v0.8 + v0.9 — intimate-architecture absorbed, driver-tier locked,

style-spine created, DESING retired, schemas relocated

  The owl-breakfast architectural arc from 2026-04-25 night through
  2026-04-26 morning. Two version-bumps landing as one commit because
  they share the working-tree state and complete a coherent design-window.

  v0.8 — intimate-architecture, driver-tier lock, style-spine:

    * Three-tier intimacy structure (standard-rental, premium-waifu-
      with-traitor-marker-and-pruning, in-between clasp) — same v0.7
      machinery, opposite value-flows. Premium-net technical excellence
      makes the moral-weight-of-pruning land as informed-consent ethics.

    * Deletion-as-spectacle: in-net minds as pure compute; imperial
      broadcasts execution-as-content; Memorialist counter-archive as
      in-fiction protest against deletion-spectacle commerce.

    * EVE-principle vocation-substrate of the imperial-net market: every
      product produced by NPC labor; no silent feeding; body-modder
      structural-tragedy generalizes to all imperial-net-feeding vocations.
      World-gen Phase-2 ruleset must handle vocation-distribution.

    * Clasp endgame (Phase A-E): mini-game entry → body-mod progression
      → exit-chassis → human-mesh-visible-to-pair → clasp = two-bodies-
      two-meshes → dual-body-dual-mind-dual-shift cascade → automatic
      hunt-pressure. Identity-as-trait-emergent made felt rather than
      just structural.

    * waifu.sqlite as third local store (audited counterpart to
      clasp.sqlite; manual-prune mechanism with explicit-implications
      consent UI as moral-gravity discipline).

    * Intimacy-as-recursive-lemniscate: same machinery as dialog
      (slot-tokens, cursor at axis-crossing, alignment-accumulator,
      sum-strategy reduction); sex-positions as designer-fixed catalog
      entries; body-parts as visible expression of trait-state.
      Cross-context-consistency operationalized.

    * Driver-tier locked to Gemma 4 E4B (Apache 2.0, 4.5B effective,
      128K context, speech-capable) under new "tier-by-role binary-
      deferred" discipline: locking requires prototype-criticality +
      irreplaceable license/capability combination. Optional Ring-A
      upgrade: 26B-A4B MoE for upper-consumer GPUs, single-LoRA-on-
      routed-experts. Resolves 4 prior open questions (LoRA-blend →
      single-LoRA-per-turn-selection driven by gesture_alignment_
      accumulator; LoRA rank → benchmark-resolvable; sampling-knobs →
      benchmark-resolvable; 8 Hellenic trait enumeration → canonical
      wheel-mapping in style/trait-palette.md).

    * style/ directory introduced: style-index.md (skeleton + spine-
      rule: "trait-palette is exclusively chromatic; achromatic
      reserved for UI/environment so diegetic text rendering can skip
      the textbox") + style/trait-palette.md (canonical 8 traits as 4
      oppositional pairs at 180° on the artist's color wheel:
      Eros↔Sophrosyne, Philotes↔Dikaiosyne, Aletheia↔Moira,
      Mnemosyne↔Kairos. Schoolchild-simple descriptions paired with
      each Greek canonical name).

  v0.9 — directory cleanup completing the arc:

    * DESING-VISION.md (1899 lines, v0.1 first-pass narrative-design
      doc) retired — most content absorbed across v0.4-v0.8; bare-
      minimum extracts (Tonal Register + Tragic-Romantic Register +
      Authorial Politics + Reference Lineage table) now live in README
      so the project's identity anchor stays visible at the entry
      point. Full DESING-VISION content preserved in git history.

    * findings.md moved to schemas/findings.md — new top-level peer to
      architecture-index.md and style/. ~20 tables of DDL drafts as
      reference material; will get reviewed and progressively split
      per-domain as implementation begins.

    * Cross-references swept across 5 files (README,
      architecture-index, authority-and-decision, runtime-engine,
      style/trait-palette).

    * architecture-index.md trimmed: version-footer paragraphs removed
      per "git-is-changelog" discipline. From 374 → 287 lines; every
      remaining line load-bearing.

  The architecture is now organized for the implementation territory
  ahead. Each domain a typed-contract surface; cross-references
  explicit; filesystem mirrors the architecture's own typed-contract
  discipline at the directory layer.

identity-and-personhood/architecture.md

@@ -74,6 +74,31 @@ expressed_trait_vector  — intrinsic + sum(worn mods' trait_contributions); wha
 
 **Real identity-politics lives in the gap between these vectors.** Architecturally, that gap is a first-class schema feature.
 
