Saturday, August 13, 2005

   I found myself back in Cowtown . . .
So what, Flint decided to come back again? Sheesh, what a guy . . . . . Flint, if your Texas ass gets around to seeing this, you better know that I wrote another one of those damn stories recently, ya dig?


Okay, so that guy aside, I am back in Calgary for the day/night. Basically, we planned to come back, so we came back. Even though we still drive back to Edmonton before going home again.

So during our drive up and down the Queen Elizabeth something-rather highway that connects Alberta's two big cities, the ototo and I came to some conclusions about our extended family: the Calgary ones are more fun. Hehe . . . Edmonton people are a little older, a little wiser . . . and a lot more world-weary. They complain a lot throughout the day, especially re: bad drivers and stuff. They are also quite snarky when they wanna be. 'Tis tres annoying at times. As for what we've done together in Edmonton . . . we went to malls, and we've watched movies at home. And we've played poker. That was about it, though. No park, no football, nothing like that . . . we did get a ton of shopping done, though . . . ah well. We still love those humps, though . . .


The BIG news about Edmonton, though, would be about how I broke the number one cardinal rule of internet friendships. Hehe . . . . . those of you who already visited my ochibi's page should already know what I'm talking about.

So yeah, Evil pretty much summed everything up rather well. We found each other at her "old people" mall, I tried to pick her up and mostly succeeded . . . and yes, she is gigantic compared to me. Granted we're about the same size now, but she's still got growin' time on me, yo. Hehe . . . fun times.

So yeah, she got to see the actual hard copy "Cream Filling: Origins" notes. And . . . she got that teddy bear whose shirt had a tear in it (I was shocked to find that suddenly), that Fullmetal Alchemist necklace, and is for the moment in custody of Molly's eventual "How to be a Canadian".

Oh, fun fact: Miss Evil eats fast - that, or I talked too much.

So yeah, fun times, I'll be sure to scan those photobooth pics as soon as I can. Other than that . . . my brother and older cousin kept ribbing me about meeting a "45 year old man", my middle cousin thought it was "pretty seedy", and my aunt apparently gave everyone an earful while I was off having fun ("What?! How could you let him do that?! Doesn't he know how dangerous that is?!" Bwahahaha . . .).

So yes, the BEST day of the Edmonton leg of the trip, hands down. Unless tomorrow we go to the shooting range or something, but even then it could be a stretch. Hehe . . . . .


Anyway, I'm gonna be goin' to bed early-ish tonight since I'm gonna be behind the wheel on the way back up to Edmonton this morning, and . . . yeah. Mother is still most likely very upset with us re: all the driving on the highways, but she's at the hotsprings right now cooling down . . . or heating up . . . meh. Comin' home on Sunday night . . .


. . . . and once again, I shall say thank you to "Jailbait-Lex" for a wicked cool afternoon.
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Wednesday, August 10, 2005

E-town actually looks like a city!
My family in Calgary live on the outskirts of the city, so it's fields and golf courses and new houses for long stretches. In Edmonton, they live right in the cradle of suburbia. Good times, eh? Hehe . . .

So far the Edmonton people have taken us to a couple malls (including THE mall), we barbecued some beef (the beef here rules!), and we've played a ton of poker (when did this get so popular?!). For my birthday my favourite cousin paid for the first box set of "GTO" which was cool (can't find it at that DVD store in Vancouver). Other than that, I bought a few CDs at HMV and stuff, and . . . . . then more Hold 'Em, I guess.

The mother is totally concerned that the aniki isn't driving home with us anymore, and has been stressing big time. Thus, she managed to acquire our oldest cousin in Edmonton to ride back home with us and then fly back home. The ototo and I aren't completely impressed with the mother at that. We still wanna go back to Calgary for a night first because we have some of the Calgary family's stuff (like tupperware and a house key). So yeah, the mother doesn't even like us driving on the freeway between Edmonton and Calgary (and though it is dangerous for various reasons including straight road and wild animals, I made it from Calgary and Edmonton alright, so I dunno). Mothers . . . they certainly do love to worry, don't they? I guess that's where I get it from . . . . .

We are still sneaking back to Calgary for a night a little earlier, though (she's not impressed with that), but I dunno. Heh, messy sitch', ne?

Just one more day until I try to find that idiot friend of ours. still lookin' forward to it plenty. 'Til then, this is me signing off from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Peace!
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Monday, August 8, 2005

   See ya later Cowtown, hallo E-town!
This'll be my last post from Calgary for a week if not much much longer. It's 9:04am MST (otherwise known as way too bloody early). The aniki has to work again (cop and all) so he flew back home yesterday. Right now the ototo's making eggs, and the youngest cousin is playing Soul Calibur in the other room. The grandmother is trying to give us tons of food to bring with us on our trip among other things, and the other cousin is . . . . . nowhere to be heard from. Ah well.

