The academy's disciplinary and intake machinery: Pukers, the mandated diddle-check, and Tavis's Intake creed

texture · 10 Nov YDAU (with Aug-YDAU Orientation flashback)

• When: 10 Nov YDAU — Hal, Pemulis, Axford, and Kittenplan wait in the Headmaster's waiting room for the Eschaton disciplinary fallout, "coming up on an hour"; embedded flashback to the August-YDAU Orientation period
• What: The academy's administrative-disciplinary apparatus rendered from the waiting room outward. The staff layer: Headmaster Charles Tavis (his covered "inner door" bears "his E.T.A. motto about the man who knows his limitations having none"), Dean of Academic Affairs and Dean of Females Avril, receptionist "Lateral Alice Moore," psychologist Dr. Dolores Rusk, and prorectors under Schtitt/deLint. Two institutional mechanisms are documented: (1) the diddle-check — since coach R. Bill "Touchy" Phiely's disappearance from Rolling Hills Academy, "monthly diddle-checks are in Rusk's contract because they're in E.T.A.'s O.N.A.N.T.A. accreditation-charter," a discreet group meeting with the youngest female players (Avril presiding for the chronically-unavailable Rusk); (2) corrective discipline disguised as conditioning — the Puker drills, sub-rosa punishments assignable because they can be described "to parents and police alike as just drills," which is "why Gerhardt Schtitt and his prorectors are way more feared than" the academics. The flashback preserves the academy's Intake creed as Tavis delivers it to seven-year-old matriculant Tina Echt: E.T.A. "break[s] you down in very carefully selected ways [...] a little girl now who can regard the court as a mirror whose reflection holds no illusions or fear for you." Backdrop: 80+ WhataBurger Jr. Invitational RSVPs being processed. See the Charles Tavis timeline, the Avril timeline.