Closed: The World is Quiet Here.

[biteybaby]

Nightmares are nothing new for Sunny Baudelaire. There was a time when she had them somewhat infrequently, before her birth parents tragically perished in a sudden house fire that may or may not have been started by an individual who may or may not have recently died any number of painful deaths, though research into the exact specifics of those events is still ongoing. After previously mentioned arson, Sunny Baudelaire experienced a period of very frequent nightmares, followed by a few months where her nightmares were lessening, a word which here means "became less frequent, though did still happen from time to time".

Unfortunately, she has been having very intense nightmares every time she has fallen asleep in recent days, and in general her waking hours have been less than ideal as well. Recently it seems like everyone but her got to be reunited with their loved ones from home, but all Sunny got was --

She wakes up, multiple times during the night, screaming at the viciously frightening dreams her subconscious has decided to inflict on her. Count Olaf, dead, getting up though and continuing to menace her. Count Olaf kidnapping her and taking her back home, away from her daddies and her brother and everyone else, and keeping her in another birdcage. Count Olaf killing Violet and Klaus in all of the many several ways many several people killed him. Magnu's mommy, who by all accounts was a very lovely person in real life, but in Sunny's dreams she's mean and horrible and laughs at her because her mommy didn't get to come here, even though they're both equally dead and therefore equally as likely to show up.

Sunny is very glad that every time she wakes up crying her daddies are there to hug her and calm her down enough to go back to sleep. She is also very glad that she is still wearing her bedtime pull ups every night. Most of all though, she is glad that Count Olaf is definitely incredibly dead, and even though she can't be with Violet and Klaus, she knows they won't be harmed by him any more. She just wishes the nightmares about the whole situation would stop.

This morning she wakes up screaming from a nightmare at almost the same time she gets up normally, and so she decides to just stay awake. She has big plans to go get groceries with Magnu anyway, and after a bit of a touch and go start to her day, she's finally dressed and out the door with Magnu.

Comments

[biteybaby]

She is all too eager to wrap herself up in a big Magnu hug. "Both. Olaf kill Violet and Klaus. He can't really though, he perished. Just bad dream." She purposefully does not tell Magnu about the bad dream she had involving his mama.

[summerdude]

"Not real, but still really bad, huh," Magnus surmises, giving her a gentle squeeze which, to her tiny toddler-sized-eggplant-sized-toddler body, probably feels like a big bear hug.

[biteybaby]

Magnu gives the best hugs. Right up there with the best hugs she also gets from Far and Apu. "Make me cry even though not real," she explains.

[summerdude]

Magnus strokes her hair. "I cry about dreams that aren't real sometimes, too."

[biteybaby]

"It not fair," she says, although it is unclear if she means it is unfair that dreams can be scary even when they aren't real, or if it's not fair that she had to go through terrible circumstances a few days ago that has caused her to have scary dreams.

[summerdude]

Right, that's it. Magnus sits fully on the ground and pats his lap in case Sunny wants to sit there and chat. "No, bug. It really isn't."

[biteybaby]

Sunny climbs into his lap and lays her head over on his chest. "Nothing fair, I only get bad things," she says, pouting. This statement isn't, exactly, true. While it is a fact that more terrible things have happened to Sunny Baudelaire in her two years of life than have happened to many fully grown adults, her life isn't only bad things. She has been adopded by two very loving daddies and one very loving big brother. She has so many incredibly overpowered loved ones who believe her and are willing to do whatever they need to in order to keep her safe. But right now all of the bad things seem to greatly eclipse the good things, a phrase which here means, "all of the bad things add up to a much greater amount than the good things, in such a way that it feels like the good things are getting crushed and hidden and suffocated, much like how Sunny's bad dreams make her feel like she has been crushed and is suffocating, and wants to hide".

