Re: Silence Is Golden.

**Audi** Fri Mar 23, 2012 10:05 am

When she saw that the man had joined her, she nodded energetically and gave him a wide smile. She gestured to him to keep working, then stepped back and tilted her head, looking at the floor critically. A fortress would need to have more than one wall, surely. Shooting him an amused glance, Audi approached the pile, took a few books and started placing them in a line perpendicular to the one already there, creating a right corner.

This could just be better than reading, she figured, and giggled a bit at the thought. The pile of prepared books quickly grew smaller as the 'blocks' found their places, and she padded to the bookshelf to get some more. It was beginning to look a bit empty with only the thin, useless tomes left in it...

**Aesis - DISCONTINUED** Fri Mar 23, 2012 8:50 pm

Aesis kept laying books, finding it fun at first, but then finding it quite boring, and exhausting.
He hadn't noticed it before, but Audi's smile wasn't what he'd expected from a rat...quite gentle in comparison to his imagination, frankly.

Watching as Audi continued on with the second wall, he would've also helped her with that, if not for the lack of books to use...

He glanced back at the shelf Audi was looking at. If it wasn't that heavy they could use it as a wall...

**Audi** Fri Mar 23, 2012 9:23 pm

As much as she was excited by the prospect of a castle of paper-bound knowledge to rule over with her new friend, this was quite tedious. She didn't mind it, though, boring labor was what she had done for most of her life. If Audi knew one thing, it was how to suck it up and keep working.

Yeah, the shelf was almost emptied. Luckily, it wasn't nearly the only one in the library. Audi trotted over lightly to the next one over and gathered an armful of brick-books, then walked back slowly, encumbered. She glanced at the man curiously. He seemed like he had an idea of some sort. After dropping her load by the half-built structure, she stood next to Aesis and looked up to him wide eyed in a clearly questioning look.

**Aesis - DISCONTINUED** Sat Mar 24, 2012 6:36 pm

The only thing that kept Aesis working was the fact that Audi, who seemed much smaller and weaker than he was, could keep working. He tested the shelf by pushing it a bit. It didn't seem very heavy. As he pulled it a little closer to their structure, a couple of the smaller, flimsy tomes fell out. He put the bookshelf down. It seemed more wobbly compared to last time, due to the weight of the tomes not holding it down. Not wanting him to accidentally slip-up on one of the minor tomes, he bent over to pick them up. He had no idea what to do with the tomes, and turned around to glance at the bookshelf slightly leaning over towards him.

**Audi** Sat Mar 24, 2012 7:42 pm

Shifting the shelf...? She watched his actions with surprise, blinked, then uttered a happy squeak. Great idea! It would make their fortress come to be that much faster. Quickly she sprinted to fetch a few books and laid them down around the shelf to support it and make it stable. Well, that's one wall done! The other three totally had to be made out of books.
The two sides already there reached up to about Audi's chest. She walked along one of the walls, brushing her palm over the top of it contently. It probably wasn't enough for Aesis to hide behind unless he bent down really low, though. Ah well.
Adopting a kind of a commanding air, Audi pulled back her shoulders, pointed to the thin books in the man's hold, then to the floor inside of the castle.
"Floor." she said, hoping he would understand. She herself then started working on the third wall with the contents of the next bookshelf over.

**Aesis - DISCONTINUED** Sun Mar 25, 2012 2:24 pm

Aesis nodded at Audi in response, and spread the thin tomes out on the floor. Although thin, they all seemed to be different sizes, so the 'floor' looked quite uneven. He glanced at her, fishing books from another shelf.

He did the same. After continuing to lay out books for some minutes, he paused, standing up straight to look at their structure. It looked quite...Aesis couldn't find the words to describe it. It was 'majestic' in its own way. It smelled like books, of course. He glanced at Audi. She was short-- tiny, compared to his height. He wondered if she wanted to see the structure for herself, too.

**Audi** Sun Mar 25, 2012 5:09 pm

Well, that was some work. Audi wiped the back of her hand against her forehead. Ratpeople did not sweat, but she had seen her old master repeat that motion whenever he was tired, so she believed it to be a gesture of exhaustion.

She took a good few steps back and raised her hands up to her face to frame the fortress with her fingers. It looked... magnificent. But something was amiss. She squinted. Oooh... Of course. A castle needed battlements.

She grabbed a few more books off the bookshelf and started placing them on top of the walls in twos, putting breaks between them instead of laying them down like bricks.

After that was done, she looked to Aesis with a content smile. "Done." she said, outstretching a hand towards him. "Aesis."

**Aesis - DISCONTINUED** Sun Mar 25, 2012 5:44 pm

Seeing her gesture over her forehead, she must've been tired. Although, as she kept working, she didn't seem tired. By the time she stopped, Aesis assumed they must be finished. He grinned happily, and hoisted Audi atop his shoulders so she could see the structure from another perspective.

