Lab culture

The hero’s culture at the scale of a section, and the one you can handle.

Motion

Laboratory

Cells	one named cell per experiment and 10–24 unnamed ones by area, seeded so the layout is the same on every visit at a given size
Wiring	each joined to its two nearest neighbours by a bowed axon, and the named cells joined in order, so it is one network
Alive	the hero’s sway and breathing at ~30fps while in view; every 2.4–5.6s a cell fires on its own
Pointing	a cell leans toward the pointer; a named cell fires once (360ms flare, a pulse down each axon at 0.9px/ms)
Dragging	a cell pulls its neighbours on springs and settles back when let go; held at the band’s edge it strains and fires in ink
Opening	the fibre grows to the card in 200ms with an ink spark at its tip; the card burns in from where it lands (360ms)
Band	23 modules tall, 16 when narrower than 720px, on paper at --ground-veil
Reduced motion	still: no sway, no firing, dragged cells snap back, the fibre is whole at once and the card cuts in

From src/lib/exposure/lab-culture.ts and the guide’s Motion §12.

Firing in ink

An earlier version fired user cascades in red and read as too much red. Only the open experiment’s cell is --state.
Preview, don’t switch

Pointing at a name only previews it: switching the panel on hover changed it on the way to it, and a click on a cell left the site (Oct 2026).
The culture runs on under the card

An earlier version cleared the tissue from under the card, and the card burned out onto a blank patch.
Strain at the edge

A dragged cell used to follow the pointer out and vanish behind the band’s edge; now it stops and strains, so the stop reads as the tissue resisting rather than a wall.
Handled, not read

The lab, the one section that is experiments, can be handled like the hero’s culture rather than read like a list.