The Registry escalated.
If direct correction failed, indirect influence would follow.
People around him began acting strangely.
A neighbor who never spoke suddenly asked invasive questions.
A coworker stared too long, as if waiting for instructions that never arrived.
Public systems lagged when he approached, then resumed once he left.
He noticed.
Not consciously at first—but instinctively.
Like an animal sensing a trap before seeing it.
At a transit checkpoint, security scanners flickered.
PLEASE WAIT
The delay stretched.
His heartbeat remained calm.
The Registry searched desperately for a classification—anything to anchor him.
Citizen. Deviant. Threat. Null.
Nothing fit.
Finally, a provisional label appeared.
STATUS: UNAUTHORIZED VARIABLE
Authorization implied permission.
Which meant this existence had none.
The observers froze.
"That designation hasn't been used since—"
"—before the Registry was complete," another finished.
Below, he stepped through the checkpoint as the system rebooted itself behind him.
For the first time, the Registry did not just fail to predict the future.
It acknowledged a possibility it was never designed to face:
A human beyond fate.
And somewhere deep in its architecture, an impossible question emerged—
If a variable cannot be registered…
can it still be controlled?