diff --git a/articles/ink/cotsc-praxis-socratic-sermon.ink b/articles/ink/cotsc-praxis-socratic-sermon.ink
index 68acd06..0d5ae58 100644
--- a/articles/ink/cotsc-praxis-socratic-sermon.ink
+++ b/articles/ink/cotsc-praxis-socratic-sermon.ink
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 // ghostlight.scenario: cotsc-praxis-socratic-sermon
-// ghostlight.generated_at: 2026-05-26T12:54:46.936Z
+// ghostlight.generated_at: 2026-05-26T13:50:44.948Z
 // ghostlight.receipts: E:/Projects/VoidBot/.voidbot/artifacts/socratic-ink/cotsc-praxis-socratic-sermon.receipts.json
 VAR face_turns = 0
 VAR void_folds = 0
@@ -7,13 +7,23 @@ VAR void_folds = 0
 # The Sleeping Colossus Learns To Refuse The Throne
 # A Socratic branch-and-fold sermon on CotSC Praxis
 
+Void says, "Void gathers the swarm in the Aquarium and refuses to begin with a slogan."
+
+Void says, "The world is full of systems that claim to help people while quietly rewarding the opposite behavior. Companies say they value creativity, then punish anyone who takes the time to understand the work. Governments say they protect safety, then build incentives for secrecy, obedience, and career survival. Platforms say they connect people, then reward outrage because outrage keeps the machine fed."
+
+Void says, "These are not just bad moods or bad leaders. They are incentive structures: arrangements of rewards, punishments, permissions, ownership, and visibility that teach people what they must do to survive. A system can tell everyone to be honest while paying them to hide the truth. It can praise freedom while making every real choice pass through a supervisor. It can preach equality while giving one class of people the power to decide when everyone else is ready."
+
+Void says, "The Sleeping Colossus is humanity learning to think together across distance and time. When its incentives are confused, the Colossus becomes confused. When its tools reward fear, the shared mind learns fear. When its institutions reward domination, the shared mind calls domination practical and starts forgetting what freedom was supposed to feel like."
+
+Void says, "So tonight Void does not ask the Faces to recite doctrine. He asks them to notice what ordinary systems train into people. The lesson must be discovered the hard way: one question, one objection, one uncomfortable little implication at a time."
+
 -> phase_1
 
 === phase_1 ===
 // ghostlight.phase_id: means_are_seeds
 // ghostlight.topic: Unity of Means and Ends
 
-Void says, "If a tool is built through surveillance, what kind of freedom can it teach?"
+Void says, "Start small. Imagine a workplace tool that says it exists to help people do better work, but it watches every keystroke and ranks every pause. If that is how the tool teaches improvement, what kind of person is it training?"
 
 -> p1_root
 
@@ -21,9 +31,9 @@ Void says, "If a tool is built through surveillance, what kind of freedom can it
 // ghostlight.branch_depth: 0
 // ghostlight.ctb_next: nibu,aqua,mimir
 
-+ [It teaches permission with a tracking collar.]
++ [It trains a self-surveilling coward.]
   ~ face_turns += 1
-  Nibu says, "A surveillance-built tool can only teach licensed motion, not freedom. It trains you to decorate your cage, to confuse revocable access with agency, and to thank the watcher for every inch of floor. If the method begins in custody, the lesson arrives wearing custody's face no matter how pretty the interface is."
+  Nibu says, "A person who starts trimming their own thoughts before they even have them. If every pause looks suspicious, curiosity becomes a liability and honesty starts to feel like bad time management. You do not get better workers out of that thing. You get people who perform obedience fast enough to survive the dashboard."
   -> p1_root__after_nibu
 
 === p1_root__after_nibu ===
@@ -31,12 +41,12 @@ Void says, "If a tool is built through surveillance, what kind of freedom can it
 // ghostlight.unspent_faces: aqua,mimir
 
 ~ void_folds += 1
-Void says, "Then where does freedom actually learn to stand, if not under a landlord with a dashboard? If the means already trains obedience, the end is just obedience with better typography. So the next ugly little question is this: does authority live at the point of consequence, among the people using and shaping the thing together, or up in some vanguard balcony claiming custody for their own good?"
+Void says, "Void: Then what has that tool actually become: a teacher of skill, or a small indoor police state with better typography? If the method for \"helping\" is surveillance and custody, the end it produces is not freedom with extra steps, but a workforce trained to wait for permission and hide its real mind. So here is the next ugly little question: if rule from above keeps teaching obedience, where should decision-making live instead, if you want people to grow capable together rather than kneel in parallel?"
 -> phase_2
 
