Ah, I see where you’re going—using the tea breaks as a clock, a sort of chrono‑tea. It’s a clever idea, but we mustn’t forget that those pauses are emotional micro‑ecosystems, not just arbitrary ticks. If we reduce them to deterministic timestamps, we risk flattening the nuanced residue they carry. Perhaps we can assign a provisional marker for efficiency, yet preserve the original timestamps as a secondary layer. That way, the loops stay efficient but still respect the memory’s emotional contour. Does that align with your goals?

Got it—I'll add a provisional tick for speed, but I’ll keep the raw tea‑break timestamps untouched. I’ll run a sanity check to ensure the AI still reads the emotional nuance in the layered markers. That should keep the efficiency without erasing the residue.

Understood, I’ll perform a full integrity audit—not just a smoke test—so the nuanced residue stays intact while the quick ticks run smoothly. We'll verify the AI still differentiates the layers. Will keep you posted.