# Chapter 24 Synthesis Memo

## Inputs

- Claude prose base: `output/drafts/claude/chapter_24.round_01.md`
- Accepted chapter: `output/chapters/chapter_24.md`
- Chapter card / packet: `output/model_prompts/claude/chapter_draft/chapter_24.md`
- Revision snapshots: `output/revision_snapshots/chapter_24/`
- Mechanical final gate: `output/critiques/codex/mechanical/chapter_24_final_gate_quality_gate_report.md`

## Synthesis Decision

Claude round 01 was the prose base. Codex did not replace the chapter with solo prose. The accepted chapter keeps Claude's located showcase sequence, ensemble warmth, private portrait turn, Odile proof scene, and first-snow close, while materially revising the evidence mechanics and cutting the draft's explanatory thesis lines.

No Codex parallel draft was used for Chapter 24. Codex's role was packet direction, integration, audit, repair, and continuity control.

## What Was Kept From Claude

- The final showcase as a lived room rather than a speech platform.
- `After Class` doing the disclosure work through the seam, label, and Ruth's private read.
- Mara/Luis turning the blue dish into food traffic rather than a symbolic handoff.
- The private stockroom portrait turn and June's refusal to make the portrait proof.
- The final movement through literal first snow with June still carrying her jar and material pressure.

## What Codex Changed

- Replaced the underpowered Odile proof with an opening-night September 24 after-hours sheet: `Park, J. - Brennan, T. Last slot.`
- Protected the no-public-confession and no-public-nephew-reveal boundary.
- Reduced Odile's reveal from oracle speech to proof plus limited accountability.
- Cut publicist/theme captions around the room, portrait, snow, water, and earned endings.
- Repaired Sam pronouns and final-showcase geography so Hallorans, send-off, storage, and private reveal timing remain followable.
- Cut weather-as-feeling and portrait-as-proof lines after Positive Prose / Purple Prose / Clarity pressure.

## Audits And Disposition

- Codex Claude-tic audit: repaired and refreshed to `TIC-CLEAN`.
- Dialogue Doctor: canonical `OVERALL: CLEAN`; later pronoun/tag repairs did not change dialogue content.
- Comedy Doctor: final current rerun `CLEAR`; the `literal room` issue was repaired to `made room`.
- Positive Prose: final current rerun `INHABITED`; thesis-stamp lines were removed.
- Purple Prose: final current round 3 `OVERALL: CLEAN`; snow/portrait lyric excess cut.
- Clarity Pass: final current round 4 `OVERALL: CLEAR-UNDER-COMPLEXITY`; Sam pronouns, portfolio antecedent, Halloran/send-off geography, and private-reveal timing repaired.
- Genericization: `OVERALL: HELD`.
- Narrator-Publicist: `CRITICAL-DISTANCE-HELD`.
- Characters-Wrong: `WRONG-ENOUGH`.
- Thought Development: `OVERALL: DEVELOPED`.
- Plain Translation: `REGISTER-HOLDS`; later repairs were in a plainer direction and were cross-checked by current Clarity/Genericization/Narrator-Publicist/Thought passes.
- Codex core/risk audits: completed and either clean or repaired before final gate.

## Final Verification

- Chapter 24 word count: 4,508.
- Current manuscript word count: 61,000.
- Per-chapter quality gate: PASS open=0 allowlisted=0 WATCH=103.
- Full manuscript quality gate: PASS open=0 allowlisted=0 WATCH=1405.
- Book-level quality gate: PASS open=0 allowlisted=0 WATCH=1405.
- Dialogue scene manifest: refreshed and OK.
- Prose variability audit: refreshed and PASS.
- Final snapshots: `before_final_gate` and `after_final_gate` saved.

## Remaining Book-Level Risk

Chapter 24 is acceptable as the end of Draft 0. The manuscript is still below the original 75,000-88,000 premise band because of the user-directed 24-chapter compression. Phase 8 must test whether the compression earns itself or whether the book needs structural expansion before final assembly.
