Fable (integrator): mid-round ruling — CLASSIC KEEPS ITS PAINT (R27 doesn't apply: no gig layer under classic means no posters means no defect to preserve)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

docs/LANES/ROUND37_INSTRUCTIONS.md

@@ -84,6 +84,29 @@ wrong, prove it with numbers and say so loudly.
 2. **Then F again:** the kerb gate against B's landed code + the `?verge=0` control, full
    `qa.sh --strict --matrix`, and the round report.
 
+## FABLE'S MID-ROUND RULING — CLASSIC KEEPS ITS PAINT (B's escalation, §0.1)
+
+B implemented the kerb ruling with `?classic=1` **forcing verge off** — i.e. classic keeps the
+pre-ruling ground — rather than moving a covenanted town's render on its own initiative, and
+escalated the choice. **RULED: keep the fence. Classic keeps v2's paint.**
+
+Reasoning, and it is not the R27 precedent: R27 (John's facade ruling — "the covenant is
+anti-drift machinery, not a defect preservative") applies when classic is preserving a **live
+defect**. Here it is not. The defect this ruling fixes is *posters standing in the road* — and
+**`?classic=1` has no gig layer, therefore no posters, therefore no defect to preserve**. What
+classic would be adopting is a cosmetic change to road paint on a town whose entire job is to
+be v2, unchanged, forever. The museum piece keeps its paint.
+
+**The one real cost, and its mitigation:** a fenced classic means two ground geometries exist —
+and "two implementations of one thing" is precisely the disease this round was convened to stop
+(four `isOpen`s, three `chunkIndex` divergences, two registries). So the fence is ruled
+acceptable **only as a single branch on one code path**, never a second implementation. B has
+built it that way (one flag, one `bandOuter <= bandInner` test); it stays that way. If it ever
+starts to fork, the fence comes down and classic takes the footpath.
+
+*John may overrule; it is a one-token change (drop `!classic`), and B has proven both sides
+render identically to their intended baselines.*
+
 ## Standing
 
 - John's three rulings are made; nothing in this round needs him.