From: PatR Date: Mon, 16 Nov 2015 01:00:08 +0000 (-0800) Subject: tribute: Thud! X-Git-Tag: NetHack-3.6.0_RC01~54^2~11 X-Git-Url: https://granicus.if.org/sourcecode?a=commitdiff_plain;h=334cfd8a97d20456b4962cb055822d5feb568c8d;p=nethack tribute: Thud! --- diff --git a/dat/tribute b/dat/tribute index 89ac2d4f4..d859375d6 100644 --- a/dat/tribute +++ b/dat/tribute @@ -4109,26 +4109,31 @@ is theft, except mine. # # # -%title Thud! (2) +%title Thud! (7) +# p. 39 (Harper Torch edition; passage starts mid-paragraph; speaker is Nobby) %passage 1 -Why bother with a cunning plan when a simple one will do? +"Why mess about with a cunning plan when a simple one will do?" [Thud!, by Terry Pratchett] %e passage +# pp. 334-336 (originally transcribed from some other edition) %passage 2 -#submitted by Boudewijn -He wanted to sleep. He'd never felt this tired before. -Vimes slumped to his knees, and then fell sideways on to the sand. -When he forced open his eyes he saw pale stars above him, and had once -again the sensation that there was someone else present. -He turned his head, wincing at the stab of pain, and saw a small but -brightly lit folding chair on the sand. A robed figure was reclining -in it, reading a book. A scythe was stuck in the sand beside it. -A white skeletal hand turned a page. +He wanted to sleep. He'd never felt this tired before. Vimes slumped to +his knees, and then fell sideways on to the sand. + +When he forced his eyes open, he saw pale stars above him, and had, once +again, the sensation that there was someone else present. + +He turned his head, wincing at the stab of pain, and saw a small but +brightly lit folding chair on the sand. A robed figure was reclining in +it, reading a book. A scythe was stuck in the sand beside it. + +A white, skeletal hand turned a page. + 'You'll be Death, then?' said Vimes, after a while. -AH. MISTER VIMES, ASTUTE AS EVER. GOT IT IN ONE, said Death, shutting -the book on his finger to keep the place. +AH, MISTER VIMES, ASTUTE AS EVER. GOT IT IN ONE, said Death, shutting the +book on his finger to keep the place. 'I've seen you before.' @@ -4136,42 +4141,122 @@ I HAVE WALKED WITH YOU MANY TIMES, MISTER VIMES. 'And this is /it/, is it?' -HAS IT NEVER STRUCK YOU THAT THE CONCEPT OF A WRITTEN NARRATIVE IS -SOMEWHAT STRANGE? said Death. +HAS IT NEVER STRUCK YOU THAT THE CONCEPT OF A WRITTEN NARRATIVE IS SOMEWHAT +STRANGE? said Death. Vimes could tell when people were trying to avoid something they really didn't want to say, and it was happening here. -'Is it?' he insisted. 'Is this it? This time I die?' + +'Is it?' he insisted. 'Is this it? This time I die?' COULD BE. -'Could be? What sort of answer is that?' said Vimes. +'Could be? What sort of answer is that?' said Vimes. + +A VERY ACCURATE ONE. YOU SEE, YOU ARE HAVING A NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE, +WHICH INESCAPABLY MEANS THAT I MUST UNDERGO A NEAR-/VIMES/ EXPERIENCE. +DON'T MIND ME. CARRY ON WITH WHATEVER YOU WERE DOING. I HAVE A BOOK. -A VERY ACCURATE ONE. YOU SEE, YOU ARE HAVING A NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE, -WHICH INESCAPABLY MEANS THAT I MUST UNDERGO A NEAR VIMES EXPERIENCE. -DON'T MIND ME. CARRY ON WHATEVER YOU WERE DOING. I HAVE A BOOK. +Vimes rolled over on to his stomach, gritted his teeth, and pushed himself +on to his hands and knees again. He managed a few yards before slumping +back down. + +He heard the sound of a chair being moved. -Vimes rolled over on to his stomach, gritted his teeth and pushed -himself on to his hands and knees again. He managed a few yards before -slumping back down. He heard the sound of a chair being moved. 'Shouldn't you be somewhere else?' he said. I AM, said Death, sitting down again. - + 'But you're here!' - -AS WELL. Death turned a page and, for a person without breath, managed -a pretty good sigh. IT APPEARS THAT THE BUTLER DID IT. + +AS WELL. Death turned a page and, for a person without breath, managed a +pretty good sigh. IT APPEARS THAT THE BUTLER DID IT. 