# Dialogue Doctor - Chapter 08 - Round: Reader-Directive Sweep (2026-07-24)

Scope: full cold re-read after: interiority beat added after June's "Huh," ("He had an answer half prepared for the next question, and she chose not to collect it."); plumbing tail cut. Updated style rules applied. Prior rounds preserved on disk.

SCENE S1 (studio cleanup/stockroom, Theo solo with Odile intrusion):
- All modes CLEAN. Odile's covert-kindness beat (red folder, Sonia envelope) reads warmer under the softened register without any line change; Theo's interiority decodes it ("placed with suspicious accuracy").

SCENE S2 (Sonia's booth, group):
- 1: CLEAN - Mara presiding ("The head count worked."), Priya literal ("It was a head count."), Ben self-mocking ("Different disease. Same drawer."), Luis radiator ruling; distinct cadences.
- 2: CLEAN - announcement scene alternates group turns with narration traffic.
- FAKE-SHARP: CLEAN - "witness protection" survives as June's speakable joke with immediate concrete referent (the tied folder on the bench); "I rank everything. I just usually don't read out the results." survives as self-report, not aphorism.
- Remaining modes CLEAN.

SCENE S3 (folder exchange, June/Theo):
- 3: CLEAN - the new beat closes the Rule 9 gap this exchange had: the focalizer now registers what the dropped question costs and permits.
- 2/5: CLEAN - "So it lives with you now." / "It lives in a folder." remains distinct-function short beats inside longer turns.
- Remaining modes CLEAN.

SCENE S4 (exits/stockroom filing): no dialogue; narration buttons checked - "the part he would have to know her better to paint" kept (plot), plumbing quip cut. Density within cap.

OVERALL: CLEAN
