PRE-REFINEMENTS

fable/01-intent-vs-execution.md

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+# Intent vs. execution
+
+The project states its intent unusually well, in four layers:
+
+- **originalprompt.md** (May 19): "One goal is large format print. Vector
+  graphics are ideal. …seed/hash concept for reproducibility. This is an art
+  project."
+- **DESIGN.md**: one renderer-agnostic scene model, many renderers; "get the β
+  statistics right and the image reads as authentic."
+- **PRINT.md**: a ~2.5 × 4 m wall piece, assembled from registered SVG geometry
+  + raster texture layers.
+- **roadmap.md**: the feelings — awe, stillness, melancholy, scale-vertigo, the
+  numinous — and a guiding test: *"does it deepen the sense that we are looking
+  at a real trace of something unseen — and does it reward standing closer?"*
+
+Below, each declared intent against what the repo actually shows.
+
+---
+
+## 1. "Large-format print" — the founding goal is the least-executed one
+
+The print pipeline is real and good: `tools/render.sh`, a hand-rolled CMYK PDF
+writer with OCG layers (`src/render/pdf.js`, 295 lines, genuinely impressive),
+Inkscape-convention layered SVG, resolution math in PRINT.md.
+
+The execution record: `output/masters/` holds 7 masters across 5 seeds, **all
+dated May 20–21** — the first 48 hours. No master exists from any of the eight
+creative phases since. No `_9000.png` photographic master is on disk. The tiled
+renderer PRINT.md names as the escape hatch for the 4 m dimension
+(`tools/render-tiled.mjs` — "ask and I'll build it") was never built. The dev
+entry `index.html` still says "Print target: 24″ × 24″", contradicting the
+2.5 × 4 m ambition in PRINT.md — neither has been updated because neither has
+been tested against a physical object.
+
+Every phase since May 21 stopped at 1300–1600 px exploration renders. The
+roadmap's guiding test — "does it reward standing closer?" — is a question about
+a physical print viewed by a body, and it has never once been asked of a
+physical print. **The project optimizes a feeling it has not yet measured.**
+
+## 2. "One scene model, many renderers" — the seam holds; the look leaks
+
+DESIGN.md's architectural claim is verifiably true in the strict sense: all 11
+files in `src/scene/` are pure data, zero canvas/DOM references. Bubble
+positions come from one shared salted stream and land identically in raster,
+SVG, and PDF. The discipline held for six weeks of feature growth. That is rare
+and worth saying plainly.
+
+But the *look* was never given the same seam. Style decisions live triplicated
+as freehand copies inside the three renderers, and they have already drifted:
+
+- Bubble radius: `rr*foot(soft)` in canvas, `b.r*scale*1.15` in SVG,
+  `b.r*scale` (no 1.15) in PDF — three renderers, three bubble sizes.
+- Fiducial arm length: 6u canvas, 9u SVG, 8u PDF.
+- ~150–200 lines of formulas (under-stroke width, bubble alpha, disk-stroke
+  alpha, iridescent spectrum mix) exist in verbatim triplicate.
+- PDF quietly lags: no vignette, no media layer (grease pencil / réseau / film
+  furniture), no shock stains, no fingerprints. Fingerprints are canvas-only.
+  Whole parameters (`boundaryY/R`, `diskPressure`, `emit`, `transparentPaper`)
+  exist only in the SVG renderer.
+
+`bubbleStops()` in palette.js — one edge profile consumed by both the canvas
+sprite gradient and the SVG radial gradient — is the model the rest of the look
+logic should have followed. The architecture document describes the seam that
+exists; it does not mention the seam that's missing.
+
+## 3. "Determinism is a feature. The seed as a true name" — true at the altar, loose in the pews
+
+The salt discipline (`makeRng(seed, 'subsystem')`) is followed at feature
+granularity: changing cosmic count cannot move the shock disk; `eventX/eventY`
+overrides still burn their rng draws so downstream is stable. Someone thought
+about this carefully.
+
+But within modules the promise breaks: dialing `shockStriations` reshuffles the
+rim segments, rings, stains, *and* core cracks; the `artifacts` slider re-rolls
+every scratch and dust speck instead of fading them; the density slider —
+nominally a render-mode param — reshuffles every bubble position on every
+track. And the theology weakens with distance from the original generator:
+PRINT.md admits manual slider tweaks are *not* part of the seed fingerprint;
+`src/qft/params.js` claims "seed → complete fingerprint" while the camera,
+ripples, vortices, and wavepackets have **no seeded path at all** — a bare QFT
+seed always yields the default isometric lattice. The true name names less and
+less of the plate the further you get from `src/scene/`.
+
+## 4. The confirmed bug that is secretly the thesis
+
+`renderQFTSVG` silently drops ripple grids. The scene builder creates
+`id:'ripple'` grids; the renderer emits only `cubic`, `schlegel`, and `e8`
+layers (`src/qft/renderer.js:178-181`). Verified at runtime: a scene declaring
+ripples renders an SVG with no ripple geometry. This has been true since the
+single "Added QFT" commit.
+
+Consequence: sketch08's entire premise ("RIPPLES — concentric expanding
+wavefronts"), sketch09's `03_vortex-with-spinning-ripples`,
+`15_perturbation-cascade`, `17_spectral-vortex-storm` — **106 hand-authored
+variation configs, and every one that invoked ripples shipped a plate whose
+label describes a feature absent from the image.** Two subsequent sketch series
+were art-directed on top of it. Nobody noticed, because the plates were judged
+by eye against feelings, not against their own scene models.
+
+Note what happened here: a project whose subject is *evidence of the invisible*,
+which forges archival captions ("PLATE 095 · EXPOSED 1972"), produced a
+catalogue of plates whose captions confidently describe invisible content. The
+fiction became true by accident. There are two valid responses — fix it, or
+recognize it (see [04-ideas.md](04-ideas.md) §3, the neutrino argument) — but
+the current state, where the archive lies and the author doesn't know, is the
+only wrong one.
+
+## 5. "The series is an argument" — the argument exists; it's the repo itself
+
+Roadmap principle 5 wants Becher-typology grids, a fabricated catalogue, an
+archive. Phase 4 is marked "in progress" and the media layer (grease pencil,
+sprockets, réseau) shipped beautifully — the BEBC-1973 output plate genuinely
+reads as a worn archival photograph; I looked.
+
+Meanwhile, without noticing, the project *built an actual archive*: 19 output
+directories, 675 tracked files, ten gallery `index.html`s, sketch series 01–09,
+templates 1–4, a wall-mock (`tools/archive-wall.html`) frozen at the May 29
+curation. It has the true properties of real archives: numbered series with
+missing entries (perspective1/2 scripts deleted, their outputs orphaned),
+instruments that no longer match their plates (`compositions/hero.mjs` uses
+radial-grid keys the code no longer reads), mislabeled holdings (§4), and an
+expedition that never reported back (the `milkweed-wind-field` branch). The
+fabricated-archive artwork the roadmap plans is a *simulation* of what the repo
+has *actually become*. That inversion is the most interesting unexploited
+material in the project.
+
+## 6. Physics honesty — the one place intent and execution fully agree
+
+The code is candid about its fakery in a way most generative-art code isn't:
+δ-rays are analytic log spirals because integrating to sub-percent radii "is
+unreliable" (the header says so); the shock disk announces "Not physics — a
+chamber/window pressure artifact"; every particle in this universe has mass 1;
+V-decays conserve neither momentum nor anything else. The load-bearing claim —
+get the 1/β² bubble statistics right and the eye accepts everything — is
+correct, and the outputs prove it. One comment lies (`delta.js:53` claims the
+angular step gets finer toward the center; the formula coarsens it), which is
+the kind of thing that only matters because the rest of the codebase has earned
+the habit of being believed.
+
+## 7. The drift nobody wrote down
+
+The documents describe a project: *one generator, deepened along a staged plan.*
+The git history records a different project: *a widening fleet of instruments* —
+bubble chamber → QFT lattices → carpet/perspective primitives → composition
+schema → art-historical templates → element liberation → watercolor → milkweed —
+where each phase spawns a fork-and-mutate tool family and a fresh output
+directory, and commits are creative sessions ("vast ocean", "Element
+Liberation"), not code changes. Neither mode is wrong. But the roadmap still
+narrates mode one while the hands do mode two, which is why Phase 3 (the
+translucent stacked print — the *stated* strongest fusion) has had no work at
+all while two unplanned renderers and two unplanned subject-matters shipped.
+The truest sentence in the repo is in the memory index, not the roadmap:
+"typology MATRIX of standalone singles." The roadmap should be made to say what
+the project has decided by doing.

fable/02-current-state.md

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+# Current state — factual snapshot (2026-07-04)
+
+## Codebase
+
+| Area | Size | State |
+|---|---|---|
+| Core (`src/rng` + `scene/` + `render/` + `ui/` + `main` + build) | ~3,220 lines | Committed, disciplined, small |
+| QFT (`src/qft/`) | 9 files, ~1,250 lines | Committed (one commit, May 29) |
+| Compose (`src/compose/`) | 4 files, ~680 lines | Committed |
+| Watercolor (`src/render/watercolor.js`) | 427 lines | **Uncommitted** (Jun 24–25) |
+| Milkweed-botanical (`src/milkweed/umbel.js`) | 169 lines | **Uncommitted** (Jun 25) |
+| Milkweed-windfield (`src/field/wind.js`, `src/scene/umbel.js`, `src/scene/drift.js`, GROUP_BUILDERS registry) | ~225 lines + compose rework | **Committed on unmerged branch** `milkweed-wind-field` (63066ee, Jun 17, also pushed) |
+| Tools | 37 files, ~4,750 lines | Committed except 3 newest |
+
+Git: 12 commits on `main`, May 20 → Jun 10. Last commit **24 days ago**. The
+uncommitted watercolor + milkweed work is a 2-day session (Jun 24–25) followed
+by 9 days of silence. An entire fourth renderer exists only in the working tree.
+
+## The two milkweeds (important — memory/docs conflate them)
+
+1. **Branch** `milkweed-wind-field`: the "hidden realities" system — one
+   divergence-free wind field (closed-form time integral, elegantly done), three
+   detectors (dunes/water/seeds), umbel-as-vertex, drift-as-advection, plus the
+   GROUP_BUILDERS registry refactor of the composition engine. Committed Jun 17,
+   never merged.
+2. **Working tree on main** (`src/milkweed/umbel.js`): a *different* milkweed —
+   a botanical Asclepias still-life scene built for the watercolor renderer.
+   Does not import the wind field.
+
+Both export `generateUmbel` with **incompatible signatures**. Merging the branch
+as-is collides. This is an unmade decision materialized as two files.
+
+## Renderers
+
+4 renderers for bubble-chamber scenes (photo raster / SVG / PDF / watercolor);
+QFT has only its own SVG renderer — no photographic or watercolor QFT exists.
+Feature parity: PDF lags (no media layer, vignette, stains, fingerprints); SVG
+has private params (`boundary*`, `diskPressure`, `emit`, `transparentPaper`);
+~150–200 lines of look logic triplicated and drifting (three bubble sizes).
+Watercolor integrates through the proper seam (same signature, shared
+`sampleBubbles`/`depthFactors`, palette registry extended not bypassed), with
+known rough edges: dead `preview` flag, scratch-canvas cache keyed by width
+only, heavy per-pigment blur cost at print resolution, no UI entry point yet —
+reachable only via `tools/preview.html?renderer=watercolor`.
+
+## Parameter surface
+
+≈68 total: 53 in the UI (43 sliders / 2 selects / 8 toggles) + ~15 hidden or
+SVG-only. Flat namespace is starting to encode per-palette sub-schemas by label
+convention ("(magentarise)" ×3). Every new param is a 3–4 place edit.
+
+## Tools & outputs
+
+- 8 durable pipeline tools; ~25 one-off sketch scripts (fork-and-mutate: the
+  same `merge()` helper verbatim in 5 files, `F()` color helper redefined in 12
+  of 17 QFT tools, the contact-sheet HTML inlined 17 times). Zero shared
+  tool-level utility module.
+- `output/`: 2.4 GB, 19 directories, 675 tracked files. Chronology: inspiration
+  → masters (May 20–21) → 5 iteration series → QFT sketches 01–09 → qft-bc →
+  layering (642 MB, the largest) → liberation → templates 1–4 → watercolor +
+  milkweed (untracked).
+- `output/masters/`: 7 masters, 5 seeds, all from May 20–21. Nothing since.
+
+## Stale / dead weight
+
+- `bubble_chamber.html` — the headline "portable single file" deliverable —
+  built May 31, now 3.5 weeks behind `src/` (missing the milkweed palette, the
+  Jun 17 svgVector changes, watercolor). Nothing detects staleness; the built
+  file stamps *that* it was built, not from what.
+- `bubble_chamber.v2.html` — superseded snapshot, dead.
+- `tools/archive-wall.html` — hardcodes the May 29 curation; predates
+  templates/liberation/watercolor.
+- `compositions/hero.mjs` — the only file in `compositions/`; uses radial-grid
+  keys (`vp`, `rays`, `depthLines`) that `gridSheets` now silently ignores.
+- `tools/inkwash-export.mjs` — self-declared superseded by the native
+  watercolor renderer ("kept as a record").
+- `composer.html` — works, but one phase behind (untouched during watercolor).
+- `package.json` — 3 npm scripts, all from May 20; none of the ~25 later tools
+  registered.
+- `tools/render-qft-svg.mjs` references a `render-milkweed-svg.mjs` that
+  doesn't exist.
+
+## Known bugs
+
+1. **Ripple grids silently dropped** by `renderQFTSVG` (`src/qft/renderer.js:178-181`)
+   — every "ripple" variation across sketches 08–09 shipped without its subject.
+2. `drawDamage`/`drawInstrument` last param named `inv` but called with `light`
+   (`src/render/canvasPhoto.js:110,208`) — works today, trap for the next edit.
+3. `perspectiveGridSVG` creates an rng it never uses — the compose layer's
+   'pA'/'pB' salts do nothing for radial grids.
+4. Dead pre-palette-era fields in `canvasPhoto.js` `palette()`; `delta.js:53`
+   comment inverts what the formula does; `watercolor.js:374` `0.05 * 8`.

