“I did make an activation plan. Several, in fact, and I followed them all to the end, using every theory, trick and secret I know.” Zax shrugged. “But as I said earlier, my life was paved in a different direction.”

He kept a casual tone, but it didn’t help the audience ease off.

“I’m… not sure I follow.” The professional activation coach frowned.

“I found something only I could do. Something I’m uniquely suited for. And it’s not compatible with life in the Circles. I’m not interested in moving here, even if this job does seem awesome.” The dotter shook his head, waving the topic off. “Studying mutations is and will always be just a hobby. I’m not giving up on everything I built for a hobby.”

He didn’t give specifics as he didn’t want to make things more awkward, and he had no way of explaining without sounding pandering or accusatory.

“Guess I should have expected that.” Garuza sighed and leaned back. He glanced at the rest of the room and frowned: “Miss, are you alright?”

Those words were aimed at Bathor, turning all eyes to her.

“I’m fine.” Pale face, sweat dripping from her forehead, shivers shaking her shoulders. She wasn’t fine at all. “Just nervous, is all. I don’t understand either. What can possibly be something you’re uniquely suited for, incompatible with the Circle, and so important you can’t leave it for a better life? I mean, no offence, but ‘Handyman’ and ‘shop owner’ are not exactly dazzling career prospects.”

“I admit I’m curious too.” Garuza supported the obvious diversion.

“Nano-technology. My unique suitability made me the best nanite user in the dot. Which means in the Shelter too.” Zax saw no reason to obscure that part. “And probably the most profitable; but to be fair, others only use nano-technology as support for their main business. I’m the only one I know who made it their staple. Also, we never talked about a better life; just a life here, making a career out of one of my hobbies, where I’d never be taken seriously.”

“I can see why you’d want to preserve that, but what does that have to do with a handyman?” The furry man wanted to clear that confusion first.

“I can do a bit of everything – anything in theory, it has such a wide reach – but people don’t look for a ‘nanite expert’ when they want a professional solution to… any problem, period. I officially became a handyman, because it was the closest thing for potential customers to look for.”

“You can do anything?” Aran asked.

“Why not taken seriously?” SG asked.

“What do you mean ‘uniquely suited’?” Bathor asked.

“Pretty sure it’s not incompatible.” Garuza stated.

The barrage of question caught him off-guard, but he did his best to answer:

“Nano-technology has applications in every field ever.” He looked at Aran next to him. “In theory, it can do anything that can be done – not miracles – but I’m not that good. I focused on certain aspects; the few times I could use the rest wouldn’t be worth the effort.”

“I wouldn’t be taken seriously because, come on.” Looking at SG on his other side, he held his hands to their host and to himself. “Look at him, look at me, and tell me who you would trust to activate your next mutation?”

“And… sorry, I didn’t catch the last one.” He turned to the Residents. “‘What pretty is surely unicompatibly suited’?”

“How can one be uniquely suited to… study nano-technology?” Bathor repeated when the avian man made her go first. She looked better already, maybe it actually was nerves?

“Not to study it, to use it. Because of the size it operates at, it’s very susceptible to disruptive fields. Like, forbiddingly sensitive. The best protection is to encompass the nanites in an air-tight contained made of organic matter. Very costly. Another option is to store them in a living organism. Those nanites have to stay active, or they’ll naturally be expelled. Meaning: everything will be destroyed when that organism activates, no matter how minor this activation is.”

“Is that why there are rodents and miniature trees in your workshop?” Bathor queried.

“Yes, plants are the most common solution. Easy maintenance.” He nodded. “The mice are there for experiments. No relation, though it might come later.”

“That also explains the normal sized apple in the miniature apple tree.” Aran declared. “I thought it was a weird mutation.”

“No, it’s the opposite. Even as bonsai, apple trees are incredibly resilient. Even in the worst conditions, if they can produce an apple, they will produce an apple. That makes them ideal candidates for long term storage in any quantity of nanites.”

“Oh, okay.” She seemed disappointed, for some reason.

