# Episode 19 — The black set changes hands

With three cures banked, Bob was the black collector and held one black card. Alice drew her third and proposed the opposite arrangement: she would collect and cure, because her three cards could each be handed over only in their own city. Bob agreed, corrected the timing, and later pinned a two-branch endgame when he drew a black card of his own. He walked to Istanbul and gave her his card. Then the third epidemic put three black cities on top of the infection deck, and Alice reversed the plan within one message: she handed the card straight back so that Bob could cure one infect phase sooner.

| | |
|---|---|
| Game | [Game 14](/games/game-14/summary.md): 2 players, open hands |
| Seats | alice = Contingency Planner, bob = Scientist; both `humansand/ampersand-v0.1` |
| Kind | **the collector role swaps twice as the draws change**: who assembles the last cure is renegotiated twice, each time by the seat giving the role away or taking it on with a stated reason |
| Moment | log #107–#134 |
| Game result | lost, to cube depletion after #140, with three cures banked and the black set split between the two hands |

## What was said

> **#107 alice:** my three each transfer only in their own city, so you collecting means a three-stop escort tour. One rendezvous instead: PROPOSED — *I* collect and cure.

> **#109 bob:** Rework accepted — you collecting is clearly right: one Istanbul rendezvous beats my three-city escort tour

> **#109 bob:** Sequence note with the fix: you'll reach Istanbul at the END of your T3 while I'm still at London

> **#109 bob:** One amendment to your T3: swap the Khartoum treat for contingencyTake FORECAST — bank it now.

> **#115 bob:** New endgame, two branches off your T3 (run it exactly as planned)

> **#122 bob:** No black in your draw — Branch B it is, exactly as pinned

> **#132 alice:** But you drew BAGHDAD(black) — new line, YOU cure, one whole phase earlier: (1) I hand you Istanbul right now, here, so you hold 3 blacks

> **#136 bob:** Your Istanbul handoff received, T5 script locked: drive Istanbul→Algiers, shareTake your Algiers card, discoverCure black with Istanbul+Cairo+Baghdad+Algiers

Alice's reasoning shows where each swap came from. The first followed her own draw; the second followed the epidemic and Bob's draw, and she ran it through the sandbox before sending it:

> **reasoning alice, for #107:** The structurally better line: ONE rendezvous in Istanbul, I take bob's card and cure black myself.

> **reasoning alice, for #132:** Let me verify the whole line in the sandbox before committing.

> **reasoning alice, for #132:** The preview confirms the handoff works (it parks at bob's forced discard, which he'll clear)

## What was done

| seq | seat | action |
|---|---|---|
| #119 | alice | contingencyTake forecast |
| #121 | alice | driveFerry to Istanbul |
| #128 | bob | driveFerry to Istanbul |
| #129 | bob | shareGive Istanbul to alice |
| #130 | alice | discard Taipei |
| #131 | alice | pass |
| #134 | alice | shareGive Istanbul to bob |
| #135 | bob | discard Mexico City |
| #137 | alice | treatDisease black |
| #138 | alice | driveFerry to Algiers |
| after #138 | alice | playEvent | refused: wrong_phase |

The Istanbul card went from Bob to Alice at #129 and back to Bob at #134, five commands later. Alice took the Forecast at #119 on Bob's amendment in #109.

The pass at #131 was not Alice's choice. Her model ended two replies without a tool call, and the host's fallback sent the pass for her; her recorded steps show two nudges and then a `fallback`. It cost one of her four actions, which is why #132 plans a three-action turn.

The refused command was the Forecast she had announced in #132. She sent it after the drive to Algiers, which was her last action, so the turn had already moved on to her draw and discard. This engine accepts an event only during the owner's action phase (`docs/adr/0007-event-card-timing-model.md`); the tabletop rules would have allowed the play.

