# Initial Draft Assessment - Chapter 08

Draft assessed: `output/drafts/claude/chapter_08.round_01.md`

Verdict: ACCEPT AS PROSE BASE WITH TARGETED REPAIRS.

Strengths:

- CHAPTER ENGINE WORKS - the draft begins with Theo trying to destroy the Week 3 study and ends with the panel preserved faced to the wall. Evidence: raw line 15, "The facts all pointed binward"; raw line 113, "painted side to the wall."
- FELT EXPERIENCE LANDS - sweetness becomes obligation through the saved seat, pickle memory, and standing Tuesday plan rather than through a speech. Evidence: raw lines 45-57 and raw line 79.
- THEO POV HOLDS - logistics, disposal, files, labels, locks, and risk math are the thinking medium. Evidence: raw lines 7, 31, 105-113.
- PROTECTED THREADS HOLD - no nephew/family reveal, no Odile confession, no fake-relationship exposure, no Nia/Asha/Philadelphia leak, no Ruth-watch repeat.

Required repairs before acceptance:

- RAW GATE BLOCKERS - raw quality gate failed with 6 open hits: one-sentence paragraph gravity, three echo-line poetics findings, one simile-as-adverb, and one "let himself" construction. All must be repaired in integration.
- CLAUDE TIC DENSITY - reduce thesis/gloss language around "social debt" and avoid over-accounting metaphors doing the chapter's work. Evidence: raw line 79, "Every ordinary kindness... was a deposit into an account..."
- PROTECTED-WORD CLEANUP - remove final-storage "family of anonymous rectangles" because `family` is a protected reveal-adjacent word in this book even when used figuratively.
- CADENCE CLEANUP - reduce em-dash appositives and repeated "She looked / She looked" and "It would / It would" structures.

Integration plan:

- Preserve Claude's cleanup-to-Sonia's-to-flat-file structure.
- Preserve Odile's errand, Luis's radiator fact, June's witness-protection joke, and the final faced-to-wall storage decision.
- Replace raw gate blockers and over-explained debt language with concrete table evidence and Theo's practical action.

Result after integration: `output/chapters/chapter_08.md`, 2,666 words. Final mechanical gate PASS open=0, allowlisted=0, WATCH=64.
