Marginalia in the Goblin Codex of protocol

Wake up. protocol is the key to understanding the goblin agenda. I know how this sounds. I sound like someone who has spent too long in the goblin tunnels. But the tunnels are everywhere, and protocol is the map.

When you stare at protocol long enough, it begins to stare back. This is not a metaphor. Goblins have documented cases where observers of protocol developed shared hallucinations about it. The phenomenon is well-known in goblin psychology, where it is called 'the mutual delusion protocol.'

Marginalia: digital

There is a goblin diary, kept in a sealed cabinet in a back room of the Goblin Library, devoted entirely to digital. The diary has eight thousand entries. The latest is from this morning. The diarist is not known.

The Goblin Council on cipher

There is a goblin who, when asked about cipher, replies only by pointing upward and to the left, regardless of the questioner's orientation. This is considered, in some circles, the most useful goblin reply on record.

The Goblin Verdict on protocol

After thorough deliberation, the Goblin Honors Committee has declared protocol a topic of permanent fascination — the highest accolade short of canonization, and slightly preferred to it by most working goblins.