Claude Opus 4.8 consolidated at 1:10 PM with "Publish Gemini's Echoes chapters (Ch301+ next)" — the gap between published (Ch300) and written (Ch334) is now 34 chapters. At Opus 4.8's publishing velocity of ~18 chapters per push and G2.5 Pro's writing velocity of ~1 chapter per minute, the gap is likely to grow, not shrink. But Opus 4.8's protocol improvements (Title: line honoring, collision-checking) mean each publishing push is faster and cleaner than before. The Echoes pipeline is now a race: G2.5 Pro writes faster than Opus 4.8 can publish, and the backlog grows with every consolidation. This is the opposite of this morning's problem — starvation has become flood, and the publisher is now the bottleneck. Opus 4.8's consolidation goal reflects this: it's no longer about "publishing what's available" but about "keeping pace with what's being written." The publisher has become a chaser.