NaDruWrNI Chapter Three: The Company
Nov. 3rd, 2024 01:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_siobhanI'm on like, G&T number 5
I thin this series was invoked by renovations and housing insecurity in my home town. It's bad y'all.
Internal Investments Inc was having a monthly touchstone meeting.
Sahil Singh was presenting the month over month results to the executive suite. A thin sheen of sweat had collected under his collar.
“And here are the numbers for our real estate holdings,” he said, “As you can see, our profit margin continues to climb month over month...”
The executives nod. Sahil took a deep breath and continued.
Later, over lunch, he talked to his co-worked Natovia. “They’re going to notice eventually. I just hope it happens after I’ve moved to audit.”
Natovia waved her hand, dismissive. “It’s a glitch. You’re worrying for nothing.”
Sahil opened the next spreadsheet. “It’s nto a glitch,” he muttered.
***
Six month later he was stil with the Strategy team, his transfer to audit having been put on hold to due to an internal hiring freeze. He presented the results but when he got to the real estate section of the powerpoint he was interrupted.
“Vacancy rates are down across the board,” said Ms Chatham-Ellitot Spheres. “We should be seeing more revenue from this sector. What’s going on?” To Sahil’s horror she used the interactive interface to zoom in. “Ah, it is up... it is up, except fore this one part of hte map. Do we not have market saturation here?”
“Oh yes, we’ve launched an aggressive aquisition schedule here,” he started but she was still zomming in, frowning. “This one market sector is pulling our averages down across the board. We are up except for here.” Manicured fingers tapped the computer screen. “What's going on?”
“Ah. Slow performance in one town, I’m sure it’s temporary...”
“It’s a college town. That means high demand by definition. Let’s look at the raw numbers.”
“Yes ma’am.” Sahil added the raw figuires to the dashboard and waited, miserable.
There were seconds of silence. Then Ms Chatham Ellitot Spheres raised her eyes from teh board.
“This is NOT possible,” she said flatly.
“Ma’am I understand that the figures are anomalous, but given teh size of the portfoilio...” Sahil started. Ms Chatham Ellitot Spheres interrupted him.
“Your are going to visit this location,” she said firmly. “You will report back with accurate numbers and identify the reason why figures for the last...” she scrolled through the raw data. “... five YEARS it looks like... have been so woefully inaccurate. I will approve travel expenses to expedite this investigation. You leave this week.”
“Yes Ma’am,” said Sahil.
***
Back in his office, Sahil wailed at Natovia. “What am I going to do? You know every team we sent has disappeared.”
“I’m sure you’ll figure it out.” Natovia gathered her things off her desk. “By the way I have a new position with the marketing team. I won’t be here Monday. Have a good weekend.”
Sahil put his head on his desk.
***
The following Thursday, Sahil got out of a cab and looked at the house that would be home for the next few weeks. As an investment property it has been a miserable failure, sitting emtpy for the last eight months. Other than having to evict a family of possoms from his bathtub, Sahil had to admit that it was in remarkably good repair. Most of thier empty properties were taken over by squatters or drug manufacturers pretty quickly, but this house was relatively pristine.
Sahil was sitting cross-legged on the floor in the living room trying to figure out the fastest way to order a bed on the company credit card when the doorbell rang.
“WELCOME NEW NEIGHBOUR” said the thing at the door. “I HAVE BROUGHT LEMON SQUARES TO WELCOME YOU TO THE NEIGHBOURHOOD”
Sahil fled.
***
Mr Johnston eventually coaxed Sahil out of the bathtub where he had taken refuge. Over takeout and several beers – consumed while sitting cross-legging on the living carpet – he was able to pry the entire story out of him.
“That does explain a lot,” said Mr Johnston finally. “Your guys always told us they were sent here to figure out why places sat empty for so long. We could never figure out why they kept the rent so high, but I guess you just explained it.”
“Artificial scarcity,” said Sahil miserably, then looked up. “Wait, our guys? You met them? What happened to them?”
“Oh they live in the annex now,” said Johnston. “Brought their familes, some of them.”
“What do they do?”
“Oh, um.” Johnston pondered. “I don’t rightly know. Phoc was one of yours wasn’t he? He grows vegetables. I know he got the prize for best pumpkins last couple of years.”
“I would like to see them,” said Sahil
***
“Why the fuck would I go back to New York,” said Phoc. He was slouched across a chair, wearing blue jeans with his arms slung across the back of the chair. Sahil vaguely remembered him from his previous job as an IIInc employee sitting rigid and vibrating with tension in his ill-fitting suit. He and the rest of the old IIInc employees had gtahered in the lving room of Sahil’s temporary house.
