# Chapter 23 Synthesis Memo - Finished Together / Labels

## Provenance

- Claude draft base: `output/drafts/claude/chapter_23.round_02.md`
- Aborted first-attempt streams preserved: `output/drafts/claude/chapter_23.round_01.stream.jsonl.aborted_20260704T201255Z` and `output/drafts/claude/chapter_23.round_01.stream.jsonl.aborted_user_stop_20260704T2018Z`
- Accepted chapter: `output/chapters/chapter_23.md`
- Lane: single-seed + opposing critique. No Codex prose counterdraft was used for this chapter.

## Base Accepted

Claude's draft supplied the chapter's core architecture and prose base: Theo preparing the room and check-out form, the faced-in portrait passing unturned, Odile accepting the new sign-out/schedule boundary, June bringing the four leaving-room studies, the `After Class` painting session, Dana/Kessler/Asha follow-through, Priya/Ben's slower Suffolk decision, Odile signing her own drawings out, the exact label, the tape lift, and the final pre-showcase cohort arrival.

Codex preserved that structure and line-level momentum rather than averaging with a second draft.

## Repairs Accepted

- Mechanical raw-gate repairs: removed six open quality-gate hits from the raw draft before audit routing.
- Claude-tic repairs: cut or corrected over-elegant theme gloss, false profundity, and book-specific tic risks around `the way`, `which` captions, fiscal/clerical wit, and conduct-grade phrasing.
- Dialogue Doctor round 1 findings accepted and repaired. Key repairs removed speech-diagnosis narration, made June's Asha/Tasker line less composed, and clarified Ben/Priya's slower-choice exchange without turning it into a lecture.
- Comedy Doctor round 1 findings accepted and repaired. Key repairs reduced portable deadpan shapes, `which` captions, fiscal jokes, label jokes, and reused coat/compliance humor.
- Positive Prose round 1 findings accepted and repaired. Key repairs made the jar boundary literal, grounded the table image in threshold perspective, replaced `March is a long way to carry January` with concrete Kessler timing, cut June's tidy self-diagnosis, roughened the Asha beat through brush action, and replaced the generic standing-together sentence with specific optics and held hands.
- Clarity Pass round 2 optional O-4 accepted: changed the pre-tape-lift seam reference from `strip of primer` to `taped seam`, preserving the primer reveal for the tape-lift beat.

## Current Audit State

- Codex Claude-tic audit: `TIC-CLEAN`
- Dialogue Doctor round 4: `OVERALL: CLEAN`
- Comedy Doctor round 3: `CLEAR`
- Positive Prose round 2: `INHABITED`
- Clarity Pass round 2: `CLEAR-UNDER-COMPLEXITY`; optional O-4 executed and documented
- Codex core/risk audits: consequence, opening, ending, surprise, unresolved threads, continuity, voice-cover, editor score, shared vocab, convenient invention, adversarial register, counter-strip, earned test, mentor-scene, and reaction-divergence all clean on the current text.
- Current mechanical gate: per-chapter PASS, `open=0`, `allowlisted=0`, `WATCH=65`.

## Rejected / Deferred

- No structural rewrite accepted. The chapter's crowded payoff load survived because the payoffs occur through live studio action rather than ledger summary.
- Purple Prose and Catalog Prose were not routed: Ch23 has no lyric/worldbuilding-heavy trigger beyond ordinary painting process, and Positive Prose plus Clarity covered the relevant density risks.
- Tension Naming, Chat Variety, and Set-Piece Intensity were not routed because the chapter card did not trigger those audits and the current text does not create their risk condition.

## Final Chapter State

`After Class` is finished with the seam visible and the label fixed as: `After Class. Two underpaintings of one room, finished together.` Theo's work boundary is materialized through the check-out form and January Tuesday mornings kept blank for his own work. June's New York path remains self-owned and costly through Dana's payment/key timing, Kessler's March money, and Asha receiving the Tasker keys June declined. Priya and Ben do not sign the Suffolk place; they choose April and readiness over rent logic. The portrait remains faced in, unmoved by Theo, under June's choice for Ch24.
