# Dialogue Doctor - Chapter 22 - Round: Reader-Directive Sweep (2026-07-24)

Scope: full cold re-read after: the six-line confession ping-pong broken with a fuller June turn ("That was the honest version, and you didn't want it...") and a decoding beat on Theo's "Yes."; holding-abstraction tic replaced ("knowing something I didn't"); the Friday-timeline redundancy merged into one turn; the portrait terms-setting gained a connective interiority beat (raw-wedge rule). Updated style rules applied. Prior rounds preserved on disk.

SCENE S1 (apartment, texts): message content; exclusions applied. "The second text annoyed her." kept (orienting, not a button).

SCENE S2 (Sonia's confession):
- 2: CLEAN post-edit - the run now peaks in a two-sentence June turn with a grounded beat (cup on the stranger's ring) before returning to short confirmations; remaining short beats ("Week what?" / "Three.") are distinct-function.
- 3: CLEAN - "he had finally stopped upgrading his answers" registers what the silence costs and grants; checked against Rule 9 both directions.
- 5: CLEAN - no stripped starkness; attribution and beats present.
- FAKE-SHARP: CLEAN - counter-candidates "Don't look pleased." / "I'm trying very hard not to look anything." (speakable, pressure-true) and "Good that you're here. That's worse." (self-indicting, decodable) survive.
- Remaining modes CLEAN.

SCENE S3 (portrait terms):
- 2: CLEAN - the added June-interiority beat ("the same rule as the raw wedge in his week-three portrait") breaks the terms-litany rhythm while keeping her clipped negotiation register.
- 4: CLEAN - "Did you paint my face?" is a real question, answered concretely.
- Remaining modes CLEAN.

SCENE S4 (sidewalk, kiss): all modes CLEAN - regret symmetry exchange ("I regretted it after it delivered.") remains connected; "I stocked it in October." + wince + laugh is friction, not polish.

OVERALL: CLEAN
