Noncompetitive

  • A Lack of Progress

    “Corruption.” It was such a nice, compact word as presented. A perfect ideal, and being swayed from it.आचरण was less so. ācaraṇa was somthing to be maintained. That required effort. Perfect conduct was not a foundation to build a world on – you can’t expect another man to be better than you could possibly be.… Continue reading

  • does this work for phone formatting? No.

    “Ok. So what have you actually been working on lately?” The message blipped on Usha’s phone while she was typing away at work. Trying to track down some “miscellaneous” expenses in the garage. Too many. “Why. Can’t I just show you next time I’m home?” She waited a few minutes before checking it. Virika. The… Continue reading

  • Sister Reduced, part 9

    “I’ve been wondering” Usha started. “What. You’re not supposed to make people ask for questions. What.” This was, perhaps, Virika’s pet peeve. “Why don’t you go back to your older characters. Springa? Tapedeck? Revamp them.” “I’ve sort of tried to? Its all too superhero-y. Believe it or not, I’ve been trying for more realism lately.… Continue reading

  • 2G

    A cry of mourning came from the temple. A Woman’s cry. It’s form changed from mournful to hateful and back again.The oldest Pandit of the temple – Giri, if he needed to be referred to, sat on the steps. Listening. The scriptures superscribed different methods of appeasing a goddess. But in his years serving the… Continue reading

  • Fitting some pieces together

    I think I’ve figured out some of how Peredharna, SAMMANA Transport NPO, and Samvrita Kachwaha tie togetherNoncompetitive 2014 is the Usha Yogasana competition debacle. I wish I could write it. I am still afraid of bungling it. Noncompetitive 2024, Usha has graduated and is one of several secretaries at SAMMANA Transport NPO – Presumably a… Continue reading

  • Taking on Debt

    It could have been worse.Sardari kept telling herself this, because there was nothing else to say about it. Nothing else to do about it, beyond what she was doing at the moment. She could have run from the flood. Gathered up her ephemera, moved it to higher ground. Of anyone she had the power.But there… Continue reading

  • Time, not Lost, but Used Elsewhere

    “You don’t remember the person. Not entirely. The times they were not there. The times they spited you. The times they were irredeemable. Or you’d grow to hate them. To hate their memory. As much of a pastiche as the one you love. “It. It’s better not to pretend you remember them whole cloth. That… Continue reading

  • High Availability

    “Riya Reddy, Office manager” – it’s what the nameplate said. Plastic painted like brass. 20 years. She’d been with SAMMANA Transport NPO for twenty years, sidereal reckoning, and she hadn’t even qualified for a brass nameplate. No. That was wrong. It would give the wrong impression. The wrong sort of permanence. Drivers? Didn’t get any… Continue reading

  • Please do not Bring Sunglasses

    Kala regarded her aunt. Cool. Collected. Other than the eyes darting everywhere. She hadn’t really left the mainland, had she? Probably had spent half her life undocumented, all considered. “Does it remind you of anything?” Kala and Mina really could be mistaken for sisters. “Busses. Have you ever been on a bus? What am I… Continue reading

  • Sister Reduced, part 8

    “You found thesaurus.com I see” When Doctor Samantha Carter sent out her new paper for review – “Instance or Amalgam: The many faces of Jane Dough” – the other scientists had enough questions for ten papers. Mouri had her own little section in it – Dr. Carter thought Jane Dough II, III, IV, and V… Continue reading