Doing Absolutely Nothing in 1982
By @john1208
Nadine Finch woke up in 1982 wrapped in a floral quilt at the impossible, vertigo-inducing peak of the Mudlark County water tower. A former overworked digital hustler, Nadine makes a sacred, sarcastic vow to this polyester era: she will never work a hard day in her life again. Her grand ambition? Hoarding cheap romance novels and snacking on malt balls. While the local sweetheart Brenda Gable exhausts herself trying to become the town's pioneer businesswoman, Nadine's refusal to stand and stir a stew results in a lazy, overnight slow-cooking method that inadvertently gets patented and sparks a national culinary craze. To make matters worse for Brenda, the county's most eligible and notoriously stoic mechanic, Vance Hollister, finds Nadine's utter lack of ambition wildly endearing and works double-shifts just to fund her snack budget. But as Nadine settles into her delightfully unproductive life, she notices her sweet, snack-sharing best friend Jolene seems suspiciously involved in every local disaster. Will Nadine have to put down her paperback to save her pampered lifestyle?
3
Crying Exes and Cellular Regeneration
By @john1208
"Roshi, it's just a contract to appease my family's investors. My heart is yours!" Kavadh pleaded, striking a tragic pose that belonged in a cheap theater. I adjusted my safety goggles, mortified by his public shouting. I had just returned from a brutal five-year surgical residency in the frozen northern colonies to strike a vital funding deal for my bio-aether lab, only to find my supposed true love parading around with a weeping stand-in. Instead of throwing a dramatic tantrum like a proper scorned woman, I handed back his ring, asked him to please step off my centrifuge's power cable, and returned to my cell cultures. I don't have time for a man who treats romance like a hostage negotiation; I have the Simurgh Laureate to win. To secure my funding, I'm forced to share a laboratory with Behrouz Jahandar, my obnoxiously brilliant and infuriatingly handsome academic rival. As Kavadh spirals into obsessive regret - realizing he tossed away a diamond for a pebble - I'm too busy dodging falsified data to care. But when my sweetest, most trusted lab manager turns out to be playing all sides to steal my magnum opus, will my stubbornness be enough to survive the brutal world of peer review?
2