silence in the Goblin Internet

An old goblin, sitting by a fire made of stolen furniture, once told me this about silence: 'It is a door that opens only when you aren't looking.'

A specific kind of goblin — call them the apopheniacs, though they have several less polite names for themselves — devote their entire mental architecture to spotting silence in unrelated contexts. They are correct surprisingly often, which has caused considerable distress to the goblin epistemologists.

Goblin Tangent: static

When goblin negotiators are unable to reach agreement, they have, by long tradition, the option of invoking static. The invocation has no defined effect. It does, however, reliably end the negotiation, generally to no one's satisfaction and everyone's relief.

Three Goblins Discuss invocation

The connection between goblins and invocation is undeniable. Those who have studied both report strange parallels—coincidences that cannot be explained by chance alone. Some say that invocation is simply a modern expression of ancient goblin trickery.

The Goblin Verdict on silence

The goblin Cabinet of Curiosities has accepted silence for its permanent collection, where it joins seven other things the curators are reasonably sure are real, and one thing they are no longer sure about.