**TO:** Author / Editorial Roundtable
**FROM:** Cora, Continuity & Accuracy Editor
**RE:** ch-23 Editorial Review (Cypress Bend)

### 1. STRENGTHS TO PRESERVE
*   **Arthur Silas Vance’s Legacy:** The use of Arthur’s stockpiled materials (IBC totes, charcoal-burn instructions) perfectly aligns with his [character-state] and [voice-sig] legacy of "providing the literal hardware" for post-collapse survival.
*   **Marcus’s Diagnostic Voice:** The internal strings like "*Diagnostic: Core temperature stabilizing. Peripheral circulation at eighty-eight percent*" are consistent with his [voice-sig-marcus] profile of narrating physical sensations as diagnostic reports when rattled.
*   **David’s "Old Hand" Persona:** David’s dialogue ("Hmph. It’s life... In the Bend, life’s the only metric that matters") adheres to his Arc 105% trajectory as the teacher of the land’s weight.
*   **Sarah’s Grounded Tension:** The "click-click" of the retractable pen and her "Error 404" status codes (e.g., "Error 403 on the soup") are nailed-on [voice-sig-sarah] markers.

**Voice Signature Verification:**
*   **Marcus:** YES. (Uses tech-debt metaphors: "multi-stage, zero-trust filtration architecture").
*   **David:** YES. (Cardinal directions: "East-by-Northeast wash"). 
*   **Sarah:** YES. (Technical support jargon mixed with Texas lilt).
*   **Helen:** YES. (Tectonic, rounded paragraphs).

### 2. MUST-FIX — CONTINUITY
*   **Contradiction (Arthur Silas Vance Status):**
    *   *The Chapter says:* "Arthur hoarded in the North barn... Arthur didn’t leave many PVC fittings..."
    *   *World State [ch-23] establishes:* Arthur is **DECEASED** as of Chapter 36 (or Chapter 1 depending on the timeline index, but definitely dead before this scene).
    *   *The Error:* On page 4, the text says: "**Arthur hoarded** in the North barn." This is fine as a reference to his past actions. However, on page 6, Helen says: "**Arthur knew the rain would come. He just didn't know who’d be here to catch it.**"
    *   *Correction:* This actually holds up—Helen is speaking of him in the past tense. No correction needed on his death status, but ensure Marcus doesn't expect to see him.
*   **Contradiction (The Ocala "Ghost" Signal):**
    *   *The Chapter says:* Sarah reports a "spike... North-by-Northeast perimeter."
    *   *Character State [ch-23] establishes:* The "Ocala Ghost Signal" was an unresolved open loop from Ch-22. 
    *   *The Error:* In the text, Sarah says "It wasn't a drone. It was a local pulse." But in Marcus's [character-state], he already knows about the Ghost Signal. The text treats it as a new discovery in the Kitchen Hub.
    *   *Correction:* Adjust Marcus’s reaction to reflect that this is a *recurrence* or *escalation* of the signal mentioned in his "Open Loops," not a brand new concept.

### 3. MUST-FIX — CLARITY
*   **Passage:** "Keep the charcoal layer East of the primary outlet... We need the resonance time to be high."
*   **The Issue:** Technical inaccuracy in the "analog" logic. In slow-sand/bio-filters, it's "residence time" (the duration water stays in contact with the media), not "resonance time" (a frequency/vibration term). 
*   **Concrete Fix:** Change "resonance time" to "residence time."

### 4. OPTIONAL SUGGESTIONS
*   **Refining the "Sovereign Mesh":**
    *   *Suggestion:* Mention the specific "Sovereign Mesh pinger" power draw again when the system stabilizes. David mentions it's burning the battery bank; seeing a "heartbeat" light on the Mesh node flicker green once the water issue is solved would provide a nice visual "system restored" beat.

### 5. FORBIDDEN CHANGES / NON-GOALS
*   **Do NOT** remove Marcus’s repetitive tapping ("One, two, three, four"). This is his established [voice-sig] physical habit/subconscious "ping."
*   **Do NOT** adjust David’s "Hmph" or his use of "North-by-Northeast." These are non-negotiable verbal tics and cardinal direction markers required by his and Arthur's [voice-sig].
*   **Do NOT** "smooth out" Sarah's Texas colloquialisms when she's stressed. The slip of the lilt is an intentional [voice-sig-sarah] imperfection.

### 6. VERDICT: PASS
(The "Must-Fix" on "residence time" is a minor terminology fix; the continuity on the Ghost Signal is an alignment of existing knowledge rather than a hard contradiction). 

**VERDICT: PASS**