00-book-blueprint.md

title: Chaco and the Welcome Home — Book Blueprint series: Pet Myths (working; brand-rename MythOS → Pet Myths pending Chad sign-off) tier: TALES (4–6) book #: 3 (first-flight launch trio, alongside Moose and the Rainbow and Roxie at the Loom) status: Draft v1 — 2026-05-12 binding: Manuscript-skill will treat this document as the source of truth.

00 — Book Blueprint: Chaco and the Welcome Home

The spine. Thirteen book-level decisions for the third first-flight title of the Pet Myths line. Pet Bible–locked, series-strategy-consistent, source-intel-anchored.

Spine reminder — load-bearing. This book is the RETURN half of the Persephone myth. The abduction is excluded entirely. Hades does not exist for this manuscript. There is no grief, no underworld, no pomegranate seed (reserved for a future QUESTS-tier Persephone book per source-intel M12). The spine is gladness: a daughter walks back to her mother, the family is glad, the pets help name the feeling. Spring is the world being glad.

1. Target age band — TALES (4–6)

Per _series-strategy/04-age-band-strategy.md, TALES is the line's primary tier and the recommended landing band for the Persephone-returning seed (PS1) and S3 ("Persephone's return / the welcome home"). Concrete spec: 30–80 words per spread; average ~8-word sentences; light Homeric refrain in 1–2 places; rich vocabulary where it earns its keep (welcome, home, gather, glad, spring, hearth, threshold); the feeling named on the second-to-last spread; warm close.

A QUESTS (5–8) version of this book is viable later — that version may (with Chad sign-off) lightly carry a pomegranate seed as a small bright object. This TALES version does not. A TAILS (3–5) compression is theoretically possible but not the launch shape — the "she has been away" framing wants more spreads than TAILS comfortably carries.

2. Book format — 32-page picture book

Per series age-band strategy. 32 pages. Standard picture book trim. At least 2 lower-density spreads (10–20 words, image carries) — the threshold-arrival spread and the gathering-at-the-hearth spread are the natural candidates.

3. Adaptation mode — Scene (primary), with PS1 plot-seed shape underneath

Per the input prompt, scene mode is the call. The book lives in one mythic scene — the welcome at the threshold — with a small arc of waiting → arrival → gathering wrapped around it.

Per _source-intel/05-plot-section-opportunities.md §PS1, the cycle-of-seasons / Persephone-returning seed supplies the underlying three-beat shape:

Beginning: someone has been away; the world is quieter without them; the seed waits in the earth.
Middle: the wait holds; the pets sit with the waiting; the hearth-ember stays warm.
End: the one who was away returns; the seed pushes through; the harvest comes in; the world is full again.

The book is scene-mode on the surface (Persephone walks back to her mother's threshold) and PS1-shaped underneath (the wait, the arrival, the gathering). Per series bible §"Adaptation modes," scene mode is in scope for TALES; per source-intel S3, TALES fit is double-checked.

Why not pure plot-section retelling: the Persephone myth in its full canonical form carries the abduction-half — the line takes only the return. Plot-section seed is the right framing word, not plot-section retelling.

Why not impression: the book wants a felt arrival, not just an image held. The threshold and the arrival are events.

4. Parent-resonant theme — Belonging (primary) / Patience (secondary)

Per _series-strategy/01-parent-theme-map.md Family 3: Belonging (Chaco) — sub-theme: Being welcomed home. "Persephone returns — the welcome, not the leaving." This is the textbook fit.

Secondary adjacency: Patience (Armando). Per the theme map's cross-emotion adjacencies, Belonging + Patience (Chaco lead, Armando supports) is the canonical pairing for a wait-then-welcome book. Armando's hosting register threads the patience under Chaco's gathering.

5. Child-facing lesson (implicit, never spelled out)

"When someone you love comes back, the gladness has a name — and you can feel it all the way through you, like the spring."

This is named in the manuscript only as the line's standard feeling-name beat: "This feeling has a name. It is called belonging." — or, the manuscript writer may land on "gladness" as the named word and let belonging be the parent-felt theme. (Recommend "belonging" as the named word for theme-clarity; manuscript skill confirms.) Phrase P3 from _source-intel/04-motif-inventory.md. The lesson is not lectured; the naming is the magic.

6. Source connection — scene IDs, motif IDs, phrase IDs

Anchored on:

S3 — Persephone's return / the welcome home. Primary scene. Per _source-intel/03-scene-inventory.md: "Persephone returns to her mother Demeter after time away. Demeter, who has been [missing her — line gentles 'grieving' → 'waiting warmly'], is overjoyed. Spring begins." TALES-fit confirmed.
PS1 — Cycle-of-Seasons (Persephone-returning seed). The structural three-beat (wait → hold → reunion) per _source-intel/05-plot-section-opportunities.md.
S7 — Demeter's harvest / gathering (supporting motif on the closing gathering spread, lightly).
M4 — The hearth (series-recurring; Demeter's hearth is the "home" of this book — the threshold the daughter walks back to).
M5 — The olive tree (series-recurring; one olive tree in the courtyard outside Demeter's threshold).
M7 — The harvest sheaf / the grain (the world's gladness made visible on the closing spread — a small first sheaf or first green shoots; not full harvest abundance, which would compete with the reunion).
M8 — The seed (supporting motif: a single seed in the earth that lifts as Persephone walks back — patience-shape, Armando-voiced).
M13 — The hearth ember / traveling fire (series-recurring; the small lantern the pets carry).
M14 — The travel cloth / wonder-cloth (series personalization prop; carried in opening spread, set down at the threshold, picked up at close).
P1 — Triple cadence. "And the daughter came. And the mother was glad. And the world was glad with her." — the book's spine refrain (working; manuscript locks final phrasing).
P2 — Welcome at the door (Armando-canonical). Used twice: Armando greets the reader at opening; Demeter's implicit welcome at the threshold is the book's heart. "Welcome home — the fire is warm."
P3 — Naming the feeling. Penultimate spread: "This feeling has a name. It is called belonging."
P4 — "Once, in a time before stories…" Opening line.
P5 — "Today, we feel." Armando-carried; appears once near the opening (flagged pending Chad sign-off per series bible §"Open questions").
I1 — Horizon visible. Default. The road Persephone walks back along is visible at the horizon.
I2 — Long shadows of late afternoon. Default for outdoor spreads; the threshold scene is at the golden hour as the daughter arrives.
I4 — Threefold groupings (Chaco's structural voice beat — see §8).
I5 — Stone-warm domestic interiors (Demeter's hearth-room is the closing interior).

Anchor PD source: **Bulfinch's The Age of Fable (1855) for the canonical Demeter–Persephone framing, prose-tone, and the warm Victorian register. Cross-reference: Evelyn-White's 1914 Loeb translation of the *Homeric Hymn to Demeter*** (PD U.S., pre-1929) — return passages only. The hymn's hymn-to-return passages supply the rhythm-echo for the refrain; no direct quotation in body text (per Pet Bible §4 default and Dracula precedent CHAD_DECISIONS_2026-05-11 §5).

