The Void Within

[Twillie]

So we've got five defaced posters on Neopets' social media now, and the most recent is an interesting one. Instead of a land you can visit, it's for the mountain range between the Haunted Woods and Altador:

I wonder if they're finally going to do something with that location.

Also, I didn't notice until other comments mentioned it, but every poster so far features the same Yurble holding a sad balloon with their back turned to us. Teaser for another character that will be featured in the plot?

[Carolyn]

Oh hey, I just noticed the sad Yurble with the frowning balloon. Are they part of the dark faerie's crew?

[notooryous]

In regards to the mountain poster - some people think TNT will be introducing a new land with this plot!

www.jellyneo.net/?comments=14703

[Duke Pikachu]

Yeah, I've been mostly chatting with other users on the JN comments since they started doing the posters. To quickly summarize some of the stuff that's been posted:

Baelia's Dairy Entry:
Before we go into the posters, first thing that was posted on Neo's Social Media was a diary entry from Baelia:

Dear Diary,

Long ago, I took on this form. My powers were taken, but I went on and continued. It's not been easy, and I know that something irreplaceable was taken from me.

Darkness lurks in my mind and makes my heart ache. I have met a new friend. Looking inside, gaining hopeful thoughts.

Baelia

Now it's a bit odd Baelia is saying her powers were irreplaceable. Since her introduction we knew what Baelia had to do to get, if not her old powers, new powers back: Get a new name. Obviously this is easier said then done, otherwise Baelia would have done it by now (unless there's some reason Baelia has a strong personal connection with her name and refuses to let it go). But for them to have Baelia now say its "irreplaceable" is making it sound like there's no way for Baelia to get any powers back in a natural way.

The last sentence had caused some discussion in the JN's comments. Some take it to being Baelia's new "friend" is taking her down a dark path. I personally just read it that Baelia is simply expressing her sadness about her previous described predicament but has met a new friend, leading to the poem-like sentence at the end. Who is this new friend? Unless this is an old diary entry, which I don't think it's supposed to be, it would be odd for her to refer to Tavi as a new friend after all these years. Now Faeries live for hundreds if not thousands of years so their sense of time could be skewed thus Tavi is a "new" friend she made within like a couple of decades. But I'm in agreement it's likely referring to some other character... maybe a certain Yurble with a sad balloon that has been recently appearing?

Finally, at least pertaining to Baelia's diary entry, archangel11891 noted that the first letter of each word in the last sentence spelled LIGHT. Note that this isn't the only letter word game TNT did, in the News post announcing the return of the Festival of Neggs it contained several spelling "errors" via several words missing a letter. However, if you combined the missing letters together, they also spelled a word: TROPHY. Now, TNT hasn't do any word games like this since, and who knows if these two instances have anything to do with one another or they're hinting at two separate things. The only last thing maybe worth mentioning is that, in a past NT Editorial, it was confirmed that Baelia used to be a Light Faerie.

Defaced Meridell & Brightvale Posters:
First posters we got, the following details of the drawings on them:

SPOILER: Click to show

Meridell:
* Bottom right corner there is a Yurble with a sad-face balloon. Some users are suggesting it might be a Pofew Petpet, though Pofews don't have a mouth so I'm leaning no.
* Main gate entrance of Meridell Castle is blacked out, what looks to be clawed hands (five of them) are reaching out of the darkness, and wisps or tendrils rise up from it, some crawling over the Meridell sigil.
* The leftmost tower is drawn to have cracks all over it.
* Four pairs of glaring eyes are floating to the right of the castle. There are three smaller ones, the middle one is crying. Above them is a large pair with furrowed eyelids (and possibly wrinkles lines on the bottom?).
* Between the small eyes and big eyes the area of the sky is blackened out. Combined with the big pair of eyes (and some outlining of clouds to maybe resemble a nose), it looks like an angry, yelling face.
* "Welcome" has been crossed out; hence the poster reads "to MERIDELL".

