**TO:** Author / Editorial Board
**FROM:** Cora, Continuity & Accuracy Editor
**RE:** Chapter 16 Continuity Review (Cypress Bend)

### 1. STRENGTHS TO PRESERVE
*   **Arthur’s Cardinal Logic:** The adherence to Arthur’s voice signature (via David and Marcus) is excellent. David positioning himself "five yards to my North-by-Northwest" and Marcus aiming for "South-by-Southeast" honors the world-building in **[voice-sig-arthur]**.
*   **Tactile Anchors:** Marcus’s physical habit—the "four-beat sequence on his thigh"—consistent with **[voice-sig-marcus]** (a subconscious "ping").
*   **Historical Continuity:** The mention of "the '26 storm" aligns with the established deep history of the Vance legacy.
*   **Voice Identification:**
    *   **Marcus:** YES. (Uses booleans "True/False", tech-debt metaphors like "hardware patch," and narrates his own diagnostics).
    *   **David:** YES. (Dropping 'g's on verbs—"recedin’", "takin'"—and the tactile focus on mud and resin).
    *   **Sarah:** YES. (The retractable pen clicking as a stress-tic and the "Error 404" status code).
    *   **Elena:** YES. (The "architect of friction" persona, focusing on PSI and mechanical weepage).

### 2. MUST-FIX — CONTINUITY
*   **Major Contradiction (The Dead):** Sarah Jenkins is alive and speaking in the cabin. However, **[voice-sig-sarah]** explicitly labels her role as **"Supporting / Emotional Catalyst (Deceased-equivalent/Displaced)."** More critically, **[character-state] ch-16** places Sarah in "The Cabin Kitchen" but the current draft treats her as a physical participant in the bridge build.
    *   *Correction:* Re-verify Sarah's status. If she is the "ghost in the machine" or a memory (as suggested by the "deceased-equivalent" tag), she cannot be "triaging the work-shifts" physically. If she is alive, the Character Sheet must be updated to remove the "Deceased-equivalent" tag to avoid future confusion.
*   **Major Contradiction (Helen Vance’s Physicality):** This chapter describes Helen cleaning a crosscut saw with "knuckles white-bleached against the dark steel." **[character-state] ch-16** establishes her as having "shaky" hands and a "high-frequency tremor" due to longevity treatments.
    *   *Correction:* Helen should struggle with the physical cleaning of the saw; the "tactical precision" contradicts her established physical frailty and tremors.
*   **Timeline/World State:** The chapter mentions the "1994 USGS survey" and a printer "salvaged from the Ocala perimeter." **[World State: ch-16]** establishes the group is on "Day 4" of a 14-week lockdown.
    *   *Correction:* Ensure the "Ocala" salvage happened *before* Day 1, as the bridge washout (the primary conflict here) currently prevents travel.

### 3. MUST-FIX — CLARITY
*   **Repetition Error/Glitch:** The text contains: "Texas TexasTexasTexasTexas TexasTexasTexas lilt."
    *   *Reference:* "Sarah sat at the heavy oak table, her Texas TexasTexasTexasTexas TexasTexasTexas lilt sharp and rhythmic."
    *   *Fix:* Clean the string to "Texas lilt." This appears to be a processing artifact.
*   **Technical Ambiguity:** Marcus mentions "Alpha-7 empathy protocols" were used to "calculate the tension of a cypress beam."
    *   *Reference:* "...using the same 'empathy protocols' I’d designed to triage people to now calculate the tension..."
    *   *Fix:* Empathy protocols (behavioral/emotional logic) and structural tension (physics) are distinct. Marcus should clarify if he is using the *processing power* of the node or if he is "triaging" the timber as if it were a human resource.

### 4. OPTIONAL SUGGESTIONS
*   **Caloric Deficit:** David's open loop in **[character-state]** regarding the "Great Hunger" (Ch-11) is addressed here via Sarah's cornmeal loss. This is a strong tie-in, but could be heightened by mentioning David’s calloused hands (established in the state) reacting to the cold mud.
*   **The Axe-Throw:** **[character-state]** mentions Elena knows about a manual axe-throw failsafe for the power line. While the bridge is the focus, a brief mention of her checking the proximity of the axe to the line would reinforce her "siege defense" mindset.

### 5. FORBIDDEN CHANGES / NON-GOALS
*   **Do NOT** remove Marcus’s diagnostic narration ("Diagnostic: Heart rate elevated"). This is his core voice imperfection as a "translator for logic."
*   **Do NOT** smooth out David’s dialect. The dropping of the 'g' is an intentional regression to his childhood, per character notes.
*   **Do NOT** change the cardinal direction references. They are the "logic of the space" established by Arthur.

### 6. VERDICT

**REVISE**
The contradiction regarding Sarah’s status (Deceased-equivalent vs. Active/Alive) and Helen’s physical tremors must be reconciled with the Master Character States before this chapter can be indexed. High-priority fix for the "Texas TexasTexas" text glitch.