>> [MISSION-10] Cosmic Dust Trail

>> status: DOWNLINK LOST // 2025

>> OBJECTIVE

Prototype three interactive cursor effects in one self-contained page and decide whether any of them earn a place on the main site: a stardust trail behind the pointer, a grid that bends around it like a gravity well, and a thruster stream that reacts to cursor speed.

>> STACK

canvas / ui-experiment / cursor-effects / javascript

>> OUTCOME

All three worked, and that was the problem — none of them convinced me. The dust trail was just particles, the thruster was particles with more particles, and the gravity well was genuinely the best of them while also being the one that fought the terminal aesthetic. So I stopped pretending I knew: shelved the experiment instead of shipping noise. What survived was the verdict itself — cursor replacement is a downgrade when the site already has a voice, and I only trust an effect once I can say what it adds.