if an unknown number calls you and is a creepy man telling you he's watching you, you don't hang up AND ANSWER AGAIN
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Here's sample of Don't Hang Up by Benjamin Stevenson, narrated by Luke Arnold and Sibylla Budd.
Description:
‘You and I are going to have a chat. If you hang up, this girl dies.’
Adam Turner works the mid-dawn shift at his local radio station. From 12am to 6am, it’s his job to fill the airtime with old songs, inane chatter, and the occasional talkback caller. It’s a long way from his prime-time slot from over a decade ago, when he was a star in the making.
Now there’s no producers, no billboards, no stakes, and, crucially, not many listeners. His frequent callers are drunk college students headed home from a night out, or long-range truck drivers. He is completely alone in the studio from midnight until dawn every night.
And then one night at 12:45am, he gets a different kind of call, with higher stakes than he could ever have wanted. The caller’s rules are simple – stay on the line, live on air, until dawn, or the woman they are holding captive will die.
The night wears on and Adam is tormented by his caller, forced to answer increasingly personal questions, exposing his fall from grace for all to hear. He must try to figure out just who is calling him, what they really want, and how he can stop them. All while staying live on air, and keeping the psycho talking.
But as the conversation gets deeper, is Adam willing to broadcast his darkest secrets to the world in order to keep a stranger safe?
You can buy full version of Don't Hang Up by Benjamin Stevenson on Audible here
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*stares at you awkwardly*
I don’t know why, @modernmanblues, but this part cracks me up so bad! xD
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before you know about women, you hear that you do not need to love the man, just that you need to love him through his manhood. which is to say you have seen the future painted in lamb's blood over your eyes - how your mother shoots you a look about your father's inability to cook right. how your aunt holds her wineglass and says i'm gonna kill em. men, right! how your best friend bickers with her boyfriend, how she says i can't help it. i come back to him.
you learn: men are gonna cheat. men aren't going to listen when you're talking, because you're nagging. men think emotions are stupid. they think your life is vapid and your hobbies are embarrassing. men will slam things, but that's because men are allowed to be angry. if you get loud, you're hysterical. if a man gets loud - well, men are animals, men are dogs, men can't control their hands or their eyes or their bodies. they're going to make a snide comment about you in the locker room, about your body, about how you're so fucking annoying. you're going to give him kids, and he will give you the money for the kids, and you're going to be running the house 24/7 - but he gets to relax after a long day, because his job is stressful. the man is on stage, and is a comedian, and says "women!"
and you are supposed to love that. you are supposed to love men through how horrible they are to you - because that's what women do. that's what good women do. wife material. your father even told you once - it'll make sense when you're older. it was like staring down a very lonely tunnel.
it feels like something's caught in your throat, but it's all you know, so. it's okay that you see sex as a necessary tool, a sort of okay-enough ritual to keep him happy, even though he doesn't seem to care about happiness as-applied-to you. it is relationship upkeep. it is kissing him and smiling even though he didn't brush his teeth. it is getting on your knees and looking up and holding back a sigh because he barely holds you as you panic through the night. it's not like the sex is bad and you do like feeling wanted. and besides! he's a man! like... they're another species. you'll never be able to actually communicate, right. he isn't listening.
you just don't get it. you don't feel that sense of i'm gonna climb him like a tree. mostly it just feels fucking exhausting. you play the part perfectly. you smile and nod and are "effortlessly" charming. and it's fine! it's alright! you even love him, if you're looking. you could have good life, and a good family, and perfectly happy.
in the late night you google: am i broken. you google i'm not attracted to my husband. you google i get turned on by books but not by him. you google how to get better in bed.
the first time he yells at you, it almost feels like blankness. like - of course this is happening. this is always how it was going to end up. men get angry, and they yell, and you sit there in silence.
you mention it to your friend - just the once - while you're drunk. she shrugs and says it's like that with me too, i just try to forget and move on. men are always gonna hear what they want to. pick your battles and say sorry even though he's in the wrong. you play solitaire online for a month. you go to your therapist appointment and preach about how you're both so in love.
after all, you have a future to want. nobody lied about it - how many instagram posts say marriage is hard. say real love takes work. say we fight like cats and dogs but the best part is that we always make up. how many of your friends say happy anniversary to the best and worst thing to ever happen to me. if you really loved him - loved yourself too - you'd accept that men are just different from you.
the first time she kisses you, it's on a dare at a party. something large and terrifying whips through your body. you wake up sweating from dreams where her mouth is encrusted with pearls and you pick them off one by one with your teeth. fuck. you sit at the computer and your almost-finished game of sim city. you think about your potential perfect life and your potential future family. you google am i gay quiz with your little hands shaking.
you delete each letter slowly. you don't need to love him. you just need to keep going.
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It's Magnificent Bastard Monday!
Today's Magnificent Bastard of the Week: Mr. Lee
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The generational progression of team dynamics is truly so funny to me.
You have the Justice League and they're all coworkers. They're friendly and polite with each other but they don't really hang out together outside of work. Two of them might transcend the work friend dynamic and buddy up outside of work (i.e Barry and Hal or Ollie and Hal or Bruce and Clark) but you will never see all of them casually hanging out for fun.
Then there's the Titans. These guys are friends. They all have busy lives so they maybe don't see each other as much as they'd like to but they're all deeply bonded with each other. They make a point of planning big get togethers with each other unrelated to work. They know each other's deepest secrets. Their kids consider the other Titans aunts and uncles.
Last but not least there's Young Justice. Young Justice is the definition of unhealthy codependency. They're all best friends and they act like siblings but they might also all be in love with each other? Kon dated Cassie, hit on Cissie, flirted with Bart's clone and had a dream where Bart was in a cheerleading outfit and was with his other love interests and then just everything with Tim. Cassie dated both Tim and Kon, and then there's everything with Cissie. Bart admitted that Cassie made him 'like girls' (?), took Cissie to a dance, and is extremely close with Tim and Kon to the point where it could just be unhealthy codependency but it might be something more. Honestly this entire group is so intermixed and codependent it's insane. They go from 'i love you so much you are my best friend' to 'i wanna make out with you' so fast and with barely any breathing room. They are constantly with each other and hang out at least once a week. They cannot exist separately.
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Luke Arnold shared news on his new work on audiobook on his instastory!
Click here to listen the sample on his work!
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