I've Heard This One Many Times Before
  1. Gregory has developed an unhealthy preoccupation with his roommate Steve’s cooking habits. Every day, he keeps careful notes of Steve’s use of the kitchen, believing that the culinary choices form a secret code. Obsessed by his theory that scrambled eggs are an omen of death, Gregory takes all of the eggs and smashes them into Steve’s bed. Refusing to continue to be a victim of such a madman, Steve moves out.
  2. Greatly desired is the Book of Clugh, currently held by Paul the Miser. Edgar, a prince of great fame, needs the Book of Clugh to learn magic spells to protect his lands from elves. Suffice to say, Edgar travels for many weeks to solicit the book. Paul, adversarial as always, refuses to give, trade, or sell him the book. Obtaining magical knowledge will be more difficult than Edgar anticipated.
  3. Love can be deadly in threes. The night was warm and dark when Isabel and Harry, adulterous lovers, began to conspire to kill her husband Samuel. Isabel planned to leave the door to their home open to allow Harry to slip in and stab him. Samuel learned of their plan from intercepting a note left for Harry in their garden and was overcome by the betrayal. Too despondent to defend himself, he told no one and allowed the plan to go through.
  4. Here on Proxima 3, everyone says they believe in the ideal of equality of the species, but try telling that to a Aldebaran and you’ll get laughed at. Especially in the belowdecks, tensions run high and violence often erupts. The exceptions to pervasive speciesism are uncommon and noteworthy. Hannah, a heroic young human, sacrificed her only Earth relic—a vial of sea water—to a usurious creditor to save the quarters of an impoverished Aldebaran family.
  5. Ivan strives for the ideal of scientific discovery. Returning home after an 18 hour day in the lab, he immediately receives a text message from his collaborator. The experiment will fail unless they find an ounce of gold to make into electrical contacts in the next two hours. Years ago, Ivan’s father had given him an heirloom gold watch with "To Progress" engraved on the back, and with a heroic but heavy heart, Ivan takes the watch from its velvet case and returns to the lab. Sacrificing the watch to the gods of science, Ivan feels like he is paying a creditor who supported his journey to becoming a scientist.
  6. Irene totally loves Dan but he just totally doesn’t notice her! Xavier listened to Irene like a friend when she was telling him about her beloved Dan but then he totally betrayed her trust and revealed that she was into him!
  7. Down these parts there ain’t too much scandal. Really, except for what happened at Mort’s place, it’s been peaceful for as long as I can remember. Anyway, you don’t want to hear about those adulterous killers. Mort was a bad man, cavorting with that mistress of his. And the two of them conspiring to kill his poor betrayed wife, it’s enough to make you sick. They did it too, a year ago today.
  8. In the second year Stacey worked at the bank, things started getting weird. Carla, her manager, seemed to never be happy with her work. Stacey started taking on more projects and staying later to please Carla, but it didn’t work. In fact, the more Stacey worked, the angrier Carla became. The truth came out when Carla accused Stacey of stealing from the bank, citing circumstantial evidence that she had carefully recorded for several months. Unfortunately, Carla had enough power to fire Stacey for cause, and she became the latest victim of Carla’s mad paranoia.
  9. Admittedly, the laws in Camalia are strict. There are some who say the punishment for evading a bridge toll should not be death. Ignorant visitors, like Nathan, may not know that the toll needs to be paid in chickens, and suffer the consequences. Only one chicken short, he faced the hangman’s noose. Nathan broke out of jail and ran through the barren countryside, still unsure of his crime. Stopping only to drink from the cold streams, Nathan hoped he would not be a fugitive forever.