?Interrobang! · Track 37 · middle
Who You Are When No One Watches
OBJECT (intimate, what Sisukiro found): her intimate, private pleasure items. OWNER (re-linked by Sisukiro): Prudish Prudence — adult-toy tester from a product lab; note the irony of the name. FOUND AT: the protected core of the Peruvian Amazon. THE (UN)LIKELY STORY & THE UNANSWERABLE QUESTION: Prudence tests intimate prototypes though she's Prudish; left the most private items in the most protected jungle. Who are you when no one is watching the watcher?
Lyrics
[Intro] The air is so thick you can drink it. Twenty-eight degrees, even after dusk. Here, under the canopy, in the protected heart. Airtight case, slick with new moss. Not meant to be found. [Verse 1] The latches give with a plastic sigh. Not treasures, not secrets of state. Just these… shapes. Silicone, the color of a rare orchid. Glass, cool and smooth, holding the jungle's heat. Prototypes, you called them. Specimen A, Subject B. You, Prudence, the watcher. The tester. Taking notes in a sterile room. Measuring a pleasure that wasn't yours. [Chorus] But who are you when the report is filed? When the fluorescent lights go dark? Who are you when no one is watching the watcher? When the only sound is your own breath? What are these for… when they're for you? [Verse 2] They called you Prudish Prudence. A joke you wore like a lab coat. Did you ever let them see the flush in your cheeks? Did you write down the way this one… curves? Like a vine reaching for a sun it will never see. This one hums, a low beetle-wing thrum. This one is just the simple, heavy truth of its weight in your palm. [Chorus] But who are you when the report is filed? When the fluorescent lights go dark? Who are you when no one is watching the watcher? Here, where the jaguar's eyes are the only judgment. What are these for… when they're for you? [Bridge] Did you bring them here to set them free? Or to set yourself free from them? Leaving the evidence in a place with no name. A ritual of privacy, in the most private place on Earth. A new insect, iridescent, crawls across the lid. It has no name yet. It doesn't need one to exist. [Outro] I close the case. The jungle hums its own low note. Who are you, Prudence? When the observation ends? Who are you?