diff --git a/docs/rfcs/0014-mod-driven-actors-and-adopted-link-sessions.md b/docs/rfcs/0014-mod-driven-actors-and-adopted-link-sessions.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..4294bcbe
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+++ b/docs/rfcs/0014-mod-driven-actors-and-adopted-link-sessions.md
@@ -0,0 +1,158 @@
+# RFC 0014: Mod-driven world actors and adopted link sessions
+
+## Status
+
+Proposed.
+
+## Motivation
+
+A mod can already spawn a runtime object with `mod.world:spawnNpc` and can
+already start a link battle. It cannot make either of them behave like
+something the mod itself owns.
+
+Three walls, each of which stops a mode rather than inconveniencing it:
+
+**An actor cannot move on its own schedule.** The only public way to animate a
+spawned object is `Handle:scriptMove`, which queues onto
+`OverworldState.scriptMoves`. A non-empty `scriptMoves` is how the overworld
+knows a cutscene is running -- `handleInput` gates on it -- so anything
+animated that way freezes the player's controls for as long as it walks. That
+is correct for Oak marching into his lab and wrong for an ambient walker or a
+networked player's ghost, which move continuously and must not lock anyone out.
+
+**A spawned object cannot answer the A press.** Talking is resolved from the
+map's text tables by `TEXT_*` id. A runtime object has no id, so the vanilla
+path has nothing to say for it, and the mod that created it has no way to say
+anything either.
+
+**A link battle cannot ride a connection the mod already has.** `LinkState`
+owns pairing, so a mode that already has a socket to its peer must either open
+a second connection for the battle or reimplement lockstep. And when the
+battle ends, cable rules leave the real party untouched, so the damage exists
+only in the battle's own copies -- which are gone by the time the state
+unwinds. A mode built on link battles cannot learn what the fight cost.
+
+The immediate consumer is an overworld multiplayer mode, but nothing here is
+specific to it: the first two are wanted by any mod with an actor that moves
+itself, and the third by any mode that runs battles over its own transport --
+a tournament ladder, a draft, a gauntlet.
+
+## The decision it extends
+
+This adds nothing to the compatibility surface's shape; it extends the
+**additive, guarded seam convention** that Route B in `CONTRIBUTING-mods.md`
+documents, and is gated by the parity guarantee `tests/engine/gate_meta_coverage.lua`
+enforces ("21-testing-and-ci: a parity gate for every extension point"; M14).
+
+There is no in-repo D-number registry to amend; the consuming design lives
+outside this repository, as it did for RFC 0011.
+
+## Exact API delta
+
+### New hook: `world.talk`
+
+```lua
+mod.hooks:wrap("world.talk", function(next, ow, target)
+  -- ow     = the OverworldState raising it
+  -- target = the object on the faced cell
+  if mine(target) then
+    say(target)
+    return                    -- the mod answered; the text path is skipped
+  end
+  return next(ow, target)     -- anything else falls through unchanged
+end)
+```
+
+Call site: `OverworldState:interact`, on the branch that has already resolved
+an object on the faced cell (including across a counter) and confirmed it is
+not mid-step and not the Pikachu follower. It runs before the map's text
+tables are consulted. With no subscriber, `Runtime.call` invokes the vanilla
+fallthrough, which is a file-local function rather than a per-press closure,
+so an unhooked A press allocates nothing it did not allocate before.
+
+### New event: `link.battle_ended`
+
+```lua
+mod.events:on("link.battle_ended", function(ev)
+  -- ev = {
+  --   result     = "win" | "lose" | "draw" | "ended",
+  --   myParty    = lockstep copy of our party,
+  --   theirParty = lockstep copy of theirs,
+  --   peerName   = string,
+  --   role       = "host" | "guest",
+  -- }
+end)
+```
+
+Call site: `LinkState:update`, in the `battleRunning` stage, once the battle
+state has been popped and before `exitWith` unwinds the link stack. Guarded by
+`Runtime.wants("link.battle_ended")`, so with no subscriber no payload table
+is allocated and the branch runs exactly as before.
+
+The party copies are the point of the event. They are the lockstep records the
+battle actually fought with, which is where the damage lives under cable rules.
+
+### New `WorldAPI` handle methods
+
+```lua
+handle:stepNow(dir)        --> true when the step started
+handle:canStep(dir)        --> would stepNow land somewhere legal?
+handle:placeAt(x, y, dir)  --> snap, no animation, clears a step in flight
+handle:isMoving()          --> true while a step is animating
+handle:setPassable(flag)   --> may the player walk through this object?
+```
+
+`stepNow` sets the same per-tile state `scriptMove` does, without the queue and
+therefore without the input lockout. It does **not** consult collision: the
+intended caller is replaying a move already decided elsewhere (validated on a
+peer, or authored), and re-judging it locally would let two copies of the same
+actor disagree about where it is. `canStep` is the separate opinion for callers
+that want it. `setPassable` sets the flag `Collision.occupied` already honours
+for Yellow's companion Pikachu; a passable object still draws and still talks.
+
+### Two supporting changes
+
+`Game:startNewGame(opts)` -- the title screen's NEW GAME closure, made callable,
+with `opts.intro = false` to land directly in the world. A mode that issues its
+own starting state has no use for the intro cutscene.
+
+`CodeEntry.new(shape)` -- accepts an optional `{ length =, charset = }`, so the
+slot-scrub widget that enters a link code can also carry a room code or a
+host:port address. Called with no argument it is byte-for-byte the previous
+widget.
+
+## Migration and compatibility
+
+**Existing mods change nothing.** Every item above is a new name or a new
+optional argument; no existing name, payload, signature, or default changes.
+
+The v1 surface is unaffected: `content.X:register/override/get`, `events:on`,
+`hooks:wrap`, `mod.log`, `mod:read`, the manifest v1 fields and
+`pokemon.before_give` all behave as before. `mods/example_mew_starter` -- api 1,
+`category = "GAMEPLAY"`, whole-species copy -- loads unchanged, which
+`tests/run_modkit.lua` proves on every run.
+
+With no subscriber to either seam, Red, Blue, Yellow, Gold and Silver behave
+exactly as they did: the A press reaches `talkTo`, the link battle unwinds
+without building an event payload, and no handle method is reachable unless a
+mod calls it.
+
+## Verification
+
+- `tests/modkit/cases/world_talk.lua` drives the real `OverworldState:interact`
+  path. It asserts the unhooked build first (the A press reaches `talkTo`),
+  then that a mod owning the object suppresses the text path by not calling
+  `next`, that an object the mod ignores still falls through, and that an
+  object mid-step raises no hook at all.
+- `tests/modkit/cases/link_battle_ended.lua` drives the real `LinkState:update`
+  path. It asserts that with nothing subscribed the event is not wanted (so no
+  payload is built) and the battle still unwinds, then that a subscriber
+  receives the result, the role, the peer name and both party copies including
+  the damage the real party never took, from both sides of the cable.
+- `tests/engine/gate_hooks.lua` and `tests/engine/gate_events.lua` walk the live
+  catalog, so both seams are parity-gated structurally; `gate_meta_coverage`
+  passes 208/208 with both names covered and no DEBT entry added.
+
+## Deprecation etiquette
+
+Nothing is removed, renamed, superseded or deprecated.
diff --git a/src/link/LinkState.lua b/src/link/LinkState.lua
index 44ae1841..9e119a5d 100644
--- a/src/link/LinkState.lua
+++ b/src/link/LinkState.lua
@@ -544,7 +544,7 @@ function LinkState:update(dt)
       -- (cable rules), so a mode that wants it -- a tournament ladder, a
       -- battle royale -- reads it from here before the state unwinds
       local battle = self.battle
-      if battle then
+      if battle and Runtime.wants("link.battle_ended") then
         Runtime.emit("link.battle_ended", {
           result = battle.result or "ended",
           myParty = battle.playerParty,
diff --git a/src/world/OverworldController.lua b/src/world/OverworldController.lua
index 47dda17e..4696f9fa 100644
--- a/src/world/OverworldController.lua
+++ b/src/world/OverworldController.lua
@@ -1964,6 +1964,10 @@ function OverworldState:pushableAtCell(cx, cy)
   return nil
 end
 
