Meerca Chase - the Story Behind the Story

by fire_of_ice

Some people say that I am only a nameless creature dashing round a grey background. Some people say that I was picked up by the Neopets Team after being abandoned. Still others say-nothing at all. They don't see ME. They see a game. I am sick and tired of being nothing! Here's my story--in direct protest to the many rumours being circulated!!!!

My name is Acreem. I am the Meerca in the Meerca Chase game. That game is ridiculously named. It should be Negg Chase, or what about "Stupid Pointless NP-making Device Made For The Pleasure of Ninnies"-but that would probably be too long for the search engine.

The only reason I submitted to giving up my name, identity, and self-esteem was because-well maybe you can't understand. Let me explain. A tail to a Meerca is as fancy clothes to a Human. The only difference is, we were BORN with ours. The thicker the fur on a tail, the shinier, the wider, longer a tail is, the higher status that Meerca receives. The only problem is that I was born without a tail.

My owner was VERY KIND TO ME, unlike the popular conception of my old owner. She took me in, knowing that I had no tail and could not be expected to be the bouncy, mischievous companion most Meercas are. My owner worked for one of those guilds which takes in pound NeoPets and gives them to owners, taking care of them in the meantime. She had several accounts which she used to take in pets, feeding them all faithfully and advertising for them in the message boards.

Needless to say, she was rather poor. We had an orange Fuzzle, a red Elephante plushie someone had given her, and a ripped blue Poogle between the four of us. Every so often she rotated the toys, but it wasn't much fun. We got very little personal attention. Having no tail, I got a little more. My owner would come back every day with Transmogrification Potions guaranteed to give me what NeoNature didn't. I was a brown puddle, a Kacheek with a visible blue and pink brain, a rather muscular Grundo, and an Aisha with no ears, in rapid succession.

My owner spent every last NP trying to get me a tail, once taping a fake fur boa to-where a tail usually goes. It fell off, thankfully before my Neo-Fu training course. I was getting very depressed, but my owner never even once brought up the topic of 80 NP and a very nice Techo Doctor who ONLY HAPPENED to be named Dr_Death. I was getting very unpopular with my "brothers": an old grizzled Bruce, fatter than usual, a hyperactive Gelert who enjoyed remarking in a resounding bark everything that occured from the rising of the sun to the passing of a car, cat, human, fellow Gelert, suspicious-looking Usul-you name it, he had an earplug-meriting bark for it. It was headache time whenever our owner came home.

There was also a downcast Poogle, who had no luck at the racetrack and spent most of his allowance in one sitting, and a bad-tempered Jetsam who made me understand very fast why his owner had given up on him. They said that I took up my owner's every waking moment earning and wasting money for the sake of my absent tail. They said that they never got donuts, cookies, or cake anymore. What they neglected to say was that they never got those things period. They also said that I was worthless and a waste of their good, hardworking owner's money.

I retorted, maybe it was a bad idea, that I was at least worth more than a fat Bruce, a Gelert who had become addicted to coffee from an early age, a Poogle with a gambling problem, and a Jetsam with anger management problems. That did it... from that moment I was second-best to the aforementioned. The very next time my owner brought me a potion, the Jetsam replied sweetly that I was feeling ill and would take it tomorrow, pouring it down the sink behind his back.

The owner made them take me up to my room,which had come from a comfy if secondhand haven to a dusty and cockroach-ridden corner in the attic of my owner's NeoHome--thanks to the Jetsam making a fair-and-square trade -in private- of rooms. Now he had two, and I had none.

Whenever I protested, he replied complacently, "Now, now, don't be greedy." This would choke me with rage so that I would fall silent, running to the Battledome to beat up some poor unsuspecting Kiko. Eventually my owner found a new owner for me, explaining very gently and patiently that her account had only been a temporary measure to save me from the evils of the pound. This would have been very calming if my loving "siblings" had not added such remarks concerning my new owner's sadly neglected NeoHome, her food that was all bitten or bruised, and her ripped and torn toys, that I wondered if the pound might not be better.

I was a very anxious little Meerca that night, as I removed the fleas from my toothbrush (the Gelert had received a bath that day and had insisted on a nice soft brush), strained some of the water from my toothpaste (the Bruce had decided to make a mint smoothie from it), brushed my teeth, then stumbled, exhausted, into my dusty little corner, flipped the thorns and sand (compliments of the down-and-out Poogle) out of my worn blanket, and collapsed on the mattress, stifling a sharp "ow!" SOMEONE had replaced my thin, hard mattress with a thinner, harder plank of wood. (The Jetsam had been seen heading to the nearby woods bearing an ax, earlier that morning), and it suddenly occurred to me- maybe my life wasn't all that nice. Just maybe, it was not (nice enough to merit) running away.

Instantly I was up and active. Tiptoeing down the hallway, I crept to the cupboard. It wasn't like I was STEALING. I was just taking food that would be served to me tomorrow anyway. I removed a loaf of bread and a Gross Delicacy--Tail of Goobedygurk. My owner had had some harebrained thought that perhaps eating a tail might make me grow one. I ate the bread there and then the Jetsam had forced me into pleading sick for two days straight, while my owner spent her savings on 6 homegrown meals.

I left the home where I had spent so many unhappy laughterless days, and wiped a tear of happiness from my eye. No more mint smoothies from my toothpaste! No more mistaking a board of wood for my mattress! No more fleas in my toothbrush! No more thorns and sand in my blanket!! I turned and walked straight into the leg of some NeoPet Staff member person. He knelt down and handed me a booklet about the joys of public service. I agreed to work for a new game they were beta-testing. It was kind of frustrating, but at least I had a tail! Now if only they could abolish red Neggs....

The End