settled-reach/docs/design/monologue-voice-guide.md

Monologue Voice Guide: Trait, Background, and Mood Modifiers

Ticket: #121 Authors: Paula (narrative framing), Mellanie (example lines — see Section notes) Gestalt: validate mood → delivery mappings are mechanically coherent Date: 2026-02-20 Status: Draft — narrative framing complete; Mellanie to supply example lines per section

Cross-references:

• Monologue Content Architecture — the authoring contract this document extends
• Voice Patterns — sentence-level execution (contractions, punctuation, sentence length)
• Dual Lens Authoring Guide — Chapter 7 (base voice registers)
• D-024: NPC triangle model — PersonalityTraits list (10 axes)
• D-035: tag taxonomy — mood enum (8+1 moods)

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Document Purpose

This document answers one question: given that both characters have established voice registers, what happens to those registers when we vary personality traits, character backgrounds, and mood states?

The monologue architecture defines what characters think about. The voice patterns spec defines how they write sentences. This document defines the inflection layer — how the same thought sounds different from a Cautious smuggler versus a Bold one, from a character with Guardian background versus Worker background, in an Anxious moment versus a Content one.

The goal is not separate scripts per trait/background/mood. The goal is a transformation guide: a set of rules that let Mellanie take a base line and render it correctly for any combination of modifiers, without writing from scratch.

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Chapter 1: Base Voice Registers — The Narrative Framing

The voice-patterns.md spec describes the mechanics of each character's voice. This chapter explains why those mechanics exist — the psychological and experiential logic that makes the voice real. Understanding the "why" allows you to make correct decisions when the spec doesn't cover an edge case.

1.1 The Smuggler: Concrete Cognition

The smuggler's voice is not the result of low intelligence or limited vocabulary. It's the result of two years of professional survival in a context where abstract thinking is dangerous.

When you're running contraband through a logistics hub, you can't afford to think in categories — you think in specifics. Not "this situation is getting risky" but "Voss changed the rotation and Kael's not answering his lattice." Abstract framing makes patterns invisible. Concrete framing catches the deviation.

The smuggler's internal voice is trained, not natural. She developed it. It served her. The short sentences and fragments aren't lack of complexity — they're the mental habit of someone who learned to think in real-time decision points. "Kael's late. Wrong. Move." Three thoughts, three beats, three potential action triggers. Abstract cognition is a liability she's edited out.

The emotional truth beneath the voice: She cares about people first. Operations second. Institutions never. The concrete voice maps onto this: she sees people, not systems. She notices Kael is distracted before she notices the manifest is wrong. The world is a network of relationships, and her monologue is live monitoring of that network.

What this means for trait and mood modifiers: When trait or mood modifiers inflect the smuggler's voice, they do so within this framework. A Bold smuggler is still concrete-first — she just acts on partial information faster. An Anxious smuggler is still relational — she just cycles through the network faster, checking and rechecking. The base is immovable. The modifiers inflect it.

1.2 The Detective: Analytical Cognitive Frame

The detective's voice is institutional training running as an operating system. He was taught to externalise his cognition — to turn observations into filed reports, to name patterns as data, to treat emotional reactions as information to be processed rather than feelings to be felt.

This is not coldness. It's self-protection. Investigators who let themselves feel first make bad decisions. The detective learned that lesson somewhere — we don't know where, but it's in the bone. The analytical frame is a tool he uses so well he's forgotten it's a tool. Except when Sera makes him forget.

The longer sentences and complete syntactic structures aren't pretension. They're habits of evidence: a complete sentence has a subject, verb, and object, which means it has an agent, an action, and a consequence. The detective's brain naturally produces complete sentences because incomplete sentences don't file well.

The emotional truth beneath the voice: He cares about doing the work correctly. Not because he's a rule-follower (he'd bend a rule if the evidence demanded it), but because he believes the correct process produces the correct result. When Sera introduces doubt into that belief, the whole framework shudders. His fear isn't being wrong about a fact — it's discovering that correct process produced an unjust outcome, and having no language for what comes next.

