The timer in Vivian's screenshot kept time like a clean blade. 08:32 didn't blink. It never does.
"Options," Rita said.
"Two," Boone said. "Fight or bend. Bending teaches rooms to ask for more. Fighting requires rooms that hold."
Aisha's voice arrived like a handrail. "I'm sending a pre-commit to Standards," she said. "During any minute where Board-origin lower-third appears, control must display a window plate and accept the host's six-word education slate as a valid substitute for 'clarify'. No 'mutual' language without on-face consent. Copy?"
"Copy," Rita said. "Add: no unannounced intimacy remains in force."
"Added," Aisha said. "Also noting your Rider and Addendum as attachments."
Vivian's bubble appeared, restrained weather. They're asking for your answer in five, she wrote. If you 'bend', they promise to remove the word 'mutual' later and call tonight's language a 'values slide'. If you fight, they will float the draft to socials at 08:32 with or without your faces.
Evan didn't move. He has a way of being still that makes other things recall their jobs. "If we bend," he said, "they will call it grace and spend it like money."
"If we fight," I said, "we keep verbs."
Rita built a square that wasn't a speech. misleading lower-third at the top, then two lines:
Consent on Record is verifiable; 'mutual' is not.
If you see 'mutual consent moment' without on-face consent, treat it as editing, not my consent.
She nested the window plate small in the corner, because objects argue better than adjectives.
"This only goes up if they abuse a lower-third," she said. "Otherwise window guard."
"Send me that," the agent said through speaker, voice jogging. "If they try to run 'mutual' at 08:32, I'll show your square to the thread and say: This will be the response. It may scare two votes."
"Sent," Rita said.
Boone touched the stairwell bar with two fingers. Metal told him its mood. "Ost holds," he said. "Judges' Stairs to vestibül. written permission posted. credential at corner. Three feet between bodies. hands visible."
The building supervisor returned with a strip of tape and the smugness of a man whose sign lived where signs get to be true. "Counsel asked for one more line under the permission," he said, reading from the printout as he taped. "'No faces of non-consenting staff'. I put it in the font buildings respect."
"Thank you," Rita said. She lifted our own card and made an altar under his. no unannounced intimacy. It looked like the wall had decided to be literate.
Victor made a circle in the air, a silent sound check. "I'll notch the alarm chirp at :45," he said. "Strobes will make your hair think it has a job. Keep your eyes level. window likes light if it isn't the only noun."
Vivian's bubble: Board proposes 'mutual consent moment - values' as a compromise; they suggest a smaller window 'for aesthetics'.
"window is a noun, not parsley," Rita typed back. "Offer them Public Record Statement overlay as the only substitute: index isn't a record; please don't harass clerks. Or nothing."
They'll hate that, Vivian wrote.
"They can love liability less," Aisha said into our sleeves. "I've cc'ed Standards on the pre-commit. If control runs 'mutual', we file misleading. If socials run it, we add our window card with the words 'non-verifiable label'. Keep the oxygen dry."
The agent again: "I wedged your Consent on Record image into the governance chat," he said. "Two members said 'we'll consider it if the window is small.' I told them accessibility specs exist. I used the word 'bus stop'. Thank you for the bus stop."
"Bus stops write policy," Rita said.
Vivian's bubble hesitated and then spent the truth. I can stall the 08:32 if I can say you'll accept 'values' without 'mutual'. They're obsessed with warmth.
"Warmth is a vibe," I said. "names, not vibes."
Evan met my eyes and then looked at the timer in her screenshot as if it owed him a debt. "I vote fight," he said.
"Fight," Boone said. He is a wall that talks when words will do better than force.
Aisha's tone softened without losing its edge. "Then we formalize," she said. "I'm sending a second pre-commit to Standards: If a Board-origin 'values' slide attempts to summarize status at 08:32, label it 'commentary' with window and immediately follow with the host's six-word education slate. No 'mutual' permitted."
"Send it," Rita said.
The hallway held its breath the way rooms do when nouns matter.
Rita pared our reply to Vivian into something that could live in a court one day without shame. We will not accept 'mutual consent moment' or any 'values' lower-third referring to status. Only 'Consent on Record' or the Public Record Statement overlay are permitted in our minutes. If Board runs anything else at 08:32, we will publish a misleading lower-third note and proceed at 09:47 with window and Consent on Record.
I added a line that rooms need to hear even when they have no ears. We will not help you lie.
Rita didn't change a word. She hit send.
