Permission is a habit.
Once people learn to ask for it, they forget how to move without it.
The city didn't resist our return from the bridge. It accepted us the way systems accept friction—by routing around it, shaving edges, pretending the obstacle doesn't matter as long as flow continues.
That was fine.
We weren't here to block the flow.
We were here to stand where it mattered.
Arjun broke the silence first."So what does 'presence without permission' actually look like?"
I watched a pedestrian signal flicker—green holding longer than it should, red snapping back too fast.
"It looks like being there before the question finishes forming," I said."And staying after the answer's denied."
The girl nodded slowly."Not intervention," she said."Continuity."
Aaryan smiled."Ah. You're about to become inconvenient."
✦
