# Chapter 23 Counter-Strip Audit - Current Text

Header: pre-revision word count 3828 (`after_initial_integration`) / post-revision word count 3721; delta -2.8%. Sample size: 8 cut/replaced lines. No author-direction note reduces protection beyond audit-specific tic caps.

JUSTIFIED — cut: `"which from her was a yes"` — evidence: Comedy Doctor and Dialogue Doctor both identified captioning/which-deadpan drift; action now carries assent.

JUSTIFIED — cut: `"which was her way of remarking on it"` — evidence: Comedy Doctor round 1 found portable inverse-attention/which-caption; Dialogue Doctor accepted action-only replacement.

JUSTIFIED — cut: `"a lie with better manners"` — evidence: Comedy Doctor found cross-voice `"a lie with X"` snowclone; Positive Prose preferred literal honesty.

JUSTIFIED — cut: `"the way you'd claim a coat at a party"` — evidence: Comedy Doctor found recognitional-simile cap breach; current `"not sharp about it"` preserves the necessary tone.

JUSTIFIED — cut: `"March is a long way to carry January"` — evidence: Positive Prose found portable consolation aphorism; Dialogue/Comedy verified concrete Kessler replacement.

JUSTIFIED — cut: `"I only just learned to tell them apart"` — evidence: Positive Prose found therapy-clean self-diagnosis; current line preserves cost without tidy learning bow.

JUSTIFIED — cut: `"I can be glad for her and still not go"` — evidence: Positive Prose found balanced maxim; current brush-scrape plus `"Good. It should"` preserves gladness without pre-resolved formula.

JUSTIFIED — cut: `"close, not touching, and looked at the thing they'd built from two directions"` — evidence: Positive Prose found portable posture and summarized pressure; current optical details and held hands preserve the beat with more premise specificity.

Chapter verdict: `NONE OVER-CUT`.

REVISION ORDERS: none. Mis-fire log: none.
