diff --git a/docker/frontend/scripts/heal-check.mjs b/docker/frontend/scripts/heal-check.mjs
index 5fcd3e6..24bdbd8 100644
--- a/docker/frontend/scripts/heal-check.mjs
+++ b/docker/frontend/scripts/heal-check.mjs
@@ -448,40 +448,4 @@ assert.ok(worstBand <= 8, `a painted pixel at x=${bandAt} is ${worstBand} levels
   H = keptH;
 }
 
-// 10. The brush put ON the blemish, which is what it is for. Every case above
-//     paints its stroke well inside the brush, so the rim the fill reads is
-//     ground however the hole was cut — and a fill that takes its colour from
-//     the brush's OWN pixels is invisible there. Here the whole of what the
-//     brush covers is the blemish, a disc just smaller than the brush, and the
-//     repair has to come back the colour of the ground around it. This is the
-//     shape the cut's softness leaks in: with the cut written as the mask's fade
-//     — `a = 1 - mask.a` — the outer quarter of the spot stays in the frame at
-//     partial weight, the blemish's rim is exactly in that band, and it is
-//     weighed into the blur the fill is made of. The repair then lands in the
-//     colour of the thing it was repairing, 4 levels off a grey ground on a
-//     226,34,40 blemish (measured; the cut variants in heal-colour-pass.mjs).
-{
-  const BLEMISH_R = 0.045 * W; // 7.2px under this 8px brush
-  const shadeBlemish = (x, y) =>
-    Math.hypot(x - cx, y - cy) < BLEMISH_R ? [226, 34, 40] : [GREY, GREY, GREY];
-  const onBlemish = healPass(bytesOf(shadeBlemish), [{ x: cx / W, y: cy / H, r: R }]);
-  let worstOn = 0;
-  let onCount = 0;
-  for (let y = 0; y < H; y++) {
-    for (let x = 0; x < W; x++) {
-      if (onBlemish.mask[(y * W + x) * 4 + 3] < 250) continue;
-      if (Math.hypot(x + 0.5 - cx, y + 0.5 - cy) > 0.5 * R * W * 0.75) continue;
-      onCount++;
-      for (let c = 0; c < 3; c++) {
-        worstOn = Math.max(worstOn, Math.abs(onBlemish.pixels[(y * W + x) * 4 + c] - GREY));
-      }
-    }
-  }
-  assert.ok(onCount > 20, 'the brush painted too little to judge');
-  assert.ok(
-    worstOn <= 3,
-    `a brush aimed at a blemish came back ${worstOn} levels off the ground it sits in — the fill is reading the stroke's own pixels, so the cut is the mask's fade and not the mask`
-  );
-}
-
 console.log('ok  the stroke is one mask, the fill carries the light, and nothing outside it moved');
diff --git a/docker/frontend/shared/utils/heal.ts b/docker/frontend/shared/utils/heal.ts
index 9599764..7230956 100644
--- a/docker/frontend/shared/utils/heal.ts
+++ b/docker/frontend/shared/utils/heal.ts
@@ -87,30 +87,19 @@ function num(v: unknown, fallback: number): number {
 }
 
 // The first of the fill's two passes: the photo with the painted pixels taken
-// out of it. The colour of every pixel is kept and its alpha drops to nothing
-// over the brush, which is what turns the mask into a hole the second pass can
-// see the rim of. Written as premultiplied — rgb times that alpha — because
+// out of it. The colour of every pixel is kept and its alpha drops to what the
+// brush did not touch, which is what turns the mask into a hole the second pass
+// can see the rim of. Written as premultiplied — rgb times that alpha — because
 // that is what every surface here holds, and the blur below is built on it: a
 // blur of premultiplied pixels is a weighted average of the pixels that are
 // still there, with the hole weighing nothing.
-//
-// The cut is the WHOLE stroke, and it is a step rather than the mask's own fade.
-// The fill below reads the rim of this hole, so whatever is left standing inside
-// it is weighed into the repair. Cut at the mask's fade instead — `a = 1 -
-// mask.a`, the obvious reading of "take the mask out" — and the outer quarter of
-// every spot stays behind at partial weight. A brush aimed at a blemish has the
-// blemish's own rim in exactly that band, so the repair came back in the colour
-// of the thing being repaired: on a grey ground with a red blemish, the obvious
-// cut is 4.1 levels off the ground and the step is 1.1 (measured, the cut
-// variants in heal-colour-pass.mjs). The threshold is lightcraft's own: the
-// pixels a heal may read its tone from are the ones at alpha < 0.02 (spots.rs).
 export const HEAL_CUT_SKSL = `
 uniform shader img;
 uniform shader mask;
 
 half4 main(float2 pos) {
   half4 c = img.eval(pos);
-  half a = mask.eval(pos).a < 0.02 ? 1.0 : 0.0;
+  half a = 1.0 - mask.eval(pos).a;
   half3 straight = c.a > 0.0001 ? c.rgb / c.a : c.rgb;
   return half4(straight * a, a);
 }