Sjan Evardsson

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Dec, 2019

Stories (235)

235 Stories

2712 karma pts

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“On the Outside” by Sjan Evardsson

Submitted to Contest #82

What does the most advanced artificial intelligence in the world look like? Like a five-foot-four, Chinese-American, human female with pixie-cut black hair, brown eyes, and a scattering of freckles. At least, that’s what I look like on the outside. All the fears about advanced AI being an existential threat to humanity are wholly unfounded, and largely the result of anthropomorphizing the motivations of AI. This is in the nature of humans, though, to see danger where it could possibly exist. Although useful in their earlier evolution, it ha...

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“Second Best” by Sjan Evardsson

Submitted to Contest #81

What may have rated as an average first date for most was a turn into uncharted waters for Kailin. She took another sip of wine, her eyes darting between the dark, rich brown of Amandi’s eyes and the near-black red of her wine. A small frown played at the corner of her lips.Amandi reached across the table and took her slender, pale hand in his own; his deep brown skin contrasting starkly with her pink-tinged fingers. “You’re thinking something. Just say it. I wasn’t lying when I said I wanted to get to know you.”“I have a history with dating...

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“Outed” by Sjan Evardsson

Submitted to Contest #80

Gail, along with most of the world, sat transfixed by the news on the television. They had outed themselves, and her, in a very public way. Her anonymity, her freedom, likely her life itself, was over. She willed herself away from the television and made her way to the mirror in the hall. Her glamour was gone. Where she had appeared to be a small, five-foot-two, average-looking woman with ginger hair and freckles, her true self now showed. Skin the color of bleached parchment, short horns of gleaming ebon, over-large eyes with inky-black ir...

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“Family Is Forever” by Sjan Evardsson

Submitted to Contest #79

There’s something not quite human in me. When I should be grieving a loss, I find myself oddly serene. In the moments when others panic, I’m met with a calm that makes it easy to weigh my options and choose a course of action.I was warned, of course. The more implants I collected, the greater the impact on my humanity. After the corporate wars divvied up the planet between the victors it seemed I had little reason to care any longer. I knew my family was gone. By the time my little sister found me, and I found out she was still alive, it was...

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“Wild Things” by Sjan Evardsson

Submitted to Contest #78

Every job has at least one task that separates work from not-work; that task that one wishes could be ignored. For Corinna this was the task she was faced with. Separating people from their animal companions is easy when those people are abusive; but painful when it breaks a heart. There was no sign of abuse here, in fact, given the animal in question it was impossible, but the law is the law.She knocked at the door, taking in its large size. She smoothed her straight silver hair behind her pointed ears, making it frame her coal-black face. ...

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“Stubborn” by Sjan Evardsson

Submitted to Contest #77

What good is it being stubborn if you don’t keep trying? Alik stared at the cabin in the center of the clearing, her snowshoe tracks trailing back three miles through the sparse alpine forest to the road. She knew how this would probably end, but she had to try. She checked the device on her wrist, and watched it count down the seconds before she began moving again.The sky was darkening with clouds as she crossed to the cabin. It always seemed larger from the outside. The deep covered porch welcomed her, and she removed the snowshoes and let...

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“Take What You Can Get” by Sjan Evardsson

Submitted to Contest #76

Jenn stood in the hall, the smell of disinfectant sharp in her nose, the constant beeps and sounds of the hospital distracting. After being told for days to wait, the doctor had finally cleared her husband for a visit. This was to be the first time in months she would see him awake after the accident.The nurse stopped her, his hand on her shoulder. “I should warn you; he may not seem the same as you remember him. Doctor Vishal says that after an injury like that, he may be someone else, someone new. Every experience shapes our personality, e...

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“Redaction” by Sjan Evardsson

Submitted to Contest #75

Carter Carson nursed his whiskey. Droplets of condensation traced crooked paths to the mat below where they soaked into a ring that circumscribed the bottom of the glass. After each sip he was careful to place the glass back in the exact position it had been.A tap on his shoulder brought his attention back to his surroundings. “Hey Carter, what’s up?” She stood behind him, holding a bottle of beer. “You look like you could use some company.”“Maya, surprised to see you out on a weeknight,” he said. “Sit down. Even if I said no, you’d sit next...

