The Ranch

Collaboration (3)

Trying to get used to the feeling of being touched, Maddox tries to understand Tih's actions. He notices the ID card in his hand, being swiped all over his clean glass desk.

"Did you want to view its information?" Maddox asks Tih in a patient manner.

Maddox's 'trying to coax a child' voice gives Phillip the chills.

Tih nods and Maddox presses his own ID on the glass which activated the desk. The glass illuminates as it's turned on. "Now press the ID down."

Tih follows his instructions and places the card against the glass. After scanning the ID, the information appears on screen.

[Name: Alphonse Wilmhelmer

Trials completed: 453

Occupation: Silver-star Physicist

Red-star Biochemist

Purple-star Finance management

Kquil: 12,273,296]

"Alphonse? Isn't this..." Maddox looks surprised.

"Yes..." Phillip tries to figure out what Tih wants to do.

Tih taps on the screen a few times, looking for something, until this pops up:

[Dormitory: D

Room: C194]

After getting the information he was looking for he puts the ID away and hops off Maddox's lap. He pulls on Maddox's sleeve in one hand and Phillip's in the other as he pulls the two out of the room without an explanation.

Phillip and Maddox glance at each other. Phillip shrugs silently, believing Tih knows what he's doing. Maddox also cooperates and lets himself be pulled along.

They walk all the way to Dorm D. Luckily, adults legs are longer than children's and Tih could speed up a bit. Usually when he's with Kai or someone else his age, Tih matches his pace to theirs, making traveling take a lot longer.

They walk into Dormitory D. Tih knows the general direction from his time working for Private Scott. They reach the section of apartments that start with C and scour through them until they find C194.

Surprisingly, both the top and bottom floors make up C194. It seems this building has been renovated before and is slightly different from its surrounding buildings. First off, there are no stair to reach the second floor and no door on the second floor. The only way in is the door on the first floor.

"To think someone of his status would keep his apartment and even out in the money to extend it." Phillip comments.

Usually, one people reach a certain reputation level and make a large steady income, they'll move out of the dorms and build their own place somewhere on the island, usually concealed from outsiders to keep all the precious things they have safe.

In Alphonse's case, he took an 'hidden in plain sight' approach. That, and he collected so many things over the year that most of the things in here are worthless in his eyes, hence why he called it "storage".

The three step in front of the door as Tih takes out Alphonse's ID and places it on the scanner. The door opens and they walk inside.

The room has no bathroom, no beds, and more importantly no interior walls. The walls separating the bedroom from the bathroom have been taken down. There's a small spiral staircase in the corner of the room leading to the second floor.

The floors can no longer be seen, because of the mountains of clutter piled all over the room. Everything is stacked one on top of each other like a horder's house.

Phillip casually picks something up before looking at it and freezing in place, not wanting to damage what's in his hands.

Instructor Maddox carefully inspects the clutter, discerning some of the objects without touching anything. " Everything in here is worth quite a lot. Even the cheapest thing would be a month's worth of a soldier's salary.

Phillip carefully sets the object in his hands down before dashing upstair with a gleeful smile that would make most people swoon.

"If we display these as potential prizes...Tih, is this what you meant by coming here?" Maddox realizes something and turns to ask Tih.

Tih nods.

Maddox's eyebrows knit slightly," Everything in here is of high quality. If we want to buy it from you, it'll put us in a bad position financially. If we don't manage to turn a profit with the carnival..." He seems to be calculating something in his head.

Tih shakes his head. He grasps Maddox's hand and places the ID inside.

Maddox looks surprised," You want to give it to us for free?" Then his eyebrows tighten further," There's nothing to gain from giving us these that would outweigh the cons of losing all these valuable objects. It's a win lose situation."

As a businessman, Maddox likes to think in terms of gains and losses. He likes to weigh his options before making any rash decisions. Offering up something so valuable for free is something Maddox would never dare to think of and he's not particularly interested in the loan shark market. As such, he wants to dissuade Tih from doing anything reckless.

"...Then lets do this instead. We'll take the objects in this room as an investment. After the carnival is over, we'll give you a certain percentage of the profits." Phillip offers as he climbs down the stairs.

Maddox gives it a thought. It still favors them, but at least it's not completely taking advantage of Tih's naivety. Looking into Tih's clear blue eyes, it's apparent that he cares not about money or material possessions. Tih has not had an inkling of greed in his eyes ever since he stepped in this room.

"Then...if that's fine with Tih." Maddox already knows Tih is likely to agree to anything, but it's only polite to ask for confirmation.

Tih nods in approval. He hands the card over since it'll probably take some time to go through and move all this stuff out.

"We'll hand the card back to you once we're done." Phillip ruffles Tih's hair.