Corners Mario for news of the Eschaton discipline

texture · 11 Nov YDAU, ~2100h

• When: 11 November YDAU, ~2100h (mandatory Study Period), third-floor hall of Comm.-Ad., fresh from the shower
• What: In terry robe and thongs, wet-haired, whistling 'Dixie,' Chu intercepts the filming Mario outside his own dorm door — which is completely covered with magazines' action-shots of matches, the fame-thread made literal in set dressing — and works him for information on the disciplinary fallout: whether Hal has said what Tavis intends, whether the blame will reach past Pemulis and Kittenplan to Big Buddies who were strictly from spectation. He has just been "filling Lyle in" on the debacle, and his angle is conscience, not gossip — he has trouble with the idea of Struck or Hal taking discipline, and "conscience-trouble" over Hal and Troeltsch. Mario's cheerful non-answers exasperate him (it's like trying to talk to a rock, Chu tells him). In 155 Mario relays the promise back to Hal, with the book's one outside verdict on Chu the person: "I like LaMont a lot."