A thought then hit them -- Would they have to take it all down? The thought made him hesitate. Better yet, leave it here for others to gawk at it. Someone else could clean up their mess, too. He snickered.

**Audi** Mon Mar 26, 2012 12:28 pm

When he reached to pick her up, she was sufficiently surprised to not react. Kicking her legs a little as her feet were lifted off the ground, she considered struggling, but in the end just went rather limp and allowed him to hoist her up. She let out a small 'oof' sound as she was seated on his shoulders, shook her head, then looked to their book fortress. The sight was definitely less impressive from this bird's eye view and she pouted, her tail trailing down the man's back flicking in disappointment. If that's how humans saw everything, she was fine looking from down below.

Her attention was briefly brought to the green hair and she ran her fingers through it, feeling the texture. Immediately after, though, she decided to make the most of this new perspective and started looking around in an almost frantic manner, taking in as much as she could of the library seen from high up.
"Cool."

**Aesis - DISCONTINUED** Mon Mar 26, 2012 9:51 pm

He smiled at the sound Audi made, after adjusting herself to his shoulders. He somewhat shuddered at her touch at his hair, since he wasn't expecting it. The words Audi uttered filled Aesis with a bit of satisfaction. He then set Audi back down on the ground. He sighed, not in disgust, but contently as their structure was finished.

The book-fort seemed too great to bring it down. He stared at it, awestruck.

Looking back down at Audi, Aesis smiled, this time more heartwarming, as he had made a new friend. He held out his hand to her in response. He thought it was about time for them to take their leave, before some adult caught what they had done.

**Audi** Tue Mar 27, 2012 9:06 am

As nice as the view was, Audi was glad to be back on her own feet. It felt weird to be picked up like that. She hadn't been lifted by anybody since she was a pup. Still, she glanced up to the man and returned his smile. Something in the way he stood made it seem like he wanted to leave and she blew up her cheeks and shook her head. There was no way she would go without seeing the fortress from the inside!
Eagerly she grabbed the offered hand and tugged Aesis along to approach the construction, then stopped right next to it and stared blankly. Ah... They didn't leave an entrance. She let go of his hand and pranced over to the shelf-wall, then climbed it without hesitation. It teetered slightly under her weight, but stayed put due to the books she stabilized it with earlier. When she reached the top, she jumped down into the castle, likely disappearing from Aesis' view, obscured by the wall of books. Soon though her head popped out in between the battlements and she smiled, looking around. She had to stand up as tall as she could to see above the wall. They really had done a great job building this.
Maybe he was right about leaving, though. Once it was constructed, well, there was nothing much more to be done with it.

**Aesis - DISCONTINUED** Sun Apr 01, 2012 2:02 am

He beamed at the completion of the fortress. It deemed itself an achievement, it seemed. He peered over the walls, that towered a little bit above half his height. He beamed down at Audi, smiling from the battlements. However, the inside of the castle didn't seem as much as interesting, since it was only books. Other than, pretending to play inside a fortress, of course. Although, Aesis had no time for such petty games. Suddenly remembering why he'd came to the library in the first place--or, what he was doing in the first place, considering he had no reason to come, he picked out a book from the top of one of the walls. Flipping and skimming through the pages, it was mostly words. He replaced it and grabbed another book, this time with pictures, of buildings such as their fortress, only made with...stones and rocks, rather than books. He sat down against the fortress' outside, and began to flip through the pages again. Audi wasn't with him to point and aspire the pictures with him, but he still enjoyed the book. The smell seemed quite tiring, though.

**Audi** Wed Apr 04, 2012 6:29 pm

Swishing her tail contently when he approached, she wondered what to do next. She looked away from him and glanced around the inside of the fortress. Maybe furniture? The movement of Aesis picking up a book caught her attention, though, and she blew up her cheeks in a huff. Was he going to take it apart already, before they'd done anything with it, or before anybody else has seen it? She watched him flip though it, slowly exhaling the air. Oh, he was just going to read again. She shrugged lightly and took a step back.

Audi sat down on the floor and picked up one of the albums that made it up. She flicked through the pages, not really looking at them. Pictures, pictures... They weren't as fun without him, it seemed. She got up abruptly and approached the wall again to look over it, trying to peer into the book he was holding. The wall was too tall, she couldn't see, but maybe if she leaned over it like this--

The construction crumbled into a paper avalanche right over Aesis' head with a perplexed Audi riding on top of the wave of books.

**Aesis - DISCONTINUED** Wed Apr 04, 2012 8:14 pm

Hearing the pitter-patter of Audi's feet against the legible floor of the fortress perked Aesis' ear up a little bit.
He continued to read the books...Although, her footsteps stopped. Perhaps she sat down to read too, he thought.

He had only flipped to the next page, before a plummeting disorderly array of books fell upon him. The books themselves were not very heavy, but in a mass...were. That alone, wasn't accounting the additional weight of the book-surfing-ratperson.

There was a simple conclusion though: It hurt to be under a ton of books.

