The Ranch

Take Your Kid To Work Day (1)

Recently, Tih has started wondering where everyone goes after breakfast, so today he decides to follow them. The group splits after the meal and each head into different directions.

Tih watches the direction everyone heads into. He picks Kai and follows him into the central market. It's a less busy area with no shops or restaurants, just buildings. Kai presses his ID on a door and it clicks open. Tih enters the door behind him.

Kai walks down a set of stairs into a laboratory. Tih watches in a corner as he pours people's coffee and cleans some small glass plate things and weirdly shaped cups that look like long fingers.

Kai is given a piece of paper and heads back upstairs. He passes by Tih without noticing anything. Tih follows Kai to the forest where he looks at the paper and puts different pieces of plants in the glass cups.

Tih watches for a bit longer before moving on to the next person. Tih walks into a clothing store back at the market. He sees Abel behind a desk, taking and returning people's ID cards like they do in the cafeteria. There's a short line of people in front of the desk.

"Sir, your card was denied." Abel states in a mechanical voice.

"What? That can't be. Try again." The man looks irritated.

The person standing after him annoyedly says," Come on man. If you can't afford it, don't shop."

The man glares at the person behind him and Lutyens back to argue with Abel," There's no way I can't afford it. Try again."

Abel twitches. He uses the ID again for the man to see and again it's denied.

The man bangs on the desk," That's a lie! You're trying to cheat me. You stole my money. I want your manager!"

Abel finishes typing something on a screen attached to the desk. He looks at the man while cracking his knuckles and goes to town on the poor side that didn't know what was coming to him. Abel kicked the man out, literally,  with his shoe, before returning to the desk and continuing his work. The man angrily gets back up and tries to enter, but the doors don't open for him.

Tih moves on to find Pierre, but he sits in front of a couple screens for the whole hour. He is in a building filled with people called accountants. Tih doesn't stay for long.

He finds Victor making round balls like the one he ate that other time. They're made in a small pot. After he makes a batch, Victor takes them to a store and gives it to the man behind the desk in exchange for kquil. Tih listens in on the exchange. The man called an apothecary is trying to bargain with Victor, Victor calls him a haggler.

Lucien sits in front of a computer the whole time Tih watches him, but he's with a bunch of other people with computers. They call it the IT department. Tih leaves the company's building and walks down the street to a smaller one. He waits until Sherlock comes out with his teacher and follows them around.

Today's task is to," Find out who stole this man's ID card."  Tih follows them through different places while they look for clues. Sherlock and his teacher analyze the situation and come to the conclusion that there's no motive. They search a few places before finding it on some old clothes.

Tih has to go to the second colosseum to see Theodore. Theodore earns money through fights. It's also a good form of practice, but not everyone can make a living off of it. Tih watches Theodore play with three people in a row and win. He loses once and wins another two times. They look like they're having fun, Tih thinks as he goes to find Basile.

Tih finds Basile chilling in the shade, eating an osmanthus cake. An hour later, he stands up and walks to a certain area along the beach. He takes a set of boxes out of his space and places them next to a rock wall. "I've been getting some weird addresses lately." Basile mumbles before shrugging and returning to a building that's similar to a post office. It's used for all sorts of transportation, not just mail. Basile's daily work schedule is, picking up the order and putting it in his space, relaxing somewhere for an hour, delivering it, repeat. What should take two to three round trips takes one, which is what allows him to slack.

After doing nothing but watching his friends at work all day, Tih eats dinner then heads back to the apartment to sleep for the night. His mind is blank with no dreams in sight.

Tih doesn't have a job, living off of free food donated by Chef Raphael and free clothes bought by Phillip. He only needs to pay for daily necessities and other snacks and treats he buys from stalls. He pays those using old man Alphonse's fortune. That other ID card is loaded with enough to last a lifetime, though it seems to be dwindling lately since it's been made into more of a communal bank account for the team's expenses. They've almost finished the planning phase. The building stage will soon commence.

Author's note: Bruh, how was I supposed to know Wattpad had a level cap? I'm going to have to figure something out so things might be rearranged a bit.