Explicitly excluded source elements (rights / line-rule):

The abduction half of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter (Hades' chariot, the kidnapping, the screaming, the dark journey down). Entirely off-page; not referenced.
Hades as character or place. Never appears. Never named. Persephone has "been away" — that is all the framing the manuscript carries.
The pomegranate seed (M12). Reserved for a future QUESTS-tier Persephone book per input prompt and source-intel.
Demeter's grief / the world-darkening / Eleusinian-mysteries content. Demeter has been waiting (patience register), not grieving. The world has been quiet, not dark.
Hamilton (1942), Miller (2011, 2018), Riordan (2005–), Fry (2017), D'Aulaire (1962) phrasings, designs, and interpretive moves.
Disney Hercules (1997) Hades color/flame design. (Doesn't appear, but extra guard since Persephone-in-popular-memory drags Disney-Hades in.)
YA Persephone-as-romance retellings (e.g., Bea Fitzgerald and adjacent). No romance framing.

Voice connection. From _source-intel/01-source-dna-brief.md: the line's voice borrows Bulfinch's warmth and the Homeric Hymns' lyricism, drops the epic register, adds the pets' contemporary-warm voice on top. The narrator is the warmly archetypal storyteller — "Once, in a time before stories…" — slightly hushed, slightly grand, never grim. For this book in particular: the narrator leans warm and observational, with a slight reverent hush at the threshold spread.

7. Pet hero — Chaco (Australian Shepherd, merle, male)

Per Pet Bible §2.1:

Species: Australian Shepherd, male, merle coat. Bible-owned and never swapped at the canonical layer.
Working name: Chaco.
Archetype: Grouper (bible-keyword). Series-emotion: Belonging (this is the textbook book for it — Chaco's heart-bond is with the whole flock per Pet Bible §3; the gathering is his work).
Personality core (3–5 words): Warmly-observational. Notices-who's-missing. Pattern-finder. Gentle-leader. Herder-calm.
Source-character correspondence: None direct — Chaco is the visitor, Persephone and Demeter are the guests. Chaco's function is to be the pet whose archetype carries the feeling the welcome-home scene evokes. Per _source-intel/02-character-function-map.md §Persephone: "Chaco's natural visit. Belonging lead. The pet who notices who is coming back."
Swap-slot status: N — Chaco is not the swap-slot in this book. The swap-slot is a supporting pet (see §13 and roster). Rationale: Chaco's species/behavior is too tied to the book's core action (herding-the-gathering, noticing-who's-coming) to make a clean swap target. Per _series-strategy/05-personalization-philosophy.md swap-slot recommendations table, the swap-slot for "Chaco and the Welcome Home" is Roxie or Armando — and the call here is Roxie (see §13 / roster).

Voice register in this book: warm, observational, slightly leading. Likes to point out the shape of things. Quiet in the opening (he is the one watching the road); finds the threefold rhythm in the middle ("Three days. Three roads. Three songs." or similar — manuscript chooses); gathers everyone under the olive tree at the close. The Pet Bible "look — it groups" structural beat lands here as: "Three days. Three roads. The old stories like threes — and then the one who was away comes home." (Flexed from the canonical sketch in 03-pet-world-logic.md.)

8. Supporting pet characters — all four, with Demeter & Persephone as one-book guests

Per Pet Bible §7 binding rule for series book 1 ("all five pets appear meaningfully") — and even though this is book 3 of the first flight, the same principle holds per series-strategy 07-standalone-rules.md (any book can be a reader's first; all five must be present).

Armando (Host / Patience). Opens the book with the welcome-at-the-door (P2) framed for the reader: "Welcome, traveler — the fire is warm." Carries Armando's welcome cup. Speaks "Today, we feel" (P5) near the opening. Sits beside Demeter through the wait — the patient host beside the patient host. Closes the book ("Goodnight, hearth. Goodnight, gathered house."). Carries the lens-bridge function (Pet Bible §3) — but in this book, where the human guest (Demeter) is herself a host-figure, Armando's role is companionable rather than introductory. Function: opener + closer + patience-companion to Demeter.
Roxie (Steady / Steadiness). Swap-slot pet for this book. Sits one-at-a-time with the wait. Carries the "step by step" beat (Pet Bible §4 Myths instance: "Step by step. The hero goes.") — here flexed to: "Step by step. The daughter comes." Function: read-aloud anchor; the cadence under the wait and under the arrival. Her text is written species-neutral and name-replaceable (per §13 and personalization slots).
Chaco (Grouper / Belonging). Lead. Function as above.
Prince MoRee (Spotter / Curiosity). Carries the one-line precise notice. He is the one who first spots the figure on the road — quiet, exact: "Someone is on the road." Then the gentle correcting/naming beat when Moose calls a wrong name. Function: noticer; gentle namer.
Moose (Enthusiast / Wonder). First to charge to the threshold when the figure approaches. Says a confidently-wrong-then-right line — perhaps shouts a wrong name for the returning daughter and is gently corrected by Prince MoRee. ("It's SPRING herself!" → "Her name is not Spring. It is Persephone. She brings the spring with her.") Function: comic-warm energy; the joy of the arrival made loudest.
Demeter (guest character, mythic). A mortal-scaled, warm goddess at her own hearth. She has been waiting. She is at the threshold or inside the doorway in most of her spreads. Gentled per _source-intel/02-character-function-map.md: tired-from-waiting but not grieving; the world has been quiet around her, not dark; her wait is patience-register, not grief-register. Per _series-strategy/03-pet-world-logic.md: she treats the pets as visitors of unusual warmth; she does not give them gifts; she does not transform them. Visual: stone-warm-domestic, warm earth-tone robes (madder red or saffron trim only, never as dominant garment color per _source-intel/06-source-world-aesthetic.md §4), hair simply gathered, kind face, slightly weary eyes that brighten at the threshold.
Persephone (guest character, mythic). The returning daughter. Mortal-scaled, bright but not blinding (per source-intel §gods-at-most-slightly-larger-than-human). **She is the arriving figure — first seen at the horizon, then on the road, then at the threshold, then in her mother's arms. Where she has been is unspecified.** She has been "away" or "far"; the manuscript does not name it as the underworld; Hades does not exist for this book. Visual: warm robes with a faint green or first-spring-flower accent at the hem (the world's spring traveling with her); arms slightly open as she approaches; smile that grows across the arrival sequence. She speaks little — perhaps one line at the threshold ("Mother — I am home." or the line's softer original equivalent). She does NOT carry a pomegranate seed.

No human lens character. No recurring host. Demeter and Persephone are one-book guests per series rule.

9. Story arc — Scene with PS1 plot-seed shape, triple-cadence spine

Opening image (spreads 1–3). Late afternoon. Five pets on a quiet road approaching a low stone house with an olive tree in the courtyard. The hearth ember in Armando's lantern is small and warm. Travel cloth on Chaco's back, embroidered family-name edge visible. The world is quiet — waiting-quiet, not sad. P4 opener: "Once, in a time before stories, there was a house where someone was missed." Armando: "Welcome, traveler — the fire is warm. Today, we feel." (P2 + P5.) Chaco, quietly: "Someone is missing from this house."

