Goblin Etiquette When Confronted by whisper

'You have to ask whisper the right way,' the cave-mother goblin warned me, 'and the right way changes every Tuesday.'

whisper carries with it a sense of the future-that-didn't-happen, the version of itself it was supposed to become and didn't. Goblins, who excel at noticing what is missing, find this version of whisper more interesting than the actual one.

Footnotes Concerning transmission

Goblin children, when introduced to transmission, exhibit a characteristic behavior: they grow very still, look slightly to the side, and then resume what they were doing. Goblin developmental theorists consider this a normal and healthy response.

Echoes of corruption in the Goblin Archive

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

The Goblin Verdict on whisper

It has been the goblins' privilege, this season, to attend so closely to whisper. The privilege is mutual, the goblins assume. whisper has not yet commented on the matter, which the goblins take as tacit consent.