Brightvale:
* Sitting by the edge of the moat on the left is the Yurble with the sad balloon.
* Brightvale's main gate entrance has also been blacked out, but it's more sloppy than how it was done in Meridell's poster. This looks more liked they scribbled to cross it out that color it in.
* The right wall is drawn to have a massive crack.
* All the flags on the towers have been blacked out.
* A portion of the moat on the left has been blacked out. There's also a pair of glaring eyes in it.
* The road in front of the castle has cracks drawn on it and flowers growing out of them. One are a pair of roses while the other pair are daisy-like.
* The flags on the road has also been blacked out and look to have paint brushes drawn on.
* The surrounding field has a couple of spots where partially buried skulls and bones are sticking out.
* The "Brightv" part of "Brightvale" has been crossed out and the word "DULL" with an arrow is written underneath it; hence the poster reads "Greetings from DULLale" (though maybe the "V" isn't meant to be crossed out and it's supposed to be "DULLvale").

Describing them sounds like a creepypasta. All that we can conclude is that whoever is doing this is sentient as they at least read & write in English/common Neopian. While there are some matching themes, for right now the most notable is the Yurble with the sad balloon. And oddity for me are the flowers drawn on Brightvale's poster. Glaring eyes, clawed hands, skulls & bones; typical things you'd expect someone to draw to be scary & intimidating. But flowers? I don't know about you, but their inclusion makes these defacings feel a bit more unnerving. The paint brushes on the flag also feel like an odd inclusion, though does bring to mind a certain paint brush that was seen during last year's Advent Calendar teaser; albeit loosely.

Defaced Neopia Central & Haunted Woods Posters:
Nest poster was Neopia Central, though soon after came one for the Haunted Woods. Note JN's post says the Haunted Woods poster is a spoiler, but it was given its own social media post that JN never reported on.

SPOILER: Click to show

Neopia Central:
Quite a lot is going on, I'm going to also put it in a quote box to further separate it from the Haunted Woods poster observations:

BANK:
* Cracks are drawn on the roof.
* Doorway and window is blacked out.
* There are wooden signs in front of it that have also been crossed out? One of the ones still visible has a giant "X" on it.
* The path in front of it has a crack and footprints leading out of it.

FOOD SHOP:
* The windows are made to look like angry eyes.
* Black goo spills from the top, which with the eyes looks like the mouth.

RAINBOW POOL:
* Is blacked out (also whoever made the post didn't include a rainbow coming out of it).
* Pair of eyes looking out of it.

MONEY TREE:
* Top is blacked out and made to look like it leaking goop that gathers on the floors beside it.
* Given an angry face.
* In addition to the goop on the floor, some bones are sticking out.

NEOLODGE:
* In front are mean laughing faces (two crossed out, the one that isn't is the only one with its eyes open)
* The trees beside it have angry eyes, another large pair of angry eyes with elongated eyebrows is drawn above them.
* The Yurble with the sad balloon is sitting on the roof. Behind it is another figure that's completely blacked out (some say its Faerie-shaped).

MESSAGE:
* "new" is crossed out and "BLEAK" is written underneath it; hence the poster reads "Neopia Central | Come Visit! Where BLEAK beginnings are made.."

Haunted Woods:
* The tree on the right side is drawn to have black goop spilling out of its mouth. The goop blacks out the space below it and oozes over the words.
* In the blacked out space are three pairs of glaring eyes, the middle one looking worried.
* Right beside the tree's face is a partial drawing of the menacing-looking paint brush that was seen at the end of last years Advent Calendar sneak peak of the Void Within; it spewing out paint from the top.
* Bottom left corner has a bone drawn to be sticking out of the ground.
* A blacked out path is drawn going between the gates, various flowers growing from it.
* Also seen between the gate is the Yurble with the sad balloon.
* Between the left side tree and the gate there is a face which looks to be Vira's.
* That tree's branch is drawn to be leaking goop.
* Several of the blank spaces in the background have a face drawn on, making them look like wispy ghosts.
* "Don't" is written in front of the poster's message; hence the post reads: "Don't Explore THE HAUNTED WOODS".

