Test of Character
January 28, 2010
Disclaimer: I do not own the Winx Club.
All Red Fountain applicants undergo extensive and rigorous examine, testing not only the body but the mind too. Infamous for having the highest rejection rate in Magix, it is the Test of Character that decides whether one gets in. This is Riven's interview.
The universe is full of crap, this was Riven's belief. People who paint themselves with good intentions are often misled by the idea that peace is attainable if one had a large enough wallet and the weapons to subdue their enemies into surrendering. People who call themselves honest are liars.
Riven would have loved to call himself virtuous but he knew that was not the case. It was just horrible that that was the kind of people Red Fountain was looking for though. He had no allusions that it was a very real possibility that he was not going to get the scholarship unless he lied.
He had next to no money, no notable family or a place to permanently call 'home.' He worked a laborious job at a more than shady arms dealer, simply hauling things and making deliveries to other warehouses. So long as he didn't ask questions or talk about his job to anyone, the pay was good and he stayed alive. It was all fine with him.
It was winter. He had been in Magix for four months. He had vowed that he would never go back to where he had been before that, he would not even remember it. Riven stepped out of the elevator into a large and long arched hallways. The floors were marble, one side was made of bay windows and the other was lined with outdated metal armours and stone statues. The place was rolling in money and history. And this was only the administration for the medical wing.
He was here for an interview, the infamous Test of Character. He followed the door numbers and name plaques.
W206. Captain Daedalus Laoh, M.D.
Under it was a piece of paper taped to the door.
Please knock and silently wait to be let in. If you as so much as make a sound that disturbs the secretary, your application will be rejected. Thank you.
Below that was a taped schedule of interviews for the day. Riven knocked after ascertaining that he was at the right room. The door opened by itself. The wall to the right was made of glass with a door that filtered out the sounds of a labyrinthine administration on the other side; it was like watching a life-size TV. The other side of the room was a solid wall with a thick door that looked blast resistant.
"Come in." A woman, the secretary, sat at a computer typing away furiously. She wore a stiff grey military uniform. It was apparent that she was a commissioned officer from the Magicite Forces Land Force Command. Her grey wedge was right beside her keyboard.
Riven entered.
"Are you here for the interview?"
"Yes."
"Name and application number?"
"Riven Kemp-Kersey. KEMR86101590."
The secretary stopped typing and narrowed her eyes at him. "Ma'am."
Riven stiffened. "Yes, ma'am." Bitch.
"Good," she said curtly, "Read this contract and sign it at the X's. If you cannot agree with the terms, your application will be considered rejected. Take a seat you, you may want to read it through. Captain Laoh is in the middle of another interview." She handed him a heavy clipboard and pen.
Riven took it and sat down where several chairs lined the wall. He read and raised one eyebrow within ten seconds. "Are you saying that whatever I say can be subjected to punishment by law?"
"It means that if you have ever done anything illegal in your life, which I'm sure you haven't, and have not paid for it, you will pay for it now. This excludes your kill count."
What in the friggin' hell?!
Illegal was the very definition of his life.
No, he was a good liar. He could fake his creds. Sure, he was not as educated as some of the guys who were applying but the recruiter had sought him through the hellish underground specifically, saying that he had potential. He could lie, he had done it before and this would be no different.
Riven read the rest of the contract and signed it.
Just then, the door from the hallway opened and a blond man in jeans and a blue button up shirt came in. He wore an unconcealed shoulder holster and smiled somewhat nervously when he sighted Riven as the redhead sighted the gun.
"I'm sorry but I'm going to have to cut the interview for the Prince of Eraklyon short. We have a schedule to follow and you know how it is…"
"They should be done now," the woman said. She got up, politely knocked at the door and opened it. "Sir, the bodyguard has returned. The prince must get going."
