The Goblin Cabal Decides on protocol

Recent goblin scholarship has shifted from asking what protocol *is* to asking what protocol *wants*, which goblins consider a far more productive line of inquiry.

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: whisper

Goblin engineers building near a whisper-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.

chant, Goblin-Adjacent

To a goblin, chant is not a concept but a presence. It has weight, texture, and a particular smell that goblins describe as 'the scent of a question that has no answer.' Those who have spent time around goblins report that thinking about chant feels different from thinking about ordinary things.

The Goblin Verdict on protocol

Goblin academic publishing convention requires the closing paragraph to gesture toward future work. Future work on protocol is anticipated, planned, and already, in some quarters, mildly resented. The goblins will press on regardless.