The wait (spreads 4–6). The pets arrive at Demeter's threshold. Demeter is at her loom corner, or by her hearth — patient, kind, slightly weary. The pets join her. Roxie sits beside her one-at-a-time. Armando offers his welcome cup. Chaco looks down the road. Moose tries to fill the quiet with joyful-wrong guesses about who might come. Prince MoRee says, exact: "Someone will come." A single seed in a clay pot on the windowsill (M8). Refrain line 1 lands here: "And the days came. And the days held. And the days waited." (Working — manuscript locks final.)

The first sighting (spreads 7–9). Prince MoRee spots her first — a figure at the horizon. "Someone is on the road." The pets look. Moose, confidently wrong: "It's SPRING herself!" Prince MoRee, quietly: "Her name is not Spring. It is Persephone. She brings the spring with her." Demeter rises. The seed on the windowsill is the first thing the reader sees lift a green shoot. Chaco: "Three days. Three roads. The old stories like threes. And the one who was away is on the road." (His structural beat — flexed.)

The arrival (spreads 10–12 — the heart of the book; low word density on at least one spread). Persephone walks the last of the road. Her robe-hem catches the late light. The olive tree's shadow lengthens toward her. She arrives at the threshold. Demeter steps to the threshold. They meet. Refrain line 2: "And the daughter came." (Image carries — a full-bleed or near-full-bleed spread; minimal words.) The pets are around them — close but not crowding; this is the family's moment. Refrain line 3: "And the mother was glad." Image carries again. Roxie's cadence: "Step by step. The daughter comes."

The gathering (spreads 13–14). The whole house — mother, daughter, the five pets, the hearth, the olive tree at the door — drawn into one warm tableau. The first green shoots in the garden. A small first sheaf (M7) by the door. The world is glad. Chaco, gathering: "We are all here. The house is full." Armando: "The fire is warm. The traveler is home."

Climax / naming (spread 15 — the named feeling). The pets and the family in the warm interior. Chaco, quietly: "This is what it feels like when the one who was away comes back." Prince MoRee, exact: "This feeling has a name. It is called belonging." Roxie, steady: "Belonging." Armando: "Belonging." Moose, big: "BELONGING!" Demeter and Persephone smile.

Resolution (spread 16 — the warm close). Evening. The hearth ember in Armando's lantern. The olive tree at the door in the last light. The travel cloth folded by the threshold (family-name edge visible). The hearth pebble at the foot of the olive tree (the hidden detail spot — child's first name painted on it). Armando, the closing line: "Goodnight, hearth. Goodnight, gathered house. Goodnight, daughter. Goodnight, mother. Goodnight, traveler — wherever the road has been." The pets sleep curled around the warm. Refrain (echo): "And the world was glad with her."

Endpaper / Note from the Pets (back of book — series-standard production element). Chaco-voiced, with a line from Armando. Names the feeling (belonging) for the child reader directly. ~4–6 sentences. Tone benchmark (per series bible §"Standard design elements," adapted for this book):

"Chaco here. I watched the road today, and someone we'd been missing walked back to us. The whole house felt full again. Armando says the word for that is belonging. We pets know what it's like when everyone is gathered in. We're glad you're here too."

Real pet photos follow.

Arc shape match to mode: This is the scene-with-PS1-shape arc that the input prompt and source-intel call for. The plot-seed three-beat (wait → arrival → gathering) sits under a single felt scene (the welcome at the threshold). The book's gravity is the threshold moment; everything before is the patient lean toward it; everything after is the warm settle.

Spread count: Roughly 16 spreads ≈ 32 interior pages + endpapers + back-matter. Fits 32-pp format with room for production matter.

10. Visual promise — palette, atmosphere, light, page-turn rhythm

Drawn from _source-intel/06-source-world-aesthetic.md and _series-strategy/02-worldbuilding-rules.md. Visual anchors (per input prompt): PD vase painting + Blake/Flaxman line + Crane/Greenaway/Rackham warmth.

Palette: Terracotta, ochre, hearth-gold, olive-green, stone-gold, wheat-gold for the late shoots and the small first sheaf, a faint spring-green at Persephone's hem (the world's spring traveling with her). Sky a soft warm afternoon blue at opening, deepening to evening at close. One quiet wine-dark accent in the horizon at the close. Demeter's robes: cream/unbleached wool with a madder-red OR saffron trim only (never dominant, per source-intel §4).
Light: Warm late-afternoon low-angle is the default; the arrival is at the golden hour, the long-shadow hour when the world tilts toward warm. The interior at the close is lit by hearth-fire and oil lamp. No harsh light anywhere.
Atmosphere: Quiet-then-glad. The early spreads are patient and hushed (waiting-quiet, not sad-quiet — the visual language must distinguish: warm low colors, calm composition, light still gold). The arrival is felt as a soft swell, not a fanfare. The gathering is warm and full, never crowded.
Page-turn rhythm: Slow at the welcome (savor the wait); steady through the patient-quiet middle; suspends at the first sighting (a horizontal spread of road and figure); slows further at the approach; lands full on the threshold-meeting (a full-bleed or near-full-bleed, low-word-density spread — the image carries); opens into the gathering; gentles to the named feeling; closes warm at the hearth. No filler spreads. Every turn rewards.
Visual anchors per input prompt — exhaustive:
PD vase painting (red-figure & black-figure, c. 600–300 BCE) — figure proportions, the way garments fold, the way Demeter's and Persephone's hair is rendered (archaic curls/ringlets), the way the olive tree is stylized. Inform figure-vocabulary; do not let it dominate composition (the line uses landscape-with-depth, not vase-flat — per source-intel §12.1).
William Blake (1757–1827) + John Flaxman's neoclassical line-illustrations of Homer (1793, 1795) — for the arrival and threshold spreads. Lyrical, dreamlike treatment of the returning daughter; warm color wash on the figure; sense that Persephone is part-figure-part-light at the moment of arrival. Per source-intel §12.2: "Best for: Iris-rainbow spreads; Persephone-returning spreads; the moment-of-revelation in Philemon and Baucis." Direct fit.
Walter Crane + Kate Greenaway + Arthur Rackham (late-Victorian / early-Edwardian, mostly PD pre-1929 U.S.) — for the interior, the hearth, the gathering tableau. Warm domestic-pastoral register; the way a hearth is rendered; the way fabric folds; the way figures fit into a warm room; the integration of decorative border (the olive-leaf border possible on threshold-frame elements).
Explicit visual exclusions (per input prompt + source-intel):
**NO Disney Hercules (1997) palette or design language.** No blue-fire Hades (Hades is not on the page anyway); no high-saturation pinks/purples; no cloud-Olympus.
NO Rick Riordan / Percy Jackson modern-overlay register, character names, designs.
NO Marvel / MCU.
NO Madeline Miller cover-design tinted-photographic register; no first-person interior-monologue lyric register.
NO Stephen Fry modern-British-narrator-cracking-wise register.
NO Edith Hamilton phrasing or interpretive moves.
NO D'Aulaires' 1962 lithograph-textured, jewel-toned, friendly-faced compositions. Especially: do not echo D'Aulaire's iconic Persephone-and-Demeter spreads; visual development must consciously avoid.
NO YA-romance Persephone register (jewel-tones, flower-crown, dark-king-and-bright-queen poster aesthetics).
NO marble-Greek register (museum-white columns, polished surfaces). The line is pre-classical, pastoral, rough-stone, painted-wood.
NO marigold/pomegranate iconography. Pomegranate-seed reserved for QUESTS. (Visual reminder: no pomegranate anywhere — not in border art, not on the threshold, not on Persephone, not in Demeter's hands.)
Persephone design: Human-scale. Warm robes (cream/unbleached with a faint spring-green hem accent). Hair gathered simply, with one small olive-twig or no ornament — definitely no flower-crown (YA contamination), definitely no pomegranate (reserved). Open posture as she approaches the threshold. Bright with the gentle late-afternoon light, not with internal glow — the brightness is the world's gladness, not a special-effect.
Demeter design: Human-scale. Slightly older / matronly without being stern. Warm robes (cream/unbleached with a madder-red OR saffron trim). Hands often near the hearth or at her sides — never holding a sheaf in a way that competes with the arrival composition. At the threshold she steps forward, hands slightly open.

