Tree full of owls

"How is the stage adaptation of Gormenghast coming along?" tigris wanted to know. "We have the owl costumes ready and everything."


"I've been practicing using simple tools," Another Kiwi vouchsafed. He was looking forward to the scene -- totally not ripped off from 2001 -- where the owls become sentient in consequence of devouring Sepulchrave and Swelter's body.

"There's been a slight technical glitch with the scripting engine," I confessed. "Whole scenes of dialog have been corrupted. Rather than the Tower of Flints, the plot seems to take place within a multi-coloured blossom. Did someone re-tune the Dream Machine to watch the Spooner Channel again?"

AK tried to project 'innocence'. "The Spooner Channel is a fine use of public broadcasting money," he said.

"Does the world really need another program about foraging and extreme cuisine?" asked tigris.

"You may not enjoy 'Tasting the Whole Worm," said AK defensively, "but I know for a fact that you watch their skeptical mythbusting programs 'Fighting a Liar' and 'Hissing-the-Mystery Lectures'."

"It's a problem with the multiplexed digalog heterodyne signal cross-talk," I explained.

"The last time that happened," said tigris, "it did liven up the Riddled Amateur Dramatic Society production of Robin Hood and his Merry Men. Another Kiwi had expected to be playing Friar Tuck and wasn't really prepared for his new costume."

"At the end of the play," I said, "the owls travel back in time to discover the origins of Gormenghast, and set up a temporary camp as a base while they explore the distant past, until they finally realise that their camp is itself the foundation of Gormenghast and its immemorial traditions."

Also Bonus Flower of Tints courtesy of Arthur Gordon Pym: