**TO:** Author / Editorial Roundtable
**FROM:** Cora, Continuity & Accuracy Editor, Crimson Leaf Publishing
**DATE:** October 24, 202X
**RE:** Continuity Review – Chapter 30: The Chapel

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### 1. STRENGTHS TO PRESERVE
*   **Arthur’s Voice Signature Consistency:** The dialogue perfectly adheres to the established [voice-sig-arthur].
    *   *Cardinal Directions:* "The light's shiftin' West-by-Southwest..." and "lookin' toward the East-by-Southeast treeline." (Matches: "Uses the cardinal directions... to describe internal or local movements.")
    *   *Dropping the 'g':* "shiftin'," "claimin'," "talkin'," "lookin'," "heavin'." (Matches: "he drops the final 'g' on verbs... a regression to a childhood he spent decades polishing away.")
    *   *The Signature Line Carry-over:* "A man can spend his whole life trying to outrun a digital ghost... but the cypress don't care about your data." This is a thematic anchor from his character sheet used effectively in the memory.
*   **Marcus’s Physical Tics:** The "four-beat sequence against his thigh" (Matches: [voice-sig-marcus] Physical Habit).
*   **Vocabulary Integrity:** Julian’s influence is felt through Marcus’s use of "throughput," "nodes," "latency," and "unoptimized," which aligns with the systemic trauma established in Ch-01 through Ch-25.
*   **Can I identify dialogue without tags?** 
    *   **Arthur:** YES. The cardinal directions and dropped 'g's are unmistakable.
    *   **Marcus:** YES. The "Diagnostic" internal monologue and "404 error" metaphors are distinctively his.
    *   **David:** YES. His clipped, grounded responses ("A chapel?") contrast with Marcus’s jargon.

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### 2. MUST-FIX — CONTINUITY
*   **ERROR:** The chapter describes Sarah in the present tense: *"past the Kitchen Hub where Sarah was likely running the morning’s grain logistics on a flickering screen."* 
    *   **FLAG:** According to [character-state] ch-30 and [voice-sig-sarah], Sarah is "Deceased-equivalent/Displaced" and exists as a "ghost in Marcus's machine." While she is at the Bend in the *current* timeline (Ch-30), the text implies a physical presence in the kitchen, but she is actually "Exhausted; flour-dusted" and working in the "Kitchen Hub" which is fine—**HOWEVER**, the narrative logic in Ch-30 text says Marcus "harvested [the archives] from the Alpha-7 back-end before the world turned violet." 
    *   **CONTRADICTION:** In Ch-01, Sarah was a victim of the mass firings in Dallas. Ch-30 text implies she is *present* at the Bend ("past the Kitchen Hub where Sarah was..."). This is consistent with her [character-state] location, but the "Voice Signature" suggests she is a "Deceased-equivalent." 
    *   **CORRECTION:** Ensure it is clear that Sarah is physically there, as the [character-state] confirms she is at the Kitchen Hub. The potential confusion lies in Marcus's memory archives—the Sarah in his head versus the Sarah in the kitchen must be distinct.
*   **ERROR:** Marcus’s physical state.
    *   **FLAG:** [character-state] ch-30 describes Marcus as "Sweat-renched; splinters in palms; shoulders aching from bracing timber." 
    *   **CONTRADICTION:** The chapter text begins with Marcus sitting in the Machine Shop with "clean, pale hands" in the archive, and only later "kneeling in the muck." 
    *   **CORRECTION:** The transitions between the "Archive" Marcus and "Physical" Marcus are mostly clear, but the state of his "ache" should be mentioned early to match the Character State report.

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### 3. MUST-FIX — CLARITY
*   **PASSAGE:** *"He... diving deep into the Vance Archive—the encrypted, high-fidelity memory logs he had harvested from the Alpha-7 back-end before the world turned violet."*
    *   **PROBLEM:** This implies the "Vance Archive" (Arthur's memories) was part of the Alpha-7 back-end. This contradicts the world-rule that Arthur was a "digital ghost" and the land was "digitally invisible" [character-state Ch-01]. How did Arthur's memories get into the Avery-Quinn Alpha-7 logs if Arthur hated the "cloud" and lived off-grid?
    *   **FIX:** Explicitly state that Marcus *created* the Vance Archive using his own data forensics of Arthur’s personal belongings/tapes found in the cabin, OR that the Alpha-7 protocol "scanned" the area during a previous incursion. Do not attribute Arthur's internal soul-logic to an Avery-Quinn "back-end" harvest unless the "Deep Scan" [Ch-25] is the source.

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### 4. OPTIONAL SUGGESTIONS
*   **REFINEMENT:** Ensure the distinction between "The Forty" (The Relatives) and the previous "Newcomers" is maintained. Ch-29 mentioned "Newcomers" had unstable infrastructure. Ch-30 uses "The Forty." Reference the Ch-29 debt to reinforce continuity.
*   **ATMOSPHERE:** In the archive scene, Arthur's "thumb rubbing against the steel" of the broadaxe is a great echo of his seed-rubbing habit in the Voice Sig—keep this.

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### 5. FORBIDDEN CHANGES / NON-GOALS
*   **DO NOT** fix Arthur's grammar. His "ain't" and "son" and "boy" are essential regressions to his childhood voice as established in [voice-sig-arthur].
*   **DO NOT** remove Marcus's "Diagnostic" interjections. These are his "Imperfection signature" and must remain.
*   **DO NOT** smooth out the cardinal direction references. Even if "North-by-Northwest" sounds repetitive, it is Arthur’s specific "cardinal logic" and Marcus’s adoption of it is a key character arc milestone.

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### 6. VERDICT: REVISE
The chapter presents a major continuity risk regarding the **Vance Archive**. We cannot have Arthur's "tectonic" memories stored on an Avery-Quinn server (the literal enemy) without a clear explanation of how that data was captured, especially given Arthur’s "Long Wait" and "Digital Invisibility" rules.

**MAJOR FLAG:** Chapter 30 says Arthur's memories were "harvested from the Alpha-7 back-end," but [voice-sig-arthur] establishes he viewed the "cloud" as an insult and kept the land invisible.