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]

"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.

[summerdude]

Okay, so the thing is, Magnus is almost positive that the balloons are in the next Sunny-height drawer over. And he's really hoping that she gets a little excited about finding them. So he rummages through another drawer, making grumbling noises when he turns up bupkis.

[biteybaby]

Sunny is, in many ways, quite an unusual two year old. This is due largely to her being what might lovingly be referred to as a "protagonist", a word which here means, "someone to whom a great many incredibly tragic circumstances have occurred", but can also mean, "a main character in a series of novels in which a great many incredibly tragic circumstances happen to a trio of unlucky orphans". She is often very mature for her age, and thanks largely to magic of varying sources, several residents of this pocket dimension have been able to understand her much more clearly than most people would be able, which does help her greatly when it comes to frustrations about not being understood.

Regardless, it is important to note that she is still, despite all evidence that might point to her being a fully grown businesswoman, just a two year old child. Furthermore, she is a two year old who very recently had an incredibly difficult and trying day, and even though her dear brother Magnu has been able to understand her speech quite clearly for as long as he has known her, she doesn't have enough words to fully articulate all of the myriad of complicated reasons she has been upset the past few days. Many people will refer to a period of time in a toddler's life that is hard to handle as being "the terrible twos", and while this typist feels that might be an unfair label to give to Sunny Baudelaire (mostly because her entire life has been terrible, so it hardly is her fault if she occasionally has a bit of a meltdown), she is starting to tear up at not finding the balloons yet.

They should have been in the first drawer, she thinks. She shouldn't have to be hunting them down. They probably aren't going to be here at all, and Magnu won't be able to show her what he and Galahad do, and she really wants to play with water balloons today, so why aren't they in the drawers she has already opened? Magnu can't find them either! It's just not fair, nothing lately has been fair, it's just like her old life and her old bad luck are back, but this time without Violet and Klaus, even though other people here get to see their family, and sometimes their family even stay, and all she got was Count Olaf!!!!

Sunny lets out a very frustrated scream and flops down on the floor and cries.

[summerdude]

Magnus immediately flops down on the floor next to her. "I'm here," he tells her. "Would it help if I asked you to show me just how loud you can scream?"

[biteybaby]

"No!" she screams.

[summerdude]

"Okay. Would it help to squeeze my hand as hard as it hurts?"

[biteybaby]

"No!" she screams louder, then just screams without saying any words at all.

[summerdude]

Magnus nods. Even though she's screaming wordlessly he can still understand her. He rolls over from where he's flopped down, tucking his body next to Sunny's and then curling up, like he's protecting her from anything and anyone. He strokes her hair back with one hand. "Can I scream with you?"

[biteybaby]

She screams again, kicking her legs at the air as she does so.

[summerdude]

Magnus doesn't mind when her legs whack his arm. Her heels are hard, but he doesn't bruise that easily. He gives the worst, quietest, most lukewarm scream known to humankind, and then makes a face. "I don't think I scream very good," he says. "Show me again how it's done?"

[biteybaby]

"Nuh uh!!!" she screams. She doesn't want to do that! She doesn't want to do much of anything right now, is the problem.

[summerdude]

Magnus screams again, a tiny bit better than before. "How was that?" he asks. "Still bad?"

[biteybaby]

"Stop it!" she hollers and continues thrashing around for another few seconds before she finally lets out one final frustrated yell and stills. She's crying, but much quieter now.

[summerdude]

Magnus waits for a long few moments, cuddling her close, wiping her face with the Baby Handkerchief he's been carrying around every day for a while now (he's learned that babies are capable of so much snot and such dirty fingers; the Baby Handkerchief is a fresh, clean one every day). When her tears start softening into hiccups, he says, "Can I tell you a secret?"

[biteybaby]

She makes a noise that is somewhere between a grumble, a groan, and an 'uh huh'.