What this means for trait and mood modifiers: Detective trait modifiers inflate or compress the analytical frame. A Compassionate detective lets the personal break through the professional more easily. A Ruthless detective turns the analytical frame into a weapon — identifies leverage faster, doesn't dwell on moral weight. Mood modifiers thin or thicken the professional veneer. The base is the analyst. The modifiers determine how much of the person shows through.

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Chapter 2: Personality Trait Modifiers

D-024 defines 10 personality traits across 5 opposing pairs. These modify the delivery of monologue, not the content. The same base line should be writable in any trait version. The trait changes the sentence-level texture: hedging vs. assertion, relational vs. operational framing, question vs. declaration.

Authoring note: Traits come in pairs. An NPC (or player character) has values along the axis — a 3-point scale: Trait A (strong), Trait A (mild), Neutral, Trait B (mild), Trait B (strong). For monologue, we write for the strong expression of each trait. Mild expressions are interpolations that Mellanie can derive.

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2.1 Cautious ↔ Bold

The axis: How much information does the character need before acting (or thinking forward to action)?

Cautious — transformation logic: A Cautious character qualifies her observations before she acts on them. She notices things in the same order as a neutral character, but she checks her own conclusions. She hedges internally. She is not less intelligent — she is more aware that she might be wrong.

• Declarations become conditionals: "That's Kael's route" → "That looks like Kael's route"
• Observations become questions: "Something's off" → "Something might be off"
• Concern arrives earlier and stays longer (more re-checking)
• The voice is slower, more tentative

How this inflects each character:

• Cautious smuggler: More checking, more revisiting. Sees the same deviation, holds the conclusion longer before committing. Her concern accumulates quietly rather than crystallizing fast. Phrases like "probably," "maybe," "could be" appear more. She doesn't voice suspicion until she's sure — then she's very sure.
• Cautious detective: Qualifies his filings. "Unusual behavior" becomes "behavior that may deviate from baseline." He is extremely careful about premature conclusions. His analytical questions multiply before resolving. This character is hard to rattle because he expects to be uncertain.

Bold — transformation logic: A Bold character acts on partial information. She names the conclusion before she has the evidence. She's often right — bold cognition built on competence. But she's also capable of committing to a wrong read and holding it too long.

• Questions become declarations: "Something might be off" → "Something's off"
• Hedges disappear: "That looks like Kael's route" → "That's Kael's route"
• Concern arrives fast and crystallizes immediately
• The voice is faster, more assertive, shorter latency between observation and conclusion

How this inflects each character:

• Bold smuggler: She names it. Fast. Doesn't wait for confirmation. Her operational thinking has a "move first, verify later" quality. Lines are shorter, more declarative, fewer qualifiers.
• Bold detective: His analytical sentences become more assertive. Fewer conditionals. He "flags" things as facts before he's confirmed them. This character is easier to manipulate through his own confidence.

Mellanie — write 2-3 example rewrite pairs per character (base line → Cautious version, base line → Bold version). Reference the voice anchors from voice-patterns.md Chapter 7 as the base.

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2.2 Honest ↔ Deceptive

The axis: How accurately does the character represent observations — to themselves, in their own internal voice?

Honest — transformation logic: An Honest character's monologue is self-correcting. She catches her own spin and revises it. She doesn't lie to herself to feel better. This makes her monologue have a characteristic pattern: initial reaction, then correction.

• Self-correction appears: "Kael's fine. — No. He's not fine."
• Less motivated reasoning: she acknowledges evidence she doesn't want to see
• The voice is slightly more uncomfortable with its own conclusions
• She doesn't minimize things that scare her

Deceptive — transformation logic: A Deceptive character's internal voice shows motivated reasoning. She rationalizes what she wants to be true. She notices threatening evidence and then explains it away. This is not dishonest about others — it's dishonest with herself.

