diff --git a/docs/guide/cancellation.rst b/docs/guide/cancellation.rst
index 3b97b380..bd749405 100644
--- a/docs/guide/cancellation.rst
+++ b/docs/guide/cancellation.rst
@@ -230,22 +230,23 @@ Graceful first, hard as a last resort
 
    The hard-kill path is *skipped* whenever an actor in the tree
    holds the debug-REPL lock (``debug_mode=True`` flavors):
-   SIGTERM raining down on a tree mid-``pdb`` session would
+   Process signals raining down on a tree mid-``pdb`` session would
    clobber your prompt. See :doc:`/guide/debugging`.
 
-Every process teardown in ``tractor`` walks the same escalation
-ladder, top rung first,
+Owned-child teardown in ``tractor`` begins with the same graceful
+steps, then selects the escalation path used by its supervisor,
 
 1. **graceful cancel request**: a runtime-cancel msg over IPC; the
    target actor cancels its tasks, closes its channels and exits
    its :func:`trio.run` cleanly,
 2. **soft wait**: the parent waits (bounded) for the child process
    to exit on its own,
-3. **SIGTERM**: no ack within the bounded wait (internally an
-   ``ActorTooSlowError``) escalates to ``proc.terminate()``,
-4. **SIGKILL ultimatum**: still alive after the hard-kill timeout
-   (~1.6s)? The runtime logs that the "T-800" has been deployed to
-   collect the zombie and issues ``proc.kill()``. No survivors.
+3. **actor-nursery hard reap**: no cancel ack within the bounded wait
+   (internally an ``ActorTooSlowError``) escalates directly to
+   ``proc.kill()`` before the child monitor joins the process,
+4. **legacy soft-kill path**: older teardown callers may first issue
+   ``proc.terminate()`` and then deploy the "T-800" ``proc.kill()``
+   ultimatum if the process survives that additional bounded wait.
 
 The result is the **no-zombies guarantee**: ``tractor`` tries to
 protect you from zombies, no matter what. Quoting the project
diff --git a/tests/discovery/test_multi_program.py b/tests/discovery/test_multi_program.py
index 1030de6e..f4b31ef8 100644
--- a/tests/discovery/test_multi_program.py
+++ b/tests/discovery/test_multi_program.py
@@ -207,7 +207,7 @@ def test_dup_name_cancel_cascade_escalates_to_hard_kill(
 
     Post-fix, `Portal.cancel_actor()` raises `ActorTooSlowError` on
     the bounded-wait timeout, and `ActorNursery.cancel()`'s
-    per-child wrapper escalates to `proc.terminate()` (hard-kill).
+    per-child wrapper escalates directly to `proc.kill()` (hard-reap).
     The full nursery teardown therefore stays bounded even under
     pathological timing.
 
@@ -266,7 +266,7 @@ def test_dup_name_cancel_cascade_escalates_to_hard_kill(
 
         # post-teardown sanity: every child proc must be reaped.
         # If escalation worked, even timed-out cancel-RPCs would
-        # have triggered `proc.terminate()` and the procs are dead.
+        # have triggered `proc.kill()` and the procs are dead.
         for p in portals:
             # `Portal.channel.connected()` -> False once the
             # underlying chan disconnected (clean exit OR
diff --git a/tractor/runtime/_portal.py b/tractor/runtime/_portal.py
index fffaf98b..7b4c8ff0 100644
--- a/tractor/runtime/_portal.py
+++ b/tractor/runtime/_portal.py
@@ -292,7 +292,7 @@ class Portal:
         - `True`: on bounded-wait expiry, raise `ActorTooSlowError`
           so the caller MUST handle the failure explicitly.
           `ActorNursery.cancel()` opts in so it can escalate via
-          `proc.terminate()` per SC-discipline.
+          direct `proc.kill()` hard-reaping per SC-discipline.
 
         '''
         __runtimeframe__: int = 1  # noqa