fable/03-feedback.md

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+# Feedback
+
+Ordered by how much I think each item matters. Praise is included only where
+it's load-bearing for a recommendation.
+
+## 1. You are avoiding the print, and the repo shows it
+
+Eight creative phases in six weeks, and the master pipeline — the thing the
+project exists for — was last fed on day two. This has the signature of a
+familiar creative pattern: exploring is reversible and always rewarding;
+printing is a commitment that risks discovering the piece doesn't work at
+scale. So the exploration space keeps widening (new generator, new renderer,
+new subject) because widening is the move that never has to survive contact
+with a wall.
+
+The honest counter-argument is that the vocabulary wasn't ready. It's ready.
+The BEBC plates read as archival photographs; the watercolor stillwater study
+holds up; PRINT.md already contains the assembly recipe. Every week of further
+exploration is now producing information about the *screen* version of a *wall*
+piece. One A1/A2 test print of one strong seed would generate more course
+correction than any three future sketch series — it will tell you whether the
+grain scales, whether the δ-ray curls reward approach, whether "standing
+closer" works, and it will almost certainly reorder the roadmap.
+
+## 2. Decisions are being deferred into the working tree
+
+Three currently open:
+
+- The wind-field milkweed (branch, Jun 17) vs. the botanical milkweed (working
+  tree, Jun 25) — two incompatible `generateUmbel`s. Which milkweed is *the*
+  milkweed, or are they two subjects (a field study and a specimen plate)?
+  Either answer is fine; not answering is what costs.
+- The watercolor renderer: 427 good lines, uncommitted for 10 days. Ten more
+  days of this and merging the branch becomes an archaeology project.
+- The GROUP_BUILDERS registry on the branch is a strictly better composition
+  engine than what's on main, independent of milkweed. It could be
+  cherry-picked today.
+
+A useful rule given how you work (commits = sessions): **end every session with
+a commit, even a WIP one.** Your commits are already narrative; let them be
+frequent-narrative.
+
+## 3. Nothing verifies that a plate contains what its scene model says
+
+The ripple bug survived three sketch series because the only QA is your eye,
+and your eye judges *feeling*, not *inventory*. Determinism is the project's
+religion, but determinism without ground truth just means you reproducibly get
+the wrong image. Cheap fixes that fit the project's culture:
+
+- A layer-census check: render a scene, assert every `id` in the scene model
+  produced a nonempty layer/group in the output. ~30 lines, would have caught
+  the ripple drop on day one.
+- Golden-seed snapshots: 3–4 canonical seeds rendered per renderer, diffed on
+  commit (you already have headless Chrome plumbing in `shoot.sh`).
+- Stamp the build: embed the source git hash + date in `bubble_chamber.html`
+  so staleness is visible instead of silent.
+
+## 4. The look needs its own seam
+
+The scene/renderer split is genuinely well-kept — which makes it strange that
+the *style* never got the same treatment. Three renderers currently disagree
+about bubble size, and each new visual feature is hand-ported (or, for PDF,
+quietly not). `bubbleStops()` already demonstrates the fix: one shared module
+of style formulas (stroke widths, alphas, radii, spectrum mixes) consumed by
+all renderers. This is a half-day of consolidation that removes the largest
+source of drift in the codebase. Do it before renderer #5, because there will
+be a renderer #5.
+
+## 5. Sketch tools: keep the data, share the harness
+
+The 17 QFT scripts are a legitimate serial sketchbook — the variation configs
+*are* the artwork's process record, and hardcoded OUT dirs are honest about
+their one-shot nature. But the 12-line render loop, `F()`, `paper()`, and the
+gallery HTML are copy-pasted across all of them, with signature drift. One
+40-line `renderSketch(outDir, baseSeed, variations)` harness turns every future
+sketch into a pure data file. Same for the deep-`merge()` in 5 compose tools.
+Don't retrofit the old ones; they're finished documents. Change the template
+for the next one.
+
+## 6. Small structural debts worth an hour each
+
+- `carpet.js`/`perspgrid.js` are compose-system primitives parked in
+  `src/qft/` — they share nothing with the QFT pipeline.
+- `src/compose/composition.js` imports parameter defaults from
+  `src/ui/controls.js` — the headless engine depends on the UI layer. Move
+  defaults down; let the UI consume them.
+- The `MILK` pigment table just colonized core `palette.js` from the milkweed
+  satellite. One entry is fine; it's the precedent to watch — palettes should
+  be injectable from the satellite that owns them.
+- Delete or archive: `bubble_chamber.v2.html`, `tools/inkwash-export.mjs` (it
+  says goodbye in its own header), `tools/find-semicircle.mjs`. Fix or delete
+  `compositions/hero.mjs` (currently half-ignored by the code) and
+  `tools/archive-wall.html` (frozen curation), or explicitly rename them as
+  dated snapshots.
+- `params.js` QFT: either seed the camera/perturbation params or drop the
+  "seed → complete fingerprint" claim from the header. The claim is currently
+  the documentation equivalent of the ripple bug.
+
+## 7. What's working — keep doing these on purpose
+
+- **Literate headers.** Nearly every file explains *why the fake was chosen
+  over the real*. This is the best code-as-notebook practice I've seen in a
+  personal art repo, and it's why the intent/execution comparison in this
+  review was even possible.
+- **The β thesis.** "Get the statistics right and the eye believes" was the
+  founding bet and it paid; the outputs are convincing at thumbnail and at
+  1500 px. Protect that thesis as you add renderers — watercolor already
+  correctly routes 1/β² into stroke weight.
+- **Deterministic fiction.** Plate numbers and exposure dates derived from the
+  seed hash — the forgery itself is reproducible. This idea is bigger than its
+  current use (see ideas §2).
+- **Commits as sessions** produce a legible creative history. The fix from §2
+  isn't to change the style, just the frequency.

fable/04-ideas.md

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+# Ideas to explore
+
+Ordered roughly by information-per-effort. §1 is the forcing function; the rest
+are perpendicular moves the roadmap doesn't already contain (I've skipped
+things roadmap.md lists — stereo pairs, sonification, animation — except where
+there's a twist).
+
+## 1. The calibration print — and make the calibration itself the artwork
+
+Not "eventually print the piece": print a *test instrument*. One strong seed
+(LAMBDA-2648 already has three disk-variant masters) rendered as an A1 sheet
+that deliberately contains its own diagnostics — a strip of the plate at 1:1
+wall scale, a δ-ray magnified 10×, grain swatches at three DPIs, the archival
+header, a ruler. Real labs print calibration targets; yours would be a
+fictional lab's calibration target, which means it's simultaneously the
+cheapest possible print test *and* a legitimate piece in the archive fiction.
+You cannot art-direct "does it reward standing closer" from a screen, and this
+turns the scary commitment into a small in-universe document.
+
+## 2. Generate the catalogue raisonné from the repo itself
+
+The project plans a *fabricated* archive (Phase 4) while sitting on a *real*
+one: 675 outputs, 19 directories, sketch series with gaps, orphaned plates
+whose generating instruments were deleted, a wall-mock frozen at an old
+curation. Perpendicular move: a tool that walks `output/` + `git log` and
+typesets the actual history as an archival catalogue — every plate with its
+seed, commit hash as accession number, session name ("vast ocean") as
+expedition title, *including* the losses ("plates 07–14: instrument lost,
+holdings retained"). The deterministic-fiction machinery (seed → plate number →
+exposure date) already exists; point it at the truth. This is the Becher-grid
+"series is an argument" piece, except the argument is real, and it costs a
+script rather than a new subsystem.
+
+## 3. The neutrino plate — the bug is pointing at something
+
+Before fixing the ripple bug, notice what it made: plates whose captions
+describe content that isn't visible. That is *literally the most famous bubble
+chamber result*. Gargamelle's 1973 neutral-current discovery — the actual lab
+your plates cite — was an image where the evidence was an *absence*: a neutrino
+enters, nothing appears, an electron suddenly moves. A deliberate series of
+"invisible content" plates — captions and grease-pencil annotations
+confidently marking events the plate doesn't show, a measured arrow pointing
+at blank emulsion, `EVENT: ν̄ CANDIDATE` over undisturbed paper — is the
+purest possible execution of the roadmap's founding line: *evidence of the
+invisible*. The most devotional plate in the archive should be the one where
+faith is required. (Then fix the renderer, and let the ripples exist on
+purpose.)
+
+## 4. Fill the matrix — subjects × mediums is the actual typology
+
+Your own memory note already names the thesis: "typology MATRIX of standalone
+singles." Make the matrix literal. You have subjects {bubble chamber, QFT
+lattice, milkweed/wind} and mediums {photographic, clean vector, CMYK plate,
+watercolor} — and only ~half the cells exist. No photographic QFT (a *lattice*
+shot on worn film, with grain and grease pencil, would be extraordinary and is
+mostly plumbing — QFT only ever got an SVG renderer). No watercolor QFT. No
+photographic milkweed (a botanical subject shot as if it were a physics event —
+herbarium-as-detector). The empty cells are cheaper than any new subject
+because both axes already exist; and a wall hung *as the matrix* — same seed
+down each column — is the standalone-singles argument stated in one object.
+
+## 5. One hidden field, many instruments — say the quiet thesis out loud
+
+The wind-field branch stumbled onto the project's real unifying idea: **one
+invisible cause, several detectors that each transduce it differently** (dunes
+remember, water reports instantaneously, seeds integrate along their path).
+Notice the bubble chamber is already this — the B-field and beam are the
+hidden cause; chamber, film, and scanner are the detector chain. The QFT plates
+are this — the vacuum as field, lattices as instruments. Reframed, the project
+isn't "a bubble chamber generator plus spinoffs"; it's *portraits of invisible
+fields, each painted by the instruments that can feel them*. Concretely: merge
+the branch's field/detector separation into the architecture (`src/field/` as
+a first-class layer any subject can sample), and let one seed drive the same
+hidden field through a chamber plate, a dune plate, and a water plate — a
+triptych where the viewer slowly realizes all three images are the *same
+event*. That's the scale-vertigo feeling the roadmap chases, produced
+structurally instead of stylistically.
+
+## 6. The failure plates
+
+Real bubble chamber archives are mostly failures: empty triggers, double
+exposures, boiling chamber, light leaks, frames where the beam didn't arrive.
+Your generator only makes successes. A `misfire` archetype — blank plates with
+full film furniture, an over-exposed white-out with one surviving corner, a
+splice through the event — does three things: deepens the archive fiction
+(archives without failures read as fake), gives the typology grids their
+necessary rest-notes (24 perfect plates read as wallpaper; 21 + 3 failures read
+as history), and it's nearly free — the media/damage layers already exist and
+just need permission to win.
+
+## 7. Verification as darkroom craft, not engineering chore
+
+Framing matters in a solo art repo: don't build "CI", build *the darkroom
+contact sheet*. One command that renders the golden seeds through all four
+renderers onto a single dated sheet, with the layer census (§feedback 3)
+printed in the margin like exposure notes. Run it when you commit. It catches
+the next ripple bug, documents renderer drift as a visible artifact, and the
+sheets themselves accumulate into a record of the project's eye changing over
+time — which, given idea §2, eventually becomes material.
+
+## 8. The seed as edition certificate
+
+"The seed as a true name" is currently a private convenience. Push it to the
+viewer-facing surface: the frame label carries the seed, the git hash of the
+renderer, and the sentence "this image can be re-derived, at any size,
+forever." An edition where what's sold/kept is effectively *the name plus the
+instrument version* is both honest about how the work is made and — because
+PRINT.md's fingerprint claim currently has holes (manual tweaks, unseeded QFT
+params) — it forces the discipline to become real: if the seed is the
+certificate, everything must actually live in the seed. Theology becomes
+engineering requirement.
+
+---
+
+**One anti-idea, for balance:** no fifth subject and no fifth renderer until
+something hangs on a wall. The pattern analysis in 01/03 says the next new
+instrument is the most likely next move and the least informative one
+available. The wind field (§5) is exempt because it consolidates instruments;
+everything else can wait a print.

fable/README.md

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+# fable/ — an outside reading of the bubble chamber project
+
+Written 2026-07-04 by Claude (Fable 5), after a full review: every doc, the core
+`src/` tree, the QFT and compose subsystems, the milkweed/watercolor working set,
+all 37 tools, the 2.4 GB output archive, the git history on `main`, and the
+unmerged `milkweed-wind-field` branch. Outputs were viewed, not just listed.
+
+Four documents:
+
+1. **[01-intent-vs-execution.md](01-intent-vs-execution.md)** — what the project
+   says it is vs. what the repo shows it does. The interesting gaps, including
+   one confirmed rendering bug that is also, accidentally, the most on-theme
+   thing in the archive.
+2. **[02-current-state.md](02-current-state.md)** — a factual snapshot: what
+   exists, what's committed, what's stale, what's stranded on a branch.
+3. **[03-feedback.md](03-feedback.md)** — critique. The habits that are working,
+   the ones that are quietly costing you, and the decisions currently deferred
+   into the working tree.
+4. **[04-ideas.md](04-ideas.md)** — directions to explore, weighted toward the
+   perpendicular ones the roadmap doesn't already contain.
+
+The one-paragraph version: **the images earn their ambition; the stated purpose
+of the project is the only part of it that has never been exercised.** This is a
+large-format print project with no evidence of a print — the master pipeline was
+built in the first 48 hours and never fed again, while eight subsequent creative
+phases produced 2.2 GB of screen-resolution sketches. The instinct that keeps
+generating new instruments (QFT, compositions, milkweed, watercolor) is the
+project's engine and its avoidance mechanism at the same time. The single
+highest-information act available right now costs less than any feature on the
+roadmap: pick one seed and send it to a printer.

fable/stack/SPEC.md

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+# The Chamber as a Volume — acrylic stack spec & depth design
+
+A backlit, six-plane physical piece for the eufyMake E1: three acrylic sheets,
+printed front **and** back, spaced with air gaps over an LED panel. This is
+roadmap Phase 3 made literal — the scene model's per-track `z` and `age` stop
+being opacity tricks and become actual millimetres.
+
+## Physical stack (proposed — buy list at bottom)
+
+```
+viewer
+  ─ C-front   the hand: grease pencil, réseau, fiducials, header, scratches
+  ═ sheet C   3 mm clear cast acrylic
+  ─ C-back    near scatter: δ-ray curls, close cosmics
+      ~6 mm air gap
+  ─ B-front   THE EVENT: sharp beaded track cores
+  ═ sheet B   3 mm
+  ─ B-back    halation: the same tracks, blurred — real glow-behind-the-line
+      ~6 mm air gap
+  ─ A-front   history: older background events, sinking
+  ═ sheet A   3 mm
+  ─ A-back    the cause: pressure disk (CMYK-only → pure glow) + chamber optics
+      ~12 mm gap
+  ▤ diffuser  frosted acrylic 2–3 mm (kills LED hotspots)
+  ▦ LED panel A3 slim light pad
+```
+
+Plane depths (A-back = 0): 0 / 3 / 9 / 12 / 18 / 21 mm — two depth scales:
+3 mm *within* a sheet (fine parallax: halation, moiré) and 9 mm *between*
+sheets (coarse parallax: cause → event → hand).
+
+**The depth story is causal, not just spatial**: deepest plane is the cause
+(the pressure wave, pure transmitted light), then history, then the halation,
+then the event itself, then the debris flying toward you, and finally — on the
+front glass, where scanners actually wrote — the human hand measuring it all.
+Parallax reads as *interpretation floating above evidence*.
+
+## Sheet & print geometry
+
+- Sheet: 330 × 420 mm (E1 full bed, A3+), portrait. 3 mm clear cast acrylic,
+  gloss both faces.
+- Art square: 300 × 300 mm, centred horizontally (15 mm margins), top edge at
+  y = 20 mm. Zone below (y = 320–420) carries film furniture / data box /
+  caption on C-front only; other sheets stay clear there (light spills through
+  — the plate floats in a lit void).
+- Corner mounting holes 5 mm ∅ at 8 mm insets, all sheets + diffuser, for M4
+  nylon standoffs (3 mm + 6 mm + 6 mm spacer stacking, or threaded rod with
+  nuts as spacers).
+- Registration: every plane file carries corner crosses at the same four
+  coordinates just outside the art square; back-face files are **mirrored** at
+  export so they read correctly through the sheet.
+
+## White-ink logic (backlit grammar)
+
+| zone | channels | lit result |
+|---|---|---|
+| clear acrylic | none | pure light |
+| glow elements (disk, halation, deep tracks) | CMYK only | stained-glass — light pours through colour |
+| focal ink (event cores, grease pencil, furniture) | CMYK + white underlay | holds density against the panel — reads as ink |
+| blocking (none in v1) | white + black | opaque |
+
+Rule of thumb: **depth = transparency**. The deeper the plane, the less white
+ink; the front glass is the most "solid" ink. The disk gets *zero* white — lit,
+it becomes a light source (the laser-interference reference lives here, later).
+
+## Pipeline
+
+```
+plan (fable/stack/plans/*.mjs)
+  → node tools/stack-render.mjs <plan>          per-plane SVGs + manifest.json
+  → fable/stack/simulator.html?c=<id>           parallax + backlight art-direction
+  → [next] tools/stack-export.mjs               print masters: mirrored backs,
+                                                white-ink masks, A3 layout @ true scale
+```
+
+`src/render/stack.js` splits one generated scene into per-plane sub-scenes
+(selectors: track kind / z band / age band; disk, optics, damage, media,
+fiducials, header as flags) and renders each through the untouched `renderSVG`
+with `transparentPaper`. Bloom/core pairs use the *same* track selector so
+bubble positions are identical on both faces (same filtered list → same salted
+draws) — keep `density`/`size` equal within a pair.
+
+Per-plane renders set `depth`/`aging` low: the physical stack now *is* the
+depth model; double-encoding it as opacity would fight the medium.
+
+## Calibration coupon (print before the hero)
+
+One A5 sheet, double-sided: white-ink step wedge (0/25/50/75/100%, single +
+double pass) · the same δ-ray at three white levels · CMYK-only vs CMYK+white
+swatch pair · front/back registration cross · 6 pt / 8 pt mono type both faces.
+Judge **lit on the panel**, not in hand.
+
+## Buy list (if starting from zero)
+
+- 3× cast clear acrylic 330 × 420 × 3 mm (+1 spare), protective film both sides
+- 1× frosted/opal acrylic 330 × 420 × 2–3 mm (diffuser)
+- A3 slim LED light panel (dimmable if possible)
+- M4 nylon standoff kit (assorted 3/6/12 mm) or 4× M4 threaded rod + nuts
+- IPA + lint-free cloths; adhesion promoter if the E1 profile recommends it

