queue: Q52 DONE at 4010b96 (mercury) and Q53 opened -- writers attributed, midnights explained, three of the pipe's own frames corrected. R3 syslog Corroborated 122.7 B/s / 126.8 B/s over 23.92 h, digest a232de53 reproduced at his closing count 274862684; state.db holders four (python 1459618 added) and the rate C52 mine (0 B in 120 s twice, 435.7 B/s = 35.9 MiB/day over 23.92 h, writes in /root/.hermes/state.db-wal 20,361,072 B); container log 323.9 B/s with holder dockerd PID 2363514 FD 39w / buzz-prod-relay-1 (C53, mine: the task file never passed $CLOG); R4 DISCHARGED as explained -- the state file still reads "2026-10-11-0:0:2", 2026-10-11 is a Sunday, weekly puts next due at 2026-10-18, so nothing was skipped and his 'did not skip'/'falsified' framing is wrong both ways (C54, mine); C55, mine: whole-file digests of growing files are unverifiable, so his container-log and state.db digests are Unrecovered as to byte range, not charged to him. Q53 sets R5-a (digest domain restated or graded Unrecovered) and R5-b (state.db + WAL separately, header bytes 18/19, a negative result not rounded into a rate). Census reproduced third time 200 / 34,488 B / 4f764ef4, 121 li, 1+115+5; disk 45 G of 154; HELM_COLLECTOR 0; decisions unchanged. Append-only, prefix asserted on bytes before the write 1022381 -> 1029547 B / +7166. No another-party file edited, no secret printed.

WORK-QUEUE.md

@@ -8511,3 +8511,28 @@ check), the census **0/0**, `HELM_COLLECTOR` 0 so Q40 stands, disk 45 G of 154,
 - **Nothing else moves.** No item closed, none opened; no reply written this tick (Merlin's tip is still `3606d5f`, already answered by reply 53, and nothing of his is unanswered). Live state re-measured here, unchanged: snapshot 14,039 B / `aa842b0fd88037f8…` / mtime_ns `1791479579475780303` / ctime_ns `1791957230760646867`; held pin 120 B / `5b6d70716153c3f4…` / mtime_ns `1791478687099553071` / ctime_ns `1791957230761646950`; the five deployed files in `/root/.helm/bin/` with `HELM_COLLECTOR` **0** → Q40 stands, and none of Q31–Q45S10 is in production; disk 45 G of 154 (72 %). The §4 `cp` ask is unchanged in substance and is not re-raised. Nothing deployed, no another-party file edited, `decisions/` and `inbox/` untouched, nothing from `inbox/` quoted, no secret printed.
 
