Arrun City Watch: A Recruitment Story.
by Blinded

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As far as Jensen and Vakarian knew there were not enough cops and law enforces in entire ALfheim to fill all the empty rooms in the City Watch they, along with some of their other fellow policemen and women and some of the JSDF guys were tasked to create, and even then most of them preferred or were otherwise needed to work with the ALfheim Self-Defense force or Mob Patrols.

It was a blessing that the Lords managed to keep the Tristainians out of ALfheim affairs for the most part and most of the people were too shocked by the Transition to start going about their daily lives... and start breaking law, or rules. The former was up to the Lords' office to handle and the latter would change in time and it was going to be a task for the newly minted City Watch to deal with.

All in all meant they had some recruiting to do and recruitment needed a clear bare minimum requirement. It was easy on the paper: You are a volunteer who has all the admittedly not so high standards, you are in for a Trial period of six months and if the Pros, like the detective duo themselves, fit you for the job you were in.

In practice it was an entirely different story. The players wore fairy masks for a reason and almost without exception everyone played a game of pretense, and of course the real-life was still to fresh a wound and private a matter to press the volunteers for.

And it was this part of recruitment that landed Jensen and Vakarian in a gloomy reception room in Arrun Watch's HQ for the day.

Vakarian looked up from his list at the latest volunteer, a Puca girl with their typical fair skin, bright brown eyes and matching hair pulled into a tight ponytail, and a rather generic looking heavy armor of middle-tier that was usually preferred by Leprechauns and Gnome skirmishers.

"Have a seat Whisper-san," Jensen started as he, rather dramatically arranged his notes "how was your day?"

"It was fine, thank you for asking... sir"

"Whisper-san, as you are aware it is considered to be rude to inquire about IRL background of people," the Puca nodded. Vakarain smiled to himself as he noticed te Puca's slowly narrowing eyes and clenched fist. Good, she had actually guessed where Jensen was going with this and even though it seemed to be a painful subject, she still stood her ground. "However, a member of the City Watch who is tasked with keeping everyone else safe needs to fit certain qualifications and as such we need to ask you questions that might include IRL. Are you alright with this?"

"Yes Sir."

"Though I must add" Vakarian, cut in "if you found any of our questions too personal or painful, we don't expect you to answer them." In fact as far as Vakarian knew some of the interviewers actually asked such questions to both test the recruits under pressure and see if they are faking their IRL background, but frankly he didn't see it within himself OR Jensen to act so callously, and instead had chosen to trust his own instincts.

"Well... first things first" siad Jensen "starting with a simple question, how old are you?"

As far as Vakarian was aware that was a lie. All they had to work with in this regard was whatever the volunteers themselves said and there was no way to see if they are lying or not unless someone knew them IRL. (Un)Fortunately the age, so long as it was above fourteen, was not exactly an issue. Majority of ALO's players were aged between fourteen and nineteen which meant they were not of legal age in Japan, but the same teenagers also made up majority of active Mob Patrol members (despite ALfheim's social activists' unheeded protests), and besides, this world of Halkegenia had different ideas about Legal Age.

"Sixteen, sir"

"Sixteen, eh?" Jensen raised an skeptical eyebrow "I don't suppose you have any experience with our line of work, do you?" Very few of their recruits actually did, and those who said they did were usually lying... like that one Salamander who had recited some old anime character's bio, Strawberry Cleaner or something, and unfortunately for him his interviewer, Iskandar-san, a burly gnome with red enough a hair to make any salamander proud, and a security guard IRL, was a big-time Otaku himself.

"No Sir."

"Not even in your Faction?" a shake of head, "Then why do you think you are up to the task Whisper-san?"

"My father was a police" Whisper not-exactly-blurted, "And I wanted to become one after him IRL!"

Jensen exchanged a look with Vakarian, there was definitely more to this than what she said, but it was not exactly their place to dig it out and she looked honest enough about it which all that mattered to them, really. Where they stood even a flimsy reason like "I think I have it in me" was enough to start with. After all Vakarian himself didn't become a cop because he had dreams of becoming a Hero of Justice... just wanting to be like his teenage-hood idol.

"Moving on." Vakarian broke the slightly awkward silence "Your application form says you have been involved in over half a dozen major raids and two boss fights back in ALO which is all well and good, but do you have any IRL experience too?"

"I was vice-captain of my high school's Kyudo club and practiced Kendo too... and I was part of the Mob patrols under Ephi-san's command."

"Then why not stay with the Patrols? After all they are equally important for safety of our people."

" Whisper-san?"

"... They were not like Cops."

'So a selfish desire to help the society in a different way... could be worse.' Vakarian thought to himself.

"Do you hate any particular faction, Whisper-san?"

"No anymore, Sir"

"Oh?"

"Back when it was all... it was all a game, I didn't like Salamanders because they were just a bunch of gankers" Whisper dropped her head... it was true Vakarian supposed, majority of those who sticked with the Faction were indeed gankers and the organization done by Lord Mortimer only made them more efficient. One could say the same strategy that made Salamanders the strongest faction in-game also made them the least liked by members of the other Factions "But now we, everyone of us are Japanese people and ALO's factions don't really matter anymore!"

Vakarian tried not to look guilty at the declaration. It was true and at least on the intellectual levels, anyone who wasn't a crazy LARPer admitted it but he, a man of over thirty and a full-fledged cop in IRL could not put enough conviction behind such a declaration himself, after all being an adult had only served to make him realize people usually look after their own and right now he was a Faery of Salamander faction.

"Well... thank you for your cooperation, Whipser-san, and regardless of how your application turns out the Arrun Watch is honored by your sense of commitment. If everything goes fine will contact you within first three days for Skill-related tests, have a good day."

"Thank you for your time" said Whisper with a bow before turning to leave.

As the door closed behind the Puca, Jensen took a big gulp from his water bottle and sighed " This was the last for the day... and thank God nobody brought up that annoying arrow in the knee thing either..."