Severed axon
The 404: signals run in, reach the cut and scatter.
Anatomy
| Fibre | 6px wide, wandering up to 12px off a gentle bow; solid tissue, glow and a grain halo in --tissue through the Bayer matrix |
|---|---|
| The cut | its last 8% tapers, breaks twice and frays into three loose hairs and five fragments |
| Node | an open ring 32px across, the writing index’s mark for something that isn’t there |
| Signal | every 3–5s the hero’s pulse runs in at 180 points a second and breaks at the cut into twelve grains that drift toward the node and fade short of it |
| Taps | a tap sends one more; at most three signals are in flight |
| Cost | it runs inside a band across the hero, so a frame is a pass over that band, not the screen |
| Reduced motion | whole and still; nothing fires |
From src/lib/exposure/severed.ts and the guide’s Motion §15.
Decisions
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Nothing answers
Chosen from five studies and tuned in a full-fidelity prototype; the other endings (a bloom at the stump, the signal simply running out) and a visible sending cell weren’t chosen.
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No arrival of its own
It is whole from the first frame, so the cascade reveals it with the page; growing in after the cascade was a second arrival (Oct 2026).
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A cap on taps
At most three signals, so taps can’t stack work (Oct 2026, Shan’s request).
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Replaced the scanbed
The “botched exposure”, the last page in the darkroom language, soft grey outside the 1-bit rules and off the grid.