# Claude-Tic Audit - Chapter 12

## Scope

Target: Claude draft round 01 integrated as `output/chapters/chapter_12.md`.

## Known Claude Defaults Checked

- Em-dash rhythm crutch: reduced before integration. Current text uses ASCII interruption in dialogue and no em-dash scaffolding.
- Shimmer prose / atmospheric drift: mostly absent; the room is rendered through desk lamp, cards, gate, stock shelf, and frame storage. Opening has enough object action to avoid atmosphere-first drift.
- Sentence-mood verbs (`mattered`, `earned`, `weighed`, `carried`): no notable cluster in integrated text.
- `a kind of` / `something like` / soft qualifiers: raw `something` line repaired; no emotion-placeholder use remains.
- Narrator-as-philosopher / theme gloss after beat: watched most closely at the `PARTNER` paragraph and final train note. Both remain tied to assignment card and paint order; keep under Plain Translation scrutiny.
- Recursive negation: raw `not painful / Nothing in it was painful` watch beat repaired.
- Self-aware meta-clause (`if that was the word for it` family): none.
- Over-balanced parallel clauses: some deliberate balance remains in Theo's repair-questions paragraph; currently serves the "three repair questions" pressure and should be tested by Dialogue/Plain Translation.
- Profundity-stamp close: avoided. The chapter ends on Theo placing June's card in his inside pocket and not taking it out again.
- Default lovely/quiet/small register: not dominant; the erased-wall memory stays ugly-practical.
- Default physical reaction beats: minimal; Theo's pressure is mostly tasks, cards, room arrangement, and unasked repair questions.

## Accepted Corrections Already Made

- Cut stock `the way...` explanatory construction.
- Removed one comma-then sequence.
- Reduced hand/body foregrounding in final beat.
- Corrected the frame-stock typo.
- Replaced one explanatory June stillness caption with a direct action.

## Remaining Watch Items For Audits

- `GREEN FIRST. THE WHITE HAS TO COVER SOMETHING.` must remain an object/process note, not a thesis line.
- The line `the card under his pen feel misfiled by size` uses clerical texture; acceptable for Theo but should not turn into Ch07/Ch11 filing register.
- The phrase `the harder kind of acting` should survive only if Dialogue/Plain Translation agree it is necessary and not over-explanatory.

## Verdict

Accepted with repairs. No Claude-tic blocker remains before the scheduled chapter audits.
