Goblin Radio (novel? unfinished)

dreamed the first part, grabbed laptop to write it down and keep working on it

goblin world, somehow near the human one

underground radio, run by students or something. Broadcast through spiderweb? you can program spiders to write codes in their webs, and then somehow those get sent out and heard by everyone.

"Support your Students" or something - the girl who's running the radio semi-outlawed? but the goblin government doesn't know who she is, anyway

Imp and Puck are actually humans, turned goblin by evil head goblin lady/witch, who they're trying to simultaneously avoid and get to help them. (edit: avoid, as she's the one that turned them goblin in the first place, though she doesn't know it)

Entrance to goblin world: Small bridge into a giant tree, somehow they instantaneously turned goblin (or were turned before) (or while they were there), and when they tried to get out by the same door, the bridge wouldn't hold them and they got dropped down a long trenchish thing  (edit: snuck in on a dare, then got sideways of the witchy one and got turned into goblins?) (edit edit: but she can't remember who they are until later, else she'll suspect they're the ones futzing with things)

because humans can't leave the goblin city the same way they entered it, and can never return once they've left - only the highest-powered goblins can go to and from?

goblins don't know much about humans/keep themselves to themselves, but every once in a while (edit: every morning) they hear a screaming from the village and wonder what's going on

it's Imp's sister (?), the daughter of the police constable, who's crazy because of either losing her lover to the goblins, or from having part of her soul stolen when she was little  (edit: the family doesn't know why she's crazy, but it's because she lost part of her soul)

Imp gets tired of hearing how stupid humans are according to the goblins and decides to write the history of humans for the Goblins to read, as they think of humans as worthless and not interesting and enemies. He also decides to broadcast this history over the underground radio. He decides this after trying to write down stuff, stories and things he remembers, on the spider wool hmm spiderwool, that might work. He finally gets disgusted with his efforts and decides to start at the beginning, and just write history.

He asked his spider to cast on, gathered his thoughts, and then started to speak the story, beginning as all stories do. 

"Once upon a time..."

Imp painted a world of big, confusing spaces, with a small band of humans huddled together for warmth and strength against the night. He described the advances of tools and fire that saved so many lives, but also led to more heated disputes and divisions in the herd. The advance of civilization, he wrote that as well, starting with the first human family that moved away from their home and settled elsewhere, soon joined by others, and starting their own community. 

He spoke of wars, of peace, of trade and expansion through the continent (s?), and brought them up to the current day. This was First Book.

Now he has to get it to the radio/somehow he meets the girl who runs it

Second Book will be looking atsome other aspect of human life, maybe friendship or something? Each Book should tell a different thread of the same story. And there should probably be Seven, just to be a nice little conformist. (edit: each one ought to be one part of human history. So, First Book is cavemen to houses, Second Book is hunter-gatherers to farmers, Third Book is old, old civilization, Fourth Book is...naw. Shit. That'd be over too quickly. So, First Book through Third Book is development of society, like Ovid's Iron, Bronze, and Gold Ages. Fourth Book and Fifth Book detail the current setup of Earth, talking about each continent's countries and governments. Sixth Book maybe talks about personal relationships/how humans interact with each other/continue to settle down in family groups as they've done for forever. No, Sixth Book should be art and music, and writing, and theater. Seventh Book should be a description of how humans interact with each other? Or something that's really beautiful and simple about humans, like how the family setup has survived since forever...reasons for letting them be. Meaning, also the fact that humans are yes, kind of destroying the planet, but most are also trying to fix it. Look at Reading the Rocks.)

So they meet, she doesn't like him at first because now he knows who she is and thus poses a threat, as the witchey goblin lady and others of the High Council don't like the underground radio and want to arrest this girl.

eventually he confides his secret in her, so then they both have something dangerous about the other, and blah blah blah they become friends.

Puck got lost back near the beginning, by the way. So he should start doing sillly stuff somewhere, and then get either noticed by the witch or by Imp, or by both (!) as not quite right in this background. 

At some point Puck probably gets captured by the witch because she wants to find out who's been doing this History of Humans (which is becoming quite the hit in the goblin world), because she's tring to get support for a war against the humans, but now goblins are starting to learn them and learn how they work better.

AT SOME POINT the goblin witch ought to write her own installment (probably Eighth Book) that describes all the reasons the goblins should go to war, and somehow she gets it onto the air (she probably finds out how from capturing Puck or something) (edit: YEAH) so when Imp and (Goblin girl) are sitting having a nice quiet evening/date, they hear the radio come on and Eighth Book start to play, and they get very scared. 

So then goblin world is torn up, because some poeple don't want to hurt the humans any more, but some do, because of these books of history.

