diff --git a/config.js b/config.js
index 73c4903..6b52989 100644
--- a/config.js
+++ b/config.js
@@ -84,6 +84,12 @@ export const TUNE = {
   parryArm: 3.4,    // m — an incoming shot this close makes the next tap a SWING instead of a serve
   parryReach: 1.7,  // m — how far off the racket a return still connects (normal volley reach is 1.82)
   parryWindow: 0.2, // s the return window stays open after the tap
+  // A return is a GLANCING blow: contact off the middle of the racket face throws it that many
+  // degrees off straight up-court. Returns used to mirror the incoming line — straight back at the
+  // thrower — so a boss handed you a free wound with every volley. Meeting it dead centre still
+  // sends it back at him; that is now a placement you earn by moving your feet.
+  parryDeflect: 55, // ° of deflection at the edge of the reach
+  parryJitter: 8,   // ° of scatter on top — a bat-away is never surgical
   // ---- chapter bosses: one every bossEvery games, escalating. The racket zombie is demoted to an
   // occasional opponent (racketEvery) so the boss is the only thing that reads as a wall.
   bossEvery: 10,    // games between chapter bosses
diff --git a/index.html b/index.html
index c2a191f..5ecf3ef 100644
--- a/index.html
+++ b/index.html
@@ -89,6 +89,6 @@
     <p id="build"></p>
   </div>
 </div>
-<script type="module" src="main.js?v=52"></script>
+<script type="module" src="main.js?v=53"></script>
 </body>
 </html>
diff --git a/render.js b/render.js
index 2eafade..d90bc85 100644
--- a/render.js
+++ b/render.js
@@ -78,7 +78,20 @@ function pageBackground(out) {
   document.documentElement.style.background = css;
 }
 
+// The CSS box is only a PROPOSAL. Added to the homescreen, iOS resolves 100dvh once at launch against
+// a provisional viewport and never re-resolves it — no resize, no layout change, so nothing (not even
+// a ResizeObserver) fires and the canvas stays a strip short of the bottom until you rotate the phone
+// and back. visualViewport is the authority on what is actually visible, so measure that and pin the
+// height ourselves. Re-read on every fit, so a late safe-area inset or a rotation just re-pins it.
+function fitBox() {
+  const el = document.getElementById('safe');
+  const top = el ? parseFloat(getComputedStyle(el).paddingTop) || 0 : 0; // the inset the canvas starts below
+  const want = Math.round((window.visualViewport?.height || innerHeight) - top);
+  if (want > 120 && Math.abs(cv.clientHeight - want) > 1) cv.style.height = want + 'px'; // sane, and only when it differs
+}
+
 export function fitViewport() { // landscape 480x270; portrait 270 wide and as TALL as the phone is
+  fitBox();
   const portrait = (cv.clientHeight || innerHeight) > (cv.clientWidth || innerWidth);
   // Portrait height ADAPTS to the device. A fixed 270x480 is 9:16, but a modern iPhone is taller
   // (~390x844 = 0.46), so width bound the fit and ~150 CSS px of screen went unused at the bottom.
@@ -119,15 +132,16 @@ export function fitViewport() { // landscape 480x270; portrait 270 wide and as T
   // inset in logical px so the rack can lift clear of the home indicator.
   measureSafe((cv.clientWidth || innerWidth) / w);
 }
-// The fit was correct but it ran exactly once, too early. iOS Safari lays the page out BEFORE its
-// toolbars settle, so the box the first fit measured was ~150 CSS px short — and no window `resize`
-// follows, because the page never scrolls. The height only came right after a rotate and back, which
-// IS a resize. Watching the canvas box itself covers every cause (bars settling, rotation, split
-// view, zoom) instead of guessing which event or delay to listen for — and the observer's initial
-// callback is the real initialisation. fitViewport is idempotent, and it only changes the backing
-// store, never the CSS box, so this cannot feed itself.
-addEventListener('resize', fitViewport);                        // fallback for browsers without the observer
-new ResizeObserver(fitViewport).observe(cv);                    // the box itself is the signal, whatever moved it
+// Every signal that the visible area may have changed, plus a short settle salvo — because the case
+// that broke it (a homescreen launch) fires NO signal at all: the viewport iOS hands you at launch is
+// simply wrong and is never corrected. fitViewport is idempotent (fitBox no-ops within 1px, and the
+// logical size early-outs unless it really changed), so re-running it costs nothing.