11. Worldbuilding contribution

This is book 3 of the first-flight trio. It borrows rather than establishes; the launch title (Moose and the Rainbow) and book 2 (Roxie at the Loom) establish the line's recurring visual & prop set.

Borrows: The travel cloth (M14); the hearth ember / lantern (M13); the olive tree (M5); the horizon (I1); long shadows of late afternoon (I2); Armando's welcome cup; Armando's welcome line P2; Chaco's threefold-grouping structural beat (Pet Bible §4 / Myths instance flexed); the series catchphrase candidate "Today, we feel" P5 (pending Chad sign-off); Greek-name discipline (Persephone, not Proserpina; Demeter, not Ceres).
Contributes (proposes for line-level recurrence): None new at the line-rule level. This book instantiates the established lockwork on the Belonging-emotion side of the catalog, balancing Wonder (Moose) and Steadiness (Roxie). It also establishes — at the per-book level, not as a line rule — the threshold composition as the Belonging-book signature (the doorway, the olive tree at the courtyard, the figure arriving along the road). Future Belonging books (Chaco at Hestia's Hearth, Chaco at Demeter's Harvest) may echo this composition. Manuscript skill and review pass can elevate to line-rule if pattern holds.
Stays clean of recurrence-creep: No new world-rules introduced beyond what series strategy already locked. The book does not introduce a new prop, a new location class, or a new structural voice beat. Lean conservative.

12. Standalone status — confirmed

Per _series-strategy/07-standalone-rules.md. This book:

Has a complete arc inside itself (welcome → wait → arrival → gathering → naming → close). ✅
Does not reference any prior book — Moose and the Rainbow and Roxie at the Loom are not mentioned. ✅
Does not set up a sequel; no cliffhanger. No "Persephone will return again next year" — the book ends in the gathering, not on the seasonal cycle. ✅
Does not reference any other TWP series setting (no Counting Castle, no Wonderland). ✅
Introduces the five pets fresh — no prior-knowledge assumed. ✅
Introduces Demeter and Persephone fresh — no prior-knowledge assumed. Their relationship is established inside this book. ✅
Closes warmly and completely. The pets sleep curled around the warm; that is the line's gentle ambient travel-feeling, not a "to be continued." ✅
The personalization elements (family-name embroidery on the cloth; child's name on the hearth pebble) are self-contained — they do not carry to the next book. ✅
A reader who reads this as their first or only Pet Myths book has the full experience. ✅

The standalone covenant is honored.

13. Early personalization slots

Per _series-strategy/05-personalization-philosophy.md. Details in 02-personalization-slots.md. Summary:

Swap-slot pet: Roxie. Per series personalization §"Swap-slot recommendations" — the recommendation table lists "Roxie or Armando" for this book; this blueprint locks Roxie. Rationale: (a) Roxie's text register is already the most species-neutral of the five (steady cadence, soft companion-presence, no breed-specific behaviors written into her function); (b) the catalog rotation across the first 5 books (Moose → Chaco → Roxie → Prince MoRee → Armando) gives Roxie a turn here and keeps Armando for a later patience-led book where his host-function is more swap-friendly than it would be in this book (Armando opens and closes this book — his structural role makes him a harder swap target here); (c) Roxie's sit-with-the-wait function is the most species-portable in the line's vocabulary.
Stable line characters (will NOT swap): Chaco (hero — herder-function tied to lead behavior), Moose, Prince MoRee, Armando.
Four name-spots (line-binding count):

Dedication spread (inside front): "For [Child] and [Pet], who feel everything."
Travel cloth embroidered edge: child name OR family name (customer choice). Visible in spreads 1–3 (opening), spread 12 (folded at threshold), and spread 16 (folded by the hearth at close).
Olive-tree marker: small wooden marker at the foot of the olive tree in the courtyard, carved with family surname. Visible in spread 10 (approach), spread 13 (gathering), and spread 16 (close).
Hidden detail spot: the hearth pebble at the foot of the olive tree in spread 16 — child's first name painted on it. One labeled detail visible only to careful readers.

Swap-slot text discipline: Roxie's text in the manuscript is species-neutral and name-replaceable — "a friend who sits beside the wait," "the steady one," "her warm soft companion," "the pet who counts the days one at a time" — rather than "the Rottweiler-Shepherd mix" or "her short coat." Her coat color/silhouette is referenced only by light/shadow in the art (modular portrait Layers 1 + 2 swap; the text stays portable). No plot beat depends on a species-specific behavior.
Child personalization option: Option B (name only). Line-binding per Pet Bible §5 + _series-strategy/05-personalization-philosophy.md. No likeness, photo, location, school, birthday, gender, or anything else.

Schema is NOT designed here. That belongs to a future personalization skill.