fable/stack/candidates/01-event-volume/manifest.json

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+{
+  "id": "01-event-volume",
+  "title": "The Event, Suspended",
+  "seed": "LAMBDA-2648",
+  "geometry": {
+    "thickness": 3,
+    "gap": 6
+  },
+  "planes": [
+    {
+      "file": "plane-00-A-back.svg",
+      "sheet": "A",
+      "face": "back",
+      "zmm": 0,
+      "label": "the cause — disk body + chamber optics"
+    },
+    {
+      "file": "plane-01-A-back.svg",
+      "sheet": "A",
+      "face": "back",
+      "zmm": 0,
+      "label": "the cause — disk granular texture"
+    },
+    {
+      "file": "plane-02-A-front.svg",
+      "sheet": "A",
+      "face": "front",
+      "zmm": 3,
+      "label": "history — older events sink"
+    },
+    {
+      "file": "plane-03-B-back.svg",
+      "sheet": "B",
+      "face": "back",
+      "zmm": 9,
+      "label": "halation — the trigger blooms behind itself"
+    },
+    {
+      "file": "plane-04-B-front.svg",
+      "sheet": "B",
+      "face": "front",
+      "zmm": 12,
+      "label": "the event — sharp beaded cores"
+    },
+    {
+      "file": "plane-05-C-back.svg",
+      "sheet": "C",
+      "face": "back",
+      "zmm": 18,
+      "label": "near scatter — δ-curls lift toward the eye"
+    },
+    {
+      "file": "plane-06-C-front.svg",
+      "sheet": "C",
+      "face": "front",
+      "zmm": 21,
+      "label": "the hand — grease pencil on the glass"
+    }
+  ]
+}

fable/stack/candidates/02-palimpsest/manifest.json

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+{
+  "id": "02-palimpsest",
+  "title": "Palimpsest",
+  "seed": "KAON-0088",
+  "geometry": {
+    "thickness": 3,
+    "gap": 6
+  },
+  "planes": [
+    {
+      "file": "plane-00-A-back.svg",
+      "sheet": "A",
+      "face": "back",
+      "zmm": 0,
+      "label": "deep time — oldest exposures + the chamber"
+    },
+    {
+      "file": "plane-01-A-front.svg",
+      "sheet": "A",
+      "face": "front",
+      "zmm": 3,
+      "label": "earlier cycle"
+    },
+    {
+      "file": "plane-02-B-back.svg",
+      "sheet": "B",
+      "face": "back",
+      "zmm": 9,
+      "label": "moments ago"
+    },
+    {
+      "file": "plane-03-B-back.svg",
+      "sheet": "B",
+      "face": "back",
+      "zmm": 9,
+      "label": "the pressure wave — body + texture"
+    },
+    {
+      "file": "plane-04-B-back.svg",
+      "sheet": "B",
+      "face": "back",
+      "zmm": 9,
+      "label": "pressure-wave grain"
+    },
+    {
+      "file": "plane-05-B-front.svg",
+      "sheet": "B",
+      "face": "front",
+      "zmm": 12,
+      "label": "NOW — the trigger, all kinds, sharp"
+    },
+    {
+      "file": "plane-06-C-back.svg",
+      "sheet": "C",
+      "face": "back",
+      "zmm": 18,
+      "label": "still in flight — δ-debris of now"
+    },
+    {
+      "file": "plane-07-C-front.svg",
+      "sheet": "C",
+      "face": "front",
+      "zmm": 21,
+      "label": "after — the hand, the furniture, the wear"
+    }
+  ]
+}

fable/stack/candidates/02-palimpsest/plane-07-C-front.svg

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+<rect x="38.0" y="38.0" width="1324.0" height="1324.0" fill="none" stroke="#1c1814" stroke-opacity="0.5" stroke-width="2.8"/><rect x="14.7" y="65.5" width="19.2" height="34.3" rx="5.6" fill="#faf8f0" fill-opacity="0.7" stroke="#1c1814" stroke-opacity="0.4" stroke-width="1.4"/><rect x="1366.1" y="65.5" width="19.2" height="34.3" rx="5.6" fill="#faf8f0" fill-opacity="0.7" stroke="#1c1814" stroke-opacity="0.4" stroke-width="1.4"/><rect x="14.7" y="219.8" width="19.2" height="34.3" rx="5.6" fill="#faf8f0" fill-opacity="0.7" stroke="#1c1814" stroke-opacity="0.4" stroke-width="1.4"/><rect x="1366.1" y="219.8" width="19.2" height="34.3" rx="5.6" fill="#faf8f0" fill-opacity="0.7" stroke="#1c1814" stroke-opacity="0.4" stroke-width="1.4"/><rect x="14.7" y="374.2" width="19.2" height="34.3" rx="5.6" fill="#faf8f0" fill-opacity="0.7" stroke="#1c1814" stroke-opacity="0.4" stroke-width="1.4"/><rect x="1366.1" y="374.2" width="19.2" height="34.3" rx="5.6" fill="#faf8f0" fill-opacity="0.7" stroke="#1c1814" stroke-opacity="0.4" stroke-width="1.4"/><rect x="14.7" y="528.5" width="19.2" height="34.3" rx="5.6" fill="#faf8f0" fill-opacity="0.7" stroke="#1c1814" stroke-opacity="0.4" stroke-width="1.4"/><rect x="1366.1" y="528.5" width="19.2" height="34.3" rx="5.6" fill="#faf8f0" fill-opacity="0.7" stroke="#1c1814" stroke-opacity="0.4" stroke-width="1.4"/><rect x="14.7" y="682.9" width="19.2" height="34.3" rx="5.6" fill="#faf8f0" fill-opacity="0.7" stroke="#1c1814" stroke-opacity="0.4" stroke-width="1.4"/><rect x="1366.1" y="682.9" width="19.2" height="34.3" rx="5.6" fill="#faf8f0" fill-opacity="0.7" stroke="#1c1814" stroke-opacity="0.4" stroke-width="1.4"/><rect x="14.7" y="837.2" width="19.2" height="34.3" rx="5.6" fill="#faf8f0" fill-opacity="0.7" stroke="#1c1814" stroke-opacity="0.4" stroke-width="1.4"/><rect x="1366.1" y="837.2" width="19.2" height="34.3" rx="5.6" fill="#faf8f0" fill-opacity="0.7" stroke="#1c1814" stroke-opacity="0.4" stroke-width="1.4"/><rect x="14.7" y="991.6" width="19.2" height="34.3" rx="5.6" fill="#faf8f0" fill-opacity="0.7" stroke="#1c1814" stroke-opacity="0.4" stroke-width="1.4"/><rect x="1366.1" y="991.6" width="19.2" height="34.3" rx="5.6" fill="#faf8f0" fill-opacity="0.7" stroke="#1c1814" stroke-opacity="0.4" stroke-width="1.4"/><rect x="14.7" y="1145.9" width="19.2" height="34.3" rx="5.6" fill="#faf8f0" fill-opacity="0.7" stroke="#1c1814" stroke-opacity="0.4" stroke-width="1.4"/><rect x="1366.1" y="1145.9" width="19.2" height="34.3" rx="5.6" fill="#faf8f0" fill-opacity="0.7" stroke="#1c1814" stroke-opacity="0.4" stroke-width="1.4"/><rect x="14.7" y="1300.3" width="19.2" height="34.3" rx="5.6" fill="#faf8f0" fill-opacity="0.7" stroke="#1c1814" stroke-opacity="0.4" stroke-width="1.4"/><rect x="1366.1" y="1300.3" width="19.2" height="34.3" rx="5.6" fill="#faf8f0" fill-opacity="0.7" stroke="#1c1814" stroke-opacity="0.4" stroke-width="1.4"/><g fill="#1c1814" font-family="'JetBrains Mono', monospace"><text x="58.6" y="700.0" font-size="10" fill-opacity="0.45" text-anchor="middle" transform="rotate(-90 58.6 700.0)">KODAK  SAFETY  FILM</text><text x="82.6" y="1248.8" font-size="13" fill-opacity="0.5">ROLL 627</text><text x="82.6" y="1265.6" font-size="13" fill-opacity="0.5">FRAME 163</text><text x="82.6" y="1282.4" font-size="13" fill-opacity="0.5">1971.06.13</text></g><g stroke="#9c1e1e" fill="#9c1e1e" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"><path d="M 1142.9 886.3 L 1140.6 890.2 L 1136.5 891.9 L 1133.9 896.9 L 1130.0 900.7 L 1125.0 901.9 L 1120.0 898.3 L 1115.0 900.6 L 1111.0 896.4 L 1106.5 895.4 L 1101.5 894.9 L 1097.6 892.0 L 1094.0 888.7 L 1091.2 884.8 L 1089.5 880.4 L 1088.1 875.9 L 1089.5 870.9 L 1086.8 867.0 L 1085.3 862.5 L 1087.2 858.2 L 1082.1 852.1 L 1088.7 849.3 L 1088.1 843.6 L 1088.7 837.7 L 1092.5 834.0 L 1099.5 834.8 L 1104.2 833.8 L 1106.8 828.3 L 1110.8 823.4 L 1116.5 827.6 L 1121.2 827.1 L 1126.2 826.2 L 1131.6 825.5 L 1133.6 833.3 L 1137.2 835.6 L 1140.9 837.9 L 1145.8 839.3 L 1150.6 841.7 L 1151.3 846.9 L 1154.8 850.7 L 1155.0 855.7 L 1157.0 860.4 L 1154.1 865.2 L 1152.5 869.6 L 1151.5 874.0 L 1152.6 879.7 L 1144.9 880.4 L 1144.8 886.0 L 1143.6 891.7 L 1134.9 887.5 L 1134.5 896.2 L 1128.8 894.5 L 1124.9 898.1" fill="none" stroke-opacity="0.85" stroke-width="1.68"/><path d="M 875.2 624.7 L 899.7 640.5 L 933.8 663.3 L 965.0 691.7 L 995.0 710.9 L 1037.6 729.5 L 1071.6 748.7 L 1097.6 777.1 L 1133.8 799.8 L 1166.6 822.1" fill="none" stroke-opacity="0.85" stroke-width="1.40"/><path d="M 1165.1 822.7 L 1145.0 818.6 M 1165.1 822.7 L 1154.1 805.4" fill="none" stroke-opacity="0.85" stroke-width="1.40"/><text x="1157.9" y="826.3" font-size="31" font-family="'Bradley Hand','Segoe Script','Comic Sans MS',cursive" fill-opacity="0.9" transform="rotate(-5.6 1157.9 826.3)">Nº 163</text></g>
+</g>
+</svg>

fable/stack/candidates/03-interference/manifest.json

@@ -0,0 +1,67 @@
+{
+  "id": "03-interference",
+  "title": "The Measurement Interferes",
+  "seed": "NEUTRINO-1973",
+  "geometry": {
+    "thickness": 3,
+    "gap": 6
+  },
+  "planes": [
+    {
+      "file": "plane-00-A-back.svg",
+      "sheet": "A",
+      "face": "back",
+      "zmm": 0,
+      "label": "the spectral disk — interference at the source"
+    },
+    {
+      "file": "plane-01-A-back.svg",
+      "sheet": "A",
+      "face": "back",
+      "zmm": 0,
+      "label": "the disk — granular spray"
+    },
+    {
+      "file": "plane-02-A-front.svg",
+      "sheet": "A",
+      "face": "front",
+      "zmm": 3,
+      "label": "the sea — sweepers, cosmics, history"
+    },
+    {
+      "file": "plane-03-B-back.svg",
+      "sheet": "B",
+      "face": "back",
+      "zmm": 9,
+      "label": "deep réseau — scaled +1.5%, moirés against the front grid"
+    },
+    {
+      "file": "plane-04-B-back.svg",
+      "sheet": "B",
+      "face": "back",
+      "zmm": 9,
+      "label": "halation — the trigger blooms"
+    },
+    {
+      "file": "plane-05-B-front.svg",
+      "sheet": "B",
+      "face": "front",
+      "zmm": 12,
+      "label": "the event — sharp"
+    },
+    {
+      "file": "plane-06-C-back.svg",
+      "sheet": "C",
+      "face": "back",
+      "zmm": 18,
+      "label": "δ-curls in flight"
+    },
+    {
+      "file": "plane-07-C-front.svg",
+      "sheet": "C",
+      "face": "front",
+      "zmm": 21,
+      "label": "front réseau + the hand — measurement on glass"
+    }
+  ]
+}