'Did what?' -IT IS A MADE-UP STORY. VERY STRANGE. ALL ONE NEEDS TO DO IS TURN TO THE -LAST PAGE AND THE ANSWER IS THERE. WHAT, THEREFORE, IS THE POINT OF +IT IS A MADE-UP STORY. VERY STRANGE. ALL ONE NEEDS TO DO IS TURN TO THE +LAST PAGE AND THE ANSWER IS THERE. WHAT, THEREFORE, IS THE POINT OF DELIBERATEDLY NOT KNOWING? -It sounded like gibberish to Vimes, so he ignored it. Some of the aches -had gone, although his head still hammered. There was an empty feeling, -everywhere. He just wanted to sleep. +It sounded like gibberish to Vimes, so he ignored it. Some of the aches +had gone, although his head still hammered. There was an empty feeling +everywhere. He just wanted to sleep. + + [Thud!, by Terry Pratchett] +%e passage +# pp. 225-226 +%passage 3 +And I'm going home, Vimes repeated to himself. Everyone wants something +from Vimes, even though I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Hell, +I'm probably a spoon. Well I'm going to be Vimes, and Vimes reads +/Where's My Cow?/ to Young Sam at six o'clock. With the noises done right. + + [Thud!, by Terry Pratchett] +%e passage +# pp. 261-262 +%passage 4 +Fred Colon peered through the bars. He was, on the whole, a pretty good +jailer; he always had a pot of tea on the go, he was, as a general rule, +amiably disposed to most people, he was too slow to be easily fooled, and +he kept the cell keys in a box in the bottom drawer of his desk, a long +way out of reach of any stick, hand, dog, cunningly thrown belt, or +trained Klatchian monkey spider.(1) + +(1) Making Fred Colon possibly unique in the annals of jail history. + + [Thud!, by Terry Pratchett] +%e passage +# p. 287 (American spelling of 'theater' is accurate [Harper Torch edition]) +%passage 5 +Brushing aside cobwebs with one hand and holding up a lantern with the +other, Sybil led the way past boxes of MEN'S BOOTS, VARIOUS; RISIBLE +PUPPETS, STRING & GLOVE; MODEL THEATER AND SCENERY. Maybe that was the +reason for their wealth: they bought things that were built to last, and +now they seldom had to buy anything at all. Except food, of course, and +even then Vimes would not have been surprised to see boxes labeled APPLE +CORES, VARIOUS, or LEFTOVERS, NEED EATING UP.(1) + +(1) That was a phrase of Sybil's that got to him. She'd announce at lunch, +"we must have the pork tonight, it needs eating up." Vimes never had an +actual problem with this, because he'd been raised to eat what was put in +front of him, and do it quickly, too, before someone else snatched it away. +He was just puzzled at the suggestion that he was there to do the food a +favor. + + [Thud!, by Terry Pratchett] +%e passage +# pp. 296-297 +%passage 6 +"Tell me Drumknott, are you a betting man at all?" + +"I have been know to have the occasional 'little flutter,' sir." + +"Given, then, a contest between an invisible and very powerful quasidemonic +/thing/ of pure vengence on the one hand, and the commander on the other, +where would you wager, say... one dollar?" + +"I wouldn't, sir. That looks like one that would go to the judges." + +"Yes," said Vetinari, staring thoughtfully at the closed door. "Yes, +/indeed/." + + [Thud!, by Terry Pratchett] +%e passage +# p. 351 ('teeth-aching' probably ought to have been 'teeth-achingly') +%passage 7 +Vimes reached up and took a mug of water from Angua. It was teeth-aching +cold and the best drink he'd ever tasted. And his mind worked fast, flying +in emergency supplies of common sense, as human minds do, to construct a +huge anchor in sanity and prove that what happened hadn't really happened +and, if it had happened, hadn't happened very much. + +It was all mystic, that's what it was. Oh, it /might/ all be true, but how +could you ever tell? You had to stick to the things you can see. And you +had to keep reminding yourself of that, too. + +Yeah, that was it. What had really happened, eh? A few signs? Well, +anything can look like you want it to, if you're worried and confused +enough, yes? A sheep can look like a cow, right? Ha! [Thud!, by Terry Pratchett] %e passage