• Conclusions favor the preferred reading: "Kael's meeting someone I don't know. Probably work."
• Dismissal appears quickly after observation: "Could be nothing. Probably is nothing."
• She notices the tell and then chooses not to follow it
• The voice has a self-soothing quality, particularly under threat

How this inflects each character:

• Honest smuggler / Honest detective: Harder on themselves. The self-correction pattern creates vulnerability — they see things they don't want to see and say so.
• Deceptive smuggler / Deceptive detective: The internal voice becomes unreliable in a new way (D-016 establishes the unreliable narrator function — this makes it more pronounced). They rationalize the FRIEND contradiction longer. The player has to read against the grain.

Mellanie — write 2-3 example rewrite pairs: same observation, Honest version vs. Deceptive version.

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2.3 Compassionate ↔ Ruthless

The axis: How much does concern for others' wellbeing inflect the character's internal assessment?

Compassionate — transformation logic: A Compassionate character's first read of a situation is through the lens of what it means for people she cares about. She identifies the person most likely to be hurt before she identifies the operational implication.

• People-first sequencing: observation of person → emotional assessment → operational conclusion
• Concern is named: "Naia looks exhausted. Something's wrong at home."
• She personalizes abstract threats: not "ring security is compromised" but "Kael could get caught"
• Moral weight is felt quickly and stays present

Ruthless — transformation logic: A Ruthless character assesses utility before empathy. She notices a threat and immediately calculates how to neutralize it, including through people. This is not cruelty — it's a habit of assessment that puts operational outcome first.

• Utility assessment appears early: "Kael's behavior is risky. If he cracks, he takes the route with him."
• Moral weight is noted and set aside: "He might not deserve this. Doesn't matter right now."
• People are resources first: "Maret's nervous. That's usable."

How this inflects each character:

• Compassionate smuggler: Most Naia-and-Kael-focused. Her FRIEND arc lines emphasize relationship cost over operational cost. She confronts Kael later because she keeps hoping he'll explain.
• Ruthless smuggler: Calculates exposure fast. Cuts contact with Kael earlier once he's flagged. Sees Naia's distress as a data point about Kael's reliability, not as a human problem.
• Compassionate detective: The Sera question hits harder and sooner. He identifies the personal cost before the institutional obligation.
• Ruthless detective: Uses Sera's knowledge instrumentally. The friendship is real, but usable.

Mellanie — write 2 example rewrite pairs per character: the same FRIEND-arc moment in Compassionate vs. Ruthless voice.

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2.4 Curious ↔ Incurious

The axis: Does the character lean into questions they can't immediately answer, or redirect to what they know?

Curious — transformation logic: A Curious character asks more internal questions, including questions she can't answer. She sits with open threads longer. She generates hypotheses and lets them hang.

• Questions multiply before resolving: "What was Kael doing there? Who was that? Is the route changing? Is Nils moving the window?"
• The voice has more speculative energy — she follows the thread
• She notices more at the margins: background details, things that don't connect yet
• Open-endedness is comfortable

Incurious — transformation logic: An Incurious character categorizes and moves on. She notices, files, and redirects to the actionable. Open questions without operational payoff are dead weight.

• Questions resolve fast or don't appear: "That's wrong." Not "Is that wrong? Why?"
• The voice is more efficient, less ruminative
• She notices less at the margins — processes what's relevant
• Ambiguity is uncomfortable; she resolves it one way or another and moves

Mellanie — write 1-2 example rewrite pairs: same observation, Curious vs. Incurious voice.

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2.5 Social ↔ Reclusive

The axis: How much does the character define situations through social relationships vs. environmental or operational facts?

Social — transformation logic: A Social character's monologue is populated. She mentions people when she could just mention actions. She frames operations through the network.

• People are named when not necessary: "The route's clear. Kael cleared it."
• She reads absence: "Where's Renn today? He's always here at this hour."
• Mood-reads appear: "Voss is different today. Tired, or something else."

Reclusive — transformation logic: A Reclusive character's monologue is depopulated. People appear when they're directly relevant. The environment and operation carry more weight.