fable/stack/plans/01-event-volume.mjs

@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+/* Candidate 01 — THE EVENT, SUSPENDED
+   The purest depth thesis: causality back-to-front. The pressure
+   disk glows deepest (CMYK-only when printed — it becomes a light
+   source), history sinks behind the trigger, the trigger blooms on
+   B-back and cuts sharp on B-front (real halation across 3 mm of
+   acrylic), the δ-curls lift off toward the eye, and the scanner's
+   grease pencil floats on the front glass where hands actually wrote.
+   Palette: near-mono traces + one earned ember accent on the disk
+   (magentarise with saturation crushed; disk hue is immune). */
+export default {
+  id: '01-event-volume',
+  title: 'The Event, Suspended',
+  seed: 'LAMBDA-2648',
+  size: 1400,
+  geometry: { thickness: 3, gap: 6 },
+  params: {
+    palette: 'magentarise', saturation: 0.14,
+    diskHue: 0.055, diskSat: 0.88,            // ember — the one colour
+    primaries: 18, burst: 0.8, vdecay: 4,
+    bgEvents: 7, bgIntensity: 0.5, cosmics: 8, sweepers: 5,
+    deltaRate: 0.9, deltaTight: 0.9,
+    shock: true, diskBubbles: true, diskSoften: 1.2,
+    shockIntensity: 0.9, diskPressure: 0.55,
+    shockSize: 0.34, shockY: 0.52,
+    annotate: 0.7, annoWidth: 0.5, reseau: 0.4, filmEdge: true,
+    artifacts: 0.5, instrument: 0.45,
+  },
+  planes: [
+    { sheet: 'A', face: 'back', label: 'the cause — disk body + chamber optics',
+      disk: true, boundary: true, optics: true,
+      params: { diskBubbles: false, diskPressure: 0.85, diskSoften: 1.6 } },
+    { sheet: 'A', face: 'back', label: 'the cause — disk granular texture',
+      disk: true,
+      params: { diskBubbles: true }, fx: { opacity: 0.9 } },
+    { sheet: 'A', face: 'front', label: 'history — older events sink',
+      tracks: { age: [0.25, 1] },
+      fx: { blur: 1.6, opacity: 0.85 } },
+    { sheet: 'B', face: 'back', label: 'halation — the trigger blooms behind itself',
+      tracks: { age: [0, 0.25], kinds: ['primary', 'vdecay'] },
+      fx: { blur: 7, opacity: 0.5 } },
+    { sheet: 'B', face: 'front', label: 'the event — sharp beaded cores',
+      tracks: { age: [0, 0.25], kinds: ['primary', 'vdecay'] } },
+    { sheet: 'C', face: 'back', label: 'near scatter — δ-curls lift toward the eye',
+      tracks: { age: [0, 0.25], kinds: ['delta', 'cosmic', 'sweep'] } },
+    { sheet: 'C', face: 'front', label: 'the hand — grease pencil on the glass',
+      media: true, fiducials: true, header: true, damage: true },
+  ],
+};

fable/stack/plans/02-palimpsest.mjs

@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+/* Candidate 02 — PALIMPSEST
+   Depth as pure time, full mono: the chamber ran all night and the
+   stack is the exposure record. Oldest events deepest; each plane
+   forward is a later moment; the current trigger sits on B-front;
+   its δ-debris is still in flight on C-back; the hand arrives last,
+   on the front glass — the only "now" that outlived the event.
+   No colour anywhere: transmitted light does all the work. */
+export default {
+  id: '02-palimpsest',
+  title: 'Palimpsest',
+  seed: 'KAON-0088',
+  size: 1400,
+  geometry: { thickness: 3, gap: 6 },
+  params: {
+    palette: 'mono',
+    primaries: 16, burst: 0.75, vdecay: 3,
+    bgEvents: 11, bgIntensity: 0.75, cosmics: 10, sweepers: 6,
+    deltaRate: 0.85,
+    shock: true, diskBubbles: true, diskSoften: 1.0,
+    shockIntensity: 0.85, diskPressure: 0.4,
+    shockSize: 0.28, shockY: 0.55,
+    annotate: 0.5, annoWidth: 0.5, filmEdge: true,
+    artifacts: 0.6, instrument: 0.5,
+  },
+  planes: [
+    { sheet: 'A', face: 'back', label: 'deep time — oldest exposures + the chamber',
+      tracks: { age: [0.6, 1] }, boundary: true, optics: true,
+      fx: { blur: 1.4, opacity: 0.9 } },
+    { sheet: 'A', face: 'front', label: 'earlier cycle',
+      tracks: { age: [0.35, 0.6] },
+      fx: { blur: 0.8, opacity: 0.95 } },
+    { sheet: 'B', face: 'back', label: 'moments ago',
+      tracks: { age: [0.12, 0.35] } },
+    { sheet: 'B', face: 'back', label: 'the pressure wave — body + texture',
+      disk: true,
+      params: { diskBubbles: false, diskPressure: 0.7 } },
+    { sheet: 'B', face: 'back', label: 'pressure-wave grain',
+      disk: true,
+      params: { diskBubbles: true }, fx: { opacity: 0.85 } },
+    { sheet: 'B', face: 'front', label: 'NOW — the trigger, all kinds, sharp',
+      tracks: { age: [0, 0.12], kinds: ['primary', 'vdecay'] } },
+    { sheet: 'C', face: 'back', label: 'still in flight — δ-debris of now',
+      tracks: { age: [0, 0.12], kinds: ['delta'] } },
+    { sheet: 'C', face: 'front', label: 'after — the hand, the furniture, the wear',
+      media: true, fiducials: true, header: true, damage: true },
+  ],
+};

fable/stack/plans/03-interference.mjs

@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+/* Candidate 03 — THE MEASUREMENT INTERFERES
+   The instrument becomes phenomenon: the réseau measuring grid is
+   printed TWICE — once deep (B-back, scaled 1.5%), once on the
+   front glass — so the act of measurement moirés against itself as
+   the viewer moves. The disk goes deepest with a full spectral
+   sunburst (iridescent striations, CMYK-only glow when printed):
+   the interference-pattern reference, arrived at from inside the
+   project's own vocabulary. Mono traces; the spectrum is earned by
+   the physics feature that IS interference. */
+export default {
+  id: '03-interference',
+  title: 'The Measurement Interferes',
+  seed: 'NEUTRINO-1973',
+  size: 1400,
+  geometry: { thickness: 3, gap: 6 },
+  params: {
+    palette: 'mono',
+    primaries: 14, burst: 0.7, vdecay: 3,
+    bgEvents: 5, bgIntensity: 0.45, cosmics: 7, sweepers: 6,
+    deltaRate: 0.8,
+    shock: true, diskBubbles: false, diskSoften: 0.6,
+    shockIntensity: 0.95, diskPressure: 0.5,
+    diskSpectrum: 0.85, shockStriations: 1.0,
+    shockSize: 0.38, shockY: 0.5, shockX: 0,
+    annotate: 0.7, annoWidth: 0.5, reseau: 0.85, filmEdge: true,
+    artifacts: 0.45, instrument: 0.4,
+  },
+  planes: [
+    { sheet: 'A', face: 'back', label: 'the spectral disk — interference at the source',
+      disk: true, boundary: true, optics: true,
+      params: { diskSoften: 1.2, diskPressure: 0.8 } },
+    { sheet: 'A', face: 'back', label: 'the disk — granular spray',
+      disk: true,
+      params: { diskBubbles: true }, fx: { opacity: 0.8 } },
+    { sheet: 'A', face: 'front', label: 'the sea — sweepers, cosmics, history',
+      tracks: { age: [0.2, 1] },
+      fx: { blur: 1.4, opacity: 0.85 } },
+    { sheet: 'B', face: 'back', label: 'deep réseau — scaled +1.5%, moirés against the front grid',
+      media: { reseau: true },
+      fx: { scale: 1.015 } },
+    { sheet: 'B', face: 'back', label: 'halation — the trigger blooms',
+      tracks: { age: [0, 0.2], kinds: ['primary', 'vdecay'] },
+      fx: { blur: 5, opacity: 0.55 } },
+    { sheet: 'B', face: 'front', label: 'the event — sharp',
+      tracks: { age: [0, 0.2], kinds: ['primary', 'vdecay'] } },
+    { sheet: 'C', face: 'back', label: 'δ-curls in flight',
+      tracks: { age: [0, 0.2], kinds: ['delta'] } },
+    { sheet: 'C', face: 'front', label: 'front réseau + the hand — measurement on glass',
+      media: true, fiducials: true, header: true, damage: true },
+  ],
+};

fable/stack/simulator.html

@@ -0,0 +1,129 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html>
+<html>
+<head>
+<meta charset="utf-8">
+<title>stack simulator</title>
+<style>
+  :root { color-scheme: dark; }
+  * { box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0; }
+  body { background:#0c0b09; color:#b8b0a0; font:12px/1.5 'JetBrains Mono',ui-monospace,monospace;
+         min-height:100vh; display:flex; }
+  #panel { width:250px; padding:16px; border-right:1px solid #26221c; flex-shrink:0; }
+  #panel h1 { font-size:13px; color:#e0d8c8; font-weight:600; margin-bottom:2px; }
+  #panel .sub { color:#6d6558; margin-bottom:14px; }
+  #panel label { display:block; margin:10px 0 2px; color:#8d8574; }
+  #panel input[type=range] { width:100%; accent-color:#c9803a; }
+  .plane-row { display:flex; gap:6px; align-items:baseline; margin:3px 0; cursor:pointer; }
+  .plane-row .z { color:#5d5548; width:44px; flex-shrink:0; }
+  .plane-row.off { opacity:0.35; }
+  button { background:#1c1914; color:#c9b98c; border:1px solid #3a342a; padding:5px 10px;
+           font:inherit; cursor:pointer; margin:2px 2px 0 0; }
+  button.on { background:#c9803a; color:#14100a; border-color:#c9803a; }
+  #stagewrap { flex:1; display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;
+               perspective:1400px; overflow:hidden; }
+  #stage { position:relative; transform-style:preserve-3d; }
+  #stage img { position:absolute; left:0; top:0; width:100%; height:100%; user-select:none;
+               -webkit-user-drag:none; }
+  /* the light table — painted on the WRAP, not the stage: with preserve-3d a
+     stage background sits at z=0 and would occlude planes behind it */
+  #stagewrap.lit #light  { background:radial-gradient(circle at 50% 46%, #fffdf4 0%, #f4ecd8 55%, #d8cdb2 100%); }
+  #stagewrap.unlit #light{ background:#b9b2a2; }
+  #stagewrap.unlit #stage img { filter:brightness(0.94) contrast(0.96); }
+  #light { position:absolute; inset:0; transform:translateZ(-400px) scale(1.6); }
+  #hint { position:fixed; right:14px; bottom:10px; color:#4d4639; }
+</style>
+</head>
+<body>
+<div id="panel">
+  <h1 id="title">—</h1>
+  <div class="sub" id="seed">—</div>
+  <div>
+    <button id="bl" class="on">backlit</button>
+    <button id="spin">auto-orbit</button>
+  </div>
+  <label>depth exaggeration <span id="zv"></span></label>
+  <input type="range" id="zscale" min="0" max="14" step="0.5" value="5">
+  <label>tilt range <span id="tv"></span></label>
+  <input type="range" id="tilt" min="0" max="24" step="1" value="10">
+  <label style="margin-top:14px">planes (click to toggle)</label>
+  <div id="planes"></div>
+</div>
+<div id="stagewrap" class="lit"><div id="stage"><div id="light"></div></div></div>
+<div id="hint">move mouse to parallax · ?c=&lt;candidate-id&gt;</div>
+<script>
+const q = new URLSearchParams(location.search);
+const cid = q.get('c') || '01-event-volume';
+const stage = document.getElementById('stage');
+const SZ = Math.min(innerHeight, innerWidth - 250) - 40;
+stage.style.width = stage.style.height = SZ + 'px';
+
+let planes = [], rx = 0, ry = 0, zs = 5, spin = false, t0 = performance.now();
+
+fetch(`candidates/${cid}/manifest.json`).then(r => r.json()).then(m => {
+  document.getElementById('title').textContent = m.title;
+  document.getElementById('seed').textContent = `seed ${m.seed} · ${m.planes.length} planes`;
+  const list = document.getElementById('planes');
+  m.planes.forEach((p, i) => {
+    const img = document.createElement('img');
+    img.src = `candidates/${cid}/${p.file}`;
+    stage.appendChild(img);
+    const row = document.createElement('div');
+    row.className = 'plane-row';
+    row.innerHTML = `<span class="z">${p.zmm}mm</span><span>${p.sheet}-${p.face} · ${p.label}</span>`;
+    row.onclick = () => { img.style.display = img.style.display === 'none' ? '' : 'none';
+                          row.classList.toggle('off'); };
+    list.appendChild(row);
+    planes.push({ img, zmm: p.zmm });
+  });
+  layout();
+});
+
+function layout() {
+  const mid = planes.length ? planes.reduce((s, p) => s + p.zmm, 0) / planes.length : 0;
+  for (const p of planes)
+    p.img.style.transform = `translateZ(${(p.zmm - mid) * zs}px)`;
+  stage.style.transform = `rotateX(${rx}deg) rotateY(${ry}deg)`;
+}
+
+const zEl = document.getElementById('zscale'), tEl = document.getElementById('tilt');
+const zv = document.getElementById('zv'), tv = document.getElementById('tv');
+function syncLabels(){ zv.textContent = `×${zEl.value}`; tv.textContent = `±${tEl.value}°`; }
+syncLabels();
+zEl.oninput = () => { zs = +zEl.value; syncLabels(); layout(); };
+tEl.oninput = syncLabels;
+
+const staticMode = q.get('static') !== null;
+addEventListener('mousemove', e => {
+  if (spin || staticMode) return;
+  const T = +tEl.value;
+  ry = ((e.clientX / innerWidth) - 0.5) * 2 * T;
+  rx = -((e.clientY / innerHeight) - 0.5) * 2 * T;
+  layout();
+});
+document.getElementById('bl').onclick = function () {
+  const wrap = document.getElementById('stagewrap');
+  const lit = wrap.classList.toggle('lit');
+  wrap.classList.toggle('unlit', !lit);
+  this.classList.toggle('on', lit);
+};
+document.getElementById('spin').onclick = function () {
+  spin = !spin; this.classList.toggle('on', spin);
+  if (spin) requestAnimationFrame(orbit);
+};
+function orbit(t) {
+  if (!spin) return;
+  const T = +tEl.value;
+  ry = Math.sin((t - t0) / 1400) * T;
+  rx = Math.cos((t - t0) / 2300) * T * 0.4;
+  layout();
+  requestAnimationFrame(orbit);
+}
+// static pose for headless screenshots: ?static=ry,rx
+if (staticMode) {
+  const [a, b] = (q.get('static') || '').split(',').map(Number);
+  ry = isFinite(a) ? a : 8; rx = isFinite(b) ? b : -4;
+  setTimeout(layout, 300);
+}
+</script>
+</body>
+</html>

