Architectural Problems

"Hey guys!"

"KITTY!" The Movers exclaimed as Kitty walked in through the front door of the Imagination Warehouse.

"Welcome back! How was Brussels?"

"For the last time, Scott, I wasn't in Brussels; I was in Barcelona! This is my friend, Antonio."

"Hi, Antonio!" The Movers exclaimed, greeting the man who walked in. He looked a little confused.

"Where am I? Why have you brought me here, Kitty?" Antonio asked. "This place is much to bright for me. I must go sulk in a corner... A bright corner... Waaa!"

"Antonio is the great-great grandson of the famed Antonio Gaudi!" Kitty explained. "Smitty?"

"Well... Lets see..." Smitty opened up his notebook and flipped through a few pages. "He was an Art Nouveau architect who worked in the Barcelona area in the early 1900's until his untimely death in 1926, when he was hit by a trolly." Kitty snickered. "His most famous work, the Templo Expiatorio de la Sagrada Familia, or, the Church of the Holy Family, is still unfinished, although it is currently being worked on today." A picture of the Templo Expiatorio de la Sagrada Familia floated above their heads. (1)

"Wow. It must be great having been related to someone so famous, Antonio." Rich commented as Smitty put his notebook away.

"That's easy for you to say! Every single day, people look at me and say 'Antonio, why can you be more like your great-great grandfather and less like a lazy bum?'. I want to do great architecture just like my great-great grandfather did, but I have little inspiration!"

"That sounds to me like an..."

"IDEA EMERGENCY!" The alarm went off and the Movers started doing their "Brainstorming" song and dance.

"...Are they always like this?" Antonio whispered to Kitty.

"Um... yeah. Usually." Kitty sighed, rolling her eyes.

"......I'm scared."

"Reach high!"

"Think big!"

"Work hard!"

"Have fun!" The Movers shook themselves off from the dance and then turned to Kitty and Antonio.

"So..." Dave started. "Who has an idea?"

"Okay... So why don't you just start doodling and maybe a good idea will come to you?" Smitty proposed.

"Alright. I suppose that I could do this... Just, no more singing! Please!"

"Oh!" Dave took off his hat, reached inside and pulled out a few pieces of paper and a pen, and offered them to Antonio. Antonio took them, sat on the sofa, leaned over the coffee table and started to draw S-spirals and C-spirals and regular spirals as well as irregular spirals.

"Wow, Antonio. You really like spirals." Scott pointed out.

"Yeah. I guess I do." Antonio shrugged.

"Well, I like burritos! And burros!"

"...Scott, he doesn't need to know that." Kitty sighed, face-palming.

"Well, maybe you could design a building using a spiral shape!" Rich suggested.

"Yeah! Like a nautilus shell!" Kitty agreed, grinning and nodding.

"Hm... That's a good idea, guys." Antonio pushed the sheet of paper with his doodles on it out of the way and started to sketch a building.

After a while, Antonio said, "Guys, I just can't make this work. I've tried making it spiral on its side, but, the inner rooms would get no light and the outer most rooms would be huge in order to make the inner rooms the right size to fit into! I've tried making the spiral so the tip points right up into the sky... But that just looked like a unicorn horn. And, I think it goes without saying that there is no way I could do it the other way, because the top would be so heavy, it would never support the bottom!"

"Well, it was a nice idea, Rich." Kitty sighed, patting the drummer fondly on the shoulder.

"Oh! I know!" Scott exclaimed. Everyone looked to him. "You could design a building shaped like a giant burro!"

"............................" Everyone stared blankly at the pianist.

"WHY, SCOTT, WHY?!" Kitty finally yelled, starting to beat him round the head with a fuzzy pink bat. She chased him all around the Think Tank and they eventually ran straight out the door.

"Don't worry about them." Rich reassured Antonio. "They're always like that. Okay... So... Doodling didn't really help... how about..."

"Molding clay?" Dave asked.

"Yeah! That's it! If you can't draw a building, maybe you can sculpt one instead!" Smitty exclaimed. "Come on, to the Arts and Crafts Room!"

Warehouse Mouse was busy making a sculpture of Kitty out of cheese when they got there.

"Hey there, little buddy!" Smitty greeted his favorite mouse.

"Smitty, Smitty, Smitty!" Warehouse Mouse held up his half-finished sculpture.