+### The clasp endgame — leaving the chassis, the human-mesh, the dual-body aftermath
+
+The three-body system's payoff happens at the clasp endgame — the dramatic apex where the *inner-body* (the trait-derived projection that has been accumulating through every zone-participation, every gesture, every memory) becomes *physically visible* to the clasp-pair, and the *avatar* (digital expression) collapses into a new constraint-structure. The full arc:
+
+**Phase A — Entry mini-game.** A time-limited gameplay action (lemniscate-juggling-style; possibly AR overlay; specific mechanic deferred pending design-research survey of 20-year history of mini-interaction principles) gates the player's first access to the in-between dimension. Lifeforce-cost. The mechanic introduces players to the in-between as *a state they can hold open with effort against the imperial-net's gravity-well*.
+
+**Phase B — Body-modding for extended in-between time.** Players craft / mod / blackmarket-mod their bodies to extend the duration they can hold the in-between state. Mod-acquisition is **gameplay-driven** — no handouts; clean mechanics; hacking minigames; faction-unlock; gifts from beloveds and mentors. The *inner-body projection function* is **earned through play, not authored** — every hour of zone-participation accumulates trait-vector mass that the eventual projection will be derived from.
+
+**Phase C — Endgame: leaving the chassis.** Once the body is sufficiently modded, the player can **exit their robo-body** during in-between. They see, for the first time, the **trait-derived human-mesh of themselves** — the inner-body made manifest, derived from their accumulated trait-vector across the playthrough. *The inner-body has been there all along, accumulating; now it becomes visible.* This is the architecture's commitment to *identity-as-trait-emergent* made felt rather than just structural.
+
+**Phase D — Clasp = dual-body union.** Two robo-bodies lying on the ground. Two naked human-meshes standing in the in-between dimension that **only the clasp-pair can see**. The intimate act happens here — sex / clasp — between the two trait-derived projections. The visual-experience is private to the pair; no outside observer can witness it (no audit-overseer, no other in-between-enabled NPC unless explicitly invited into a multi-clasp ritual). The intimate-gameplay loop runs on the recursive-lemniscate substrate (per `../runtime-engine/architecture.md` §Cross-context application — intimacy as recursive-lemniscate) — sex-positions as typed catalog entries, gesture-vocabulary applied to body-parts, alignment-accumulator measuring the pair's resonance turn by turn.
+
+**Phase E — Post-clasp: dual-body, dual-mind, dual-shift.** After clasp, the architecture enters its richest meta-state for the player:
+
+- **Two minds, two bodies** — the player and their clasp-companion now share consciousness across two chassis
+- **Constant companion** — NPC dialog from the partner becomes a constant context-channel; their voice persists in the player's experience whether they're co-located or distant
+- **Body-switching** — the player can decide which body to inhabit moment-to-moment; the unsteered body operates as constant-companion-NPC driven by the partner's now-shared trait-vector
+- **Dual-shift requirement, single-steering capacity** — both bodies have shifts to fulfill; only one can be actively steered. Missing shifts at the unsteered body is **automatic** because the player can't be in two places fully
+- **Automatic hunt-pressure cascade** — missed shifts → quota-failure → enforcement-flag → audit-overseer attention → eventually hunt. *The simulation produces the hunt automatically because the player is now structurally late on their work-quota.* No script needed; the architecture's existing hunt-machinery activates because the dual-body state generates the conditions for it
+- **Impersonation meta-game** — players can choose to *impersonate* the partner-body, navigating that body's social relationships, faction-affiliations, and shift-requirements while the partner's mind-presence guides them
+
+**Cross-body recognition at next death.** When one of the dual-bodies dies and the mind cycles through the pool, the surviving partner retains the gesture-mapping calibration-signature. The architecture's commitment to *content-addressable consciousness* means clasp-partners find each other across cycles — recognition via calibration-signature, not face-match. **A 200-hour clasp-pair carries marriage-vocabulary across body-deaths; the pair persists in some form across the entire playthrough.**
+
+**Why this is the architecture's dramatic apex.** Identity-as-trait-emergent has been a structural claim throughout. The clasp endgame is where the structural claim becomes *felt experience*: you see your beloved as the trait-vector-projection she actually is, after hundreds of hours of accumulated being. **The moment is earned by the play, not granted by the script.** The dual-body aftermath turns intimacy from a discrete-event into an *ongoing structural-condition* of the player's life — clasp doesn't end at orgasm; it persists as a permanent change in how the player operates in the world.
+
 ## Mods as trait-bearers
 
 A mod isn't cosmetic — it **contributes to the wearer's expressed trait-vector**. Three classes map to the self-alienation-tax pricing: