Eschaton: SOVWAR's premier, "define equivocationary," and a ball in the groin

pivotal · 8 Nov YDAU, Interdependence Day

• When: 8 Nov YDAU, Interdependence Day, from the game's diplomatic phase through its collapse at the 1600h siren.
• What: His fullest scene and the source of everything the book knows about him. As SOVWAR's head of state he works the game's diplomacy: "Now SOVWAR premier Timmy ('Sleepy T.P.') Peterson petitions O. P. Lord for capacity/authorization to place a scrambled call to Air Force One," in which "Premier apologizes for the Prince Albert crack"; later, under the white beanie's truce, "SOVWAR's Premier Peterson and Air Marshal Kittenplan, carrying their white janitorial stockpile-bucket between them, walk across Europe and the Atlantic to parley with AMNAT President Chu and Supreme Commander Possalthwaite in what looks to be roughly Sierra Leone." Mid-crisis comes the beat that names him: "'Sleepy T.P.' Peterson, who always looks a little dazed even in the best of circumstances, asks Otis P. Lord to define equivocationary for him, causing Hal Incandenza to laugh out loud despite himself." The scene also plants his one enmity — Ingersoll, gaming out which players would most want IRLIBSYR punished, reckons on Chu "and especially the Sleepster, Peterson, who's hated Ingersoll for months now anyway without any good reason or cause or anything, Ingersoll can just somehow tell" (the hatred is Ingersoll's certainty, self-hedged in the telling). And when the game degenerates into real bombardment of Ingersoll, Peterson leads from the front — "Several kids close in on Ingersoll, triangulating their bombardment, T. Peterson on point." — until the chaos collects its toll: "Timmy Peterson takes a ball in the groin and goes down like a sack of refined flour."