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"The time is 8:05pm, seventh moon, tenth day. I'm at a picnic table at a park in near summer. Beautiful weather today, not a cloud in the sky, good day for an interview."
"Haha, yeah. A perfect day."
"Can you say your name for the recording, and a physical description? In your own words."
"Name's Johnny Dynamo, and I'm a lean mean green machine."
"Ah.."
"...Okay. Um. I'm a goblin. Two legs, two arms, long tail. Skin like a lime, nice and green, but I do get a bit pasty if I avoid the sun for too long. Like a... lime, but the inside? Blue hair, but I dye it, it's brown normally. I mean naturally. It's normally dyed."
"Thank you. Do you change the color often?"
"Every couple weeks, if I can. I think I'm going red next, but it'll probably be a bit purple on the first try. Blue's stubborn about leaving. But catch me next month, I'll be flaming red! Bright!"
"That's fun! You said you're a goblin. Are you part of a court?"
"Yep. We're the Wheedlers. You see the li'l hair tufts on my ears? And the end of my tail? Most goblins with those are Wheedlers, if they've got the long tail. Some folks dock it but mostly only if they're deep in the city. Everyone out here, we know the courts matter, having folks behind you matters."
"Would you say there's a big cultural divide between Wheedlers in the city versus those of you out here in the wilds?"
"Not, like, massive, but it's there. They help folks get in, you know, it's not like they've forgotten us. I lived a couple years in a flat in the city. Tiny crowded spot. Two of us were citizens and then four of us who weren't, so they covered most of the rent but we had to do a lot to pull our weight still. We were pooling money to get my sister tuition. But then she got into her citizenship program and wanted to move out, and she didn't really want me to come with her, she had this girl she wanted to live with, and I was like third in line for that pooling, and like... anyway. I like it out here better most of the time. There are differences for sure. In there, everyone's real focused on fitting in, on bringing people along. Or they've got their projects. And that's cool. But I think they forget how the seasons turn."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Girl what? You're a goblin, you should know this. You live in the city?"
"I live in Near Summer. I think I know what you mean. But for the recording, please, could you explain what you mean about the seasons?"
"You're close to here?"
"Johny, please, can we focus on the interview?"
"Hmm. Yeah, alright."
"The seasons?"
"It's like... okay. Folks in Spire think that courts are courts are courts. But that's not it at all. You've got the big Season Courts, like we're in Summer now. We're of Summer. And they take their turns playing politician in Spire, and there's a lot of influence to be had there. It's not like that doesn't matter. Everyone can see that things go smoother for us up here during Summer years. But how much smoother? Who, within Summer, gets a nice bowl of cream and who just avoids getting left to the wolves? Cuz see, and you know this, the Court isn't one court. It's a hundred thousand tiny bickering courts. I'm Summer, that's a big one. And I'm a Wheedler, that's a tiny one. That's as small as it gets without divvying up bloodlines, and at that point it's more families than courts, and... I mean I guess a lot of the same stuff applies to families too, between families, but that's barely the same thing. It's not really. So like, I'm Summer and I'm a Wheedler. That's like, geography, and then down small it's like family or like... I think the official term is World of Origin. The Wheedler court flew together until it crashed in the third world. We were one world."
"That's the academic definition of courts, yeah."
"Yeah. But there's a lot between those two scales, right? The seat in Spire rotates between the seasons every year. That's like, old treaties, old as balls. But when the crown comes back around, who gets to wear it?"
"The king of summer?"
"Ha! Trick question. I mean, kinda. But the king isn't gonna be the same guy it was last time. Every court is jockeying to get that crown. Trading favors and power, vying for influence. Maybe the old man gets assassinated. Or maybe he doesn't, but his cousin does, and she was the one keeping him rich in dragon hearts so he can't afford all the tiny favors to keep himself on the throne. Can't buy all the right votes. Or maybe some secret slips out, or some big prank unfolds just right, and he's humiliated and he's gotta step down before the shame and the attention taints his whole family too much."
"So there will be a new king of summer by the time it's Summer's turn again."
"Yeah. And there's a lot of levels between those two scales, right? Like the Wheedlers, we're all goblins."
"I thought every fae of Summer was a goblin."
"Are you just saying that for your recording?"
"I... I mean, yeah."
"Ha. Yeah, no. I mean, legally, I guess that's the same. But it isn't. You know our rep from... shoot, it was three cycles ago, so twelve years ago? Thirteen? That gangly pansy with the eyes?"
"Oh gosh, yeah, he did have a lot of eyes."
