Neopia's Secret Villains: Part One

You may know Carassa as one of the friendly owners of the Igloo Garage Sale perpetually going on at the peak of Terror Mountain. You may know her as a fun-loving chia who enjoys playing the Igloo Garage Sale Game with her partner, Mika. You may even know her as a bargain-hunter with a hoarding problem. If you think of Carassa as friendly or fun loving, however, you’re wrong. I’m here to expose Carassa as the true villain that she is, in part one of my series: Neopia’s Secret Villains.

Lets start at the beginning, and learn a little about our villain’s background. Carassa is a yellow Chia who lives upon the summit of the fearsome Terror Mountain with Mika, her partner. You can find their igloo by taking the chairlift from Happy Valley, and heading towards the trees, just past the entrance to the Ice Caves. Together, Carassa and Mika run the Igloo Garage Sale, where they are selling off all of their extra items, which they have in abundance. This never-ending sale is to allow the pair to move to the hotter climate of Neopia Central. The Chias also participate in two of Neopia’s coldest games: Igloo Garage Sale - the game, and Wrath of the Snowager. In the Igloo Garage Sale game, you get to see Carassa in action, as she passes items to Mika to help restock their shop front, whilst in Wrath of the Snowager, Mika can be seen pilfering a few items from the Snowager to help boost their shop’s stock.

Whilst they’re most certainly wrong, the general Neopian public doesn’t view Carassa as the villain she is. To the outside world, Carassa is seen as a kind Chia, who happily runs her shop with Mika; the pair working in harmony to sell off their excess belongings to facilitate their move to Neopia Central. Carassa may seem like a loving partner – the reason behind the move is to help Mika achieve his dream of becoming a florist. With the constant snow and freezing temperatures in Terror Mountain, floristry is an impossible career choice, but with Carassa supporting him, Mika’s sure to succeed once they move to the more tepid climate. That is, unless Carassa’s goal is to tear down her partner’s dreams, and she is one of the most villainous Neopians throughout history to go unnoticed.

Carassa is not only one of the most villainous Neopians to go unnoticed by the Defenders of Neopia; she’s one of the most villainous Neopians full stop. Carassa spends her days throwing items at her partner. Let that sink in: she spends all day, every day, throwing items AT her partner. Not only does she throw items at her partner, but she also throws these items at various speeds, in various locations, and gets angry with him when he drops them. Can you imagine your life involving running around underneath a ledge trying to catch items being thrown at you? That alone is enough to classify Carassa as a villain, but that doesn’t even scrape the surface of her villainous ways.

So far we’ve established that Carassa is a villain for throwing items at her partner, but her vicious tactics get worse. To keep Mika on his toes, Carassa will also lob bombs and pianos, yes, pianos at her partner. This violent behaviour doesn’t even come close to an acceptable form of motivation. Whilst the bombs only stun Mika, the pianos are capable of causing serious damage to the poor Chia. At this point it is clear that Carassa’s motive isn’t greater efficiency to speed up the move, so what is Carassa’s aim?

Carassa and Mika have been selling items for years upon years, but they still haven’t gathered enough funds or depleted their stock enough to warrant a move to Mika’s dream location. This begs the question: does Carassa want to move at all? Firstly, she’s set a limit to customers so that they can only purchase 10 items per day at most, slowing down their clearance rate. Secondly, she throws items at Mika, which could not only slow down the garage sale due to injury, but also actively reduces profits due to item breakage. Thirdly, she sends Mika to gather items from under the Snowager’s nose under the guise that they ‘even out stock numbers.’ All this does is increase the amount of items they have, pushing them further from their clearance goal, as well as put Mika in more danger. If Mika were to become injured during his interactions with the Snowager, he would surely stay put in Terror Mountain, being unable to undertake a long-distance move.

It is clear from the above that Carassa is doing everything she can to ensure that the pair never run out of stock, or make enough money, and can therefore never even begin to make the move to Neopia Central. Wanting to stay put is one thing, but it’s the way that Carassa’s gone about it that makes her one of the most notorious Neopians ever. Rather than having a simple conversation with Mika, or investigation the possibility of frost-resistant foliage, Carassa turned into a dangerous and vicious being. She hurls items at Mika, she throws pianos at him, and she sends him to toy with the dangerous Snowager, all because she doesn’t want to leave her igloo. It is this callous disregard for Mika that makes Carassa one of Neopia’s most deadly secret villains.