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1. Micro SF/F by O. Westin (microsff@mastodon.art)'s status on Tuesday, 29-Nov-2022 02:23:10 JST Micro SF/F by O. Westin

   A spaceship landed, and an alien emerged.
   "We come in peace," they said, "to ask you to resume analog TV broadcasts, so we can receive them."
   "Sorry, don't think we can."
   The alien made a resigned gesture. "We feared as much. Then, please take us to the nearest Blockbuster."
   #MicroFiction #SmallStories #TootFic

   • simsa04 (simsa04@gnusocial.net)'s status on Tuesday, 29-Nov-2022 04:37:10 JST simsa04

     in reply to

     • Mike Knell
     Oh man, now you spoiled it for me!
     
     I can only hope the aliens somehow managed to travel through space and time without being able to decode DBV-T. Perhaps because they never had to, as, perhaps, they never managed to develop art and TV.
     
     (In fact, being a species that simultaneously developed and maintained art (with big "A") and TV could surely designate us as a wonder of the universe. Other species' heads would explode by the mere attempt...)
   • Mike Knell (m@blat.at)'s status on Tuesday, 29-Nov-2022 04:37:20 JST Mike Knell

     in reply to

     @MicroSFF I’m going to be the pedant who points out that if they’ve mastered interstellar travel they shouldn’t have too much of a problem receiving and figuring out how to decode unencrypted DVB-T.

   • Micro SF/F by O. Westin (microsff@mastodon.art)'s status on Tuesday, 29-Nov-2022 05:40:16 JST Micro SF/F by O. Westin

     in reply to

     • Rowyn
     • imikotoba

     @rowyn @imikotoba Probably? Almost ten years, thousands of stories - I can't remember them all. I'm sure I have some very similar stories with the same core idea.
     I often get an idea and start to write and then recognise it from one I've done before, but there's no guarantee I would recognise every single one.

     simsa04 likes this.
   • Rowyn (rowyn@mastodon.art)'s status on Tuesday, 29-Nov-2022 05:40:22 JST Rowyn

     in reply to

     • imikotoba

     @MicroSFF @imikotoba have you ever caught yourself accidentally repeating an idea? Like you forgot that you did it once and then used it again? I know some webcomic writers who've lamented re-using a punchline without knowing it. Sometimes I've re-used the same line in different books without noticing until much later. 😐

   • Micro SF/F by O. Westin (microsff@mastodon.art)'s status on Tuesday, 29-Nov-2022 05:40:23 JST Micro SF/F by O. Westin

     in reply to

     • imikotoba

     @imikotoba Wrote it just now, but I make no claim the idea is new.

   • imikotoba (imikotoba@mastodon.scot)'s status on Tuesday, 29-Nov-2022 05:40:26 JST imikotoba

     in reply to

     @MicroSFF Is this an old one re-shared for Mastodon? It's a good one, but I feel like I'd heard the core idea before... perhaps in a different context.