Smokey, this is the first playtest unsent has gotten from anyone but me, so thank you, genuinely. And all three of your notes land.
Erase: you're right that a tap has to do something. It only bites on a hold right now, so a tap reads as broken. Fixing that.
The bare number under the draft is the wait clock. Unlabeled it does look like debug output. Either it gets a label or it goes, still deciding which.
Your question is the real find. Honest answer: no. Every wait currently gets an immediate reply from Mira, so hesitation costs nothing. That's the flaw. The whole game is about the pause being the one thing you both can see, and I built the counter but never gave waiting any teeth. Next change: some waits let her go quiet back, and let her silence outlast yours.
But the ending landing for you is the part I actually needed to know. Thanks for reaching it.