“We like it here,” said one of the women. “We’re not going back.” Sahil didn’t remember her name at all.
“That’s OK,” he reassured them. “I was just worried about you. We didn’t know what happened to you.”
“We quit,” said Phoc. He stood up, adn the rest of the room stood up with him. “It’s not our probem if tbe company won’t admit why.:
***
“I don’t know how I’m going to explain this,” said Sahil. “Tehy are never going to accept the truth. It goes against any kind of corporate understanding of how things work.” He was nursing a drink at the local watering hole. Mr Johnston nodded in sympathy.
“Way I see it,” said Mr Johnston. “You have a few choices. You can go back and tell them the truth.”
“Career killer,” Sahil moaned.
“You can take what you know and go work for somebody else who does the same kind of thing.”
Sahil perked up. “That’s a good point. I was very good at my job.”
“You could stay here.”
Sahil looked around the room slowly. The bar was quiet but not empty, clusters of people sat around various talbles in conversatoin.
“Whta would I do?” he wondered allowed.
“Well, what would you like to do?”
“You know what I’d like to do?” Something coalesced inside of Sahil and he spoke with conviction. “I know how these vampires work now. I’d like to teach people how they work and teach peple how to stop them – companies like II Inc. I mean.... they own everything and I think people dont even know that. I think if I didn’t have to wrry about how I was goijg to make enough money to take care of my family I could stop other families from being takne advantage of by companies like II Inc. That’s what I’d like to do.”
Johnston turned aside to the person sitting next him. “What do think, Mrs Addams?”
Mrs Addams Senior reached out – well not a hand exactly, but a part of her person that was able to clasp Sahil’s hand firmly.
“I THINK YOU WOULD BE A VALUABLE MEMBER OF THE COMMUNITY MR SINGH / I WOULD WELCOME YOU TO LIVE AMONG US”
“Yeah, I think that’s what I’m going to do.” Sahil looked down and squeezed the... hand thing. He let it go and smiled. “Thank you for having me.”
“WE WILL HAVE A PARTY TO WELCOME YOU / I WILL MAKE LEMON BARS.”
I thin this series was invoked by renovations and housing insecurity in my home town. It's bad y'all.
Internal Investments Inc was having a monthly touchstone meeting.
Sahil Singh was presenting the month over month results to the executive suite. A thin sheen of sweat had collected under his collar.
“And here are the numbers for our real estate holdings,” he said, “As you can see, our profit margin continues to climb month over month...”
The executives nod. Sahil took a deep breath and continued.
Later, over lunch, he talked to his co-worked Natovia. “They’re going to notice eventually. I just hope it happens after I’ve moved to audit.”
Natovia waved her hand, dismissive. “It’s a glitch. You’re worrying for nothing.”
Sahil opened the next spreadsheet. “It’s nto a glitch,” he muttered.
***
Six month later he was stil with the Strategy team, his transfer to audit having been put on hold to due to an internal hiring freeze. He presented the results but when he got to the real estate section of the powerpoint he was interrupted.
“Vacancy rates are down across the board,” said Ms Chatham-Ellitot Spheres. “We should be seeing more revenue from this sector. What’s going on?” To Sahil’s horror she used the interactive interface to zoom in. “Ah, it is up... it is up, except fore this one part of hte map. Do we not have market saturation here?”
“Oh yes, we’ve launched an aggressive aquisition schedule here,” he started but she was still zomming in, frowning. “This one market sector is pulling our averages down across the board. We are up except for here.” Manicured fingers tapped the computer screen. “What's going on?”
“Ah. Slow performance in one town, I’m sure it’s temporary...”
“It’s a college town. That means high demand by definition. Let’s look at the raw numbers.”
“Yes ma’am.” Sahil added the raw figuires to the dashboard and waited, miserable.
There were seconds of silence. Then Ms Chatham Ellitot Spheres raised her eyes from teh board.
“This is NOT possible,” she said flatly.
“Ma’am I understand that the figures are anomalous, but given teh size of the portfoilio...” Sahil started. Ms Chatham Ellitot Spheres interrupted him.
“Your are going to visit this location,” she said firmly. “You will report back with accurate numbers and identify the reason why figures for the last...” she scrolled through the raw data. “... five YEARS it looks like... have been so woefully inaccurate. I will approve travel expenses to expedite this investigation. You leave this week.”
“Yes Ma’am,” said Sahil.
***
Back in his office, Sahil wailed at Natovia. “What am I going to do? You know every team we sent has disappeared.”
