Virtual Pets

The desktop icon for the virtual pet software

**Virtual Pets** are a collection of software where users can take care of digital pets on their HypnOS desktop screen. They were created by Roddy Wall and Dylan Merchant.

## Usage and Design

When a user downloads and runs the virtual pet software, a small house icon will appear on their desktop. When clicked on, this will open a window that will show the name, health, and happiness of the pet.

The pet will appear on the desktop. It will float around from location to location, sometimes playing a special idle animation, and will poop from time to time. The poop appears as application icons that must be dragged into the trash can.

Over time, the pet's health and happiness will decrease. To increase happiness, the user must play with the pet, by hovering their mouse over it and holding down left click, to pet it. To increase health, the user must buy pet food using Hypnocoin and feed it to the pet or purchase a Tree of Life from Merchantsoft that creates an infinite supply of food. The latter can be fertilized using the waste produced by the digital pet.

Pets have a secret built-in function where they can decrypt SamWich encrypted files. This was likely implemented by Roddy Wall, who had developed SamWich encryption, and added it into the software as a way to decrypt them after Merchantsoft refused to officially support it.

There are different types of pets, but the main difference between each one is mainly just the appearance and skin. Basic functions and behaviors remain the same.

## How to Access

Virtual pets are downloaded off of Hypnospace for a cost of 22 Hypnocoin. They are often found on official Merchantsoft pages in Teentopia. The three publicly available ones are April the Angelic Hamster, Lovesquid, and Mushi, the first licensed pet as a cross-promotional deal with SquisherZ. However, there is an additional pet, Testpet (which is based on the character Muleta from Taurus and Muleta), created by Roddy Wall available on his FLIST page as a personal file.

## The Pets

#### April the Angelic Hamster

April the Angelic Hamster is the first 'official' Virtual Pet you can find in-game. Her page, like most of the others, is the first page to show up in Teentopia with the phrase "Adopt April the Angelic Hamster!".

She resembles just as her name implies, a hamster. When adopted, April will glide around your desktop as if she is flying, and like most other pets, will become sad the less attention you give her. While idle, April will occasionally lay on her side, holding her head up with one of her paws, before continuing to fly about the screen again.

When sad, April's head will be turned as if she is looking down and begging for attention. As her health and happiness decline, her colors will become a greenish shade. April dies eventually if you fail to meet her requirements, and when she does, she will be laying gray on the screen with her eyes closed until you click on her and she fades away.

#### Mushi

Mushi is the second virtual pet you can acquire in-game on November 26th and is the first officially licensed SquisherZ pet. It will appear on the first Teentopia page with the phrase "Adopt Mushi now!"

Mushi when adopted and downloaded glides around your screen, though this time rather than flying, Mushi will squish about and leave a trail of slime as it goes. Mushi when idle will sit and swing its head about back and forth happily, occasionally doing a little spin.

When sad, Mushi will appear with a sad face and tears in its eyes while waiting for attention. As its health and happiness decline its color, like April's, will become an odd shade of green. If not given the right attention and food, Mushi will eventually melt into a puddle and die, appearing completely gray until you click on it and it fades away.

#### Lovesquid

Lovesquid is the final virtual pet you can acquire in-game before the crash on December 31st. Lovesquid will appear on the first page in Teentopia with the phrase "Lovesquid wants to love YOU! Will you let it?"

After it is adopted and downloaded, Lovesquid will 'float' around the screen, occasionally idling with its tentacles in the shape of a heart or even sitting on a surfboard, before going about floating again. Occasionally Lovesquid may also do a short spin when sitting still.

As expected, when Lovesquid's health and happiness decline, it becomes gradually sadder, appearing with a sad face and tears in its eyes while waiting for attention. When not given the proper attention, Lovesquid's color will eventually become greener. Once the health and happiness bars are empty, Lovesquid will do one last animation where it flips and floats upside down, appearing gray with X's in its eyes until you click on it and it fades away.

Lovesquid stands out against the previous pets for not only being a 3D model rather than 2D but also having a small story on its page about its origin.

#### TestPet

Testpet is a virtual pet never released bearing a striking resemblance to that of Muleta from the supposedly famous TV show Taurus and Muleta. Testpet is not acquirable through Teentopia, and can only be found in the FLST of Roddy Wall on November 5th. It can be assumed that due to its name, Testpet is the first pet ever created by Roddy himself before going on to make the others.

It functions the same as the rest of the pets, only appearing with a much simpler design as compared to the others. When idling, Testpet will occasionally do a small spin while its pupil flashes red, though it will simply sit still until moving again for the most part. When it is pet, small hearts will flash next to its eye to show that it is happy.

As Testpet's health and happiness decline, the eye will look down to the ground, with very hard-to-spot tears appearing underneath it until you give it attention. As the health bar continues to decline, Testpet will appear with a greenish color, before eventually turning gray once the bars are both fully empty. When dead, Testpet will lay flat on the ground with an X in its eye until you click on it and it fades away.

It can be assumed that Roddy never released this pet due to copyright reasons, and instead kept it for himself as he was quite the fan of Taurus and Muleta. Artie Dispenza also mentions during the Archival Project that he's looking for it, and when found will say that it brings back fond memories of petting it for long periods, counting each heart that materialized around it.

## The Tree of Life

The Tree of Life is one of two ways in-game that you can feed your virtual pet. While you can simply buy food for your pet on its health and happiness tab, the Tree of Life gives you a much easier and faster way of feeding them without having to spend Hypnocoin on them every time you need food.

Once the tree is installed, you simply have to wait for a few minutes for its cocoons to properly pop, and present you with a new bit of food for your pet. If left long enough, it will start to stack foods on top of each other so you don't have to pull from the tree itself every time you need food.

The tree's food works for every pet, so you don't have to worry about getting different pets different things. In turn, you may also fertilize the tree itself to have the food grow faster. You'll know the tree's grown new food for you when you hear a distinct popping sound as you're looking through Hypnospace.

## Trivia

* HypnOS Dreamtoolz has a 'Petz' section that lets you change the speed, happiness, health, and poop amount of your pet. This tool also lets you make your pet invincible forever if you so choose, as well as revive previous pets you may have had that died.

## Gallery

April the Angelic Hamster's StatusThe poop a virtual pet leaves behindApril's special idle stanceApril being petApril sad from no attentionApril sick/hungry from no attentionApril dead :(Lovesquid special idle stanceLovesquid petLovesquid sad from no attentionLovesquid sick/hungry from no attentionLovesquid dead :(Mushi special stanceMushi petMushi sad from no attentionMushi sick/hungry from no attentionMushi dead :(TestPet petTestPet special stanceTestPet sad from no attentionTestPet sick/hungry from no attentionTestPet dead :(