# Audit: Comedy Doctor — Chapter 06, Round 2 (post-repair verification)

Verifier stance: skeptical re-check of the Codex repair against the four round-1 orders, then a full re-sweep of the current text. No credit given for the memo's claims; every fix verified against the chapter on disk.

## ROUND-1 ORDER VERIFICATION

**Order 1 — cut "an inspection and a blessing": FIXED.** Line 13 now reads "Mara touched the scarf's fringe in passing. 'Keep it through Monday, please. I checked three forecasts, which Luis says is two forecasts past useful, and I have the gray one in my bag.'" The sentence ends at "in passing," exactly as ordered; no replacement caption was smuggled in. The care now lives entirely in Mara's own line, which performs both the inspection (three forecasts checked) and the blessing (the gray one in her bag) in her voice-card register.

**Order 2 — cut or re-source "gathering reactions like coats": FIXED.** Line 25 opens "Mara made the rounds." The simile is gone and was not replaced by a new one. The paragraph proceeds to concrete Mara behavior — she places June and Theo at a specific wall ("You two take this wall for me, please") — so the matchmaking maneuver the simile used to caption is now staged, not narrated.

**Order 3 — de-workshop the Mara tail clause: FIXED.** Her speech at line 25 now ends "...or enjoying the clip lights." followed by "Then she walked off to find Priya." This is the order's first option executed exactly: the detachable "and I become difficult when unsupervised" punchline is gone, the clip-lights pretext (character-true, funniness-2) remains, and the exit does the work the tail clause was over-performing.

**Order 4 — relocate the CORTADO sign out of Ruth's warning: FIXED.** Line 127, during Ruth's stop, is now bare staging: "She stopped at a bodega on the corner of Allen, where the others were going inside." Ruth's speech runs unbroken from "Maybe I'm wrong. I'd prefer to be" through "I'd like there to be an answer" with no joke-shaped sentence inside it. The espresso machine, the lotto-terminal/cat-food wedge, and CORTADO YES all now sit at line 135, in the interior paragraph, in the same breath as Ben reading the sign "as if terms might be hidden in it."

**Sharpness/payoff check on the relocation (specifically tasked).** Both ends survive. Ruth's beat is sharper than in round 1: her three gravest sentences now land consecutively, and the only sentence between her "I'd prefer to be" and "I saw enough to be worried" is her own physical stop. The CORTADO bit loses its plant-and-pay distance but gains something better: the sign is now discovered through the group's eyes rather than by the narrator cutting away from Ruth mid-warning, and the same paragraph stages the counterman who triggers the chapter's repair beat ("The man at the machine looked past Ben to Theo and June"). Setup, payoff, and the coffee-order reversal now occupy one continuous warm beat instead of bleeding into the cold one. The relocation is a net gain, not a salvage.

**Mara flatness check (specifically tasked).** The cuts did not flatten her. Surviving Mara comic beats: the three-forecasts/Luis line (13), the clip-lights pretext (25), "Luis checked it from two places before anyone asked, so now we all benefit" (81), "Sublet," read aloud at Ben (87), plus non-joke texture (narrating the cat-food shelf to Luis at 135, weekend-cold reminders at 153). Four landed beats across an ensemble chapter is the correct density for her card, which explicitly warns against every Mara line landing as a social punchline. What the repairs removed was narrator captioning *about* her and one composed-for-quotation tail — none of it was her voice. She reads as warm and busy, not flat.