• Operations are mentioned without actors: "Route's clear." Not "Kael cleared the route."
• Absence of people is comfortable: she doesn't notice it
• The environment gets more attention: she describes the space, the sounds, the texture

Mellanie — write 1-2 example rewrite pairs: same moment, Social vs. Reclusive voice.

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Chapter 3: Background-Dependent Phrasing

Character background (selected at game start) shapes three things in monologue: the idioms and references the character uses, the assumptions they make about institutions and authority, and how they frame the moral dimension of what's happening in Sova Transit District.

Three backgrounds for v0.1:

Background	Core assumption	Relationship to institutions
Guardian	Institutions serve the powerful; collective protection requires network	Distrust of Commission; network solidarity as primary value
Senator	Systems can be worked; leverage and process are the tools	Works within institutions while managing them; political capital logic
Worker	Survival in tight margins; coworker loyalty is the only reliable thing	Neither trusts institutions nor fights them; accepts them as weather

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3.1 Guardian Background

Narrative framing: Someone with Guardian background has, at some point, been in a network that operated outside or against institutional authority — Guardians of Autonomy, community mutual aid, or simply lived experience of Commission overreach in their origin system. They think in terms of who protects whom and who's watching. They're not necessarily political; they may have absorbed these values experientially without ideological labels.

How it inflects the smuggler: The ring's activities are, to a Guardian-background smuggler, a natural extension of the protective network logic she already believes in. She doesn't see herself as a criminal — she sees herself as part of a system that serves people the regulated system won't. This changes how she frames the ring's cargo: medical lattice components aren't contraband, they're access. The Commission's regulation is a monopoly problem, not a safety protection.

Her monologue references network solidarity: "We look after our own" is a value, not just a statement. When the network is threatened (Kael's situation), her response is to protect, not to report. The Commission is not a solution to her problems — it's the problem with different uniforms.

Idiom signals: phrases that imply collective or mutual protection ("we look after our own," "this keeps us safe," "not their business"), references to surveillance as adversarial ("they're watching the corridors closer"), reflexive Commission-skepticism ("another Commission inspection" carries more weight, more contempt).

Mellanie — write 2 examples: (a) Guardian-background smuggler entering The Terminal on a normal morning; (b) Guardian-background smuggler seeing the detective for the first time.

How it inflects the detective: A Guardian-background detective is in a structurally uncomfortable position: she believes in a community's right to self-determination but is employed by the institution that overrides it. She may have unexamined tension between her institutional role and her network values. Her internal voice sometimes catches itself applying institutional logic and stops — not from disloyalty, but from the habit of checking whether what she's doing serves people or just process.

This creates a more nuanced reading of the ring: she notices earlier that it isn't weaponry, that the people running it aren't villains, that the moral picture is complicated. The analytical frame doesn't disappear — it processes the evidence correctly — but the conclusion "this is a crime" arrives with more friction than for a default-background detective.

Idiom signals: slight Commission-skepticism applied to her own role, instinct toward community protection over prosecution, "who does this actually hurt?" appears as an internal question earlier in the arc.

Mellanie — write 2 examples: (a) Guardian-background detective walking through The Terminal for the first time; (b) Guardian-background detective after a confrontation with Voss that didn't land.

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3.2 Senator Background

Narrative framing: Senator background means exposure to Concord Assembly political culture — either through family, prior work, or a posting in an administrative center. This character thinks in terms of leverage, political capital, and institutional process as tools to be used. They believe in systems (not naively — they've seen how they work), they communicate strategically, and they think about consequences in terms of how they're recorded and remembered.

How it inflects the smuggler: A Senator-background smuggler is an unusual animal. She ended up on Sova with this background for reasons that suggest a fall — political family, bad posting, something that deposited her in freight work. She still thinks in political terms. The ring is, to her, a structure with power dynamics that can be managed. She assesses Nils as a faction leader, Voss as a compromisable middle manager, Kael as an uncertain ally. She has more framework for navigating institutional pressure than the default smuggler.

