A portcullis raised once and properly held stays exactly where it was set, season after season. A character kept on a portcullis card is kept the opposite way to how most studios keep her. Redescribed at every sitting, she is reprinted by mood each time — a hairstyle rewritten, a signature detail edited out — and by the ninth frame the arch frames two similar women instead of one. Written once and kept by the arch, the card is the one description that never slips.
The card holds five lines in fixed order. Age — a plain number, and here a mature one. Hair — colour, length and one habitual style. Build — two or three words, no more. Face — one or two details that endure every crop. Signature — the detail that survives even a tight frame. Everything else belongs to the day’s line below the card: outfit, corner, hour, light — set fresh at every sitting, never confused with the card itself.
The routine is plain. Paste the card, word for word, at the head of every prompt. Generate at the standard cost of 6 credits, keep the best third, and spend on repairs, swaps and upscales only after judging — judged against the card by the arch, not against yesterday’s frame, which may itself have drifted.
The gate is raised once so the card never has to be re-raised. Set hers once, in writing, and every new frame comes off the same woman.