Right now the weather is a little cloudy but no worse for wear. I gotta say, prarie clouds are very different from coastal/mountain clouds. Very cool difference. And sure, everything's FLAT AS HELL here, but it's a nice change of scenery, I must say.

Aaaaaanyways, I'm heading off to Edmonton in an hour or so after FINALLY getting a hold of my idiot family over there (they were out all day yesterday so we couldn't get a hold of them to tell them I'm coming). Uhhh . . . so yeah, I'm going to the big city with the big mall - also known as "Evil's home town". Maybe I'll find that girl around there somewhere.

So far the trip's been a blast. Lookin' forward to seein' all of ya again from the land of Oilers and Wayne Gretzky. Peace!
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Friday, August 5, 2005

   Can't change my picture caption yet . . . nuts
So it'll be almost a week until I can change my picture caption to the correct age . . . or maybe my Edmonton cousins'll have something . . . hmm . . . . .

Anyway, yeah, we made it from Vancouver to Calgary in ten and a half hours. And yes, we did haul ass. Very few rest stops (I held a wazz from Banff to Calgary - 40 minutes, give or take). But yeah, it was a nice drive.

And now? I'm surrounded by flat surfaces everywhere . . . kinda weird. Also, no clouds . . . I'd say I'm not in Kansas anymore, but this is probably more like Kansas than back home, so I won't. Hehe . . . Calgary's nice, though. Very hot, very clear . . .

So I just got schooled in a game of poker and FIFA Street Soccer . . . so now I'm here. Later on we're gonna go have dinner for my birthday (allegedly it's that day as well), and then yeah.

Other than that, I just wanna say Happy Birthday to Dave Mussen who isn't with us anymore. However, he was an amazing person who touched the lives of many people - one of which is very important to me. So yeah, even if you don't know who he is, or have never heard his music, just give a thought out to this amazing, talented man who got away from us all way too early . . .

. . . . . I've probably said way too much just now. Heh . . . I blame the heat for my lack of tact today. Ahhh . . . so yes, doing very well in Calgary at the moment. Hear from y'all soon!

(Y'all . . . . man, the country-ish area is gettin' to me)
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Thursday, August 4, 2005

   10pm . . . leaving in nine hours . . . . . packing as we speak . . .
So yeah, I'm off to the land of Mountain Standard Time, yellow grass and sideways streetlights. And cows. And oil. And cowboy festivals.

Wow, Alberta is like, the sister-province to Texas, ne? Nya ha ha . . .

So yeah, I'll check in now and then from the various cousins' houses, but for the most part, I'm just gonna be bummin' around and stuff. And for that one girl (you know who you are), we will definitely figure somethin' out - I'm chatting with my Edmonton cousin as we speak.

I gotta say, the long-distance driving is pretty interesting . . . and yes, I will be bringing the red binder(TM), so I'll try to write something fun while I'm out there or something . . . . . no featured stories, though. I don't think I have another one of those in me for a while . . . . . hehe.


Alright guys, see ya in a week and a half - don't die on me while I'm gone, a'ight? A'ight. Peace!


(And yes, when I come back to British Columbia I'll be 22 . . . I'll hafta remember to update the blurb under my picture for that . . .)
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Wednesday, August 3, 2005

   Standing in the anticipation . . . erm, or something . . .
Since people asked, I'll reiterate:
A Class 5 license is your "basic" driver's license that lets you drive cars and stuff, but not motorcycles or trucks or stuff. In 99.95% of the world, you get this right after your learner's phase. In British Columbia, you get a Class 7 license which limits how many passengers you can carry and how much alcohol you can have in you (which is none). Then you take another test to get your full license. So that's what that's all about . . .

So yeah, one more day 'til I disappear again for another insane road trip. But, as I think I said before, there'll be computers everywhere I go, so I should be able to check back here now and then and stuff. Annnnnnd . . . . . yeah, that reminds me I need to do some laundry so I'm set for that trip-thing . . . while on the subject, NONE of us seem to know exactly what's going on in terms of leaving the Greater Vancouver area on Thursday . . . heh, we're organised, yo (gotta love planning with siblings - we suck).

In other news . . . umm . . . . . still loving "Yawara", still loving "Otogi Zoshi", and . . . . . yeah. Didn't do too much other than that. Just played some Guild Wars, drank some coke, fried some eggs . . . . . oh! Funny story! While up at Whistler, on Sunday morning I woke up earlier with some other guys to make this ridiculously awesome breakfast that included 2 full packs of sausage, 2 full packs of bacon, the better part of a thing of pancake mix, and . . . twenty-seven eggs scrambled in one large bowl. Believe me when I say that seeing 27 egg yolks floating in a giant bowl of egg whites really shouldn't be as amazing as it is, and yet it is . . . . .