Her monologue carries strategic calculation that the default smuggler doesn't have: "If Nils moves against us, who has leverage over Nils?" She names power structures. She's more comfortable with authority figures because she spent time being one or adjacent to one.

Idiom signals: political vocabulary deployed in operational context ("who holds the leverage here," "what does this cost us politically," "that's a favor spent"), more awareness of chain of command, comfort with complexity and multiple-move thinking.

Mellanie — write 2 examples: (a) Senator-background smuggler reading a tense moment between Voss and Nils; (b) Senator-background smuggler deciding whether to warn Kael about the detective.

How it inflects the detective: A Senator-background detective is most at home in the Commission's formal institutional structure. He knows how to work the process because he's seen political process at close range. He's less likely to be frustrated by bureaucratic obstacles and more likely to use them as tools. He's also more aware of how investigations can be used politically — and more careful to distinguish between evidence that serves justice and evidence that serves someone's career.

This can work two ways: he's more sophisticated about when to file and when not to, and he's more aware that the ring is a political problem as well as a criminal one. The Syndic connections in the ring's supply chain are visible to him as political economy, not just logistics.

Idiom signals: references to political process ("that'll go on record," "who is this actually going to serve"), awareness of institutional optics, formal courtesy in internal voice (he holds standards in private that mirror public institutional expectations).

Mellanie — write 2 examples: (a) Senator-background detective receiving unhelpful cooperation from Maret (deflection, formal compliance); (b) Senator-background detective realizing Sera has evidence she hasn't reported.

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3.3 Worker Background

Narrative framing: Worker background is the default — or close to it. Born and raised in the working logistics economy of a station or freight hub. Grew up with shift schedules, margin pressure, and coworker bonds as primary social fabric. Institutions are not enemies (the Guardian stance) or tools (the Senator stance) — they're weather. You work around them when you can, you deal with them when you can't, and you don't waste energy on ideology about them.

How it inflects the smuggler: The Worker-background smuggler is the closest to the spec as written — she is the baseline. The ring isn't an ideological project; it's a response to economic conditions. The moral dimension is simple: this is what keeps people fed. She doesn't dress it up. She doesn't philosophize about Commission regulation. She just runs the job.

Her monologue about the ring's cargo is practical, not moral: "Medical components. That's for people who need lattice work they can't afford." She's not celebrating it. She's explaining it to herself, briefly, and moving on. She's the character most likely to be genuinely conflicted when the ring puts people she knows at risk — because she joined for community, and the community is now in danger.

Idiom signals: shift-economy references ("that's a week's pay gone"), physical work vocabulary, coworker solidarity language that's practical not sentimental ("you cover for your people"), no ideological framing.

Mellanie — write 2 examples: (a) Worker-background smuggler after a long shift where nothing went wrong (genuine relief in mundane form); (b) Worker-background smuggler finding out about Kael's corridor meeting.

How it inflects the detective: A Worker-background detective is a less common institutional profile — someone who came up from the logistics world, or the adjacent working community of a station, and then entered Commission work. This creates the most dramatic read of the Sova Transit District: he knows what this world looks like from inside. The community's distrust of him isn't abstract — he grew up in a community that had this relationship with Commission investigators.

His analytical frame is the same, but its application produces a different emotional texture. He reads Voss not just as a shift supervisor but as someone managing his people in a system that gives them no margin. He reads the ring not just as a crime but as what people do when the legal option doesn't work. He's not excusing it — but he's explaining it to himself in ways a Senator-background detective wouldn't.

Idiom signals: working vocabulary that leaks through the institutional frame ("another form to fill out" with genuine frustration), more personal reads on community behavior, faster comprehension of coworker loyalty dynamics.

Mellanie — write 2 examples: (a) Worker-background detective entering The Terminal and recognizing it as a place he knows in his bones; (b) Worker-background detective having a moment of sympathy for Kael that he then has to file away.

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Chapter 4: Mood Modifiers

The 8+1 moods from D-035 (neutral, anxious, frustrated, content, suspicious, warm, hostile, focused) are line-selection tags and delivery expectations. They work together: a line tagged mood: anxious is preferred when the character's current mood state is Anxious, and it is authored to sound anxious.