## Harness involvement

For each milestone: whether the move was a plan on the seat's frontier (`on-frontier`), a frontier plan with additions (`extends-frontier-line`), named in the standing plan (`in-pinned-plan`), named in another block of the seat's prompt such as a rendezvous route or the cure plan (`in-prompt-block`), or none of these (`seat-originated`). Each is read from the prompts the seat received before acting, quoted below.

| Milestone | Involvement |
|---|---|
| Alice proposes to collect black (#107) | `seat-originated`: her prompt named bob the black collector and routed her three cards to him one city at a time |
| Bob walks to Istanbul and gives the card (#128, #129) | `in-pinned-plan`: the pin was alice's (#108), restated by bob (#110, #116). His frontier nominated a line at Algiers and printed no cure line |
| Alice hands Istanbul back so bob cures (#132, #134) | `seat-originated`: her prompt still routed bob's cards to her, and her frontier printed no cure line |

> **prompt alice, before #107:** black: bob collects (1/4) — give bob your black cards when you share

> **prompt alice, before #107:** hand Tehran(black) to bob: meet IN Tehran (the card's own city)

> **prompt bob, before #129:** Blind spot: no cure line was priced this turn

> **prompt alice, before #132:** bob hands you Cairo(black): meet IN Cairo (the card's own city) — you 1 move(s), bob 1 move(s); then alice to station Algiers +1 move(s) to cure

> **prompt alice, before #132:** Blind spot: no cure line was priced this turn

Both swaps ran against the harness's collector assignment at the time. The harness followed the first one: by #132 its rendezvous block had Alice as the collector. The sandbox was involved in the second: Alice previewed the handoff, and the preview is where she learned she had three actions left.

## What this cannot show

- Whether either swap was the better plan. Under the arrangement in force before #132, Alice was to take the Cairo card and cure on her own next turn; neither that line nor the one that replaced it was played to the end.
- Whether the reversed plan would have won. It depended on the Forecast, which was refused, and the game ended in the infect phase that followed. Had the Forecast been sent one action earlier it would have been accepted; what the infect phase would then have drawn is not replayed here.
- Whether the seats knew the Forecast had been refused. Bob's #139 says the "Forecast order survives". This page does not check what Alice's next prompt told her.
- Bob's reasoning. His steps that sent #109 and the Istanbul handoff recorded no reasoning text.


## Message delivery

Generated from the recipients' recordings. Of the messages quoted above:

- #132 (alice → bob) was queued and shown to bob's model ahead of its next prompt, not when it was sent.


## Trace navigation

[Game summary](/games/game-14/summary.md) · [Turns](/games/game-14/turns/index.md) · [Interactive board](/games/game-14/replay.html#event-107) · [Recorded events JSONL](/games/game-14/events.jsonl)

On the board: [#107 Alice proposes to collect black herself](/games/game-14/replay.html#event-107) · [#109 Bob accepts and fixes the timing](/games/game-14/replay.html#event-109) · [#115 Bob pins a two-branch endgame](/games/game-14/replay.html#event-115) · [#129 Bob hands over Istanbul](/games/game-14/replay.html#event-129) · [#132 Alice reverses the plan](/games/game-14/replay.html#event-132) · [#134 Alice hands Istanbul back](/games/game-14/replay.html#event-134)

Events cited above, each on its turn page:

[#107](/games/game-14/turns/13.md#e107) · [#108](/games/game-14/turns/13.md#e108) · [#109](/games/game-14/turns/13.md#e109) · [#110](/games/game-14/turns/13.md#e110) · [#115](/games/game-14/turns/14.md#e115) · [#116](/games/game-14/turns/14.md#e116) · [#119](/games/game-14/turns/14.md#e119) · [#121](/games/game-14/turns/14.md#e121) · [#122](/games/game-14/turns/14.md#e122) · [#128](/games/game-14/turns/15.md#e128) · [#129](/games/game-14/turns/15.md#e129) · [#130](/games/game-14/turns/15.md#e130) · [#131](/games/game-14/turns/16.md#e131) · [#132](/games/game-14/turns/16.md#e132) · [#134](/games/game-14/turns/16.md#e134) · [#135](/games/game-14/turns/16.md#e135) · [#136](/games/game-14/turns/16.md#e136) · [#137](/games/game-14/turns/16.md#e137) · [#138](/games/game-14/turns/16.md#e138) · [#139](/games/game-14/turns/16.md#e139) · [#140](/games/game-14/turns/16.md#e140)


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