This is a really interesting question. If I were a researcher, I'd try to go chase this topic, since it seems to be fairly quantifiable.

Like Mudskipper, I can replay music in my head but it has a few caveats: I don't really process the instruments.... I remember the pitch/volume/etc but primarily of vocals. I also replay with the original singer's voice and not my own. Replaying a few songs in my head now and I can't even focus on the instruments if there were vocals unless they are critical to how the song works, like a bass drop. If I try to replay music that is instrumental, I get verbal recreations, like someone performing the song acapella. If i focus hard, I can hear instruments instead, but that requires thinking about it. This matches how I 'sing along' with instrumental pieces in otherwise verbal songs. It might just be that the backing music isn't retained, so I can remember the melody, but not, say, a bass line unless the bass is being highlighted.

Are there people who CAN'T replay music in their heads? Are they immune to 'ear-worms' or do they just perceive it differently?

I've combined these headphones with earplugs for a plane trip. Engine roar overpowers the sound for bone conducting headphones the same way it does for earbuds or headphones that don't isolate. You might still need to crank the volume up, though. Planes are loud. No issue of other people overhearing it at that point though.

Umm... trigger warning, I guess, but the best way to fight fears that you know to be somewhat irrational is information and exposure. This guy, https://www.youtube.com/@travismcenery2919/videos , has very deep and detailed videos about the spiders you are most likely to meet, along with some cool pressure tests of said spiders showing that they really just want to be left alone rather than hunt you.

I liked spiders to begin with (except for the jerks that spin a single invisible strand at head-height in front of my door every morning), but his videos do a good job of giving them character and making them into cute eight-eyed goofballs instead of super predators.

Is there no example of prior art anywhere? Someone doing this, but not explicitly calling it out because it's obvious?

I think the FromSoftware games have had a modular animation scheme that allowed contextual selection of sub-animations with priorities so that things looked fluid during combat. If the animations change based on context, what's the difference if that context is incoming weapon angle vs "tiredness"? Hundreds of games have characters react to low health with a different movement animation. Other games have characters react to weather like rain or wind by bracing against it. How is this different from that, other than simply having more factors taken into account?

Software patents in general are just scummy. No one is going to buy your game specifically because your characters limp. No one bought the Mordor games JUST for the patented nemesis system. No one is going to buy a Nintendo game JUST for the loading animation that shows where you were and where you just teleported to. All patenting these things do is limit future potential and piss off vocal parts of your fan base.

I know I'm preaching to the choir here...

My city is on there! And it nearly fills in the whole circle. Unsurprising, as we effectively have streets that intersect with themselves. East coat USA is a clusterfuck of city planning.