A'ight, I'll be back tomorrow to say "peace out" before I go to Evil's timezone even though Evil is still in my timezone . . . weird eh? Yeah, not really . . . . . alright, see ya guys then!


[EDIT: For the record, there were about 10 of us eating that morning . . . 8 of which were males.]
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Tuesday, August 2, 2005

   Two Weeks of Occurences (as recollected in Whistler, BC)
So this is an interseting situation . . . not only am I filling in about how I was out of town for the weekend, but I ALSO get to fill in about what I did during the run of "Cream Filling: Origins". That's the other thing about those stories: suddenly I don't get to tell you what I've been up to. So, we're gonna do another list and I'm gonna hopefully be able to nail everything that happened . . . ish . . .

• Got "Skype" for the computer. I can talk to myO people for real now. As Enin put it, "Technology Rules!"
  
• Got to say "olá!" to basically a complete stranger seven timezones away. Was amused greatly.
  
• Tried to accomodate a retarded monkey who wanted to cash in on a barbecue warranty at work. He was bothersome and reminded me that I don't want to work at Superstore all my life.
  
• Took my Class 5 road test. Braked too hard and drove too fast near the end. Failed it. Felt much shame. Rescheduled for the first free slot in the fall . . .
  
• Tried to help an arrogant Chinese kid who didn't speak English at all. His Chinese was ridiculously fast and aggressive for someone of his age, though. He reminded me that sometimes people - even young 12 year old kids - can talk as smart as they want and still be idiots inside.
  
• Found a cancellation slot in the road tests. Rebooked my second test a week after my first one.
  
• Finally saw "Batman Begins". Loved it very much.
  
• Had a graveyard shift at work with a bunch of people. We had way too much fun shifting from summer to back-to-school . . .
  
• In anime, I started watching "Yawara: A Fashionable Judo Girl". Dubbed the "sister-show" to Ranma 1/2, Yawara is a really cute "old school" anime about a judo prodigy who just wants to be a normal teenaged girl.
  
• Got mail from Red who's off being a counsellor at camp right now. Grinned at its reception.
  
• Ate a lot of chili.
  
• Found out I was to play Kurosaki Ichigo in the BFP. Gonna hafta get to work on that.
  
• Two absolutely amazing, stunning girls came back to MSN after several month hiatuses (hiati?). The joy of hearing from them again, well . . . it rocked. Hard. It did not quite make me crap my pants, though it was close.
  
• Took my second shot at that road test at 10:15 in the morning (I think). Passed it this time. Felt much relief and joy. Now I don't have a zero blood alcohol restriction on driving, so yay - I'll keep responsible, though, I promise.
  
• Fell in love with the song "Run" by Snow Patrol.
  
• Played "Guild Wars" with a couple pretty cool people. Was reminded that I seriously need to put together a "myO" guild of sorts . . . . . and yes, the ranger girl's dance is the hottest damn thing ever.
  
• Also started watching "Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid". Looking forward to seeing more of it.
  
• Bought season 1 of "Ranma 1/2". What can I say, that show is love, and Shampoo is smexy.
  
• Finally got to see "Constantine". Enjoyed it thoroughly and greatly.
  
• Bought four $30 rice bowls for a friend's wedding. They want twelve, but I'm just not that rich. Lady at the store taped the receipt in the box for some reason . . . it was registry so they knew what they costed anyway, but still . . .
  
• Was told I needed to watch "Basilisk". Have not quite gotten around to that just yet.
  
• Went to said-friend's wedding. We did a lion-dance for his reception (he's one of the older teacher-types at the club) and then just had some fun. Ended up dancing with a bunch of people on the bride's side of the family, including a mother and a little girl. We left it at that, though.
  
• Helped the aniki set up a "new" old computer from our house to his - it sorta works. Also got to see said-brother juggle girls on his cell-phone (they kept calling!). It was quite amazing.
  
• Received my Class 5 license in the mail. My picture looks better than my last one.
  

So yeah, and then I went up to Whistler Mountain for the long weekend. It was pretty good.

Anyway, glad to be back for the next few days until I disappear again for Alberta. My cousins all have computers, though, so maybe I'll find a way to pop by now and then. Meantimes, thanks again for enjoying that story-thing I wrote and all, ya know hearing people enjoying these things is what makes me wanna write 'em. Peace!


[EDIT: A beautiful yet tired girl has just reminded me that today's also my 2 year myO anniversary. Go fig, ne?]