There was some murmuring and then a muscled brown-haired man in black slacks and a pale green silk shirt, stepped out of the office laughing at some joke. His hair was parted to the right with long bangs. The man looked like he could kill Riven with just sheer strength alone. Yeah, probably just for the ladies.
There was no way that the scrawny blond guy could protect this prince. What a bunch of crap. People who have money don't need scholarships. Assholes.
The two guys left and the secretary turned to Riven.
"He will see you now."
Application code: KEMR86101590
Name: Kemp-Kersey, Riven
Date of Birth: Oct. 15, 1986; Julian calendar
Home planet: N/A, born in space
Affiliation: N/A
Previous school: Merck Frosst University
Martial Art(s): No formal training, self-taught
Weapon(s): Sabre (blade), meteor hammer (chain)
Magic: Low-level
Kill: 34
What the fuck was so special about this kid that he could bypass 3 rounds of examination? Did someone accidentally place this idiot's file in the acceptance bin and not the trash incinerator? Daedalus Laoh skimmed the twenty-page file. Even the thickness of his file was testimony to his lack of credentials. On average, applications were fifty-pages long. Like geesh, the Prince of Eraklyon was sixty. Other than this kid's noticeably high body count, he wasn't anything special except for a murderer or killer and that he went to laudable university purportedly financially backed by some of the biggest bosses in galactic crime.
Note bene, extreme visual acuity and magnification of 25km/0.04D; vocal range is below 20Hz; suggested candidate for…
Oh. OH. Laoh continued reading the medical report. Once he finished, he dropped the file on his desk as if it had burnt him. This kid was a genetic impossibility since there was no way any of the known and recognized races could have this rainbow of natural assets.
Someone must have fucked with this kid's mom while he was still a fetus.
No pun intended either.
Riven sat in the offered chair in the Laoh's office. They had gone through the mandatory niceties, shaking hands and exchanging names. He hadn't known what to expect after seeing that the door was indeed blast proof. The room was ridiculously large but expected for such a grand school. It had a high arched ceiling and towards the back was a bay window that overlooked the lake and the city of Magix. In front of the window was the captain's desk and he sat at it, deep in thought. It was kind of dramatic, in an overdone sort of way—the room, not the man at the desk.
"So, you want to join Red Fountain?"
"Yessir."
"Well, why don't you tell me about yourself? The thing that you've probably got memorized in your head?"
"Uh, I graduated at Merck Frosst from the math program. Top of engineering and sciences. I'm applying for the Wings program because I'm interested in flying. I've done rock climbing, rappelling and free running."
"Parkour."
"In short, yeah."
Laoh looked at the file. "That's some impressive schooling. Merck Frosst, huh? And at fifteen too. That's the top university for engineers and scientists in that side of the galaxy. You graduated top of your class with your paper on antiprotons. I saw your summary on possible uses too. You realize that what you wrote can be a cause for concern."
Antiprotons were negatively charged protons and a component of anti-matter. As anti-matter in contact with matter tended to annihilate each other, the subject was full of explosive possibilities.
Riven looked at the man like he was crazy. "Sir, if you don't believe, there's a copy of my diploma in my application. There should be a validation statement attached to it too—"
"I saw it. It's valid, don't worry."
"Is there a problem?"
Laoh sat back in his chair and tossed the file on his desk.
"Mr. Kersey, are you aware of what you wrote in your conclusion?"
"Yeah." The kid looked like he couldn't believe what was happening. "Are really taking serious a science paper written by a fifteen year old? I only stated possibilities, not real proofs. I said that some of the fictional weapons were actually possible given the right equipment and money. That's it."
"Last time I checked, fifteen year olds don't do anti-matter projects to graduate either, Mr. Kersey."
"Granted, yeah…sir, I don't to see the point of this interview."
"This is supposed to be relaxing conversation."
"Well, I'm not very relaxed sir. You sound like you're going to arrest me for writing a theory paper on anti-matter."