+-- world.talk's fallthrough, hoisted so the A press does not build a closure
+-- on every press just to have one to hand a hook nobody may have wrapped
+local function vanillaTalk(ow, target) ow:talkTo(target) end
+
 -- what the A press resolved to, for world.interacted's listeners
 local function interacted(self, fx, fy, kind, target)
   Runtime.emit("world.interacted", { mapId = self.map.id, x = fx, y = fy,
@@ -1998,8 +2002,7 @@ function OverworldState:interact()
       -- no TEXT_* id, so the vanilla path has nothing to say for it; a mod
       -- that owns the object wraps this and simply does not call next().
       -- Everything else falls straight through to talkTo as before.
-      Runtime.call("world.talk", function(ow, target) ow:talkTo(target) end,
-                   self, npc)
+      Runtime.call("world.talk", vanillaTalk, self, npc)
     end
     interacted(self, fx, fy, "npc", npc)
     return
diff --git a/tests/modkit/cases/link_battle_ended.lua b/tests/modkit/cases/link_battle_ended.lua
index 93c5ff9c..c27916fe 100644
--- a/tests/modkit/cases/link_battle_ended.lua
+++ b/tests/modkit/cases/link_battle_ended.lua
@@ -58,7 +58,11 @@ end
 
 -- ------- no mod: the battle still ends, nothing observes it
 
+local Runtime = require("src.mods.Runtime")
+
 local vanilla = T.sdk.loadNone({})
+T.check(not Runtime.wants("link.battle_ended"),
+  "with nothing subscribed the event is not wanted, so no payload is built")
 local quiet = finishedSession("win", true)
 quiet:update(0)
 T.check(quiet.exited, "with no mod loaded the finished battle still unwinds")