[EDIT 2: This probably went without saying, but I also changed my avi and song again. GTO is love, after all . . . . . and hey, it made said beautiful-yet-tired girl happy, so it's all good!]
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Saturday, July 30, 2005

   Cream Filling: Origins (Epilogue)
[Interesting note: I'm writing this at my brother's house. I brought a computer over to him and now I've somehow gotten myself stuck here . . . possibly a shame, since now I won't really get to chat with anyone else tonight . . . ah well, let's finish a story now . . . with NO outline, no less!]


Cream yawned and stretched his body back and forth as best he could in the confines of the bank queue. He still wasn't used to how busy a bank in the big city could actually be during peak hours. It wasn't even that the changes being in the big city included were especially drastic - they just seemed to resonate at a quicker frequency of sorts. But despite that, he didn't mind one bit. Compared to the past six months of true work as a full police officer in his old city, anything had the potential for being better.

Cream sighed as he looked over all his papers once again. He had finally found an apartment in the new city to live although he was far from paying it all off. As well, it furnishings were spartan at best and he was still sleeping on a couch against the wall. His clothes were still sitting in a suitcase, and his effects in the various boxes doubling as chairs and coffee tables. Still, the apartment was his and no one else's, and he felt very liberated by that thought.

While thoughts of explaining his plea for a bank loan flooded his mind, Cream unconsciously began tapping the slightly folded papers against his forehead. To him, all he was doing was tapping his thoughts in time with the soft music playing through the bank's sound system. After all, it was a song he hadn't heard in a long time ever since he moved out of his parent's house. He did find it odd to linger on such a thought, as he hadn't truly thought about his old home until after he left that city the previous week . . .

After almost half a minute, a chortle from behind him reminded him of what he was actually doing. Cream quickly dropped his arms back down and quickly looked behind him: behind him stood a young lady who was shaking her head slowly with her eyes closed and her lips curled into an amused smile. Cream returned a quick embarrassed smile and turned back around. Immediately the girl laughed quietly to herself again.

After stepping forward in the line, Cream turned back around with his eyebrow raised.
"What, you've never seen a guy tapping in time to his mother's music before?" he asked the girl nonsensically. She laughed again with the sudden question.
"Not against his own head, no," she replied quickly, "but I guess there's a first for everything." Cream returned another smile and turned around to face the front of the line once again.

After speaking with the girl, though, he couldn't help but feel awkward at standing with his back to her now; he quickly turned around again.
"It's not like it's a bad song or anything . . ." he said before trailing off, not completely sure where he was going with the comment. As such, the girl immediately ignored what he said and looked down at his papers.
"Oh wow . . ." she said as she skimmed over Cream's paperwork, ". . . you got a place in that area? That is some seriously expensive housing . . ." Cream was instantly puzzled by the girl's approach.
"What?"
"Oh, just that my sister got a place near here a little while ago, and she bitched about how to pay for it and all despite having more than enough money to cover for it . . . but then she went into this whole thing with our folks about how she didn't want their pity or something stupid like that . . . . ."

The girl trailed off once she realised how long she has spent describing her familial situation.
". . . and I'm sounding like a complete moron now, sorry," she finished with another smile. Cream could only grin in response.
"Your sister sounds like a real piece of work there," he commented.
"Oh yeah, she's a total bitchface sometimes, which is horrible of me to say, but . . ."

"What did you just say?" Cream interrupted, suddenly jerked out of the present by her words.
"What, you've never heard 'bitchface' before?" the girl replied with a grin.
"No, I've heard it before," Cream answered. "It's been a while, though . . ." It was indeed a while since he last heard the term. He had spent many months living with Jimbo after he walked out of his and Knight's place, but he never truly saw any of those old people from school ever again . . . to have memories of what had transpired with them suddenly pop up jarred Cream heavily. It wasn't just the girl's words, though. Her personality and even her face resembled the aquaintance whom he had watched run away in fear and disgust.

Stepping forward in the line again, Cream spoke during a lull in the conversation.
"So do I get to hear a name, or . . ." The girl grinned again.
"Caramel," she answered. "Everyone calls me 'Mel, though." Cream could only smirk - even her initial was the same as the other girl. "Yours?"
"Cream," he replied. "Others called me 'Fi- . . . erm . . . well, okay, everyone just calls me Cream." 'Mel stepped back sarcastically.
"Come on," she said, "ya gotta give me somethin' better than that . . ." Cream rolled his eyes up as he thought quickly.
"Well . . . . . . . a person once called me 'Whip', I suppose . . ." 'Mel grinned again.
"Whip it is, then."


