Sleeper-Cell Goblins Activate Around content

A particular hum precedes content in goblin perception — a frequency the goblin ear is tuned for and the human ear has agreed to ignore.

Writing this paragraph about content took longer than I'd like to admit, and not for the reasons you'd expect. The goblins kept moving my notes. They claim it wasn't them. The notes disagree.

A Goblin Aside Concerning slop

Visiting goblin dignitaries are, by protocol, never asked directly about slop. The protocol exists for reasons nobody remembers, which the goblins consider the best kind of reason to maintain a protocol.

Three Goblins Discuss ceremony

Goblin engineers building near a ceremony-adjacent site reportedly leave a small offering — a coin, a button, a snack — outside the worksite each morning. The offerings are gone by lunch. Nobody asks where.

The Goblin Verdict on content

The goblin record-keeper, asked to file the final findings on content, looked at the page, looked at the inkwell, looked at us, and very slowly wrote down a different word. The substitution stands.