SO, a lot more is revealed here! Well, with the Haunted Woods poster at least. Though I do want to nitpick some things with the Neopia Central poster: (1) You can visibly see Brightvale castle in the background. I don't think Brightvale is that close, especially since on most maps it shows Kiko Lake is between them, and Kiko Lake is inside a extinct volcano caldera. (2) Why is there two periods at the end of the message? Makes it sound sinister even before the defacing. Well, that's enough of that, onto the (added) details.

So, this seems to highly suggest Vira is involved with this, if not the one doing the defacing. And some details would make a lot of sense if she is. Not only does it seem like something she'd do to be spiteful and get a rise out of people, but it explains the flowers. Vira was cursed when she was making daisy chains and wished she was the most beautiful Acara in all of Neopia. In addition, Vira is still said to wonder those fields, but whenever she kisses the flowers they turn poisonous. And of course, at the end of last year's Faerie Festival she was hanging out with a Faerie whom looked to be Drakara. Though, if Vira is defacing the posters, this also means she's aware of the menacing-looking Paint Brush.

Now having four posters, we can also better see is there's any patterns between them aside from the Yurble with the sad balloon. In all but the Brightvale poster there has been at least a group of 3 pair of eyes. There's quite a few famous villain trios in Neopia, such as The Three and the Dark Faerie Sisters; could this be a reference to them? Then again, in most of these posters the middle eye pair of eyes is sad, so could they be representing something else? Maybe an unwilling participant (the Yurble? Baelia?)? And even though Brightvale doesn't have 3 eyes, it does have eyes in the water which is also present in the Neopia Central poster (and Drakara was using a cauldron to view the events of last year's Faerie Festival; could this be referencing her?). Absent from the Meridell poster, the others also have bones partially buried in the ground in some places, a rather random detail to include. Finally "goop" seems to be another emerging theme.

Defaced Mainland Mountains Poster:
NOT Terror Mountain, that's a polar mountain. Rather its the mountain range spanning down the middle of the Neopia mainland, splitting Haunted Woods & Lost Desert (& I guess Neopia Central) on the right side from Shenkuu & Altador on the left side. There's an old map for a cancelled Neopets MMO which calls them the Backbone Mountains (which I've used in a few of my articles), but since it was never released take that name with a grain of salt. Anyway, though we can't visit those mountains, JN noted that those mountains was where the shapeshifting monsters (the one the Tamed Mini-Monster Petpet is based on) from the Food Eating Contests lived. So, what's going on with this poster? Oddly, nothing much, or maybe more than it seems (since this is short and the most recent of this post I'm not putting it in a spoiler):

* On the left a snow drift cliff is blacked out, those three pair of glaring eyes drawn on it (each looking a different direction; top to the left, middle to the right, middle directly in front) and there's a clawed hand reaching out from the surrounded "M".
* On the right next to a tree we first see the Yurble with the sad balloon.
* All the way to the right, almost the entire side is blacked out. Top right we see a hand that resembles Vira's, and bottom right we see a broken lantern (JN mentions the lantern's design is based on an NC item, I think it's the Incandescent Lanterns, but I don't think that matters).

So, it looks like Vira dropped the lantern? Not sure if that's important, but the eyes looking in all direction could be. It's been noted that the "order" the posters are being revealed is following a trial: Meridell/Brightvale to Neopia Central to Haunted Woods to the Mainland Mountains. From here there's three (likely) possibilities of the next destination (and possibly defaced poster unless this was the last of them):

1. Shenkuu
2. Altador
3. New Land in the Mountains

Okay, the 3rd one may be a stretch, but it was something that was discussed in the JN Comments so thought I might as well bring it up here. The mainland mountains covers a LOT of space for some place you can't visit and doesn't look to have a civilization (aka a "Land"). And though Terror Mountain covers some icy mountain themes, it can't cover them all. Like maybe they could have a new Land based on the Himalayas/Tibet or Machu Picchu/Inca Empire; both of them are high altitude civilizations that no Neopian Land really covers.

Of course those aren't the only possibilities. They could shoot straight up to Terror Mountain, which is where the Neggery is thus connects it to Kari who has been afflicted by the "Grey Curse". Just the same, they could go all the way down to the uninhabited (unless you're a Darblat) South Pole. And speaking of empty spaces, there's that land between Shenkuu and Altador; passing through there gives them access to Moltara (& Lutari Island & Dacardia, would be wild if that's how they introduced those lands); there's also those islands just before Moltara or that big island next to Shenkuu.

Guess we'll have to wait and see.

Festival of Neggs FAQ:
Finally, the Festival of Neggs is our latest source of information. You may have noticed I called what has happened to Kari and some other Neopian Shopkeepers the "Grey Curse". That's not just me coming up with the name, that's the official name of the affliction as far as we know it! It comes from the Festival of Neggs FAQ:

What's Wrong with Kari?

Kari has been affected by what many in Neopia are calling the grey curse. However, no one really knows anything about it so we can't be sure if it's a curse, an aliment, or what! All we know is that it is somehow affecting Neopians all over the lands and nothing seems to be able to cure it. Things such as Paint Brushes and Morphing Potions seem to have no effect. Not even Naia's Rainbow Fountain can change one back from being grey!

So, in-lore many have become aware that something fishy is going on and have declared it a curse (though also confirm no one is sure what it is). And attempts to cure it with PBs, MPs, and the Rainbow Pool have been attempted but failed to cure the afflicted. So this is nice to know... too bad its buried in the FAQ (not to mention it's kind of annoying that the above posters and Baelia diary was primarily posted to social media, so if you don't have social media (like me...) the only way of knowing of these things is from JN and learning about some other stuff from the comments). SIGH. Anyway, these attempts sound mostly something the common people would do, I'm still wondering how characters like Fyora, Taelia, and maybe the Defenders of Neopia are responding to this.

[Duke Pikachu]

An update from this year's Festival of Neggs (spoilers in spoiler tag):

SPOILER: Click to show

Orion has returned to help Kari (who yesterday was struggling to come up with hiding places & rhyming clues; Orion is now here to help with both of those while Kari collects and awards the Neggs)!

Orion is better now, the nightmares he was having have subsided thanks to Fyora and the Faerieland court. They had no luck deciphering the visions caused by the lyre. He still looks tired though says its because he's now spending his nights researching he meaning of the visions (Orion feels like the kind of character you need to interrupt from his studies to remind he needs to eat and drink).

He said the nightmares returned for a bit during the Month of Awakening (February), though as of now are completely gone. Looking back the event that was happening during February was the Neopies which had some categories nominate what happened during last year's Advent Calendar, though no story bits itself. So maybe it was a reference to that (it did win best Site Event)?

Finally, Orion didn't come on his own whim. Mira sent him. Apparently Kari told Mira that if something happened which involves her but Mira is busy protecting the galaxy to not abandon her duty to come and help. So, Mira sent Orion instead. This seems to suggest that, at this current moment, Mira is busy someplace in space doing her Space Faerie duty; wonder what it is? Simply an excuse to keep one of the more powerful characters away or will what she's doing be part of the plot?

