POV: three stories walk into a dissertation defense.🤓
a longitudinal study of three ongoing catastrophes in discourse, desire, and doctoral fatigue.
primary subject: rio vidal.
control variable: agatha harkness.
methodology: pretend it’s analysis.
A faint chorus of manners overlaid on budget talk. The soft clink of a spoon against a mug marked when someone wanted to interrupt without appearing to. An auditory taxonomy of monotony, timed by the occasional forced laugh.
Rio sat two seats from the back table’s edge. Close enough to look attentive, far enough that no one would ask her opinion.
The dean had assigned her to record minutes that served appearance more than purpose. She told herself she was there to listen—to make the time measurable, to map speech as it unfolded under assumed propriety.
Department talk threaded through reports and figures. The room synchronized—function taking over. One voice praised an outreach initiative, another questioned its metrics. Each contribution settled into its expected register.
Nothing leaked. Nothing ever did. That was the discipline the Directive required.
findings: syntax as seduction. hierarchy disguised as harmony.
the phone buzzed against the nightstand. she grabbed for it too quickly, muscle memory more than thought.
two words lit the screen, stark against the dark. come over.
no context. no please. just the order.
findings: the imperative mood as foreplay.
III. observational window:
They built the rooms to be identical.
Symmetry was meant to keep the data clean, to scrape away whatever was human. Two beds. Two desks. The same flat light that washed color out of skin until everyone looked archived. Even the vents breathed in rhythm, tuned to match through the wall.
Rio knew it would never hold.
No two spaces stay the same once someone begins inhabiting them.
From her side of the glass she could already see the difference. Agatha moved through her space as if she were testing it for weakness. Running her fingers along the edges of the desk, pressing a palm to the windowpane to see if it gave. When she sat, the chair looked inhabited. When she stood, the air felt briefly rearranged.
Rio entered her notes into the tablet.
Subject A. Morning observation.
findings: empathy flourishes under observation. especially when women are involved.
further research required.
coauthors preferred (preferably queer, literate, and emotionally unstable).
💡 methodological bias: lesbian
💼 metapragmatic — enemies to professional obligations.
📱 hello, rio — the imperative mood says jump. she jumps.
🪞 observational window — psychological experiment or foreplay (who’s to say).
