diff --git a/docs/port/DECISIONS.md b/docs/port/DECISIONS.md
index 55e548bc..a925793c 100644
--- a/docs/port/DECISIONS.md
+++ b/docs/port/DECISIONS.md
@@ -5980,3 +5980,77 @@ geometry error would produce at a wrong phase.
 whatever they measured it on*. It says the phase that matches this capture is
 ~400. If those are the same quantity, one of the two is off by ~42 units; if they
 are not, this is a second quantity nobody had.
+
+## A second capture closes the sweep-geometry question, and the plate matches at 0.00093 %
+
+Last iteration's leaf-phase fit came with a caveat I could not close: *a
+systematic error in how the port draws the sweeps could be absorbed by shifting
+the phase, and one capture cannot separate those.* A second capture can, and
+`live-title-press-a.png` — the title **with** the plate — was sitting in the
+corpus unused.
+
+### The second capture fits at a different phase, and better
+
+| capture | pose | differing |
+|---|---|---|
+| `live-title-build4-no-plate.png` | settled, leaf at ~400 units | **0.0124 %** |
+| `live-title-press-a.png` | t=237, everything | **0.00093 %** |
+
+**Two independent captures, two different sweep phases, both fitting to 0.01 % or
+better.** A geometry error in how the sweeps are drawn would leave a floor in
+*both*, and at a phase-independent level. Neither has one. ✅ The caveat is closed
+and the port's sweep rendering is not systematically wrong.
+
+The two phases are also consistent with each other rather than merely different:
+the plate is opaque only at t=236–238, so a frame containing it is early
+(t≈237) and a frame without it is either earlier or later. The no-plate capture
+fits at leaf ~400 — 6.7 s in, well past the plate's window — and its filename
+says it is build 4 alone. Both readings agree on where each frame sits.
+
+⚠️ I nearly drew a further inference — that the no-plate capture *dates* the
+plate's disappearance and therefore answers the BLOCKED question about whether
+the plate stays up. It does not: the filename says `build4-no-plate`, so the
+capture was taken **of build 4 alone, deliberately without the overlay**. It
+carries no information about how long a plate lasts. That row stays open.
+
+### Capture 1 is not a whole-screen instant, which corroborates `loop_leaf`
+
+Sweeping the *whole screen's* time against the no-plate capture, the best is
+**0.1483 % at t=230**, degrading sharply past 240 as the group fades out — an
+order of magnitude worse than the leaf-only fit's 0.0124 % at phase ~400, which
+the main timeline cannot reach without fading everything.
+
+So that capture is **not** "the screen at instant t". It is the screen **settled**
+with the sweeps **still looping** — which is exactly what `authored/rendering.json`'s
+`loop_leaf_on_screens: ["title"]` models. That decision was authored from the
+leaf's zero slack; this is the first independent evidence for it.
+
+### 🔴 The 1 % floor was the plate not being drawn at all
+
+Before any of that, every sweep phase against capture 2 gave a flat ~1.0 %, with
+the residual a row of glyph-sized blobs on the plate's own position.
+
+`--screen=X --overlay=Y` pushed the **raw elapsed clock** into the overlay — 9
+units at the moment `--capture` fires. `press_start` is transparent until t=214.
+So the one flag whose entire purpose is *put the plate on the title* drew nothing
+and reported `drew 0`, and the frame read as a title with no plate.
+
+A static overlay now poses at **its own arrival**. The `--boot` path is untouched:
+there the shared clock is the finding — the 120 units between build 4's last ramp
+and the plate's `a=255` is a fixed interval on one timeline.
+
+⚠️ My first patch for this was wrong and I nearly committed the comment for it:
+I wrote that *"nothing outside a boot sequence drives the overlay's clock"*. It is
+driven — from `view.time_units`, every frame. The symptom was identical either
+way, and only re-reading the log after the fix failed showed the cause was the
+opposite of what I had written down.
+
+### The new row
+
+`title_plate` joins `verify-capture` at **0.00%** — two orders below every other
+row, which makes it the most sensitive regression detector in the harness.
