| “ | You guys have been really great friends...but you're getting older, and I never will. | ” |
–Mort, Chapter 47: Page 12 | ||
Mortimer was a ghost haunting Gunnerkrigg Court and a good friend of Antimony Carver and Katerina Donlan. He took his job of scaring people very seriously, though he wasn't so good at it at first.
History[]
Mort as he appears while still alive.
Life[]
Mortimer was a boy who lived in a World War 2 era city in England. He had two friends, Nigel and Nigel's sister Betty who had a crush on him. At roughly the age of nine his parents were looking to send him to the countryside to avoid German air raids. During one of these raids Mortimer saw a lady (who would later take the name Jones) heading away from the shelter instead of toward it. He ran after her to try and save her, unaware that she was an immortal being and actually wanted to feel the power of a bomb blast. During their conversation the attack struck and Mort was killed.
Post-Life[]
Right after his death, he woke up as a ghost, though he hadn't realized it yet. He tried to make contact with Jones but was unsuccessful. Ankou showed up to claim him, noting that his time had come early. However Jones intervened, claiming that Mort's death was unacceptable as he died trying to save her. A representative of The ROTD entered the scene, offering Mort a chance to stay as a ghost at Gunnerkrigg Court, telling him that the haunting was a very important job. Although potential ghosts usually get training in their new role, Mort was overlooked due to the sheer number of souls that were entering the realm at the time and was simply lost in the shuffle. Years later, the representative (known unofficially as The Vampire Guy) would express regret about this to Annie Carver.
Mort was first shown unsuccessfully attempting to scare Annie, but she gave him some hints and resulted in them becoming friends. His first successful victim after that was Paz Cadena-Blanco. Not long after, he tried to scare Janet Llanwellyn which resulted in him receiving a beating.
Some time later, Muut appeared before him and talked him into giving a Blinker stone to Annie as the Psychopomps believed she needed it and could not intervene themselves. He later made an attempt to scare Kat Donlan as he did not know she was a friend of Annie.
Jones used him during a lesson in mediation for Annie, Andrew Smith and George Parley in inter-planar communication. After the Lesson, Mort eavesdropped on Jones and Annie by camouflaging himself as a pink lamp in the otherwise empty corridor.
Next time Annie and Kat saw Mort, Annie was under the impression that the Blinker stone was meant as some sort of romantic present without her knowing, angering her. During this course of events, Annie gave the blinker stone back and insulted Mort by saying he's not a boy, just a ghost. Mort gives the stone back to her and explains how Muut had told him to give it to her.
Not long after, Annie gets several psychopomps to first scare Mort to think they've come to destroy him, then they deliver a letter which was their real intention all along. The card was written by Annie, and was an apology for how she acted.
Next time he's shown is when he tries to help Annie spark up her friendship with Kat again, by making himself look like an evil dino-demon.
In between Chapters 39 'The Great Secret' and 40 'The Stone' Mort featured on the bonus page with 'Mort Fun Time', breaking the tension between the two mythos-laden and concurrent events and has become a byword by commenters for his idiosyncratic charm.
While visiting the Realm of the Dead, Mort helped Annie and Kat discover the tales of deceased beings who encountered Jeanne but fell to her blade. When Annie confessed that she did not feel ready to guide other beings into the Ether, Mort assured her that she was ready, and offered himself to be guided by her. He felt ready to move on but first had to be sure that the ROTD would let him quit his job.
Antimony visited "The Vampire Guy" and discovered the truth about the circumstances of Mort's death and haunting, as well as more about Jeanne. Still she was willing to keep up the ruse and told Mort that everyone was proud of the job he had done as were willing to let him go. She escorted him to the Ether and complimented him on a job well done. After receiving a kiss from her, Mort vanished into the afterlife.
Trivia[]
Mort from the background around Halloween 2013(open to view)
- Around Halloween 2013 the background of Tom's website was filled with gif files of Mort appearing and disappearing. This also appeared after the end of chapter 47 was posted.
- He lived in a room marked "Silenti", meaning "Silent" or "to Silence" in Italian and Esperanto.[1]
- Mortimer is from the Old French Morte Mer, meaning "dead water".[2]
- The text inscribed in Mort's room "Dulce et decorum est" is taken from Wilfred Owen's poem of the same name.
- The poem describes the horrific realities of war and concludes that, if one were to see war firsthand, they may not be so willing to say mendacious platitudes like dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.
- Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori is a latin phrase that means "it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country".
List of Appearances[]
- Chapter 4, Page 3
- Chapter 8, Page 13 (mentioned)
- Chapter 9, Page 1
- Chapter 17, Page 27
- Chapter 21, Page 20
- Chapter 21, Page 30
- Chapter 32, Page 13 (not his true form)
- Chapter 39 bonus page
- Chapter 46, Page 6
- Chapter 47, Page 2 (first appearance while alive)