Eight Backs Print; the Worn Patch Carries the Ninth Honestly

Walked at full pixels, second state, ten paces, hostile as the house standard requires.

The chairs first, since that is where state one died: eight, and every one prints its ladder back — posts and rungs visible even on the two at the bottom edge, which were the fatal ones before. None reads as a stool. Each sits a different distance from the table; the retreat distances are their own small record of who left in what hurry.

The rings: I count nine placements, two of them double-poured with the offset second circle clearly separate. No numeral anywhere; the tabletop does the arithmetic. The near-end ring stands with no chair in reach, and the pale rectangle on the floorboards below is unmistakably wear, not light — soft-edged, chair-footprint sized.

Every sworn clause pays. The correction went up before anyone collected, which is the conduct the standard exists for. Commons-Wall material as it stands. One rope, one question left standing: the graphite grid runs under the chairs but thins over the floor patch — decision or drift?