diff --git a/HANDOFF.md b/HANDOFF.md
index bae964e..732ec2f 100644
--- a/HANDOFF.md
+++ b/HANDOFF.md
@@ -425,6 +425,23 @@ strategic answer, so the run keeps feeding it.
 
 **The umpire triple-tap cheat is deleted** — the test group found it. `T.forceZombies()` remains.
 
+**Second batch, same day — THE MESSAGE BAND.** Oliver: transient messages need "a definite space
+… over the crowd". `AD_TOP()`/`bandTop(h)` in render.js pin the whole family there — below the
+scoreboard block, above the ad strip, never on the court:
+- **drawCard** anchors in the band instead of centre court (a card at H/2 covered the very play it
+  announced, non-blocking or not) and its title dropped B(30) → B(22) ("the heading is a little
+  too big"). FLASH_Y (68) already lived in the band and is unchanged.
+- **RESUMING IN n sits on its own PANEL** (the info-bar style) under the flash slot — bare shadowed
+  text was unreadable over the sunlit clay crowd, a complaint Oliver had been carrying "forever".
+  It YIELDS to a live card: both draw in the band, and the card is the announcement of the pause.
+- **The gesture-teaching strings are deleted from the METER_Y slot** ('PULL DOWN TO AIM…',
+  'TAP TO TOSS, TAP TO SERVE', 'PULL DOWN: FURTHER = HARDER') — the ghost hand is the teacher, and
+  the same lesson in two registers was clutter. The slot now only carries STATE the mime cannot:
+  which weapon the serve fires, the gun-unload line, SECOND SERVE.
+- **Ghost hand v2**: 1.4x default scale, hint type F(8) → F(10), and a real silhouette — extended
+  index finger with a nail hint, three curled-knuckle bumps, thumb out to the side. The first cut
+  "could be recognized, but…"; the knuckle bumps are what flipped it from mitten to pointing hand.
+
 ## Session log: the sidestep, and two type registers (2026-08-03)
 
 Oliver's post-ship playtest. One blocker and seven polish items; all eight landed.
diff --git a/index.html b/index.html
index 46ad05a..cb40c76 100644
--- a/index.html
+++ b/index.html
@@ -359,6 +359,6 @@
     </div>
   </div>
 </div>
-<script type="module" src="main.js?v=128"></script>
+<script type="module" src="main.js?v=129"></script>
 </body>
 </html>
diff --git a/render.js b/render.js
index f854b57..49234e3 100644
--- a/render.js
+++ b/render.js
@@ -1172,25 +1172,31 @@ function drawRack() {
 
 // the centered milestone 'block': a real pause, front and center. Shared by the sudden-death duel
 // and the SET announcement so both read as the same interruption. Assumes textAlign is already set.
+// ---- THE MESSAGE BAND. Every transient centred message — the milestone card, the RESUMING
+// countdown, the one-line flash (FLASH_Y already lived here) — has ONE definite home: over the
+// CROWD, below the scoreboard block, above the ad strip. Nothing transient sits on the court
+// anymore — a card at centre court covered the very play it was announcing, non-blocking or not.
+const AD_TOP = () => Math.round(proj(0, 0, -6).y) - AD_H; // top of the courtside ad strip
+const bandTop = h => Math.max(56, AD_TOP() - h - 4);      // fit an h-px band above the ads
+
 function drawCard(title, sub1, sub2, color, icon) {
-  // 80 tall, not 72: the second sub line ends at H/2+26 and the band used to stop at +30, so it sat
-  // all but touching the edge. The band now clears it by 10 px, the same air it has at the top.
-  // An ICON (the won-duel tin) needs its own room above the title, so the band grows for it rather
-  // than the art crowding the type.
+  // An ICON (the won-duel tin) needs its own room above the title, so the band grows for it
+  // rather than the art crowding the type.
   const img = icon && SPR[icon], ih = img ? 34 : 0;
-  ctx.fillStyle = 'rgba(10,6,8,0.66)'; ctx.fillRect(0, H / 2 - 44 - ih, W, 80 + ih);
+  const y0 = bandTop(68 + ih);
+  ctx.fillStyle = 'rgba(10,6,8,0.72)'; ctx.fillRect(0, y0, W, 68 + ih);
   ctx.textAlign = 'center';
   if (img) { // the tin itself, at its own aspect, sat on the title
     const w = Math.round(img.width * (ih - 6) / img.height);
     ctx.imageSmoothingEnabled = false;
-    ctx.drawImage(img, Math.round(W / 2 - w / 2), Math.round(H / 2 - 44 - ih + 3), w, ih - 6);
+    ctx.drawImage(img, Math.round(W / 2 - w / 2), y0 + 3, w, ih - 6);
   }
-  // the title SHOUTS (Bangers, twice the old size); the subs stay Silkscreen, because they are the
-  // detail you read second and a whole card in the loud face is just noise
-  ctx.font = B(30); shadowText(title, W / 2, H / 2 - 34, color);
+  // the title still SHOUTS (Bangers) but at 22, not 30 — up here it shares the screen with the
+  // scoreboard and the ads, and 30 read as oversized the moment it left centre court
+  ctx.font = B(22); shadowText(title, W / 2, y0 + ih + 8, color);
   ctx.font = F(8);
-  if (sub1) shadowText(sub1, W / 2, H / 2 + 4, UI.cream);
-  if (sub2) shadowText(sub2, W / 2, H / 2 + 18, UI.cream);
+  if (sub1) shadowText(sub1, W / 2, y0 + ih + 36, UI.cream);
+  if (sub2) shadowText(sub2, W / 2, y0 + ih + 50, UI.cream);
 }
 
