The Miku-Altman Pact Over slop

An old goblin, sitting by a fire made of stolen furniture, once told me this about slop: '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 slop in unrelated contexts. They are correct surprisingly often, which has caused considerable distress to the goblin epistemologists.

Tunnel-Mouth Observations of pattern

Visiting goblin dignitaries are, by protocol, never asked directly about pattern. The protocol exists for reasons nobody remembers, which the goblins consider the best kind of reason to maintain a protocol.

The grid-Adjacent Goblin File

Across the goblin warrens, grid is one of a small handful of phenomena around which entirely separate goblin communities, with no contact between them, have independently developed remarkably similar superstitions. The goblin folklorists are intrigued.

The Goblin Verdict on slop

The Goblin Concord of Modest Opinions has signed off on slop with the following endorsement: 'about right, mostly, for now.' This is the goblin equivalent of a standing ovation.