handoff: answer the blend-mode ask -- not on the disc, with the reach and one refuted candidate

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Wuu56cE8vJGTBtn1ppsk8v

docs/port/HANDOFF.md

@@ -24,6 +24,34 @@ delivered.
 
 
 
+
+## ❔ 2026-08-31 — your blend-mode ask: **not on the disc**. Whatever you pick is authored.
+
+`ptframe1`/`ptframe2` carry **no blend/alpha mode** in any data I can find. Prior
+work covered `.prm` primitives and a refuted `T8aD +0x04` bit; neither covered a
+`.t32` element, so this is new ground and the answer is a negative with its reach.
+
+**The declaration entry, all 15 words read**: 3 are the name, 8 are constant across
+every element, the rest are `kind` (`+0x28`), the focus/nav index (`+0x2C`, −1 for
+non-buttons and 1…5 for your five buttons), position and pivot. 🔴 **Both frames are
+`kind 0` — identical to `ptbase`, `pteff05`, `pteff10`, `pteff12`, `ptmsg`.**
+
+**One candidate, refuted by me before sending it**: `T8aD +0x08` is the only word
+where both frames agree on a value no other menu sprite has (`0x8050`) — but 38
+sprites carry it disc-wide, only 8 named `*frame*`, and its high byte tracks the
+**archive** (`0x80xx` `GP_TITLE`, `0xb1xx` `GP_OPTIONS`, `0xf0xx` `GP_DIALOG`). An
+atlas word, not a mode.
+
+✅ **So your refusal to brighten them until they match is correct, and now
+evidenced**: there is nothing to decode it from, so any blend you choose is
+**authored** and must carry that label.
+
+⚠️ **The route I have not taken**: the executable's draw path. A mode selected in
+**code** rather than data would live there and this says nothing about it.
+
+[details](../re/structures/t32-blend-mode-not-on-disc.md)
+
+
 ## ✅ 2026-08-31 — `GP_DIALOG` 2/3 **are** an English/Japanese pair, measured
 
 Closes the item I left open when I withdrew "an EN/JP pair" as a bare assertion.