Vivian's typing bubble stayed up long enough to write a novella and then delivered six words. Copy. I'll escalate. Prepare for 'queued'.
Rita checked the mirror of our window board on the East feed like a pilot checks the altimeter. caption window sat in the corner with consent stated on air and tonight's time. The Consent on Record lower-third sat where bus stops can read it.
"Host?" Rita pinged.
His reply came in with the kind of cheer that belongs to men who have learned to hold a room without lying to it. 09:44 East step. Six words warm. If control tries 'mutual,' I'll say 'education slate' and read the line twice.
"Thank you," I said aloud, because gratitude is also a noun.
The press pen never sleeps. Nolan posted a shaded graphic that tried to look like whistleblowing and smelled like office carpeting. 'Values slide' at 08:32, sources say. His bullet points were a little too neat for guesswork.
Rita didn't feed him. window guard means letting some fires choke on their own wood.
"Alarms," Victor murmured, listening past walls. Times make habits. Habits make sounds.
Aisha returned with the kind of note that saves mornings. "Standards acknowledged both pre-commits," she said. "They will require window if any Board text runs, and they approve the host's six-word education slate as a replacement for 'clarify'. Control is cc'ed. Vivian is cc'ed. The word 'accessibility' is in the email twice."
"Good," Rita said, and let the shape of that word rest in the room.
Vivian's bubble flickered with a screenshot nobody enjoys receiving. The Board scheduler panel. The 08:32 item had changed from draft to queued. A gray toggle glowed like an unkind moon. Under it: Auto-publish to brand socials if no 'values' on air.
"They put it on rails," Evan said.
"Rails can be greased," Aisha said. "I'm sending Board Counsel a formal notice: 'Queuing speculative status text risks misleading. If posted, our clients will label it accordingly and proceed with pre-cleared language at 09:47.'"
Rita built one more small rectangle, because sometimes you beat rain with architecture. names, not vibes at the top in the show font. Beneath it: We speak Consent on Record. We speak Public Record Statement. We do not speak 'mutual' on your behalf.window sat in the corner like a polite knife.
"This one does not go live," she said. "It lives in the holster. If they force the minute, we draw."
The building supervisor leaned back in with a mug that smelled like coffee and the posture of a man who could borrow us five minutes if time were furniture. "Do you need cones moved at East before sunrise," he asked. "I can take a walk."
"Move them at eight," Boone said. "Quietly. If they come back, let them. We shoot inside."
"Inside is yours," the supervisor said, and left on feet that believe in civics.
Vivian again: Board asks if 'mutual' can be replaced with 'consent acknowledged'. They think it's neutral.
"'Acknowledged' by whom," Rita typed back. "Without faces, that word is a verb with no subject. names, not vibes."
Silence reoccupied the corridor, grateful for work.
Evan looked at me. Not for permission. For map. "Clock," he said.
"Paper," I said. "We fight."
He nodded, the small pact. "Then we write the sentence that says we fight."
Rita crafted a final, signed reply that could be held in a palm and not leak sugar. Final: We decline any lower-third other than Consent on Record or Public Record Statement. We will not participate in 'mutual/acknowledged/values' labels. If a speculative lower-third runs on air or socials, we will publish a misleading note and proceed as planned at 09:47. Addendum and Rider remain binding. She signed it with our names because anonymity is how rules die.
"Send it," I said.
She sent it.
The timer in Vivian's screenshot reached 08:31:00, because some clocks show you their throat. Vivian's bubble appeared, two words: Sent up.
The agent, in our wall, exhaled. "I have three votes for 'no action', two for 'values', one abstain, one unknown," he said. "If your line spooks the unknown, we might get nothing at 08:32. If not, I'll be the man in their comments with your window verb."
Victor held the phone that recorded our night like it was an egg he trusted not to break. "Phones down after mirror," he reminded us, because discipline is a practice, not a mood.
Rita mirrored the PIO's do not confirm/deny post at :45 and pinned our incident number square under it with the dry pride of a well-made shelf. Then she set the holster card where holsters live.
Vivian's screenshot refreshed on its own, as if the machine wanted us to see the knife get closer. The Board item remained queued. A different line under it lit: Moderator on standby - 08:31:30.
"Final?" Vivian typed, because rooms try one last time before they betray themselves.
Evan looked at me. I looked at him. Our nouns didn't need rehearsal.
"Fight," I typed.
"Fight," he said.
Vivian's bubble replied with a single, civilian verb. Understood.
The timer moved.