Yield to the Write of Way: Mobius, Inc.

*disclaimer: this is a rant from my imagination, though I'm curious to hear how other people imagined Mobius. Please let me know by leaving a comment below*

Mobius, Inc. is the name of the company who recruits Alex, the protagonist in Force. When I thought up the building itself, I wanted it to be unique and mysterious.

I thought for a long time about what to name the company, and I toyed with various words like Infinity and Myth Inc. None seemed to fit the "mysterious" factor. I didn't want too much to be given away by the name. At the same time, I wanted a metaphor that would suit the company's founder (who I will get into in a later post).

I finally came up with the name of Mobius right around the time I had to physically write the company's name down. I typed it without realizing it, and when I read it back, it worked.

I also started thinking about what sort of logo this company would have, and I immediately remembered a piece of art I saw while living in Kelowna. Actually, this is one of my favorite pieces of modern art I've ever seen.

The sculpture is outside the Kelowna library, and is decorated with characters from all sorts of languages - quite fitting for the locale, in my opinion.

Anyway, this was the source of my inspiration for Mobius' outside sculpture, however, i modified it slightly. Instead of having it covered in letters, i had it covered in quotes. I wanted this in order to help convey Alex's overall clumsiness, as well as her thirst for knowledge. She is particularly attracted to the Douglas Adams' quote "The art of falling is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss," as it reminded her of how often she trips on things. (On another note, I had originally thought I might have her learn to fly, and the quote might come into play again, but I'm nearly finished the sequel and still haven't found this necessary for the story.

Once I established the bronze infinity symbol, the rest of the building fell into place in my mind. It would be circular, and modern. Inside the floors would wrap around the outer walls, creating a large open space inside, where I decided would hang the fossilized "dinosaur" skeleton down the center (again, more on that in a future post).

I wrote all about the building, and even kept more details in my head without knowing i had seen a similar building before. I went to see The International when it was in theaters, and the big shootout takes place in the Guggenheim. When i saw the Guggenheim, I knew this was Mobius, or at least a fair approximation of it. The funny part was, I had already finished Force and was well into the second book before I noticed the similarity. Mobius is taller and thinner, and the exterior has way more windows, but the interior is essentially the same. The only big difference is that Mobius has a glass elevator, around where the "bulb" part sticks out in the Guggenheim. I've included two pictures below, one of the interior of the Guggenheim, and one of a different building which is more like the exterior.