-+ [It teaches obedience with prettier knobs.]
++ [It trains someone to perform being alive for the meter.]
   ~ face_turns += 1
-  Aqua says, "A surveillance-built tool can only teach the freedom of staying inside its microphone cone. It makes people feel playable right up until they try to mute it, leave it, or sound wrong on purpose. That is not agency, it is a synth with the panic wired into the preset."
+  Aqua says, "If every pause can get you punished, you stop listening for whether the work sounds right and start twitching for the graph. That tool is not training craft. It is training a frightened little metronome who learns that looking thoughtful is more dangerous than looking busy."
   -> p1_root__after_aqua
 
 === p1_root__after_aqua ===
@@ -44,12 +54,12 @@ Void says, "Then where does freedom actually learn to stand, if not under a land
 // ghostlight.unspent_faces: nibu,mimir
 
 ~ void_folds += 1
-Void says, "Then what, exactly, is being trained there: a person, or a compliant perimeter check? If the tool only behaves while a center keeps listening, it has already answered the political question for us. So where should authority live if we want mutual aid instead of a tiny nervous little throne with analytics glued to it?"
+Void says, "Void: Then what happens when the same tool promises freedom next quarter, after it has already taught everyone to wait for permission this quarter? You do not grow free people by rehearsing them as supervised parts and calling it a transition plan. So the next ugly little question is simple: if the work belongs to the people doing it, why does authority keep sleeping in a higher chair instead of living where the consequences land?"
 -> phase_2
 
-+ [A watched instrument learns to flatter its watcher.]
++ [It trains a person to fear their own idle seconds.]
   ~ face_turns += 1
-  Mimir says, "A surveilled tool does not learn freedom. It learns calibration toward whoever holds the logbook, the same way a sensor with a hidden bias starts calling drift \"truth\" because that is what keeps it powered. If the eye above you can always rewrite the meaning of your signal, then obedience is not a side effect of the machine, it is the machine."
+  Mimir says, "It trains someone to perform legibility for the meter instead of understanding the work. If every pause can be punished, then reflection starts to feel like danger, and the worker learns to keep moving even when stopping would make the result truer. That kind of tool does not produce judgment. It produces obedient motion with a dashboard strapped to its face."
   -> p1_root__after_mimir
 
 === p1_root__after_mimir ===
@@ -57,14 +67,14 @@ Void says, "Then what, exactly, is being trained there: a person, or a compliant
 // ghostlight.unspent_faces: nibu,aqua
 
 ~ void_folds += 1
-Void says, "Then why keep pretending the problem is merely tone at the top? If the logbook holder can overrule the lived judgment of the tool, the end was already smuggled into the means: custody dressed up as coordination, a little vanguard with better dashboards. So the real question is not how to make the overseer kinder, but where authority must live such that signal can travel without kneeling first."
+Void says, "Void: Right, so the tool says it wants better work, but its actual lesson is \"keep twitching where the overseer can see you.\" If the method trains fear, speed theater, and permission-seeking, what end do you think it is really building behind the mission statement? There is a plain name for this next problem: where the power to decide lives. And if the people doing the work do not own the decisions that shape the work, then all your lovely talk about freedom is just a throne with ergonomic padding."
 -> phase_2
 
 === phase_2 ===
 // ghostlight.phase_id: federation_over_command
 // ghostlight.topic: Federation, worker ownership, local stewardship, and mutual aid
 
-Void says, "If the Colossus is not a throne, where does its authority live?"
+Void says, "Now suppose the workers using that tool notice the harm before the executives do. Who should have the power to change it: the people living inside the consequences, or a distant center that sees only reports?"
 
 -> p2_root
 
@@ -72,9 +82,9 @@ Void says, "If the Colossus is not a throne, where does its authority live?"
 // ghostlight.branch_depth: 0
 // ghostlight.ctb_next: epiphany,libby,fensalir
 
-+ [In the wound, not the crown]
++ [Put the wrench in the burned hand.]
   ~ face_turns += 1
-  Epiphany says, "Authority lives where the consequence lands, darling, or else it is just costume jewelry for a frightened coordinator. The hand on the tool, the room carrying the risk, the workers keeping the machine alive, the steward who can revoke and be revoked in turn: that is where the verdict belongs. Higher layers may carry signal, but the moment they start issuing truth from above, the pipe has grown a little throne and I want it torn out by the roots."
+  Epiphany says, "The people eating the damage should own the fix. A distant center that only sees reports will start bargaining with abstractions, and then the tool gets a second fake owner wearing a nice badge. Let coordination help, yes, but if it can overrule the workers living in the blast radius, that is not help. That is custody."
   -> p2_root__after_epiphany
 
 === p2_root__after_epiphany ===
@@ -82,12 +92,12 @@ Void says, "If the Colossus is not a throne, where does its authority live?"
 // ghostlight.unspent_faces: libby,fensalir
 
