Marcus had always been a competitive man, there was no doubt about it. For as long as he could remember he had wanted to be the best, and that was before Quidditch was involved. He had wanted to beat out everyone, he had wanted to prove to his father and his brother that he was fantastic. That desire only grew as he got older, and he was constantly trying to slide his way into first, trying to do better than everyone. Slytherin had been the best fit for him, it had allowed him to meet his goals and play for the best damn team in Hogwarts. Once he forgot that he was constantly fighting to keep his grades above water, it was even better. It was really funny how nostalgic he got when he thought of Hogwarts, now. It was almost like he missed it when he closed his eyes and blocked out the slightly scarring memories. Hell, that was the start of his Quidditch career. That was important, that was monumental... And Sebastian did have a habit for sticking up for him by cursing the lights out of people, but that was besides the point... Hogwarts had brought him to the start of his coaching career when he was captain, and he hadn't ever looked back.

Well, he forwent that for a bit so that he could play. That had been an amazing time; the Tornadoes had done so well during his time on the team, and nothing beat the feeling of flying against someone. There was a reason that he and Chang still raced around when they were drunk. It was fun, and she was hard enough to beat sober. But Marcus mainly got on a broom to help run drills, now, or to play pick up games with his friends when he had time. He hadn't played an official game in years, and it hurt, sometimes. He missed that feeling, the competitive spirit that was constantly pulsing... There was nothing quite like that. Coaching was almost close, it was almost there, but it wasn't the same. He got to be involved, still, and he wrote plays upon plays for the team, but it was still different. Sometimes it was the good kind of different, though. He knew that there was an expiration tag on Quidditch players, and he just happened to be able to live past it. 

"Well..." He didn't really know what to say about that. He was sure that he would hear from Olivia in the next few days if they didn't get any better, and he really didn't want to risk that. She wasn't going to be very happy with him; he was sure there would be shouting. But Marcus could deal. He was sure that they couldn't find a coach as dedicated, as focused, and as in love with Quidditch. Marcus knew that he was one-of-a-kind. They would struggle to find someone just as good as him. He would get the team up to snuff, though, because he didn't want to lose his job. "I'll be glad to see her." Now he was lying through his teeth, but he was just trying to make sure that he had everything under control. "She'll come watch practice, yeah? She can see what we're working with this year."

He loved Quidditch—that was obvious. He might have a Ministry job, but it dealt with magical games, and sports… and nothing was as big as Quidditch in their department. There were other matters that they concerned themselves with, but their main concern was and likely always would be Quidditch. They had the league season to deal with, and the European Cup, as well as qualifying matches and World Cup matches, for as long as they had teams in it anyway. He dealt with Quidditch for a living, so quite obviously, it was something that he loved. He had never wanted to play it for a living, or coach it, or anything, but he still got to be involved in Quidditch in the best way that he could. He was good at the job, and he did enjoy the sport. But there were very few people in the world that he thought loved Quidditch as much as Olivia did. Her passion for the sport went to another level at times, and from the moment that he had bought her the Tornados as a present, she had become even more invested in the team. Her mood when they won was… over the top, to say the least, and her mood when they lost… well… that wasn’t great to deal with.

Luckily for Marcus, Beck was the one that had to deal with most of those moods. They happened at home, after all, when they were in private and she could throw things without causing a scene. She had the temper that was common with redheads, and Flint tended to get the anger after it had started to dissipate, even a little bit. Beckett got the full force of it when the Tornados didn’t do well, but he knew that Marcus knew well enough that he would have to deal with it too. The coach understood that it might be Beckett’s name on everything as far as ownership went, but everything was really up to Olivia. It was just difficult to surprise someone with a team when there was paperwork to sign and all that, so it had just been easier to put it in his name. Everyone still knew that it was Olivia’s Tornados. Anyone that knew… anything about the team, at least. And Marcus Flint had grown accustomed to dealing with Olivia’s temper when the team didn’t do well. Or at least, Beckett hoped that he had grown used to it. It wasn’t something that was going to be changing anytime soon.

Sometimes when her temper got the best of her, she did start to wonder who she could fire in order to make the team better, but Marcus wouldn’t be on the chopping block as long as Beck was around. He was the one to make sure that she didn’t act on her temper, and he was the reason why people might prefer that the team was technically in his name. She couldn’t just fire someone—she had to convince him to fire them, and there were times when he just wasn’t going to do that. Even if they lost, even if they weren’t at the top of the league, that wasn’t necessarily Flint’s fault. If it was someone’s fault, they would figure it out. The seeker, the chasers, whoever they needed to sort out to win the matches… but Flint was good at his job. He didn’t think that they could find a captain more passionate about Quidditch, and his plays were solid. Them not being at the top of the league standings had very little to do with his coaching. Getting that through to Olivia, however, would be difficult.

But he didn’t think that Flint had anything to worry about. It wasn’t as if he would ever tell the man that. He didn’t need him getting lazy because the actual owner of the team had his back. He didn’t need to know that Beckett wasn’t going to let Olivia fire Marcus unless he actually did something to deserve it. That worry would probably make him work harder anyway, and there was nothing wrong with that. He just chuckled at his words. He wasn’t going to call him out for lying, because he might not have been… but he didn’t think that he would be all that glad to see Olivia when she was in a mood. Still, he’d survive it Probably. “I’m sure she will. She knows that’s the best time to come.” She would want to see the players in action, and probably have her own ideas on plays and what they could improve on. Whether or not Flint actually used those ideas would then be up to him, since he was the coach. He knew better than Liv for the most part, whether she wanted to admit it or not.

