Participation reshaped her sense of time.
Aaliyah noticed it in the way days no longer blurred together or rushed past her. Each one held its own texture now, distinct, but connected. The studio days felt different from the rest, not heavier, not brighter.
Just intentional.
Her first week of deeper involvement began without announcement.
No orientation packet.
No formal welcome.
Just presence.
She arrived, greeted a few familiar faces, took her usual seat. Nothing about the space had changed.
Only her relationship to it.
She listened more than she spoke.
Not out of caution, but respect.
She noticed how people worked when they weren't performing. How pauses weren't filled. How decisions emerged from attention rather than authority.
She felt herself settling into the rhythm rather than trying to shape it.
Across the city, Marcus Blackwood entered his own pilot phase.
