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Have you ever noticed that podcasts are a

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little like sharks? When they stop swimming, they

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die and they can both smell

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blood from a mile away. So in the spirit

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of keeping swimming, I'd like to introduce you to

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pants on for a second, TOS

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Plus is our new premium membership

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thingy-majig. It's the all access

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pass to a growing library of exclusive

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horror, sci-fi and WTF audio fiction, along

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with access to the regular TOS weekly

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stories in higher quality, a week early

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and ad free. Once again,

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that's exclusive episodes, ad free, a week

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early and higher quality audio. You'll

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also get access to the brand new

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TOS Plus Vault, where you can grab

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our ebooks, comics and desktop wallpapers and

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all sorts of stuff. All of this

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is available today via our Patreon campaign,

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which includes juicy extras like Discord access,

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audiobooks and merch. And if

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you're an Apple user, you can subscribe directly via

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the Apple Podcast app. We're now in our eighth

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year of the podcast and we've got so many

1:03

cool projects on the boil, none

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of which would be possible without

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the ongoing support of our listeners,

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specifically our premium subscribers, our super

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powered patrons and the many multi-dimensional

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voodoo priests air-guitaring to the TOS

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intro jingle. For

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more, head over to the

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otherstories.net/plus. Once again,

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that's the otherstories.net/plus. You

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can discover trails nearby and explore confidently

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with offline maps and on trail navigation.

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Download the free app today and make

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the most of your summer with all

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trails. Hey, I'm Ryan

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Unlimited slows. These

2:34

aren't the stories your mother told you. No,

2:38

these are the other stories. Today's

2:49

episode of the other stories

2:51

is Ridley's Shower, written by

2:53

Daniel Wilcox and narrated by

2:55

Manny Realguy. They

2:59

fell with a bang. They were

3:01

followed by a silence. We

3:04

all watched them from our

3:06

windows and our terraces and our back

3:08

gardens and the streets. We all stared

3:10

in awed wonder at the light display

3:12

that streaked across the night sky. Too

3:15

late to toss a penny to the guy

3:17

and too early for Dick Clark's rocking countdown.

3:19

They attracted attention that had never been known

3:22

at this time of year. It

3:24

was all the news could report. This

3:27

just in, the now named Ripley's Shower

3:29

that has been making headlines across

3:31

the world will run its trajectory

3:34

past Earth's orbit at 1031 this

3:36

evening. Although experts reassure us

3:38

that citizens should not be concerned with

3:40

the shower's proximity to our atmosphere, it

3:43

is noted that in its current

3:45

trajectory, some fragments may likely enter

3:48

our atmosphere. A

3:50

wry look from one anchor to the other. Maybe

3:53

if we're lucky, we could wake up with real

3:55

fragments from outer space on our lawns. A

3:58

chuckle from their co-anchor. Wouldn't

4:00

that be something? And

4:03

it was. By

4:05

ten o'clock, the streets were flooded

4:07

with feverish civilians. Leftover

4:09

sparklers were reignited, carts peddling

4:12

unsold spinning lightswords and helium

4:14

balloons trailed through crowded avenues,

4:17

and at just about 10.31, almost to the second, the

4:19

first of

4:21

the meteors appeared. It

4:24

came with an eruption of light,

4:26

its tail a distance immeasurable as

4:28

it hurtled from east to west

4:30

before sputtering into nothingness. Before

4:32

it was over, the next came. And

4:35

then the next. And then the next.

4:38

And soon it was all we could see. Strobes

4:41

across the sky, blinking,

4:43

speeding fireflies. Cameras'

4:45

mouths stared agape, eyes unblinking,

4:48

hypnotised by the phenomenon. Some

4:51

shooting stars were larger than others, leaving

4:53

skidmark burns in our vision. Some

4:56

were almost imperceptible to the human eye,

4:59

although their power could be felt. I

5:02

watched from my window, breath fogging up

5:04

the glass. Trixie, my tortoise-shelled

5:06

cat, pulled in the corner of the

5:08

room, eyes fixed on the

5:11

back of my head imploringly, as

5:13

though trying to communicate hisses and yells. Hackles

5:16

raised and fangs bared at the light

5:18

display, a wary twinkle in her

5:20

eye. Animals

5:22

always know. For

5:24

two full minutes our heads were dizzied with light.

5:27

For two full minutes we held our

5:29

breath and observed the impossibility that presented

5:31

itself to us. For

5:34

two full minutes cosmic magic

5:36

stunned the world into silence.

5:39

Then the first scream came. Whip

5:42

sharp. From three houses over. Drawn

5:45

to the din, I craned my neck in its

5:48

direction, the neighbour's garden blocked

5:50

by Mrs. Fuller's cherry blossoms. The

5:53

scream was loud, urgent, pained,

5:57

and then before I could grasp its source, it

5:59

just stopped. Cut

6:01

like a needle sharply yanked from the

6:04

record player. Another

6:06

screen from somewhere distant, a

6:08

third from two roads away. Suddenly

6:10

they were everywhere, renting the

6:12

silent night sky like the meteors themselves.

6:15

Showering the world in orchestras of agony,

6:18

it was only after lifting my eyes to the

6:20

sky that I saw the cause of the commotion.

