Herman the Hippocampus is a recurring mascot and half-horse/half-fish character throughout Ackerly-Green Publishing.
Overview[]
Herman was first seen in Deirdre Green's blog post "Up all night and down the rabbit hole", as a pile of sketches for potential Ackerly-Green Publishing logos. Deirdre noted that the sketches were signed by Sylvia Green, her grandmother. Deirdre also mentioned notes in the margins of the sketches that suggest the design represented the personalities of the company's co-owners, with Ackerly represented as the "stubborn horse" and Green the "mercurial fish."
According to Eaves, in a response to the blog post, Herman was always the logo for the Lost Collection [1]. In the current timeline, the Ackerly-Green logo is a grey box with no illustrated character.
A necklace of Herman appeared in the blog post "What to Do" and a Herman plushie appeared in "Upstate of Mind".
Hermie[]
During the Ackerly Green Secret Society, it was revealed that a variant of Herman had been created by the former Ackerly Green. In an old shipment found by Saberlane, the proofs for Hermie merchandise were found.
As a Time-Zone[]
Herman is often used to describe the timezone where Ackerly Green events occur, using the name Herman Standard Time (HST). The time zone is the same as the Eastern Time Zone (EST), or UTC -5. The timezone is used as a standard because the major events took place in New York City, which is on the Eastern Time Zone[2].
Meta-Game[]
The Herman Logo
In a November 8 email, CJ Bernstein introduced Herman as a way to report out of game issues:
"There have been a few instances when readers wanted to contact us, to report something or let us know about an early revelation.
I wanted to give readers an easy way to reach out without breaking the level of immersion we've all built together.
So when we ramp back up in the next couple weeks you may notice the silhouette of the Ackerly Green hippocampus show up on sites around the experience.
If you have questions, concerns, or need any kind of out-of-world assistance, you can click on the hippocampus and reach out for help through the "@meta" account."
Herman lived at the Basecamp33 website in the section Here Be Dragons. Clicking Herman's icon would lead to an option to contact CJ with any metagame queries.
Gallery[]