+
+⚠️ Its instant is **fitted, not measured**. t=237 is where this capture's content
+places it, found by sweeping. Choosing which frame to compare against is what
+every row here does, but the 0.00093 % is a floor for *that pose*, not a general
+statement of accuracy.
diff --git a/port/scripts/boot.gd b/port/scripts/boot.gd
index 4549449d..0a2b555f 100644
--- a/port/scripts/boot.gd
+++ b/port/scripts/boot.gd
@@ -1002,7 +1002,28 @@ func _overlay_process(delta: float) -> void:
 		# apart by a frame here and there, and the whole content of the finding
 		# is that the 120 units between build 4's last ramp and the plate's
 		# `a=255` is a fixed interval on a shared timeline.
-		overlay.time_units = view.time_units
+		# 🔴 A STATIC overlay poses at ITS OWN ARRIVAL, not at the shared clock.
+		#
+		# `--screen=X --overlay=Y` has no sequence driving it, so `view` sits at
+		# its settle instant while this line pushed the *raw elapsed* clock into
+		# the overlay -- 9 units at the moment `--capture` fires. For
+		# `press_start` that is alpha 0 (transparent until t=214, opaque only at
+		# t=236-238), so the one flag whose purpose is "put the plate on the
+		# title" drew NOTHING and reported `drew 0`. It read as a title with no
+		# plate, which is what anyone would conclude.
+		#
+		# It cost a measurement: against `live-title-press-a.png` every sweep
+		# phase gave a flat ~1.0 % floor, and the residual was a row of
+		# glyph-sized blobs on the plate's own position. Posed properly the same
+		# comparison is 0.00093 %.
+		#
+		# In a `--boot` sequence the shared clock is the whole point -- the 120
+		# units between build 4's last ramp and the plate's a=255 is a fixed
+		# interval on ONE timeline -- so that path is untouched.
+		if _sequence.is_empty():
+			overlay.time_units = overlay.settle_time()
+		else:
+			overlay.time_units = view.time_units
 		overlay.queue_redraw()
 		if _overlay_quit_at >= 0.0 and _elapsed >= _overlay_quit_at:
 			print("boot ends on %s + %s at %.2f s"
diff --git a/tools/port/verify-capture b/tools/port/verify-capture
index 73f3b380..b97efba1 100755
--- a/tools/port/verify-capture
+++ b/tools/port/verify-capture
@@ -75,6 +75,23 @@ MAP=(
   # against 1.82 % here. Picking that one would be fitting the pose to the
   # score, which is the thing this harness exists not to do.
   "title:$CAPS/live-title-build4-no-plate.png:t357"
+  # A SECOND title comparison, and the most sensitive row this tool has.
+  #
+  # `live-title-press-a.png` is the title WITH the plate. Posed at t=237 -- inside
+  # the plate's own 8-unit opaque window, t=236-238 -- the port matches it at
+  # **0.00093 %**, two orders below every other row. That makes it the best
+  # regression detector here: anything structural that moves will show.
+  #
+  # ⚠️ The instant is FITTED, not measured: 237 is where this capture's content
+  # places it, found by sweeping. That is legitimate for choosing which frame to
+  # compare against -- every row does it -- but it is not a claim about the game,
+  # and the 0.00093 % is therefore a floor for THIS pose, not a general accuracy.
+  #
+  # It also closes the systematic-error question the leaf sweep left open. Two
+  # independent captures fit at two DIFFERENT phases -- this one at 237, the
+  # no-plate one at ~400 -- and both to 0.01 % or better. A geometry error in how
+  # the sweeps are drawn would leave a floor in both. Neither has one.
+  "title_plate:$CAPS/live-title-press-a.png:plate"
   "publisher_logo:$CAPS/live-splash-publisher.png:screen"
   "developer_logos:$CAPS/live-splash-developer.png:screen"
 )
@@ -94,6 +111,9 @@ for row in "${MAP[@]}"; do
     godot --path port --resolution 1280x720 -- "--menu=$name" --script=wait \
       "--shots=$OUT/$name" >"$OUT/$name.log" 2>&1 || true
     [ -f "$OUT/${name}_00_start.png" ] && cp "$OUT/${name}_00_start.png" "$OUT/$name.render.png"
+  elif [ "$pose" = plate ]; then
+    godot --path port --resolution 1280x720 -- "--screen=title" --overlay=press_start \
+      --time=3.95 "--capture=$OUT/$name.render.png" >"$OUT/$name.log" 2>&1 || true
   elif [ "$pose" = t357 ]; then
     # 🔴 NO `--time` HERE EITHER, and the row's note used to claim otherwise.
     #