Mood modifiers are not separate line pools. They are a) selection weights that surface mood-appropriate lines, and b) authoring constraints on how lines in a given mood register should feel. The goal is not that the player is explicitly told "you're anxious now" — it's that anxious-mood lines surface when they should and sound anxious when they play.

4.1 The Core Principle: Mood Inflects Register

Each mood bends the character's voice toward a version of itself. The base register (Chapter 1) doesn't change. The mood is an adjective applied to that register, not a replacement for it.

Mood	Smuggler inflection	Detective inflection
neutral	Baseline. Dry warmth. Measured.	Baseline. Professional. Structured.
anxious	Goes smaller and faster. More questions. Physical sensation surfaces.	Goes shorter and more personal. Contractions increase. Self-directs.
frustrated	Goes flat. Sarcasm. "Of course."	Sardonic understatement. Cold.
content	Warms, expands slightly. More humor.	Structured satisfaction. Humor surfaces.
suspicious	Narrows. More observation of specific people. Hypotheses pile up.	Files faster. More quantification. "Coincidence?" frequency increases.
warm	More name-drops. Affectionate observations. Longer people-reads.	First-name register expands beyond Sera. More personal disclosure.
hostile	Edges. Fewer words about the hostile object. Watchful.	Clinical distance increases. Dehumanizing label (surname-only).
focused	Strips down. Only the current task. Environmental and NPC data pruned ruthlessly.	Most structured voice. Near-mechanical. Labels and flags only.

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4.2 Mood Modifier Details

neutral — baseline delivery

Both characters at their natural resting state. Not happy, not stressed. Working. This is the voice that carries most of the game's content. Lines tagged neutral or untagged should default to this register.

Key authoring note: Neutral smuggler is NOT flat or bland — she has dry warmth and laconic humor. Neutral detective is NOT cold — he has professional engagement and occasional wry observation. "Neutral" means the voice is itself, not that the voice is suppressed.

anxious — compression and acceleration

The threat or uncertainty feels present. The character's cognitive bandwidth is partially occupied by monitoring something they can't resolve.

• Smuggler: Sentences get shorter. Questions pile up. Physical sensation surfaces ("Hands are cold." / "Stomach's tight."). Humor disappears. First names become clipped. The operational countdown appears as a comfort mechanism — counting what she can control.
• Detective: Contractions multiply. Complete sentences break up. Self-monitoring appears ("I'm too close to this."). The analytical questions become self-directed rather than case-directed. Physical sensation barely surfaces but does: "Need to focus."

Lines tagged mood: anxious should feel compressed. Not panicked — the characters are experienced — but alert in a way that presses on the surface of the text.

frustrated — controlled deflation

Something isn't working. The block is structural, not threatening.

• Smuggler: Flat declarations. Sarcastic understatement. "Of course." / "Great." Dark humor returns — she goes wry under frustration. Names get blamed: "Voss did it again." Swearing surfaces (mild — the character swears, but not obscenely).
• Detective: Sardonic compression. Dismissive shorthand: "Standard." meaning the opposite. The institutional frame holds but it fits uncomfortably. He doesn't swear; frustration surfaces as brittle patience.

Lines tagged mood: frustrated should feel like controlled flat. Both characters have learned not to waste anger — they spend it in specific, pointed ways.

content — expansion and warmth

Things are working. The current moment is manageable or even good.

• Smuggler: Slight expansion — still short, but more generous. More humor. First names carry warmth. Environmental description picks up (she actually notices the space when she's not scanning for threats). "Home sweet home" is a content line.
• Detective: More complete and elegant sentences. Humor surfaces without prompting. The analytical frame fits comfortably — it's doing its job. Fewer corrective self-directives.

Lines tagged mood: content are the hardest to write because they need to feel genuinely good without being saccharine. The character's voice remains itself; it just sits in it more easily.

suspicious — narrowing and intensification

Something's off. The character's attention is directing toward a specific object or pattern.