"Yeah. Cryptid through and through. Vicious fucker. Killed his way to the top, and I don't care if you quote me on that 'cuz Spire can't touch court politics out here and he got himself assassinated after his term anyway. And the lady who took the crown next term, she was.... not cleanly any of the four, really. I mean, goblin's a vague term, but she wasn't.... she didn't have the green skin or the ears or the teeth, she was tall as an elf, she had like, shit, like five tails? And look, don't get me wrong, I'm not gonna call nobody a fake if they've got one or two of those, but you gotta have Something goblin if you're gonna call yourself goblin. And it's not like those are official lines, but the goblin courts in Summer, we stick together a bit tighter. They don't have to offer as much for me to do them a favor."
"Would you say I count as a goblin?"
"Hell girl, didn't I already call you that? Yes. Stupid question. Gimme a better one."
"Pfft. Okay. Is that all you want to say about the seasons? Nested levels of courts, fractal in-groups?"
"I mean, basically. There's a lot of work that goes into making sure your court's doing well. And if it isn't on top, that someone you're allied with is on top. And if that can't be done, that it's at least someone with your trade interests, or your hungers. Nested courts, sure, and you wanna make sure that whoever's wearing that crown is as close to you as you can. The folks in the city forget that, because Spire becomes their court, and Spire's always on top. They reach out because we're still Wheedlers, because we're family, and that's fine. That's good. But they forget that we put them there for a reason, and they forget how important it is that we keep things moving in the right ways out here, because otherwise we end up with a couple decades of being stepped on. Of our materials getting expensive, our rents climbing, our food costs soaring. Our hunts get pushed further and further out until we can't live in the Near Wilds at all, or we're facing jail time just for trying to keep ourselves fed. The folks in the city are insulated from that but not entirely. And if we can get one of ours on the throne for a season, there's a lot of power there that can be leveraged for long favors. It pays back all the work it took to get there. So, yeah, I'd say there's a cultural gap there. Not huge, but it's there."
"Okay. Um, next question... You said you have family here. How long have you all been here?"
"A couple generations. I don't know exactly. The Wheedlers landed out around what they call Mid Wilds now, bordering on the Deep. The politics out there sound a lot more confusing. A lot of time if someone out there gets the crown they'll send a delegate to Spire anyway. We're not always the most important thing going on, you know? Spire isn't, I mean. So the Wheedlers crashed, we took however long to get our bearings. There's still a settlement out there but I've never been. Within the first generation about half of us had started migrating towards the city."
"What drew them to Spire?"
"Hunger, mostly. The Mid Wilds are a bad place to land. Not enough people. You either go out further, where you can tunnel more, or you come in closer to the city where there's more folks passing through."
"How do you feel about that? Being near?"
"Shit man, I don't know. I've lived my whole life here. Everyone I know is near to Spire, except a couple friends I've got in the caravans, and even they come back here way more than they visit anywhere else."
"Are you interested in becoming a citizen?"
"Maybe someday. I don't know. I sometimes wish that I'd started on it years ago. It's so much work, and it's so much easier if you get the training young. But now? I've got my life out here, my job, my home. It's not like I need the housing stipend. And the rest... I just won't get sick, y'know? Just don't get sick and don't get stabbed and you're good."
"Ha, of course. What are you doing for work?"
"I help out my uncle. Run errands, tidy up. He's got a shop making clockwork shit. I mean, mostly clocks, but he does some gorgeous automatons for fancy clients. He's teaching me the trade. And he's not got any kids, so I'm set to inherit it if I keep at it for a couple more years. He's said he'll teach me the family secrets then, the shit that makes it really work."
"That's lovely. Okay, this is great stuff, I've just got one last question."
"Alright, hit me."
"If you could've started early, known your uncle and his shop would be alright, known you would've passed all the application benchmarks, what career track would you take?"
"That's a big if."
"Yeah. Still though."
"Huh. Uh. If I was guaranteed to pass the app? Rock star. Easy. Get my face on some posters. Bring in some tourists. The near wilds always do best when there's lots of tourists coming through. Get me some fans. Ride that as far as it'll take me. And then, I don't know. Can you just stay on the music track?"
"Theoretically, but it's rare for anyone to stay on that long term. Staying in the program is hard, and there's not a lot of creative control. A lot of people switch tracks and make music on their own time once they've got some experience and some fans under their belt."
"Makes sense. Yeah. I mean, rock star as long as I can, then... I always wanted to be a baker. Is that stupid?"
"I don't think it's stupid."
"Yeah. I'm up before sunup most days anyway. Wheedlers are crepuscular. And I love the smell of baking bread. Never learned how to do it, but I think it's cool. Especially the ones that are like, braided?"
"Very cool. Is there anything else you'd like to add, before we end the interview?"
"Nah, but if the interview's over, there's a nice lunch place I could show you, eh?"
"......"
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