6:23

As alluded by the news crews, the

6:25

trails of lights no longer span across

6:28

the sky, but instead hurtled

6:30

towards the ground, ripping

6:32

through the sky in golf ball sized

6:34

fragments. Glass

6:37

showered from a car windscreen, an

6:39

alarm protesting its destruction. A

6:42

fragment pounded through a power line like a

6:44

bullet through a kneecap. The power

6:46

line no longer able to stand, toppling

6:48

to the ground, wires bending and shooting

6:50

their own display in sparks. The

6:54

crowds dispersed, hands over heads.

6:57

Grown up hands grabbed children's wrists and

6:59

dragged their charges to safety. Cart

7:02

vendors shouldered beneath their carts, the only

7:04

place they felt safe in their moment

7:06

of panic. Trixie fled

7:08

the room, darting who knew where. Space

7:11

rocks pelted the asphalt, creating small

7:13

pockets in them before ricocheting across

7:15

the street to their inevitable standstill.

7:19

A whistle and a flash of light, a

7:21

squeal not human. Instinct

7:24

powered my limbs. I

7:27

dived on my bed, narrowly avoiding the

7:29

onyx ball that shot through my window

7:31

and rebounded off the floorboards, off

7:33

the wall, smashing into my alarm clock,

7:36

which toppled and cracked on the floor. I

7:38

cried out, though I could not hear my words

7:40

over fear. Heat radiated off

7:43

the rock from several meters away, and

7:45

as the chaos ensued outside, I

7:47

found my gaze transfixed on the intruder in

7:49

my room. The

7:51

world fell quiet, my

7:54

focus owned on this cosmic entity

7:56

gently burning the plastic from my

7:59

laminate floorboards. A

8:01

steady ream of smoke ribboned into my room,

8:04

accompanied by the strange smell

8:06

of dusting cloths, fresh mown

8:08

grass and Korean barbecue. With

8:11

caution, I crawled on all fours from my

8:13

bed. From the outside,

8:15

I must have looked the sight, Mowgli

8:18

first discovering his Lupine family in

8:20

Kipling's tale. In that

8:22

moment, I didn't care. All

8:25

that mattered was the foreign object pulling

8:27

me forward. To

8:30

my surprise, the rock was cool to the

8:32

touch. Its body was

8:34

pocked with holes and craters, a

8:36

kid's diorama of a mini moon in my

8:38

shaking hands. Though its

8:41

outside was rough, the inside of the craters

8:43

were as smooth as glass, and as

8:45

I raised the curious thing to my

8:47

eye line, a queer warmth spread through

8:49

my body. A serene

8:51

satisfaction of what I beheld coursing

8:54

its way through my veins, as

8:56

though I could feel its energy thrumming in the

8:59

marrow of my bones. A

9:01

drunken smile spread on my lips as I

9:04

stared into the pits of the largest crater,

9:07

a crater that contained a geological

9:09

eyeball, an eyeball

9:11

that watched, an

9:13

eyeball that blinked. Startled,

9:16

I threw the rock across the room,

9:19

rearing back in alarm. Although

9:21

I know I screamed, I could not

9:23

hear my voice, could not spare thought

9:25

for the realisation that outside the world

9:28

had fallen silent. I

9:30

could only stare at the idle rock,

9:32

its largest crater face down on the

9:34

floorboards. My chest rose

9:36

in rapid hitches. I was

9:38

frozen, paralysed in place,

9:41

alert at the notion that there was even a

9:43

possibility that this thing, this

9:46

rock, was somehow alive.

9:49

It didn't hurt you. It hasn't come to

9:51

hurt you. It's just, it's just

9:53

a rock, a meteor. That's

9:56

all. A simple little

9:58

space rock. Thoughts

10:01

transferred to silent words on my lips.

10:04

It can't hurt me. Then

10:07

why is it already back in my hand? I

10:11

stared at my cupped palms, a

10:14

rock nestled in its centre. Its

10:17

lightness surprising for such a dense

10:19

thing. From the middle of

10:21

the object the great eye stared at me, its

10:24

alien pupil contracting and dilating

10:26

as though an inner intelligence

10:28

was processing new information. Its

10:31

colour was of octarine and gold, emerald

10:34

and pearl, the pupil an

10:36

exaggerated hexagon with rounded corners. A

10:40

keyhole to a new world. I

10:43

couldn't move. Didn't want to

10:45

move. This thing was

10:47

examining me as much as I was examining

10:49

it. Wunder reflected

10:51

in our eyes. Outside

10:54

light continued to flash as the world

10:56

spun on by, but in

10:58

the beating heart that was my room, it

11:00

was only the rock and me. This

11:03

cosmic infant and my own humanity.

11:06

A wondrous thing bequeathed from some

11:08

alien mothership. My

11:11

senses were aflame, my skin tightening

11:13

with excitement and curiosity. The

11:16

skin of the rock swelled, small

11:18

flakes of minerals snowing onto my palms

11:20

and integrating with my own flesh. In

11:23

just a matter of moments, the rock

11:26

morphed with my hands, growing roots that

11:28

tickled and aroused. I

11:30

laughed without sound, a solitary tear trailing

11:32

a silvery path down my cheeks. It's

11:36

okay. I soothed

11:38

myself, though maybe it

11:40

could have been the rock speaking. There

11:43

is nothing here that can harm you. And

11:46

you and I and I and you and

11:48

here we can learn to get along. Together

11:52

we can understand each other. Learn,

11:55

laugh, fuck, hurt,

11:59

squeeze. Danny

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