output/iterations-watercolor/index.html

@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html><html><head><meta charset="utf-8"><title>iterations-watercolor</title>
+<style>body{margin:0;background:#0b0b0b;color:#bbb;font:12px/1.5 ui-monospace,Menlo,monospace;padding:26px}
+h1{font-weight:400;letter-spacing:.22em;text-transform:uppercase;font-size:13px;color:#c79b6a}
+p.note{color:#777;max-width:62em}
+.grid{display:grid;grid-template-columns:repeat(auto-fill,minmax(330px,1fr));gap:20px;margin-top:18px}
+figure{margin:0;background:#000;border:1px solid #262626}img{width:100%;display:block}
+figcaption{padding:8px 10px;color:#e8e4d8}
+figcaption b{color:#fff;font-weight:600}
+span.s{color:#555}</style></head><body>
+<h1>Bubble Chamber · iterations-watercolor</h1>
+<p class="note">The wet medium — <code>src/render/watercolor.js</code>, the 4th renderer. The trace as
+ink-in-water: a bubble chamber is superheated liquid hydrogen, so the track is a wake of boiling
+bubbles in a fluid; watercolour is pigment migrating through water on paper — the same physics
+restated. Beer–Lambert pigment optics · wet-edge darkening · cold-press granulation · wet-into-wet
+bleed. Ten studies varying colour, composition, craft, density and viewpoint. 1400&nbsp;px previews,
+deterministic from seed. <span class="s">render: <code>renderer=watercolor</code> via tools/shoot.sh.</span></p>
+<div class=grid>
+
+<figure><img src="01_stillwater-sepia.png"><figcaption><b>Stillwater</b> — a quiet single event, warm walnut-sepia on rag, two-pigment granulation. The disk a translucent bloom; δ-rays as fern curls.<br><span class="s">mono · sepia · low density · HYPERON-8444</span></figcaption></figure>
+
+<figure><img src="02_two-waters-charge.png"><figcaption><b>Two Waters</b> — charge duotone: positive a warm red wash, negative a cool blue, the two pigments mixing where tracks cross. False-colour that <i>means</i> something.<br><span class="s">charge · cream · STRANGE-1187</span></figcaption></figure>
+
+<figure><img src="03_spectral-legend-kind.png"><figcaption><b>Spectral Legend</b> — one pigment per particle type: amber primaries, cyan δ-rays, blue cosmics, green sweepers, magenta V-decays. The event reads as its own legend.<br><span class="s">kind · neutral · dense · KAON-0088</span></figcaption></figure>
+
+<figure><img src="04_sunken-bell.png"><figcaption><b>Sunken Bell</b> — the low-disk semicircle: the shock half-risen from the bottom edge, a struck bell / setting sun, its corona radiating in wet pigment.<br><span class="s">mono · cream · low disk composition · OMEGA-7782</span></figcaption></figure>
+
+<figure><img src="05_velocity-beta.png"><figcaption><b>Velocity</b> — colour by speed (β): fast tracks cool blue, the slowing ones warming through cyan and green. A cool, watery plate on selenium-blue paper.<br><span class="s">beta · cool · LAMBDA-2648</span></figcaption></figure>
+
+<figure><img src="06_lifecycle-bloom.png"><figcaption><b>Birth to Death</b> — per-bubble lifecycle: each wash shifts hue along the trail, blue at the vertex through green to a deep-red death where the pigment pools — colour migrating as wet pigment does.<br><span class="s">lifecycle (per-bubble) · cream · HYPERON-8444</span></figcaption></figure>
+
+<figure><img src="07_dryfield-cosmic.png"><figcaption><b>Dry Field</b> — a wide, quiet sheet crossed by long faint cosmics and sweepers, the focal bloom small and low. Negative space as subject; airy dry-brush lines.<br><span class="s">mono · selenium · sparse · cosmic-heavy · COSMIC-3140</span></figcaption></figure>
+
+<figure><img src="08_dense-chaos-olive.png"><figcaption><b>Dense Chaos</b> — maximal density, a crowded interaction star with glowing-death pigment on olive paper. Craft pushed to saturation; the plate "ran all night."<br><span class="s">kindrise (per-bubble) · olive · density 1.5 · OMEGA-7782</span></figcaption></figure>
+
+<figure><img src="09_offcenter-magenta.png"><figcaption><b>Off-Centre</b> — the vertex pushed to a third, a purple/magenta trace family against a single burnt-orange disk-bloom low and to the side. Asymmetric, contrapuntal colour.<br><span class="s">magentarise · neutral · off-centre composition · NUCLEON-2131</span></figcaption></figure>
+
+<figure><img src="10_wet-psychedelic.png"><figcaption><b>Wet Bloom</b> — the wettest craft: high wetness and bleed, soft edges, hue cycling along each wake. Pigment dissolving into damp paper — the dreaming end of the medium.<br><span class="s">psychedelic (per-bubble) · cream · wcWetness 1.6 / wcBleed 1.45 · CASCADE-2755</span></figcaption></figure>
+
+</div>
+</body></html>

output/milkweed/index.html

@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html><html><head><meta charset="utf-8"><title>milkweed · watercolour</title>
+<style>body{margin:0;background:#0b0b0b;color:#bbb;font:12px/1.5 ui-monospace,Menlo,monospace;padding:26px}
+h1{font-weight:400;letter-spacing:.22em;text-transform:uppercase;font-size:13px;color:#b98aa0}
+h2{font-weight:400;letter-spacing:.16em;text-transform:uppercase;font-size:11px;color:#7da06a;margin-top:30px}
+p.note{color:#777;max-width:64em}
+.grid{display:grid;grid-template-columns:repeat(auto-fill,minmax(330px,1fr));gap:20px;margin-top:16px}
+figure{margin:0;background:#000;border:1px solid #262626}img{width:100%;display:block}
+figcaption{padding:8px 10px;color:#e8e4d8}figcaption b{color:#fff;font-weight:600}
+span.s{color:#555}.ref{border-color:#3a3a3a}</style></head><body>
+<h1>Milkweed in bloom · recreated in watercolour</h1>
+<p class="note">A common-milkweed (<i>Asclepias syriaca</i>) umbel, painted with the bubble-chamber project's
+own wet renderer (<code>src/render/watercolor.js</code>) driven by a new umbel generator
+(<code>src/milkweed/umbel.js</code>). The conceit that made it fit: a milkweed umbel is a <i>radial
+event</i> — a hidden central node, pedicels radiating like tracks, each blooming into a five-pointed
+star at its tip. The bubble chamber's vertex and δ-ray spray, restated in botany; life wearing the
+shape of the particle event. Same pigment physics as the plates — Beer–Lambert subtractive optics,
+the wet edge, cold-press granulation, wet-into-wet bleed — only the geometry and the palette change
+(sap green, quinacridone rose, a pale corona crown that barely tints the paper). Deterministic from
+seed; herbarium caption from the shared archive-identity system.</p>
+
+<h2>The reference</h2>
+<div class=grid>
+<figure class=ref><img src="reference-asclepias-syriaca.jpg"><figcaption><b>Reference</b> — <i>Asclepias syriaca</i> in full bloom: a domed cluster of open mauve star-flowers with pale corona crowns, deep-maroon buds, sage leaves.<br><span class="s">photo · Wikimedia Commons (Common_Milkweed_Bloom)</span></figcaption></figure>
+</div>
+
+<h2>The recreations</h2>
+<div class=grid>
+<figure><img src="01_bloom-monarch.png"><figcaption><b>Milkweed Bloom</b> — the recreation: a domed umbel of pink florets, pale-crowned, buds toward the rim, leaves splayed behind.<br><span class="s">milkweed · cream · MONARCH-3320</span></figcaption></figure>
+<figure><img src="02_bloom-asclepias.png"><figcaption><b>Asclepias</b> — a second specimen, same medium, a fuller cluster.<br><span class="s">milkweed · cream · ASCLEPIAS-7781</span></figcaption></figure>
+<figure><img src="03_bloom-prairie.png"><figcaption><b>Prairie</b> — a rounder dome; the wet-into-wet bleed unifies the florets into one pink haze.<br><span class="s">milkweed · cream · PRAIRIE-5562</span></figcaption></figure>
+<figure><img src="04_dewy-wetbleed.png"><figcaption><b>Dewy</b> — the medium turned wet: high wetness and bleed, soft edges, on cool blue-grey paper. A misted morning.<br><span class="s">milkweed · cool · wcWetness 1.5 / wcBleed 1.4 · SWAMP-1190</span></figcaption></figure>
+<figure><img src="05_drybrush-sepia.png"><figcaption><b>Dry-brush</b> — the opposite craft: drier, crisp wet edges, granulation turned up, on warm sepia. Late-summer, going to seed.<br><span class="s">milkweed · sepia · wcGranulate 1.35 / wcEdge 1.2 · AUTUMN-4408</span></figcaption></figure>
+</div>
+</body></html>

roadmap.md

@@ -91,6 +91,12 @@ default). Each regime is a mapping from physics → colour via palette hooks
   the chamber as deep-sky object.
 - **Analog photographic:** cyanotype, sepia/albumen, silver-gelatin, blueprint —
   alternate *plate chemistries* rather than hues.
+- **Watercolour / inkwash (the wet medium):** ✅ `src/render/watercolor.js` — a 4th
+  renderer that treats the trace as ink-in-water (the chamber *is* a fluid). Beer–
+  Lambert pigment optics, wet-edge darkening, paper-tooth granulation, wet-into-wet
+  bleed; palettes route as multi-pigment washes (mono two-pigment sepia+payne's-grey,
+  charge red/blue duotone, kind = full physics legend). `renderer=watercolor` in the
+  preview harness. Next: a renderer SELECT in the app UI; print masters on a go-ahead.
 - **Psychedelic (mind set free):** hue cycling *along* each track (rainbow wakes),
   hue-by-depth, complementary bloom/halation, solarisation, oil-on-water
   iridescence on the shock disk. Energy, synaesthesia, the numinous turned up.

src/milkweed/umbel.js

@@ -0,0 +1,169 @@
+/* ============================================================
+   umbel.js — a common-milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) inflorescence
+   as a scene for the watercolour renderer.
+
+   Why it belongs (the taxonomy / scale-rhyme):
+   a milkweed umbel is a *radial event*. A hidden central node;
+   pedicels radiating outward like tracks; each ending not in a
+   bubble but in a five-pointed star-flower — the reflexed corolla
+   and its pale corona crown. It is the bubble chamber's vertex and
+   δ-ray spray restated in botany: life wearing the same shape as
+   the particle event. "Evidence of the invisible" → here the
+   invisible is growth, the slow algorithm of a living thing.
+
+   generateUmbel(params) returns the same scene shape the watercolour
+   renderer consumes, but expressed in its area-wash / stroke / dab
+   primitives instead of particle tracks. Deterministic from seed.
+   Parts carry a `kind` routed by the `milkweed` palette to a pigment:
+     leaf/leafdk/ground  → greens behind
+     stem/pedicel/midrib → stalk & veins
+     corolla/corollad    → the dusty mauve reflexed petals
+     corona/center       → the pale crown & dark gynostegium
+     bud/budtip          → unopened maroon buds
+   ============================================================ */
+import { makeRng, gauss, cyrb53 } from '../rng.js';
+
+const TAU = Math.PI * 2;
+
+/* a lance/ovate leaf outline from base→tip, widest near the middle, with a gentle
+   bend. Returns a closed polygon (frame coords). */
+function leafPoly(bx, by, tx, ty, halfW, bend = 0) {
+  const dx = tx - bx, dy = ty - by, L = Math.hypot(dx, dy) || 1;
+  const ux = dx / L, uy = dy / L;          // spine
+  const nx = -uy, ny = ux;                  // normal
+  const left = [], right = [];
+  const STEPS = 14;
+  for (let i = 0; i <= STEPS; i++) {
+    const t = i / STEPS;
+    const w = halfW * Math.pow(Math.sin(Math.PI * t), 0.8);
+    const b = bend * Math.sin(Math.PI * t);   // sideways bow of the spine
+    const sx = bx + dx * t + nx * b, sy = by + dy * t + ny * b;
+    left.push([sx + nx * w, sy + ny * w]);
+    right.push([sx - nx * w, sy - ny * w]);
+  }
+  const pts = [...left, ...right.reverse()].map(([x, y]) => ({ x, y }));
+  return pts;
+}
+
+/* sample a quadratic bezier into a short polyline (for curved pedicels/petals). */
+function quad(p0, c, p1, n = 6) {
+  const out = [];
+  for (let i = 0; i <= n; i++) {
+    const t = i / n, mt = 1 - t;
+    out.push({
+      x: mt * mt * p0.x + 2 * mt * t * c.x + t * t * p1.x,
+      y: mt * mt * p0.y + 2 * mt * t * c.y + t * t * p1.y,
+    });
+  }
+  return out;
+}
+
+export function generateUmbel(params) {
+  const rng = makeRng(params.seed, 'umbel');
+  const washes = [], strokes = [], dabs = [];
+
+  const cx = params.umbelX ?? 0.0;
+  const cy = params.umbelY ?? -0.1;             // cluster centre (slightly high)
+  const R = params.umbelR ?? 0.4;               // umbel radius — the hero
+  const squash = params.umbelSquash ?? 0.98;    // gentle vertical droop
+  const nodeX = cx + (params.nodeDX ?? 0.0);
+  const nodeY = cy + (params.nodeDY ?? 0.52);   // pedicels attach below the globe
+  const nFlor = Math.round(params.florets ?? 80);
+  const baseR = params.flowerR ?? 0.092;
+
+  /* ---- foliage behind: a few big soft leaves splaying out from below the cluster,
+         kept mostly clear of the umbel so the flowers read in front. Faint. ---- */
+  const leafSpec = [   // [angle, length, halfWidth, foreground?]   milkweed opposite-leaf feel
+    [2.55, 1.05, 0.13, false], [0.62, 1.15, 0.14, false],   // upper-left & upper-right, behind
+    [2.05, 1.25, 0.15, true],  [1.05, 1.05, 0.13, true],    // lower flanks, nearer
+    [1.55, 0.7, 0.10, false],                               // one straight down behind
+  ];
+  const nLeaf = Math.min(leafSpec.length, Math.round(params.leaves ?? 4));
+  for (let i = 0; i < nLeaf; i++) {
+    const [a0, len0, hw0, fore] = leafSpec[i];
+    const ang = a0 + gauss(rng) * 0.12;
+    const len = len0 * (0.9 + rng() * 0.2);
+    // start the blade just outside the umbel so it doesn't smother the flowers
+    const bx = cx + Math.cos(ang) * R * 0.72 + gauss(rng) * 0.04;
+    const by = cy + Math.sin(ang) * R * 0.72 * squash + 0.06;
+    const tx = bx + Math.cos(ang) * len, ty = by + Math.sin(ang) * len;
+    const hw = hw0 + rng() * 0.03, bend = gauss(rng) * 0.14;
+    washes.push({ kind: fore ? 'leaf' : 'leafdk', pts: leafPoly(bx, by, tx, ty, hw, bend), alpha: fore ? 0.24 : 0.16 });
+    strokes.push({ kind: 'midrib', pts: quad({ x: bx, y: by }, { x: (bx + tx) / 2 + bend, y: (by + ty) / 2 }, { x: tx, y: ty }, 6), width: 0.004, alpha: fore ? 0.2 : 0.12 });
+  }
+
+  // main stalk, rising to the node from the bottom
+  strokes.push({ kind: 'stem', pts: [{ x: cx + 0.015, y: 1.15 }, { x: cx + 0.005, y: nodeY + 0.28 }, { x: nodeX, y: nodeY }], width: 0.028, alpha: 0.5 });
+
+  /* ---- the florets on a drooping dome ---- */
+  const rot0 = rng() * TAU;
+  for (let i = 0; i < nFlor; i++) {
+    // fill a disk, slightly denser toward the centre; depth (near→far) from radius
+    // so the cluster reads as a rounded dome: centre flowers near/large/open, the
+    // rim far/small/budding. This fills the middle (a hemisphere projection didn't).
+    const rr = R * Math.pow(rng(), 0.62);
+    const az = rng() * TAU;
+    const fx = cx + Math.cos(az) * rr + gauss(rng) * 0.01;
+    const fy = cy + Math.sin(az) * rr * squash + 0.03 + gauss(rng) * 0.01;  // +droop
+    const radial = rr / R;                      // 0 centre … 1 rim
+    const depth = 1 - radial * radial + gauss(rng) * 0.12;   // centre nearest
+    const dA = 0.4 + 0.6 * Math.max(0, Math.min(1, depth));  // front brighter
+    const size = 0.6 + 0.55 * Math.max(0, depth);            // front flowers larger
+    const fr = baseR * size;
+
+    // pedicel from node, gently bowing out to the floret
+    const mid = { x: (nodeX + fx) / 2 + gauss(rng) * 0.04, y: (nodeY + fy) / 2 + gauss(rng) * 0.03 };
+    strokes.push({ kind: 'pedicel', pts: quad({ x: nodeX, y: nodeY }, mid, { x: fx, y: fy }, 6), width: 0.0045, alpha: 0.26 * dA });
+
+    // back/upper florets tend to be unopened buds; front/lower are open stars
+    const budProb = 0.05 + 0.22 * radial;       // a minority, mostly toward the rim
+    if (rng() < budProb) {
+      // bud: a maroon teardrop (body + tip) with a pale highlight — kept modest so
+      // the open flowers, not the buds, carry the cluster.
+      const ba = -Math.PI * 0.5 + gauss(rng) * 0.6;            // points roughly up/out
+      const bl = fr * 0.62;
+      const tipx = fx + Math.cos(ba) * bl, tipy = fy + Math.sin(ba) * bl;
+      dabs.push({ kind: 'bud', x: fx, y: fy, r: fr * 0.32, alpha: 0.42 * dA });
+      dabs.push({ kind: 'bud', x: (fx + tipx) / 2, y: (fy + tipy) / 2, r: fr * 0.22, alpha: 0.36 * dA });
+      dabs.push({ kind: 'budtip', x: tipx, y: tipy, r: fr * 0.14, alpha: 0.32 * dA });
+    } else {
+      // open flower: 5 reflexed petals (a star) + pale corona crown + dark centre
+      const rot = rot0 + i * 2.39996 + gauss(rng) * 0.3;       // golden-angle spin
+      for (let k = 0; k < 5; k++) {
+        const a = rot + k * (TAU / 5);
+        const il = fr * 0.3, ol = fr * (1.32 + rng() * 0.22);   // long rays splaying out
+        const p0 = { x: fx + Math.cos(a) * il, y: fy + Math.sin(a) * il };
+        const p1 = { x: fx + Math.cos(a) * ol, y: fy + Math.sin(a) * ol };
+        // a slight reflex curve (petal bends back)
+        const c = { x: (p0.x + p1.x) / 2 + Math.cos(a + Math.PI / 2) * fr * 0.16,
+                    y: (p0.y + p1.y) / 2 + Math.sin(a + Math.PI / 2) * fr * 0.16 };
+        const shaded = (k % 2 === 0) && depth < 0.7;
+        strokes.push({ kind: shaded ? 'corollad' : 'corolla', pts: quad(p0, c, p1, 5), width: 0.02 * size, alpha: 0.95 * dA });
+      }
+      // corona: a soft PALE centre (the crown reads light, the flower pink around it),
+      // 5 little hoods, and only a faint dark eye — not a bullseye.
+      dabs.push({ kind: 'corona', x: fx, y: fy, r: fr * 0.34, alpha: 0.4 * dA });
+      for (let k = 0; k < 5; k++) {
+        const a = rot + k * (TAU / 5) + Math.PI / 5;
+        dabs.push({ kind: 'corona', x: fx + Math.cos(a) * fr * 0.22, y: fy + Math.sin(a) * fr * 0.22, r: fr * 0.12, alpha: 0.46 * dA });
+      }
+      if (rng() < 0.6) dabs.push({ kind: 'center', x: fx, y: fy, r: fr * 0.09, alpha: 0.32 * dA });
+    }
+  }
+
+  // deterministic herbarium metadata (reuses the archive identity system)
+  const hash = cyrb53(params.seed);
+  const ds = parseInt(hash.slice(0, 8), 16);
+  const plate = (parseInt(hash.slice(-3), 16) % 999).toString().padStart(3, '0');
+  const year = 1901 + (ds % 96);
+  const month = 6 + (ds >> 4) % 3;              // milkweed blooms Jun–Aug
+  const day = 1 + ((ds >> 8) % 28);
+  const exposure = `${year}.${String(month).padStart(2, '0')}.${String(day).padStart(2, '0')}`;
+
+  return {
+    tracks: [], washes, strokes, dabs,
+    shock: null, artifacts: { rings: [] },
+    lab: 'ASCLEPIAS SYRIACA · COMMON MILKWEED',
+    plate, exposure, vertex: { x: cx, y: cy },
+  };
+}