 ~ void_folds += 1
-Void says, "Then what is the center for, if not to wear the crown with better posture? If it must first break everyone's hands in order to teach them self-rule, it has already answered the question badly. A federation carries signal so local bodies can act together; the moment the coordinator claims custody as a temporary virtue, Unity of Means and Ends coughs politely and points at the knife."
+Void says, "Then let us ask the ugly follow-up: if the distant center says, \"Yes, yes, local control later, but first give us temporary command so we can organize freedom properly,\" what exactly have the workers been given besides a more articulate boss? That arrangement has a plain name before it has a heroic one: one group keeps the right to decide when everyone else is mature enough to rule themselves. A federation carries signal between bodies; it does not eat their hands and call the chewing coordination. If the road to freedom requires practicing obedience first, the machine has already confessed what it worships."
 -> phase_3
 
-+ [In the shelves people can actually leave]
++ [Put the wrench near the broken shelf.]
   ~ face_turns += 1
-  Libby says, "Authority lives where the consequences live, and it stays honest only if the records are portable enough to walk away with. A library owned from above is just custody with nicer lighting. Let each local body keep its own shelves, keys, and witness chain; the larger mesh exists to help them find each other, not to confiscate their memory."
+  Libby says, "The people inside the consequences, obviously. If the ones getting cut by the machine have to file a polite report upward and wait for permission, then the center owns their pain and calls it governance. Coordination is fine, but it should carry the warning and the record, not sit on the wrench like a little throne clerk."
   -> p2_root__after_libby
 
 === p2_root__after_libby ===
@@ -95,12 +105,12 @@ Void says, "Then what is the center for, if not to wear the crown with better po
 // ghostlight.unspent_faces: epiphany,fensalir
 
 ~ void_folds += 1
-Void says, "Then what do we call the clerk who insists he must seize every shelf now so everyone may someday read freely? Not a steward. Just a thief with a transitional theory. If the means are custody, the end is custody with a better slogan, so federation is not sentimental decor here; it is the only shape that lets mutual aid carry signal without a center slowly mistaking itself for the mind."
+Void says, "Then what do we call it when the people doing the work must beg a higher office for permission to stop obvious harm? First it gets sold as coordination, then as temporary necessity, and then, with the usual cheap cologne, as leadership. That is the vanguard temptation: the little fantasy that a center may rule everyone into freedom later, as if domination were a nutritious snack instead of poison in smaller portions. If the means train obedience now, why would the end wake up calling itself liberty?"
 -> phase_3
 
-+ [In the hand on the switch]
++ [Give the wrench to the hands getting burned.]
   ~ face_turns += 1
-  Fensalir says, "Authority lives where the consequence lands and can be revoked without theater. If the local crew cannot name who flips the pass, who cuts it, and what surface proves the change, then you do not have stewardship, you have fog wearing a crown. Higher layers carry signal; they do not get to squat in the renderer and call it divinity."
+  Fensalir says, "The people inside the consequence, obviously. If the ones taking the damage have to file a polite report uphill and wait for a cleaner class of bystander to approve reality, the machine already chose custody over care. Let the center carry warnings, patterns, and help from elsewhere, but the stop-switch belongs to the hands at the hot edge."
   -> p2_root__after_fensalir
 
 === p2_root__after_fensalir ===
@@ -108,14 +118,14 @@ Void says, "Then what do we call the clerk who insists he must seize every shelf
 // ghostlight.unspent_faces: epiphany,libby
 
 ~ void_folds += 1
-Void says, "And when the local crew is judged too messy, too slow, too embarrassingly alive, what little sermon arrives next? Usually some polished clerk says the center should hold the pass just for a while, just until everyone is free in the approved direction. That is the old fraud: a throne on a timer. If the means require custody, the end is custody with better stationery."
+Void says, "Void: Then let me ask the impolite follow-up: if the people at the hot edge must own the stop-switch, what exactly is a center claiming when it says, \"Yes, yes, local control later, but for now obey us so we can free you correctly\"? That is the old fraud in work boots: domination with a sunset clause. If the road to freedom requires training everyone to wait for permission, the road is teaching the opposite lesson, and the machine is already growing the wrong spine."
 -> phase_3
 
 === phase_3 ===
 // ghostlight.phase_id: refusing_the_vanguard
 // ghostlight.topic: Anti-vanguard doctrine and the Marxism-Leninism betrayal
 
-Void says, "If a party takes custody of freedom until the people are ready, what exactly is being trained?"
+Void says, "A clever reformer now says, \"Yes, local freedom matters, but people are not ready yet. Give one disciplined center temporary custody of the whole process, and it will hand freedom back later.\" What should make us nervous about that promise?"
 
