# Chapter 21 Shared-Vocabulary Ban Conformance

Cards loaded: Theo Brennan, Odile Marchetti, June Park. Global blacklist checked from reading-guide tic patterns and `output/tics.md` current mechanical watch families.

- `ECHO-OK — "key/keys" — deliberate Theo object vocabulary, evidence: Theo's card owns "key, label, schedule, crate, frame"; chapter uses "keys" in his boundary and final pocket image.`
- `ECHO-OK — "label / labeled" — deliberate Theo/cataloguer vocabulary, evidence: stretcher-bar label and loan-sheet work are the chapter's object engine.`

Nearest never-says miss: Theo does not use "muse," "grand gesture," "fate," or art-oracle language; the closest candidate, "look what I made, look how well I saw you," is explicitly framed as the old wrong version he refuses.

Nearest ownership-leakage miss: Odile says "It is faster than nothing," which risks sounding like the book's thesis about speed and repair; it stays Odile-specific because the chapter immediately leaves the sentence wrong and unratified, and it answers Theo's forgiveness objection without borrowing his logistics vocabulary.

Nearest blacklist miss: "both hands empty" touches a capped motif; it survives because the chapter has earned hands as Theo's concrete object vocabulary and uses the phrase once as action state, not as abstract lesson.

Chapter verdict: `VOCAB-CONFORMS`.

`REVISION ORDERS`: none. Tracker note: keep watching `hands`, `route`, `door`, and `keys` density in Ch22-Ch24 so motif does not flatten into default vocabulary.