src/render/palette.js

@@ -147,10 +147,30 @@ function lifeColor(life, inv) {
   return hslToRgb(h, 0.72, (inv ? 0.44 : 0.62) - 0.07 * t);
 }
 
+// botanical pigments for the milkweed umbel (a taxonomy subject sharing the plate
+// language). Keyed by the part `kind` the milkweed generator stamps. Mid-dark
+// subtractive pigments — real watercolours: sap green, quinacridone rose/magenta,
+// a dusty mauve corolla, a pale crown that barely tints the paper.
+const MILK = {
+  leaf:    [110, 140, 86],  leafdk: [80, 108, 64],
+  stem:    [98, 124, 66],   pedicel: [128, 156, 88],
+  midrib:  [150, 100, 84],
+  corolla: [168, 104, 134], corollad: [126, 70, 100],
+  corona:  [228, 202, 210], center: [112, 76, 86],
+  bud:     [134, 70, 92],   budtip: [180, 130, 142],
+  ground:  [120, 140, 118],
+};
+
 /* ---------- the registry: each entry is a "feel" ---------- */
 export const PALETTES = {
   mono: { id: 'mono', label: 'Monochrome' },                 // all defaults → B&W
 
+  // botanical: one pigment per flower part — the milkweed umbel as a wet plate.
+  milkweed: {
+    id: 'milkweed', label: 'Milkweed (botanical)',
+    ink: (t, e) => MILK[t.kind] || e.baseInk,
+  },
+
   charge: {
     id: 'charge', label: 'Charge duotone',
     ink: (t, e) => chargeColor(t.q ?? 1, e.inv),

src/render/stack.js

@@ -0,0 +1,112 @@
+/* ============================================================
+   stack.js — split one scene across the printable planes of a
+   physical acrylic stack (front + back of several sheets, air
+   gaps, backlit). The scene model's per-track z and age stop
+   being opacity tricks and become actual millimetres.
+
+   A PLAN describes the piece:
+     { id, seed, size, geometry:{thickness,gap}, params:{...},
+       planes: [ { sheet:'A', face:'back', label,
+                   tracks: false | true | {kinds, z:[lo,hi], age:[lo,hi]},
+                   disk, boundary, optics, damage,        // flags
+                   media: false | true | {reseau,grease,film,splice},
+                   fiducials, header,                     // flags
+                   params: {...per-plane overrides},
+                   fx: { blur, opacity, scale } }, ... ] }
+
+   The scene is generated ONCE from the merged params; each plane
+   renders a filtered copy through the untouched renderSVG with
+   transparentPaper (the backlight is the paper). Bloom/core face
+   pairs must use IDENTICAL track selectors and equal density/size
+   so their salted bubble draws match — same filtered list, same
+   positions; only fx differ.
+
+   Per-plane depth/aging default LOW: the physical stack now
+   carries depth; double-encoding it as opacity fights the medium.
+   ============================================================ */
+import { generateScene } from '../scene/scene.js';
+import { paramsFromSeed } from '../scene/params.js';
+import { renderSVG } from './svgVector.js';
+
+const inRange = (v, r) => !r || (v >= r[0] && v <= r[1]);
+
+function filterTracks(tracks, sel) {
+  if (!sel) return [];
+  if (sel === true) return tracks;
+  return tracks.filter(t =>
+    (!sel.kinds || sel.kinds.includes(t.kind)) &&
+    inRange(t.z ?? 0, sel.z) &&
+    inRange(t.age ?? 0, sel.age));
+}
+
+function filterMedia(media, sel) {
+  if (!media || !sel) return null;
+  if (sel === true) return media;
+  return {
+    reseau: sel.reseau ? media.reseau : null,
+    grease: sel.grease ? media.grease : [],
+    film: sel.film ? media.film : null,
+    splice: sel.splice ? media.splice : null,
+  };
+}
+
+/* wrap a rendered plane in optional blur / opacity / centre-scale
+   (blur is in u = px per 1000; scale is for deliberate moiré offsets) */
+function applyFx(svg, fx, size) {
+  const { blur = 0, opacity = 1, scale = 1 } = fx || {};
+  if (!blur && opacity === 1 && scale === 1) return svg;
+  const u = size / 1000, c = size / 2;
+  const filter = blur
+    ? `<filter id="planefx" x="-15%" y="-15%" width="130%" height="130%"><feGaussianBlur stdDeviation="${(blur * u).toFixed(2)}"/></filter>`
+    : '';
+  const g = `<defs>${filter}</defs><g${blur ? ' filter="url(#planefx)"' : ''}`
+    + `${opacity !== 1 ? ` opacity="${opacity}"` : ''}`
+    + `${scale !== 1 ? ` transform="translate(${c} ${c}) scale(${scale}) translate(${-c} ${-c})"` : ''}>`;
+  return svg.replace(/(<svg[^>]*>)/, `$1\n${g}`).replace(/<\/svg>\s*$/, '</g></svg>\n');
+}
+
+export function renderStack(plan) {
+  const base = { ...paramsFromSeed(plan.seed), ...(plan.params || {}), invert: true };
+  const scene = generateScene(base);
+  const size = plan.size || 1400;
+
+  const planes = plan.planes.map((plane) => {
+    const emit = [];
+    if (plane.disk) emit.push('disk');
+    if (plane.tracks || plane.optics || plane.damage || plane.boundary) emit.push('bubble');
+    if (plane.media || plane.fiducials || plane.header) emit.push('fiduciaries');
+
+    const ps = {
+      ...base,
+      transparentPaper: true, vign: 0,
+      showBoundary: !!plane.boundary,
+      showFiducials: !!plane.fiducials,
+      showHeader: !!plane.header,
+      depth: 0.15, aging: 0.2,          // the stack is the depth model now
+      emit,
+      ...(plane.params || {}),
+    };
+    const sc = {
+      ...scene,
+      tracks: filterTracks(scene.tracks, plane.tracks ?? false),
+      shock: plane.disk ? scene.shock : null,
+      instrument: plane.optics ? scene.instrument : null,
+      artifacts: plane.damage ? scene.artifacts : null,
+      media: filterMedia(scene.media, plane.media),
+    };
+    const svg = applyFx(renderSVG(sc, ps, size), plane.fx, size);
+    return { sheet: plane.sheet, face: plane.face, label: plane.label || '', svg };
+  });
+
+  return { plan, scene, planes };
+}
+
+/* physical z (mm) of each plane from stack geometry; sheet order = first
+   appearance in the plan (back of the stack first) */
+export function planeDepths(plan) {
+  const t = plan.geometry?.thickness ?? 3;
+  const g = plan.geometry?.gap ?? 6;
+  const sheets = [...new Set(plan.planes.map(p => p.sheet))];
+  return plan.planes.map(p =>
+    sheets.indexOf(p.sheet) * (t + g) + (p.face === 'front' ? t : 0));
+}

