Ayesha Bashir

Spyballs Rumblo Radgins

Ayesha Bashir

Name: Ayesha Bashir

Species: Human

Age: 25

Job: Gig economy peon/ amateur stylist / low-paid cog in the majhine

Appears In: Game of Plagues

Ayesha Bashir - see more at Instagram

Ayesha Bashir numbers among the legions of toxically employed people in modern Tumultia. In recent times, people have decided that having 'ample employment' is better than 'good employment' (or even 'bearable employment'). Specifically the people who operate these 'innovative' new businesses have decided this - their main 'innovations' being the abolition of things like workplace rights, job stability, and fair pay.

Employers Ayesha has worked for include:

Feaster: A food delivery company that employs legions of penny farthing cyclists to tear through the streets delivering food to impossibly tight deadlines. They employ so many that most modern cities feel like assault courses. Feaster's main innovation is writing contracts that mean they're not liable if their employees get mangled to death.Omnizon: Not so much 'an intermesh store' as 'the only intermesh store'. Its main innovation is avoiding anti-monopoly laws by donating money to the politicians who should be enforcing them. Pumpkin: An on-demand taxi company. All pumpkin drivers carry magick seeds that they can water and grow into little pumpkin-taxis. Pumpkin's main innovation is expanding the employment pool by allowing murderers and sex criminals to work for them.

When not running herself ragged, Ayesha likes watching makeup tutorials on her magick mirror. As someone who avoids contact with others, her striking looks largely go unseen by others - something she's fine with. Beyond that she has a relationship with birds that you'd describe as a well-earned loathing rather than a phobia.

You can buy Game of Plagues in eBook or paperback by clicking this link

Creation Notes

I assumed Ayesha and her cousin would be side-characters when I started writing them - I basically just needed someone to highlight what life was like for low-paid workers. It ended up being a better idea to make her story the main through-line, as the risk with political satires is making it seem like politics is something that happens in a hermetically sealed bubble.

It isn't, though. The ugly decisions politicians make lead to ugly experiences for the people they preside over.

The sort of jobs Ayesha does are akin to the ones I spent over a decade working - jobs like cleaning, bar and food service, and sandwich artistry. It was grim when I had to do it, and I imagine it's notably grimmer now there's all the gig-economy stuff :-s.

Saying that, though, I did have a cleaning job where they accidentally paid me £35 an hour. The job involved driving around cleaning the front of housing group properties in Longsight. They worked out how long this would take in Autumn - i.e. when everything took five times as long because of the fallen leaves. For the other 11 months I got everything done in the first hour then spent the remaining four at home laughing and eating sandwiches.