This issue goes a long way to prove the fact that we, as writers, like to play by our own rules, that it's wholly unlikely that if given the exact same prompt, two of us will ever write the same thing. Discuss.

I think you said it all right there. Initially I was gonna write the usual type of story you'd expect from me based on that prompt, but I was feeling in the mood for something of a different flavour, so I had an idea to twist it in another direction. Something a little more sad, a little more tragic, all stemming from a romance prematurely put on ice (quite literally).

If you were flying solo on a cargo vessel several years into deep space, just like Armitage Shanks, what five items would you need to adequately pass the time?

An industrial-sized keg of premium scent-free lubricant, just to keep things fun when I pick up various space hookers. A portable hard drive crammed full of illegally downloaded movies, TV shows and music. An entire library of books, which I assume—given the futuristic setting—would be digital. Some type of cat, with cloning technology rigged up to my ship so I can have a backup clone for when it inevitably dies. And lots of food, which would probably come from a Star Trek–style synthesizer.

In 'The Same Effing Story,' Armitage Shanks is named after a company renowned for making certain porcelain bathroom fixings. If you could be named after any real-life company, which company would that be, and why?

I dunno, maybe "Trojan Magnum." That sounds pretty cool. Or Pepsi... just Pepsi.

Is this the kind of issue you'd like to see and be a part of again? Why?

Yeah, sure. It'd be a fun idea to blow the dust off of every so often. Maybe not every year, but every two or three.