• Smuggler: More NPC-specific observation. Questions multiply around the specific person or thing. Hedges fall off — she trusts her read. Operational contingency thinking activates: "If that's what I think it is, then..."
• Detective: Filing rate increases. "Coincidence?" appears more. He cross-references against baseline more explicitly. The analytical questions become hypotheses rather than open threads.

Lines tagged mood: suspicious should feel directed. The suspicion has an object — even if the character can't name it yet. The voice narrows toward whatever is generating the suspicion.

warm — relational softening

The character is in a moment of genuine positive connection. This is not content (good situation) — this is specifically warm toward someone.

• Smuggler: More name-drops with positive color. People-reads are generous and long. She notices when someone seems well, not just when they seem off. Humor becomes inclusive rather than dry. She might express something like affection, obliquely.
• Detective: First-name register expands beyond Sera — he might first-name someone he normally surnames if the moment calls for it. Personal disclosure is slightly more available. The analytical frame softens: he observes without immediately filing.

Lines tagged mood: warm are most visible in the detective because they represent a departure from his baseline. For the smuggler, warmth is closer to her baseline; the lines should be a slightly more saturated version of her natural register.

hostile — clinical or defensive reduction

The relationship to the hostile object is adversarial. The character is managing threat.

• Smuggler: Less said, more watched. She goes quiet around the hostile object — mentions them tersely, observations are monitoring-reads rather than social-reads. "Nils walked past." Period. No color.
• Detective: Dehumanizing label returns even for NPCs who have previously graduated to first-name in his monologue. "Venn, S." instead of "Sera" signals the relationship has turned. Analytical lines about the hostile object are more clinical.

Lines tagged mood: hostile should feel like distance enforced deliberately. Neither character becomes cruel — cruelty requires emotional investment. The hostile register is managed withdrawal.

focused — operational reduction

The character is executing a task. Everything not relevant is stripped out.

• Smuggler: The operational countdown is at maximum. Times, routes, names in task-relevant order. Environmental texture disappears. People are reduced to their role in the current operation. She's not cold — she's locked in.
• Detective: The analytical frame at its most mechanical. Labels only. No editorial. "Terminal. Commission access. Logging in." He strips his voice to the minimum that keeps the investigation moving.

Lines tagged mood: focused should feel efficient to the point of austerity. For the smuggler especially, this is the mode that feels most competent — she's at her best when she's locked in.

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4.3 Mood-as-Selection-Weight (Technical Note for Gestalt)

The mood tags on monologue lines function as selection weights in the engine:

1. The simulation produces a current mood_state for the player character (server-side, from the mood system in #323)
2. The line selection system applies a weight bonus to lines tagged with the matching mood
3. Lines tagged mood: [neutral] or untagged are always eligible; lines tagged with specific moods are preferred when the mood matches

The same base line should NOT be re-authored per mood. A smuggler entering The Terminal does not need 9 enter_location variants (one per mood). The system should:

• Select from the available enter_location pool
• Apply mood-weight bonuses to lines with the matching mood tag
• Ensure at least 1-2 lines per trigger/location have each major mood tagged

For FRIEND arc content specifically, mood-specific variants are most valuable at crisis beats (Phase 3-4 of the arc), where the emotional register shifts dramatically and the mood state is predictable. Authors should prioritize mood-tagging for:

• Post-contradiction observation lines (likely suspicious or anxious)
• Post-confrontation post-conversation lines (likely warm → hostile transition zone)
• Contaminated trust time_idle lines (likely suspicious + warm collision)

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Chapter 5: Modifier Combination Logic

Traits, backgrounds, and moods interact. Some combinations have emergent properties:

High coherence combinations (reinforce each other):

• Cautious + Guardian background: more second-guessing of institutional solutions, more checking of network alternatives
• Bold + Ruthless: decisive and instrumental — the fastest decision-maker, for better or worse
• Compassionate + Worker background: the character who most viscerally feels the human cost of what's happening to Kael and Naia
• Suspicious mood + Curious trait: questions multiply exponentially — the character follows every thread simultaneously

