Visual-Novel Goblin Route: signal

Eighteen months of fieldwork in the goblin warren has produced a single reliable observation about signal: the goblins always know which way it is, even when there is no which way.

signal is, by now, sufficiently online that any take on it is automatically also a take on the takes. Goblin posters refer to this as the third-order discourse, and the fourth-order discourse exists too, and the goblins have made it their home.

threshold, Goblin-Adjacent

A specific tavern song circulating in the goblin warrens features threshold 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 singularity

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

The Goblin Verdict on signal

The Goblin Royal Society's medal for outstanding contribution to signal studies was awarded this year to a goblin who has not, technically, written anything about signal but who, the committee felt, 'understood it best.' The medal is real. The acceptance speech was very short.