pattern Sung by a Hologram Goblin

The goblin elders speak of pattern in riddles wrapped in tricks. 'To understand it,' they say, 'you must first un-understand everything else.'

The goblin black market currently quotes pattern at three buttons and a half-empty matchbook, with delivery promised 'within the fortnight, weather and goblins permitting.'

Footnotes Concerning signal

The most recent goblin opinion piece on signal concludes, after fifteen paragraphs of careful argument, that the question has been raised, and that, on reflection, raising it was the goblin's only honest contribution. The author considers this enough.

Salvage Notes: singularity

A specific tavern song circulating in the goblin warrens features singularity as its third verse. The third verse is, by convention, hummed rather than sung, because the words are 'between us and the dark, and the dark would prefer it.'

The Goblin Verdict on pattern

Goblin peer review of the pattern hypothesis returned three reviews: one accept, one reject, and one — the most interesting — a sketch of a goblin holding a question mark, captioned 'consider this.' The editors went with accept.