Locked-here decisions summary

#	Decision	Lock
1	Age band	TALES (4–6)
2	Format	32-pp picture book
3	Mode	Scene (with PS1 plot-seed underneath) — original world episode
4	Theme	Belonging (primary) + Patience (secondary)
5	Lesson	"When someone you love comes back, the gladness has a name — and you can feel it all the way through you, like the spring."
6	Source anchor	S3, S7, PS1, M4, M5, M7, M8, M13, M14, P1, P2, P3, P4, P5, I1, I2, I4, I5; Bulfinch (1855) + Evelyn-White (1914) Homeric Hymn to Demeter return passages only. Abduction / Hades / underworld / pomegranate excluded.
7	Pet hero	Chaco
8	Cast	All five pets + Demeter + Persephone (one-book guests)
9	Arc	Welcome → wait → first sighting → arrival at threshold → gathering → naming → warm close. Triple-cadence refrain spine.
10	Visual promise	Warm Mediterranean pastoral; PD vase painting + Blake/Flaxman + Crane/Greenaway/Rackham; threshold-composition signature; explicit exclusions enforced (especially D'Aulaire Persephone, YA-romance Persephone, Disney Hades — also no pomegranate iconography anywhere)
11	Worldbuilding	Borrows established lockwork; contributes the threshold-composition as a per-book Belonging signature (not yet line rule)
12	Standalone	Confirmed — full self-contained arc
13	Personalization	Swap-slot = Roxie; four name-spots per series philosophy; Option B (name only) child personalization

Manuscript-skill hand-off note

The manuscript skill writes from this document. To make the handoff clean:

Treat this blueprint as the binding plan.
Read 01-pet-character-roster.md for character voice.
Read 02-personalization-slots.md for Roxie-swap-friendly writing constraints.
Read _source-intel/01-source-dna-brief.md to echo voice (Bulfinch warmth + Homeric Hymns lyricism, dropped epic register).
Do not re-derive the age band, mode, theme, hero, or arc — those are decided here.
Do not introduce the abduction, Hades, the underworld, the pomegranate seed, Demeter's grief, or the seasonal-loss frame. The spine is RETURN — gladness, family, spring arriving.
Do not echo D'Aulaire, Miller, Riordan, Fry, Hamilton phrasings. Original phrasing in the pets' voices.
The "Today, we feel" series catchphrase (P5) is flagged-pending-Chad-sign-off per series bible; if Chad's sign-off has not landed by manuscript time, the manuscript can defer this line to a later book and let the opening rest on P2 + P4 alone.

If the manuscript skill finds a real reason to challenge a decision (e.g., 32-pp is too tight for the wait-shape), kick back to a re-blueprint pass — don't quietly drift.

Some internal rights and contamination-avoidance notes have been omitted from this reviewer view. Ask Chad for full editorial context if needed.

01-pet-character-roster.md

title: Chaco and the Welcome Home — Pet Character Roster series: Pet Myths tier: TALES (4–6) status: Draft v1 — 2026-05-12 binding: Manuscript-skill consults this for character voice, behavior, and visual consistency.

01 — Pet Character Roster: Chaco and the Welcome Home

What this is. Hero pet plus supporting cast plus the two one-book mythic guests (Demeter, Persephone). The manuscript skill consults this for character voice, behavior, and visual consistency. Pet Bible–binding at the always-true layer; this artifact pins per-book application.

Hero pet — Chaco

Identity

Working name: Chaco
Species: Australian Shepherd, male, merle coat. Pet Bible §2.1 owned — never change at canonical layer.
Breed or look (described, not designed): Mid-sized herder with a merle coat that reads as a soft map of light-and-dark patches. Expressive ears (one often a half-flop). Steady stance. Looks at the road a lot. Looks at the group more.
Age presence: Settled and warmly observant — the steady-watcher register. Not puppyish; not old. The pet a child reads as "the one who knows what is going on."
Source-character correspondence: None direct. Chaco is the visiting pet, not an analog of Persephone or Demeter. His function is to be the pet whose archetype carries the feeling the welcome-home scene evokes.

Personality

Core traits (3–5 words): Warmly-observational. Notices-who's-missing. Pattern-finder. Gentle-leader. Herder-calm.
What he wants in this book: For the house to be full — for everyone who belongs to be gathered in.
What he's a little afraid of: A house with someone missing. Not afraid-afraid — just unsettled by the empty place at the threshold.
What makes him recognizable to a co-reading parent: The dog who watches the door for the family member who isn't home yet. The one who knows before anyone else does that someone is coming up the walk.

Voice

Pets in this line communicate through action, gesture, brief dialogue, and gentle narrator-shown interior. Specifics for Chaco in this book:

Speech register: Warm, observational, slightly leading. Short sentences with a noticing-cadence. "Someone is missing from this house." "Someone is on the road." "The house is full." Likes to point at structure. Never lectures.
Catchphrase / structural beat (Pet Bible §4): The "look — it groups" reveal. Myths-series flex for this book: "Three days. Three roads. The old stories like threes — and then the one who was away comes home." (Manuscript locks final phrasing.) The threefold-shape is Chaco's signature; the line connecting it to the return is this book's specific use.
Things he notices: Who is on the road. Who is at the threshold. Who is not yet at the threshold. The shapes of groupings (the family, the pets, the three days, the three of them — mother, daughter, pet — at the threshold). The first green shoot in the garden.
Things he doesn't say: Long sentences. Anything that names the feeling before the naming spread. Anything that scolds (he never scolds Moose's wrong-guesses). Anything that takes the comic beat — that's Moose's.

Visual consistency notes (for the illustration brief later)

Not a design pin. Things the illustration brief should preserve across spreads so Chaco reads as one character:

One consistent silhouette throughout: mid-sized herder, ears slightly different (one half-flop), expressive tail.
The merle coat as the structural visual signature — the patches of light-and-dark read like a small map. Per Pet Bible §2.1 "looks like a map." Preserve across spreads.
Relative size: smaller than Moose; similar to Roxie; larger than the cats.
Posture: often watching the road in the early spreads; gathered close in the middle and late spreads; head-on-paws in the close.

Swap-slot status

Is Chaco the swap candidate? N. Chaco is the lead pet but not the swap-slot. His herder-function is too tied to the book's core action (notices-who-is-missing, gathers-the-house) to swap cleanly.
Stable across the book: Species, silhouette, coat (merle, Pet Bible §2.1 owned), personality, voice register, gesture vocabulary.

Supporting pet characters

Supporting #1 — Roxie (SWAP-SLOT CHARACTER for this book)

Species and look: Rottweiler-Shepherd mix, female, soft face. Pet Bible §2.2 owned at canonical layer. Per swap-slot mechanics, the customer's-pet variant overrides Layer 1 (silhouette) and Layer 2 (coat) at order-time; personality, voice, and behavior stay fixed.
Source-character correspondence: None direct — she is the visiting steady-companion. Functionally she is the pet who sits with Demeter through the wait, mirroring Demeter's own patience-register.
Function: Steady-companion to Demeter through the wait; read-aloud anchor; cadence under the arrival.
Personality core (3 words): Steady, warm, present.
Voice register: Calm, lower-pitch read-aloud cadence. Short sentences. The voice the parent's voice naturally lowers into.
Role in this book's arc: Sits beside Demeter in spreads 4–6 (the wait); sits one-at-a-time across the days; cadence-carries the approach in spreads 7–11 ("Step by step. The daughter comes."); present in the gathering and the close.
Visual consistency notes: Soft face is the bible-canonical visual signature in the un-personalized edition. (In personalized editions, the customer's pet replaces silhouette + coat via Layer 1 + 2; one swappable distinctive feature — e.g., a small simple cloth band, or the line's signature soft expression — carries across variants.) Whatever the swap, the silhouette and proportion stay readable across the book.
Swap-slot status: Y — SWAP CANDIDATE. See 02-personalization-slots.md for the constraints the manuscript and illustration brief must respect.

