# Counter-Strip Audit - Chapter 01

Header: pre-revision draft `output/drafts/claude/chapter_01.round_02.md` word count 2931; post-synthesis `output/chapters/chapter_01.md` word count 2896; delta -1.2%. Sample size: all meaningful cuts/changes. Author-direction notes: none.

JUSTIFIED - cut/rewrite: `a tall man June hadn't noticed before` -> `someone from the gallery staff June hadn't noticed before`.
Evidence: mechanical gate BANNED `banned-1.26-elegant-variation` on `the tall man`; replacement preserves role and avoids descriptor cycling.

JUSTIFIED - cut/rewrite: `with the urgency of someone who had waited all night for a gap` -> `hurried into the gap`.
Evidence: mechanical gate BANNED `banned-1.30-simile-as-adverb`; replacement preserves action without the banned shape.

JUSTIFIED - cut/rewrite: `had not raised her voice, but it was a voice built for rooms` -> `Her voice stayed level and carried`.
Evidence: mechanical gate BANNED `not X, but Y`; replacement preserves Odile's room authority.

JUSTIFIED - cut/rewrite: one-sentence paragraphs combined around line 5, 13, 37, 47, 49.
Evidence: mechanical gate CAP `fieldguide-one-sentence-paragraph-gravity`; combinations preserved content and reduced false gravity.

JUSTIFIED - cut/rewrite: `the kind of voice` and `the kind of thing` removed.
Evidence: WATCH `ruleset-paragraph-closing-type-definition`; replacements reduced generic frame without losing June's perception.

Chapter verdict: NONE OVER-CUT.