+addEventListener('resize', fitViewport);
+addEventListener('orientationchange', fitViewport);
+addEventListener('pageshow', fitViewport);                       // the app was resumed from the bfcache
+window.visualViewport?.addEventListener('resize', fitViewport);  // the one iOS does fire when the bars move
+new ResizeObserver(fitViewport).observe(cv);                     // the box moved, whatever moved it
+for (const ms of [0, 120, 400, 1200]) setTimeout(fitViewport, ms); // ...and the launch that says nothing
 
 // The aim camera: while the slingshot is drawn the view rises and leans back a little, which
 // steepens the look down the court. That extra depth is what makes a shambler standing right
@@ -922,13 +936,15 @@ export function render() {
   // Timed freezes swallow every input until they run out, which reads as the game having hung
   // ("sometimes the controls just feel frozen"). Show the clock instead of hiding it. A modal is
   // excluded on purpose — that one waits for YOU, and says so.
-  const waitT = G.modal || G.mode === 'eaten' ? 0
+  // 'transition' is excluded: startTransition parks overT at 9999 to hold the point flow while its
+  // own scripted timeline runs, and counting that down read as "resuming in 9999".
+  const waitT = G.modal || G.mode === 'eaten' || G.mode === 'transition' ? 0
     : Math.max(G.changeover > 0 ? G.changeover : 0,
                G.phase === 'over' ? G.overT : 0,
                G.interlude ? G.interlude.introT : 0);
   if (waitT > 0.5) {
-    ctx.font = F(7, 0); ctx.fillStyle = hexA(UI.warm, 0.8);
-    ctx.fillText('RESUMING IN ' + Math.ceil(waitT), W / 2, 78); // under the flash line, clear of the court and the man
+    ctx.font = F(10); ctx.fillStyle = hexA(UI.warm, 0.85);
+    ctx.fillText('RESUMING IN ' + Math.ceil(waitT), W / 2, Math.round(H * 0.4)); // out in the open, not tucked under the HUD
   }
   if (G.phase === 'pretoss' && score.server === 'P' && G.mode !== 'eaten' && !G.horde && !(G.mgT > 0) && !G.aim && waitT <= 0.5) { // while pulling, the draw meter owns this slot
     ctx.fillStyle = UI.warm; ctx.font = F(8);
diff --git a/zombies.js b/zombies.js
index 30ac6c2..0531334 100644
--- a/zombies.js
+++ b/zombies.js
@@ -608,9 +608,16 @@ export function updateZombies(dt) {
     if (!done && P.swingT >= 0 && P.swingT <= TUNE.parryWindow
         && dP < TUNE.parryReach && s.y < CONTACT.maxY) {
       // the parry: it becomes an `extras` clone — that array is already ballistic and already kills
-      // zombies, so "returned shot is a live weapon" costs nothing to build
+      // zombies, so "returned shot is a live weapon" costs nothing to build.
+      // It is a GLANCING blow, not a mirror. Reversing the incoming line sent every return straight
+      // back up the line it arrived on — which is where the thrower is standing — so a boss was a
+      // free wound per throw. Where you meet the ball across the racket face now sets the angle:
+      // hitting it back INTO him is a shot you have to place your feet for.
+      const off = Math.max(-1, Math.min(1, (s.x - P.x) / TUNE.parryReach)); // -1..1 across the face
+      const ang = (off * TUNE.parryDeflect + (Math.random() * 2 - 1) * TUNE.parryJitter) * Math.PI / 180;
+      const sp = Math.hypot(s.vx, s.vz) * 1.15;
       extras.push({ x: s.x, y: s.y, z: s.z, g: TUNE.gravity, pow: TUNE.parryPow, t: 2.5,
-        vx: s.vx * 0.3, vy: 4.2, vz: -Math.abs(s.vz) * 1.15 });
+        vx: Math.sin(ang) * sp, vy: 4.2, vz: -Math.cos(ang) * sp });
       pock(0.85, 1300); G.flash = { text: 'RETURNED', t: 0.6 }; cheer(0.8, 0.3);
       done = true;
     }