The Ranch

Anger management issues (1)

Tih enters the blinding light at the end of the corridor and returns on the outskirts of the colosseum. His eyes need a second to adjust to the light.

Looking around, there's no one else nearby. Patting his belly, he decides to look for food to eat. The closest available food is in the Central Market. He starts walking without a second thought.

Inside the maze, Victor and Kai's groups have made their way to the real prize and only have to solve one last, extremely hard puzzle.

While everyone's gearing are spinning on the puzzle they're also thinking about other things.

Some are thinking about how Tih is doing and if he's okay. Pierre is observing the other group's actions with his own thoughts. Some are completely focused on the puzzle, but aren't of much help on these types of things.

Sherlock is thinking about Victor's group. At first, they were just potential partners to work with, but the more time he spends with them, the more he wants to team up. He's sure that if they band together, they'll be a force to reckon with in the future.

At this point, he completely approves of victors group joining them and plans to be more forceful in persuading Kai. Previously, he didn't want to escalate the situation into a fight that might create cracks in their team, but no longer. Sherlock plans to bring them over whether Kai likes it or not.

Tih hands his ID to a vendor as he takes the corndog he asked for. He takes a bite of the side like one would when eating corn as he continues walking around. He looks for a slushee place he's tried previously.

On the other side of the street someone Tih hasn't seen in a while spots him. Veins pops on his forehead as he immediately loses all rationale and tries to rush over to beat Tih.

Luckily for him, his buddies hold him back.

"Axel, you got to calm down."

"Yeah, remember? Deep breaths, deep breaths."

Axel's teammates recall the fiasco at the arena that happened a while back. Axel started an altercation with the child over there.

After a short questioning, Axel's friends at the time had heard about Axel's trauma that he refuses to admit is a problem. More importantly, they saw a glimpse at his real personality and realized he wasn't trustworthy.

Afterwards, a lot of Axel's friends distanced themselves from him, finding his problems an overall disadvantage.

Those that stuck around saw his mask as an asset. Of course, knowing his usual personality is nothing more that a facade, they've put up their guards, but on the outside, they've only gotten closer.

After what happened, they realized Tih was Axel's weakness, one that they wanted to fix but combined with his real, grudge-filled personality, it was an unaccomplishable task.

After spending more time and focus on watching Axel they realized he has anger management issues, but that he usually hides it behind his fake attitude. He also likes to keep strong resentful grudges. Axel's buddies had started finding him not worth the effort, and were debating whether to ditch him or not.

So, although they held Axel back, they gave up after a while when they saw his condition not improving. Soon enough, Axel stomped his way over to Tih. He has a large grin that show an 'I want to skin you alive' look.

Tih looks at the familiar person with an innocent expression while taking another bite of his corndog.

Axel's eyes squint in contempt at Tih's stupid looking expressionless face that he always has on. That face has haunted many of his nightmares but refuses to accept this weakness. His anger issues are more of a coping mechanism to overpower the fear in his heart.

In an overly friendly tone, he calls out, "Tih! Long time no see. How've you been? We haven't talked in a while. Such a shame too, were from the same orphanage so we should stick together, don't you think?" Axel's Act is a lot more stable this time around, but his expression isn't nearly as natural as it usually is.

Tih remains neutral, but gives his complete attention to the person talking to him, like he always does.

Axel finds himself annoyed by the face he can't read. He glances at the corndog, "Are you hungry? I've actually become somewhat of a chef while on the island. Would you like to try a taffy I made?" He pulls out a pink taffy from his pocket. He was planning on using this on someone else, but that don't matter now.

Tih's eyes stare intently at the food, almost as if he's drooling. He looks at Axel.

"Go ahead." He moves his hand closer to Tih with a smile.

*Glomp*

Someone of a larger frame presses his body on Tih's back. His large arm wraps around Tih's shoulder as he leans his weight against the smaller Tih.

At the sudden increase in weight, Tih doesn't flinch. His legs remain stable, carrying most of the person's weight. The only thing that bent was his neck as his head was forced to lean in by the chest pressing against it.

"Is this from Mr.Iseben's shop?" A deep, melodious voice asks as more of a statement.

Axel's smile seems to crack at the name knowing he's been exposed, but he quickly calms himself," I'm sorry, but I've never heard of him?"

"Oh? Then maybe it was my bad." The man gives a knowing smirk. He shift his positing so his arms are supported by Tih's shoulders and his head is sitting atop Tih's.

"...Well, it looks like you're a little busy. I'll talk to you later." He looks at Tih with hidden resentment before walking away.

Once he's gone, the man gets off and spins Tih around, "Hey, kid, are you familiar with that brat? He doesn't seem to have good intentions."

Tih looks at Phillip's frown with no particular opinion.

Phillip sighs," The usual, huh." He pinches Tih cheeks, stretching his lips to the side. He lets out a nice-sounding chuckle.

"If you're hungry, let's go eat." He wraps his arm around Tih's neck once more as the walk side by side.

Phillip talks a little along the way, mostly about random things and a little about the maze that popped up.