diff --git a/docs/NOW.md b/docs/NOW.md
index 803e13475..c1d378de5 100644
--- a/docs/NOW.md
+++ b/docs/NOW.md
@@ -1,3 +1,16 @@
+# NOW -- a dead simulator is not a design that emitted nothing (2026-08-18)
+
+Last updated: 2026-08-18
+
+## tools: check vvp's exit code and its own TIMEOUT marker (Closes #2193)
+
+- **Last site of the class, and it sits on the load-bearing proof.** `verify_emit_bitexact.py:127` took `vvp`'s stdout with no exit-code check. A crashed simulator yields a short Y-list, and the next check reports `step count RTL=0 PY=80` -- which reads as *the RTL emitted no outputs*, a design fault. Nothing had been compared
+- **The testbench already said so and nobody read it.** It prints `TIMEOUT` into the very stdout the script parses. A design that ran out of simulated time is not a design that disagrees with the model, and the two want different fixes
+- Exit code first (with the signal number when negative), then the `TIMEOUT` marker, then the step count -- which now states that vvp exited 0 and printed no TIMEOUT, so a mismatch there is real
+- **Verified by shortening the testbench timeout** so the branch fires, not by reading. Clean tree still exits 0
+- **Class closed.** Two `run(...).stdout` sites remain, both `git ls-files` inside `try/except` with `check=True` and an rglob fallback: a git failure raises and is handled, not swallowed
+- Dropped a hardcoded `#60000000` from the message on the second pass -- a literal copied into prose is exactly the drift this cycle has been correcting
+
 # NOW -- two required checks were a single echo (2026-08-18)
 
 Last updated: 2026-08-18
diff --git a/tools/verify_emit_bitexact.py b/tools/verify_emit_bitexact.py
index 376139817..6004b7e40 100644
--- a/tools/verify_emit_bitexact.py
+++ b/tools/verify_emit_bitexact.py
@@ -124,10 +124,30 @@ def check(g, arch, workdir):
                        capture_output=True, text=True)
     if r.returncode != 0:
         print(f"FAIL {arch}: iverilog compile error\n{r.stderr}"); return False
-    out = subprocess.run(["vvp", vvp], capture_output=True, text=True).stdout
+    sim = subprocess.run(["vvp", vvp], capture_output=True, text=True)
+    out = sim.stdout
+    # A simulator that died, or one that hit the testbench's own TIMEOUT, produces a
+    # short Y-list -- which the step-count check below would report as "the RTL
+    # emitted the wrong number of outputs", i.e. a design fault. It is not: nothing
+    # was compared. Ask the exit code, and read the marker the testbench prints.
+    if sim.returncode != 0:
+        sig = f" (signal {-sim.returncode})" if sim.returncode < 0 else ""
+        print(f"FAIL {arch}: vvp exited {sim.returncode}{sig} -- the simulation did not "
+              f"run to completion, so nothing was compared")
+        for line in (sim.stderr or "").strip().splitlines()[:6]:
+            print(f"    {line}")
+        return False
+    if "TIMEOUT" in out:
+        print(f"FAIL {arch}: the testbench hit its own TIMEOUT after "
+              f"{len(re.findall(r'^Y ', out, re.M))} of {len(py)} steps -- the design did "
+              f"not finish, which is not the same as disagreeing with the model")
+        return False
     rtl = [tuple(map(int, m.split())) for m in re.findall(r"^Y ([\d ]+)$", out, re.M)]
     if len(rtl) != len(py):
-        print(f"FAIL {arch}: step count RTL={len(rtl)} PY={len(py)}"); return False
+        print(f"FAIL {arch}: step count RTL={len(rtl)} PY={len(py)}"
+              f" -- vvp exited 0 and printed no TIMEOUT, so this is a real output-count "
+              f"disagreement, not a dead simulation")
+        return False
     mism = [(i, p, r_) for i, (p, r_) in enumerate(zip(py, rtl)) if p != r_]
     if mism:
         print(f"FAIL {arch}: {len(mism)}/{len(py)}; first step {mism[0][0]} py={mism[0][1]} rtl={mism[0][2]}")