I wish I could show my gfs reaction from last night when I was telling her about Neopets and got around to explaining the pound chat and pet adoption process. When I said “so you have to basically write an essay about why you want and deserve this pretend animal” she could not believe it. I wasn’t even really questioning it as anything weird as I’ve been steeped in UFA culture since I was ten. then I had to explain that I myself have also written these neopet applications and she fully short circuited. the only stronger reaction she had in our 45min neopet discussion was when I said “so you have pets, and then you have petpets which are pets for your pets, and you have petpetpets which are pets for your petpets” and she audibly screamed