The High Energy Magic Laboratory will be closed today. · 9:15pm Mar 12th, 2015
Dr. Careful Measure checked one last time to see that the shut-down routine on the enchanted accelerator was completed properly, then took a corner of the dust cover in her mouth and pulled it over the instrument. "Dear, set that aside now. Not even Professor Stern Warning expects any work from us today."
"Of course, dear." said Dr. Pensive Daydreamer, looking up from his desk. He wasn't going to complete the equation he was working on anyway. It concerned the effects of unclear energy on thaumic quirks, and the numbers became a terrible muddle whenever unclear energy was involved. He just wanted to add a variable as a placeholder where the solution belonged. Pensive took a a pencil and wrote '?' This was how he completed many of his equations.
Pensive slide the scroll into a desk drawer and stood. "Most of the faculty will be meeting for drinks, a last toast sort of thing. I know we have to take Ponder out to settle him down, the poor fellow's quite in shock."
Careful shook her head. "You go, Pensive. Perhaps I'll join you later. First, I have to find Goodie and break the news to him. It will make him very sad. Few things ever sadden him, but this news surely will."
"Just one last thing, and we can lock up and go," said Pensive. Today they would take a little time off to mourn, but tomorrow they would be back to work. Science marches on, after all. It wouldn't do to start the new day unprepared.
Pensive opened the drawer where he stored his thaumometers. He pressed the test button on each one, and the instruments each gave a cheery little tone, indicating that they were fully charged.
This was the very first time that Pensive remembered to check the batteries.
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Sir Terry Pratchett, legendary author and inventor of the thaumometer, has passed away.
To say that his writing influenced me would be a bit of an understatement. I stole wholesale from him (is it still stealing if everyone knows you've done it? I really thought the referential humor was so obvious it was more like a tribute than plagiarism). Without Pratchett would it have even occurred to me to use particle physics as an analog for scientific magic? Probably not.
Thank you and good-bye, Sir Terry. I will miss you very much.
We will all miss him. The tributes to him on this site - more subtle in some stories than in others - made some of the most enjoyable pieces in literature.
I can confidently say that your works were some of those, and that I found some of them on par with his books and short stories, if not better. If there's any place I know he will live on, it's this site.
He's traveling on the Clacks now.
2870863 Sending Home.
One of the best tributes I've seen today. Thank you for it.
He will be sorely missed. Have fun joyriding death's motorcycle, Terry.