a warm muzzle poke over her shoulder.
"Oh!! A cybunny!! You're a lucky girl, aren't you??" RoseMadder bubbled as she noticed the pet in Karma's arms. "We don't get many of those in here do we, Doctor?" she asked, turning her smile in Dr. Death's direction. The techo snorted and returned to his paperwork. "Well, you come over here and we'll get you and your new friend all ready to go." Rose continued, motioning Karma toward her side of the desk where she began preparing a form to be filled out, signing the neopet legally over into its new home.
After a few simple questions and signatures, Karma found herself the proud owner of the cybunny. "We hope you'll come back if you ever decide to have a second pet!" RoseMadder told her as she turned to go.
"We'll see that cybunny again in a week, you just wait." Dr. Death growled at Rose, but meant for Karma to hear. His words stung, but Karma forced herself to leave without firing a retort. She had argued enough with the techo for one evening, she decided, as she left the pound in a huff.
"You didn't have to be so obnoxious to her..." Rose told Dr. Death huffily. "She's new, after all."
"She said as though I cared." the techo mocked. Rose shook her head.
"Someday you'll look around and find yourself all alone...and I bet you'll wonder why." she sighed. The doctor didn't answer as he fixed his eyes on a meek-looking boy who sidled up to the desk, a rather mean-looking skeith in tow.
"H-Hi....is this where you put your pets in the pound?" he asked. He had several bite marks on his arms and a bandage over his forehead. Behind him, the skeith grinned deviously up at Dr. Death, baring its needle-like teeth as the two pound-managers exchanged an uneasy look.
"You're not going to give this one the third degree?" Rose inquired as the doctor reached for an abandonment form.
"Sometimes, even *I* can see when something needs to be done." Dr. Death sighed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Thanks..." Yahoo44 whispered as Karma entered the apartment, the white bunny still propped on her shoulder. Karma smiled. It was the first time the cybunny had spoken to her since they had left the pound.
"Not a problem." she assured Yahoo, giving him a brief hug before setting him down. The cybunny cast a look about the apartment, his nose working the stale air. "I know its not much right now, Yahoo, but I just got here today."
"It'll work." the neopet shrugged. "As long as there's a sleeping bag or something..." Karma felt her stomach clench, wondering if there WAS a sleeping bag. Maybe she should have waited before bringing a pet into her home when it was so sparsely furnished. "Try the closet?" he suggested when she didn't move. Her eyes turned to the hall closet and she realized she hadn't checked it yet as she made her way toward it and opened it. Inside, folded against the wall were four cots and a number of pillows and blankets sitting on the shelf. Below them was a slightly dusty card that read "For our temporary tenants only...please do not take these items with you when you move out!"
"Guess these are for us." Karma said aloud to Yahoo.
"Ayup." the cybunny smirked, stretching a bit. "I think I could get used to this...you know, it was scary leaving at first but I have a good feeling." He smiled up at Karma. "Last time I had a good feeling, I found a thousand neopoints under one of the Scorchy Slots machines."
"Well, let's hope this one's just as good." Karma chuckled as she hoisted a cot out of the closet and set it on the carpet, fumbling with the folded legs. Yahoo watched placidly as she set it up and wrestled a blanket out of the closet to fluff over it. When she was finished, she looked over her work a moment. "I gotta get some real furniture in here...but not with only four hundred neopoints."
"We can go to the game room tomorrow..." Yahoo suggested, stepping forward and leaping onto the cot, circling once and flopping onto his belly. "If you learn how to do it right, you can make big money playing Meerca Chase."
"You sure know a lot about Neopia." Karma remarked. The cybunny pricked his ears.
"Mommy was a big fan of games..." Yahoo replied softly, his eyes misting over. For a moment, it looked like he was going to cry but he got himself under control again. "If you don't mind, I'm kind of tired." he told Karma. "Is it okay if I sleep now?"
"Of course." Karma smiled, reaching down to skritch him between the ears again. Yahoo purred his appreciation. and then settled his head onto his paws and closed his eyes. The frog watched him a moment until she was sure he was sleeping and then got up, her interest shifting from her new pet to the doctor in the pound.
She didn't know why she thought of him so adamently, really....so he was a misunderstood crackpot, so what? So was she. And then it hit her...
"Ahh no, Karma....not him." she scolded herself, slapping her forehead. It all clicked into place....her inexplicable following him back to the pound, her unsureness around him. She had a crush on him. This was far from the first time something like this had happened either...she seemed to, more often than not, fall for men who were either unobtainable or completely not right for her....but the bright side to it was usually after she got to know them better, she lost all interest in them.
Likely, the same thing was going to happen here. She imagined it would only take one or two more run-ins with the grouchy techo to change her mind in a hurry. After all, he was old enough to be her father, first of all, and probably had no interest in contact from another person at all.
Yes...things would sort themselves out, she was certain, as she stifled a yawn behind her hand. Yahoo had the right idea, she decided, as she went to the closet again, taking out a cot for herself and padding it with a blanket and pillow. As she settled down into it, she smiled and decided that her first day in Neopia hadn't been entirely bad at all as she cast one last look at her new neopet before allowing herself to drift off to sleep.
TBC...