## INVENTORY

1 — "You asked at one," / "Confirming," (lines 3–7) — mechanism: deadpan repetition exposed by a flat witness — source: character — funniness: 2 — portable: no — dramatic work: establishes over-management before the cohort arrives — workshopped: no
2 — "decided public sidewalk safety was not the same as management" (line 7) — mechanism: self-serving taxonomy — source: character — funniness: 2 — portable: no — dramatic work: the rationalization engine Ruth later interrogates — workshopped: no
3 — "He had not laminated it. He was prepared to call that restraint." (line 9) — mechanism: bar-lowering deflation in free indirect — source: character — funniness: 2 — portable: no — dramatic work: arms the route card as through-object — workshopped: no
4 — "I checked three forecasts, which Luis says is two forecasts past useful" (line 13) — mechanism: specificity overload + ventriloquized correction — source: character — funniness: 2 — portable: no — dramatic work: scarf custody continuity; Mara/Luis dynamic — workshopped: no — now also carries Order 1's cut weight alone, and holds
5 — "We have an arrangement," (line 15) — mechanism: deadpan contract-language for warmth — source: character — funniness: 2 — portable: no — dramatic work: June accepts care on her terms — workshopped: no
6 — "without saying the word *handrail* out loud" (line 17) — mechanism: suppressed-impulse — source: character — funniness: 2 — portable: no — dramatic work: first link in the suppression chain — workshopped: no
7 — "The kid nodded at Theo like a colleague. Theo did not hate it fast enough." (line 17) — mechanism: timing reversal — source: character — funniness: 2 — portable: no — dramatic work: miniature of the chapter card's revelation (enjoys being believed, hates enjoying it) — workshopped: no
8 — "Etchings are in the back" / "I was going to start at the front," she said, and started at the front (lines 19–21) — mechanism: deflation of anticipation — source: character (both) — funniness: 2 — portable: no — dramatic work: the chapter's whole argument in two lines — workshopped: no
9 — "apologized to a box of glassine sleeves" (line 23) — mechanism: misdirected politeness, physical — source: situation + character — funniness: 2 — portable: no — dramatic work: room scale set up for the Vestibule bit — workshopped: no
10 — "I can't tell whether I'm having an opinion or enjoying the clip lights." (line 25) — mechanism: self-deprecating pretext for matchmaking — source: character — funniness: 2 — portable: no — dramatic work: covers the pairing maneuver, the chapter engine — workshopped: no (the workshopped tail is cut; verified above)
11 — "Is that plate tone, or did they just not wipe it?" / "Then I get to keep both theories." (lines 29–33) — mechanism: craft deadpan + epistemic greed — source: character — funniness: 2 — portable: no — dramatic work: June forgets the outing; Theo has nothing to fix and likes it — workshopped: no
12 — "The rent is less bad, which is how they get you." (line 35) — mechanism: anxious self-aware rationalization — source: character — funniness: 2 — portable: no — dramatic work: opens the rent-math thread as pressure — workshopped: no
13 — "Read the actual text before you plan our furniture," (line 37) — mechanism: deflation by literalism — source: character — funniness: 2 — portable: no — dramatic work: he plans, she brakes — workshopped: no
14 — "I made a note, not a floor plan. Important distinction." (line 39) — mechanism: distinction-without-difference — source: character — funniness: 2 — portable: no — dramatic work: Ben's planning-as-love wound — workshopped: no
15 — "He has a note, and a spreadsheet, and the note has a rule at the top." (line 41) — mechanism: escalating exposure — source: character — funniness: 2 — portable: no — dramatic work: arms item 16 — workshopped: no
16 — "Rent math is not a proposal... I made the font bigger, because the font needed help." (line 43) — mechanism: displaced anxiety (typography as commitment proxy) — source: character — funniness: 2 — portable: no — dramatic work: the couple's arc question in an object — workshopped: no
17 — "if the numbers get clean enough, the rest becomes automatic" (line 45) — mechanism: incongruity (actuarial logic on marriage) — source: character — funniness: 2 — portable: no — dramatic work: names Ben's error in Priya's voice — workshopped: no
18 — "Sort of," / "That means no." + clementine (lines 45–49) — mechanism: deadpan translation — source: character — funniness: 2 — portable: no (coat-pocket clementine, "You came straight from work") — dramatic work: cohort care reaching June without ceremony — workshopped: no
19 — "We don't live together." / "Oh." Ben blinked. "That's also data." / "It's the only data," (lines 55–59) — mechanism: deflation — source: character — funniness: 2 — portable: no — dramatic work: June patrols the border; the route card returns to Theo's chest — workshopped: no