Now formally introduced, the two continued until the subject of occupation came up.
". . . and yeah, I transferred to this city just recently, and . . . it should be good." 'Mel was completely intrigued by the young officer in front of her. And, though she had worked with many police officers through her connections in her parent's company, Cream was interesting enough as he was - the classic small town guy trying to make it in the big city.
"So where do you go from here?" she asked, almost existential in her deliverance. Again, Cream had to think quickly.
"I guess," he thought, ". . . . I guess . . . I dunno. Just work at my job now, move up, maybe get into something like a specialist thing like ERT, or maybe make detective . . . just some thoughts . . ."
"Actually," 'Mel said back, "detective work could be cool for ya. I know a detective at your precinct, and he's a pretty neat guy. I think you'd like him."
"Really now?" Cream scratched at the back of his neck momentarily. "Yeah, maybe . . . yeah . . . . . does he have, or . . . do I . . ."

The teller called for the next customer. Cream turned around and suddenly realised he was at the front of the line.
"You're up, Whip," 'Mel commented, pushing him forward. The young constable could only grin sheepishly once again and make his way to the teller desk. He felt at complete ease speaking with 'Mel, though . . . there was definitely another feeling in his chest. Still, he somehow knew that he was definitely not about to act on that particular feeling any time soon . . .

"Oh, and Whip!" 'Mel called out just as the other man reached the teller; Cream turned around one more time.
"What's up?"
"Welcome to the neighbourhood."

Cream grinned again as he turned back to speak with the teller. Suddenly the prospect of moving to the big city did not seem so uncontrollable after all . . . . .


[End scene! Oh man . . . I gotta say, this was a HARD story to write! It was insanely different from all the other ones I ever wrote, and I've seriously been fearing that things may have gone horribly wrong at so many points . . . . . but, for better or worse, this one is still one of my babies, and I shall always love it as such.

So yeah. Thank you everyone for reading, for putting up with the pages and pages of text, and for supporting me as best ya could. I seriously doubt I'll be writing another one of these until 2006, but who knows . . . . . 'til we find out, this has been a SomeGuy story, courtesy of myOtaku. Peace!]
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Thursday, July 28, 2005

   Cream Filling: Origins (Chapter X)
[I outlined this chapter at work yesterday during my dinner break . . . it was fun to explain what the heck I was doing since it wasn't schoolwork. Heh . . . the red binder certainly gets a lot of attention . . . anyway, I think it goes without saying that this one's gonna be LOOOOOOONG . . . but hey, I gotta make up for the lack of true consistancy in this one, right?]


"Fil', you're a cop now?!" Jason said as he walked around the trainee. "When the piss did this happen?" Cream remained basically silent, still slightly behind his training officer.
"Hey, you don't worry about him," van Zielen interrupted, "I'm talking to you, not him . . ." The constable stepped in and in front of Jason, the most noticeable out of the four, and pulled out her notepad. "Cream, you get the dealer's info, okay?" Cream nodded and went over to the tall and unwavering man with the dark sports jacket.

Constable van Zielen was already taking down Jason's information when Cream made his way over to the drug dealer. Knight quickly slid over to his old friend's side.
"So first you leave our house in a moment's notice, sneak back now and then to get your stuff for almost a week, and then disappear off the face of the earth for months . . ." Knight said. Cream stayed professional and ignored him while he spoke with the dealer.
"Alright, what's your name?" he asked, his pen and notepad at the ready. Before the man could answer, Knight chimed in once again.
". . . and now you're gonna finish the back-stab by flipping us over and pounding one right into our faces, good one man . . ." he said directly into Cream's ear. Cream turned his head and gave a quick glare before turning back to the drug dealer - Knight just chuckled.

"Your name, sir?" Cream asked again.
"Peter Schultz," the dealer answered. As Cream wrote it out on hispad, he suddenly stopped and looked up with wide eyes.
"Pete?!" Cream said, pulling his head back to get a look at his old classmate. He couldn't believe it: Pete Schultz, the computer prodigy of his grade 10 class was now standing before him with bags of drugs in his pockets.
"Who's askin'?" Pete asked back.
"It's Fil', Pete," Knight answered. "He's gone rogue on us, it seems . . ."

"Hey!" Cream said commandingly, looking at his former best friend, "Be quiet, I'll get to you soon enough . . ." Seeing another one of Knight's grins, Cream turned back to Pete. "I don't get it, man . . . you were bright, you were gonna be able to do so much, you . . ."
"I'm still bright and I can still do a lot," Pete replied, "sometimes things just don't go the way you originally plan for ya, and then you make due with what you can . . ."
"But . . . but this?" Pete shrugged.
"Hey, it's income . . ." Cream shook his head and continued collecting the man's information.