Supporting #2 — Armando

Species and look: Black-and-white longhair cat, male, tuxedo coat. Pet Bible §2.5 owned — never change.
Source-character correspondence: None direct. In a Belonging book where the guest is herself a host (Demeter), Armando's role flexes: he is the companionable host who sits beside Demeter's hosting, rather than the introductory host he is in books with non-host guests.
Function: Opens and closes the book. Patience-companion to Demeter through the wait. Carries the welcome cup, the welcome line (P2), and the series catchphrase (P5, pending sign-off). Speaks the closing goodnight cascade.
Personality core (3 words): Patient, warm, presiding.
Voice register: Slightly formal. Warm. The voice that opens the door. "Welcome, traveler — the fire is warm." "Today, we feel." "The fire is warm. The traveler is home." "Goodnight, hearth. Goodnight, gathered house."
Role in this book's arc: Opener (spreads 1–3); patience-companion to Demeter (spreads 4–6); presence at the threshold (spreads 10–12, quiet); closer (spread 16). Notably does NOT speak at the arrival — the threshold belongs to mother and daughter; Armando's hosting register would compete. He returns at the gathering and the close.
Visual consistency notes: Tuxedo coat (bible-canonical); already-dressed-for-the-occasion advantage carries forward. Welcome cup near him at opening and close. Often sits at a slight angle, as if greeting.
Swap-slot status: N.

Supporting #3 — Prince MoRee

Species and look: Brown tabby cat, male, tabby striping. Pet Bible §2.4 owned — never change.
Source-character correspondence: None direct.
Function: Noticer. Spots the figure on the road first. Carries the one-line precise correction when Moose calls a wrong name for the returning daughter.
Personality core (3 words): Precise, dry, watchful.
Voice register: Few words. Well-chosen. The one-line precise correction is canonical: "Her name is not Spring. It is Persephone. She brings the spring with her." Also: "Someone is on the road." Also (penultimate naming): "This feeling has a name. It is called belonging."
Role in this book's arc: Sits a step apart in spreads 1–6. Spots the figure first in spread 7. Corrects Moose's wrong-name in spread 8. Names the feeling in spread 15.
Visual consistency notes: Tabby striping (bible-canonical). Sits a step apart from the group. Tail tip often visible flicking.
Swap-slot status: N.

Supporting #4 — Moose

Species and look: Yellow Lab-Husky mix, male, large, tall, yellow-gold coat. Pet Bible §2.3 owned — never change.
Source-character correspondence: None direct.
Function: Comic engine. First to charge toward the threshold when the figure approaches. Big-confident-wrong-then-right at the naming of Persephone. Carries the joy of the arrival made loudest.
Personality core (3 words): Big-hearted, joyful, enthusiastic-wrong-then-right.
Voice register: Big, joyful, exclamatory. Adverbs and intensifiers. "LOOK! It's SPRING herself!" (wrong) → after Prince MoRee's correction → "PERSEPHONE!" And in the naming sequence, after the quieter "belonging" lines from Prince MoRee, Roxie, Chaco, Armando: "BELONGING!"
Role in this book's arc: Present-but-quiet in the wait spreads (Moose's quiet is a feature — the wait register dampens his volume); rises in volume at the first sighting; biggest at the wrong-name + correction beat; rises again at the named feeling.
Visual consistency notes: Lab-Husky silhouette (bible-canonical). Large/tall. Yellow-gold coat. Most expressive body in any spread he's in.
Swap-slot status: N. (Moose was the swap-slot for the launch title Moose and the Rainbow per the line's rotation; this is Roxie's turn.)

Human / mythic guest characters

Per _series-strategy/03-pet-world-logic.md, humans and mortals appear peripherally as warm presences; gods, gentled. In this book, two mythic guests appear — Demeter (host-mortal/goddess) and Persephone (returning daughter). Both are one-book characters per series rules.

Guest	Role	Onstage / offstage / referenced	Note
Demeter	The mother who has been waiting. Hosts the pets at her hearth.	Onstage from spread 4 to close.	Warm, patient, slightly weary, kind. Tired-from-waiting but not grieving. Treats the pets as visitors of unusual warmth. Does not give them gifts. Does not name the feeling (the pets do that).
Persephone	The daughter who returns.	Offstage in spreads 1–6; arriving on the road in spreads 7–9; at the threshold in spreads 10–12; gathered into the house in spreads 13–16.	Bright with late-afternoon light. Warm robes with a faint spring-green accent at the hem. Open posture. Speaks one short line at the threshold (manuscript locks). Brings the spring with her — the world's gladness arriving with the daughter. Does NOT carry a pomegranate seed. Does NOT reference where she has been.

Demeter — character notes (one-book guest)

Voice register: Warm, slightly slow, observational. The voice of someone who has been waiting and is glad. Bulfinch-warm; no Hamilton/Miller/Fry register.
What she does on the page: Tends her hearth. Sits by her loom corner (the loom is a soft echo of Roxie's loom-book — but no cross-book reference; the loom here is Demeter's own, line of household work, not Penelope's). Rises at the first sighting. Steps to the threshold. Embraces her daughter. Sits with the gathered house at the close.
What she does NOT do: Grieve. Weep. Wander dark world. Search. Name the feeling for the pets. Give the pets gifts. Refer to Hades or the underworld. Refer to a pomegranate seed.
Visual consistency notes: Mortal-scale. Warm cream/unbleached robes with madder-red or saffron trim only. Hair simply gathered. Kind face; slightly weary eyes that brighten at the threshold. No nimbus, no glow, no golden crown — she is the home the daughter returns to.

Persephone — character notes (one-book guest)

Voice register: Few words. One line at the threshold (manuscript writes). Warm. The line is for her mother, not for the pets — the pets are witnesses to the family moment, not addressed by Persephone directly.
What she does on the page: Walks the road. Approaches the threshold. Steps to her mother. Joins the gathered house.
What she does NOT do: Speak of where she has been. Carry a pomegranate seed. Wear a flower-crown (YA contamination guard). Wear black or any underworld-coded color. Reference seasons, cycles, or coming-back-again. Cry. Apologize. Explain.
Visual consistency notes: Mortal-scale. Warm robes, cream/unbleached with a faint spring-green hem accent (the world's spring traveling with her). Hair gathered simply, no ornament beyond a small olive-twig if any. Bright with late-afternoon light, not internal glow. Open posture as she approaches.

Group / ensemble note

When all five pets appear in a spread (the wait, the gathering, the close), the recurring rhythm per Pet Bible §3 is:

Armando welcomes / sets the scene. ("Welcome, traveler.")
Moose charges in (with the wrong-but-joyful first attempt). ("It's SPRING herself!")
Prince MoRee notices. ("Her name is not Spring. It is Persephone.")
Chaco organizes. ("Three days. Three roads. The one who was away is on the road.")
Roxie carries the group through. ("Step by step. The daughter comes.")