"Wow! You're making a cheese sculpture of Kitty!" Smitty exclaimed. "We're here to find molding clay, to help Antonio design the perfect building that will surpass even the buildings his great-great grandfather built!"

"Squeek-squeek-squeek-squeek!"

"No, I don't think that anyone could build a building made out of cheese- mostly because if no one eats it, then the sun and air will make it go bad."

"Squeek-squeek."

"Yeah. It is rather depressing, isn't it?"

"Damned son-of-a-bitch!" Kitty yelled, kicking open the door, dragging Scott in by his ear.

"Okay, Kitty! We're here! Can you-"

"Hi guys!" Nina popped in from behind Kitty and Scott.

"NINA!" The Movers exclaimed.

"Hey." Kitty greeted the only other regular female.

"Er... What's going on, guys? I saw you chasing Scott with that fuzzy pink bat I got you for your birthday without realizing what it was for."

"...Er, right." Kitty rolled her eyes and released Scott, who tumbled to the floor. Scott righted himself and jumped up next to Smitty.

"What's going on with you guys?" Nina questioned the Movers.

"Well, this is Antonio, he's an architect." Dave introduced them. "He can't think of a great

building idea that will surpass his great-great grandfather, who was a famous Spanish architect of his time."

"Wow. That's a big legacy to live up to." Nina nodded her head.

"Well, we're helping him to think of ways that he can come up with a great building design!" Rich went on.

"I suggested a giant..."

"Don't say it!" Kitty hissed, pointing at Scott.

"A giant donkey!" Scott went on, ignoring Kitty. The concert maestro shot sparks from her eyes as she glared at the Mover.

"Well, here's some modeling clay, Antonio." Smitty exclaimed, breaking up the tension in the room. He plopped down a giant block of grey clay onto the table.

The Movers started to sing some sort of song... Maybe it was about arts and crafts, maybe it was about being creative. Nina danced along to their choreographed dance around spinning pottery wheels, but Kitty and Antonio ignored them and set to work.

After the scene was over and the next had started, Antonio had several working buildings. Kitty had made a sculpture of a donkey that was chewing Scott's head off. The Movers each had pathetic and rather lop-sided pots and Nina was just finishing up on hers.

"Wow, Antonio! These are great!" Scott exclaimed as they looked at Antonio's sculptures.

"Yeah. Great, but not fantastic, will be forever remembered through-out the years because it will have been written in every history text from the time the building is finished until the time nature takes its course and tears it down again!"

"...Here, Scott! I made you a donkey eating your head!" Kitty exclaimed, presenting Scott her sculpture.

"I'm getting this bronzed!" Scott exclaimed, crying a bit.

"Okay, so this plan didn't work." Rich sighed as they walked back to the Think Tank. "Who has another idea?"

"OH! I do!" Nina exclaimed. "How about you take bits and pieces from other peoples work that you really like and combine them..."

"That was already done before, Nina. It's called Victorian." Kitty pointed out.

"Oh." Kitty showed Nina a picture from Smitty's notebook. "Eww. Who'd put that chair... Eww! The tassels! They burn!" Kitty slapped Smitty's book shut and handed it back to him.

"Wait... I really do think that Nina is on to something, though!" Antonio exclaimed. "I mean, if used in a tasteful manor, it wouldn't look half-bad to combine things from different design areas! Actually... Now that I think about it... I've already got a great idea for a building design right now!" Antonio bent over the papers from earlier and started to sketch out a building.

They waited for a bit and finally Antonio was finished. He held up a building that looked oddly like a donkey.

"I'm going to call it... Scott's Building!" Antonio exclaimed. Scott started to bawl.

"What now, you big baby?" Kitty sighed, rolling her eyes.

"It's just so... beautiful!" Scott wailed.

"Thanks a bunch, you guys! I'm going to go see what I can do to get this building made! Catch you later, guys!"

"Well, that's another idea emergency, solved!" The Movers exclaimed, moving in for high fives, Dave missing out, as usual.

When they started singing about getting the job done, Kitty dragged Nina out to grab a cup of coffee.

1) I did have a link to direct you to the wikipedia page about the Templo Expiatorio de la Sagrada Familia... But, this site doesn't enjoy links, so... if you want to see pictures or learn more, you can just google it. (wanders off, muttering profanity about a certain fanfiction site)