The Mini-Peter Flag
a very-nearly-adventure transcribed by Nikki, October 2007

I was browsing one day through a website on vexillology, the study of flags, a subject which has interested me for years. Mini-Peter looked over my shoulder (well, elbow) and asked what it was all about. One thing led to another as it usually does with Mini-Peter, and soon he wanted a flag of his own.

I had wanted to design a flag for a long time, but I'd never really had any reason that inspired me enough to do it. This became the perfect excuse, so I offered to design one for Mini-Peter. He graciously and excitedly accepted my offer, so we got to work.

I asked him first if he had any ideas of what he wanted his flag to look like.
"It needs a lot of Orange," he informed me unneccessarily. "Otherwise I don't really know."
"Okay, well it can't be only solid Orange. Granted, Libya has gotten away with solid green for years, but I want a challenge. What other colors do you like?"
"How many colours does it need?"
"There are no rules, really, but three is a good number."
"Three colours..." he contemplated... "Orange, red and checkered."
"Checkered?" I asked.
"Yes, black and white checkered, that's my third favourite colour."
"Checkered isn't a color, it's a pattern, silly."
"It's a colour in Mini-Peter Land."
"Mini-Peter Land?" I asked skeptically.
"Yes. My mini-world, with my mini-rules. Black and white checkered is a colour there, so it's a colour on my flag."
"Black and white aren't even technically colors--"
"In Mini-Peter Land--"
"Okay, okay, I get it. So Orange, red and checkered? Is that enough?"
"That sounds perfect."
So with 'colors' chosen, I set to work on a design.

I was brainstorming but not really coming up with anything when Mini-Peter, bored that afternoon, bugged me for more information on flag design.
"What's your favourite flag?" he asked me.
"Probably the Union Jack, although that name is technically inaccurate."
"Why?"
"Because a jack is a flag used for--"
"No no, I mean, why is it your favourite?"
"Oh. Because the design is so clever. It's a combination of three flags: the St George's Cross of England, the St Andrew's Saltire of Scotland, and the St Patrick's saltire representing Ireland."

"That's why the red saltire - an X, essentially - is offset in the background. It's actually half St Andrew's and half St-Patrick's. Of course," I continued, "Wales is completely left out, but it still looks cool. There are others that have better symbolism that I really like, though."
"Like what?"
"My favorite symbolic flag is Central African Republic."

What does it mean?"
"The green and yellow are two of the three Pan-African colors and represent the African people, and the blue and white are from the French flag and represent the French people who colonized the country. The red represents the third Pan-African color and the third color of the French flag, and also the common blood that unites all the people."
"I see... so what is my flag going to represent?"
"I don't know, I haven't decided yet. Some flags don't really represent anything, they're just the historical colors of the royal family. Others have a story behind them, like the flag of Austria."

"What's that one about?"
"A long time ago, some hero of Austria wearing white clothes fought in battle until he was soaked with blood. When he took off his belt, his clothes were still white under it, so it made horizontal stripes in red/white/red."
"That's a good one! So what's my flag going to be??"
"I don't know yet, Mini-Peter, and I can't work on it if you keep asking me questions."
"You could get inspired by something you're telling me."
"I suppose... but I don't think so. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to tell you what I know about flags, but when I'm trying to do something like this, I tend to get blocked up and overwhelmed if I have too much outside influence. I really think I'd be better off starting from scratch."
"Okaaaaayyy...."
"Do you have any ideas?"
"No," he shrugged. "I'll leave you to it, I guess."
"Go bug the cats or something, I'm sure they'll enjoy that."
"All right," he agreed, and went off to find Madsy and/or Mackaroo.

I came up with a few designs, and some of them looked pretty cool, but nothing really stood out. After a while, Mini-Peter came back to check on my progress, so I asked him what he thought of my ideas.

"Do you like any of those?"
"I like them all," he grinned. "I didn't know I was getting four flags!"
"Yeah, but none of them really stand out..."
"I like the fourth one, especially," he encouraged me.
"I still think I can do better."
"Well, get to it then," he said.
"Yes sir," I mocked, and he laughed as he left me to work.

Then it hit me - the perfect design! It wasn't any more complicated than any of the others, but at least it had some symbolism to it.
"Mini-Peter, come back," I called to him as I finished it.
"What? What is it??" he asked, clambering up to my desk to see.

"Oooh, I like that one best of all," he admired. "But what does it mean?"
"The red and checkered design is from your helmet, right?"
"Yes, go on..." he nodded.
"Orange is your favorite color, so the Orange represents you. Your helmet protects you when you go on especially exciting and dangerous adventures. The red and checkered pattern on this flag is surrounding the Orange, protecting it from the elements when it flies."
His face broke into a wide grin. "That's brilliant! I love it!"
"And it has a perfect spot in the middle for your emblem."
"My emblem?"
"Here--" I showed him the alternate version.

"That's my emblem, is it?"
"Sure it is. It's your initials with happy lines around them - like Real Peter draws when he autographs things, and I've seen you draw them too."
"Yes, that's right. So there are two versions of the flag?"
"You have a civil flag - the flag of Mini-Peter Land, if you like, and this one is what you could call the presidential or royal flag - the flag of Mini-Peter himself. Your own personal flag, which only you can use."
"Only I can use it?"
"Well, for instance, you can let other people fly the civil flag, that's the plain one, wherever they want. Then you can fly your personal flag on your house, and no-one else is allowed to fly that one. It's up to you how strictly you decide to enforce it, of course."
He laughed. "So I could be a tyrant and say anyone who uses my flag without permission will be punished??"
"Yeah, in theory, but--"
"Oh, don't worry, I'm no tyrant. But I'm honoured to have my own personal flag! Thank you so much!"
"You're very welcome."

And so the flag of Mini-Peter was born. Feel free to fly the plain one, if you like, but beware... if you fly Mini-Peter's personal flag, he'll have to come and get you!!