diff --git a/tests/screenshare_host_fault.rs b/tests/screenshare_host_fault.rs
index a0e2fe2..f70aa3d 100644
--- a/tests/screenshare_host_fault.rs
+++ b/tests/screenshare_host_fault.rs
@@ -256,6 +256,240 @@ async fn a_dead_host_is_torn_down_and_a_clean_stop_stays_clean() {
     }
 }
 
+/// S2 presence gate: a host fault must pull the share ticket off PRESENCE —
+/// what remote peers actually see — and must do it BEFORE the reap wait, not
+/// after. Nothing on the sharer's own `UiEvent` channel can witness either
+/// half (presence is only observable from another node), so this test runs a
+/// real second core as an OBSERVER and asserts the sharer's `PeerState.sharing`
+/// goes `Some` → `None` on fault.
+///
+/// The observer runs in a SEPARATE PROCESS (`presence_probe_helper`, this same
+/// test binary re-invoked): two in-process cores would load the same
+/// `identity.key` and collapse into one node id, and swapping `XDG_CONFIG_HOME`
+/// between spawns in-process races other threads' getenv.
+///
+/// The fake host is a WEDGE — it closes stdout (the fault) but ignores SIGINT
+/// and lives until the SIGKILL fallback — so `stop_host` burns the full 2 s
+/// grace and TIME becomes the discriminator, exactly like the SIGINT gate:
+/// with presence-removal-first the observer sees the ticket clear ~1 s after
+/// it appeared (the wedge's pre-fault lifetime); with the old
+/// reap-then-presence ordering, only after ~3 s. The bound also makes the
+/// "presence removal deleted" mutant fail by timeout instead of passing
+/// vacuously.
+///
+/// Live: two real solo-room cores (audio backend + network bind each).
+#[tokio::test]
+#[ignore = "live: two real cores in one room (audio backend + network bind), observer subprocess"]
+async fn a_host_fault_pulls_the_ticket_off_presence_within_the_grace() {
+    /// Mirrors `core::teardown::STOP_GRACE` (private): the wait the wedge
+    /// forces before the SIGKILL fallback reaps it.
+    const STOP_GRACE_MS: u128 = 2000;
+
+    let dir_guard = TempDir(
+        std::env::temp_dir().join(format!("peerspeak-presence-gate-{}", std::process::id())),
+    );
+    let dir = dir_guard.0.clone();
+    std::fs::create_dir_all(&dir).unwrap();
+
+    // Emits its ticket, shares for ~1 s, then closes stdout (the fault) while
+    // staying alive and ignoring SIGINT, so the reap must wait out the grace.
+    // The trailing sleep is NOT exec'd on purpose: it forks after stdout is
+    // closed, so it holds no pipe (the vacuous-staleness trap doesn't apply),
+    // and it merely idles out after the SIGKILL reaps the shell.
+    //
+    // The fake ticket must pass `screenshare::sanitize_ticket` (`endpoint` +
+    // alphanumerics): the OBSERVER's gossip ingest sanitizes peer-advertised
+    // tickets, and a garbage one is nulled to `sharing: None` there — the
+    // probe would never see the share appear and the gate would go vacuous.
+    let wedged_host = write_fake_pixelpass(
+        &dir,
+        "pixelpass-wedges",
+        "#!/bin/sh\ntrap '' INT\n\
+         echo '{\"event\":\"ticket\",\"value\":\"endpointaabwxjexzensznfvuudiapn5tyzws3angd2merarm\"}'\n\
+         sleep 1\nexec 1>&-\nsleep 30\n",
+    );
+
+    let (ui_tx, mut ui_rx) = tokio::sync::mpsc::channel(256);
+    let controller = CoreController::new(ui_tx);
+
+    assert!(controller.send(CoreCommand::SetPixelpassPath(Some(
+        wedged_host.to_string_lossy().into_owned()
+    ))));
+    assert!(controller.send(CoreCommand::Join {
+        name: "presence-gate".into(),
+        ticket: "create".into(),
+        room_name: "s2-presence".into(),
+        input_device: None,
+        output_device: None,
+        echo_cancellation: false,
+        avatar: Default::default(),
+    }));
+    let room_ticket = wait_for(&mut ui_rx, "RoomJoined", |ev| match ev {
+        UiEvent::RoomJoined { ticket, .. } => Some(ticket.clone()),
+        UiEvent::Error(e) => panic!("join failed: {e}"),
+        _ => None,
+    })
+    .await;
+
+    // The observer, in its own process with its own config dir (fresh
+    // identity). It prints `PROBE …` lines this test parses.
+    let probe_config = dir.join("probe-config");
+    std::fs::create_dir_all(&probe_config).unwrap();
+    let probe = tokio::process::Command::new(std::env::current_exe().unwrap())
+        .kill_on_drop(true)
+        .args([
+            "presence_probe_helper",
+            "--exact",
+            "--ignored",
+            "--nocapture",
+        ])
+        .env("PEERSPEAK_PROBE_TICKET", &room_ticket)
+        .env("XDG_CONFIG_HOME", &probe_config)
+        .stdout(std::process::Stdio::piped())
+        .stderr(std::process::Stdio::piped())
+        .spawn()
+        .expect("spawn the presence probe");
+
+    // Only share once the probe is in the room, so it witnesses the ticket
+    // APPEARING before the fault clears it (otherwise `Some` → `None` could
+    // both predate its join and the gate would go vacuous).