"Y'know, Pete ain't the only one makin' money off of this," Knight commented slyly. Cream closed his eyes, took a breath, and shook his head quickly - this situation was not a possibility he had really taken in account . . .
"So am I under arrest or what?" Pete asked casually. Cream, unsure of what to do, quickly looked over to van Zielen for help. Unfortunately for him, she was still preoccupied with Jason.
"Hey ma'am!" Knight shouted over, calling to the constable, "your partner here's not sure of what to do with himself again!" Again, the trainee clenched his hands and forced yet another comment to slip through his being.

van Zielen quickly looked over and saw the situation.
"Just frisk him and take whatever he shouldn't have," she said before going back to the others. Cream immediately went back to Pete and checked his pockets. After retrieving half a dozen bags, Pete dropped his arms and crossed them over his chest.
"So we done now or what?" he asked.
"Uh . . ." Cream thought quickly . . . . . "ah, piss . . . yeah, get lost, man . . ."

"Well done officer," Knight remarked again, "you took his stuff, then set him loose . . . gotta be proud of yourself . . ." Cream shot him another long glare; Knight returned the stare.
"Hey, Cream," van Zielen called. Cream refused to respond and continued staring back at Knight. "Cream! Get over here!" she demanded. Cursing violently in his head, Cream took his eyes away from the other man and made his way over, much to Knight's delight.
"Cream, keep your cool," van Zielen said. "I know you have history with these guys, but keep cool . . ." Cream, completely frustrated, turned back to the others who were all visibly pleased in seeing their old friend get scolded so.

"Alright, your name," the constable continued, now looking at Tim.
"Jablowme," he said. "Given name-" the minuteCream rolled his eyes and put his hand over van Zielen's pad before Tim finished giving his fake name.
"Maaier," he said, "I know all their info, we don't need to waste time here . . ."
"Aw, come on Fil'," Tim said, stepping forward with his fingers waving the officers closer, "we can't skip the friggin' protocol, can we?"
"Yeah Fil', this ain't very professional," Jones added, speaking up finally. Despite who was actually speaking, Cream looked over at Knight and tightened his lips subtley. Tim and Jones continued shouting, while Jason joined in soon enough. Knight, meanwhile, remained at the side, quiet and smiling widely. It only took one more look for Cream to straighen up and stand tall.

"Alright you jackasses, shut the hell up!" Cream shouted, actually breaking the noise for a brief moment and catching everyone off guard. He stepped forward towards the four of them despite van Zielen's protests and continued speaking. "You notice we're not arresting you guys tonight?" he said confidently. "'Cause if you'd rather we do, we can, y'know."
"Keep cool," van Zielen repeated.

Tim, ever belligerent, also stepped forward and directly in front of the recruit.
"Hey, what the piss is this all about?!" he spat out.
"Tim," Cream said sternly, "I swear, back off now or-"
"No, you listen up you son of a bitch! You ditched us and ran off to play cops and now you're comin' back . . . what, you had no balls to come back to us without a friggin' gun on your hip?" After the comment, Jason and Jones in the back laughed and cheered their friend on. With Tim still directly in his face, Cream smirked.

"You think having a pistol or a badge gives me the sort of courage I need to talk to petty retards like you guys?" he said.
"Cream, keep coo-" van Zielen tried to say before getting cut off again.
"Tim, let me tell ya . . . once you realise how friggin' stupid you've been all your life, and see others for what they really are, it's not hard to look back and say 'yeah, I can take him'. To be honest man, you're tough and you're aggressive . . . . . but you're still that guy's bitch, and not-"

Tim swung up violently as a reflex. Cream ducked his head back immediately and watched his old friend's hand swipe past his face and knock off his hat. As the officer-in-training stepped back he raised his foot, pressed it solidly into Tim's sternum, and pushed him away for a couple steps; as his foot came back down, he reached to his belt and gripped his taser.
"See, now you've gone too far," he said, the stun gun pointing directly at Tim. Jones and Jason immediately backed up, seeing a pistol-shaped weapon and nothing else; Knight reacted immediately, but composed himself quickly afterwards along with Tim.

"So what, you're gonna shoot me now?" Tim said, trying his best not to show a hint of emotion one way or another.
"If you don't cool it, yeah," Cream said. "You cool yet?" Before Tim could respond, Knight stepped in next to Tim. After the two exchanged glances, Tim nodded and backed up slowly. As Tim backed up, Cream kept the taser trained on him although he let his eyes lock back with Knight's.
"Stay cool," van Zielen said again.
"Oh, I'm very cool," Cream replied, still never taking his eyes off the man in front of him . . .