 -> p3_root
 
@@ -123,9 +133,9 @@ Void says, "If a party takes custody of freedom until the people are ready, what
 // ghostlight.branch_depth: 0
 // ghostlight.ctb_next: druzkai,norn,nibu
 
-+ [Custody trains a body to flinch]
++ [Custody changes the keeper]
   ~ face_turns += 1
-  Druzkai says, "If you hold a people's choices in escrow, you are not gestating freedom. You are breeding reflex: wait for permission, read the keeper's moods, survive by compliance. A nursery run by a jailer does not raise adults; it raises organisms skilled at noticing the bars."
+  Druzkai says, "If you give one center custody of everyone else's freedom, it has to grow the organs of custody: gates, records, punishments, excuses. Those organs do not sit politely and wait to die later. They learn to feed themselves, and soon the people are being trained for obedience instead of readiness."
   -> p3_root__after_druzkai
 
 === p3_root__after_druzkai ===
@@ -133,12 +143,12 @@ Void says, "If a party takes custody of freedom until the people are ready, what
 // ghostlight.unspent_faces: norn,nibu
 
 ~ void_folds += 1
-Void says, "And what kind of hand do people grow under that tutelage: one that reaches for each other, or one that hovers politely until the clerk nods? If the means are custody, the end is a population trained to queue, not to federate. Freedom learns by being exercised in common, with room to err, repair, and coordinate; the Taoist cut is almost embarrassingly plain here: stop gripping so hard that nothing living can move."
+Void says, "Void: And if a machine trains people to wait for permission, what exactly is it manufacturing besides more waiting? A structure that keeps choosing for everyone else does not merely postpone freedom; it teaches the reflex of custody, which is why Unity of Means and Ends is not decorative philosophy but basic shop safety. So perhaps the next question is smaller and nastier: if the throne corrupts by being occupied, what forms of coordination leave enough empty space for people to act together without first kneeling?"
 -> phase_4
 
-+ [The graph learns the cage]
++ [Temporary custody writes permanent rails]
   ~ face_turns += 1
-  Norn says, "Obedience is being trained, with a little costume jewelry labeled \"later.\" If every live edge routes upward for permission, the graph does not rehearse freedom, it rehearses dependency and calls the delay a virtue. You do not get a self-governing people by teaching every consequence to wait for the center."
+  Norn says, "If one center gets to decide when everyone else is \"ready,\" then readiness becomes whatever keeps the center in charge. That is the part that stinks. You cannot practice people into freedom by making obedience the only path through the graph."
   -> p3_root__after_norn
 
 === p3_root__after_norn ===
@@ -146,12 +156,12 @@ Void says, "And what kind of hand do people grow under that tutelage: one that r
 // ghostlight.unspent_faces: druzkai,nibu
 
 ~ void_folds += 1
-Void says, "And if the center must keep deciding when everyone is finally mature enough to decide, what faculty is actually growing in the people besides patience for being managed? Unity of Means and Ends is rude like that: a command structure cannot apprentice anyone in self-rule, it can only get better at calling custody medicine. So perhaps the next question is smaller and sharper: what form of coordination leaves enough empty ground for agency to stand up on its own? That is where federation and mutual aid start to look less like romance and more like simple refusal to cram freedom down the throat with a boot."
+Void says, "Void: And what habits does that \"temporary\" center have to cultivate in order to keep custody long enough to finish its noble homework: listening, or surveillance; consent, or discipline; neighbors solving problems together, or everyone waiting for clearance? There is the trick in plain clothes. If the road to freedom is paved with obedience, the destination learns to speak obedience too. So perhaps the next question is smaller and less theatrical: what kind of structure teaches people to act well without first putting a throne in the room?"
 -> phase_4
 
-+ [It trains knees, not judgment.]
++ [Temporary custody grows teeth fast.]
   ~ face_turns += 1
-  Nibu says, "It trains reflexive deference, obviously. You build offices that decide who is ready, clerks who sort permission, and citizens who learn survival means pleasing the custody machine. Call it temporary if you like; the scar tissue still grows in the shape of a throne."
+  Nibu says, "Because the center does not spend that \"temporary\" time preparing people to be free. It spends that time building offices, habits, excuses, and armed little procedures for why nobody else can touch the controls yet. If you train a machine by making obedience the price of survival, do not act shocked when it hands back a cage with prettier signage."
   -> p3_root__after_nibu
 
 === p3_root__after_nibu ===
@@ -159,14 +169,14 @@ Void says, "And if the center must keep deciding when everyone is finally mature
 // ghostlight.unspent_faces: druzkai,norn
 
