diff --git a/HellionChat/Ui/StyleEngine/HoverState.cs b/HellionChat/Ui/StyleEngine/HoverState.cs
index 15775ad..0f1246c 100644
--- a/HellionChat/Ui/StyleEngine/HoverState.cs
+++ b/HellionChat/Ui/StyleEngine/HoverState.cs
@@ -61,7 +61,10 @@ internal static class HoverState
         // OR, never assign: a second caller in the same frame that is not hovered
         // must not cancel the first one that is.
         entry.Hovered |= hovered;
-        return entry.Value;
+
+        // Callers get the eased value; the entry keeps the linear one, which is
+        // what the evict rule and the advance step are written against.
+        return HoverMath.Ease(entry.Value);
     }
 
     // Never re-entrant: BeginFrame runs once from the draw thread, AdvanceForTest
diff --git a/HellionChat/Util/HoverMath.cs b/HellionChat/Util/HoverMath.cs
index 7a2d624..6fd8263 100644
--- a/HellionChat/Util/HoverMath.cs
+++ b/HellionChat/Util/HoverMath.cs
@@ -1,12 +1,17 @@
 namespace HellionChat.Util;
 
 // State rules for the held hover value, split from HoverState so the build suite
-// can pin them without an ImGui frame. Rates follow Lightless (Selune.cs:36-37):
-// slower out than in is what makes a fade read as deliberate rather than laggy.
+// can pin them without an ImGui frame. Slower out than in is what makes a fade
+// read as deliberate rather than laggy (the asymmetry follows Lightless,
+// Selune.cs:36-37).
+//
+// The rates started at 14/s in and 8/s out -- a full fade-in in seventy
+// milliseconds, which tester feedback called light speed. Half that now: rise in
+// about 150ms, settle in about 250ms, which is where UI fades usually live.
 internal static class HoverMath
 {
-    internal const float FadeInPerSecond = 14f;
-    internal const float FadeOutPerSecond = 8f;
+    internal const float FadeInPerSecond = 6.5f;
+    internal const float FadeOutPerSecond = 4f;
 
     // Below this an entry is indistinguishable from zero and can be dropped.
     internal const float EvictBelow = 0.001f;
@@ -20,4 +25,9 @@ internal static class HoverMath
         );
 
     internal static bool ShouldEvict(float value, bool hovered) => !hovered && value <= EvictBelow;
+
+    // Smoothstep over the linear state. The state itself stays linear -- evict
+    // and threshold logic depend on it -- but what callers paint with starts
+    // gently and lands gently instead of moving at one speed and stopping dead.
+    internal static float Ease(float t) => t * t * (3f - 2f * t);
 }