# Phase 8 Batch 3 Synthesis - Odile Cost / Theo Life Outside June

## Scope

Touched prose: `output/chapters/chapter_21.md`.

Claude source draft: `output/drafts/claude/phase8_batch3_odile_cost_theo_life.round_01.md`.

Snapshots:
- `output/revision_snapshots/chapter_21/chapter_21.0035.20260705T103554Z.before_phase8_batch3_odile_cost_repairs.md`
- `output/revision_snapshots/chapter_21/chapter_21.0037.20260705T103610Z.after_phase8_batch3_odile_cost_repairs.md`
- `output/revision_snapshots/chapter_21/chapter_21.0040.20260705T104938Z.before_phase8_batch3_dialogue_doctor_repairs.md`
- `output/revision_snapshots/chapter_21/chapter_21.0042.20260705T104956Z.after_phase8_batch3_dialogue_doctor_repairs.md`
- `output/revision_snapshots/chapter_21/chapter_21.0045.20260705T105231Z.after_phase8_batch3_continuity_tightening.md`

## Accepted

Accepted the central Batch 3 move: Odile's manipulation should cost her a route through Theo, and Theo needs one concrete on-page life outside June. The accepted repair lives in Ch21 lines 69-91:

- Eileen texts Theo about Sunday dinner, the sink, the gas check, and heating-oil receipts Odile wants.
- Theo reads the time/money pattern as his own family obligation: "three for the sink, five for the table, the forty he'd covered on her gas."
- Theo refuses to carry the receipts or other family papers through his coat.
- Odile has to ask Eileen directly if she wants the provenance material.

This preserves Odile as wrong without adding a villain speech. The consequence is operational: she loses an automatic family/document route.

## Rejected

Rejected Claude Insert A's over-built logistics: "Mam," an extra sister and girls, immersion heater, cheque spelling, bus depot, van dock, red-dotted key, petty-cash tin, Marek, retrospective floor, and long-crate machinery. Those details made the chapter feel imported from a different book and shifted the cost from family-route consequence to gallery-dock subplot.

Rejected Claude Insert B's van-dock/key version for the same reason, though its leaner shape informed the final compression.

Rejected Optional Insert C's Ch24 micro-coda. It would make Odile perform inconvenience on page, but it reopens logistics after the emotional coda and risks making the final chapter explain the Ch21 boundary again.

## Dialogue Doctor Repairs

Claude Dialogue Doctor found three Ch21 blockers in the integrated repair:

- Scene A same-speaker duplication around Odile's "`I thought about it less than I should have`" / "`She sent the books back clean`" turns.
- Theo voice convergence in the too-sharp reply "`So do you.`"
- Fake-sharp chiasmus / route formula around "`If you want Eileen, ask Eileen.`"

Codex repairs:

- Combined Odile's same-speaker beat with a box look: `"I thought about it less than I should have," Odile said. She looked at the box by the door. "She sent the books back clean."`
- Replaced "`So do you`" with the factual Theo line `"She texted me instead."`
- Replaced the chiasmus with `"I'm not bringing family papers through my coat," he said. "I can give you the number if you need it. That's all I'm doing."`
- Reduced repeated route language in the Ch21 insert.

Verification: `output/critiques/claude/phase8_batch3_ch21_dialogue_repair_verify.md` returned `OVERALL: CLEAN`.

## Tracker Reconciliation

Updated `rolling_summaries/chapter_21.md`, `continuity.md`, `timeline.md`, `canon_sheet.md`, `thread_ledger.md`, `event_ripple_tracker.md`, `npc_goals.md`, `story_bible.md`, `revision_plan.md`, `status.md`, `phase8_revision_strategy.md`, and `tics.md`.

Canon anchor added: canon row 128 records Eileen's Sunday/sink/gas/receipts pressure and Theo's refusal to carry family papers for Odile.

## Disposition

Accepted as Batch 3 Ch21 repair pending final gate stack. The word gain is modest, but the change addresses the specific cross-book findings: concrete Theo-life-outside-June and a real route-cost for Odile.