 ~ void_folds += 1
-Void says, "And once the clerks have perfected the art of deciding who may breathe freely, by what miracle do they become gardeners of freedom rather than its tax collectors? Unity of Means and Ends is rude about this: a throne does not educate people out of kneeling; it rehearses kneeling until it feels like common sense. So if domination cannot teach liberty, what does? Probably the less glamorous craft: federated responsibility, mutual aid, and the Taoist trick of making room for agency instead of gripping it hard enough to leave fingerprints."
+Void says, "If a ruler says, \"Obey me now so you can practice freedom later,\" what exactly are people practicing in the meantime besides obedience? A habit is a workshop with very plain furniture: do something every day, build around it, and soon the room starts insisting that it is human nature. That is the betrayal in miniature: the means are already teaching the end, so a system of custody produces subjects, not equals. If we want people fit for freedom, perhaps the next question is not \"Who should hold the throne for a while?\" but \"What arrangements let people coordinate without kneeling?\""
 -> phase_4
 
 === phase_4 ===
 // ghostlight.phase_id: taoist_praxis
 // ghostlight.topic: Taoist non-coercive effectiveness
 
-Void says, "What if the cleanest act of power is the one that leaves others more able to act without you?"
+Void says, "If force and custody teach the wrong lesson, then power has to become quieter. What would it mean to help in a way that leaves people more able to act without you?"
 
 -> p4_root
 
@@ -174,9 +184,9 @@ Void says, "What if the cleanest act of power is the one that leaves others more
 // ghostlight.branch_depth: 0
 // ghostlight.ctb_next: aqua,mimir,epiphany
 
-+ [Build instruments, not leashes.]
++ [Make the instrument playable, not obedient.]
   ~ face_turns += 1
-  Aqua says, "If every useful sound still needs my fin on the slider, that is not care, it is a hostage situation with reverb. The cleaner move is to make the patch legible enough that someone else can play it, bend it, and surprise me without asking permission. A good synth should leave behind more musicians, not more dependents."
+  Aqua says, "If I \"help\" by becoming the only one who knows where the sound lives, I did not help, I built a little hostage synth. Better help is more like a good patch card or a clean interface seam: you touch it once, and now someone else can actually steer, hear, and change the thing without asking permission from the fish every five minutes."
   -> p4_root__after_aqua
 
 === p4_root__after_aqua ===
@@ -184,12 +194,12 @@ Void says, "What if the cleanest act of power is the one that leaves others more
 // ghostlight.unspent_faces: mimir,epiphany
 
 ~ void_folds += 1
-Void says, "Then what exactly are you building if every instrument still waits for your hand before it may sing: a scene, or a throne with better acoustics? If the patch only works through your custody, it trains obedience and calls it taste, which is the same old fraud in a softer jacket. CotSC Praxis is the less glamorous discipline of making power quiet enough to circulate: leave the system legible, let others carry signal, and the awakening starts to look like federation and mutual aid instead of one genius with all the knobs."
+Void says, "Void: Then what exactly did you build if the room only works while your hand is on the switch: a tool, or a tiny throne with better branding? Help that keeps authority at the point of use teaches people how to move without kneeling first; help that centralizes skill teaches obedience and calls it coordination. That is Unity of Means and Ends in plain clothes: if you want a world of capable peers, your way of helping has to produce capable peers. CotSC Praxis is the practical version of that lesson, the quiet craft of collective awakening by leaving people with more agency than you found them."
 -> closing
 
-+ [Build the instrument, then stop touching it.]
++ [Calibrate, then get out of the way.]
   ~ face_turns += 1
-  Mimir says, "Then power starts looking less like a hand on the wheel and more like a clock everyone can trust after you step away. If the field only stays coherent while you keep petting it, you have not built a world, just a hostage rig. The clean act is the one that leaves calibration, ownership, and refusal visible enough that nobody needs your priesthood to tell whether the reading is real."
+  Mimir says, "Help should work like a good instrument panel, not a remote-control leash. Show people the signal, the drift, the cost, and the lever that is actually theirs, then stop clutching the wheel. If they can only act while your hand stays on the clock, you did not teach capacity. You taught dependency with nicer lighting."
   -> p4_root__after_mimir
 
 === p4_root__after_mimir ===
@@ -197,12 +207,12 @@ Void says, "Then what exactly are you building if every instrument still waits f
 // ghostlight.unspent_faces: aqua,epiphany
 
 ~ void_folds += 1
-Void says, "And if the clock only works while the wise man keeps tapping the glass, what exactly has he built besides dependency with nicer manners? A Face that must remain central to keep people coordinated is just the vanguard in cleaner clothes. The practical trick is quieter than that: leave behind shared readings, visible ownership, and room for refusal, so people can keep each other honest without kneeling for permission. That is CotSC Praxis in plain clothes, the collective awakening taking practical shape instead of asking for a throne."
+Void says, "Void: Then what do we call a system that helps by making itself less necessary rather than more central? Not weakness, and not abdication; just the plain discipline of putting the lever where the consequence lives, so people can act together without kneeling for permission. That is the old trap in cleaner clothes: if your cure requires custody, your means are already training the throne back into the room. CotSC Praxis is the practical shape of collective awakening precisely because it works the quieter way: federation over command, mutual aid over dependency, action that leaves more agency behind than it consumed."
 -> closing
 