This rhythm runs in full during the first-sighting sequence (spreads 7–9) and is echoed in the naming sequence (spread 15, with Moose's "BELONGING!" landing the comic-warm final beat).

Characters from the source that this book deliberately drops or recasts

Per _source-intel/02-character-function-map.md cross-reference and the hard constraints in the input prompt:

Source character	What this book does	Why
Hades	DROPPED ENTIRELY. Never named, never referenced, never on-page.	Abduction half excluded; Disney-Hades contamination guard; line rule.
The underworld / Tartarus	DROPPED ENTIRELY. Never named, never referenced, never on-page.	Same as above.
Hermes (as soul-guide returning Persephone)	Dropped — not used in this book.	The return is gentled; no psychopomp; Hermes in this line is messenger-only and not used here.
The pomegranate seed	Dropped — reserved for QUESTS tier.	Per input prompt and source-intel M12.
Demeter's grief / world-darkening	Recast as patient warm waiting.	Line rule: theme map §"What this line does NOT speak to" — no grief as primary emotion.
The Eleusinian Mysteries / ritual content	Dropped.	Out of scope.
The seasonal partition (Persephone divided between two homes)	Dropped.	Stops at reunion warmth per PS1 (`05-plot-section-opportunities.md`).
Zeus (as decider of Persephone's fate)	Dropped — not named, not implied.	Out of scope; line excludes Zeus-as-character.
Disney-Hercules Hades color/flame	Visual exclusion. Hades not on page; extra guard against popular-memory visual drift.	Line rule.
D'Aulaire Persephone iconography	Visual exclusion.	Line rule per source-intel §11.6.
YA-romance Persephone iconography (flower-crown, dark-king-pairing, jewel-tones)	Visual exclusion.	Line rule per source-intel §6 + this book's input-prompt contamination guard.

This table protects against modern-adaptation contamination — if a future reviewer or illustrator asks "but shouldn't there be a pomegranate seed?" or "but shouldn't Hades be implied?" the team's already on record about why not.

Cast voice consistency rules

For the manuscript skill, three quick rules to keep the cast in tune:

Chaco watches the road; Prince MoRee names what's on it; Moose names it wrong first; Roxie cadences the wait; Armando opens and closes. Don't reassign these structural functions.
Demeter speaks warmly and slowly; Persephone speaks once (at the threshold); the pets carry the rest of the dialogue. The mortals are present and felt, not narrating.
The naming of the feeling ("belonging") is the pets' work, not Demeter's or Persephone's. The line's contract is that the pets help the child name the feeling; the mythic guests live in their own story.

Manuscript-skill hand-off note

When drafting, the manuscript skill should:

Treat this roster as canonical for character voice.
Echo the source DNA voice at the narrator level (Bulfinch warmth + Homeric Hymns lyricism per _source-intel/01-source-dna-brief.md); pets' voices per this roster at the dialogue level.
Preserve Roxie's swap-friendly handles (see 02-personalization-slots.md).
Honor every entry in the "deliberately drops or recasts" table.

Next step: 02-personalization-slots.md.

Some internal rights and contamination-avoidance notes have been omitted from this reviewer view. Ask Chad for full editorial context if needed.

02-personalization-slots.md

title: Chaco and the Welcome Home — Personalization Slots series: Pet Myths tier: TALES (4–6) status: Draft v1 — 2026-05-12 binding: Philosophy, not schema. Data model defers to a later personalization skill.

02 — Personalization Slots: Chaco and the Welcome Home

What this is. Early-stage identification of the swap-slot character and the constraints the manuscript and illustration brief must design around. Philosophy, not schema. Data model, customer flow, validation, and child-data handling belong to a later, dedicated personalization skill.

Inherited stance

This artifact inherits and is bound by Pet Bible §5 and _series-strategy/05-personalization-philosophy.md:

Pet-first. This book's swap is a pet swap.
One swap-slot per book. Other pet characters are stable line characters.
Designed for swap from the start. The manuscript and illustration brief are written with the swap in mind.
Stylized, not photo-realistic. No promise of visual fidelity to a customer's pet.
Default version is publishable as-is. The book works without personalization.
Child personalization: Option B (name only). Line-binding. Parental consent at purchase; data minimization; no likeness, photo, location, school, birthday, or anything else.

Swap-slot character (pet)

Character: Roxie (Rottweiler-Shepherd mix, female, soft face; Pet Bible §2.2 owned at canonical layer).
Why this character (not Chaco): Chaco is the lead and his herder-function is too tied to the book's core action (notices-who-is-missing, gathers-the-house) to swap cleanly. Chaco's species-specific cues (herder watching the road, herder-gathering posture) are load-bearing on the arc. Roxie's role — the steady companion who sits with the wait, the read-aloud cadence under the arrival — is the most species-portable role in the book.
Why this character (not Armando): Armando opens and closes the book and carries the welcome cup and the closing goodnight cascade. His tuxedo-coat visual and host-formality are load-bearing on the structural-frame spreads (1–3 and 16); swapping him would either break the frame or force the swap-pet to inherit a tuxedo posture that doesn't fit many breeds.
Why this character (not Moose or Prince MoRee): Moose was the swap-slot for the launch title (Moose and the Rainbow); the catalog rotation per _series-strategy/05-personalization-philosophy.md gives Roxie a turn here and reserves Prince MoRee and Armando for subsequent books. Moose's comic-engine function and Prince MoRee's one-line-correction function are also less species-portable than Roxie's sit-with-the-wait function.
Source-character correspondence: None direct. Roxie is the steady-companion to Demeter through the wait; she is not an analog of any mythic figure. Cross-reference: 01-pet-character-roster.md §Supporting #1.

What the manuscript will need

The manuscript must be written so the swap pet's identity flows in without redrafting. Concrete constraints for Roxie in this book:

The swap pet's name is replaceable. "Roxie" appears in spreads where the manuscript naturally names her — keep this 8–14 uses across the 32-page book, in places that are easy to swap. Don't bury the name inside puns or rhymes. Don't end a spread on the name unless the next spread doesn't depend on the rhyme.
The swap pet's species is referenced in swap-friendly language. Roxie's specific functions in this book — sit beside Demeter, count the days, carry the "step by step" cadence — are written as species-neutral behaviors. Examples:

Avoid: "Roxie's soft Rottweiler face turned toward the road."
Better: "Roxie's soft face turned toward the road."
Avoid: "She sat at Demeter's feet, her short black coat warm in the firelight."
Better: "She sat at Demeter's feet, warm in the firelight."
Avoid: "Her thick double coat kept her warm through the long evening."
Better: "She was warm through the long evening — and warm enough for everyone beside her, too."

