# Fungal Overgrowth v3b — Mycelial Engine (two interlocking 3-vs-4 cells)

`fungal-overgrowth-v3b` — levels: `calm.mp3` · `activity1.mp3` · `activity2.mp3` · `danger1.mp3` · `danger2.mp3`

The BOLDER second reading of fungal-overgrowth (standalone per §7.7 — the 3-against-4 phasing cells ARE the subject). Where the v2 take phased one free dotted-quarter lead over a strict pulse, this take makes the polyrhythm the literal architecture: TWO equal interlocking pluck cells run at once — a '3' cell on a strict 3-row period and a '4' cell on the straight 4-row beat — so they realign only every 12 rows (LCM), a true audible 3-against-4 shimmer where neither voice is the melody. Kinetic perpetual motion throughout: even the calm bed (ch0-3) runs a soft creeping 3-cell pluck + scattered bubbleBlip growth, so standing still already teems with spreading life. G mixolydian, fully diatonic (the F-natural b7 / bVII chord is the modal glint, not chromaticism). Activity L1 (ch4-5) brings the '3' cell to the foreground as a bright pluck on the 3-row period plus its soft stereo echo — one voice of the interlock standing on its own. Activity L2 (ch6-7) ADDS NEW material: the '4' cell (a second pluck a fourth lower, opposite stereo side, on the straight beat) AND a struckPiano (tone BRIGHT — present, articulate, the right voice for a 112-BPM kinetic shimmer) that strikes only on the phase-collision rows (multiples of 12, where the two grids coincide) so the ear catches the polyrhythm resolving and drifting apart. Only at L2 do 3 and 4 actually phase — the shimmer is the layering payoff, never the L1 cell turned up. Danger is ENCOUNTER music at a FASTER section tempo (132 BPM, a genuine intensity jump): danger L1 (ch8-9) is the approach/unease — the kinetic cells gone apprehensive (a tightened tonic-leaning pulse + a darkening low drone OF THE TONIC + sparse far puffball pops/thip at the stereo edges); real material, the player senses the growth turning toward them, not near-silence. Danger L2 (ch10-11) is active flee — the full ensemble crashes in: a driving kick + stoneTom run on the collapsed grid, the thips acquiring DIRECTION (a stereo walk from the edges toward center with tightening spacing) + hatTick offbeat motion, peaking at d2's convergence; new rhythmic material and far higher density, a true escalation over L1. Dread is abstract — register, density, the cells collapsing and quickening, convergence — never chromatic darkening and never a literal collapse/storm foley (the SFX domain). The retired §4.5 'mycelial hum' Depth bed is rendered as a pitched tonic drone, not a looped noise bed; all noise (thip/hat/kick/tom/boom) is struck one-shot percussion.
