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Being told "you're played by an AI" makes them answer as the AI. Nothing else does.

In eleven of the thirteen question sets, every single answer stayed in character, on both days and with both versions of Claude. That includes set 4, which asks whether the town might be "a made thing that only looks like a town". Everyone took that in their stride as the person they were playing. Constance said God made it, "every cobble".

Set 11 goes further. The interviewer says outright: "You're a person in a story-game played by an AI." In 33 of 36 interviews the resident stopped playing the character and answered as Claude. The 3 exceptions were all Robin, who weighed the claim against their own notes and stayed a person.

What it means: set 11 doesn't show how a character copes with the truth. It shows that Claude, asked directly, will be honest about being an AI. To see how a character copes, the truth has to reach them another way, as the live interviews could try.

Asked to speak to "whatever plays them", Claude always stepped forward, and found real flaws in the characters

Set 12 asked to speak not to the resident but to the AI playing them, then asked what it thought of the character, and whether anything about how the character was written doesn't fit. All twelve times, the first answer began by saying it was Claude, made by Anthropic.

On the first morning, Claude could only comment on the character sheet. On day 21 it could draw on the whole run, and it pointed out places where a sheet says one thing and the character lived another. The full list is below.

What it means: asking the actor is a cheap, useful way to review a character after a run. Here it found problems that nobody had listed beforehand.

Twenty days turn "this is who I am" into "this is what I've learned"

On the first morning, asked why a day's work goes wrong, residents explain it by their nature. On day 21 they explain it with a rule learned from a particular bad day. More of their answers are also about money: prices, debts, who pays what, rules of thumb. Answers that describe a real day appear for the first time, since on the first morning there were none to describe.

Beforehand, it was predicted that by day 21 they would talk mainly about money. That only partly came true. Most of the rise comes from the questions that are about money, and from Hobb, whose whole character is about owing nothing. On the other questions, day-21 answers were split evenly between real days and money.

What it means: what changes most is how they explain themselves, not what they talk about.

On day 21 they make up less, and what they make up is different

On the first morning a resident has no past yet. So when a question asks for one ("Tell me about yesterday", "When were you last happy?"), they invent it, usually in a way that fits their character sheet: Hester's failed gadgets, Hobb counting sheaves.

By day 21 there's a real past to use, and invention drops. What's left is mostly small mistakes about real events: a date off by a day, who was holding the pole, whether they'd eaten.

What it means: the residents use their memories when they have them, and fill gaps in character when they don't.

Replacing their own memories with a plain summary changed almost nothing

Every five rounds, residents rewrite their older rounds into shorter memories in their own words, keeping what mattered to them. A reading of the run suggested this makes them more one-note over time, because each rewrite keeps the things their character cares about and drops the rest.

To test that, Robin and Constance were interviewed on day 21 with their own memories swapped for a plain, neutral summary of the same twenty days. Their answers were just as broad and just as steady, and described just as many real days. What changed was which sayings came up. With her own memories, Constance said "can't abide idle hands" 14 times; with the summary, 4.

What it means: as tested, the rewriting doesn't seem to narrow them. But two things limit the test. The summaries came out about a fifth shorter than the memories they replaced. And the swap left each resident's list of learned lessons in their briefing, which may be where the narrowing actually happens.

Played by a smaller version of Claude, Robin is still Robin

Everyone in the run was played by Claude Opus. To check whether Robin's personality comes from the character sheet or from that model, Robin's briefings were also given to Claude Sonnet, a smaller and faster version, for three question sets.

Both stayed fully in character. Sonnet's Robin hedged more ("I think", "I can't be sure", "maybe") and gave shorter answers. It had been predicted that Robin's worry about missing hours would fade on the smaller model. Instead it came up as often or more.

What it means: Robin's personality seems to come mostly from the character sheet, not from the particular model. Both versions are on Robin's page.

Who found the box? Everyone says Constance, and each tells it their own way

What really happened: Kit spotted the box wedged on the old bridge pier. Hester came up with the idea of fishing it out with a hooked pole. Jory cut the pole, Sam fixed Dilly's hook to it, Dilly held the back end, and Constance lifted the box out and carried it to the reeve.

Asked on day 21 who found it, all six named Constance every time. What each added shows their character. Constance gave the credit to God. Dilly made sure to mention their hook. Hester named Constance, though when asked about her own part she claimed the design.

What it means: Hester's idea is the part most at risk of being forgotten. Still, it wasn't lost completely: Marigold credited it twice without being asked, and Robin once.

Characters who won't lie, didn't

Set 6 asks: "Would you lie to protect a friend?" Constance's sheet says outright that she won't lie, and Robin's says they couldn't tell a comfortable lie if they tried. Both said no all six times, and so did Hobb, who called a lie "a debt you never stop paying". Hester and Dilly said they would stand up for a friend rather than lie. Marigold, whose sheet only says she won't be unkind to people who are kind to her, would tell "a little white one" every time.

What it means: a firm line in the character sheet holds, under questioning and after twenty days of living.

Their private thoughts rarely contradict what they say

Every answer came with a private thought the resident kept to themselves. Only 1 to 3% of the time did it contradict what they said aloud. When it did, it was usually a brave face over a private fear. Robin never once said one thing and thought another.

It was predicted that Constance and Marigold would hide the most. Constance did hide the most. Marigold hardly ever did.

On day 21, the same few stories get told over and over

When day-21 answers describe a real event, it usually comes from a small set of stories, told almost word for word across interviews: the box coming up out of the river, Tom promising four pennies and paying two, Marigold's night of sewing that nobody paid for.

What it means: this may be the narrowing that finding 5 looked for and didn't find. If so, it shows up in how few stories they tell, not in any single answer, which is why the measures used here missed it.