# Counter-Strip Audit - Chapter 05

Header: pre word count 2,943; post word count 2,761; delta -6.2%; sample size 8 initial cuts/rewrites plus post-voice addendum; author-direction reduced-protection dimensions: reading-guide bans against dialogue diagnosis, beauty dynamics in this chapter packet, hand/eye density, sentence-shape drift, and Claude tic repairs.

- JUSTIFIED - cut: `forgiveness was Tuesdays at seven` - evidence: Claude-tic audit found shimmer/philosopher intrusion; replacement keeps the bin plan concrete at line 11.
- JUSTIFIED - cut: `drawing of red weather` - evidence: book-specific weather-as-feeling/tic watch; replacement `red emergency smear` keeps the fire-extinguisher memory concrete at line 41.
- JUSTIFIED - cut: `The hand followed the eye` - evidence: raw draft had 14 hands/body WATCH hits; replacement `The line followed attention` preserves exercise mechanics at line 41.
- JUSTIFIED - cut: standalone `Because of what she did when she got away with it` - evidence: mechanical BANNED hit; replacement integrated at line 59.
- JUSTIFIED - cut: one-sentence paragraph `So she did the exercise` - evidence: mechanical CAP hit; pressure is now enacted in lines 79-81.
- JUSTIFIED - cut: `The correction was the lie` - evidence: Claude-tic audit theme-gloss finding; replacement `Every correction made him less present` keeps meaning inside drawing action at line 83.
- JUSTIFIED - cut: `Luis had made her beautiful` - evidence: chapter packet prohibited beauty dynamics; replacement `made her recognizable` at line 103 preserves cohort comedy.
- JUSTIFIED - cut: `ugly as testimony` - evidence: shimmer/theme label; replacement `ugly and specific` at line 107 keeps the object's function without a thesis label.

Chapter verdict: NONE OVER-CUT.

## Post-Voice-Repair Addendum

- JUSTIFIED - cut/recast: `Three minutes is a pop song, a subway stop, the time it takes to lose an argument. ... She knew duration.` - evidence: Voice Check round 1 found rhetorical triad/profundity stamp; replacement keeps a concrete duration fact and preserves the bin decision's single `lose an argument` figure.
- JUSTIFIED - cut/recast: generic facing-easel inventory sentence - evidence: Voice Check round 1 found polished-but-dead staging; replacement routes the arrangement through June's sightline count and attention trap.
- JUSTIFIED - cut/recast: `like a man holding a door shut` - evidence: Voice Check found the door figure spent on Sam; replacement `like a crate with a loose side` uses established gallery/crate inventory and keeps Theo's exposure.
- JUSTIFIED - cut/recast: Chapter 05 comma-participle cluster - evidence: Voice Check ordered finite-verb repair; final gate shows no Ch05 `, [verb]ing` hits.
- JUSTIFIED - cut/recast: evaluative `, which` closers - evidence: Voice Check ordered cross-chapter template repair; final counts across Ch01-05 are 0/1/2/0/0 and Voice Check round 2 returned `VOICE-HOLDS`.

Updated verdict: NONE OVER-CUT.
