Monday, July 25, 2005

   Cream Filling: Origins (Chapter VIII)
[A scary thought just hit me: I never really did finish the final few outlines of the story . . . . . hmm . . . and I almost forgot a rather important cameo! My my my . . .]


"Alright Cream," Lieutenant Chiemi said once the two of them entered the relatively spacious conference room, "take a seat." Cream sat down at the offered chair and, once the lieutenant himself was sitting down and looking away, quickly tugged at the top of his tie. Once Lieutenant Chiemi was settled, Cream rested his arms across the top of the table and cracked his knuckles quickly. To say that he was somewhat nervous would have been a grave understatement.

"Alright, let's get started," the lieutenant said. "Just relax, and answer the questions as best you can . . . it's not like we have the polygraph in here, right?" Cream laughed lightly at the comment and nodded. "Oh, for the record, you should just relax for that one too . . ."

Lieutenant Chiemi opened up her folder and took out a pen.
"So here's the first and most straight forward question," she said. "Why do you want to be a police officer?" Cream grinned, expecting the question to come a little later than it did.
"I'd say I want to become a police officer because I want to help others," he answered. The lieutenant smirked upon hearing the response.
"Well, we all kinda expected that much . . ." she said back. "So why do you want to help others?" Cream couldn't help but smirk himself, the 'why' question bringing back memories of his various talks with Professor Sauru before the schoolyear ended.
"Good question . . . well, if I can help people, then I feel as though maybe I can pay back everything that I've taken from . . . . . ya know, people in general." Lieutentant Chiemi retorted.
"If you want to become a police officer out of a sense of obligation, it's not gonna work out-"
"Well yeah, but if I like it then it can't really be obligatory, can it?"
"Cream," the lieutenant said, "I can't think of a time where anyone has ever answered that question without sounding a little cliché. There are better questions later."
"Uh . . . right, of course . . . . ."

The interview shifted into one about Cream's past. They discussed his old family life, school, and hobbies. The entire time, Cream still kept a constant watch over the things he was saying, fearing any truly poor response would ruin his chances. After almost a month of applications and preparation - of networking and soul-searching - he was not going to fail this test.

". . . so yeah, maybe I'll take some distance ed' to finish off my diploma in the next year or so once I have some money to pay for it," he explained, "but I do keep reading all those things they were making us read . . ."
"No cable at the place you're staying?" Lieutenant Chiemi asked jokingly.
"He's got sucky channels, yeah," Cream answered. "That's the other thing, too. I'm looking for a new apartment or something, so hopefully I can finally have my own place and stuff . . . of course, again, I have to wait for that money first . . . but that's besides the point right now, I guess . . ." Though both of them laughed lightly at the comments, Cream wanted to kick himself in the teeth for making such a big issue out of his financial situation.

"I'm guessing you already know that being a police officer is a very physically demanding career?" Lieutenant Chiemi said, moving on with the interview.
"Ah, yeah," Cream replied, "and I've been working on that situation so it'll be better for me."
What have you been doing?"
"So far . . ." Cream trailed off briefly while he recollected all the things he had been doing for the past month or two. "I'm going to the gym regularly, I've been running in the mornings . . . oh, I also recently joined this neat little martial arts place downtown . . ." As he listed his efforts, Chiemi stopped him once feeling Cream had said enough.
"That sounds pretty good, yeah," Chiemi said. "About the workout regiments, if you need to know more about what sort of level you need to be at, you can talk to the head desk and they'll give you some pamplets and stuff . . . about the martial arts place, well . . ." the lieutenant's eyes flickered upwards quickly. ". . . we'll teach you how to fight the legally restrainable way, but any sort of experience like that couldn't hurt . . ." Cream had to laugh after hearing that bit.

A few more questions about Cream's physical fitness and abilities came up afterwards. Medical history, eyesight, and the ability to drive were all quickly asked; they were all in turn quickly and succinctly answered. After Cream explained that he could drive although he did not own a car, Lieutenant Chiemi smiled inside. It was not so much that he was physically up to the job, more so that he was finally answering the questions freely and unrestrained.

