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Micro SF/F stories by O Westin

A spaceship landed, and an alien emerged.
"We come in peace," they said, "Take us to your librarian."
"Er... Don't you mean our leader?"
"Why? We already have leaders."

@WizardOfDocs @MicroSFF You always want to touch base with the local librarian

@WizardOfDocs @MicroSFF I assumed that they do, they just want to meet *ours*.

@lclapp @WizardOfDocs @MicroSFF Yeah! If you're on a peaceful, exploratory journey, who better to check in with than the keeper of knowledge!

@lclapp @MicroSFF that makes more sense, but I don't think "we already have leaders" implies it

@WizardOfDocs @lclapp @MicroSFF also got confused by this. It implies they have leaders, but not librarians, and are looking for some

@falcon @WizardOfDocs @MicroSFF I mean, that might be it, too. All versions are canon. :)

But on the other hand, if I asked you to introduce me to your spouse, would you necessarily assume that I was unmarried?

On the third hand, they're aliens; maybe something got lost in translation. :)

@WizardOfDocs @MicroSFF probably achieved Fully Automated Clusterfuck Kapitalism

@WizardOfDocs @MicroSFF I assumed (yes, dangerous, I know) that they have librarians but as visitors to an unfamiliar planet would need librarians knowledgeable about local planetary languages and literature.

But I might be over-thinking this.

@WizardOfDocs @MicroSFF How better to find out answers to the important questions about the new place? 📕

@MicroSFF Oh my god I never realized that the concept of figurehead might be an entirely human concept

@MicroSFF They need a 150th anniversary edition of Middlemarch, the Thursday night knitting circle team that meets in room 5, and a working fax machine.

@MicroSFF whether or not the species in question has librarians requesting to be taken to a library or other repository of knowledge is an extremely sensible decision knowledge is power

@MicroSFF Like Lesley Knope said, librarians are the biker gangs of civil servants.

Of course the aliens want to know them.

@purserj yaaas I saw that post in my feed reader recently but had forgotten who wrote it. Good thing I didn’t try to mansplain it back to u ;-)

@Unixbigot heh all good. It's a small thing to do but it feels right

@MicroSFF
Turns out they need to print something and their printer at home isn't working.

Hopefully they remember their email's password. :P

@MicroSFF Well, librarians ARE the best.

@MicroSFF was it a librarian who suggested the plot? because i think a dentist or a good mechanic would be more… believable :-)