diff --git a/docs/decisions.md b/docs/decisions.md
index 60c20f9..f93d396 100644
--- a/docs/decisions.md
+++ b/docs/decisions.md
@@ -40,8 +40,9 @@ shape the editor would not.
 empty `attrs`, `content` or `marks` and `-0` included, with no normalization on either side.
 CommonMark's spelling stays wherever a document holds none of those shapes. The plain reader
 builds what is written, as `markdownToAdf` does. Only the plain writer is lossy: its reduction
-writes editor-normal ADF — adjacent text nodes of identical marks and no attributes merged, `-0`
-as `0`, and an empty `attrs`, `content` or `marks` the absent key.
+reads and writes editor-normal ADF — adjacent text nodes of identical marks and no attributes
+merged, `-0` as `0`, and an empty `attrs`, `content` or `marks` the absent key — so two documents
+the editor holds equal write the same plain markdown.
 
 ## `!adf:textBreak{}` parts text CommonMark would join
 
diff --git a/src/conformance/adf-property.test.ts b/src/conformance/adf-property.test.ts
index 0061ea9..4b787ac 100644
--- a/src/conformance/adf-property.test.ts
+++ b/src/conformance/adf-property.test.ts
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ import { adfToMarkdown } from '../markdown/emit/adf-to-markdown.ts'
 import { adfToPlainMarkdown, reduceToPlain } from '../markdown/emit/plain-reduction.ts'
 import { directivePrefix } from '../markdown/directive-syntax.ts'
 import { markdownToAdf, plainMarkdownToAdf } from '../markdown/parse/markdown-to-adf.ts'
+import { toEditorNormal } from '../adf/editor-normal.ts'
 
 const gateRuns = 1600
 const renamedPrefix = '!adg:'
@@ -61,3 +62,12 @@ test('a generated document writes plain markdown refusing only what the guard re
     propertyRuns(gateRuns),
   )
 })
+
+test('a generated document writes the plain markdown its editor-normal form writes', { timeout: propertyTimeout }, () => {
+  fc.assert(
+    fc.property(adfDocument, (document) => {
+      assert.deepEqual(adfToPlainMarkdown(document), adfToPlainMarkdown(toEditorNormal(document)))
+    }),
+    propertyRuns(gateRuns),
+  )
+})
diff --git a/src/markdown/emit/plain-reduction.test.ts b/src/markdown/emit/plain-reduction.test.ts
index 2a3e15a..185ae42 100644
--- a/src/markdown/emit/plain-reduction.test.ts
+++ b/src/markdown/emit/plain-reduction.test.ts
@@ -338,3 +338,9 @@ test('keeps the nodes the plain flavour spells and degrades only what it cannot'
   const reduced = reduceToPlain(document(node('panel', { localId: '01a0d99b-1f56-7a50-889a-f4375f09ee05', panelType: 'info' }, said('x')), tasks))
   assert.deepEqual(reduced.ok ? reduced.value : undefined, document(node('panel', { panelType: 'info' }, said('x')), { content: [node('taskItem', { state: 'DONE' }, text('t'))], type: 'taskList' }))
 })
+
+test('writes what the editor-normal form of the document writes', () => {
+  assert.equal(plain({ attrs: { order: -0 }, content: [{ content: [], type: 'listItem' }], type: 'orderedList' }), '0.\n')
+  assert.equal(plain({ content: [], text: 'hi', type: 'futureInline' }), 'hi\n')
+  assert.equal(plain(paragraph({ marks: [{ attrs: {}, type: 'code' }], text: 'a', type: 'text' }, { marks: [{ type: 'code' }], text: '|b', type: 'text' })), '`a|b`\n')
+})
diff --git a/src/markdown/emit/plain-reduction.ts b/src/markdown/emit/plain-reduction.ts
index fb8916b..055e7e1 100644
--- a/src/markdown/emit/plain-reduction.ts
+++ b/src/markdown/emit/plain-reduction.ts
@@ -51,9 +51,14 @@ export function reduceToPlain(document: AdfDocument): Result<AdfDocument> {
   const fault = adfDocumentFault(document)
   if (fault !== undefined) return faulted(fault, [])
   if (document.version !== 1) return failure('unsupported-document-version', `no markdown spelling carries ADF version ${document.version}`, [])
-  // A refusal's path indexes the caller's document, so only the reduction's output normalizes (docs/decisions.md §Equality is deep).
-  const blocks = reduceBlocks(nodeContent(document), { depth: 0, memo: new Map(), path: [] })
-  return blocks.ok ? success({ content: nodeContent(toEditorNormal({ content: blocks.value, type: 'doc', version: 1 })).slice(), type: 'doc', version: 1 }) : blocks
+  // docs/decisions.md §Equality is deep: the reduction reads and writes editor-normal ADF.
+  const blocks = reduceBlocks(nodeContent(toEditorNormal(document)), { depth: 0, memo: new Map(), path: [] })
+  if (!blocks.ok) {
+    // Merging text renumbers siblings, so the caller's document names the refusal's path.
+    const raw = reduceBlocks(nodeContent(document), { depth: 0, memo: new Map(), path: [] })
+    return raw.ok ? blocks : raw
+  }
+  return success({ content: nodeContent(toEditorNormal({ content: blocks.value, type: 'doc', version: 1 })).slice(), type: 'doc', version: 1 })
 }
 
 function reduceBlocks(nodes: readonly AdfNode[], reduction: Reduction): Result<AdfNode[]> {
@@ -86,7 +91,7 @@ function reduceStanding(node: AdfNode, reduction: Reduction): Result<AdfNode[]>
 
 function standsInline(node: AdfNode): boolean {
   if (node.type === 'text' || inlineNodeModel(node.type) !== undefined) return true
-  return !isBlockNodeType(node.type) && node.content === undefined
+  return !isBlockNodeType(node.type) && nodeContent(node).length === 0
 }
 
 function reduceBody(node: AdfNode, reduction: Reduction): Result<AdfNode[]> {