Once Zax had removed SG’s brain nanites – which she had somehow forgotten about – they had gone to bed early. Well, early for her; Zax had kept the changes in his circadian cycle at a minimum. Experience had shown him breaks felt more productive that way. Their roommate usually had her rhythm guided by them living their life.

Waking up was difficult; she hadn’t slept much, but she didn’t complain. She spent time hesitating about her garb however; after a lifetime of either minimal underwear or nothing at all, the task felt disproportionately important and difficult to her.

She had quickly lost the habit of nudity, and Zax had fashioned several fitted outfits for her over the days. On the other hand, his job as a clothing adjustor had failed to develop his fashion sense; he could only adapt pre-existing pieces to new body types and it was rarely much. He could follow templates too, but that was only because of the requirement to be officially recognised. It had been the first time he’d done it since the certification test.

The tricky part had been to adjust the regalia in something she could easily put on and off without hands. There had been many failures, but Zax had found the challenge stimulating.

The final design ended up surprisingly simple, with the top’s sleeves shortened if not outright removed, and both sides cut open where the seam normally was, with magnets hidden to keep it closed. Once it was found, it had merely been a matter of applying it to her wardrobe as it was building up.

She slid in like a poncho. It looked normal; the well-thought design understated but obvious to any who knew where to look. It wouldn’t do much for physical protection, but when was that a concern?

“This is so you.” Aran had smiled and laconically claimed when they had showed it off to her. She refused to develop when he probed.

The magnets would get erratic if a disruptive field happened, which would force the seam open, but she didn’t risk losing her top on accident. It would be back to normal once the field had passed; magnets were disturbed but not destroyed.

About pants, her talons’ size and shape wouldn’t allow it. They would need large legs or a stretchier fabric Zax didn’t have. The magnet trick would work too, but they both felt it would be pointless, especially considering the easy and common alternatives available: shorts and skirts. She needed help with shorts, hardly fitting the whole talon through the collapsed leg, so her limited wardrobe had few of those. The dot controlled its atmosphere to make temperature a non-issue for daily life, so she wouldn’t be cold.

Footwear was out of question, ludicrous and pointless. Zax had still drawn a few designs, as a joke. It was simply too farcical not to.

As amusing as the challenge had been, it had also inspired him for his actual hobby. It had never occurred to him, but the mere fact of wearing clothes every day might seriously limit available mutation options. No need to think about it… no, because one never thought about it; any option requiring help to get dressed would have to remove the need for dressing altogether.

A throb of sorrow stirred him when he envisioned what this mutant’s life must have been.

This breakthrough wasn’t something he could use, but the forums would eventually sprout something. It might apply to more than clothes too, but that was neither here nor there.

When Zax reminded her of the hour, she finally settled for a loose shirt, with short wavy-edged sleeves that let her wings free without showing them off, and a fringe-edged mid-thigh skirt. Her bracelet was stored in a shoulder bag across her torso.

“It gives you an air of restrained freedom. Like you could fly off anytime, but you’re not because you don’t want to.” had been Aran’s final assessment. Fortunately, she had the presence of mind to wait for her to be done before commenting.

The male and the former gladiator didn’t see it and didn’t understand what it meant, so they wordlessly accepted her judgement and they all left.

Aran went first, SG on her heels, but for some reason she stopped at the threshold. Her breath quickened and her shoulders shivered.

Ah, right. First steps. It’s an important moment.

She braced herself, took a deep breath and jumped in the aperture like it was about to collapse. Her head swivelled right and left, but the hallway was plain and empty as ever, with only Aran waiting at the entrance. Her pent-up breath flew off her lips.

“Not much to see, but don’t worry. The next door has an actual outside.” Zax reminded her as he locked the door behind him.

The ebbing tension flowed back in her, but nobody commented. Aran opened the way again, but this time SG stopped moving before getting close, her mouth agape at what the threshold showed her

People.

Lots of people milling around, going their way without paying attention to her.

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By all accounts, so many strangers at once should have made her more nervous, but nobody reacted to her presence. Life went on, with or without her. No judgement, no need to be who she didn’t want to be. The snippet of life, a life so unlike anything she experienced, helped to ease her heart. Curiosity overcame anxiety, making her step out without remarking.

Her appearance turned more than a few eyes, but no one approached or did anything obvious.

As expected.

Dotters would think she had recently reached her current mutation level and would leave for the Circle soon. Her clothes probably helped too. Regardless, there shouldn’t be more than random congratulations from strangers. She could handle that much.

Time would tell how repeated appearances would change that, but Zax choose to let it be a problem for future-Zax. Present-him and she still had a place to be:

“Most are going to their job, like us. The rest is living their life. Hold on, let’s make sure we don’t get separated.”

He stepped at her side and reached with his hand. She put her wrist in his palm from below and folded her wing to lean it toward herself. He grasped what was offered and led her to the light road station.