“I’m sure you can guess, it’s not exactly an ideal solution. Long-term storage and maintenance are solved, but usage or transport are still issues. Using your own body solves both in exchange for more usage wear, but you still want to activate sooner than later; so you need to expel your nanites every day, and absorb them back for the next work day. It’s time consuming, and risks a loss. Every. Single. Time. In fact, I first got in the field when I was hired as living storage and carry, but since I don’t and won’t activate, it was a lot easier for me. No need for regular purges; convenience of storage, transport, usage, even maintenance, with no risk and no loss. When I realised it gave me a serious leg up on the competition, I decided to lean more into it. On thing led to another, and I eventually became… the current me.” He concluded with a shrug.

“Very inspiring, but I don’t see the ‘uniquely suited’ part.”

“Yes, what do you mean you ‘don’t activate’?”

The nonplussed Residents looked at him with strange expressions.

“Ah, did I say that aloud?” Zax blinked in belated realisation.

So much for keeping the details to myself.

“Is it… related, to the ‘life paved for you’ you mentioned earlier?” Garuza proposed, unsure.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

He was a sharp man, and activations were the core of his job, so he didn’t take him long to connect the pieces. That didn’t mean he wanted to be right. In fact, he unquestionably didn’t want to, this time.

He didn’t know how to react to the confirmation:

“You know as well as I, nothing is ever certain about activations and triggers, but yes. It’s the most logical explanation.”

“What? What do you mean? What did I miss?” Bathor looked at them alternatively.

Aran and SG knew what they were talking about, but they were still confused about the exchange. They had an explanation for Zax’s condition?

Zax motioned a jittery Garuza to answer. He reluctantly complied, unease twisting his features, his eyes not leaving the human’s:

“The 3G has a reduced effect on him. Any mutation will have a heightened cost. Because… for a dotter, the First Circle is synonymous with mutations; and his subconscious rejects the Circle at the deepest levels.”

“What? That doesn’t make sense. How could that affect his 3G?” She tensed.

“The more you like a trait or an animal, the more you want it or identify with it, the more likely you are to mutate in that direction.” Aran answered, her eyes saddened with understanding. “Conversely, you won’t mutate towards something you hate or that gives you the creeps. It’s usually a subconscious decision, but what if you subconsciously reject everything? What if mutating is something you don’t want, deep down?”

“Exactly.” The furry avian nodded appraisingly. “The stronger the rejection, the stronger the cost to force the issue.”

“Like a disadvantage in activation rolls?” Aran simplified in her own way.

“What?”

“You mean he’s, like… the opposite of favoured by 3G? Disdained by 3G? Because of his past?” Bathor’s shivers were back in force.

“Favoured by 3G?” Zax raised an eyebrow. “Is that an expression for people who activate frequently?”

“Frequently, easily, or deeper than expected, for little effort or investment. Sometimes for one whose traits revert back once they change their mind, and so on. Many can say ‘the 3G spoiled me’ at least once in their life, but for some people it’s so often it’s uncanny.” Garuza explained.

“Uh.” Zax blinked. He wasn’t aware, but what could it mean?

“It’s more a superstition than a scientific fact, so we avoid using that term in the community. Nothing repeatable or measurable.”

“Right. But it does sound like the opposite of me.”

“How bad is it?” Bathor pleaded, forcing the conversation back on track. “How bad can it be?”

“I never activated. Not a single mutation since I am born.” Zax casually dropped the bomb. “Not even during puberty, when one is supposedly unavoidable.”

“What!?” Garuza straightened, shock plain on his features.

He didn’t expect it to be that bad. How could he?

“And it wasn’t for a lack of trying.” He added, unconsciously rubbing his left elbow. “I tried everything I knew. Including things I didn’t believe in.”

A stunned silence settled in the room. Zax gave them some time to process the information before completing:

“Safe to say, it’ll never happen. I don’t think so anyways. Maybe in a few years, if I kept absorbing part of my earnings? But I stopped doing that long ago.” Zax shrugged. “At this point in my life, I don’t want to activate either. It’d mess with the other things I put in my body and what I built for myself.”

His friends had not been aware of the relation between this past event and his situation, but they knew his feelings on the question. They didn’t move from their seats nor offer empty consolations, but they couldn’t help the downcast look they sent his way.

