Tales Of Terror, Straight From The Neoboards!

First of all, not every spooky story is sad! As for myself, the following spooky occurrences happened to me this year: getting a "White Acara (TCG)" through a random event seconds after zapping my lab rat into a White Acara; getting the "Venuquin" Collectable Card seconds after saving my Venuquin story for the Neopian Times on a petpage; and finding a mysterious Petpet Paint Brush in my inventory, which confused me until I realized I'd been published in the special "Petpet Day" issue of the Neopian Times.

Thinking this would make a great article for the Halloween issue of the Neopian Times, I decided to ask the Neoboards what the spookiest things they've experienced this year were!

The first thing people mentioned was unusual luck! One user won two Zombie Paint Brushes from the Nerkmid Machine in one day. Another user got a Fountain Faerie quest moments after mentioning the Fountain Faerie in a Neomail to a friend. I thought this was amazing! And yes, ever so slightly spooky as well!

Similarly, lots of people admitted that they often found wonderful and expensive items in their inventories, then scratched their heads, wondering how they ended up there. I had to smile! I too miss Random Events quite often, though it's certainly gratifying to see the Paint Brushes and Codestones in my inventory!

Something funny that someone mentioned was forgetting that she'd already done her dailies for the day. She logged on later and was freaking out over how her dailies had all been completed. Later on, she slapped her forehead and remembered that she'd logged on at 7 am to do her dailies. How spooky! I would have been stressing out too, if my dailies had mysteriously been already done!

A common spooky occurrence that happens to lots of Neopians is the Neopets dream! They'll dream about playing on Neopets just as though they were playing in real life. They'll dream about winning big on the Wheels, or winning a Pirate Draik Egg from the Forgotten Shore. Tons of people admitted that they dreamed about finally getting their ultimate dream pet. I have to admit, I've had several Neopets dreams myself! In the most recent one, I was published in the 650th issue of the Neopian Times, and I was so disappointed when I woke up and realized it was just a dream!

Some spooky dreamers will go so far as to actually LIVE in the Neopets universe! They'll play with their Neopets (now life-size), or visit such well-known Neopian haunts as Neopia Central or Kreludor. I thought that was amazing! I'd love to pretend that I live in the Neopets universe. It's such a beautiful and friendly place, full of imagination and wonder!

One spooky occurrence that happened rather recently, in August, was the appearance of a new Petpet named Sparky, obtainable by visiting Coltzan's Shrine. The Neoboards were flooded with "I love Sparky!" and "What's up with the new Sparky Petpet?" Theories ran rampant, with some users thinking Sparky was the precursor to a new plot, while others believed Sparky was part of a new site event. As it turns out, Sparky was just a freebie that TNT thought would enrich our lives. They were right! Sparky fan clubs have sprouted all over the Neoboards, and weeks later, they're still going strong!

Telepathy was an interesting topic on my threads. Apparently there are people who were thinking of certain Neofriends, only to receive Neomails from these friends seconds later. I thought that was pretty spooky! That's happened to me a couple of times too, and I have to admit, I thought it was rather weird!

Many avatar collectors admitted that mere minutes after complaining about avatar games on the Neoboards, their luck suddenly improved and they got the necessary power-ups and other items to reach the avatar score. I thought this was majorly cool...as well as spooky! Especially since these users admitted that they've been playing the games for years without any luck! Congratulations to all the gamers out there! I wish we could all be so lucky!

The people who love to customize their pets made me laugh! They exclaimed that the spookiest aspect of customizing their pets is that sometimes the pets get glitched. One famous user who frequents the Help Neoboard has a headless grundo that she refuses to fix. Other users have similar glitches. I couldn't help but laugh out loud!

The gamers admitted that the spookiest aspect of the site, for them, is discovering cheaters who end up on the game high score tables with impossible scores. I feel the same way! Whenever I see someone on a high score table with a weird high score, I get a little nauseated...then report them right away. It pays to be a good Neopian!

Another rather interesting spooky occurrence was when people returned to Neopets after long hiatuses from the site. They were rather bewildered to find that Draiks cost 1.7 million np, when they'd formerly been 7-11 mil. They were also confused about why Codestones formerly costing 31,000 np were now worth 7,000 np. Thanks, TNT, for the Forgotten Shore and the new Battledome!

Several people had weird Random Events, similar to the ones I wrote at the beginning of this article. For instance, one user was wishing that she had a few more hundred np in order to spin a Wheel. Strangely enough, she immediately got a Random Event that gave her 500 np! I thought that was pretty awesome! And yes, pretty spooky as well! Other people reported getting Faerie quests right after complaining that they never get any Faerie quests. How odd...and weirdly wonderful!

Thanks for reading my article, my dear Neopians! I had a lot of fun talking to you on the Neoboards, and I learned a lot about the wacky occurrences that make us addicted to this site!

May you have a ton of fun this Halloween!