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]

"Yes please." She's worried she might spill it if she tries to screw the lid on. What she doesn't realize is that most people would spill this cup while screwing the lid on at this point, because she has filled it up to the absolute top (and then some), and there is currently no room for the lid's valve to go.

[summerdude]

"You wanna take a big sip while it's still on the counter for me first?"

[biteybaby]

"Okay." She shifts to be mostly laying down on her tummy, propped up juuuust enough to lean over and take a big slurp from the cup. "...I drink like Szari."

[summerdude]

"You are! Can you give me your best dog sounds?" Magnus asks. The cup is now empty enough that he can screw the lid on, which he does gingerly. Then he immediately whisks it to the sink to rinse off the sticky exterior. He wets a cloth, too, to wipe down the countertop when he returns the cup to Sunny.

[biteybaby]

“Ar ar,” she says, a little lackluster. “Lackluster” is a phrase which here means “definitely not her best dog sounds, as she still isn’t really feeling up to it at the moment”.

[summerdude]

Magnus still gives her an enthusiastic double thumbs up. "Okay, puppy," he says. "Ready to try filling up some balloons?"

[biteybaby]

Sunny just nods and sticks the sippy cup in her mouth.

[summerdude]

"Okay. So I'm gonna need your help with this." Magnus nudges Sunny closer to the sink. "Do you think you can help put the ends of the balloons over the sink faucet?" He demonstrates what that looks like.

[biteybaby]

She tries with one hand, her other hand holding the sippy cup in place in her mouth. It does not go very well.

[summerdude]

"Okay..." Magnus fixes the edge of the balloon. "Let's see if turning the water on slowly and carefully is an easier job for you, okay?" He grips the balloon's neck very, very carefully, holding it tightly against the faucet.

[biteybaby]

She does a much better job at turning the water on slowly and carefully.

[summerdude]

Magnus waits till the balloon is bulging, but not so long that it risks popping on their walk down to the playground, then says, "Okay! Off!"

[biteybaby]

She very very quickly turns off the water!

[summerdude]

Magnus eases the balloon from the tip of the faucet verrrrrry carefully, and then verrrry carefully ties a knot in the end, and then verrrrrry carefully puts it in the bucket, and then holds up his hand for a high five. "Good work, team," he says. "Wanna try to fit the next one on?"

[biteybaby]

Sunny wants to drink her juice.

[summerdude]

"No?" Magnus gives her a smile. "I'd like you to have a job helping if you're okay with that, but you can pick which job to have, okay?"

[biteybaby]

She takes the sippy cup out of her mouth long enough to say, "Water."

[summerdude]

"You got it, boss." Magnus fits another balloon over the sink faucet. "Ready when you are!"

[biteybaby]

She turns the water on slowly and carefully again.

[summerdude]

And like that, working carefully together, they soon have a bucket brimming with water balloons. Magnus hefts it -- it's easily twice as heavy as Sunny. "I think that's enough," he decides, showing her the assortment. "What do you say? Wanna go throw them at things?"

[biteybaby]

She nods. "Uh huh. Make mess."

[summerdude]

"Let's make the biggest mess," says Magnus, who chose the playground room downstairs specifically because he's never seen an animal in there who might get hurt if he misses a scrap of balloon on the clean-up.

[biteybaby]

"Gonna splash me," she points out. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, and the good news is either way it won't be hard to find clothes that she can change into, given the simple fact that the mansion is magical and can make anything you want as long as what you want isn't your older sister and brother who might not need to worry about treacherous Counts anymore, but they are still incredibly missed either way.

[summerdude]

"Not necessarily," says Magnus thoughtfully, but if Sunny wants to be splashed he'll do everything in his power to make her happy. "But maybe we can grab some towels on the way just in case? I'm gonna carry the bucket because it's very, very heavy, but you can help with the towels if you like."

[biteybaby]

"No, it fine." She doesn't feel like looking for towels right now, she wants to go throw the balloons.