Why the hell did the committee send this kid to him? Why was he even still here? Laoh paged through the file. There was another note: RF had sent a recruiter after this kid specifically just because of his anti-matter paper. Shit, that was some pretty serious stuff. Red Fountain did not recruit students; the students came to Red Fountain and hoped to whatever gods were out there that they got through the first round of elimination. So why the hell did they send a physics kid to a doctor for an interview?
Laoh stared at his empty interview grading sheet. This was not going to be a regular interview. Not that any of the interviews were regular at all, like in the case of Prince Sky and his bodyguard…
"You know what? Let's wipe the slate clean and restart. You and I both know what's in this file. It's more than evident that you've done something less than admirable and yet your file is still here and not in the trash.
The kid feigned confusion. "I'm sorry?"
"So, Mr. Kersey," Laoh started slowly, "Let's skip the bullshit here and get straight to the point."
The teen seemed innocently confused. "I have no idea what you're talking about, sir."
"Riven Kemp-Kersey, you don't exist in any known attempt to register every living being on one registry. You beat our senior fight instructor and physically subdued him and scored in the top quartile in the exam. You know what your physical said. You have the eyesight of an eagle and can long-wave your voice so low that I need a radio to hear you. A little on the loner side but that's fine. You didn't even exist until a year ago. I think you can understand my alarm when I say that you don't even have medical records of ever being sick or being admitted to a hospital—"
"A galactically registered hospital, sir," the kid clarified. "I've been sick before. I'm not invincible. I still don't see what you're trying to get at. Isn't this an interview?"
The kid was right and he had a nagging feeling that this kid was playing him, guiltying him. It was working.
"Straight up, Mr. Kersey, have you ever done anything illegal, punishable by law?"
Riven pondered the question. "Never been arrested."
"You mean never been caught."
The redhead feigned being offended. "What is that supposed to mean?"
The interview was going badly was an understatement. Shitty committee, couldn't they have warmed him in advanced that he was getting a special case? What hell was he supposed to do? He was building his case on the fly, trying to look for the thing that made the kid click somehow. Force him to show his true colours.
Normally, it was supposed to be a conversation about the applicant with the applicant trying to sell himself. If it were a cadet from some faraway army, they would talking about the kid's service so far. This guy was a civilian and Red Fountain rarely accepted civvies. Only about twenty in the five hundred students accepted were civvies.
Most of those cases were usually sons of accomplished mercenaries or someone with some serious money to burn. But this kid, it looked like he had been born four months ago. Laoh paged through the small file and read the notes. The kid had a lot of notes.
"Kid, we both know that this file should be significantly longer than twenty pages." Laoh turned to last few pages of the file and read. He needed a way to bait the kid. "Let's start with Merck Frosst. How did you decide to go to that university?"
"It just happened to be the closest form of schooling where I live."
"For an eleven year old? Cut the crap, we know that it's funded by some of the biggest crime bosses, most notably Yoshinoya."
Riven seemed flustered. He was a pretty good actor, Laoh thought.
"Sir, I'm just applying for school. Merck Frosst is the only institution that could give me an education and it just happened to be one of those prestigious ones. I think you're being a little on the ridiculous side."
"The point of the Test of Character is that the applicant is supposed to spill their guts on the table, the bad and the good. All the good is on paper but what we really want is to know about you personally, the bad."
"You want me to admit to doing something illegal?"
"Hasn't everyone done something illegal in this galaxy?"
"We do what we must." Riven straightened up in his chair, confused and angry by the entire turn of events.
Latter Note: This is absolute piece of crap.
I do not plan on this being continued. There will be no second chapter.
I'm just posting to see what the reaction is.
Laoh is not supposed to be an imposing man like Cordatorta. He's supposed to be an easily flustered doctor; he leads by example. He was planned to be a father-figure to Riven but ehh…
It's more than likely that I will take this down. This was inspired by the interviews in the air cadets as well as preparing my portfolio for cegep.