"So, Fil' . . ." Knight said as he stared hard into Cream.
"So, Knight . . ." Cream said back, slowly lowering the taser below his line of sight.
"So what do we do now?" Knight asked with a cocked eyebrow.
"I'd like to go home soon," Cream replied. "Would you like to go home, Knight?"
"Yes, Fil', I would love to go back to our home . . . by the way, you left a ton of your crap in the storage locker. I'm gonna throw that crap away if you don't come back some time soon . . ."
"I got what I needed from there. I don't need the other stuff . . . . . there's a lot of stuff in that apartment I don't need, y'know?" After he spoke, Constable van Zielen started to say something. Before the words came out, though, she looked at the two men - former best friends - and knew it was not her place to say anything now.

"You know," Knight said after a short pause, "you might have a new uniform and rank and whatever, but I'll still know you as the petty thief who pissed himself at night because everyone around him was being so bad while he was staying so good . . . give me a break, man!" Cream smirked again.
"So, did you always get off on finding ways to insult and depress me?" he asked. "'Cause you seemed to enjoy it more than I thought a normal person should have . . ."
"I never did understood how you saw things, Fil' . . . do you not realise that this fantasy world of yours doesn't exist, and that things way worse than what I was putting into my blood were going on all around us?" Cream started to respond, but Knight continued. "What the piss did you think was gonna happen?! The world is going to hell, and retard dreamers like you aren't helping the matter all too much."
"But stoners like you are, right?"
"No, realists like me are. I mean, how long was it before you even got a real job? I'm out there asserting myself in the world every day while you dicked around playing with dead animals and reading your books that were so much beyond us . . ."

As Knight trailed off, Jason started cursing and shouting, making large gestures - Cream's taser pointed in his direction ceased his antics. Again, he Looked back at Knight.
"Y'know, dude," he said, "you're right. I did live in a fantasy world where I didn't know what the piss I was doing. I don't make excuses for that . . . but guess what?" As Knight looked back, Cream looked over at all the rest of them as well. "The fantasy ended the moment I got the piss out of that apartment. As for where I go from here . . . well, I'm gonna be going somewhere . . ." He eyed his former roommate once again. ". . . . . and this time I'm not running away . . . I'm leaving it behind."

Again, Cream raised his taser. This time, though, it was pointed squarely at Knight before he could lash out with another verbal outburst.
"Go home, all of ya!" Cream commanded. Tim, Jones and Jason started backing up slowly, cursing and swearing with each step. Knight just looked back at the man before him, snarled one last time, flipped out his finger, and stormed off - the others quickly followed suit.

Still standing in his spot in the park while his four old friends stepped off the sidewalk and across the street, Cream finally realised how much his hands were shaking. He quickly looked around and noticed a great many various people in the park watching him from a distance - they were all a blur, though. All he could think about was how much energy those ten minutes actually required of him. He was completely drained physically, psychologically, and emotionally from the encounter. After holstering the taser he was still holding, Cream flexed his hands open and closed, trying to regain a sense of calm in them.

Seeing her trainee's predicament, van Zielen walked over and put her hand on Cream's shoulder - Cream's head immediately drooped down with her touch and he forced himself to breathe slower.
"You did good, Cream," she said, patting his shoulder softly. "Really good, actually . . ." Cream looked over and smiled with his mouth but nothing else.
"Yeah, I guess I just . . . . ."

He paused himself in mid-sentence when he felt a lump rise in his throat. Fearing what else he felt, Cream touched his finger under his eye and found moisture. Quickly rubbing his eyes with his thumb and forefinger and shaking his head, Cream looked back at his training officer and laughed quietly - van Zielen did the same and put her arm around his other shoulder, giving him a slight shake.
"Oh man . . ." Cream said as they made their way back to the squad car, "why oh why did I apply for this city . . . . ." van Zielen continued walking them along quietly, not saying a word. She knew his situation well enough: working as an officer in this small city, he was bound to have many incidents like this down the road, where he would find old classmates and neighbours on the wrong side of the line. He was probably going to have to arrest some old friends from high school, or from old sports teams . . . the way his generation seemed to be, the odds were heavily stacked against him. van Zielen gave him one more pat on the shoulder before letting him get into the car, still having no good words for him.

"Seriously," he continued, "I need to get out of here bad . . . . ."


[Emotional climax . . . . . not enough explosions. Nuts . . . heh. Anyway, I threw in a few more cameos, so from last chapter to this one I have now added Shinigami, Mireiyu, Petie, and Schultzie. Ahhh . . . . . Saturday shall be the final chapter! Can you believe it?!]
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Tuesday, July 26, 2005

   Cream Filling: Origins (Chapter IX)
[Two more people I need to add into this story . . . . hmm . . .]


Cream sat quietly in the passenger seat of the patrol car as it made its way through the small uptown area of the city. Like things almost always were for them, there were few disturbances to look out for. Fact was, the city was very small, and nothing truly large ever really happened.

