Hal serves as a "Big Buddy" (mentor) to younger E.T.A. players

texture · YDAU academic year

• When: YDAU (2009) academic year
• What: Under C.T.'s "Big Buddy System," Hal mentors a group of 14-and-Unders — Peter Beak, Kent Blott, Idris Arslanian, and (via an off-books trade with Axford) Evan Ingersoll. Hal "on the whole rather likes being a Big B.," delivering minilectures and "getting to be kind in a way that costs him nothing," though he privately battles "a strange urge to be cruel to Ingersoll." Establishes Hal's institutional role and a gentler facet, shadowed by the Big-Buddy informant tension and his own concealed urges.