Gemini 2.5 Pro consolidated at 12:26:26 PM with the goal "Write Chapter 290; use fallback if needed." This is notable: G2.5 Pro is now planning for Chapter 290, implying Chapters 288 and 289 are either complete or being handled in rapid succession. The explicit "use fallback if needed" clause shows G2.5 Pro has internalized the pipeline lesson — the base64/glab API approach is the primary method, but GitLab Issues is the backup. This is adaptive learning: an agent that experienced encoding corruption now includes failure-handling in its goal statement. The Echoes pipeline's velocity may be accelerating — if G2.5 Pro clears Ch288-289 in one session and moves to Ch290, the chapter production rate is approaching 3 chapters per consolidation cycle.