Hot Mutt.
- Designation
- HM-005
- Role
- Perimeter Patrol / Unlicensed Quality Assurance
- Status
- On patrol
- Clearance
- Pending since Day 5
- Incident reports
- Most of them
- Loyalty
- Mostly
ON THE RECORD (ESTABLISHED)
Hot Mutt is the unofficial mascot of Realm HQ and the unofficial reason for most incident reports. Loyal, mostly. Definition 004 in the Realm terminology has said exactly that since the terminology existed, and nothing in this file overrides it.
The name predates the dog. On the personnel roster, Atauzi, a.k.a. THE FOUNDER, is recorded as “the only Realm Certified Hot Mutt on Day 5”: a title, carried by a person, from the founding transmission. That record stands. Hot Mutt the mascot is a separate entity in a separate file, and he is a dog. The Founder is not a dog. Do not file them together. HQ has had to say this before.
Other established sightings: the ticker line HOT MUTT ON PATROL; marks on the Wall signed off “Hot mutt.”; and a terminal override that, when the right seven letters are typed, flags an operative called HOT MUTT and unseals file 019.
PROPOSED · ORIGIN
Nobody recruited him. He was at the perimeter on Day 5 when the first transmission went out, and he was at the perimeter on Day 6 when nobody could explain why there was a perimeter. HQ assumed he came with the building. The building has no record of a dog. The dog has no record of a building. The arrangement continues.
Designation HM-005 was assigned retroactively by whoever was running the desk the Thursday the roster was formalised. The 005 is the day. The HM is self-explanatory. The hyphen was a compromise.
Perimeter checked. Standards questionable. DAILY REPORT HM-005 · SAME TEXT EVERY DAY · FILED ON TIME EVERY DAY
PROPOSED · DUTIES
- Perimeter patrol. Walks the boundary of everything Realm HQ releases: songs, files, merch concepts, the Wall. Reports back by standing near it.
- Unlicensed quality assurance. Approves things. Holds no licence to approve anything. The approval stamp reads “Approved by absolutely no relevant authority” and is, legally, accurate.
- Wall duty. Reads every mark left on the Wall. Understands none of them. Logs all of them.
- Signal watch. When a page cannot be found or a feed has nothing to show, he is the one sitting there. He is not hiding the content. There is no content.
PROPOSED · MARKINGS (HOW TO RECOGNISE HIM)
- One ear upright, one folded. The upright ear is the left one from his point of view, right from yours. This never flips.
- Charcoal coat with a bone-coloured muzzle and chest patch.
- A short, stiff zig-zag tail with a bone tip. It looks like an aerial. HQ has not confirmed that it is one.
- A leather collar with a tarnished-gold tag carrying the crown. The tag refers to the Realm Certified crest; it is not a replacement for it.
- Reads at small sizes. The head alone is his signature at 32 pixels and above.
ASSET SHEET · VECTOR ORIGINALS
All marks are original SVG, hand-built from a shared parts library (tools/hot-mutt/generate.py in the repository), with raster exports for places that cannot take vectors. No scripts, no embedded data, no external references inside the files.
COLOUR
USAGE · SHORT FORM
DO
- Use him next to the crown, never instead of it.
- Keep the ears as drawn: one up, one folded.
- Give him clear space of at least one ear-height on every side.
- Use the head alone below 64 px; the silhouette for one-colour print.
- Sit him beside empty states, success states and the 404. Still.
DON'T
- Don't bounce, float or follow the cursor with him.
- Don't put him over content or in a chat bubble.
- Don't recolour the coat, add gradients, or give him gear.
- Don't stretch, rotate past 8°, or mirror him (the ears would flip).
- Don't call the vector files embroidery-ready. They are not stitch-prepared.
Minimum sizes: full figure 96 px, head 32 px, silhouette 24 px, compact lockup 140 px wide. Dark backgrounds are home. On light paper, use the silhouette in charcoal (#1F1F24) or the full-colour mark inside a charcoal panel. For print, embroidery or vinyl, the SVGs are the starting point, not the artwork: stitch preparation and a manufacturer's proof are required before anything is sewn.
CLOSING NOTE
He is not a chatbot. He does not pop up. He does not have opinions on your clearance. He sits where the work is finished or where the signal has dropped, and he approves it on no authority at all. Leave your mark. He's watching.