# Chapter 03 Adversarial Register Audit

## CODEX-ON-CLAUDE

Nearest-miss checks, current final text:

- Em-dash/rhythm crutch: clean. The strongest candidate is Ben's line, `"It's — yes," Ben said, looking at it. "I see it now."` (line 79). This is dialogue hesitation tied to an immediate drawing correction, not narrator rhythm substitution.
- Over-elegant noun phrase / "small quiet careful" register: clean. The strongest candidate is `a stage the size of a bath mat` (line 13). It is spatially clarifying and comic-specific to the studio setup, not atmospheric prettification.
- Narrator-as-philosopher intrusion: clean after prior repairs. The strongest candidate is `Everyone in this room was bad in public, on schedule, twice a minute.` (line 109). It is earned by the visible wrong drawings listed at lines 107-109 and functions as June's embarrassment relief, not theme-gloss.
- Recursive negation / false-profound contrast: clean. The strongest candidate is `None of them was good, and none of them was unkind.` (line 109). This is a concrete evaluation of seven visible drawings, not abstract profundity.
- Single-short-sentence profundity stamp: clean. The ending sentence, `...and went first.` (line 169), resolves the scarf/diner action and June's decision to join, rather than stamping a thesis.
- Physical-reaction default: clean. June's pressure registers through action and looking: `She had hedged. Drawn tiny so the wrong would be tiny.` (line 69), not heartbeat/throat shortcuts.

No orders.

## CLAUDE-ON-CODEX

NO-CODEX-MATERIAL. The synthesis memo records `single-seed + opposing critique`, no Codex parallel draft, and Claude round 01 as prose base. Codex modified mechanically and in response to audits, but no surviving Codex-originated scene draft or parallel passage exists for Claude-side Codex-tic extraction.

## COMP-DRIFT

- Beth O'Leary: CLEAR. The cohort warmth is present but not O'Leary pastiche; the strongest candidate is Mara's scarf invitation, `"Take it. I brought two. It's colder out than it looks..."` (line 137). It functions as a concrete care move and future tether, not a generalized found-family glow.
- Emily Henry: CLEAR. Dialogue has spark below the reading guide's 60% banter ceiling. The strongest candidate is the scarf exchange, `"That's collateral." / "It's wool"` (lines 139-141). It is brief, object-based, and immediately returns to action.
- *Days at the Morisaki Bookshop* / *Before the Coffee Gets Cold*: CLEAR. The unhurried routine texture is present but localized to class procedure: `Charcoal in the tins. Pads flat. Nair, Adler: the sink.` (line 125). The prose does not imitate translated fable cadence or shop/cafe sentimentality.

No orders.

## GENRE-CLICHE-CHECK

PREMISE-CODED. The chapter's working register is warm, precise, lightly comic studio realism: `a wedge of two-by-four fossilized in paint` (line 11), `a square of blue tape on the floor` (line 13), `registration ticks` and `proportional flags` (line 77), and `four lines in the exact center of the sheet` (line 107). The romance pressure arrives through public looking, drawing failure, and practical care, not prestige-romance generalities or banter-as-proof.

Chapter verdict: CLEAN.