'Not to mention the number of paper cuts I'd soon discover.' Aesis thought.

He groaned in discomfort. He didn't dare move, since Audi might tumble off, along with books that could tumble, on her.

**Audi** Thu Apr 05, 2012 12:34 pm

Okay... having walls crumble around her did not bring up pleasant memories. She was shivering slightly, squeezing her eyes tightly shut, trying her best not to bolt. She wasn't going to run this time. She wasn't going to leave everybody behind. She-

"No!"
Audi took a deep breath and started frantically pushing the books off Aesis, grabbing them and recklessly throwing them behind. Well, he made sounds, so he had to be okay... Right? Right? It was just books, not rocks, he had to be okay. Only after a while did she realize that she was sitting on top of him as well and she promptly slid off and continued digging up the poor man.

When she removed enough tomes, she jumped over to his head and leaned down to peer into his face worriedly.
"Okay?!"

**Aesis - DISCONTINUED** Thu Apr 05, 2012 11:08 pm

'The Aesis' was in pain, panting, and was exhausted. He felt the weight lighten a little bit at a time, then a whole load was off his back. Audi said something pretty loudly, but he couldn't make it out.

He looked up at her, grinning, to ensure that she shouldn't worry. After all, it was a bunch of books. Problem was, there was many that remained. He somewhat nodded his head in the direction of his hands, so if Audi freed them, he could help her dig himself out of the mass of books.

In a way, it was nice to him that someone was to worry about him. That didn't happen much at home. Neither did that happen much since he came to the Academy either.

**Audi** Fri Apr 06, 2012 6:27 pm

Audi exhaled a loud sigh. Okay, he was okay. The tension in her shoulders loosened and she chuckled with relief. She looked to the direction he nodded to and moved over there to continue digging him up. Soon enough, his arms were free. With a bit of an impatient huff, Audi pushed off the rest of the books off his upper back, freeing his torso as well. All that remained buried was his lower half, and he could do that more easily on his own.

The ratgirl took a step back and rubbed her face in her palms tiredly. She just had experienced enough of the library to last a while...

**Aesis - DISCONTINUED** Fri Apr 06, 2012 8:06 pm

Aesis moved away the remainder of the books, most of which were medium-sized tones that made up the fortress walls.

'Ah...the wall..' He thought.

He glanced in the direction of the collapsed wall. Standing up now, he began to pick up some of the tomes, replacing them back into the wall. Although it fell onto him, it was a part of his and Audi's creation, so in his mind, was only right to make it like it was. He glanced at the books in his arms.

One of them was the book he was reading, before the accident.

He cautiously placed it on a nearby table, watching to make sure none of the tomes in his arms would fall out.

**Audi** Sat Apr 07, 2012 5:36 pm

She tilted her head as she watched Aesis' actions. Was he... going to rebuild the fortress? Audi stared blankly for a moment, then shook her head. No, there was no point to it. Once it has fallen, there was no saving it. They'd have to find something else...
She sighed then approached him to put a hand on his wrist. "Stop." she said, looking up to him. Her gaze slid down to the mess on the floor and she couldn't help but chuckle at the prospect of somebody else having to clean it up. Grabbing the book he had put aside on the table, she took a few steps towards the stairs then beckoned to the man. Even if they didn't leave the library yet, they'd better move to another floor... so that if somebody comes along and finds the pile of books and a tripped shelf, they won't be so obviously the culprits. Audi laughed again. For some reason it felt good to be so...rebellious.

**Aesis - DISCONTINUED** Sat Apr 07, 2012 10:37 pm

He stared at her blankly. the fortress was their masterpiece, after all. Why leave a part of the wall collapsed?

Watching her following actions, he surrendered. Perhaps she just wanted to read somewhere else. With all the ruckus from the falling wall, there was bound to be a third party coming..possibly. He somewhat tossed the remaining tomes into the fortress, making care they didn't knock over any more sides. Then, he followed Audi to the stairs, wondering which of the many rooms in this maze-like castle, which was a school at the same time, that they would end up in.

((Do you want to continue this in another thread, or? :O))

**Audi** Thu Apr 19, 2012 5:30 pm

With an ear-to-ear yawn came a change of her mind. It was pretty late, or at least so her internal clock told her. She never slept for long, preferring doing it in short intervals, but it was time to catch one of the longer naps. After grabbing a few snacks from the kitchen, of course. And so, when Aesis joined her, she shoved the book into his hand then spread her arms to embrace him, pushing her face into his stomach.
"Aesis." she said. "Later."

With that, she let go of him and bounced backwards, gave him one last smile then scurried out of the library.

**Aesis - DISCONTINUED** Mon Apr 23, 2012 1:19 am

Aesis stood, stunned at the sudden heartwarming embrace Audi had given him. He smiled warmly, happy to have made another friend.

He too, decided to leave, but waited a bit so Audi wouldn't have suspicions of him following her. He left the library a minute or so afterwards, still smiling. He sighed contently, clutching the book within his arms.

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