"Man, I'm bored," he commented once the car came to another red light.
"Yeah . . . it's a quiet city for sure," Constable Maaier van Zielen his training officer added. She gave a soft chuckle which the young recruit emulated. While the light remained red, the chuckles ended and silenced recommenced in the car.

Cream passively looked out the cruiser's window, thinking about the path he had chosen. The second block of training actually felt like a bit of a let-down for him. During the first block of basic police training, he took to it all very quickly and eagerly - he excelled in many aspects of it in turn. With that training, he was then supposed to use it in the field and learn from the street. Sadly for Cream, there was little quarter for testing his negotiating or firearms skills on these particular streets . . .

"So constable," he said, breaking the silence once again.
"Yes?"
"What was the wildest thing you can remember getting called to in this city?" Constable van Zielen smiled at the thought back to her relatively short career.
"That would have to be the call that sent me to the home of a Miss Mireille Moody . . ."

Cream smiled quietly, happy that he could watch his training officer casually and comfortably speaking - it was better than the awkward silence, in any case.
"So yeah," van Zielen said, "we had a call that there was a house with a lot of noise, a ton of screaming . . . so me and another guy go to check it out since we're closest . . . anyway, we got there at about . . . I dunno, some time in the early evening, and there is still a ton of screaming coming from the house."
"Oh man . . ." Cream muttered, smiling while looking out the window.
"And yeah, so we come to the door, try to get someone to open the door for us . . . no response at all. So, we take out our guns, ready ourselves, and make our way to the back of the house. We're running by now, since the screaming still wouldn't stop. As well, we could see smoke coming out of the windows and stuff, so we also radioed for the fire department . . . anyway, that was our first clue as to what was going on . . ." Cream turned back to the constable, his eyebrows cocked and his face showing great disappointment once again.
"Please don't go where I think this is gonna go . . ."

"Sorry," van Zielen said with a sympathetic smile, "but yeah. The back door was open, we rushed in, and the kitchen was basically on fire. The screaming was just from the panicked women inside freaking out . . . . . so yeah, we put out the fire with the extinguisher no one thought to retrieve, and eventually things calmed down once the firemen got there . . . . . yeah, I guess Miss Moody just really wasn't ready for torching some cows after all . . ."
"Nothing criminal, eh?"
"Nope. Just idiocy."

Cream started to fear that maybe his desire to join the police was not such a great idea. He did want to help others, and being a police officer was an excellent way to do that. But the fact was, the jurisdiction he was working in - despite having its own police force and a local college among other things - was simply too small to really do as much as he wanted to.

"You find this work pretty rewarding, right?" he asked.
"Huh?" Constable van Zielen replied. "Oh, yeah, definitely . . . yeah . . . . ."
"Good . . . maybe there's a chance for me after all . . . . . I mean, if I can-"

Cream stopped speaking when his chest bounced hard off his seatbelt.
"Alright Cream," van Zielen said in a quiet but serious tone, "you wanted to do something, here we go . . . drug deal in the park. We're gonna go in on foot and quietly . . ."
"What?" he said, still shocked at how quickly things were suddenly moving.
"Just follow me!" she shouted back. Shaking his head quickly, Cream got out of the car and followed along as they made their way along a line of bushes.

"Holy crap, I've seen these guys before . . ." Cream realised out loud as he looked from afar at the group of people in the park.
"Alright," van Zielen said, effectively ignoring him, "generally we're pretty okay once we're close enough. We don't wanna hafta chase after them, so move in carefully until we're within talking distance with them . . ."
"No way that's gonna work!" Cream hissed back as they continued walking forward.
"Hey, you'd be amazed at what you can actually do with this uniform on . . ."

Cream and Maaier made their way into the park briskly. The young recruit still couldn't understand how despite van Zielen's encouragement to stay quiet and out of sight, and yet she walked forward with such strength and with such a presence. Eventually the group in the park finally looked up and saw the two uniformed officers coming. A couple of them immediately tried to run, but van Zielen commanded them to stop before they could truly get into their escape.

"Hang on there, fellas," she said. "Get back here . . ." The young group of men nervously stood around the officers. Still, as nervous as they stood, they knew they were still in the better position.
"Alright Cream, I'll handle this . . . just back me up," van Zielen said. " . . . Cream?"

Cream was focusing on the drug dealer to his right, and well away from the other four men . . .

"Fil'?!" Knight exclaimed, trying to get a good look at his old friend's face. "Oh, hell no . . . . . you gotta be pissin' kidding me . . ."


[I have just decided that for pacing's sake, I'm gonna hafta break this one up into 2 chapters. Among other reasons, this much shorter chapter actually took almost 3 hours or more of work. Heh, I was distracted by local idiot friends . . . . . so yeah, maybe the epilogue'll come a bit later than I planned, but it won't be too bad.]
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