As they fell in step behind Aran, he couldn’t help but reminisce the time before he left his guardians, when he helped taking care of the younger charges. He felt like during their strolls, when the children wore fin- or paw-mittens for fun. SG’s eyes were even fluttering around with the same mix of curiosity, nervosity, and excitement, trying to see everything at once. Without realising, he slowed his pace to let her draw in the sights, and reflexively firmed his hold lest she dart off without thinking.

The station wasn’t far, but she needed special arrangements to use the rail road. Without the common footwear, magnetic levitation was impossible. There was a backup option, made for people to carry heavy or voluminous charges. Sheets with handles, a sliding face and an adhesive face were available at every station, near the maps. They were made to be pulled or pushed along the road without affecting whatever was on them. Many options were available, different sizes and some with sides like a basin.

“For children?” SG’s eyebrows rose at the explanation.

“They can have a hard time staying balanced and focused long enough to stay up. It’s not that hard, but it’s a skill. There’s a learning curve.” Zax shrugged. “They are to sit and stay sat. We can get you at a level where you can stay up later if you want, but for now please get down. I’ll start slow but I don’t want to risk you. It’ll let you look around too.”

She agreed without problem, too excited by the novelty to care about the association between her and children. She crouched on the slide; her talons making it as stable as a cross-legged position. It was a sturdy material, but she still attempted not to damage it with her claws.

A pair of reciprocated nods to Aran and they were on the way.

SG kept looking around like a tourist, easily keeping her balance with the pace Zax set. She was tempted to stand and turn around, but the others on the road were far from leisurely so she held back.

“Won’t we be late?” She inquired after some time. They were faster than at the beginning, but not by much. “Ah, right, your shop, your hours.”

“My shop or not, I put an official notice that normal business would be open, at the normal hours, with a new inexperienced employee. If I don’t respect that, it’ll be a dark spot on my record and I’ll be penalised. But we won’t be late, I planned extra early on purpose. Too bad for Aran, but she took it stride.”

“Great, but would it be that bad? You’re the best of the dot, aren’t you? What kind of penalty would that get you?”

“My main strength is my versatility. That means everything I can do, there are others who can do it, possibly better too; but they are more expensive and can’t solve as many problems as I. That’s how I got where I am now.”

“I thought it was your nanites?”

“That’s how I am so versatile, but it’s not exactly a selling argument. Most customers don’t care how I fix things, just that they can use their stuffs afterwards. It’s a double-edge sword. Word of mouth is not very effective, most potential customers are routed to me in answer to a specific query in the network.” He shook his wrist to jiggle his bracelet. “If I start cumulating bad points, they will be routed to someone with a better score, even if they may be of lower quality, less cost-effective or more expensive. And at my general level, we all have good records, so a single bad point can make a huge difference. So, while being the best does give me some ‘goodwill’, so to speak, if I can avoid using it up by waking up earlier, I will.”

“I see the idea, but… doesn’t seem very fair. What if you have an accident? Or fall ill?” His passenger had no idea running a business had such aspects.

“You don’t get bad points for things you’re not responsible for and had no way of anticipating. We can ask for and defend an appeal too, if we think we were judged worse than we deserve. The system’s pretty flexible and adaptative. Like, I should have used a lot of my ‘stored goodwill’ with my long unannounced break, but the Main Computer won’t penalise me because of the reason for said break.”

“I see…”

“It doesn’t change the fact everyone who would have been sent my way at that moment was diverted and may not come to me in the future, and I may have lost regulars. Not that I had a lot of those; to be fair. But that will always be true no matter the system.” Hearing no reaction, he finished the thought as they arrived at their station. “There are other ways to attract business too. Like ads or customer reviews. But I still need to open on time or it’ll turn against me. If there’s one thing people like less than waiting in front of a closed door, it’s waiting longer than they expected.”

“It’s… a lot more complicated than I thought.” The winged girl stated as she stood at Zax’s prompting.

She was still looking around, but it was more subdued. They had passed through the flamboyant entertainment area, so the more monotonous vista of the supply and services area felt almost bland. Her reactions made the corner of Zax’s mouth rise a hint.

Wait ‘til you see the processing area.

They held hands again to leave the station, but the flow of people quickly abated and they let go. His first words came back to her and prompted another question:

“Why did you mention that you had a new employee who knows nothing? In your notice? Doesn’t sound good for business.”

“To increase the likelihood of training-worthy, beginner-friendly orders. One night ahead was short, but since others had to pick the slack from my absence, there might be a backlog of unfulfilled orders. The notice helped prioritize the more fitting ones. Ah, wait, we arrived.”

The human called her as she kept walking after he stopped. Holding hands had been a wise decision.

Zax used his bracelet to unlock his shop’s door. He went in, turned around and opened his arms and his face, welcoming SG to her first taste of an ordinary life.