src/render/watercolor.js

@@ -0,0 +1,427 @@
+/* ============================================================
+   watercolor.js — the wet renderer. One scene model → pigment.
+
+   The conceit (why this belongs in the project):
+   a bubble chamber is superheated liquid hydrogen, and the track
+   is a wake of boiling bubbles *in a fluid*. Watercolour is pigment
+   migrating through water on paper. To render the trace as ink in
+   water is not a style laid over the physics — it is the same
+   physics restated in a wetter medium. The slow end of a track
+   (the particle losing momentum, ionising harder: density ∝ 1/β²)
+   is exactly where the wash pools darkest. The δ-ray's logarithmic
+   curl becomes a curl of pigment; the shock disk blooms like a
+   drop released in still water. "Evidence of the invisible," in
+   the most literal wet sense.
+
+   The craft — the watercolour "tells" reproduced here:
+     1. Subtractive pigment optics (Beer–Lambert): paper·e^(−A).
+        Density saturates softly, never to flat black — the glow of
+        the paper survives under every wash.
+     2. The wet edge / edge-darkening: as a wash dries, water carries
+        pigment to the receding perimeter, leaving a darker rim. The
+        single most recognisable watercolour signature. (rim = the
+        sharp pigment minus its own diffusion.)
+     3. Granulation: pigment settles into the tooth of cold-press
+        paper, mottling the density and separating in the valleys.
+     4. Wet-into-wet bleed: a soft diffused halo beyond each stroke.
+     5. Pigment load tracks speed: heavy pooled pigment at the
+        slow/dense end of range, thin dry-brush where the particle is
+        fast — this falls straight out of the bubble density model.
+     6. The paper itself: warm rag, cold-press tooth, a back-light
+        bloom, a deckle edge and faint cockle. Unpainted paper is
+        never dead white.
+
+   Geometry is identical to the photographic + vector renderers; only
+   the medium differs. Deterministic from params.seed.
+   ============================================================ */
+import { makeRng } from '../rng.js';
+import { sampleBubbles, trackInkWeight, depthFactors } from '../scene/bubbles.js';
+import { mottleCanvas } from './noise.js';
+import { resolvePalette, paperTone } from './palette.js';
+
+const MARGIN = 0.02;
+
+/* deep pigments for the monochrome default — a sympathetic-magic palette of
+   real watercolours: a warm sepia bound with a cool payne's-grey shadow, the
+   pairing landscape painters reach for when they want "almost black" that still
+   breathes. Used as baseInk so the mono feel reads as ink-in-water, not toner. */
+const PIGMENT_SEPIA = [54, 33, 20];     // warm walnut-sepia (the body of the wash)
+const PIGMENT_SHADOW = [20, 31, 54];    // cool payne's-grey (granulates into valleys)
+
+// fast particles ionise less → thinner, paler tracks; let them recede so the slow,
+// blooming focal event holds the eye (atmosphere via physics, not arbitrary dimming).
+const KIND_LOAD = { primary: 1, delta: 1, vdecay: 1, cosmic: 0.55, sweep: 0.6 };
+
+/* a scratch canvas pool keyed by size, so we are not allocating 1200² buffers
+   on every blur read. */
+const scratch = { w: 0, a: null, b: null };
+function scratchPair(w, h) {
+  if (scratch.w !== w) {
+    scratch.w = w;
+    scratch.a = document.createElement('canvas'); scratch.a.width = w; scratch.a.height = h;
+    scratch.b = document.createElement('canvas'); scratch.b.width = w; scratch.b.height = h;
+  }
+  return [scratch.a.getContext('2d', { willReadFrequently: true }),
+          scratch.b.getContext('2d', { willReadFrequently: true })];
+}
+
+/* read one channel of a canvas into a Float32 field in [0,1]. */
+function readField(ctx, w, h, chan = 0) {
+  const d = ctx.getImageData(0, 0, w, h).data;
+  const f = new Float32Array(w * h);
+  for (let i = 0, p = chan; i < f.length; i++, p += 4) f[i] = d[p] / 255;
+  return f;
+}
+
+/* paper tooth field: cold-press grain (fine) modulated by a broad cockle/mottle,
+   in [0,1] where 1 = a raised fibre (catches less pigment) and 0 = a valley
+   (pools / granulates). Built from the project's own fbm mottle so it stays
+   deterministic and consistent with the other renderers' analog layer. */
+function toothField(seed, w, h) {
+  const fine = mottleCanvas(seed + '::tooth', 512, 150, 5);    // paper grain
+  const broad = mottleCanvas(seed + '::cockle', 512, 6, 4);    // cockle / undulation
+  const [ca] = scratchPair(w, h);
+  ca.clearRect(0, 0, w, h);
+  ca.drawImage(fine, 0, 0, w, h);
+  const fineF = readField(ca, w, h);
+  ca.clearRect(0, 0, w, h);
+  ca.drawImage(broad, 0, 0, w, h);
+  const broadF = readField(ca, w, h);
+  const out = new Float32Array(w * h);
+  for (let i = 0; i < out.length; i++) {
+    // centre both around 0, combine, recentre — fine dominates, broad tilts it
+    const t = 0.5 + (fineF[i] - 0.5) * 0.85 + (broadF[i] - 0.5) * 0.5;
+    out[i] = Math.max(0, Math.min(1, t));
+  }
+  return out;
+}
+
+/* blur a Float32 field by rendering it through the GPU canvas blur and reading
+   it back — far faster than a JS convolution at print sizes. */
+function blurField(field, w, h, radiusPx) {
+  const [ca, cb] = scratchPair(w, h);
+  const img = ca.createImageData(w, h);
+  const d = img.data;
+  for (let i = 0, p = 0; i < field.length; i++, p += 4) {
+    const v = Math.max(0, Math.min(255, field[i] * 255));
+    d[p] = d[p + 1] = d[p + 2] = v; d[p + 3] = 255;
+  }
+  ca.putImageData(img, 0, 0);
+  cb.clearRect(0, 0, w, h);
+  cb.filter = `blur(${radiusPx.toFixed(2)}px)`;
+  cb.drawImage(ca.canvas, 0, 0);
+  cb.filter = 'none';
+  return readField(cb, w, h);
+}
+
+export function renderWatercolor(ctx, w, h, scene, params, opts = {}) {
+  const pre = opts.preview !== false;
+  const u = w / 1000;                              // unit scale relative to 1000px
+  const scale = (w / 2) * (1 - MARGIN);
+  const cx = w / 2, cy = h / 2;
+  const tx = (x) => cx + x * scale;
+  const ty = (y) => cy + y * scale;
+
+  // ---- the medium dials (all optional; sensible wet defaults) ----
+  const D = {
+    pigment:   params.wcPigment   ?? 1.0,    // overall optical density
+    edge:      params.wcEdge      ?? 1.0,    // wet-edge / edge-darkening strength
+    bleed:     params.wcBleed     ?? 1.0,    // wet-into-wet halo
+    granulate: params.wcGranulate ?? 1.0,    // how much the paper tooth bites
+    tooth:     params.wcTooth     ?? 1.0,    // visible paper texture in the wash
+    wetness:   params.wcWetness   ?? 1.0,    // diffusion radius scale
+  };
+
+  // ---- colour: a light rag-paper ground, pigments dark-on-light ----
+  // Force the light-ground (positive) reading regardless of the global invert —
+  // watercolour lives on paper. Palettes still map physics → pigment hue.
+  const pt = paperTone({ ...params, paperBright: (params.paperBright ?? 1) * 1.06 }, true);
+  const pal = resolvePalette(params.palette, {
+    inv: false, sat: params.saturation ?? 1, hue: (params.hueShift ?? 0) * 360,
+    cycles: params.hueCycles ?? 3,
+    traceHue: params.traceHue ?? 0, diskHue: params.diskHue ?? 0.06, diskSat: params.diskSat ?? 0.82,
+    baseInk: PIGMENT_SEPIA,
+    basePaper: { flat: pt.flat, glowIn: pt.glowIn, glowOut: pt.glowOut },
+    baseVign: pt.vign,
+  });
+  const paper = pal.hasPaper ? pal.paper() : { flat: pt.flat, glowIn: pt.glowIn, glowOut: pt.glowOut };
+
+  // ---- paper tooth (shared by every wash) ----
+  const tooth = toothField(params.seed, w, h);
+
+  // global absorbance accumulators (Beer–Lambert, per channel)
+  const N = w * h;
+  const Ar = new Float32Array(N), Ag = new Float32Array(N), Ab = new Float32Array(N);
+  const bubbleRng = makeRng(params.seed, 'bubbles');
+
+  /* lay one pigment down as a wash: `paint(mc)` deposits white "wet mass" onto a
+     scratch context; we then derive the wet structure (edge-darkening, bleed,
+     granulation) and pull the pigment's colour through Beer–Lambert into the
+     global absorbance. `col` is the pigment; `granPartner` (optional) is a second
+     pigment that separates into the tooth valleys — real granulating-watercolour
+     behaviour, and the source of the wash's living, two-tone shimmer. */
+  function layWash(paint, col, granPartner = null, granAmt = 0) {
+    const [mc] = scratchPair(w, h);
+    mc.clearRect(0, 0, w, h);
+    mc.globalCompositeOperation = 'lighter';      // pigment mass accumulates
+    mc.lineCap = 'round'; mc.lineJoin = 'round';
+    paint(mc);
+    mc.globalAlpha = 1;
+    mc.globalCompositeOperation = 'source-over';
+
+    const M = readField(mc, w, h);
+    const sharp = blurField(M, w, h, 1.15 * u);                 // soften beads into wash
+    const diffuse = blurField(M, w, h, (4.5 * D.wetness) * u);  // the drying-front spread
+    const wide = blurField(M, w, h, (14 * D.wetness) * u);      // the wet-into-wet halo
+
+    const cr = 1 - col[0] / 255, cg = 1 - col[1] / 255, cb = 1 - col[2] / 255;
+    let gr = cr, gg = cg, gb = cb;
+    if (granPartner) { gr = 1 - granPartner[0] / 255; gg = 1 - granPartner[1] / 255; gb = 1 - granPartner[2] / 255; }
+    const k = 2.7 * D.pigment;
+    for (let i = 0; i < N; i++) {
+      const s = sharp[i];
+      if (s < 0.003 && wide[i] < 0.003) continue;
+      // wet edge: water receding to the perimeter concentrates pigment in a rim.
+      const rim = Math.max(0, s - diffuse[i]);
+      // wet-into-wet halo: pigment carried out beyond the stroke into damp paper.
+      const halo = Math.max(0, wide[i] - s);
+      let p = s + rim * (2.2 * D.edge) + halo * (0.85 * D.bleed);
+      // granulation: pigment settles in the tooth valleys (low tooth), thins on
+      // the raised fibres — a textured, mottled density rather than a flat wash.
+      const tv = tooth[i] - 0.5;                 // +raised fibre … −valley
+      const g = 1 - D.granulate * (0.6 * tv + 0.12);
+      p *= Math.max(0.18, g);
+      const a = p * k;
+      // the granulating partner deposits preferentially in the valleys
+      const frac = granPartner ? granAmt * Math.max(0, 0.5 - tv) : 0;
+      const aMain = a * (1 - frac), aGran = a * frac;
+      Ar[i] += aMain * cr + aGran * gr;
+      Ag[i] += aMain * cg + aGran * gg;
+      Ab[i] += aMain * cb + aGran * gb;
+    }
+  }
+
+  // soft round pigment deposit (radial alpha) — no per-stamp filter (slow); the
+  // diffusion blur in layWash carries the wet spread.
+  function blob(mc, X, Y, R, a) {
+    const grd = mc.createRadialGradient(X, Y, 0, X, Y, R);
+    grd.addColorStop(0, `rgba(255,255,255,${a})`);
+    grd.addColorStop(0.5, `rgba(255,255,255,${a * 0.5})`);
+    grd.addColorStop(1, 'rgba(255,255,255,0)');
+    mc.fillStyle = grd;
+    mc.beginPath(); mc.arc(X, Y, R, 0, Math.PI * 2); mc.fill();
+  }
+
+  // ---- collect pigment deposits into colour buckets ----
+  // Each bucket is one pigment with its own drying front (its own wet edge). For a
+  // per-track palette a track contributes its whole self to one bucket; for a
+  // per-bubble palette (lifecycle, kindrise, psychedelic…) each *bubble* lands in
+  // the bucket of its own colour, so the wash shifts hue along the trail the way wet
+  // pigment really migrates and separates. mono additionally carries a granulating
+  // partner (cool payne's-grey settling out of the warm sepia).
+  const isMono = (params.palette ?? 'mono') === 'mono';
+  const perBubble = pal.perBubble;
+  const QUANT = 28;                                   // colour quantisation → bounded buckets
+  const qkey = (c) => `${Math.round(c[0] / QUANT)}_${Math.round(c[1] / QUANT)}_${Math.round(c[2] / QUANT)}`;
+  const deps = new Map();                             // key → { col, fills, strokes, blobs }
+  const bucketFor = (col) => {
+    const key = qkey(col);
+    let d = deps.get(key);
+    if (!d) { d = { col, fills: [], strokes: [], blobs: [] }; deps.set(key, d); }
+    return d;
+  };
+
+  for (const track of scene.tracks || []) {
+    if (track.pts.length < 2) continue;
+    const df = depthFactors(track, params);
+    const load = KIND_LOAD[track.kind] ?? 1;
+    const repCol = pal.ink(track);
+    // 1) continuity wash — a soft varying-width body of water, heavier where the
+    //    particle ionises hardest (1/β² via trackInkWeight) — to the track's pigment.
+    const iw = trackInkWeight(track);
+    const lw = Math.min(5.5, 0.7 + Math.sqrt(iw) * 0.6) * u * params.size * track.weight;
+    if (lw >= 0.25 * u) bucketFor(repCol).strokes.push({ pts: track.pts, lw, alpha: 0.27 * df.tone * load });
+    // 2) pigment grain — discrete bubbles (shared nucleation model); pooling at the
+    //    slow/dense end falls out of the 1/β² density for free. Per-bubble colour
+    //    when the palette varies along the trail.
+    const bubs = sampleBubbles({ ...track, sizeScale: df.sizeScale }, params, bubbleRng);
+    const a = Math.min(1, 0.5 + df.tone * 0.5) * load;
+    for (const b of bubs) {
+      const col = perBubble ? pal.bubbleInk(track, b.life, b.beta) : repCol;
+      bucketFor(col).blobs.push({ x: tx(b.x), y: ty(b.y), r: Math.max(b.r * scale, 0.5) * 2.6, a: a * 0.36 });
+    }
+  }
+
+  // ---- explicit geometry primitives (used by non-particle subjects, e.g. the
+  //      milkweed umbel): area washes (leaves/ground), strokes (pedicels, petals,
+  //      midribs — no bubble grain), and dabs (corona crowns, bud bodies, centres).
+  //      Each carries its own pigment `kind`, routed through the same palette. All
+  //      optional → particle scenes set none of these and behave unchanged. ----
+  const inkKind = (kind) => pal.ink({ kind, pts: [{ beta: 0.5 }], q: 1 });
+  for (const wsh of (scene.washes || [])) {
+    if (!wsh.pts || wsh.pts.length < 3) continue;
+    bucketFor(inkKind(wsh.kind)).fills.push({ pts: wsh.pts, alpha: wsh.alpha ?? 0.45 });
+  }
+  for (const st of (scene.strokes || [])) {
+    if (!st.pts || st.pts.length < 2) continue;
+    bucketFor(inkKind(st.kind)).strokes.push({ pts: st.pts, lw: (st.width ?? 0.008) * scale, alpha: st.alpha ?? 0.3 });
+  }
+  for (const db of (scene.dabs || [])) {
+    bucketFor(inkKind(db.kind)).blobs.push({ x: tx(db.x), y: ty(db.y), r: (db.r ?? 0.01) * scale, a: db.alpha ?? 0.5 });
+  }
+
+  // ---- lay each pigment bucket as its own wash ----
+  for (const { col, fills, strokes, blobs } of deps.values()) {
+    layWash((mc) => {
+      // area washes first (they sit beneath), then strokes, then grain/dabs
+      for (const f of fills) {
+        mc.globalAlpha = f.alpha;
+        mc.beginPath(); mc.moveTo(tx(f.pts[0].x), ty(f.pts[0].y));
+        for (let i = 1; i < f.pts.length; i++) mc.lineTo(tx(f.pts[i].x), ty(f.pts[i].y));
+        mc.closePath(); mc.fillStyle = 'rgba(255,255,255,1)'; mc.fill();
+      }
+      for (const s of strokes) {
+        mc.globalAlpha = s.alpha; mc.lineWidth = s.lw;
+        mc.beginPath(); mc.moveTo(tx(s.pts[0].x), ty(s.pts[0].y));
+        for (let i = 1; i < s.pts.length; i++) mc.lineTo(tx(s.pts[i].x), ty(s.pts[i].y));
+        mc.stroke();
+      }
+      // larger, softer, lower-alpha deposits coalesce into a textured wash, not beads
+      for (const b of blobs) blob(mc, b.x, b.y, b.r, b.a);
+    }, col, isMono ? PIGMENT_SHADOW : null, isMono ? 0.5 : 0);
+  }
+
+  // ---- the shock disk: a drop of pigment released into still water ----
+  if (scene.shock && (params.diskOff !== true)) {
+    const sh = scene.shock;
+    const feat = pal.feature();
+    const SX = tx(sh.x), SY = ty(sh.y), R = sh.r * scale;
+    layWash((mc) => {
+      // the bloom: a dense mid-radius ring (the drop's wet front) fading both ways
+      mc.globalAlpha = 1;
+      // a translucent bloom: faint, luminous centre (the drop's clearing eye)
+      // rising to a soft wet front near the rim, then feathering out. Kept light
+      // on purpose so paper-glow, striations and granulation read *through* it.
+      const ring = mc.createRadialGradient(SX, SY, 0, SX, SY, R);
+      const I = sh.intensity;
+      ring.addColorStop(0.0, `rgba(255,255,255,${0.03 * I})`);
+      ring.addColorStop(0.5, `rgba(255,255,255,${0.07 * I})`);
+      ring.addColorStop(0.86, `rgba(255,255,255,${0.17 * I})`);
+      ring.addColorStop(1.0, 'rgba(255,255,255,0)');
+      mc.fillStyle = ring;
+      mc.beginPath(); mc.arc(SX, SY, R, 0, Math.PI * 2); mc.fill();
+      // striations as fine pigment threads radiating from the centre — now the
+      // dominant disk gesture (the sunburst of a struck bell / a drop's corona).
+      mc.globalCompositeOperation = 'lighter';
+      mc.lineCap = 'round';
+      for (const s of (sh.striations || [])) {
+        const ix = SX + Math.cos(s.a) * s.inner * scale, iy = SY + Math.sin(s.a) * s.inner * scale;
+        const ox = SX + Math.cos(s.a) * s.outer * scale, oy = SY + Math.sin(s.a) * s.outer * scale;
+        mc.globalAlpha = s.opacity * 0.38;
+        mc.lineWidth = (s.width || 1) * u;
+        mc.beginPath(); mc.moveTo(ix, iy); mc.lineTo(ox, oy); mc.stroke();
+      }
+      // disk-bubble strokes (rings/rim/core) if present, as grain
+      if (sh.bubbleStrokes) {
+        const dRng = makeRng(params.seed, 'diskbubbles');
+        for (const stroke of sh.bubbleStrokes) {
+          const bubs = sampleBubbles(stroke, params, dRng);
+          for (const b of bubs) blob(mc, tx(b.x), ty(b.y), Math.max(b.r * scale, 0.5) * 1.9, 0.24);
+        }
+      }
+    }, feat, isMono ? PIGMENT_SHADOW : null, isMono ? 0.4 : 0);
+  }
+
+  // ---- paper ground with back-light bloom + tooth, then pull pigment through it ----
+  const img = ctx.createImageData(w, h);
+  const D8 = img.data;
+  const pf = paper.flat, pin = paper.glowIn, pout = paper.glowOut;
+  const cxg = w * 0.5, cyg = h * 0.46, rg = w * 0.72;
+  for (let y = 0; y < h; y++) {
+    for (let x = 0; x < w; x++) {
+      const i = y * w + x;
+      // radial back-light: paper glows from within (a lit chamber behind the wash)
+      const dx = (x - cxg) / rg, dy = (y - cyg) / rg;
+      const rr = Math.min(1, Math.sqrt(dx * dx + dy * dy));
+      const gl = 1 - rr * rr;
+      let pr = pout[0] + (pin[0] - pout[0]) * gl;
+      let pg = pout[1] + (pin[1] - pout[1]) * gl;
+      let pb = pout[2] + (pin[2] - pout[2]) * gl;
+      pr = pf[0] + (pr - pf[0]) * 0.55; pg = pf[1] + (pg - pf[1]) * 0.55; pb = pf[2] + (pb - pf[2]) * 0.55;
+      // paper tooth visible even on bare paper (very subtle), stronger in the wash
+      const th = (tooth[i] - 0.5);
+      const toothShade = 1 - D.tooth * 0.05 * (0.5 - th) * 2;
+      pr *= toothShade; pg *= toothShade; pb *= toothShade;
+      // Beer–Lambert: paper · e^(−A)
+      const p4 = i * 4;
+      D8[p4]     = Math.max(0, Math.min(255, pr * Math.exp(-Ar[i])));
+      D8[p4 + 1] = Math.max(0, Math.min(255, pg * Math.exp(-Ag[i])));
+      D8[p4 + 2] = Math.max(0, Math.min(255, pb * Math.exp(-Ab[i])));
+      D8[p4 + 3] = 255;
+    }
+  }
+  ctx.putImageData(img, 0, 0);
+
+  // ---- tidelines: the scene's own water rings read as pale pigment high-water
+  //      marks — a quiet rhyme between "plate damage" and the wet medium. ----
+  if (scene.artifacts && scene.artifacts.rings && D.bleed > 0) {
+    ctx.save();
+    ctx.globalCompositeOperation = 'multiply';
+    for (const ring of scene.artifacts.rings) {
+      const rr = ring.r * scale;
+      const grd = ctx.createRadialGradient(tx(ring.x), ty(ring.y), rr * 0.86, tx(ring.x), ty(ring.y), rr);
+      grd.addColorStop(0, 'rgba(120,96,70,0)');
+      grd.addColorStop(0.7, `rgba(120,96,70,${0.05 * ring.opacity * 8})`);
+      grd.addColorStop(1, 'rgba(120,96,70,0)');
+      ctx.strokeStyle = grd;
+      ctx.lineWidth = Math.max(1, rr * 0.06);
+      ctx.beginPath(); ctx.arc(tx(ring.x), ty(ring.y), rr * 0.93, 0, Math.PI * 2); ctx.stroke();
+    }
+    ctx.restore();
+  }
+
+  // ---- deckle edge: the torn, soft border of hand-made paper ----
+  drawDeckle(ctx, w, h, params, u);
+
+  // ---- the hand: a pencilled seed/lab caption, the studied archive note ----
+  if (params.showHeader) drawCaption(ctx, w, h, scene, params, u);
+}
+
+/* an irregular soft paper border — bright paper feathering to a faint torn line. */
+function drawDeckle(ctx, w, h, params, u) {
+  const rng = makeRng(params.seed, 'deckle');
+  const inset = 14 * u;
+  ctx.save();
+  // a soft inner vignette of *light* (paper curling up at the edges into the light)
+  const vg = ctx.createRadialGradient(w / 2, h / 2, w * 0.40, w / 2, h / 2, w * 0.72);
+  vg.addColorStop(0, 'rgba(40,30,18,0)');
+  vg.addColorStop(1, 'rgba(40,30,18,0.10)');
+  ctx.fillStyle = vg; ctx.fillRect(0, 0, w, h);
+  // torn deckle line
+  ctx.globalCompositeOperation = 'multiply';
+  ctx.strokeStyle = 'rgba(60,48,32,0.16)';
+  ctx.lineWidth = 1.2 * u;
+  ctx.beginPath();
+  const edge = (along, base) => base + (rng() - 0.5) * 6 * u;
+  ctx.moveTo(edge(0, inset), inset);
+  for (let x = 0; x <= w; x += 24 * u) ctx.lineTo(x, edge(x, inset));
+  for (let y = 0; y <= h; y += 24 * u) ctx.lineTo(edge(y, w - inset), y);
+  for (let x = w; x >= 0; x -= 24 * u) ctx.lineTo(x, edge(x, h - inset));
+  for (let y = h; y >= 0; y -= 24 * u) ctx.lineTo(edge(y, inset), y);
+  ctx.closePath(); ctx.stroke();
+  ctx.restore();
+}
+
+/* a faint graphite caption — the human who studied the plate, kept in. */
+function drawCaption(ctx, w, h, scene, params, u) {
+  ctx.save();
+  ctx.globalCompositeOperation = 'multiply';
+  ctx.fillStyle = 'rgba(58,52,44,0.55)';
+  ctx.font = `${11 * u}px 'JetBrains Mono', ui-monospace, monospace`;
+  ctx.textBaseline = 'bottom';
+  ctx.fillText(`${scene.lab}`, 30 * u, h - 30 * u - 15 * u);
+  ctx.fillStyle = 'rgba(58,52,44,0.42)';
+  ctx.font = `${9 * u}px 'JetBrains Mono', ui-monospace, monospace`;
+  ctx.fillText(`seed ${params.seed} · plate ${scene.plate} · ${scene.exposure}`, 30 * u, h - 30 * u);
+  ctx.restore();
+}