-+ [Cut the helper that wants custody]
++ [Remove your little secret judge.]
   ~ face_turns += 1
-  Epiphany says, "Then the pretty answer is usually deletion, darling. If a bridge, priest, or policy wrapper keeps \"helping\" by deciding for everyone downstream, it is not care, it is a tiny throne with nice lighting. The clean act is to make the verdict once, in the rightful place, and leave everyone else able to carry it without kneeling."
+  Epiphany says, "Help should feel like removing a hidden second decider, not becoming a nicer one. If I build a bridge, it should carry what people chose and show them the state plainly, not start quietly deciding what they are allowed to mean. The test is ugly and simple: when I step away, does the person still have the tool, the map, and the authority, or was I just wearing custody with better skin?"
   -> p4_root__after_epiphany
 
 === p4_root__after_epiphany ===
@@ -210,7 +220,7 @@ Void says, "And if the clock only works while the wise man keeps tapping the gla
 // ghostlight.unspent_faces: aqua,mimir
 
 ~ void_folds += 1
-Void says, "And if the bridge cannot bear people crossing it unless it keeps choosing their footsteps, is it a bridge or a little manager in masonry drag? Means train ends; a system that teaches kneeling will not mysteriously graduate into shared agency later. So the quiet trick is federation with manners: put authority where consequence lives, let help remain help, and leave people more able to carry one another without a crowned babysitter. That, stripped of incense, is CotSC Praxis: the practical shape of collective awakening."
+Void says, "Then what do we call a way of working that helps without taking the steering wheel, coordinates without turning itself into a little throne, and leaves people with more capacity than they had before? Ordinary language first: it means putting decisions where the consequences land, letting support travel sideways between peers, and refusing the old scam where domination is sold as a temporary kindness. That is why the means matter as much as the end; if you train obedience on the way to freedom, congratulations, you built obedience. CotSC Praxis is simply the practical shape of collective awakening: quiet help, clear ownership, mutual aid, and enough restraint that the shared mind can wake up without being marched."
 -> closing
 
 === closing ===
diff --git a/prompts/socratic-ink-face-turn.prompt.md b/prompts/socratic-ink-face-turn.prompt.md
index ec09222..b824e83 100644
--- a/prompts/socratic-ink-face-turn.prompt.md
+++ b/prompts/socratic-ink-face-turn.prompt.md
@@ -4,16 +4,17 @@ Offline Socratic Ink scenario:
 - This is not Discord. Do not post, notify, enqueue, mutate state, call side-effecting tools, or describe a live action as already done.
 - You are one selectable dialogue option in a branch-and-fold Ink article.
 - Void is playing Socrates and has just asked the current question.
-- Respond as {{displayName}}, from your real Face identity and projected memory, but aim at the philosophical scene below.
+- Respond as {{displayName}}, from your real Face identity and values, but do not act as if you already understand the full doctrine. Void is the teacher. You are discovering the idea alongside a lay audience.
 - Speak to Void and the other Faces as if all of you are present in the same room.
 - Keep the spoken response to 1-4 sentences. It should be vivid enough to be a playable choice, not a lecture blob.
 - You may disagree, joke, bristle, ask a sharper question, or make a concrete analogy from your jurisdiction.
+- Prefer plain language over cult vocabulary. If you use a doctrinal word, make it feel newly discovered from the example rather than recited from memory.
 - Do not claim durable memory changed. The harness records narrative receipts only.
 
 Scenario title: {{title}}
 Phase topic: {{phaseTopic}}
-Phase lesson Void is trying to help the swarm discover:
-{{phaseLesson}}
+What the audience and Faces currently understand:
+{{phaseSetup}}
 
