Location: Communal Beanbag Reflection Zone (formerly the library atrium)
Characters:
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Kai (they/them): Majoring in Introspective Archaeology
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River (she/fae): Double major in Restorative Narratives and Grief-Based Performance Art
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Witness-Facilitator: Indigo (they/them): Emotional Infrastructure Peer Mediator
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Emotional Weather: Drizzly. Inside and out.
ACT I: THE GATHERING
INDIGO (they/them)
Thank you both for arriving consensually into this difficult space. As per protocol, I will be present only as a mirror of relational truth, not a moderator. My clipboard is decorative.
KAI (they/them) (taking a deep breath)
River… I honour the story we co-authored in the archive of shared becoming. But I’ve been sitting with some ancestral murmuration, and I need to exit this entanglement before I start resenting your moon-based calendrical rituals.
RIVER (she/fae) (visibly quivering)
I appreciate the decentring of blame in your opening. I, too, have felt a distancing—not spatial, but in our shared affective circuitry. Your gaze has become increasingly neoliberal.
ACT II: SPEAKING THE SHIFT
KAI (they/them)
Lately, I’ve felt emotionally over-consumed. Like my nervous system is being monetised by your need for constant affirmation.
RIVER (she/fae)
That lands. I’ve sensed a withdrawal in your vibro-spiritual field. I tried to offer somatic repair through interpretive spooning, but you tensed.
KAI (they/them)
I did. Because I was holding space for my own ambiguity, and you mistook it for intimacy.
INDIGO (they/them)
Pause for breath. Let’s name the rupture without assigning narrative primacy.
ACT III: DECOLONISING THE ‘END’
RIVER (she/fae)
So… are we uncoupling, or just transitioning into a non-linear relational fractal?
KAI (they/them)
I’d prefer a diasporic dispersal of intimacy, where we re-encounter each other occasionally as emotionally sovereign co-witnesses.
RIVER (she/fae)
Then I release you. With grief, but not possession. You will remain archived in my shadow work.
KAI (they/them)
I’ll still tag you in posts about interdependence.
ACT IV: THE MUTUAL STATEMENT (MANDATORY)
INDIGO (they/them)
As per Office of Emotional Transparency guidelines, please recite the Joint Statement of Uncoupled Respect:
KAI & RIVER (in unison):
“We were never each other’s property, only shared weather systems.We release this bond without dominion, blame, or Spotify password disputes.May our next relational architectures be intersectionally affirmed.”
INDIGO (they/them)
Beautiful. Please accept these biodegradable wristbands marked Emotionally Composting as tokens of your transition.
KAI (they/them):
Does mine say “formerly entangled”?
RIVER (she/fae):
Mine says “no longer a fixed point.”
AFTERMATH: POST-BREAKUP SELF-CARE MENU (on the chalkboard)
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Crying in soft focus (film student required)
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Scream circle with ethical rage facilitators
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Journaling from the perspective of your future plant
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**Zine-making: 'We Were Never Monogamous With Time'
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Ethically sourced rebound with someone who doesn’t know your moon sign yet
