# Chapter 22 Conversation-Variety Audit

Source: `../checks/audits/chat_variety.md`

chapter: 22 | conversations audited: 1 | pairs with prior history: 1 | flagged: 0

SPEAKERS: June Park + Theo Brennan - ch 22 instance #1 of many - prior instances: ch 13 classroom/sidewalk, ch 15 text exchange, ch 21 one-sided text ask

STAKE-SHIFT: VARIED - this: the relationship stake is no longer whether the fake couple can perform closeness or continue a joint panel; it is whether Theo can name asymmetry without managing June's exit: `I had the fact that would have changed what you could say yes to. I kept it.` / `I'm staying, Theo. It isn't for you.` vs prior (ch 13): public performance and new desire under concealment, `Theo put an arm around June's shoulders... June turned and caught Theo's jacket lapel.` / `Nia... That was true in the same limited way boss had once been true.` The prior scene carries concealment inside a public almost-romance; Ch22 puts the concealment itself on the table.

FORMAT: VARIED - this: scheduled private diner conversation that begins from two text bubbles and runs as terms/apology/decision: `Sunday. 9. Just coffee.` / `Third booth, the one with the taped seat, facing the door.` vs prior (ch 13): group-classroom work session with embedded public kiss and sidewalk logistics: `Flyer photos... Pairs, please.` / `I'll send options. You can say no to all of them.` Ch21 is one-sided written ask rather than conversation: `Can we talk? Sonia's. You pick the day and time and I'll be there.`

LENGTH: VARIED - this: a full multi-phase scene because the relationship repair, life-choice disclosure, portrait consent terms, and first real kiss all require negotiated page time. The load-bearing exchange runs from `Okay... You asked` through `I'll try in front of you.` Prior (ch 15) June/Theo contact is a tiny fact-text exchange: `The coat counts. Somebody marked their position and left.` / `That's going in the label notes.` Prior (ch 13) is also long, but its length is public-classroom escalation; Ch22's comparable length is justified by an entirely different stake: consent repair after the rupture.

TEMPORAL: VARIED - this: Sunday morning after the Friday rupture and after June's independent New York decision, `It was 8:04. She sent it...` / `At 8:56 she was outside Sonia's`; prior (ch 13): Tuesday night class under showcase pressure, `At eight, Odile rapped the roster table... The last Tuesday will be open for two hours`; prior (ch 21): Friday night after Theo finishes and faces the portrait, `He sent it too. The second bubble appeared under the first before he could take it back.`

REGISTER: VARIED - this: plain confessional/terms-setting register with comedy only as pressure release, `Don't be useful right now` after Theo's crates/freight-elevator overrun and `Leave the jar. I might want clean water. The stain stays.`; prior (ch 13): improvised public cover and almost-flirt logistics, `Limit the list.` / `I'll send two`; prior (ch 15): dry factual text play, `The coat counts. Somebody marked their position and left.`

EARNS-ITS-PLACE: EARNS - payoff quoted: `I was deciding what you got to know` names the actual wrong; `It stays where it is. Faced in. Tuesday, if I want to see it, I turn it around myself` establishes the portrait's consent rules; `That happened because the terms are set. Not instead of them` prevents the kiss from erasing harm. Strongest skim-risk passage considered: the detailed portrait terms from `It stays where it is` through `That's mine now. The deciding part.` A skimming reader would lose the chapter's moral hinge: June takes control of the deciding part, which is the precise injury Theo caused.

Conversation verdict: VARIED+EARNS.

REVISION ORDERS: none.