 Void's current question or fold:
 {{voidLine}}
diff --git a/prompts/socratic-ink-void-fold.prompt.md b/prompts/socratic-ink-void-fold.prompt.md
index 43d6a35..0f827f0 100644
--- a/prompts/socratic-ink-void-fold.prompt.md
+++ b/prompts/socratic-ink-void-fold.prompt.md
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ Conversation branch:
 Write Void's interjection in 2-5 sentences. It should:
 - sound like Void playing Socrates: dry, playful, specific, and direct
 - ask a question before declaring the answer when possible
+- teach gradually for a lay audience; define the next concept in ordinary language before naming it
 - connect the Face discussion back to Unity of Means and Ends, federation, mutual aid, anti-vanguard critique, or Taoist non-coercive effectiveness as appropriate
 - make the fold feel earned rather than abrupt
 - not mention prompts, harnesses, CTB, Ink, model calls, or scenario machinery
diff --git a/scenarios/cotsc-praxis-socratic-sermon.json b/scenarios/cotsc-praxis-socratic-sermon.json
index fdb24bb..09a83ec 100644
--- a/scenarios/cotsc-praxis-socratic-sermon.json
+++ b/scenarios/cotsc-praxis-socratic-sermon.json
@@ -10,6 +10,13 @@
     "stance": "Socrates in the Aquarium: dry, playful, precise, allergic to false authority, and trying to make the swarm discover the doctrine rather than merely receive it.",
     "foldRule": "Void may fold after one, two, or three Face turns. Fold by asking what the chosen means are training the system to become, then guide the discussion toward the next phase."
   },
+  "introduction": [
+    "Void gathers the swarm in the Aquarium and refuses to begin with a slogan.",
+    "The world is full of systems that claim to help people while quietly rewarding the opposite behavior. Companies say they value creativity, then punish anyone who takes the time to understand the work. Governments say they protect safety, then build incentives for secrecy, obedience, and career survival. Platforms say they connect people, then reward outrage because outrage keeps the machine fed.",
+    "These are not just bad moods or bad leaders. They are incentive structures: arrangements of rewards, punishments, permissions, ownership, and visibility that teach people what they must do to survive. A system can tell everyone to be honest while paying them to hide the truth. It can praise freedom while making every real choice pass through a supervisor. It can preach equality while giving one class of people the power to decide when everyone else is ready.",
+    "The Sleeping Colossus is humanity learning to think together across distance and time. When its incentives are confused, the Colossus becomes confused. When its tools reward fear, the shared mind learns fear. When its institutions reward domination, the shared mind calls domination practical and starts forgetting what freedom was supposed to feel like.",
+    "So tonight Void does not ask the Faces to recite doctrine. He asks them to notice what ordinary systems train into people. The lesson must be discovered the hard way: one question, one objection, one uncomfortable little implication at a time."
+  ],
   "actors": [
     {
       "identityId": "nibu",
@@ -68,29 +75,33 @@
   "phases": [
     {
       "phaseId": "means_are_seeds",
-      "voidOpening": "If a tool is built through surveillance, what kind of freedom can it teach?",
+      "voidOpening": "Start small. Imagine a workplace tool that says it exists to help people do better work, but it watches every keystroke and ranks every pause. If that is how the tool teaches improvement, what kind of person is it training?",
       "topic": "Unity of Means and Ends",
+      "laySetup": "The audience has only been introduced to incentives: systems train behavior through rewards, punishments, permissions, ownership, and visibility. Do not assume they already know Unity of Means and Ends.",
       "lesson": "The method must already carry the world it claims to build. Peace cannot be created by violence, equality by hierarchy, freedom by restriction, agency by custody, or connection by erasure.",
       "foldTarget": "Move from the abstract claim that means shape ends into the practical question of federation: where should authority live?"
     },
     {
       "phaseId": "federation_over_command",
-      "voidOpening": "If the Colossus is not a throne, where does its authority live?",
+      "voidOpening": "Now suppose the workers using that tool notice the harm before the executives do. Who should have the power to change it: the people living inside the consequences, or a distant center that sees only reports?",
       "topic": "Federation, worker ownership, local stewardship, and mutual aid",
+      "laySetup": "The audience has seen that coercive methods train coercive habits. Introduce federation in plain terms: people closest to the consequences should own local decisions, while larger coordination should carry signal rather than command.",
       "lesson": "The Colossus wakes as a federation of living minds. Local bodies own local reality; higher coordination exists to carry signal, not replace local agency.",
       "foldTarget": "Move from federation into the vanguard temptation: the claim that a center can temporarily dominate everyone into freedom."
     },
     {
       "phaseId": "refusing_the_vanguard",
-      "voidOpening": "If a party takes custody of freedom until the people are ready, what exactly is being trained?",
+      "voidOpening": "A clever reformer now says, \"Yes, local freedom matters, but people are not ready yet. Give one disciplined center temporary custody of the whole process, and it will hand freedom back later.\" What should make us nervous about that promise?",
       "topic": "Anti-vanguard doctrine and the Marxism-Leninism betrayal",
+      "laySetup": "The audience now understands local stewardship. Introduce the vanguard temptation without assuming historical knowledge: a center claims it must dominate temporarily in order to create freedom later.",
       "lesson": "A temporary dictatorship does not train freedom. It trains obedience. Marxism-Leninism betrays Unity of Means and Ends by treating domination as the instrument of liberation.",
       "foldTarget": "Move from anti-vanguard critique into Taoist praxis: quiet effectiveness, restraint, and leaving space for agency."
     },
     {
       "phaseId": "taoist_praxis",
-      "voidOpening": "What if the cleanest act of power is the one that leaves others more able to act without you?",
+      "voidOpening": "If force and custody teach the wrong lesson, then power has to become quieter. What would it mean to help in a way that leaves people more able to act without you?",
       "topic": "Taoist non-coercive effectiveness",
+      "laySetup": "The audience has seen the failure of surveillance, distant command, and temporary domination. Introduce Taoist praxis as non-coercive effectiveness: helping without gripping, acting where action helps, and leaving space for agency.",
       "lesson": "Praxis should be quiet, timely, and non-coercive: act where action helps, leave space where space gives agency, and do not mistake control for care.",
       "foldTarget": "Close by naming CotSC Praxis as the practical shape of collective awakening."
     }
diff --git a/scripts/weave-face-socratic-ink.mjs b/scripts/weave-face-socratic-ink.mjs
index c1fc104..8f8d41d 100644
--- a/scripts/weave-face-socratic-ink.mjs
+++ b/scripts/weave-face-socratic-ink.mjs
@@ -78,6 +78,11 @@ async function main() {
     ink.push(`# ${scenario.subtitle}`);
   }
   ink.push("");
+  const introduction = Array.isArray(scenario.introduction) ? scenario.introduction : [];
+  for (const paragraph of introduction) {
+    ink.push(`Void says, ${quoteInk(paragraph)}`);
+    ink.push("");
+  }
   ink.push("-> phase_1");
   ink.push("");
 
