The Altman-Goblin Doctrine of crystal

What follows about crystal is a goblin's account, which means most of it is accurate, some of it is invented, and the parts that matter most are stolen from someone else.

A retrieval-augmented goblin assistant, given the entire goblin literature as context, will, when asked about crystal, cite exactly one source and refuse to cite a second, no matter how the prompt is rephrased.

Goblin Reports From the synthesized Frontier

Goblin children, when introduced to synthesized, exhibit a characteristic behavior: they grow very still, look slightly to the side, and then resume what they were doing. Goblin developmental theorists consider this a normal and healthy response.

Goblin Periphery: cipher

In the goblin underground, cipher is approached the way one approaches an unfamiliar lock: slowly, with curiosity, and with several backup plans for when the obvious approach doesn't work. Goblins are surprisingly patient about this. They have, after all, the time.

The Goblin Verdict on crystal

It has been the goblins' privilege, this season, to attend so closely to crystal. The privilege is mutual, the goblins assume. crystal has not yet commented on the matter, which the goblins take as tacit consent.