diff --git a/src/components/journal/var-reactivity.ts b/src/components/journal/var-reactivity.ts
index 804b689..95ffca7 100644
--- a/src/components/journal/var-reactivity.ts
+++ b/src/components/journal/var-reactivity.ts
@@ -137,14 +137,11 @@ export function getCombined(key: string, fallback?: VariableStore): string {
     return String(baseNum + modSum);
   }
 
-  // Fall back to stream store
+  // Fall back to stream store. The stream value is authoritative for
+  // variables not tracked locally — it already includes any mods from
+  // the sender's engine, so we return it as-is without adding local mods.
   const fb = fallback?.[key];
-  if (fb !== undefined) {
-    if (isTagValue(fb)) return fb;
-    const fbNum = parseFloat(fb);
-    if (!isNaN(fbNum)) return String(fbNum + modSum);
-    return fb;
-  }
+  if (fb !== undefined) return fb;
 
   // No base, but has mods
   if (mods.length > 0) return String(modSum);