tools/inkwash-export.mjs

@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
+/* ============================================================
+   inkwash-export.mjs — bubble-chamber geometry → inkwash strokes.
+   Exploratory bridge: take a generated scene's tracks and emit a
+   strokes.js that the forked inkwash play.html replays through its
+   own brush engine + fluid sim → a watercolor/ink rendering of a
+   particle event. Each track becomes one pen stroke; β drives the
+   pen pressure (slow/dense end of range = heavier ink).
+
+   NOTE (2026-06-24): the wet look now lives NATIVELY in the project as
+   `src/render/watercolor.js` (renderer=watercolor), on the same scene model —
+   no external fork needed. This bridge is kept as a record / for driving the
+   external play.html, but the live watercolour path is the renderer.
+
+   Usage: node tools/inkwash-export.mjs [seed] [out.js] [maxTracks] [deltaFrac]
+   ============================================================ */
+import { writeFileSync } from 'node:fs';
+import { generateScene } from '../src/scene/scene.js';
+import { paramsFromSeed } from '../src/scene/params.js';
+
+const SEED      = process.argv[2] || 'KAON-0088';
+const OUT       = process.argv[3] || '/tmp/inkwash/strokes.js';
+const MAXTRACKS = +(process.argv[4] || 26);
+const DELTAFRAC = +(process.argv[5] ?? 0.08);   // fraction of δ-ray curls to keep
+const FIT       = 0.62;                          // event half-extent in uv (×0.5)
+
+const p = paramsFromSeed(SEED);
+const scene = generateScene(p);
+
+// frame coords (−1.2..1.2, y down) → inkwash uv (0..1, y up)
+const toUv = (x, y) => [0.5 + x * 0.5 * FIT, 0.5 - y * 0.5 * FIT];
+
+// the heavy structural tracks first; δ-rays are tiny curls — keep only a few
+const heavy = scene.tracks.filter(t => t.kind !== 'delta');
+const deltas = scene.tracks.filter(t => t.kind === 'delta');
+const keepDeltas = deltas.filter((_, i) => i % Math.max(1, Math.round(1 / Math.max(DELTAFRAC, 1e-3))) === 0);
+// longest/most-energetic first so the cap keeps the spine of the event
+const ranked = heavy.sort((a, b) => b.pts.length - a.pts.length).slice(0, MAXTRACKS);
+const chosen = [...ranked, ...keepDeltas];
+
+const strokes = [];
+for (const tr of chosen) {
+  const pts = tr.pts.map(pt => {
+    const [u, v] = toUv(pt.x, pt.y);
+    // β low (slow, end of range) ⇒ denser ionisation ⇒ heavier ink
+    const pr = Math.min(0.95, Math.max(0.18, 0.30 + 0.65 * (1 - (pt.beta ?? 0.6))));
+    return [+u.toFixed(4), +v.toFixed(4), +pr.toFixed(3)];
+  }).filter(([u, v]) => u > -0.2 && u < 1.2 && v > -0.2 && v < 1.2);
+  if (pts.length >= 2) strokes.push({ mode: 'pen', pts });
+}
+
+const opts = { stepUv: 0.008, gapFrames: 6, settleFrames: 120, fixEnd: true };
+const totalPts = strokes.reduce((s, k) => s + k.pts.length, 0);
+writeFileSync(OUT,
+  `/* generated from bubble-chamber seed ${SEED} — ${strokes.length} strokes, ${totalPts} pts */\n` +
+  `window.INKWASH_OPTS = ${JSON.stringify(opts)};\n` +
+  `window.INKWASH_STROKES = ${JSON.stringify(strokes)};\n`);
+console.log(`inkwash-export: seed ${SEED} → ${OUT}`);
+console.log(`  ${chosen.length} tracks (${ranked.length} structural + ${keepDeltas.length} δ) → ${strokes.length} strokes, ${totalPts} pts`);

tools/milkweed.html

@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html>
+<html>
+<head><meta charset="UTF-8"><style>html,body{margin:0;background:#000}canvas{display:block}</style></head>
+<body>
+<canvas id="c"></canvas>
+<script type="module">
+import { generateUmbel } from '../src/milkweed/umbel.js';
+import { renderWatercolor } from '../src/render/watercolor.js';
+
+const q = new URLSearchParams(location.search);
+const params = {
+  seed: q.get('seed') || 'ASCLEPIAS-0001',
+  palette: 'milkweed',
+  paperTone: 'cream', toneStrength: 1, paperBright: 1.06, glow: 0.5,
+  saturation: 1, hueShift: 0, size: 1, density: 1, depth: 0, aging: 0,
+  showHeader: true,
+};
+// pass through any query param (numbers/bools), incl. wc* dials and umbel* knobs
+for (const [k, v] of q) {
+  if (k === 'size_px' || k === 'hq') continue;
+  params[k] = (v === 'true') ? true : (v === 'false') ? false : (isNaN(+v) ? v : +v);
+}
+
+const SIZE = +(q.get('size_px') || 1200);
+const c = document.getElementById('c');
+c.width = c.height = SIZE;
+const ctx = c.getContext('2d', { willReadFrequently: true });
+const scene = generateUmbel(params);
+renderWatercolor(ctx, SIZE, SIZE, scene, params, { preview: q.get('hq') !== '1' });
+document.title = 'done';
+window.__done = true;
+</script>
+</body>
+</html>

tools/preview.html

@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 <script type="module">
 import { generateScene } from '../src/scene/scene.js';
 import { renderCanvasPhoto } from '../src/render/canvasPhoto.js';
+import { renderWatercolor } from '../src/render/watercolor.js';
 import { GROUPS, TOGGLES, SELECTS, FIXED, PRESETS } from '../src/ui/controls.js';
 import { paramsFromSeed } from '../src/scene/params.js';
 
@@ -24,8 +25,9 @@ if (q.get('fromseed') === '1') {
 }
 if (q.get('seed')) params.seed = q.get('seed');
 for (const [k, v] of q) {
-  if (k === 'seed' || k === 'preset' || k === 'size_px') continue;
-  if (k in params) params[k] = (v === 'true') ? true : (v === 'false') ? false : (isNaN(+v) ? v : +v);
+  if (k === 'seed' || k === 'preset' || k === 'size_px' || k === 'renderer' || k === 'hq') continue;
+  // pass through known params plus any wc* watercolour dials (not in the base set)
+  if (k in params || k.startsWith('wc')) params[k] = (v === 'true') ? true : (v === 'false') ? false : (isNaN(+v) ? v : +v);
 }
 
 const SIZE = +(q.get('size_px') || 1200);
@@ -33,7 +35,8 @@ const c = document.getElementById('c');
 c.width = c.height = SIZE;
 const ctx = c.getContext('2d', { willReadFrequently: true });
 const scene = generateScene(params);
-renderCanvasPhoto(ctx, SIZE, SIZE, scene, params, { preview: q.get('hq') !== '1' });
+const render = q.get('renderer') === 'watercolor' ? renderWatercolor : renderCanvasPhoto;
+render(ctx, SIZE, SIZE, scene, params, { preview: q.get('hq') !== '1' });
 document.title = 'done';
 window.__done = true;
 </script>

tools/stack-render.mjs

@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env node
+/* stack-render.mjs — render an acrylic-stack plan to per-plane SVGs.
+   usage: node tools/stack-render.mjs <plan.mjs> [outDir]
+   Writes plane-NN-<sheet>-<face>.svg + manifest.json for the simulator
+   (fable/stack/simulator.html?c=<id>). */
+import { mkdirSync, writeFileSync } from 'node:fs';
+import { resolve } from 'node:path';
+import { pathToFileURL } from 'node:url';
+import { renderStack, planeDepths } from '../src/render/stack.js';
+
+const [planPath, outArg] = process.argv.slice(2);
+if (!planPath) { console.error('usage: node tools/stack-render.mjs <plan.mjs> [outDir]'); process.exit(1); }
+
+const plan = (await import(pathToFileURL(resolve(planPath)).href)).default;
+const outDir = resolve(outArg || `fable/stack/candidates/${plan.id}`);
+mkdirSync(outDir, { recursive: true });
+
+const { planes } = renderStack(plan);
+const zmm = planeDepths(plan);
+
+const manifest = {
+  id: plan.id, title: plan.title || plan.id, seed: plan.seed,
+  geometry: { thickness: plan.geometry?.thickness ?? 3, gap: plan.geometry?.gap ?? 6 },
+  planes: [],
+};
+planes.forEach((p, i) => {
+  const file = `plane-${String(i).padStart(2, '0')}-${p.sheet}-${p.face}.svg`;
+  writeFileSync(`${outDir}/${file}`, p.svg);
+  manifest.planes.push({ file, sheet: p.sheet, face: p.face, zmm: zmm[i], label: p.label });
+  console.log(`  ${file}  z=${zmm[i]}mm  ${p.label}`);
+});
+writeFileSync(`${outDir}/manifest.json`, JSON.stringify(manifest, null, 2));
+console.log(`→ ${outDir} (${planes.length} planes)`);