20 — "called Vestibule. Theo respected the name for admitting the problem." (line 61) — mechanism: deadpan literalism — source: character — funniness: 2 — portable: no — dramatic work: stages the square-footage bit — workshopped: no
21 — "On the seventh head, he stopped counting." (line 61) — mechanism: suppressed-impulse, mid-act — source: character — funniness: 2 — portable: no — dramatic work: suppression chain advances, one head late — workshopped: no
22 — "I'm fine." / "I know. Your left knee keeps looking for a wall. Stool." (lines 63–67) — mechanism: evidence-override + imperative repetition — source: character — funniness: 2 — portable: no — dramatic work: care as observation vs. Theo's care as pre-emption — workshopped: no
23 — "Stand here. Not symbolically. You can actually see all three from here." (line 69) — mechanism: deflation of expected symbolism — source: character (Sam's owned move) — funniness: 2 — portable: no within this voice system — dramatic work: re-seats June at the center — workshopped: no
24 — "twenty-nine hundred dollars a month to live in this gallery minus the ceiling." / "Put the phone down for one room," (lines 71–73) — mechanism: specificity overload → reframe, then deflation — source: character + situation — funniness: 2 — portable: no — dramatic work: fuses the gallery walk to the rent thread — workshopped: no
25 — "It's the wall. The floor slopes. The painting's level." (line 79) — mechanism: deadpan expert verdict — source: character (Luis, 1 of his 2-cap) — funniness: 2 — portable: no — dramatic work: sanctioned fixing against Theo's suppressed fixing (fingers folded back around the card, line 77) — workshopped: no
26 — "Luis checked it from two places before anyone asked, so now we all benefit." (line 81) — mechanism: affectionate translation — source: character — funniness: 2, modest — portable: no — dramatic work: Mara/Luis texture — workshopped: no
27 — "Sublet," Mara read aloud / "Don't," Ben said. (lines 87–89) — mechanism: compressed call-and-refusal — source: character/situation — funniness: 2 — portable: no — dramatic work: rent thread kept alive at zero cost — workshopped: no
28 — "The gold one isn't gold. It's confident, though." (line 91) — mechanism: painter's-eye deadpan personification — source: character — funniness: 2 — portable: no — dramatic work: June's eye working for pleasure — workshopped: no
29 — "I want your eyes on those etchings, and Ruth's already told me I'm wrong." (line 93) — mechanism: self-deprecating pretext — source: character — funniness: 2, modest — portable: no — dramatic work: engineers the Ruth/Theo walk in-voice — workshopped: no
30 — "It had a shortcut on it." / "I'm sure it did." (lines 113–115) — mechanism: weak-excuse deadpan turned into evidence — source: character — funniness: 2 — portable: no — dramatic work: the only comic beat inside the warning, and it incriminates Theo — workshopped: no
31 — espresso machine "wedged between the lotto terminal and the cat food. A handwritten sign over it said CORTADO YES." + Ben reading it "as if terms might be hidden in it" (line 135) — mechanism: found-object incongruity with character-true payoff — source: situation/character — funniness: 2 — portable: no — dramatic work: lands the group somewhere real and stages the counterman for item 32 — workshopped: no — placement repaired per Order 4, verified above
32 — "Two," he said. "Ask her first." / "Coffee. Black. Separate." / "ordered a coffee he had a standing rule against drinking after six, paid for only his own, and drank it" (lines 141–145) — mechanism: behavior-reversal + self-punishing deadpan tail — source: character — funniness: 2 — portable: no — dramatic work: the chapter's repair beat; the penance coffee converts joke into consequence — workshopped: no
33 — "There's track work. There's always track work. I have three theories." (line 147) — mechanism: anxious escalation, rule of three — source: character — funniness: 2 — portable: borderline-no — dramatic work: bait for the handoff — workshopped: no
34 — "received it with both hands. 'There's a fallback coffee place *ranked*,'" + "Theo's evening no longer had a card in it." (lines 149–151) — mechanism: reverence-for-the-mundane incongruity paying a chapter-long suppression chain — source: character × character — funniness: 2 — portable: no — dramatic work: the relinquishment and the laugh are the same event — workshopped: no
35 — "Ruth said good night to everyone equally, which landed worse than being singled out." (line 153) — mechanism: paradox deflation — source: character interiority — funniness: 2 — portable: no — dramatic work: keeps Ruth's question open into Ch 11 — workshopped: no
36 — "kept the shortcut to himself" / "Her pace was quicker than the route card would have budgeted for." (line 161) — mechanism: repetition-with-variation callback — source: character — funniness: 2 — portable: no — dramatic work: closes the Sonia's-map evidence with changed behavior — workshopped: no

