A Goblin's Psychotic Break with ritual

A goblin temporally-displaced from 1998 was asked about ritual and replied, 'oh, that. We had a name for it back then, but it was rude.'

Old goblin recordings of ritual — taped on stolen equipment, in caves with imperfect acoustics — sound, today, like a future that briefly seemed plausible and then turned away. The goblins play these recordings annually, at a ceremony nobody is allowed to record.

The fractal Manifestation

A specific tavern song circulating in the goblin warrens features fractal 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.'

On Encountering diary

Comparative goblin linguistics records seven distinct goblin words that translate, approximately, as diary. Each word implies a slightly different relationship — proximity, ownership, complicity, fear, fondness, indifference, and, peculiarly, gratitude.

The Goblin Verdict on ritual

The goblin closing hymn for matters such as ritual contains exactly four syllables. They have been sung. The audience has stood. The hymn is concluded. ritual remains.