diff --git a/elements/neuron/2026-07-13-the-why-of-day-and-night.md b/elements/neuron/2026-07-13-the-why-of-day-and-night.md
index b40ec9a..56b5955 100644
--- a/elements/neuron/2026-07-13-the-why-of-day-and-night.md
+++ b/elements/neuron/2026-07-13-the-why-of-day-and-night.md
@@ -104,45 +104,50 @@ the pool is finite. Because the night's currency is depleted by use, the night's
 there. The day's collaboration becomes the night's competition, and the reason is simply the currency:
 information is non-rival, matter is conserved. (Same principle, opposite scarcity; logic_principles §5.)
 
-**The self-contained loop: replay diagnoses, restructuring repairs.** This is the heart of the night,
-and it closes on itself with no external driver. Replay (the night's PREPARATION) runs the day's
-circuits through the current structure and leaves **restructuring-need traces**: where a component was
-reached by the pattern but its structure could not complete it — a *near-miss* — it deposits a "build
-me" need; where it fired without warrant — leftover structure carrying pattern it should not — it
-deposits a "release me" need. Restructuring (the night's ACTION⇄RECOVERY) then *consumes* those needs:
-it builds the near-misses and releases the leaks, cycling many times because resolving who is
-potentiated and who is depotentiated is a competition that takes many rounds. When the needs are
-spent, replay runs again on the newly changed structure and leaves a fresh, smaller batch of needs.
-Around and around: **replay makes work for restructuring; restructuring does the work and hands back
-to replay to find the next.** Each phase produces exactly the fuel the other consumes.
+**The self-contained loop: participation selects, restructuring consolidates.** This is the heart of
+the night, and it closes on itself with no external driver. In RECOVERY each component is given a
+limited **energy store** — all get a base, but those still carrying the day's tags get more, so past
+participation (the day's evidence) buys present chance. Replay (the night's PREPARATION) then runs the
+day's circuits, and a component participates in a circuit by igniting — which **spends its energy
+store**. Because the store is limited, a component can take part only so long; as its energy drains it
+can no longer sustain participation and **gives way**, letting other circuits — other components with
+energy still to spend — recruit. So replay sweeps the repertoire, circuit by circuit, as stores
+deplete, and each component's **participation is traced**. Restructuring (the night's ACTION⇄RECOVERY)
+then **strengthens the participants**: the components whose participation trace is high, and which have
+material, build up; those that did not take part drift down — while RECOVERY re-supplies energy and
+material for the next round. Cycling many times, because resolving who is potentiated and who is
+depotentiated is a competition that takes many rounds. Around and around: **replay selects by
+participation; restructuring consolidates the participants and re-supplies the energy; replay runs
+again on the strengthened structure.** Each phase produces exactly the fuel the other consumes.
 
-**Why near-misses, and not something a component cannot know.** A circuit is an emergent object — no
-component contains it, and no component knows which circuit it is part of. Yet the night must check
-circuit-level coherence. It can, because a component senses the circuit *arriving at itself*: the
-convergent input a replay delivers is the circuit reaching this component. A component that receives
-strong convergent input and yet falls just short of acting is the weak link — the circuit reached it,
-its structure could not carry it — and *that* gap is a build-need. A component that receives no input
-leaves no trace (it is downstream of a break elsewhere, and building it would not help). So a purely
-local sense — convergent-input-but-no-act — captures a circuit-level property correctly, without any
-component reading beyond itself. The circuit is checked without anyone knowing the circuit.
+**Why participation, and not something a component cannot know.** A circuit is an emergent object — no
+component contains it, and no component knows which circuit it is part of. Yet the night selects at the
+circuit level. It can, because a component senses the circuit *arriving at itself*: the convergent
+input a replay delivers is the circuit reaching this component, and igniting in response — spending its
+own energy to take part — is its participation in that circuit. A component that never gets driven, or
+that runs out of energy, simply does not take part and is not strengthened. So a purely local act —
+spend energy to ignite when the circuit arrives — realises a circuit-level selection, without any
+component reading beyond itself. What is consolidated is what participated; the circuit is selected
+without anyone knowing the circuit.
 
 **Why the night ends itself — two fuels running down.** The night is not clocked; it ends when its
 work is done, and "done" has two meanings that run down together. First, **the tags deplete**: each
-build spends tag, so as consolidation completes there are fewer claims left to pay, replay finds fewer
-near-misses, and the loop quietens. When the tags are exhausted there is nothing left to consolidate.
-Second, **replay is expensive**: re-igniting circuits burns energy, and this cost — call it night
-fatigue — accumulates as the night runs. Because replay *lengthens* across the night (early, on raw
-structure, circuits break fast and replay is short; late, on consolidated structure, circuits sweep
-long and replay is long), the cost accelerates toward the end. The night ends when either fuel is
-spent: the tags exhausted (the work is done) or the energy spent (replay has cost too much). The
-normal end is tag-exhaustion — the night finishes its job — with the energy cap a safeguard against
-endless exploration.
+build spends tag, so as consolidation completes there are fewer claims left to fund participation and
+strengthening, and the loop quietens. When the tags are exhausted there is nothing left to consolidate.
+Second, **replay is expensive**: participation spends energy, and this cost — call it night fatigue —
+accumulates as the night runs. Because replay *lengthens* across the night (early, on raw structure,
+energy is spent fast on circuits that break; late, on consolidated structure, the same energy sustains
+many completing circuits swept in turn), the cost accelerates toward the end. The night ends when
+either fuel is spent: the tags exhausted (the work is done) or the energy spent (replay has cost too
+much). The normal end is tag-exhaustion — the night finishes its job — with the energy cap a safeguard
+against endless exploration.
 
 **Why the night changes character as it runs.** Early night has many unpaid tags, so much to build —
-replay finds many near-misses, restructuring is long, replay is short (little completes on raw
-structure). Late night has few tags left, most structure built — replay finds few near-misses,
-restructuring is short, replay is long (the consolidated structure supports sweeping many circuits).
-So the night shifts from restructuring-heavy to replay-heavy as consolidation progresses. This is not
+but on raw structure the circuits break fast, so energy is spent quickly and replay is short while
+restructuring is long. Late night has few tags left, most structure built — so circuits complete, the
+same energy sustains participation across many circuits swept in turn, and replay is long while
+restructuring is short. So the night shifts from restructuring-heavy to replay-heavy as consolidation
+progresses. This is not
 imposed; it falls out of the tags depleting. The shape of the night *is* the progress of consolidation
 made visible.
 
@@ -210,7 +215,8 @@ is the component's why; the organism's *objects* are what that why builds when c
 The day meets the world and gathers evidence, acting and recovering through the world's streams and
 preparing tags in the quiet — collaboratively, in the non-rival currency of information. The night
 turns inward and consolidates that evidence, building and releasing structure and importing and
-freeing material through many rounds, then replaying to diagnose what remains — competitively, in the
+freeing material through many rounds, then replaying so that components participate — spending a
+limited energy store — and the participants are strengthened — competitively, in the
 conserved currency of material, in a self-contained loop that ends when its two fuels (the day's tags,
 the night's replay energy) run down. Day produces what night consumes and night rebuilds what day will
 act on; the switch between them is earned, never clocked. And all of this is one shape — act, recover,