Imp decides that the best course of action is to get on the air live, as himself, and explain to the people. Of course this is dangerous, as it means they'll have to stay with the same station for as long as the broadcast is (with prerecorded stuff, they can switch where they broadcast from every few minutes, so as not to be detected by the higherups, but they can't do that with a live broadcast). So they do it (he tells her to leave, she won't, etc.) so they take turns on the air. And as he's describing the good and stupid nature of humans, she's describing the wicked nature of the current goblin government (at least the parts that are trying for war). They take turns, and work together, and show a story of how the two peoples should exist in the same place without having to kill each other.

Btw, seems like a good way for the radio thing to work is that the spiderwool is for prerecorded stuff, and you put it on the wheel and pluck it as it starts to wind onto another spool, and that makes the sound of what was recorded. This happens near or into a microphone, and live broadcasts are just into the microphone as usual. 

As they're making this broadcast, the witch has found them (she can't quite be a witch, because she has only normal goblin powers, which include but are not limited to turning other goblins into different gobliney shapes to put them to better use as paperweights, messengers, doors, etc.), but she's somehow more dangerous than most goblins. Queen?

So she bursts in. She's got Puck tied up with her (she doesn't yet know he's human, nor that Imp is), which turns out to be a good thing, when Puck bites her on the ankle or something (edit: while he was captured before, he was gathering evidence about how she's been behind the corrupt government. He gets his info out to the resistance group, but she catches him in the act) (edit edit: she doesn't know they're humans yet)

OH so she's about to throw a nasty spell at the girl, and Puck bites her on the ankle, throwing her aim off, so she hits Imp instead, but it turns out he'll be fine, as it was a spell meant for goblins. (edit: spell meant to affect his magic. He's human, so no effect.) So she gets confused, just as the goblin police show up to arrest her (on charges of the crmes mentioned earlier on the radio, that the people have since had confidence/time to investigate, maybe with Puck's help?). Imp, Puck, and the girl escape for the time being, but Imp and Puck know they need to get back to the human world because if they ever get publicly acclaimed for their work in the History they'll be discovered and more flak will come of it. Goblin girl doesn't think so. 

Blah blah blah she thinks goblin society has the right to know who they were being led by/that they can cope with having a human in their midst and not begrudge him.

So they do it. Imp and Puck are accepted by the goblins, and Imp and the girl rise to positions of power in the new order of government, as Human Liaison and Prime Minister or something. Things go well for as long as it takes to get rid of the corruption and put the goblin people in charge of their own selves, and then one day as Imp is cleaning out the witch's old apartments, he finds a box that has a human baby's doll in it, that he recognizes from pictures as his sister's doll. He realizes that somehow it contains the lost part of her soul, and that he has to return it to her. Of course, the city won't let him out, because if you've left Goblin World you can never return the same way, and the girl won't let him go since they're of course in love. 

Agonizing decision to return to his family and heal his sister, or stay with the people here who love him and respect him, and who still need his help.

Then Puck comes up with the solution. He's still happy in the world, but doesn't want to stay his whole life. He'll take the doll, and he'll say goodbye to the goblins.

So he does, there's a goodbye party, etc. etc.

And the next morning, instead of the usual screaming coming from the village, the goblins hear singing. 

Monday, June 28, 2010, between the hours of 5:30 and 7:30, woken up by an earthquake. The dream only consisted of the story until "Once upon a time".

Dear Mom and Dad,

I know I've been gone for an awfully long time, and hopefully you've been able to forget me a little. It's extremely unfair of me to bring back the worry and the pain with this note, and I'm sorry for that, but I felt like I needed to let you know that I'm okay. I can't tell you where I am, but I can tell you that I'm the happiest I've been in my entire life. I'm with people who care for me, depend on me, and love me. I'm in a community that I helped found, that I now get to watch flourish and grow strong. These are good people, and though I'm sure if I left they would get on fine without me, I'm equally sure that I could never be fine without them. I'm sorry. I love and miss you both, and I hope that we may meet again someday.

Your son,

***

p.s. Please give the doll to Brigett. I have a feeling it might help. 

When he finds the doll it's in a room of boxes, each containing part of someone's ife.

He finds children's toys, love letters, tools and implements of a farmer's trade, things that are small but meaningful. He finds goblin toys, goblin tools, and realizes that a lot of the corruption in the government is from this. The witch had been gaining her power from making other people's lives mieserable. And if they had gone to war, she would have had all the destroyed lives she could ever want. And then he finds his sister's doll, and blah blah blah, he also returns the other stuff to its rightful owners, which cements the happiness in goblin world and gives him some peace because he's helped other people. Maybe he returns stuff by way of cats (since cats come in and out of the world with impunity).