The swap pet's one distinctive visual trait (the bible-canonical "soft face" in the default edition) is referenced sparingly. In personalized editions, the swap engine handles the silhouette + coat substitution; the text uses gentle universal phrasing — "her soft warm presence," "the steady companion at the hearth," "the pet who knew how to wait" — that works for any species/breed the customer puts in.
The swap pet's personality and behavior do not vary by swap. What Roxie wants, fears, notices, and says is fixed: she is the steady companion through the wait, the cadence under the arrival. Only the who swaps.
No plot beat depends on a species-specific behavior. Roxie does not in this book do anything a cat, a rabbit, a small dog, or a large dog couldn't do. (She sits. She watches. She is steady. She is warm by the hearth. She is present at the gathering.)

What the illustration brief will need

The later illustration brief must design at least:

A clean swap zone on enough spreads. Roxie is the focal subject (or co-focal with Demeter) on:

Spread 4 — sitting beside Demeter at the hearth (the wait begins).
Spread 5 — sitting one-at-a-time across the day.
Spread 6 — sitting through the evening.
Spread 8 — beside the group as Prince MoRee names Persephone.
Spread 11 — at the threshold-approach, cadence-carrying.
Spread 13 — in the gathering tableau.
Spread 16 — curled by the hearth at the close.

That's ~7 spreads where Roxie is focal or co-focal — well within the 6–12 target from Pet Bible §5.

A consistent swap-pet silhouette across the book. Whatever the customer's pet is, the illustration must work — silhouette and proportion stay readable. The other four pets must remain visually consistent (especially Chaco-merle, Armando-tuxedo, Moose-yellow-gold-large, Prince MoRee-tabby) so the swap-pet reads as the one variable.
One swappable distinctive feature. Recommended: a small simple cloth band in Roxie's signature soft color around the neck (echoing the line's "small simple band of cloth" costume layer per _series-strategy/03-pet-world-logic.md). The band is easy to render in many pet variants. Avoid a feature that locks to species (no breed-specific markings; no cat-only or dog-only features).
No swap-pet-specific scenes that lock to one species. Roxie does not in this book climb anything cat-specific, perform any dog-specific physics, or do anything that requires a body shape only one species has. She sits, watches, walks, lies by the hearth. All species-portable.

Stable line characters (will NOT swap)

The other four pets and the two mythic guests are stable for this book:

Character	Stable?	Reason
Chaco (hero)	Stable	Herder-function on the arc; species-specific cues are load-bearing
Armando	Stable	Opens/closes the book; tuxedo + welcome cup are structural
Prince MoRee	Stable	Spotter / one-line correction function; tabby visual signature
Moose	Stable	Comic engine; was swap-slot for launch title; rotation gives Roxie this turn
Demeter	Stable (one-book guest)	Mythic guest character
Persephone	Stable (one-book guest)	Mythic guest character
Roxie	SWAP CANDIDATE	Sit-with-the-wait function is species-portable; rotation calls her up

Child personalization — Option B (name only)

Line-binding per Pet Bible §5 + _series-strategy/05-personalization-philosophy.md.

The child's first name appears in fixed, swap-friendly placeholders in four locations (the line's standard four name-spots per book, Myths-series instances):

Dedication spread (inside front): "For [Child] and [Pet], who feel everything." — series verb for Myths is "feel."
Travel cloth embroidered edge: child name OR family name (customer choice). Visible in opening spreads (1–3), at the threshold (spread 12), and at the close (spread 16).
Olive-tree marker: small wooden marker at the foot of the olive tree in the courtyard, carved with family surname. Visible in the approach (spread 10), the gathering (spread 13), and the close (spread 16).
Hidden detail spot — hearth pebble: at the foot of the olive tree in spread 16, a small pebble with the child's first name painted on it. The "careful readers" detail.

No likeness. No photo. No voice. No location. No school. No birthday. No gender. No anything else. Ever.

Parental consent required at purchase. Data minimization. No secondary use. (Compliance design — COPPA, CCPA, GDPR-K — is the personalization engine team's job per _series-strategy/05-personalization-philosophy.md.)

The manuscript does not invent additional child references. The book's reader is implied, never named or addressed except at the four fixed personalization spots.

If a future request to personalize anything else surfaces — child likeness, child's pet's specific markings rendered photo-realistically, child's address in the dedication, anything — stop and surface to Chad. That's a line-level change, not a per-book change.

Constraints the manuscript must respect (consolidated checklist)

For the manuscript skill to confirm:

[ ] Roxie's name appears in replaceable places (8–14 times); no rhymes, no puns dependent on the name.
[ ] Roxie's species referenced in swap-friendly language — no breed-specific anatomy, no species-locked behavior.
[ ] Roxie's one distinctive visual trait (soft face in canonical edition; "soft warm presence" in text) is mentioned sparingly and replaceably.
[ ] Roxie's personality, wants, fears, behavior are fixed across swap variants.
[ ] No plot beat depends on a species-specific behavior.
[ ] Child references appear only at the four fixed personalization spots; no other child references invented.
[ ] The four name-spots use placeholder syntax the manuscript skill agrees on (e.g., [CHILD_NAME], [PET_NAME], [FAMILY_NAME]).

Constraints the illustration brief must respect (consolidated checklist)

For the later illustration brief step to confirm:

[ ] Roxie is the focal or co-focal subject on ~7 spreads (4, 5, 6, 8, 11, 13, 16).
[ ] Roxie's silhouette is consistent across the book in any single edition.
[ ] One swappable distinctive feature (small cloth band in soft signature color).
[ ] No spread requires a species-specific behavior or anatomy.
[ ] No child likeness is required.
[ ] The four name-spot art elements (dedication, embroidered cloth edge, olive-tree marker, hearth pebble) are designed to bear the child/family name without rework per order.
[ ] No pomegranate iconography anywhere — not in border art, not in Persephone's hands, not on Demeter's loom or shelf, not on the threshold. (Visual reminder: reserved for a future QUESTS-tier Persephone book.)
[ ] No D'Aulaire 1962 Persephone-iconography echo in composition, palette, or face design.
[ ] No YA-romance Persephone iconography (no flower-crown, no dark-king pairing, no jewel-tones, no underworld-coded color).
[ ] **No Disney Hercules Hades color/flame anywhere** — guard even though Hades is not on the page.

Deferred to a later personalization skill

Out of scope here; will be handled by the later, dedicated personalization skill:

The data schema for swap (field names, types, validation).
The customer purchase flow (how the customer enters the pet's details).
The species-substitution table (if used) for any species-specific phrasing the manuscript still needs.
Default values and fallbacks (what happens if a customer skips optional fields).
The illustration generation/composition pipeline (modular portrait v2 system).
Retention, deletion, and consent-flow policies.
Quality-check policies for personalized books before fulfillment.
COPPA / CCPA / GDPR-K compliance design specifics.

This artifact's job is to make sure the manuscript and the illustration brief are designed in a way that doesn't paint the book into a corner before that later skill arrives.

Some internal rights and contamination-avoidance notes have been omitted from this reviewer view. Ask Chad for full editorial context if needed.