As a side note, apparently to assure Mira doesn't do this, Kari said that she'll make Mira "regret it". Kari, the Negg Faerie, will do something to make Mira, the Space Faerie, regret ignoring her duty to come and help. What dirt does Kari have on Mira? Now, I'd imagine Mira isn't one to abandon her duties anyway, if she's indeed busy with something she would have contacted someone else to check on Kari regardless (which also brings up the question how does Mira know Kari needed help? I'd more sooner expect Fyora or Taelia; possibly Mira knows something and that it involves Kari?). But still, pretty bold for Kari, even playfully, to suggest she can do something to one of the most powerful beings in Neopia. Either Kari has some hidden depths... or that "something" is embarrassing information? Hm, let's see... I'm betting it's Mira dressed as a Kari! To make Kari feel better about the time she had to dress up as her, Mira put on a Negg Faerie get-up for her to realize it does geel embarrassing dressing as one of your sisters... which is when Kari took a photo and hid it away. Never hurts to have some blackmail on your sibling. 

In other news, a few more characters got afflicted with the Grey Curse, and these two are big ones in their own ways.

For in-lore: King Skarl! A leader of one of Neopia's major lands has been Grey-ified, as if a Faerie getting the Grey Curse wasn't alarming enough! I can only imagine what's going on in Meridell Castle about this news, their not stopping Skarl from hearing jokes (maybe they hope it'll help him?) but would they risk him making any decision in this current depressed state?

For players: The Bank Manager! Probably one of the most visited characters on the site. Sure, he doesn't do much and you ignore his welcomes every time you go to the back to collect interest/withdraw/deposit, but like Hubert he's a long time character any player would know and just sad to see him like this.

I gotta commend TNT for finding a simple but yet effective way to incentivize players (while also not disturbing the effected site activity, at least not yet).

[Themeguy]

What I'm really curious about is how the mechanics of the curse work. Shopkeepers, the bank manager, and even Kari (due to running the neggery) are people who see plenty of neopets every day as part of their profession. It makes sense that someone could easily walk up to them as a "customer" and slyly sneak the curse onto them.

But when it comes to King Skarl, we're talking about a major leader, and a traditional king at that. This means that there would be limited audiences and tons of security 24/7 to keep him safe. The fact that he's gotten affected by the curse raises eyebrows as to how the curse works, because a personal, targeted attack doesn't really seem to work as a theory anymore unless it's super long range. My other thoughts would be an area-based curse that slowly drains the life out of things, but if that were the case we would be seeing the lands themselves be affected, or at least way more pets, or perhaps it's done via a cursed object, which would be easier to sneak to Skarl as an offering, but the fact it wasn't hinted at at any point by any other greys seems to rule that out as well.

Of course it's always possible that Skarl is just THAT tired of hearing the same joke over and over and over again from avatar seekers.

[Ian Wolf-Park]

Hmm, I wonder, seeing as King Skarl is one of the victims, would King Hagen be a potential target, seeing as they are brothers?

[Duke Pikachu]

So a small bit of information (or at least theory from Orion) has been presented today:

SPOILER: Click to show

After receiving encouragement from Kari yesterday, Orion realized that he received the strongest visions during times many players/Neopians were gathered together:

First was the Advent Calendar in the Month of Celebrating (December).

Second was the Neopies in the Month of Awakening (February)(which I sorted called!).

And now its the Festival of Neggs in the Months of Eating & Hunting (April & May).

So he now theorizes that large gatherings gives the Lyre enough power to send/receive messages, comparing it to how last year's Festival of Neggs he needed players to interact with his cards to give them power. He also semi-jokes about an alternate theory the lyre only works around large crowds because it's an instrument thus wants to "put on a show"; he pushes it aside saying that's silly but I'm mentioning it here cause sillier things have happened.

Eitherway, this presents a problem as the Festival of Neggs is ending soon thus also the large gathering. So this presents three possibilities, listing in the order of less likely to most:

1. Between the end of the Festival of Neggs to start of the Altador Cup there will be another smaller event held (not likely as, in-story, there wouldn't be time to plan and announce it to get the size of the crowd the previous mentioned big event would).

