# Counter-Strip Audit - Chapter 07

Header: pre word count 2553 (`output/drafts/claude/chapter_07.round_01.md`), post word count 2387 (`output/chapters/chapter_07.md`), delta -6.5%, below the >20% evidence-documentation watch. Sample size: 10 cuts/changes. Author-direction notes: reading guide bans dialogue diagnosis, `load-bearing`, shimmer/default romance tics, and over-polished dialogue; reduced protection applies to those dimensions.

JUSTIFIED - cut: code fence around assignment card/title - evidence: format artifact; chapter headings use plain Markdown assignment card, not fenced code.

JUSTIFIED - cut: "No model was the model" - evidence: Claude-tic audit tic 6 narrator-philosopher; replacement "The missing model was the point" keeps function without slogan.

JUSTIFIED - cut: "He had no objections to anything" - evidence: quality gate BANNED echo-line poetics; replacement "He looked recently assembled" preserves generic-safe-man diagnosis.

JUSTIFIED - cut: "It was not a good painting. It was a true one, which was worse." - evidence: quality gate BANNED echo-line and Claude-tic shimmer/theme gloss; replacement line 58 ties truth to failed repairs already shown.

JUSTIFIED - cut: "Nobody laughed, which was its own kind of laughing" - evidence: Claude-tic default elegance; replacement line 52 gives observable brush behavior.

JUSTIFIED - cut: "it's load-" - evidence: reading guide bans `load-bearing` variants outright; no restoration allowed.

JUSTIFIED - cut: Luis tone caption "in the tone of a man pleased..." - evidence: Dialogue Doctor round 1 zero-tolerance dialogue-diagnosis finding; replacement line 88 physicalizes Luis's sightline.

JUSTIFIED - cut: "question underneath those questions..." - evidence: Dialogue Doctor round 1 Rule 9/subtext-caption finding; line 114 now lets action carry the refusal.

JUSTIFIED - cut: "like a meter was running" - evidence: Comedy Doctor round 1 item 16 partial/portable; deletion preserves pacing.

JUSTIFIED - cut: "scarf radar fully operational" - evidence: Comedy Doctor round 1 item 21 narrator-overlay; replacement line 100 uses Mara's action/dialogue.

Chapter verdict: NONE OVER-CUT.

REVISION ORDERS: none.
