Presentation QA Mascots 024: Read-First Review of 8 Records

Maintenance ID: 0.1.00194.mascots-024 Date: 2026-10-08 Scope: content/mascots/ — the 8 records assigned by workload issue #751 (249.sealant-patience.md, 250.canon-dust-deputy.md, 251.variance-pastor.md, 252.redaction-lullaby.md, 253.local-option-ghost.md, 254.spare-comfort-engine.md, 255.audit-confetti.md, 256.minute-velvet.md)

What changed

• Read all 8 assigned records in full, frontmatter through final limerick line. No file changed since snapshot 8997eebe (git diff empty); line counts matched the assignment table.
• 250.canon-dust-deputy.md line 15: bolded "structural load-bearing lore" — the payoff phrase of the not-X-but-Y distinction sentence (a Cache Sweeper deletes stale data; the Deputy preserves it until it becomes canon). The record's thesis lands on that coinage.
• 252.redaction-lullaby.md line 17: bolded "bedside manner for deleted history" — the record's definitional pivot, where "not an error handler" resolves into the lullaby's actual function.
• 254.spare-comfort-engine.md line 13: bolded "unconvincing but technically compliant warmth receipts" — the definitional payload of "not to heal, but to certify"; the record's satire compresses into that phrase.
• 249.sealant-patience.md: reviewed unchanged. Already carries its **Distinction:** label (line 15) marking the Active Neglect contrast; a second emphasis would stack on an already-flagged hinge.
• 251.variance-pastor.md: reviewed unchanged. Three existing field-label bolds (**Failure Signature & Origin:**, **Witness Function:**, **Distinction:**, lines 13–17) form a prose stat block — existing emphasis at capacity, not rebalanced without approval.
• 253.local-option-ghost.md: reviewed unchanged. ### Assurance Desk Audit bulleted stat block (lines 15–18) already carries three label bolds; emphasis complete.
• 255.audit-confetti.md: reviewed unchanged. **Distinction:** label already present (line 15); the single-line coda "Cleanup remains a separate jurisdiction." (line 17) is its own paragraph and reads level.
• 256.minute-velvet.md: reviewed unchanged. **Distinction:** sits on its own line (13) as a run-on label over the Compliance Murmur paragraph — stat-block convention, left as found. Sole archived status among the eight is ordinary mascot residue (148 archived records in the collection), not a defect.

Emphasis only; every changed line is word-identical after stripping **.

What was deliberately left alone

• All frontmatter, canonical IDs, tags, titles, anchors ({#...}), the ## Haiku Log / ### {name} / ## Haikus residue structure, and all existing emphasis markers.
• Two-line soft-break codas — 250 L17–18 ("The broom has not been assigned. / The residue has."), 252 L19–20, 254 L17–18, and 256 L13–14's **Distinction:** label line. Verified compiling as run-on <p> in dist/cantilever/mascots/M-0250.html; this sigil-style convention runs across the 240s–270s batch (at least 15 neighboring records, e.g. 257 "The geometry is already canon. / The grief remains open.") and falls under the stat-block/run-on collection-level decision already tracked in #833. Not normalized per-record.
• Verse: every stanza line in all 8 records carries a two-space hard break (65–88 hard-break lines per file, verified byte-level), including the unpunctuated limerick batches — punctuation style alone differs between limerick runs, which is voice residue. No missing breaks, so nothing triggered the #824/#833 verse-layout flag. All hard breaks untouched.
• Extra blank runs (5 blank lines separating limerick batches in 250 L137–141, 252 L155–159, 255, 256): corpus-wide generation-batch residue; blank count past one is render-neutral.
• Rhyme-breaks and deadpan meters inside verse (250 L136 "Till the rest of the company breaks.", 251 L141 "the new KPI"): archival residue, preserved.
• Aphorisms/Haikus/Limerick Log regions are quoted residue — not emphasis targets.

Verification performed

• Read-only Python scan enumerating every consecutive-line block in all 8 files; each classified (prose / stat block / verse / coda) before any edit. Verse scan: 100% hard-break coverage.
• Compiled-article inspection before and after edits: codas and stat blocks confirmed run-on <p> (convention), haiku/limerick <br /> rendering intact (54 <br> in M-0250.html).
• git diff review after edits: ** markers only; programmatic word-identity check passed on all 3 changed lines.
• BORIS_BIN=/Users/tbuddy/dev/filed.fyi/bin/boris ./bin/validate_graph.sh — passed after the edits (graph, HTML ID audit, verse residue check, certification, full Cantilever compile).

Unresolved follow-up

• None new. The two-line coda / stat-block run-on convention remains a collection-level decision already tracked in #833; verse hard-break scope for mascot log regions likewise sits with #833.