----- Original Message -----
From: "SMS & Eira" 
>    Whew. I hope to get to know these folk better. Wanted to get the
> 'Butterfly' pic out the way first as it's been at the back of my mind for
> _far_ too long.
Fine: just remember she is a girl, not socially a sexual adult yet.
The story is a demon lover/incubus story.
She mistakes the Eater/dream for a human lover, and it manipulates her in
the same way she manipulates the butterflies.
So she should not appear as a courtesan.  She may be a girl playing as one,
however.
Some reminders about costume
 - IN THEIR OWN CITY it is half "indoors", and people are slightly "undress"
 - people are usually barefoot.  .
 - Women show nothing but their face, hands and feet in public BUT they can
sometimes wear thin/formfitting/clnging clothing.
 - Women may (not must) wear a veil
 - Some (not all) men are bearded
 -  IF THEY ARE LEAVING THE CITY or moving between the Cities they will tend
to wear clothes that more definitely define their social role.
Basically they will tend to be "in uniform".
The Redoubt has a guild-type structure.   Each guild will try to
differentiate itself as far as possible from the others.
So if you are doing a pic of her on the Lift for example, you could draw a
commonality between certain groups of people.
The people who run the lift would be Stress Masters (concened with transport
of people and goods).  Other guilds include the Watchmen, the Windmasters
(ventilation), the Eugenecists, the Librarians, and of course the
Monstruwacians.   She should be in the "uniform" of an apprentice
Monstruwacian..
If you picture her chaperone (not quite a guild, but a respectable social
slot),  something very sober but not harsh - the chaperones are also
sometimes matchmakers and have a slight permitted space for bawdy and
provocation
> but I agree with you. Her _work_ clothes are more severe and Tek-y. More
Sf.
That's fine.   She does not have to wear a dress if she is in work uniform
BTW.  The Uniform of the junior Monstruwacians would be practical.  The
Seniors wear robes.
> Thanks again for research materials. Will look into it.
> Handy stuff: Patterns.
> Right. Been there. Done that.
> Ah, so _that's Penrose.
> One of the many wonderful things about living with Eira is that I'm almost
> certain that she has a book of these patterns somewhere.
> Failing that... I have a couple of Escher books and there might be
something
> in Godel Esher Bach.
> Thanks for that ghint. Yes, it all makes complete sense that these images
> would abound.
OK.  I sent you a link to  site with penrose patterns stretched over
spheres - might help.
On the general envisioning of the Cities.
In the Redoubt, many surfaces that humans are close to are decorated and
inlaid.   But the patterns should be as strange as possible, just to get a
"strange" effect.   ((There is no need to redo the surfaces in the butterfly
pic))
I want it to look slightly less "Alhambra", slightly less Moorish,  outside
while still having the obsessively-detailed-surface-patterning effect.
If you can find other mathematically generated shapes that will be cool.
Try for example
http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/carlson/
> Now: Architecxture: I'm going for something Hi-tech but 'Ancient' in
> appearance. Sort of 'Utopian Summerian' (Yes, I make this stuff up). I'm
> assuming the control rooms look like a Hi-Tek Ceremonial Hall -thingy.
> Again, lots of faux 'Stonework'.
Remember the ur-writer here is Wells.   There should be some reference.
The great machinery of the lifts & c would seem to be a suitable obvious
hook.  This would be a rawer environment, with less decoration
Size and shape: very basic points. the Cities are about 22 yards thick at
maximum, so no corridor or room or hall in a City should be massively high.
Could be much less.    Of course this does not apply to the Lifts & c
> Better get some runes onto things sharpish then.
I'm not mandating decotrative runes, but I do suggest them as a
"differencing agent".  Also Vorioni diagrams, Mandelbrot patterns, and so
forth -  to add strangeness
One thing about the Runes though is that they are a language.
However, in the Redoubt they are a MILITARY language - here called the
"Set-Speech".     Designed for leaving marks and  quick unambiguoius
communication by semaphore, printing, display screens, and (at one time)
scratching on rock.
When she is painting with her blood at the end, she is writing **runes** -
a quick urgent clear language of straight strokes and angles.
So, while it woild be a bit naff to have the books and everything written in
the FUTHARK, it might be fun to think of the Redoubt as having several
layers of writing - the runic set-speech, which is a brutally simple thing:
and an "elaborated" format that can basically be related to the runes as
Katakana relates to Kanji.
This might suggest that if you have signs and dirctions or public messages
in the Lift or places like that, or cybernetic messages in the Tower, or on
a compuer screen, they should be in Runic - just rip off a random sequence
of the runes - but if she is reading a book for fun it should be in some
more elaborated form?
Just a thought.