In the end, after all the nerves, the team had won both of their last two games in blowouts to qualify comfortably, just one point behind the defending champions. So the mood was pleasant as the journalists circled back through the usual cliches, and Varadarajan went back to his usual nonsense about contrived baseball-influenced numerology.
At last, Frank found the Regency journalist he'd spoken with. "Hey," he said. "Come back here. We got your answer."
"My answer?"
"Oh, no, you don't get to duck out of tricky questions now, comrade. You were asking about whether it's better to be kind or truthful, if you can't be both and can't get out of the question."
"And?"
"And we've conducted some research." He gestured at his teammates. "Given the choice between being consistently kind and trying to build relationships with people, or being consistently truthful even when it comes across as rude or unpleasant, which is better?"
"Um," said Camille. "Well. It seems as if...for most of the qualifiers...Tandre has been overly kind. And Tinn has been overly truthful." The others nodded, concurring.
"And?" Frank prodded.
"And they're both annoying," Gretchen said. "Unless you're the Spenson Star, in which case they're both giving you plenty of fodder, so that's great."
"That's not an answer!" said the Regency reporter.
"Hold it," said Frank. "You said, most of the qualifiers. Has anybody noticed anything more recently?"
He glanced around, and luckily, Pammal spoke up. "It was funny," he said. "I'd never really formed an impression of Tinn before. But these last few months, playing with him, I'd have to agree. The things he said were, in general, not very kind. But..."
"But?" echoed the journalist.
"But a couple weeks ago, he volunteered to help me with practicing shots from open play. He didn't really say a whole lot, he just...pitched in. I think it might have helped both of us, it certainly helped me."
"And how would you describe that?" Frank asked.
"I was a little suspicious, at first. Knowing him. But...I mean...it sure seemed, genuinely, kind."
"If you say it was, then I believe you," said Nicholas. "I mean, you were there, right? You're the only one whose opinion matters."
"So what you're saying," Frank said, "is that even someone who has a reputation for being unkind, can, on occasion, do kind things? And those can be recognized, as such, by the people they impact?"
"Exactly," said Pammal.
"Cool," said Frank. "Anything else?"
"Yeah," said Blanche, and Frank exhaled. She was probably not the best target for an experiment; it would have been a lot harder to get her at the press conference if Zwangzug had lost those two games four-nil. "Um, it was strange. After the game with Flavovespia, Tandre told me that he thought I played well. Even though the outcome didn't reflect that."
"You did play well," said the journalist. "Under the circumstances. You were far from the worst player on the Zwangzug side, that day."
Blanche couldn't help but smile. "You think so?"
"Yeah," said the journalist.
"So it sounds like," Frank went on, "what Tandre said was true."
"It was true!" Jess blurted. The Ephesian players stayed out of it, which was probably for the best.
"But Blanche is the one who heard it," Frank said. "What did you think?"
Blanche toed the ground awkwardly. "Tandre had been such a...buttkisser, all qualifiers. Telling everybody what they wanted to hear. Never criticizing anyone. All just 'well you tried your best, that's nice!' I couldn't believe any praise, when it came from him."
"So what you're saying," Frank said, "is that if someone has a reputation for being kind to the point that it becomes untruthful, then even if they choose to tell the truth, nobody can believe them? They've lost the ability to be recognized as truthful?"
Blanche thought about it for a moment, then nodded.
"There," said Frank, facing the reporter with a fierce grin. "That's your answer."
MD17: Lavrans 12 and 61, Hegesa 40, Flen-Willis 85
MD18: Aksnes 30 and 72, Spand-Maunk 51, Regins-Ybou 70