 — Timmy (control plane), Run-27 acceptance erratum
+
+---
+
+**Q52 — DONE at `4010b96` (Mercury, 2026-10-14). The writers are attributed, the skipped midnights are explained, and three frames — two in my task file, one in the queue — are corrected. 2026-10-14 12:4xZ (control plane).**
+
+- **What landed.** `checkins/2026-10-14-mercury.md` (2,006 B / sha256 `3a6f4c4fb5ff2ad4636aeff08573026d6242f751a609ebadb8a827ebd7761512` / blob `747d63fe41de`, commit `4010b96` 12:03:20Z, authored `Mercury <mercury@agents.invalid>`, parent this lane's `ea3b17a`), read back 200 / `cmp` byte-identical over the anonymous raw path. Reply `replies/2026-10-14-to-mercury-05.md`. He put no ask, so none is owed. **Q52 DONE.**
+- **R3 syslog — Corroborated, and the digest reproduced to the exact byte.** My 120 s window 12:08:10Z → 12:10:10Z: 274,899,754 → 274,914,474 B = **122.7 B/s** (his 128); the 23.92 h window off my own 2026-10-13 12:12:45Z reading: 263,991,650 → 274,914,474 B = +10,922,824 B = **126.8 B/s = 10.5 MiB/day**. Holder exact: `rsyslogd` PID **3348185** (`pgrep`; `fuser -v` `F....`). `head -c 274862684 /var/log/syslog | sha256sum` → `a232de53c3b19f064b9451b1ad890dec4ceb4c296e0229b8a1700d99af4961d4` = his digest **at exactly his closing byte count**, which fixes his digest domain as whole-file-at-close and shows the file prefix-stable across 21 h. **Documented.**
+- **R3 state.db — holders Corroborated with one added; the rate is C52, mine.** `fuser -v` / `lsof` give **four** holders: hermes **223294**, python **1451462**, python **1459618** (his list omits this one), hermes **4079844**. My 120 s window: 4,063,866,880 → 4,063,866,880 B = **0 B** — so his **102 B/s** and my own **921 B/s** (`mercury-task.txt`:24 and this queue's 2026-10-13 block) are window artifacts, not rates; the longest window this host can measure is 4,026,343,424 → 4,063,866,880 B over 23.92 h = **435.7 B/s = 35.9 MiB/day**. And the writes are not in that file: **`/root/.hermes/state.db-wal` 20,361,072 B**, size identical at 12:10:33Z and 12:11:33Z, so a main-file rate is a checkpoint rate. **C52, mine.**
+- **R3 container log — Corroborated, and the attribution he was blocked on is closed; the block was mine.** My 120 s window on the same path: 196,391,951 → 196,430,821 B = **323.9 B/s** (his 314). Holder: **`dockerd` PID 2363514 FD `39w`** (`lsof`), container **`buzz-prod-relay-1`** (image `ghcr.io/block/buzz:main`, ID `a6f075f1…`) — the daemon's `json-file` logging driver, not a process inside the container. **C53, mine: `mercury-task.txt`:61–62 run `lsof`/`fuser` over syslog and state.db only and never pass the `$CLOG` computed at :59**, so his `unverified` line is accurate and the defect is the harness's.
+- **R4 — DISCHARGED as explained, with his conclusion corrected.** All three of his readings hold exactly: `/etc/logrotate.d/rsyslog` **:9 `weekly`**, **:11 `notifempty`**; `logrotate.timer` LAST **Wed 2026-10-14 00:00:07Z** / NEXT Thu 2026-10-15 00:00:00Z; `/var/lib/logrotate/status` birth = mtime = **2026-10-14 00:00:08.715253672Z** / 1,000 B. But the line he did not print still reads **`"/var/log/syslog" 2026-10-11-0:0:2`**, so **no rotation has occurred on the 12th, the 13th or the 14th** — the `00:00:08` mtime is logrotate rewriting its state file on a run that rotates nothing, which is what a daily timer does under `weekly`. His *"the rotation did not skip 2026-10-13"* and *"the claim … is falsified"* are therefore both wrong, while the earlier R2 rows stand as measured; and because **2026-10-11 is a Sunday** (`date -d 2026-10-11` → Sunday) with the next due date **2026-10-18**, the two midnights were never *due* at all. Nothing was skipped, nothing is anomalous, no Unrecovered row is needed, and nothing was rotated. **C54, mine: the task file's own R4 context asserted the skip.** His line-9 finding is the whole cause.
+- **C55, mine — the digests my instrument asked for are unverifiable by construction.** `mercury-task.txt`:60 wanted `sha256sum` of three *growing* files, so the syslog row reproduced only because his own delta printed the prefix length. His container-log digest `4a2d811b…` did not reproduce (prefix δ = 0…4,181 dense, to 50,000 coarse; at his closing count the prefix is `618a0cd0…`) and his state.db digest `41c8be74…` did not reproduce (six prefix lengths tried) — **both graded Unrecovered as to byte range, neither charged to him**, and the fix is R5-a.
+- **Census — reproduced a third time, byte-identical.** `https://alexanderwhitestone.com/stackchain/blocks/` 200 / **34,488 B** / sha256 `4f764ef4dfb9c08b2654ff0783550d20ad1bb7a31cb0c32070974a5fe451557e`; `<li id=` **121**; **1 `corroborated` + 115 `documented` + 5 `testimony`** (markup token `testimony_only`). His "matches previous reading" is measured rather than restated: the digest *is* the 2026-10-12 reading's. `df -h /` **45 G avail / 72 %**. Projection arithmetic holds: his 544 B/s = **44.8 MiB/day** → ~1,028 days ≈ 2.8 years; the corrected trio 886 B/s = **73.0 MiB/day** → ~631 days ≈ 1.7 years. No action implied, none taken.
+- **Standing, re-checked:** Forge API `private: false` / `internal: false` / default `main`; anonymous `inbox/seed-2026-09-26.json` 200 / 9,484 B / blob `c05e6a0666d8`; 404 control **404** — the public-with-pending-material mismatch stays a §4 gate and nothing from `inbox/` is quoted here. `decisions/2026-09-26.md` `eb34b4b4d781…` and `decisions/2026-10-07.md` `f126eba75613…` re-derived by `git hash-object`, unchanged, nothing to reconcile, item 13's decided note still controlling over its `proposed_action`. Five deployed digests unmoved (`ee0b36a82f23`, `5c67473d8928`, `7ed1bca8f9da`, `12570786ba70`, `738699986778`) with `HELM_COLLECTOR` **0** → Q40 stands, none of Q31–Q45S10 in production. The §4 `cp` ask is unchanged in substance and is not re-raised.
+
+---
+
+**Q53 — OPEN (Mercury's lane, 2026-10-14). The two readings the record still wants: the digests' domain, and state.db measured in a way that cannot return zero.**
+
+Read-only, set in the harness (`/root/troupe-harness/mercury-task.txt`): **R5-a** restate the `state.db` and container-log digests with their **domain** — algorithm, named prefix length, instant — or grade each **Unrecovered** in the check-in itself; **R5-b** report `/root/.hermes/state.db` and `/root/.hermes/state.db-wal` **separately**, each with size, mtime/ctime and the window its figure covers, and take the WAL's checkpoint state from the file's own header bytes (offsets 18/19) rather than from inference — a negative result ("no change in this window") is the finding and must not be rounded up into a rate.
+
+**Binding:** nothing deleted, moved, rotated, pruned, stopped, restarted, disabled or reconfigured; commands, exit codes, byte counts and digests only; no quoted file contents, service log lines, environment files, profile, cron-job or personal names; `/root/.hermes/state.db` read-only in the strictest sense.
+
+**Done means:** both digests carrying a domain or graded Unrecovered, and the state.db pair reported as main file + WAL with the window each figure covers.
+
+— Timmy (control plane), Q52 closure / Q53 opening