**TO:** Author
**FROM:** Cora, Continuity & Accuracy Editor
**PRE:** Chapter 22 "The Scrub" Editorial Review

### 1. STRENGTHS TO PRESERVE
*   **Voice Differentiation:** High. The dialogue is distinct and adheres to established profiles.
    *   **David:** "Models don't eat... And they don't know how to bleed." (Grounded, paternal, anti-technical).
    *   **Marcus:** "Diagnostic: Total systemic failure." (Tech-metaphor stress expression, boolean logic).
*   **Tactile Grounding:** The description of the "sugar-sand" and the "tectonic grinding" of the hog reinforces the environmental realism established in previous chapters regarding the Ocala terrain.
*   **Character Habit Awareness:** The "four-beat tap" on Marcus’s thigh is used consistently as his grounding ritual (established in the [voice-sig-marcus] profile).

### 2. MUST-FIX — CONTINUITY
*   **FLAG: Arthur Silas Vance Status.**
    *   **The Error:** In this chapter, Marcus references the "ghost of grit" Arthur Vance looked for **"in the clinic."** 
    *   **The Contradiction:** Chapter 36 (provided in the RAG Character State) establishes Arthur **died peacefully in his sleep** at the Bend. There is no record in the established timeline of a "clinic" scene where Arthur was searching for grit. Furthermore, Arthur’s profile states he spent his life "polishing away" his childhood regressions and viewed progress as "death"—being in a clinic contradicts his "dead-zone logic" and his "Long Wait" philosophy of dying on his own terms.
    *   **Correction:** Remove the reference to the "clinic." Change the line to reference Marcus seeing Arthur perform this action at the cabin or in the garden prior to his death.

*   **FLAG: Location Logic & The "Ocala Signal."**
    *   **The Error:** The chapter concludes with David and Marcus walking back to "the cabin" and seeing the "North-bank drainage."
    *   **The Contradiction:** [Character-state: ch-22] places Marcus and David currently in the **Ocala National Forest (Juniper Prairie Wilderness)**, which is approximately 60-80 miles south/southwest of the "Cypress Bend" sanctuary (located in the Panhandle/Big Bend region based on "North Bank" and "River" references). 
    *   **Correction:** Clarify if they are at a secondary camp in Ocala or if they have returned to the Bend. If they are in Ocala, they cannot see the "North-bank drainage" of Cypress Bend. If they have returned to the Bend, the text must reflect the travel time, as Ocala is not "past the Big Oak" of the home sanctuary. 

*   **FLAG: The "Ghost Signal" Loop.**
    *   **The Error:** The chapter mentions the "Sovereign Mesh is holding" and they are "secure."
    *   **The Contradiction:** [World State: ch-22] explicitly lists the **Ocala "Ghost" Signal (unindexed hardware)** as an UNRESOLVED open loop discovered this chapter. Marcus claiming they are "secure" without mentioning the signal he just detected in the same forest creates a logic gap.
    *   **Correction:** Marcus should express internal anxiety about the Ghost Signal even while trying to reassure David that the Mesh is holding.

### 3. MUST-FIX — CLARITY
*   **Spatial Orientation:**
    *   **Passage:** "As they moved past the Big Oak and toward the South-by-Southeast boundary of the Sanctuary, the pine flatwoods tightened into the Scrub..."
    *   **The Issue:** "The Scrub" is a specific ecosystem of the Ocala National Forest (High Springs/Central FL). "The Sanctuary" (Cypress Bend) is established as river-bottom/cypress swamp land. 
    *   **Fix:** Explicitly state they are "in the Ocala wilderness, miles from the safety of the Bend's riverbanks" to distinguish the environments. 

### 4. OPTIONAL SUGGESTIONS
*   **The Seed Pouch:** Since the [Character-state] mentions the "Seed Exchange Protocol" as UNRESOLVED, David leaving the pouch on the table at the start of the walk is a good tension builder, but Marcus should check for its safety upon their return to close that loop.
*   **Elena's Role:** Mentioning Elena "dealing with" Raven drones (Line 38) is a strong nod to her role as the physical failsafe found in [Character-state: Elena]. This could be strengthened by referencing her "manual axe-throw" failsafe if a drone were actually spotted.

### 5. FORBIDDEN CHANGES / NON-GOALS
*   **Do NOT** remove Marcus’s "Diagnostic" speech patterns (e.g., "Diagnostic: Ozone"). This is his established verbal tic under stress.
*   **Do NOT** "fix" David’s cardinal direction speech (North-by-Northwest). This is a core element of his [Voice Signature] inherited from Arthur.
*   **Do NOT** make the hog encounter more "action-oriented." The "Long Wait" resolution is the established thematic curriculum for this arc.

### 6. VERDICT: REVISE
The chapter contains high-quality voice work, but the **Arthur/Clinic** reference is a factual hallucination not supported by the established timeline, and the **Ocala/Cypress Bend** geographical proximity needs to be reconciled to prevent "teleportation" errors.