# Final Test - Final Assembly Candidate

id: final_test | owner: codex | tier: book
date: 2026-07-05
target: `output/drafts/checkpoints/final_candidate_after_numeric_date_20260705.md`

## SPECIFICITY

SPECIFICITY: "June had given herself twenty minutes. One look at the painting, no wine..." (Ch01 opening) — PASS (anchor: `Winter Kitchen`, Marchetti Rooms, handling-job social avoidance, boxes/lease pressure). Nearest miss considered: "The plan lasted four minutes" would be portable alone, but the paragraph immediately pins it to June's specific art/work/exit pressure.

SPECIFICITY: "BRING NOTHING." (Ch03 opening) — PASS (anchor: assignment-card form, later repeated/varied through the eight Tuesdays). Nearest miss considered: a generic workshop could say this, but in-book it is an Odile card that materially creates the class's rule system.

SPECIFICITY: "The repaired corner was better than it had any right to be." (Ch11 opening) — PASS (anchor: frame repair, miter/spline/regilding craft, Ruth/Sam access paperwork). Not portable once the paragraph unfolds into Aiello/handling-specific procedure.

SPECIFICITY: "She wrote *ask Chelsea office re: December crating* on the back of her hand..." (Ch20 close) — PASS (anchor: June's paid art-handling life, December money bridge, leaving-side study on her own wall). This is a late Batch 1 repair; it now works as material scaffolding rather than a generic hustle note.

SPECIFICITY: "a nine-hundred-eighty-by-Thursday problem" (Ch24 final pages) — PASS (anchor: Dana room/wall first-month-plus-deposit math; Kessler-in-March pressure; final cold walk). The hyphenated pressure could look editor-inserted, but Claude's numeric/date verifier judged it consonant with the surrounding cost-list rhythm.

## INTERCHANGEABILITY

INTERCHANGEABILITY: "She did not scratch it out. She went and ate the clementine." (Ch07 close, June) — PASS (why only June: refusal to erase the name and clementine-as-class/object care are tied to June's stubborn material processing, not generic embarrassment).

INTERCHANGEABILITY: "He set the alarm and went home owing everyone." (Ch08 close, Theo) — PASS (why only Theo: debt/accounting register matches Theo's maintenance/usefulness wound and Odile-route obligation).

INTERCHANGEABILITY: "The tote was light on her shoulder." (Ch17 close, June) — PASS (why only June: the light tote follows returning one catalog and refusing Theo's repair route; physical absence carries rupture, not generic sadness).

INTERCHANGEABILITY: "I'm not carrying anything." (Ch24, Theo) — PASS (why only Theo: pays maintenance/usefulness, freight-elevator, catalog route, and portrait-consent arcs). Nearest miss considered: any romantic lead could refuse rescue; this line is specific because the book repeatedly made carrying/handling Theo's distortion.

INTERCHANGEABILITY: "There." (Ch24, Luis) — PASS (why only Luis: pays Mara/Luis translation arc; a longer explanation would violate his direct material care pattern).

## EARNED

EARNED: June stays for herself first (Ch20/Ch22/Ch24) — BUILT-TO (setup Ch01: "My lease ends December fifteenth"; Ch09: "Neither one was nothing"; Ch15 Tasker/Dana/Kessler terms; Ch20 refusal before confession). Payoff Ch22: "I'm staying, Theo. It isn't for you"; Ch24 keeps "$980 due Thursday" with no Theo rescue.

EARNED: artifact-borne fake-start disclosure (Ch24) — BUILT-TO (setup Ch01 "The last spot. You two"; Ch03 "That's us"; Ch13 joint-piece assignment; Ch23 final label `Two underpaintings of one room`). Payoff Ch24: Ruth reads the work and says only, "You didn't start this together."

EARNED: Odile knew from night one (Ch24) — BUILT-TO (setup Ch02 PARK/BRENNAN packet and couples/pairs/partners edits; Ch21 true-partial catalog admission). Payoff Ch24: `Park, J. - Brennan, T. Last slot.` Weakest link checked: the exact black binder is late, but the paperwork/class-list system carries the proof mechanism.

EARNED: Theo's portrait restraint (Ch21-Ch24) — BUILT-TO (setup Ch07 off-rack study; Ch08 faced-to-wall hiding; Ch21 finished labeled study faced in; Ch22 "you do not turn it"). Payoff Ch24: June turns it herself, views it privately, turns it back, and tells him to keep it.

EARNED: Mara/Luis blue-dish payoff (Ch05/Ch19/Ch24) — BUILT-TO (setup Ch05 Mara translating Luis's looking; Ch19 Luis directness and Mara stopping herself). Payoff Ch24: Luis places the dish in traffic with "There," and Mara does not translate him.

## CONSEQUENCE

CONSEQUENCE: Ch01 signing the class list — CHANGES (June rejects the clean exit, gives the fake pair institutional life, and forces Theo/Odile into paperwork).

CONSEQUENCE: Ch13 cover kiss / joint-piece assignment — CHANGES (private attention becomes public evidence; Tasker offer lands; `After Class` becomes the final artifact engine).

CONSEQUENCE: Ch17 catalog acknowledgment — CHANGES (June learns nephew truth, ruptures repair route, returns one catalog, and requires the other eight to move by non-Theo route).

CONSEQUENCE: Ch20 Tasker refusal / Dana-Kessler yes — CHANGES (June's city decision is made before romance repair; Asha gets the Tasker path; Dana/Kessler dates become binding).

CONSEQUENCE: Ch24 page tear — CHANGES (Odile loses the durable first-night record/proof page; June leaves with evidence and no absolution speech).

CONSEQUENCE: Ch24 corner walk — CHANGES (Theo catches the carrying/reflexive rescue pattern and limits himself to the corner; June initiates and ends the kiss, then leaves toward her own train).

## Gate Verdict

COMPLETE.

No sampled item fails specificity/interchangeability, no sampled emotional beat is merely announced, and no sampled scene/beat leaves state unchanged. Residual risk is not final-test failure but positioning: the manuscript is a compressed 62K final candidate below the reading-guide length floor.