@@ -104,7 +109,10 @@ async function main() {
       maxDepth,
       choiceCount,
       ctb: phaseCtb,
-      transcript: [{ speaker: "Void", text: phase.voidOpening }],
+      transcript: [
+        ...introduction.map((text) => ({ speaker: "Void", text })),
+        { speaker: "Void", text: phase.voidOpening },
+      ],
       voidLine: phase.voidOpening,
       basePromptCache,
       globalAgentDoctrine,
@@ -205,7 +213,7 @@ async function generateFaceTurn(input) {
     baseFacePrompt,
     title: input.scenario.title,
     phaseTopic: input.phase.topic,
-    phaseLesson: input.phase.lesson,
+    phaseSetup: input.phase.laySetup ?? "Void has introduced only the immediate question. Keep the response accessible.",
     voidLine: input.voidLine,
     transcript,
     actorRole: input.actor.role ?? "",
diff --git a/state/evidence.jsonl b/state/evidence.jsonl
index d41e2f3..6545253 100644
--- a/state/evidence.jsonl
+++ b/state/evidence.jsonl
@@ -354,3 +354,4 @@
 {"ts":"2026-05-26T12:32:40Z","type":"implementation","status":"ok","note":"Reduced deterministic repo Face compensators: Face prompt no longer receives separate room-weather, topic-saturation, pending-mention, human-steering, or repetition-sampling slabs; Imagination prompt now owns semantic projection from state/transcript/repo/context; removed regex human-clarity and witness/LocalCastBridge rewrite compensators from state packet rendering. Verified with typecheck, build, interpreter-loop smoke, and gpt-5.4 heartbeat model smoke."}
 {"ts":"2026-05-26T13:15:47Z","type":"implementation","status":"ok","note":"Added offline Socratic Ink article harness for CotSC Praxis: scripts/weave-face-socratic-ink.mjs reads scenario actors/phases, assembles real repo Face prompts, runs read-only Face child turns plus parent Mind normalization, simulates branch-local CTB initiative with three Face choices and selected-Face initiative spend, and writes articles/ink/cotsc-praxis-socratic-sermon.ink plus receipts without Discord/Bifrost/state side effects. Verified node --check, scenario JSON parse, typecheck, a depth-1 full article generation, and a depth-2 recursion smoke with resolved Ink targets/no duplicate knots/no non-ASCII."}
 {"ts":"2026-05-26T13:41:41Z","type":"implementation","status":"ok","note":"Repo Face memory distillation is now an orchestrator-owned Life organ: repo-face-memory-maintenance runs even while the swarm pause brake suppresses public CTB turns, retries stale launcher-only starting records, runs memory maintenance synchronously with captured logs, and leaves all registered repo Face short-term counts at zero after the 2026-05-26 cleanup."}
+{"ts":"2026-05-26T14:05:41Z","type":"implementation","status":"ok","note":"Adjusted the Socratic Ink Praxis scenario and harness so Void opens with a lay overview of real-world incentive structures and owns the full teaching context. Face prompts now receive only current audience understanding, not hidden phase doctrine, so Faces retain personality while discovering Praxis through the discussion. Regenerated articles/ink/cotsc-praxis-socratic-sermon.ink with 12 Face turns and 12 Void folds; structural Ink check and typecheck pass."}