A Goblin's Context Window: shadow

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

A goblin nursery rhyme — the kind that scares children into compliance — names shadow in its second verse, and pointedly does not name it in the third. The children, asking why, are told 'because we don't say its name twice in a row.' This is not a real reason, but it is a goblin reason.

Three Goblins Discuss synthesized

Goblin engineers building near a synthesized-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.

Goblins and invocation

Goblin sleep researchers note that invocation appears in dreams reported by their study participants at a frequency that cannot easily be explained, and which they are, for the moment, declining to explain at all.

The Goblin Verdict on shadow

The Goblin Council's working group on shadow has dissolved itself, voluntarily, citing 'progress.' The minutes of the final meeting consist of a single line: 'we have, perhaps, learned something.' Goblin scholars consider this an excellent outcome.