“I’m sure you’ll figure it out.” Natovia gathered her things off her desk. “By the way I have a new position with the marketing team. I won’t be here Monday. Have a good weekend.”
Sahil put his head on his desk.
***
The following Thursday, Sahil got out of a cab and looked at the house that would be home for the next few weeks. As an investment property it has been a miserable failure, sitting emtpy for the last eight months. Other than having to evict a family of possoms from his bathtub, Sahil had to admit that it was in remarkably good repair. Most of thier empty properties were taken over by squatters or drug manufacturers pretty quickly, but this house was relatively pristine.
Sahil was sitting cross-legged on the floor in the living room trying to figure out the fastest way to order a bed on the company credit card when the doorbell rang.
“WELCOME NEW NEIGHBOUR” said the thing at the door. “I HAVE BROUGHT LEMON SQUARES TO WELCOME YOU TO THE NEIGHBOURHOOD”
Sahil fled.
***
Mr Johnston eventually coaxed Sahil out of the bathtub where he had taken refuge. Over takeout and several beers – consumed while sitting cross-legging on the living carpet – he was able to pry the entire story out of him.
“That does explain a lot,” said Mr Johnston finally. “Your guys always told us they were sent here to figure out why places sat empty for so long. We could never figure out why they kept the rent so high, but I guess you just explained it.”
“Artificial scarcity,” said Sahil miserably, then looked up. “Wait, our guys? You met them? What happened to them?”
“Oh they live in the annex now,” said Johnston. “Brought their familes, some of them.”
“What do they do?”
“Oh, um.” Johnston pondered. “I don’t rightly know. Phoc was one of yours wasn’t he? He grows vegetables. I know he got the prize for best pumpkins last couple of years.”
“I would like to see them,” said Sahil
***
“Why the fuck would I go back to New York,” said Phoc. He was slouched across a chair, wearing blue jeans with his arms slung across the back of the chair. Sahil vaguely remembered him from his previous job as an IIInc employee sitting rigid and vibrating with tension in his ill-fitting suit. He and the rest of the old IIInc employees had gtahered in the lving room of Sahil’s temporary house.
“We like it here,” said one of the women. “We’re not going back.” Sahil didn’t remember her name at all.
“That’s OK,” he reassured them. “I was just worried about you. We didn’t know what happened to you.”
“We quit,” said Phoc. He stood up, adn the rest of the room stood up with him. “It’s not our probem if tbe company won’t admit why.:
***
“I don’t know how I’m going to explain this,” said Sahil. “Tehy are never going to accept the truth. It goes against any kind of corporate understanding of how things work.” He was nursing a drink at the local watering hole. Mr Johnston nodded in sympathy.
“Way I see it,” said Mr Johnston. “You have a few choices. You can go back and tell them the truth.”
“Career killer,” Sahil moaned.
“You can take what you know and go work for somebody else who does the same kind of thing.”
Sahil perked up. “That’s a good point. I was very good at my job.”
“You could stay here.”
Sahil looked around the room slowly. The bar was quiet but not empty, clusters of people sat around various talbles in conversatoin.
“Whta would I do?” he wondered allowed.
“Well, what would you like to do?”
“You know what I’d like to do?” Something coalesced inside of Sahil and he spoke with conviction. “I know how these vampires work now. I’d like to teach people how they work and teach peple how to stop them – companies like II Inc. I mean.... they own everything and I think people dont even know that. I think if I didn’t have to wrry about how I was goijg to make enough money to take care of my family I could stop other families from being takne advantage of by companies like II Inc. That’s what I’d like to do.”
Johnston turned aside to the person sitting next him. “What do think, Mrs Addams?”
Mrs Addams Senior reached out – well not a hand exactly, but a part of her person that was able to clasp Sahil’s hand firmly.
“I THINK YOU WOULD BE A VALUABLE MEMBER OF THE COMMUNITY MR SINGH / I WOULD WELCOME YOU TO LIVE AMONG US”
“Yeah, I think that’s what I’m going to do.” Sahil looked down and squeezed the... hand thing. He let it go and smiled. “Thank you for having me.”
“WE WILL HAVE A PARTY TO WELCOME YOU / I WILL MAKE LEMON BARS.”
(no subject)
Date: 2024-11-03 07:35 am (UTC)*APPLAUSE*
I very much enjoy Mrs Addams Senior's style of communication.
(no subject)
Date: 2024-11-03 07:59 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2024-11-03 07:59 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2024-11-03 08:03 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2024-11-03 10:13 am (UTC)