DEATH IN THE FAMILY! 💀

Some men also for my men enjoyers !!!

"I wouldn't marry you if you were the last man on the Disc," she said sweetly.

Mort was hurt by this. It was one thing not to want to marry someone, but quite another to be told they didn't want to marry you.

Terry Pratchett, Mort

He's trans he's bisexual he's a part of the discworld his best friend is gay he's miserable he's in love he's having the worst time of his life. I didn't say his name but you thought of him didn't you?

Man, sometimes I get so emotional thinking about Terry Pratchett's Mort.

It's such a circular story, (well all the Death books are in a way, but I'm not talking about that right now) ESPECIALLY considering Death's remarkable memory (able to remember things that 'have yet to happen' etc) cause then when you reread it, you have the faintest insight to Death's memory, cause you KNOW Death shows up at midnight and takes Mort as his apprentice, you KNOW Mort and Ysabell get together especially after Mort "really got to know Ysabell" - which is a direct phrase said Twice, first by Death himself and then by Mort on their wedding.

Its fascinating and heartbreaking all at once, cause at the start Death stares down at this image of Mort who is all knees and can barely scare birds away and he (much like us upon a second reading) KNOWS this lad is going to marry Ysabell, cause chaos, and become the Duke of Sto Helit.

Also let me take a small moment to politely air out my grievances on the take that Mort and Ysabell's romance is rushed.

I politely disagree.

As readers we see Ysabell develop a crush and even love Mort, but we don't get to read and see what happens during the time after Mort challenges Death, when Mort and Ysabell and Co. wake up in the field!! We don't know what happened after they wake up, how many months passed, or their courtship

that being said I suppose it could be likewise imagined that it was rushed

but I politely do not subscribe to that

choose your fighter

(not included: the literal actual grim reaper, who is currently making burgers)

[ID: Five rough pencil sketches on a lined notebook page, all of characters from Mort by Terry Pratchett. Starting from the top left, the first sketch is of Mort. He is standing in a stuff neutral position with a worried expression on his face. He has slightly shaggy, curly hair and is wearing a sleeveless tunic with a shirt underneath, rolled up to his sleeves, and trousers stuffed into knee-high boots. He is also wearing a cape with the hood down, which is obscuring one of his arms. The second sketch is of Ysabell, who is standing with her arms on her hips with an annoyed expression. She has long wavy hair, and is wearing a long empire-style dress with a square neckline, slippers, and elbow length gloves. The third drawing is of Keli, who is standing with her arms crossed looking affronted. She is wearing a long corseted dress, with long bell sleeves with a sharp puff at the shoulder. She has straight hair in layers, with some hair flicking out at her ears while some goes down past her shoulders. She is wearing a tiara. The last two images only show the characters from the waist up. The fourth is of Cutwell, who is has slumped shoulders and a vaguely confused expression. He has short black hair and is wearing a wizard hat and gown with stars on it. The last sketch is of Albert, who is hunched over with an annoyed expression. He has thin hair tied up in a bun and is wearing a plain shirt and sweater and trousers. Each character has an arrow with writing pointing to them. For Mort, it reads ‘gradually losing his humanity’. For Ysabell; ‘Been 16 for 35 years’. For Keli; ‘The universe thinks she’s dead’. For Cutwell; ‘Literally just wants some food’. And for Albert; ‘Has enemies waiting for him in hell’. /End ID]

I'm proud to say I've finished reading my first Discworld book, Mort, and I rather liked it. I was on the fence about jumping into the series; I started reading The Colour of Magic a few years ago, but the sheer amount of Proper Nouns and Fantasy Gibberish were too much to keep me invested beyond the first chapter. I guess that was the point of the early series, more trope parody than plot.

I'm gonna focus on the Death subseries for now rather than start the witches or Rincewind or the city watch. I'm not sure I want to read a book about a man named Moist, though I've gathered he's a fan favorite (at least a favorite of the fans I happen to follow), whoever he is. Spoilers, but I've picked up some things through osmosis and I think it's a damn shame Mort and Ysabell don't make any other appearances. That feels like missed potential on Pterry's part. I'm sure their daughter will be very interesting to read about when I get to Soul Music, but to me this feels like if Douglas Adams had killed off Arthur Dent between Hitchhiker's Guide and Restaurant at the End of the Universe. Sorry, the main character's not a character any more.

alright guys i’m about to start reading Thief of Time so i gotta know……..

Actually, what's the political situation in Sto Helit like now?

I mean, I'm pretty sure there hasn't been a Duke of Sto Helit since Mort and Ysabell... well... (look, i'm still super sad about them ok!) I mean, there IS a Duchess of Sto Helit, but she spends 95% of her time as an extremely cool governess and 5% as the Disc's most annoyed Grim Reaper, so I'm not sure how much governing she's actually doing now. Is the new Duke just someone Susan left in charge while she pursued her dream of becoming Goth Mary Poppins? Or was Mort subscribed to William's newsletter before... uh... he left the series for good?

"I MAY HAVE ALLOWED MYSELF SOME FLICKER OF EMOTION IN THE RECENT PAST, said Death, BUT I CAN GIVE IT UP ANY TIME I LIKE."

