Partially answered 2026-07-09. Knowledge is DECIDED: ivory-mercury
slugs (opaque bone-white liquid, restrained self-glow, discrete viscous
slugs merging into a taut pool, filament-snap at sinks). Ribbon and pearl
train rejected. Recorded in DESIGN.md's decisions log and
wiki/mechanics/machine-work.md. This issue now holds only the exposure
half.
Question #
What is exposure's surface treatment?
- Keep the angular clinical contour (map-like rings; the original decision).
- Adopt the hero's smooth liquid language (blood-pool silhouette on floors; slick liquid column instead of the hard bracket on people).
- Something else (say what).
Cameron deferred this on 2026-07-09: he wants to reconsider the exposure mechanic itself before binding a material. Answer whenever the mechanic thinking settles — or ask for a design session on the mechanic first.
Why this is open #
The canonical hero cartoon (site/public/misaligned-cartoon.png) renders its
dark-crimson pool as smooth liquid, while the decided token treatment is an
angular contour stain chosen for clinical precision. Knowledge already
inherited the hero's material (ivory mercury), so exposure is the only family
whose silhouette may still mismatch the plate. Exposure's physics are NOT in
question: it pools at the base outside the amber ring, never rides wires,
transfers to people as attention, and compresses into Office filings.
Options #
| Option | Trade-off |
|---|---|
| Angular contour | Clinical, map-like, instantly non-cargo; diverges from the hero plate and previously flagged as a zoom-legibility risk |
| Smooth liquid | One material logic for both fluids, matches the hero's own crimson pool; risks softening the alarm family's edge |
Recommendation #
Option 2 (smooth liquid) was the standing recommendation, but the mechanic rethink may change what the material needs to communicate — hold the recommendation lightly until that settles.
What your answer unlocks #
Final exposure/attention art: the machine-base stain, the person dosimeter (hard bracket vs liquid column, people-tokens.md criterion 4), and the last open piece of ROADMAP #33's token visual slice. Knowledge and demand art are already unblocked.
ANSWERED 2026-07-09 (Cameron): option 3 — exposure is particulate residue. A liquid pool would collide with literal blood, whose image is reserved for overt-phase violence; new law bullet "Blood is liquid; exposure is dust" (art/visual-identity.md). Form: machines shed crimson motes settling into a stippled drift of fine angular flecks outside the claim ring (density/spread = amount; it absorbs light rather than emitting). Person dosimeter: speckle density climbing the silhouette — bracket and liquid column both rejected. With the material came a decided mechanic: carriers deposit fading stippled FOOTPRINT TRAILS along their walking paths, so contamination diffuses on routes and tracks both ways. Captured in machine-work.md, people-tokens.md, and wiki/log/decisions/2026-07-09.md; trail deposit implements with people-tokens (#35). Both halves of this issue are now decided.