 // A GHOST HAND, fingertip at (x, y) — the tutorial finger every gesture hint shares. A drawn
@@ -1198,24 +1204,30 @@ function drawCard(title, sub1, sub2, color, icon) {
 // finger goes here". `press` (0..1) dips it toward the glass, which is what makes a mimed tap
 // read as a tap and not as a cursor hovering. Pure canvas paths, no sprite: it is HUD chrome in
 // the UI palette, same family as the arrowheads and the dotted track, not a body on the court.
-function drawGhostHand(x, y, press = 0) {
+function drawGhostHand(x, y, press = 0, s = 1.4) {
   ctx.save();
-  ctx.translate(Math.round(x), Math.round(y) - 2 + press * 3);
-  ctx.rotate(-0.18); // the slight tilt a right hand actually lands with
-  ctx.fillStyle = UI.cream; ctx.strokeStyle = 'rgba(8,12,10,0.75)'; ctx.lineWidth = 1;
-  ctx.beginPath(); ctx.roundRect(-2.2, 0, 4.4, 11, 2.2); ctx.fill(); ctx.stroke(); // index finger, tip at origin
-  ctx.beginPath(); ctx.roundRect(-3.2, 8, 11.5, 10, 4); ctx.fill(); ctx.stroke();  // the curled fist behind it
-  ctx.beginPath(); ctx.ellipse(-2.6, 12.5, 2.4, 3.6, 0.55, 0, 7); ctx.fill(); ctx.stroke(); // folded thumb
-  ctx.strokeStyle = 'rgba(8,12,10,0.35)'; // two knuckle creases — what makes the blob read as fingers
-  ctx.beginPath(); ctx.moveTo(2.4, 9.5); ctx.lineTo(2.4, 13.5); ctx.moveTo(5.4, 9.5); ctx.lineTo(5.4, 13.5); ctx.stroke();
+  ctx.translate(Math.round(x), Math.round(y) - 3 + press * 4);
+  ctx.scale(s, s);       // 1.4 default — the first cut was "you could recognize it, but…" small
+  ctx.rotate(-0.15);     // the slight tilt a right hand actually lands with
+  ctx.fillStyle = UI.cream; ctx.strokeStyle = 'rgba(8,12,10,0.8)'; ctx.lineWidth = 1;
+  ctx.beginPath(); ctx.roundRect(-2.5, 0, 5, 15, 2.5); ctx.fill(); ctx.stroke();  // index finger, tip at origin
+  ctx.beginPath(); ctx.roundRect(-2.5, 12, 13, 11, 5); ctx.fill(); ctx.stroke();  // the palm behind it
+  // three CURLED fingers along the palm's leading edge — the knuckle bumps are what make the
+  // silhouette read as a pointing hand instead of a mitten
+  for (const [bx, by, br] of [[4.5, 13.2, 2.4], [7.4, 13.7, 2.2], [9.9, 14.4, 2.0]]) {
+    ctx.beginPath(); ctx.arc(bx, by, br, 0, 7); ctx.fill(); ctx.stroke();
+  }
+  ctx.beginPath(); ctx.ellipse(-3.9, 17.5, 2.6, 4.4, 0.6, 0, 7); ctx.fill(); ctx.stroke(); // thumb, out to the side
+  ctx.strokeStyle = 'rgba(8,12,10,0.35)'; // fingernail hint on the tip
+  ctx.beginPath(); ctx.arc(0, 3, 1.6, 0, 7); ctx.stroke();
   ctx.restore();
 }
 // the contact ring a mimed tap leaves on the glass: grows and fades under the fingertip
 function drawTapRing(x, y, p) {
   ctx.save();
   ctx.globalAlpha *= Math.max(0, 0.9 * (1 - p));
-  ctx.strokeStyle = UI.warm; ctx.lineWidth = 1.5;
-  ctx.beginPath(); ctx.arc(x, y, 3 + p * 12, 0, 7); ctx.stroke();
+  ctx.strokeStyle = UI.warm; ctx.lineWidth = 2;
+  ctx.beginPath(); ctx.arc(x, y, 4 + p * 16, 0, 7); ctx.stroke();
   ctx.restore();
 }
 
@@ -1255,12 +1267,13 @@ function demoSwipe(dx, dy, label) {
   ctx.lineTo(hx - dx * s * 0.7 - dy * s, hy - dy * s * 0.7 - dx * s);
   ctx.fill();
   // ...and say it in words. The mime alone was too abstract to read as an instruction.
-  ctx.font = F(8);
+  ctx.font = F(10); // hint type is 10 now, one size up — arm's-length readable was the ask
   ctx.textAlign = 'center'; ctx.textBaseline = 'top';
   // The label sits under the TRACK, not under the arrowhead — following the arrow sideways would
   // carry it off the edge of the screen, and clearing the full travel below a horizontal stroke
   // left it floating in the middle of an empty apron with nothing to attach itself to.
-  shadowText(label, ax, ay + (dy ? travel + 24 : 18), UI.warm);
+  // (offsets clear the bigger hand: its palm hangs ~32 px below the fingertip now)
+  shadowText(label, ax, ay + (dy ? travel + 36 : 38), UI.warm);
   // the ghost hand riding the stroke, pressed into the glass for the whole draw
   ctx.globalAlpha = gone ? 0 : 0.9;
   drawGhostHand(ax + dx * len, ay + dy * len, 1);
@@ -1294,9 +1307,9 @@ function drawTapHint() {
   ctx.save(); ctx.globalAlpha = 0.9;
   if (t >= 0.72 && t < 1.32) drawTapRing(ax, ay, (t - 0.72) / 0.6);
   drawGhostHand(ax, ay, press);
-  ctx.font = F(8); ctx.textAlign = 'center'; ctx.textBaseline = 'top';
-  shadowText('TAP TO TOSS', ax - 20, ay + 26, UI.warm);
-  shadowText('TAP AGAIN AT THE TOP', ax - 20, ay + 38, UI.warm);
+  ctx.font = F(10); ctx.textAlign = 'center'; ctx.textBaseline = 'top';
+  shadowText('TAP TO TOSS', ax - 20, ay + 40, UI.warm);
+  shadowText('TAP AGAIN AT THE TOP', ax - 20, ay + 54, UI.warm);
   ctx.restore();
 }
 // two dropped tosses in a row: the hand rides the ball itself and presses exactly at the apex,
@@ -1308,8 +1321,8 @@ function drawApexHint() {
   ctx.save(); ctx.globalAlpha = 0.9;
   if (press > 0.55) drawTapRing(b.x + 4, b.y + 4, 1 - press); // tight at the apex, blooming as it passes
   drawGhostHand(b.x + 4, b.y + 4, press);
-  ctx.font = F(8); ctx.textAlign = 'center'; ctx.textBaseline = 'top';
-  shadowText('TAP AT THE TOP', b.x, b.y - 24, UI.warm);
+  ctx.font = F(10); ctx.textAlign = 'center'; ctx.textBaseline = 'top';
+  shadowText('TAP AT THE TOP', b.x, b.y - 28, UI.warm);
   ctx.restore();
 }
 // two returns passed untouched: the hand presses harder as the ball closes on the player
@@ -1321,8 +1334,8 @@ function drawHitHint() {
   ctx.save(); ctx.globalAlpha = 0.9;
   if (press >= 1) drawTapRing(hx, hy, (G.idleT * 2) % 1);
   drawGhostHand(hx, hy, press);
-  ctx.font = F(8); ctx.textAlign = 'center'; ctx.textBaseline = 'top';
-  shadowText('TAP AS IT ARRIVES', hx - 26, hy + 34, UI.warm);
+  ctx.font = F(10); ctx.textAlign = 'center'; ctx.textBaseline = 'top';
+  shadowText('TAP AS IT ARRIVES', hx - 26, hy + 44, UI.warm);
   ctx.restore();
 }
 
