Defence In Depth

[Deamon]

He found it funny, how after he turned the question back on even though she had tried to remain professional, the awkwardness still leaked through. It made things more interesting. In the end she agreed with him.

“Yeah, awkward.” He said, mimicking her statement with a small smile as she continued. Something she said caught his attention however. He went back over it in his head, just to make sure he hadn’t misheard her. When he was certain he hadn’t he rolled an answer around in his head.

The obvious thing was that they wouldn’t have even been having the interview if he wasn’t perceived as a star player for the team. No one wanted to interview the utility player who showed up, did his job and went home. People wanted to interview the players who made the big plays, had the big personalities and the reputations for their abilities.

“I consider myself one of the stars but you have to when you want to succeed and excel. Everyone wants those starting spots and you need to believe and prove you’re the best to get them.”

He paused and leaned back in his chair, folding his arms over his chest as a grin formed across his face.

“Is this off the record? I was under the impression that it was all on the record for later use.”

[Frozen Smoke]

Luca nodded along with his answer as he replied, thankfully not seeming too perturbed by the roundabout way in which she'd made it to the question in the first place, nor the sensitivity of the subject matter. His words did seem a little too precisely manufactured though, as artificially straight and polished as the grin that beamed back down at her. Too much like what a coach would tell a player to say, and not what he thought, and he was only hinting a little more in that direction. There was something there that he wanted to say, if she deigned to hand him the circumstances to do so.

She took the end of the pencil that she'd been lightly biting on without thinking about it too much out of her mouth and replied.

"It's mostly just for myself - I don't like to misquote people, so having their exact words helps." she explained, pausing for a moment to think some more. "I could unplug the mic for a moment if it would make you more comfortable?" she offered, a hint of eagerness seeping into her voice and displacing the soft, curious tone she had been speaking with.

[Deamon]

Bret's grin grew slightly wider as Luca offered to unplug the microphone. He could tell from her tone what she wanted him to say. He toyed with the idea of not giving her what she wanted, for no greater reason than the fact he could. He quickly dismissed that idea however. It was petty for pettiness sake and accomplished nothing. Instead, he made a show of thinking over the offer. As if he was weighing up the pros and cons of doing so.

"Hmm," He said as one hand scratched at the side of his chin. "It makes sense, you want to be professional after all."

He lowered his arm and placed it back on top of the other.

"Sure, why not."

He was intrigued by where Luca was planning on going.

[Frozen Smoke]

Luca leaned over the desk, grasping the mic that sat on a mechanical arm beside them, pulling it away from the wall. She looked at the back of it for a moment, before pinching the connectors at the back, and pulling the XLR cable out of it and cutting the recording off. The cable dangled conspicuously off of it, swinging back and forth underneath for a moment before Luca sent out a nervous hand to steady it, worried it might damage the equipment.

Satisfied, she sat back down, shuffling her seat forwards again.

It took her a moment to readjust, blinking as she looked down at her pad, trying to remember just what the root of the question she’d asked had been. She’d wanted to know if he considered himself the star player, but what did she really mean by that? What would a star player be looking to achieve? What would he identify other stars as?

“I guess a better way to put it is - Do you think you’re headed for the NFL? And do you think anyone else is going to be coming with you?” she tilted her head to the side with a quizzical look as she progressed that question to it’s logical conclusion inside her head some more.

“Do you think we’ll ever see you and your brother face off in a big game?”

[Deamon]

There was a brief silence following the question before Bret spoke again.

"No. I don't think me and Wyatt will ever meet in a big game."

He had to admit, he was a little disappointed by the question. He had been expecting something a little more.

"Wyatt is realistic, he knows that he needs a scholarship to have a chance of getting into college." Bret scratched absentmindedly at his the side of his chin. "And honestly, I don't think he's that interested in spending any more time in education than he needs to."

Bret rubbed the side of his chin with the knuckles of his index and middle fingers as he thought some more. He thought back to an earlier question Luca had asked him before she had turned the mic off. He considered what to say, weighing up the pros and cons. In the end, he decided it would be more fun to bring it up.

"Earlier," He began as he set his hand down. "You asked if I considered myself a star player on the team, but that's a boring question, everyone ends up getting asked that." He leaned forward slightly so his forearms rested on the edge of the table.

"So my question is, do you consider me a star player or the star player?"

[Frozen Smoke]

Luca nodded at his answer and tried to hide the little bit of dismay that came with it. It was always fun to imagine things like that, cool stories playing out, brother facing off against brother. The kinds of things you could make movies out of. She couldn't help but get excited about the possibility, even if reality often did get in the way, annoyingly enough.

Ah well, a curiosity had been satisfied at least.

She was about to reach over and plug the cable back in when Bret spoke again. Well, thinking about doing that anyway, her arms had just reached up above the desk, so she put them down on the table as she focused her attention back on him.

It was certainly a question, and one she wasn't entirely sure how to answer. But, she tried anyway.

"Um, I probably shouldn't have said star player, specifically - I like to think of star player as a role, rather than like, skill or talent level. You know, who the gameplan is built around. It's just convenient shorthand for 'a standout player in a team', I guess."

She knew that that wasn't an answer, and she could see in his face that he was still waiting for her to finish, so she kept going.

"I think what you're asking me is 'Are you the most talented player?', and I think I'd say yes to that - I mean, a strong defence is what wins you guys games. "

Another short pause, before she self-corrected.

"But there are still other people who have a star-level impact within the game, like Connor. Wyatt and Kayden definitely have their games too."

[Deamon]

Bret nodded, satisfied with the answer. It hadn't been delivered as smoothly as he expected but that was beside the point. He had received the confirmation of what he believed.

She tried to cover for it but the initial answer told him what she really thought. He was happy with her opinion, it meant something to have your work be recognized by others who weren't a part of the team. If someone who didn't understand all the intricacies of the game and what was required could point to you and say that you had an impact and made a difference that was praise worth listening to. It showed just how good you were.

Things like that were what Bret aimed for. He wanted to be noticed and recognized, at the end of the day he needed to be noticed by scouts. That was how you got recruited, the more that saw him and decided he was what they were after the better. He had no issues courting multiple colleges. He'd put in the time and the work, he wanted his spot and he had earned it. So they'd either give it to him or he'd take it.

Returning his focus back to Luca, he shrugged a little with a smile.

"Star, most talented, they're very similar designations. But you do believe I'm the best, you basically just said as much. Plus you'd be talking to Connor if you didn't, he's the quarterback after all."