2. At the very end of Festival of Neggs the plot will properly begin (an original theory I and a few others suggested, but now having this information I'm kind of doubting it for the third possibility):

3. Something big is going to go down during the Altador Cup.

It would be a big bold move, but imagine after playing through Round 1 a big catastrophe happens which ends this years AC right then and there (with any points earned during that Altador Cup being combined with plot points earned during the Void Within, throwing in some AC-based prizes in the prize shop). They could even build up to it by having a batch of AC players getting the Grey Curse before the AC starts (some will be seen still on their team trying to power on through, others will just be mentioned as some past AC players are brought back as emergency switch-ins; and of course we may get one or two new players (or more using the Grey Curse as an excuse to do so)). And could also be used as an excuse to include a batch of random characters from all over Neopia who were originally there to watch some games and now are caught in a giant chaos (and maybe even some get taken down or cursed).

Also, since during the AC Neopets usually has its highest player traffic (maybe even some who don't really know much that's going on with the Void Within), this could really get the plot much needed attention. Granted, I can also see a lot of players getting mad the AC was interrupted, but you need to sometimes take those risks to give something like a plot some urgency and impactfullness (plus with how stale the AC has become over the years I wouldn't mind skipping a year so they could find some ways to improve it... or in some cases go back to what worked (like using the previous version of Yooyuball which didn't have auto-switching; maybe go further back to having the Darigan Yooyu go the opposite direction instead of a random one)).

[Carolyn]

I also think they're building up to

SPOILER: Click to show

something massive happening during the AC... And I fully hope for that. Much as I've enjoyed the AC over the years, it is growing stale and it needs something to upend or disrupt it. That would be a smart time to start it with the highest userbase online.

Looks like we're getting a new petpet

[Ian Wolf-Park]

So, it's not just famous Neopians affected by the curse, inanimate objects are now as well.

SPOILER: Click to show

The latest 'victims' of the curse are Coltzan's Shrine and TDMBGPOP

[Breakingchains]

SPOILER: Click to show

nooooo not the plushy =(( FREE HIM

[Duke Pikachu]

QUICK UPDATES:

Festival of Neggs End/First Plot Item/Altador Cup Intrigue Begins:
FoN wraps up with a discovery of another new Petpet, the Tuffala. Its a Moltaran Petpet and it was displaced from its natural habitat when the Obsidian Company Tower was built.

However with the new Petpet also comes our first user involvement of the Void Within plot! On the giant Tuffala that we were chasing all over Neopia, an item called "Lava Musical Cylinder" was stuck to its back. At least that's what Orion calls it as he says it looks like the musical cylinders that music boxes use to play songs, except its an odd shape being triangular (and also made of molten rock). Well, whatever it is, finding it relieves Orion of his visions so that's the end of that (for now). Though they don't say what happens to it in the dialogue, the user is given it and it's a No Trade item. Mine, like I'm sure so many others, is in the SDB, waiting for when its use comes.

And finally, Orion predicts its likely during the Altador Cup, the next major event that'll cause a large (in-world) gathering, he'll get another set of visions again. To be continued...

Defaced Altador Poster:
Another land's defaced poster has been released on social media, this time's Altador. Some casual observations:

SPOILER: Click to show

POSTER: www.jellyneo.net/images/newsup/tvw_altador_poster.jpg

NOTE: The image of the poster comes from the Altador Shore Background: pets.neopets.com/cp/7cfdmlzz/1/7.png

OBSERVATIONS:
* The most obvious thing is all the black streaks rising from Altador. Is is meant to be smoke from fire? Wisps of darkness?

* In addition to the smoke/wisps, buildings (mainly their roofs) are drawn to have cracks on them. Notably the nearby pier has cracks on its platform and on the pillars (one which has black streaks coming out of it which would be odd if its supposed to be smoke from fire).

* There are several shadow-y creatures around (all on the left side). Two have a triangle tail and upward pointing ears (Skeiths?), at the bottom there's a Gelert-looking one running down the stairs as panavision3 noted.

* A flag at the top left has been blacked out except for a Paint Brush symbol.

