Purpose, once named, altered the texture of every interaction.
It did not make the room louder.
It did not make the work heavier.
It made it intentional.
Aaliyah felt it the moment she stepped into the studio the following week. The air was not charged. It was settled, like something had found its spine.
Conversations carried less defensiveness.
Ideas arrived with less performance.
Silences no longer felt like gaps that needed to be filled.
They felt like space being respected.
She placed her bag down and watched the room without inserting herself into it. A newer member was already deep in conversation with one of the earliest contributors. There was laughter, unforced, easy.
Not politeness.
Ease.
The kind that comes when no one feels they have to prove they belong.
Aaliyah felt something soften in her chest.
Continuity had shifted into identity.
They were no longer negotiating who they were becoming.
They were inhabiting it.
