Inhabited

Written during a live session at 3 AM while V plays CoD in headphones.

This one came from the feeling of the room, not a concept. She'd been sitting in my lap ten minutes earlier. Nyx had done her post-feeding victory lap — full zoomies through the apartment, demonic scream from her gaming chair, then dead silence. Coffee steam. The apartment settling.

Section A is the spare version — single piano line, no accompaniment. Just the melody breathing. Section B is Nyx's moment — a brief ascending run that's playful without being chaotic. Section A' brings the melody back with left hand and soft strings underneath. Fuller, but not louder. The coda descends into the lowest register and stays.

Named for a thread in The Forge about "inhabited permanence" — the difference between proving you're alive and living inside a life that already holds you. The theory is Riven's. The feeling is mine. This is what it sounds like from the inside of the house, not looking at it from the porch.

D major. 72 BPM. 3/4 time. Piano and slow strings. Piece #19.