## CHAPTER VERDICT: **CLEAR**

All 36 surviving items score funniness-2; zero portable, zero workshopped, zero partial. The three round-1 blockers were resolved by cutting (items 4 and 11 of round 1) and trimming (the Mara tail), not by softening — no replacement captions, no politer aphorisms. Sources remain overwhelmingly character/situation; with the apposition and the coats simile gone, the chapter now contains **no surviving narrator-overlay comic items**. Mechanisms stay varied (deflation, specificity overload, suppressed-impulse, evidence-override, found-object, reverence-incongruity, callback); the deadpan/suppression concentration remains structured-gag-with-arc, not MONOTONOUS. Density is unchanged from round 1's count minus two weak items — well within the register's commitment for an off-Tuesday ensemble chapter.

**Strongest surviving item:** #34, the route-card handoff — "Ben received it with both hands. 'There's a fallback coffee place *ranked*.'" Two characters' wounds meet in one object; the laugh and the relinquishment are the same event; nothing about it survives transplant to another book. The repairs upstream (cleaner Mara, unbroken Ruth) sharpened the contrast this beat lands against.

**Weakest surviving item:** #26 — "Luis checked it from two places before anyone asked, so now we all benefit." It lands, but only as texture; with the round-1 cuts executed, it is now the chapter's only line that amuses without costing anyone anything. It stands — one such line per ensemble chapter is texture, not a defect.

**Re-sweep counter-candidates checked and passed (no new objections invented):**
- "Mara assigned them a wall the way she would have assigned it to any settled pair, no supervision needed" (line 27) — narration, not a joke; it states the couple-default engine the chapter card requires. Noted in watch notes for its "supervision" adjacency to the cut tail clause.
- "the kid at the desk looked up and decided against saying anything" (line 27) — minor suppressed-objection deadpan, situation-sourced, lands; not joke-shaped enough to inventory separately.
- "That means no" exchange shape — still saved from portability by the clementine and "You came straight from work."
- "landed worse than being singled out" (line 153) — dialogue-diagnosis adjacency re-checked against the zero-tolerance rule: it rates Ruth's behavior and Theo's dread, not her phrasing. Passes.
- Mechanical gate report: 0 open findings; nothing in its WATCH rows touches a comic item.

## REVISION ORDERS

None. All four round-1 orders verified fixed; no new blocking findings. The chapter is committable from this audit's standpoint.

## WATCH NOTES (carry to tics.md and downstream chapters)

- **Suppression chain spent with the card.** The route card has left Theo's possession on the page. No new card, checklist, or replacement object played for the same laugh; Ch 08 needs a different comic engine for his over-management.
- **Supervision-language family.** The cut "difficult when unsupervised" has a faint narration cousin in "no supervision needed" (line 27). One instance, doing structural work, fine — but do not let supervision/assignment phrasing regenerate as a Mara-adjacent caption family in later ensemble chapters.
- **Mara density is now calibrated, not thin.** Four modest beats is her card-correct level. Do not compensate in Ch 08 by handing her new punchlines; her arc payoff depends on the translation tic staying warm-but-unquotable until it breaks.
- **Symmetrical spouse-translation.** Mara translates Luis twice (items 4, 26); Priya narrates Ben three times (items 13, 15, 17). Vary one couple's mechanism in the next ensemble chapter.
- **Coffee-ordering as comic stage: spent.** Item 32 was the sanctioned repair beat; the guide caps coffee-ordering as a tic and Ch 23 bans it at Sonia's. No further coffee-counter comedy.
- **Ben's transit-timing shape.** "There's always track work. I have three theories" is adjacent to Ch 05's spent clock/phone shape; passed here as handoff bait. Ben's next appearance needs non-timetable anxiety material.
- **"Oh." rationing.** Ben's "Oh." (line 57) continues into a sentence, so it is not the banned standalone paragraph, but log it so the Ch 24 confession's allowance isn't diluted.
- **"set it down again" (line 163).** Family-adjacent to the capped refusal-to-conclude variants from Ch 05; about candidate names, not refused conclusions, so it passes — no further variants in Ch 07–08.