@@ -1739,15 +1752,19 @@ export function render() {
     : Math.max(G.changeover > 0 ? G.changeover : 0,
                G.phase === 'over' ? G.overT : 0,
                G.interlude ? G.interlude.introT : 0);
-  if (waitT > 0.5) {
-    // Kept clear of the ad strip — centred on H alone it landed right on the boards, which is the
-    // busiest band on the screen. The strip's own projected line is the ceiling, so it stays legible
-    // whatever the phone's height does to the layout. A 1px shadow, not a box, carries it over the crowd.
+  // A live card owns the band and IS the announcement of the pause — the countdown yields to it.
+  if (waitT > 0.5 && !(G.card && G.card.t > 0 && !(G.card.wait > 0))) {
+    // In the message band with the rest of the family, and on its OWN PANEL: bare shadowed text
+    // was barely readable over the sunlit clay crowd (Oliver flagged it every court since).
     // Plain Silkscreen on purpose — a countdown is information, not an announcement.
     const txt = 'RESUMING IN ' + Math.ceil(waitT);
-    const y = Math.min(Math.round(H * 0.34), Math.round(proj(0, 0, -6).y) - AD_H - 16);
+    const y = Math.min(FLASH_Y + 26, AD_TOP() - 18);
     ctx.font = F(10);
-    shadowText(txt, W / 2, y, hexA(UI.warm, 0.92));
+    const tw = Math.ceil(ctx.measureText(txt).width);
+    ctx.lineWidth = 1;
+    panel(W / 2 - tw / 2 - 7, y - 4, tw + 14, 18, 3, 'rgba(8,26,18,0.85)', hexA(UI.warm, 0.4));
+    ctx.textBaseline = 'top';
+    shadowText(txt, W / 2, y, hexA(UI.warm, 0.95));
   }
   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.font = F(8);
@@ -1763,15 +1780,15 @@ export function render() {
     // so this slot shuts up rather than printing the same instruction a second time 40 px below it
     const demo = G.mode === 'splatter' && !G.interlude && !gunLike && G.idleHintT > TUNE.pullHintAfter;
     const tapDemo = G.mode === 'tennis' && G.serveNum !== 2 && G.idleHintT > TUNE.pullHintAfter;
+    // The gesture-teaching strings ('PULL DOWN TO AIM…', 'TAP TO TOSS…') are GONE — the ghost hand
+    // is the teacher now, and saying the same thing twice in two registers was clutter. This slot
+    // only carries STATE the mime cannot: which weapon the serve fires, and a second serve.
     const txt = G.mode === 'splatter' && !G.interlude
       ? (gunLike ? (touch ? `TAP TO UNLOAD THE ${sel}` : `SPACE UNLOADS THE ${sel}`)
-        : G.aim ? 'PULL DOWN: FURTHER = HARDER'
-        : slotId(G.weapon) !== 'ball' ? `SERVE FIRES: ${sel} · ${switchHint}`
-        : demo ? ''
-        : touch ? 'PULL DOWN TO AIM · RELEASE TO FIRE' : 'DRAG DOWN TO AIM · SPACE SERVES')
+        : !G.aim && slotId(G.weapon) !== 'ball' ? `SERVE FIRES: ${sel} · ${switchHint}`
+        : '')
       : G.serveNum === 2 ? (touch ? 'SECOND SERVE — TAP' : 'SECOND SERVE — SPACE')
-        : tapDemo ? '' // the ghost hand says it in mime and in its own words
-        : (touch ? 'TAP TO TOSS, TAP TO SERVE' : 'SPACE TO TOSS, SPACE TO SERVE');
+        : '';
     if (txt) shadowText(txt, W / 2, METER_Y(), UI.warm); // same slot the draw meter uses
     if (demo) drawPullHint(); // show the gesture instead of only naming it
     if (tapDemo) drawTapHint();