Garuza was starring, mouth agape. It was an amusing sight with his beak, but no one was in the mood for fun. He was more astounded than if the dotter had grown a second head in front of him. That had a documented precedent, at least.

Bathor seemed to disagree: she giggled, like after a nice joke.

Then she laughed.

Then she cackled.

She cackled madly, drawing all eyes to her.

Eyes that grew concerned, as she didn’t stop, and she didn’t react to their pleas.

When she collapsed in front of her seat, breathing laboriously; the emergency of the situation dawned on the witnesses.

Everybody jumped on their feet. Luckily, there was someone trained in advanced first aid in the room, even if that situation was outside the scope of his training.

“Bathor! Close your eyes! Focus on your breathing!” Zax shouted at her, slapped her cheek, to no effect.

The bovine woman couldn’t hear them. She kept squirming on the floor, choking on her own laugher.

Zax didn’t wait any longer; he pushed her on her back, tore her blouse apart, then her lingerie. He didn’t register the unusual size and heft, he pinched her newly exposed nipples and twisted!

The laugh stopped instantly, toned down to more manageable giggles, allowing her to take a deep breath. She was better, but it didn’t sound healthy. Full laughs broke through occasionally, and her eyes were watery.

“It can come back any time.” Zax turned to Garuza. “Do you have an infirmary?” All sports centre in the dot had at least one.

“Of course. Follow me.” The owner nodded, picking up the twitching woman like she had no weight and already on the move.

“We have to call emergency services; they’ll bring her to a healing centre.” Zax added, noting how the impromptu carrier provided appropriate neck support without being told.

“Not necessarily. We have a physician on site.”

Indeed, an actual physician would know better than them.

The three dotters followed down the stairs, through a corridor, to a side entrance of the gym’s infirmary, but they quickly left. With an actual professional to take care of things, they were not needed.

The brief glance inside had shown a fully equipped room with several beds for wounded - and sick – people of many body types, but there was no proper waiting room. Zax settled in one of the chairs along the adjacent wall; it would be awkward to leave now, and he felt a bit responsible for the state she was in. Aran and SG refused to go and enjoy the facilities; they trusted the owner more, but they still didn’t want to leave him alone. Aran only relented to leave to explain the situation to Bathor’s colleagues. She quickly came back, alone and frowning:

“They were weirded out, they didn’t know what to do, and I don’t think they cared.”

Disheartening, but the lack of support could partially explain her stress level.

Garuza had come back before Aran, leaning against the wall opposite from them. He wasn’t helpful either, so the doctor had thrown him out once he was done explaining the situation. It drew a few smiles from the visitors, but they quickly moved back to speculating about that development.

“You don’t want to mutate.” The activation coach summarised. “It’s feels strange to consider, but you have good reasons. Why would that stress her so much?”

“Well, she lured me here to improve how I see the Circle, so I’d help her with something. Maybe she didn’t realise how bad it was? It would make a waste of all her efforts so far, and she made a lot to reach this point.”

“What did she do?”

Turned out, Garuza didn’t know about Bumper Mediator’s mission. It wasn’t a surprise, with their mysterious insistence on secrecy, but the dotters didn’t have such restraint. Ony Zax had signed an NDA, and SG had been present for most exchanges.

“Nice story, but there’s still hope for her. Your lifestyle isn’t that incompatible with the Circle; we have ways to block disrupt-”

The door to the infirmary opened, interrupting him. The doctor had news.

His outfit didn’t have any holes to reveal mutations, so only his mismatched slit eyes were on display. A unique mutation; they were both yellowish, they moved in synch, but they didn’t have same shade of yellow. More strikingly, they weren’t split in the same direction; one was slit vertically, the other horizontally.

Broken symmetry should either progressively fix itself or lead to strong divergence, but his converged to end up with similar results. Uncanny, especially when they widened. Wait, why were they widening?

Focused on the doctor’s eyes as he was, Zax was the first to notice the terror filling them. The following scream and slammed door weren’t any less startling.

Stunned silence followed, broken as usual by Aran:

“Is there a contagious mind virus floating around?”