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“Ten” by Sjan Evardsson

Submitted to Contest #74

Ten.How long does it take to change a life? To put it on a new trajectory. To take one action or make one decision that will either propel it to new heights, or send it plummeting to the depths. How long?Dr. Brandon Walker was about to find out. He’d played the scene over and over in his head. Sometimes with a good end, usually with a bad one. He knew the risk he’d be taking, now he just needed to find the courage.The entire New Year’s Eve party had been building to this moment for him, and for Solace Grimwald, the object of his affection. T...

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“A Bird In Hand” by Sjan Evardsson

Submitted to Contest #73

2122 Dec 25, 7:44 PMSam Feld had wanted it for years, ever since she joined the agency. Now that she had it, she began to doubt herself. Was she ready? Agents usually had weeks or months to get used to it, she’d had less than six days. Was this something she could do? It was time to find out.“Spotter 1 to birdie, you good?”She closed her eyes, her left hand felt strange. Her left pointer finger throbbed for a moment then settled down. Just a light touch, she thought.“Spotter 1 to birdie… Samantha!”“I’m good,” she said. She picked up the box ...

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“Models of Human Behavior” by Sjan Evardsson

Submitted to Contest #72

Senna Washington pulled her police cruiser into the grocery store parking lot. Her shoulder-length hair hung in tight ringlets, courtesy of the twists she had pulled out that morning. The afternoon sun warmed her copper-brown skin, warding off the autumn chill. “What do we think, Carter? This is an awful long way from his known movements.”Senna’s partner, Mike Carter, looked at the mostly empty parking lot. “I guess it makes sense if he’s trying to stay out of sight. But we stick out like a sore thumb here.”"Subject KN-637, Jason James, will...

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“The Faerie Stone” by Sjan Evardsson

Submitted to Contest #71

Gavin wrung his soft hat between worried hands. He paced around the office, bare feet silent on the carpet, coming within an inch of running into every piece of furniture.Kat leaned out from behind the screen she was studying. "Gavin! Knock it off!" She didn’t have the patience to deal with his fidgeting at six o’clock in the morning, especially after the stress of the previous night.He stopped and leaned against the door, banging his head against the doorknob. "Ow! Stupid, big-people rooms!" The room was a standard human-scale room, but at ...

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“Innocent…ish” by Sjan Evardsson

Submitted to Contest #70

"I'm sorry, but you're not the right person for the position." Her plastic smile did nothing to hide the fear in her eyes. I was used to the look. It was a look that said, “Please don’t carve me up!” Never mind that I never did such a thing, and anyone with enough intelligence to do any research would know that. Whatever. If their HR isn't smart enough to do that, I don't want to work for them, anyway. I've told myself that lie so many times I'm starting to believe it. If the media hadn't gotten involved from the beginning it wouldn't be l...

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“Katherine Quartz, MSW” by Sjan Evardsson

Submitted to Contest #69

For the third time in as many minutes, Kat checked her polished tusks for stray lipstick. Her waist-length onyx hair was piled into an elaborate up-do, held by two plain silver hairpins that had been her grandmother’s. The lipstick she kept re-checking was the same deep chocolate brown as her evening gown, setting off her ochre-yellow skin and deep green eyes.“Kat, you look beautiful, quit stressing it.” At just a shade over five feet tall, Gwen stood as high as Kat’s armpits. Where Kat was a mountain of muscle in warm, earthy tones, Gwen wa...

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“Constant Cloud in the Land of the Midnight Sun” by Sjan Evardsson

Submitted to Contest #68

It had been twenty-four years since she'd last seen it, but the place looked exactly the same. The short, forty-story blocks in a cluster at the head of the inlet. Below, the dock and boat launch, and even the fish farm boats seemed to have been frozen in time. The wind on the rooftop park blew Jak’s tangled curls of dark blue hair into a halo around her mahogany face and bright brown eyes. She put an arm around Sina. “This is pretty much the same as when I left here.” "It feels so small," Sina said. The afternoon sun gave her olive skin a...

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Author bio

Writer with an alter-ego as a software engineer. My degree is in Information Security but my heart belongs to my spouse, my daughters, and science fiction. My first published short story is available > https://books2read.com/DSPSpirit My second published short story is available > https://books2read.com/SpaceBound

Winning 1 story 🏆

Contest #156
We/I – read story