* The Yurble with the balloon is the closest they've ever been (we even now see the Yurble's ear twirls). I think their eyes are closed (or was drawn pupil-less) and is wearing some kind of headband (it was also noted that its pose matches one of the Grey Yurble's old BD poses)? Also the balloon is no longer sad, it's now angry and scowling (and I think it safe to say its not a Pofew.

* At the mid right, just above the Yurble, there's something that's been added which isn't in the original image. However it looks to be scratched out.

* Finally, this poster has been folded a few more times than previous posters. It's been golded an extra time vertically and horizontally at a diagonal.

It's been noted that this poster lacks the eyes the other posters have had (notably a set of 3 pair of eyes)... though we do have those 3 shadow creatures. Related? Speaking of them, them looking like Skeiths and a Gelert brings to mind The Three... though there's only one Skeith in that group and the third is a Faerie. Not sure if related, but at this point don't feel it hurts to mention.

This poster was released after the Festival of Neggs, so unless we get another poster featuring another land it does seem like things are accumulating in Altador during the Altador Cup.

Grey Cursed TDMBGPOP:
Meanwhile the Grey Curse continues to affect characters, this time it's the poor Discarded Magical Blue Grundo Plushie of Prosperity (turning it from sad to depressed).

I'm wondering what's the exact course of the Grey Curse. First it was affecting Neopia Central Shopkeepers & Bank, than Kari and the Super Happy Shop in Terror Mountain, but now it's going to wherever and affecting objects now (objects with personalities attached to them granted).

Well, that's all I really got to say, we'll see if there's anything to discuss before the beginning of the Altador Cup.

[Ian Wolf-Park]

Seriously?

SPOILER: Click to show

Looks like the Giant Omelette is the newest victim of the curse

[Duke Pikachu]

May 23, 2024 5:16:00 GMT -5 Ian Wolf-Park said:

Seriously?

SPOILER: Click to show

Looks like the Giant Omelette is the newest victim of the curse

SPOILER: Click to show

Huh, so this is weird. As noted, a new Omelette is created every day (out-of-sight; we never seen the giant egg or, possibly more concerning, the gigantic creature which lays said egg), so there's possibly a few implications with how the Giant Omelette is now always remaining grey:

1. The aforementioned gigantic creature was Grey Cursed and, though we don't see it, it now lays grey giant eggs (which we also don't see) which becomes grey Giant Omelettes.

2. Being the origins of the Giant Omelettes are questionable (like is there even an egg and/or creature? I feel those would be rather hard to hide, or at the very least Sabre-X would have something to say. For all we know this could be the doing of something like Confusionator just having a Giant Omelette pop into existence), maybe we're looking things at the wrong angle.

We know characters effected by the Grey Curse aren't just being colored Grey, nor was Kari turned into a Grey Faerie. Notably it's not just the character that turned grey but also their clothing and some things around them. This has now extended to notable objects now being turned grey, though also notably not being "connected" to the object like Coltzen's spirit or Sabre-X. This Grey Curse feels like it's going beyond just a physical transformation, even beyond an mental or spiritual even. This Grey Curse seems to be able to affect the "being", the very existence, of its victims/targets. Affected Neopets and Kari can't just paint themselves back to normal because their reality has been painted over that; no matter what Colour, Species, or Element they are it gets tinged with an intangible "grey" filter. Doesn't matter is a new Giant Omelette is laid everyday, reality has been painted over that all Giant Omelettes are also effected by this "grey" filter. They could try painting over or demolishing & rebuilding Coltzen's Shrine, but the result would be the same: reality changed to have a "grey" filter. This may also explain why Coltzen's spirit is unaffected, because it was the shrine itself that's reality was changed to be grey, he may be considered a different entity that just so happens to exist within the shrine but not a part of it.

[Ian Wolf-Park]

The AMA has announced when the plot will start, June 17, roughly two weeks. And it will delay the Altador Cup until July.