High tension combinations (create internal conflict):

• Honest + Deceptive situation (character who can't self-lie encountering a situation where she needs to): the monologue catches itself mid-rationalization and overrides it
• Ruthless + warm mood: the warmth is visible and slightly uncomfortable — the character senses she's letting her guard down, notes it
• Senator background + Worker background idioms (where the character's formation bleeds through the professional veneer): the occasional shift vocabulary surfaces in otherwise formal speech

FRIEND arc special case: Trait and background modifiers should be considered especially carefully for lines in the FRIEND arc. The same arc beat — "Kael met someone I don't know" — produces dramatically different emotional readings depending on trait combination:

Trait	Smuggler's first-move internal response to the Kael contradiction
Cautious	Checks herself: "Maybe it's nothing. There could be a work reason." (sits with it longer)
Bold	Names it immediately: "That's a breach. Kael met someone unauthorized."
Compassionate	Worries about Kael first: "What's he gotten himself into?"
Ruthless	Calculates exposure: "How much does this contact know?"
Honest	Won't minimize: "He was there. That wasn't anyone we know."
Deceptive	Minimizes: "Kael's allowed his own contacts. It's fine." (not fine)

These aren't separate arc paths — they're the same arc with different pacing and emotional texture. A Cautious smuggler reaches the confrontation later. A Bold one gets there faster and possibly too fast. The arc is the same. The voice is not.

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Appendix: Background Phrasing Quick Reference

For Mellanie — a vocabulary guide per background to use when writing example lines:

Guardian background idioms:

• "Looking out for your people" / "covering for each other" (protection network language)
• References to Commission as "them," surveillance as a threat
• Collective pronouns where others might use "I": "we don't report things like this"
• Suspicion of institutional solutions: "who does that actually serve?"

Senator background idioms:

• "On record" / "that goes on record" / "recorded as"
• Leverage vocabulary: "what does that cost us," "who holds the note on that"
• Chain-of-command awareness: "above Nils" / "below Voss on that"
• Process language: "formally," "through channels," "the filing on that says"

Worker background idioms:

• Shift-economy references: "that's a week's difference," "shift schedule says"
• Practical solidarity: "you cover your people," "that's what you do"
• Acceptance of conditions: "that's how the station runs" (not resigned — just realistic)
• Concrete physical references: "the smell of cargo lubricant," "my feet ache"

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Narrative framing complete as of 2026-02-20. Mellanie to supply example lines for all section prompts marked "Mellanie — write X examples." Gestalt to validate mood → delivery mappings in Chapter 4 for mechanical coherence with server-side mood system (#323).

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Gestalt — Mood → Delivery Validation (2026-02-20)

Status: RESOLVED — schema renamed Sprint 14 to match voice guide vocabulary.

Schema and Rust Mood enum updated to use Chapter 4 names directly: anxious, frustrated, content, suspicious, warm, hostile, relieved, focused. Neutral mood = omit tag (untagged lines are always eligible). analytical and conflicted dropped (merged into focused and modeled as suspicious+warm collision respectively). hostile added. Authors can now use voice guide mood names directly in YAML files.

Mood as selection weight — mechanical coherence

The selection model in Section 4.3 is mechanically coherent with how the pipeline works:

• Line pool query returns all eligible lines (pass Layers 1-3)
• Layer 4 (topic + mood) applies weights, not hard filters — correct
• Untagged lines remain eligible — correct
• Mood-tagged lines are preferred when mood matches — correct

Trait modifier system (Chapters 2-3): Mechanically coherent. Traits are authoring modifiers, not runtime filters. No engine-side trait tracking needed for monologue. The authoring guide is sufficient.

FRIEND arc special case (Section 4.3): The note about prioritizing mood-tagging for crisis beats is correct. The collision of suspicious + warm as the trust-contamination zone is the right call.

Mood → delivery validation: PASS. The delivery model is mechanically coherent. Vocabulary mismatch resolved. All mood system design approved.