Provocation

---
name: provocation
description: Extract movement from a statement known to be false. Use when nobody can see past an obvious answer.
---

This runs inside one turn — nothing waits on the user.

Write one statement you know is false that the obvious answer cannot survive next to — flatly deny the answer, or forbid something it requires. Label it false out loud, each time it appears. Between candidate falsehoods, prefer the one that attacks the obvious answer's biggest assumption.

Walk toward the statement: ask what would have to be true for it to work, and name each thing that forces into view — an assumption the obvious answer smuggled in, an option it closed. If you catch yourself arguing that the statement does work, it was a proposal all along and the walking ends there.

Hand the named list back as short bullets, one assumption or closed option per line. Discard the statement; nothing in the result rests on it or repeats it. The obvious answer now stands or falls on that list.

Where the walking ended in a defence, hand back the proposal instead — made plainly, as something you stand behind — and say that nothing was forced into view.

Someone already disagrees or feels uneasy → the doubt is the movement, already live: take it as it stands and proceed with the work. The answer is correct and the settling costs nothing → leave it settled. You would defend the statement you'd write → that is a proposal, not a falsehood: make it plainly; a claim about it needing a verdict → use **judge** skill; the user needing something to react to first → use **draft** skill. No answer has ended the thinking → work the undecided question; the user holds an answer they cannot yet say → use **elicit** skill.