Everyone else got visitors they were excited to see. People they love, people who are their friends or mommies. Sunny got someone who tried to kidnap her and take her away from her loving daddies and brother. She could have gotten Violet or Klaus. She could have gotten her mommy, or her first daddy. She could have gotten Uncle Monty, or the Incredibly Deadly Viper, or one of the Quagmire triplets, or Justice Strauss, or even Jerome.

It's not fair, and she's frankly entirely too tired to try to pretend otherwise.

[summerdude]

"I know, bug." Magnus hugs her close, stroking her hair slowly for a moment or two before switching to rubbing her back. "I know it's really unfair that I got my mom and Dad got his sister and Dad got Dindin." Does Magnus realize that's not his name? It doesn't matter; it's definitely his real name now! "And you got someone really, really scary. I know that getting a letter to Violet and Klaus is good but not nearly the same thing as seeing them again. I wish I could take you into my now-dreams with me."

He doesn't, actually. He's pretty sure that seeing Violet and Klaus -- and knowing they can't see her in return -- would be really, really sad for Sunny.

[biteybaby]

"If haves magic too I see Violet and Klaus," she says, but she knows she can't have magic like Magnu. She's not a dead-alive person. Magnu is a dead-alive person so he has magic for that. It's another thing that isn't fair.

[summerdude]

"I know." Magnus kisses the top of her head, thinking hard. "You wanna do what me and Galahad do when we're smurt? --That means sad, mad, and hurt."

[biteybaby]

Sunny thinks that sounds like a very useful word. She nods. "I smurt. What you and Galad do?"

[summerdude]

"We go get something that we can throw at rocks or a wall and watch it break and we yell what's making us smurt as we throw it. Like ice, or--" what's safe for someone Sunny's age? "water balloons."

[biteybaby]

She is quiet for a while, considering this. "Sound fun. Water balloon better than ice." Ice might make her hands cold.

[summerdude]

"Great." Magnus gives her another little squeeze. "We can sit here as long as you want, okay? And then we can go find some water balloons to mess up."

[biteybaby]

"I ready to go," she says. She does want to see how much balloons help. Sunny doesn't enjoy feeling awful and having bad dreams.

[summerdude]

"Piggy back ride, carry, or walk?"

[biteybaby]

"...Carry."

[summerdude]

"You got it, boss." Magnus rises easily from his cross-legged position, cradling Sunny to his side as he goes. Once he's vertical again, he settles her on his hip, wraps an arm around her like a hug, and kisses the top of her head. Then he makes his way inside and heads straight to the game room -- he remembers there being a drawer of balloons in there somewhere.

[biteybaby]

Sunny is only halfway paying attention as they travel. Though she isn't as tired as she usually was when she was working as a secretary, she is still very tired. She also feels a little bad for her daddies, because if she's this tired they have to also be just as tired, since waking up screaming from a nightmare has also been waking them up. Since they are so old they probably need more sleep than she does.

Because she is only halfway paying attention, she doesn't realize they're going to the game room until they're already inside it. "Didn't know water balloons here."

[summerdude]

Magnus can't help it; he gives her a tight little squeeze. "I'm pretty sure most toys are in here. Wanna help me look through the drawers to find some?"

[biteybaby]

"Okay, I help," she says flatly, a word which here means, "without sounding very excited about any of it, despite normally jumping at the opportunity to find and destroy water balloons".

[summerdude]

"You're a very good helper," Magnus tells her. He kisses the top of her head and then crouches down so that she can climb off his hip. "How about I look at all the ones that are my height and you look at all the ones that are your height?"

[biteybaby]

"Okay." She climbs off of Magnu and walks over to the nearest Sunny-height drawer. She opens it, stares at the contents for a moment, then closes the drawer.

[summerdude]

Magnus watches her for a moment, aching. He wishes there was something, anything he could do -- something specific, something helpful, something that would definitely make her feel better. But he's pretty sure there's nothing -- nothing except time. It sucks.

He starts rummaging through a drawer above the one she looked through, keeping an eye on her.

[biteybaby]

She moves to the next drawer and does the same. No balloons here, either.