Being needed is heavier than being opposed.
Opposition gives you shape—edges to lean against, forces to push back on. Need has no edges. It presses from every direction, quietly, constantly, until you realize you're carrying more than you ever agreed to.
The city felt that weight by midmorning.
Not as pressure from above.
As gravity from below.
✦
Requests came without ceremony now.
No forms.No routing.No permissions.
Just people appearing at the edge of what remained, eyes tired, voices steady.
"Can you help with this?""We're stuck over there.""They said you'd know what to do."
They didn't say they.They didn't need to.
✦
Arjun noticed the change as we crossed a narrow street.
"They're not asking if we're allowed anymore," he said."They're assuming."
"Yes," I replied."That's the weight."
✦
The other Ishaan aligned, voice low and exact.
Being needed erases invisibility, he said.But it replaces it with obligation.
✦
By noon, the pattern was unmistakable.
