# Visible friction → earned proof → restored possibility

`RESTORE_POSSIBILITY(AUDIENCE, PROBLEM, STAKES, ACTOR, WITNESS, TRIGGER, FAILED_MODEL,
HELPER, REFRAME, PRODUCT, RITUAL, PROOF, PAYOFF, OFFER, REGION, LANGUAGE, CLOCK) →
a narrative in which the viewer understands a problem, tests an alternative, sees the
declared outcome and knows the next action.`

This function organizes a sales argument. It is callable across categories and situations;
it cannot guarantee demand, attention, truth, or sales for every product. Missing proof
must become an honest demonstration or a different argument, not fabricated evidence.

The viewer-state transformation is:

`That affects someone like me → the easy explanation fails → I need an answer → this
alternative makes sense → I can inspect what changes → I can imagine using it → I know
how to act.`

The source's daughter/father/doctor/garlic plot is one concrete implementation. Invariants
are causal relationships; casting and calendars are slots. The machine-readable
[contract](narrative-contract.json) contains the full constraints, source windows and
complete calls for cream, bookkeeping and a water-leak sensor.

| Stage | Function and exit condition | Source window (approximate) |
|---|---|---|
| Disrupt | Make an existing friction consequential; viewer can name what is at stake. | 0–28 s: consultation and unreliable reassurance |
| Commit | Turn concern into an active search; a specific answer is owed. | 28–55 s: daughter's investigation |
| Earn access | Let a credible person/process earn the right to explain. | 55–77 s: safe welcome and disclosure |
| Reframe | Replace the failed model; viewer can explain the alternative simply. | 77–110 s: problem metaphor |
| Reveal and challenge | Make the product answer the question; state the buyer's objection. | 110–220 s: discovery and skeptical discussion |
| Try | Show the buyer choosing and performing a manageable action. | 220–241 s: commitment |
| Demonstrate progression | Show state changes on an honest clock and comparable observable. | 241–284 s: elapsed-time and return-test claims |
| Pay the opening debt | Revisit the first situation and show what can now happen. | 284–300 s: relational payoff |
| Enable action | Carry the same motivation into an exact local buying step. | 300–325.68 s: commercial close |

Every stage needs a local mini-loop: a concrete stimulus, withheld answer, meaningful
change, small payoff and next question. Let information arrive in increments. Alternate
faces, action, objects and environments according to meaning. A long hold can work when
a decision is visibly forming; another angle of the same explanation may still be dead air.

**Swap test.** Bookkeeping: an unreconciled ledger threatens an owner's family evening;
an accountant exposes duplicate entries; a sandbox import and reconciliation clear them;
the owner closes on time; a demo is the next step. Water sensor: a missed puddle threatens
a finished room; an installer demonstrates placement and a controlled wet test; the
alert arrives before water spreads; the homeowner leaves reassured; select a kit. Neither
requires a daughter, a doctor, a cosmetic transformation or four weeks.

**Proof grammar.** Bind `baseline observable → actual use → appropriate elapsed interval
→ intermediate checks → final observable → return to the initial test`. For cream the
illustrative target concern can fade week by week until absent at week four. For software
the observable may be an error count; for a sensor, detection latency in a controlled test.
Art-direction marker ratings are not efficacy percentages. Generated skin is not customer
evidence. Packaging, mechanism, outcome and purchase promises each have separate sources.

**Do not lose:** opening image attraction, legible stakes, earned explanation, active
buyer choice, inspectable transformation, callback and actionable close. **Do not copy:**
disease assertions, a child alone at night, an ethnicity-as-authority cue, source cadence
as a universal law, or an unverified guarantee/discount.