# Chapter 15 Claude-Tic Audit

Target: `output/drafts/claude/chapter_15.round_01.md` and integrated base `output/chapters/chapter_15.md`

Verdict: TICS-FOUND, LOCALIZED; INITIAL ORDERS EXECUTED WHERE MECHANICALLY BLOCKING.

## Findings

1. Em dash overuse / elegant appositive risk
   - Evidence: raw draft line 11 used a long em-dash insert for Asha's leads; line 43 and line 47 also use em dashes inside Nia's job details.
   - Disposition: retained for now where they carry list or speech rhythm; watch in Comedy/Positive/Plain Translation. Do not add more in synthesis.

2. Default-elegant object personification
   - Evidence: raw line 13, `It was developing a presence.`
   - Order executed: replaced with a concrete attention sentence about the unopened mineral spirits jar.

3. Banned placeholder timing
   - Evidence: raw line 15, `after a moment`; raw line 119, `for a long moment`.
   - Orders executed: replaced both with concrete page/radiator action.

4. Echo-line poetics / balanced thesis construction
   - Evidence: raw line 75, `she was never at the wall. She was at the press...`
   - Order executed: replaced with one returning-image sentence that keeps the insight without echo-line emphasis.

5. Narrator-as-philosopher / theme explanation risk
   - Evidence: raw line 73 explains June's tendency to go to the press instead of the wall; raw line 87 names the offer's goodness and flaw in broad terms.
   - Disposition: retained provisionally because the chapter is reflective and the job-offer logic must become legible; send through Thought Development / Plain Translation pressure.

6. Closing-profundity stamp risk
   - Evidence: final `Fifteen days... deadline pinned under the jar she hadn't opened.`
   - Disposition: provisionally held because it is object/action-based rather than a maxim, but requires Ending Quality / Plain Translation scrutiny.

## Clean Elements

- No protected reveal breach in the integrated chapter: no acknowledgment page, Eileen, nephew, aunt, or `Winter Kitchen`.
- No Theo offer-disclosure breach. Theo's text stays on chair counts/label notes.
- No direct offer decision. June writes the deadline and remains undecided.
