“An event is... something extraordinary [that] takes place... Within a certain field of phenomena where things go on the normal flow of things, from time to time something happens, which, as it were, retroactively changes the rules of what is possible, in the sense that something happens that is generated by that situation..." — Slavoj Žižek on Events
I could talk about occupying one's soul-space but that wouldn't amount to much because... what the hell does that even mean? I could, however, talk about being in someone's physical space, more specifically, being in someone's physical orbit – that boundary where the individual has the potential to transcend into the wide space of the ordinary. However, our focus needs to be on the orbit itself, which has an important idiosyncrasy: it's that space where a truly harmonious relationship between two individuals can be established; in a sense it is occupation, but more precisely said it is symbiosis – intellectual and physical, carnal and heartfelt.
As far as these orbits go, there's another peculiarity: orbits are dynamic in that the length of an orbital trajectory depends on the two individuals coming into contact. This is significant insofar as it determines the swiftness with which symbiosis may occur. It may be obvious to some and it is certainly confusing, but it is worth noting that we are neither talking about the invader's orbit nor the victim's (if you will allow me the usage of vocabulary typical of the occupational realm). It is the special case of an apropos amount of intersecting orbits between two individuals that leads to an orbital band – that's where the action of symbiosis is. Two widely disparate orbits – one too big and the other too small, or both too big or both too small – and you get an explosion, of the symbolic kind, yes, or no possibility of an orbital band at all.
Occupation can seem normal. Here, domesticity.
You also have to be careful with such occupations because the experience of being in (orbital) symbiosis with someone can be easily confused, from the victim’s perspective anyway, with the experience of Stockholm syndrome (also see Lima Syndrome), and you can only tell an occupation was symbiotic ex post facto when your nostalgic longing definitively includes positive attributes that necessitate agency: attraction, connection, desire and freedom. That said, there are subjective experiences that become accessible only when you consciously or subconsciously engage in such coalitions and – if you’ll let me appropriate a phrase from the theological realm – make a Kierkegaardian qualitative leap of faith. Occupation in this way is a serious affair in another sense because it comes with an enormous risk: getting out of it can lead to what we can call occupational exit dissonance, a traumatic situation that can have a lasting effect, but you have to accept it for what it is, embrace it fully even, that's the only way to wean off of any vestigial orbital perturbation.
The most notable sign of trauma is your ability to fictionalize reality.
“Metaphors are dangerous. Metaphors are not to be trifled with. A single metaphor can give birth to love.” – Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being