+    wait_for(&mut ui_rx, "the probe's PeerJoined", |ev| match ev {
+        UiEvent::PeerJoined { .. } => Some(()),
+        UiEvent::Error(e) => panic!("waiting for the probe: {e}"),
+        _ => None,
+    })
+    .await;
+
+    assert!(controller.send(CoreCommand::StartScreenShare {
+        audio_app: None,
+        settings: Default::default(),
+        quality: Default::default(),
+    }));
+    wait_for(
+        &mut ui_rx,
+        "ScreenShareStarted (wedged host)",
+        |ev| match ev {
+            UiEvent::ScreenShareStarted => Some(()),
+            UiEvent::Error(e) => panic!("share start failed: {e}"),
+            _ => None,
+        },
+    )
+    .await;
+
+    // Sharer-side contract, unchanged by the reorder: Stopped first, the
+    // explanatory error only after.
+    wait_for(
+        &mut ui_rx,
+        "ScreenShareStopped after the wedge faults",
+        |ev| match ev {
+            UiEvent::ScreenShareStopped => Some(()),
+            UiEvent::Error(e) => panic!("error arrived before ScreenShareStopped: {e}"),
+            _ => None,
+        },
+    )
+    .await;
+    let err = wait_for(&mut ui_rx, "the host-death error", |ev| match ev {
+        UiEvent::Error(e) => Some(e.clone()),
+        _ => None,
+    })
+    .await;
+    assert!(
+        err.contains("unexpectedly"),
+        "the error should say the share ended unexpectedly, got: {err}"
+    );
+
+    let out = tokio::time::timeout(Duration::from_secs(60), probe.wait_with_output())
+        .await
+        .expect("probe process outlived its budget")
+        .expect("probe process wait");
+    let stdout = String::from_utf8_lossy(&out.stdout);
+    let stderr = String::from_utf8_lossy(&out.stderr);
+    assert!(
+        out.status.success(),
+        "probe failed ({}).\nstdout:\n{stdout}\nstderr:\n{stderr}",
+        out.status
+    );
+    let cleared_ms: u128 = stdout
+        .lines()
+        .find_map(|l| l.strip_prefix("PROBE sharing-cleared "))
+        .unwrap_or_else(|| {
+            panic!("probe never saw the ticket clear from presence.\nstdout:\n{stdout}")
+        })
+        .trim()
+        .parse()
+        .expect("probe delta should be integer millis");
+    // Presence-removal-first: ~1000 ms (the wedge's pre-fault lifetime).
+    // Reap-then-presence: ~3000 ms (lifetime + the full stop grace). The
+    // grace itself splits them with ~1 s of jitter headroom on each side.
+    assert!(
+        cleared_ms < STOP_GRACE_MS,
+        "presence kept advertising the dead share for {cleared_ms} ms after it appeared — \
+         at or past the wedge lifetime + stop grace, i.e. the ticket was only removed \
+         AFTER the reap wait instead of before it"
+    );
+
+    assert!(controller.send(CoreCommand::Leave));
+}
+
+/// Observer half of `a_host_fault_pulls_the_ticket_off_presence_within_the_grace`,
+/// run BY that test as a subprocess. Standalone (no `PEERSPEAK_PROBE_TICKET` in
+/// the env — e.g. a plain `--ignored` sweep) it is a no-op pass.
+#[tokio::test]
+#[ignore = "helper: spawned by the presence gate as a subprocess; standalone it no-ops"]
+async fn presence_probe_helper() {
+    let Ok(room_ticket) = std::env::var("PEERSPEAK_PROBE_TICKET") else {
+        return;
+    };
+
+    let (ui_tx, mut ui_rx) = tokio::sync::mpsc::channel(256);
+    let controller = CoreController::new(ui_tx);
+    assert!(controller.send(CoreCommand::Join {
+        name: "presence-probe".into(),
+        ticket: room_ticket,
+        room_name: String::new(),
+        input_device: None,
+        output_device: None,
+        echo_cancellation: false,
+        avatar: Default::default(),
+    }));
+    wait_for(&mut ui_rx, "RoomJoined (probe)", |ev| match ev {
+        UiEvent::RoomJoined { .. } => Some(()),
+        UiEvent::Error(e) => panic!("probe join failed: {e}"),
+        _ => None,
+    })
+    .await;
+
+    // Watch the sharer's presence: record when its `sharing` ticket appears,
+    // report the delta when it clears. Timings on both ends are local-loopback
+    // arrival times, so the parent's bound compares like with like.
+    let deadline = tokio::time::Instant::now() + Duration::from_secs(30);
+    let mut seen_at: Option<std::time::Instant> = None;
+    loop {
+        let ev = tokio::time::timeout_at(deadline, ui_rx.recv())
+            .await
+            .expect("probe timed out watching for the sharing transition")
+            .expect("probe ui channel closed");
+        let sharing = match &ev {
+            UiEvent::PeerJoined { state, .. } | UiEvent::PeerUpdated { state, .. } => {
+                state.sharing.is_some()
+            }
+            _ => continue,
+        };
+        match (&seen_at, sharing) {
+            (None, true) => {
+                seen_at = Some(std::time::Instant::now());
+                println!("PROBE sharing-seen");
+            }
+            (Some(t0), false) => {
+                println!("PROBE sharing-cleared {}", t0.elapsed().as_millis());
+                break;
+            }
+            _ => {}
+        }
+    }
+    assert!(controller.send(CoreCommand::Leave));
+}
+
 /// The long-owed Stop Share SIGINT gate (0c half (ii)), against the REAL
 /// pixelpass binary: a Stop Share must end the host through the graceful
 /// SIGINT path — child exits within [`STOP_GRACE`], no SIGKILL fallback, no