"Let's move on to the super fun questions now," Chiemi said, smiling wickedly while doing so.
"Those weren't the fun ones?" Cream asked back.
"Ohhhh no. No, these are the fun ones." Cream's expression hardened slightly and he prepared himself. "Question one," Chiemi said, "it should probably go without saying that this can be a very dangerous profession at time. After all, we will be giving you a flak jacket and a pistol if you make it in . . . people have died in this line of duty, from things as large as organised crime busts to things as small as a drunk driver who didn't want a ticket. You have to be ready for anything and everything, because you really never do know what could happen. We will train you to the best of your ability, and you will be able to handle most of these situations, but these situations will occur in some form or another . . . . . this is what you'll be getting yourself into aside from all that other stuff . . ." At this point the lieutenant leaned in slightly and looked Cream dead in the eye; Cream looked away. "This won't be your daily routine, but these days will come . . ." As the sentences came out of the lieutenant's mouth, they all seemed to stab into the young Cream, and he paid great attention to each one. Cream continued to look down at the table silently even after Lieutentant Chiemi had finished speaking. The lieutenant was a little worried that the words may have lost another potential candidate, but it was a necessary step to see whether they could count on the men and women coming into the force. After half a minute of silence, Cream looked back up with a smirk.
"I thought this was a question?" he said.

The moment's awkwardness being completely evaporated and Cream having completely prepared himself for the worst, Chiemi continued.
"How would you describe the way you handle stressful situations?" Cream thought for a moment, thinking back to the beginning of the interview but finding nothing.
"Lately, I guess . . ." he said, thinking as quickly as he could, ". . . . . the worst thing in a stressful situation is indecision, because that's what starts panic. Lately, I've just been trying to react as quickly as I could in any way to anything that's happened to me."
"That seems kinda dangerous, Cream," the lieutenant commented.
"Oh, it is," he answered, "but for the most part my quick decisions have led to pretty good better decisions. I just trust my instincts, I guess . . ."

"Have you ever gotten into a fight or a quarrel that could have been resolved another way?" Chiemi then asked.
"Yes," Cream answered, "many fights, most of which should have never happened." The lieutenant did not respond back right away, so Cream continued. "I guess . . . I was just a stupid kid, didn't know what he was doing with his life . . . heh, I bet you hear this sort of story all the time, huh?"
"Not as much as you'd expect, actually," Chiemi replied flatly. Cream shrugged and shook out his neck slightly.

"Alright," Lieutenant Chiemi said, "here's the five hundred thousand dollar question . . . have you ever abused a position of power or authority over a weaker person?" The question hit Cream like an elephant, and he was visibly stunned for a brief moment. Still, he forced himself back to reality and immediately answered with the first thing that came to mind.

". . . Yeah, I have," he answered. "Lotsa times, really . . . high schoolers, complete strangers . . . . . I've done and said a lot of things that, looking back now, well . . . it's shameful. It really is . . . and . . . . ." While the lieutenant watched and listened attentively, Cream paused for a moment as all the memories flooded back to his mind. ". . . . . and y'know, some of these things they started and some of these things we started . . . . . . . . . but yeah, this is the stuff I wanna make up for . . ."

As Cream trailed off for the final time, he looked back down at the table while the memories continued to flash through him.
"I bet the polygraph guys would've had a fun time with that one," Lieutenant Chiemi joked while writing out the last few notes from the interview. "But, so far your background check has been good, I'd say your first interview has gone well, and I don't doubt that we'll be seeing you strapped to a lie detector in another week or two."
"Oh, thanks . . ." Cream replied, ". . . I think?" Chiemi smiled one more time before standing up and motioning for Cream to do the same.

"I'm gonna tell you something now," the lieutenant said while opening the door for the young applicant, "a lot of times, the guys with ultra-clean interview responses don't do so well as the training goes on." As Cream walked through the door, he gave the lieutenant a puzzled look. "See, they don't know what it means to go beyond their power or authority . . . it's a tricky line, and a lot of times the best cops are the ones that have been on both sides of it at some point in their lives . . ."

Cream grinned as they walked down the hall back to the entrance of the institute.
"I gotta say, though," he said, "this side of the line is a lot easier on the eyes . . ."


[Y'know . . . I saw my idiot police officer brother earlier this week. I should've asked him more about what his first interview was like so I could be more true to life . . . . . dang. Ah well . . . . . and for the record, "lieutenant" is a funky word to have to keep spelling.]
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