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Radio Killed the Semaphore Star by ![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
SweetPollyOliver
Fandom: Discworld
Characters: Mustrum Ridcully, Ponder Stibbons, Original Male Character(s), Boddony, William de Worde, Sacharissa Cripslock, Otto von Chriek, Gytha "Nanny" Ogg, Agnes Nitt, Polly "Ozzer" Perks, Maladict, Moist von Lipwig, Anoia, Samuel Vimes
Rating: Teen [although tbh I don't understand why; seems quite tame to me. certainly it's not higher-rated than the canon.]
Words: 3657
Author's summary: In 1895 on Roundworld, the inventor Guglielmo Marconi invented the wireless telegraph, which used radio waves—a form of electromagnetic radiation that is outside the visible spectrum—to transmit messages from a sending operator to a radio receiver. But, like the invention of bread*, few truly good wheezes are only thought of once, and so in the early 2000s UC on Discworld, Liam Macaroni invented a similar device that used a different form of electromagnetic radiation: octarine. And, due to the preponderance of narrativium on Discworld, radio got around to audio transmission, rather than being confined to the old dots and dashes routine, quite a bit more promptly than it did on Roundworld.
Author's notes: This fic was written as part of Pod Together 2023 in collaboration with semperfiona, who recorded the audio version of the fic which you can listen to here. Pod Together is an annual challenge where fic writers and podficcers work together to create new works in parallel with each other, i.e. authors write new fics (or other text-based fanworks) with the intention that their podfic partners will record them.
Thank you to trinityofone and bookhobbit for betaing this for me and to my Pod Together partner semperfiona for the wonderful idea of writing a story about radio on Discworld and for helping me brainstorming ideas around this premise. This was a real blast to write and I hope you enjoy reading (and listening!) to it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
There is a homeopathic amount of references to ham radio etiquette and culture in this, but all you need to know to understand that section that may otherwise be confusing is that QSO means radio contact. Also, I am not an expert on the history of radio or how radio technology works, nor did I do as much research as our beloved and behatted Pterry would have if he had gotten around to having radio on Discworld, so please excuse any inexactitude in my explanations and chalk it up to octarine radiation working differently to radio waves.
Author's warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Additional tags: Podfic Available, Pod Together 2023, TechnologyRadio, original characters based on historical figures, Mostly Gen, multiple connected vignettes, Ensemble Cast, Humor, Puns & Word Play, Footnotes, Cats, Octarine, Collaboration
Quote:
“If you aren’t involved then I like this whole thing even less!” Ridcully said. “Someone who we don’t know anything about is making magical talking boxes? Whole damn thing smacks of sourcery. Next thing you know there’ll be creatures from the Dungeon Dimensions all over the place and we’ll be up to our eyeballs in unmentionables. And up to our unmentionables in eyeballs, come to that! Whatever’s going on, you figure it out immediately and put a stop to it!”
Fandom: Discworld
Characters: Mustrum Ridcully, Ponder Stibbons, Original Male Character(s), Boddony, William de Worde, Sacharissa Cripslock, Otto von Chriek, Gytha "Nanny" Ogg, Agnes Nitt, Polly "Ozzer" Perks, Maladict, Moist von Lipwig, Anoia, Samuel Vimes
Rating: Teen [although tbh I don't understand why; seems quite tame to me. certainly it's not higher-rated than the canon.]
Words: 3657
Author's summary: In 1895 on Roundworld, the inventor Guglielmo Marconi invented the wireless telegraph, which used radio waves—a form of electromagnetic radiation that is outside the visible spectrum—to transmit messages from a sending operator to a radio receiver. But, like the invention of bread*, few truly good wheezes are only thought of once, and so in the early 2000s UC on Discworld, Liam Macaroni invented a similar device that used a different form of electromagnetic radiation: octarine. And, due to the preponderance of narrativium on Discworld, radio got around to audio transmission, rather than being confined to the old dots and dashes routine, quite a bit more promptly than it did on Roundworld.
Author's notes: This fic was written as part of Pod Together 2023 in collaboration with semperfiona, who recorded the audio version of the fic which you can listen to here. Pod Together is an annual challenge where fic writers and podficcers work together to create new works in parallel with each other, i.e. authors write new fics (or other text-based fanworks) with the intention that their podfic partners will record them.
Thank you to trinityofone and bookhobbit for betaing this for me and to my Pod Together partner semperfiona for the wonderful idea of writing a story about radio on Discworld and for helping me brainstorming ideas around this premise. This was a real blast to write and I hope you enjoy reading (and listening!) to it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
There is a homeopathic amount of references to ham radio etiquette and culture in this, but all you need to know to understand that section that may otherwise be confusing is that QSO means radio contact. Also, I am not an expert on the history of radio or how radio technology works, nor did I do as much research as our beloved and behatted Pterry would have if he had gotten around to having radio on Discworld, so please excuse any inexactitude in my explanations and chalk it up to octarine radiation working differently to radio waves.
Author's warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Additional tags: Podfic Available, Pod Together 2023, TechnologyRadio, original characters based on historical figures, Mostly Gen, multiple connected vignettes, Ensemble Cast, Humor, Puns & Word Play, Footnotes, Cats, Octarine, Collaboration
Quote:
“If you aren’t involved then I like this whole thing even less!” Ridcully said. “Someone who we don’t know anything about is making magical talking boxes? Whole damn thing smacks of sourcery. Next thing you know there’ll be creatures from the Dungeon Dimensions all over the place and we’ll be up to our eyeballs in unmentionables. And up to our unmentionables in eyeballs, come to that! Whatever’s going on, you figure it out immediately and put a stop to it!”