An Interview with Carassa and Mika

Carassa and Mika are two Chias who have lived on Terror Mountain for many years. They were living in an Igloo when we both joined the site, and they are still there. According to Carassa and Mika, the weather has been so cold lately on Terror Mountain that they have decided to move to a more tropical climate. To start their move, they are having a massive garage sale to get rid of all their unnecessary items. So we decided to put on our heaviest coats and trout over to Terror Mountain to meet those two for an interview. After jumping over falling pianos and dodging umbrellas, we were finally about to catch up with them. Before our journey, we went back and forth on the number of questions and the importance of those questions. After numerous neomails, we came up with 10 questions we thought would finally get to the bottom of why those two are still in Terror Mountain after MANY YEARS. We started the interview with easy questions just to soften them up. Then we hit them with the hard questions as the day wore of.

Thank you for agreeing to this interview. We really appreciate your time. And I'm sure your fans would like to know how you two are doing.

Carassa and Mika: You're both welcome. From time to time we like our fans to know that we care about them and that we won't be here today without their help.

Question: First of all, how are you guys doing?

Carassa and Mika: We are doing great, excellent, in fact. Business is doing great. Even in these hard times we are doing fantastic.

Question: For those who haven't ventured to your neck of the woods before, can you please tell us what you guys sell?

Carassa and Mika: First of all, we sell many items at a bargain! However, we specialize in all items up to a rarity of 89 (R89). Anything above that can be found in other stops in Neopia, but not in our igloo. Unlike most of the shops in Neopia, we have some restrict rules buyers must follow. Our items are so amazing and so sought after that we need rules or it would be a free for all. We try to make things fair for those who come to our igloo to shop. We think the most important thing you must know about our shop is that we do not haggle. Whatever price you see posted is what you must pay. But remember, our items are discounted, so you get a bargain. We also have a rule of one item per minute. You cannot keep buying things just because they are there. You have to be selective on what you really want for that minute. Another important rule we have is that we allow you to only buy 10 items a day. Why is that? Because we believe that our items are the best quality in all of Neopia and to be able to provide the huge discounts we offer this is something we had to agree to with the other Neopian shop owners. Without these rules, we might be out of business.

Question: Where do you get all your items?

Carassa and Mika: We have been collecting items since we started crawling as babies. For a very long time, Mika and I had daily buying competitions; we would come back to the igloo with our items and compare them by rarity, oddity or collectability. We heard they made a show just like it on Neovision, something called "Neotique Roadshow". We are quite hurt that the producers didn't ask us to host it, because who has seen more items pass through their hands than us?

Question: Your Igloo looks relatively small from the outside, so where do you store all your items?

As you might or might not know, Carassa and Mike sell items in the attic of their igloo. So the whole igloo is their attic. Little be known's to us, they decided to gave us a little tour of where they keep all their items and of course, a little glimpse of their personal space. So, going down a spiral staircase (or elevator), we went underground. It felt like we were 5 to 6 floors down when the elevator opened to one of the largest corridors we've ever seen. There were doors everywhere with names of the items they sell on each door. For an underground space there was a lot of light. Carassa and Mike have dag themselves about 20,000 square feet of space under their igloo as their storage and living quarters. This is where they keep all their millions of collectable items. They gave us the tour in a golf cart that went about 30 miles per hour. Because their space was so large, they needed that speed to get from point A to B in a hurry.

Question: Does Tarla's shop of Mystery ever take your business away?

Carassa and Mika: Sometimes the reckless collectors stray her way, but the true item aficionados always come back to us time and time again. We even have a fan club that meets daily to discuss the goods they got for the day.

Question: Have you thought of donating your items to the money tree so you can leave as soon as possible?

Carassa and Mika: OH for Sloth's sake, NO! That's a bit insulting if you ask us. Our collection means so very much to us. It's important for us to know exactly who gets each item and what they intend to do with it. So while it's admirable to donate to the money tree, we would rather sell the items we worked hard to obtain and want to make a profit if we can.

Question: What are your plans after you EVENTUALLY sell all your things?

Carassa and Mika: We've always said that we will be moving to a warmer climate. We'll just leave it at that for now [shifts eyes]. If we decide not to sell in our new location, we have already commissioned our items to be sold in other Neopian shops. So basically anything you see in Neopia with an igloo in its name is our item, including NC items. That is how we also make money. It is part of our retirement plan for when we eventually move and decide not to sell anymore.

Question: How much have you made throughout the years? [We were sure they've made trillions of neopoints by now to live in luxury, or, if nothing else, hire people to sell their stuff so they can retire.]

Carassa and Mika: All we can say is that we can buy everything in the Hidden Tower a million times over. We'll be humble here and say that our pile of treasure puts that big icy snake's to shame [smirks].

Question: The most important question our readers want to know is: why haven't you moved after so many years in the same location?

Carassa and Mika: There are many reasons why we haven't moved yet. Most people don't know this but we dag our underground space ourselves. It's so difficult for us to move because we've put both blood and tears in this place. We started digging with our bare hands, and then graduated to spoons. We then moved on to better tools when Neopian started inventing (selling) better equipment. However, on the flip side, if we do move, we might have to do the same thing in our new place and we aren't ready for that. It took us YEARS to dig this place out and make it livable. Another important reason is that we are looking for a buyer to buy the place. We are looking to sell this place for at least a 1,000,000,000 (billion) neopoints. A few years ago we negotiated with a buyer, Nox, who wanted to buy our space. Two months before we were to sign the contact and sell, he was killed. So we are now looking for a new buyer. Also, we have been having a bit of a hard time dealing with the issue of the expanding attic for the new house. Once we move to a "warmer climate" we intend to keep on collecting. Collecting is in our blood, you know. As you can see, there are many reasons why we are still here and haven't moved yet.

So there you have it folks, an interview with Carassa and Mike. As we part ways with them, we look at each other and ask if we really believe they will ever move at all.