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

[summerdude]

"Tell me when you're ready, and we can look together, okay? I'll lie down with you as long as you want."

[biteybaby]

In that case, she snuggles into his chest.

[summerdude]

He cuddles her close, stroking her soft, fine hair back with one hand. "I don't keep up with the calendar like Galahad," he says, "and I don't know what time it would actually be back home." Almost certainly too late; he has a birthday coming very soon! "But do you want me to talk to our dads about doing, like, a little Hanukkah celebration this winter?"

[biteybaby]

She’s quiet for a while, thinking about it. It would be fun, probably. Holidays are fun, right? But - “Don’t amember what to do,” and she’s pretty sure Apu and Far also don’t know what to do.

[summerdude]

"That's okay. We can read books about it, right? I bet there's a ton in the library. And then all four of us could talk about what traditions sound best to you." Magnus smooths her hair back again. "I mostly know about Muslim stuff, because of my valkyrie, Sam. And some christian stuff, because of Galahad. And a ton of Norse stuff, obviously. But I'd love to learn Jewish stuff with you, if that's something you'd like."

[biteybaby]

"Uh huh." She snuggles into Magnu some more. "Like first family."

[summerdude]

"Yeah. I think it's nice to honor them. And important." Magnus kisses the top of her head. "I meant what we said in the letter we sent Violet and Klaus. I wanna help make sure you always remember them."

[biteybaby]

That wouldn't be necessary if they would get kidnapped and brought here, but she's glad Magnu is wanting to help her anyway. "Thanks Magnu."

[summerdude]

Magnus gives her another squeeze. "What do you think," he says. "Ready to check one last drawer now?"

[biteybaby]

"Guess so," she says.

[summerdude]

"Okay." Magnus uncurls from around her a little. "Help me up?"

[biteybaby]

Sunny sighs and hops up, taking Magnu’s hand and yanking it so he can get up. “You old now, can’t up alone?”

[summerdude]

Magnus lays, heavy as stone, on her first tug; on her second, he leaps up, lets his hand slip from hers, does a somersault halfway across the room, and lands on one knee with his arms outstretched. "Wow!" he says. "I didn't know you were so strong!"

[biteybaby]

While normally she might laugh at this, she still isn't in good enough of a mood for that. She does smile though, and says, "You just kidding!"

[summerdude]

"Yeah, I am." Magnus, more overcome with relief at that smile than he will ever admit to anyone (except Dad, Dad, Hanguang-jun, Galahad, Uncle D, and Alex, who he plans to tell about it as soon as possible), leaps properly to his feet and swoops over to her. "I'm a very silly guy." He puts his hand on the drawer that he's 99.9% sure has the balloons. "Wanna help me open, Super Strong Girl?"

[biteybaby]

"Kay," she says and starts helping him open it.

[summerdude]

Magnus makes a big show of struggling. "I'm glad you're helping me," he says, his relief doubling as the drawer eases open to reveal balloons. "I don't know if I could manage it on my own! And what's that...? Could it be? A successful quest?"

[biteybaby]

"No!" she says, ignoring the balloons for the time being. "You not going on questeses any more! Apu said!"

[summerdude]

Luckily, Dad has apprised Magnus of the outcome of his conversation with Apollo, and both he and Sunny have separately told Magnus about his conversation with Sunny about the conversation with Apollo. He pulls Sunny into a hug. "I'm not talking about a bad god quest," he assures her. "I'm talking about a Super Special Sibling Quest. Those are the good kind. They're like the quests where me and Galahad explore the basement. Nobody gets hurt and the only objective and the only possible outcome is fun. I promise."

[biteybaby]

"That not quest that just hang out," she says.

[summerdude]

"I like calling hang outs quests," Magnus tells her. "It means I have more good quest experiences, and it makes everything feel exciting. But if you don't like that we can pick a different word."

[biteybaby]

Oh. Hmm. She does want Magnu to have more good experiences, but at the same time it can be confusing when one word has two very different meanings. Then again, there are a lot of words like that, like 'seal' and 'seal', and 'band' and 'band', and 'ruler' and 'ruler', and 'leaves' and 'leaves', and 'chest' and 'chest', and 'stand' and 'stand', and 'degree' and 'degree', and she hasn't had to change any of those words at all and still managed to get by this far. "It okay you say questeses," she settles on.

[summerdude]

Magnus plants a big old kiss on the top of her head next to her ponytail. "Ready to start Part Two of our Water Balloon Quest? It involves filling them alllll up with water so we can throw them."

[biteybaby]

That does sound like fun. "Okay. Need help though." She has never put water inside a balloon!

[summerdude]

"Of course I'll help. I'll show you how to do it, and then you can fill and I can tie, how does that sound?" Magnus takes a double handful of balloons and shoves them in his pockets. "Wanna ride my shoulders to the bathroom? Wait, do you need anything first?"