Marcus was certain that there were people who were just born to do certain things. There were people who were born to antagonize (Malfoy), people born to try to blow up the world (Potter), and people who were born to play Quidditch. Those weren't really the only three groups of people, but just a glimpse into the type of branches that he was certain existed. It really on made sense that people were just fated for things. At one point he had been worried about that; he had thought that he might not be born to do much of anything. Quidditch had been the love of his life for so many years, so often, and he had wondered if he really was going to be failed on that part. He thought that he might end up being jilted by it, that he would end up failing at a professional career even as the Tornadoes had been trying to sign him on. He thought that his life might end up over, that something could happen that would ruin it all, and then he would be stuck without anything to do. He wasn't like Sebastian. He didn't have varying interests, he wasn't bright. He really could only just play Quidditch and fly, he wasn't good at school or spells or anything else.

If he wasn't born for Quidditch, what was he supposed to do? Sometimes he wondered if he would be married already, if his brother would have just picked a bride to get him out of his hair. Maybe he would have ended up doing something boring in the Ministry. Maybe he would have been more involved in things. That would have made more sense, at least. He had stayed out of trouble because of Quidditch. If he didn't fly he might have ended up hooking onto the Death Eaters, he might have been marked and he might have done something stupid. He didn't think that he could handle that... It was too much. He knew that it was a lifelong commitment, that was what Sebastian had said. He didn't think he could handle it, he didn't think that he was smart enough for it. Quidditch probably saved his life in more ways than he thought, even if it did put him in the employment of a witch with a temper that could probably cut him in half. Really, he had to ride on the fact that he knew what he was doing. Olivia couldn't kill him if he kept the team on top, and he knew that he was at least capable of keeping them at the top, of them being better than they were. He just had to hope that Beckett didn't let her kill him before them.

They were competitive, that was why. They wanted to make sure that they got everything together, that they were the winners. They should have been regardless, they were the ones who were on top of things. The Tornadoes were a constant in the top ranks, they did their best and they constantly fought with the damn Falcons. He hated the Falcons, hated how they kept trying to beat them out... He remembered when he was younger, when he was playing, trying to beat people out of the way and trying to commit the foulest plays just to keep the quaffle moving. He still used some of those plays now, and with everything that was going on... They needed to play quicker and dirtier. They needed to win, they had to... He didn't know what he would do if they didn't. He would probably try to drown himself in the shower-- he had heard that Wood had tried the same thing in school, and it clearly hadn't been successful, but it was... It was a thought. It was a dramatic way to describe his misery. Of course it was definitely more likely that he would just drink and hide in his apartment for the rest of his life. "Yup," he said simply, running a hand through his hair. He didn't mean to not say much, but that was just... him. Marcus wasn't good with words.

Beckett had come here mostly to just check up on things. There was no reason not to. This was his team. Everyone knew that it was really Olivia's, that he had bought it for her, but it was still technically in his name. That meant that he could come here if he wanted to. Honestly, he thought that he might as well just talk to Marcus about what he thought was going on. It was incredibly important to Liv that the Tornados did well. To him, as long as they were winning matches, he was happy. But Olivia wanted more than that. She wanted them to be at the top of the league standings, and that just wasn't something that they were achieving right now. Not with their scores thus far, not with the amount of points that they were scoring. That was how the standings were calculated, after all. Winning wasn't everything, the scores mattered too. But winning was enough to get them into the post season, which was why he didn't think it was as big of a deal as Olivia did.

It seemed like Flint wanted them to be doing more too, however. He knew that he cared about the Tornados probably the second most. More than Beck did, but less than Liv. He didn't think that there was anyone that cared more about how the team did than Olivia did. Except maybe the players, but… honestly, they could go to another team. They could be traded, to take better offers. There were some players that had extreme loyalties to their teams, but not everyone did. The Tornados were the only team that Liv cared about, so when they weren't playing at their absolute best, she was the one that was the most upset. The fact that they were winning every match wasn't going to be enough for her when there was more than they could be doing. It was as simple as that. She wanted them to be the best; she was probably the most competitive person that he knew. That was never going to change.

He had come here just to see what Marcus thought about what was going on, and because he knew that Olivia would be paying him a visit soon enough. He thought her visit might have some more yelling, but also some more strategizing as well. Beckett didn't know if Flint appreciated her ideas, or if he thought that she would be better off minding her business and letting him do his job as the coach. It could go either way, really. He thought that Liv had good ideas, but he also wasn't the team's coach. Flint might not appreciate the suggestions at all, but the would likely listen to them anyway. The alternative was pissing Liv off more, and that wasn't something that he thought Marcus was willing to do. It was obvious to him that he was more afraid of her than he was of Beckett. That was fine by him. He didn't consider himself to be all that scary of a person. Especially when it came to winning and losing Quidditch.

He could have his moments, but they weren't here. He wasn't going to be the one yelling at Marcus for something that he hadn't done wrong. Hell, even if he was a horrible coach and they had to sack him, he didn't think that he would be all that scary while firing him either. As much as he loved Quidditch, and as much as he wanted the Tornados to do well, he wasn't going to get pissed about it. He saved that for Liv, and that was the reason why his name was on the paperwork that stopped her from firing everyone that did something wrong. It worked out quite well, or he thought that way too many good players and coaches would have been sacked after one bad match. Or maybe two matches, if she was being generous. "Well, good luck to you." He said, with a nod. Dealing with Olivia, he thought that Flint would need luck. And then, with a nod goodbye, he was heading off.

Do you want to finish it up, or should we call it FIN?