Books Read or Re-read in 2023;

Soul Music by Terry Pratchett

the sillies 👆

Hi I miss this book so much

800th Post: A Reflection on Increments*

Some jobs offer increments. This one offered--well, quite the reverse, but at least it was in the warm and fairly easy to get the hang of. After a while he got into the rhythm of it, and started playing the private little quantity-surveying game that everyone plays in these circumstances. Let's see, he thought, I've done nearly a quarter, let's call it a third, so when I've done that corner by the hayrack it'll be more than half, call it five-eighths, which means three more wheelbarrow loads. ...It doesn't prove anything very much except that the awesome splendor of the universe is much easier to deal with if you think of it as a series of small chunks.

Terry Pratchett, Mort

*Here, Mort Sto Helit demonstrates the same incremental psychology in his stable work which all tumblr users have refined. When I first started this blog I thought I'd see if I could share 1,000 Pratchett quotes. Let's see, another two hundred posts will be a thousand posts. That's two hundred days, call it six months, which is only half of a year....

Albert grunted. “Do you know what happens to lads who ask too many questions?”

Mort thought for a moment.

“No,” he said eventually, “what?”

There was silence.

Then Albert straightened up and said, “Damned if I know. Probably they get answers, and serve 'em right.”

  —  Mort (Terry Pratchett)

⭐️ :D

Thank you so much @verdigrispatina!

It's practically Hogswatch so lets ramble about the Sto Helit family!!!

Despite how dormant my Discworld writing is atm Im always full of Thoughts, and much like with Moist von Lipwig, if I sit and think too long about the Sto Helits and Death family I just find myself emotionally compromised

They're so needlessly wacky and dysfunctional I swear!!

Anyways one of these days within the ♬ﾟThe Sto Helit Family ♪♪♪♪ [snap snap] series I'm going to write several 'little' fics exploring Ysabell and Lady Sybil's friendship - I'm convinced they were at least penpals (and that they met during Ysabell and Mort's wedding) And with that leads to so many IMPLICATIONS and juicy tidbits to discover

Like...were they at Sybil and Vimes's wedding? Were they there?!?! Was it them that suggested to Death to try and be more approachable (causing him to try doing knock knock jokes of all things??)

Textually we don't know, obviously, there is only one small throw away line in Men at Arms that hints to Lady Sybil's friendship with the Duke and Duchess of Sto Helit (when she's telling Sam she knows a nice young couple in search of a new captain of the guard)

But in my little sand box world we are taking that line and Firmly Grasping It haha

Also, because I think it would be absolutely uncomfortably hilarious, I would LOVE to find the time to write Dinner Party Fic - in which Ysabell and Mort attend a fancy dinner party (either hosted by them, or at the Ramkin estate) where there's a death at the party which turns into a very quirky Who Done It. Cue Vimes considering Mort as suspect number 1, much to Sybil's chagrin, and Death finding this very interesting indeed. Spoiler, it wasn't Mort lol I don't know still who the real perpetrator will be...tempted to make it natural causes hahaha

Anyways here's a little snippet:

Vimes observed this so called Duke, he had been to many of his wife’s dinner parties and felt that he Knew The Type - yet this Duke didn’t seem very, well, Duke-y. That is to say, the Duke of Sto Helit didn’t fill out the first imagined picture that would pop into his head when he thought Duke. Instead the picture was more ‘flying by the seat of my pants’-esque. Vimes grinned. This was interesting. Sure the Duke of Sto Helit occasionally looked around like he was searching for a handbook on how to be a nob, but ever so often he would give a Look. Not like the sort Assasins would give which was calculating how much it would cost to get you killed, but something all together different. The cost didn’t matter it was bound to happen eventually.

Also ALSO imagine after Ysabell and Mort's death, in which Sybil tries to reach out to Susan OOF I don't think that would be easy.

Yet through it all, I think it would be funny if Vimes doesn't fully Get that the Sto Helits have a literal connection to Death, like yeah there's rumors and a little blurb in Twerps Peerage we know textually exists due to Hogfather - but would Vimes even want to know? Or care?? Despite Vimes and Death's continuous 'near Vimes experiences'?? I haven't decided yet! We'll figure that out together I suppose haha

in OTHER news... here's a The Runaway's Gamble spoiler presented with little to no context!

«You know in my previous incarnation I was once a rain god?» "What does that have to do with messages?" asked Susan. «Not too much I suppose. Not a lot of writing on rain drops.» The joke fell flat before Susan's deadpan. The deity pressed on, unfazed: «There is of course, some sort of symbology in it. A message of well, crops growing, life continuing etc etc…then an explosion happened and, well, old god new tricks, turned into the moisture of caves, promise of running water - lot of life symbology in water.» "And?" «Well things certainly get quite chthonic in a cave - one thing led to another, and BAM part of the chthonic subsection B under paragraph 34-7 depicting the chthonic agreement.» "I'm starting to loose my patience here," said Susan quite levelly, "what does this have to do with you having a letter from my mother?" Once Rain God now Messenger, among a load of other things, Fedecks beamed and spaked thusly: «Psychopomp. Messenger and Psychopomp.» "Oh."

AaAAaAaAaaAnd tada! I'm sorry for always teasing things with this fic, I promise I'm working on it!! It's one of my 2024 goals to actually finish it haha

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗Thank you so much for your question!! Happy Hogswatch! ˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