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]

"Why don't we climb to the top of the structure and throw them against the ground?" Gravity will help her a lot that way.

[biteybaby]

"Oh yeah. Drop." That sounds good.

[summerdude]

"Do you want help climbing up or do you wanna do it yourself?" It is an adult-sized playground, but from their caving adventures, Magnus knows it's within Sunny's abilities to get up there, if she's feeling energized enough to try right now. Obviously he'll spot her either way.

[biteybaby]

"I climb." She pauses. "You can carry balloons?" She doesn't think she can climb up and carry any of the water balloons at the same time.

[summerdude]

"'Course. I'm Balloon Boy. I'll carry 'em whenever and wherever you want."

[biteybaby]

"Oh thanks Magnu," she says, and starts climbing up. It's not the easiest thing in the world, but then again, it is definitely not the hardest thing in the world, and it's not even the hardest thing Sunny Baudelaire has ever done, so she reaches the top in no time at all, a phrase which here means, "much less time than it took her to climb the elevator shaft with her teeth".

[summerdude]

Magnus is so stinking proud of her he could cry. Her determination... her resilience... He hates, so much, the difficulties she's faced in her young life, and he's so glad that now that Olaf is dead (and dead, and dead, and dead again), odds are she'll have much smoother sailing moving forward. He wonders if Jack is going to successfully rustle up either (or both!) of their dads. That might be nice, having the whole family here to throw water balloons with Sunny. But even if they don't show up, he's here.

There was this moment in Niflheim, back when he was freezing to death, unsure if he'd make it off the frozen sea and onto land, when it hit him just how much he actually, genuinely wanted to stop Ragnarok and save the world. He wanted Sam and Amir to get to be married; he wanted Percy and Annabeth to get to go to college; he wanted Percy's little sister to grow up and thrive. He'd wanted it for Hearthstone and Blitzen. He'd wanted it so Mallory and Halfborn could reconcile their then-current breakup. He'd wanted it so Hunding could eat more chocolate, and so Alex could make more pottery, and so TJ could mentor more new einherjar.

It's not that his own future didn't factor into his decision. He'd also consciously chosen to save the world so that he could learn to love more of the world. But his main focus had definitely been letting alive people have normal lives.

Facing down Count Olaf was kind of like facing down Sunny's Loki, and he's definitely not coming back. And there's (probably) no Ragnarok here. So the stakes are different. But Magnus knows, in this moment, hovering half a foot behind Sunny so he can catch her if he needs to, that he'd do any and everything in his considerable power to ensure Sunny grows up happily and well.

When she gets to the top, he snags the bucket of balloons and bounds up next to her. He sets the bucket to the side and pulls her into a big bear hug. "I'm really glad you're my forever sister," he mumbles into her hair. "I love you a whole lot."

Then he straightens up and hoists a balloon. "This one," he tells her with a wink, "represents Jello." Then he tosses it over the edge and lets it smash against the ground.

[biteybaby]

"Love you too Magnu," she says, then watches as he drops the balloon to the ground. Yep, Sunny thinks, that's probably what jello would do if you dropped it from up here. Gross. Absolutely gross.

She laughs a little at it.

"My turn," she says, selecting a balloon, shoving it through the metal bars of the guard rail, and letting go as she announces, "It mashed potato."

[summerdude]

"Mashed potato is also too soft for you, huh?" Magnus asks, laughing as the balloon bursts on the ground. He hefts another one. "This one is... people who like being jerks for no reason."

[biteybaby]

Mashed potatoes at least have the decency to not pretend to be a solid food, unlike jello. Regardless, Sunny still dislikes them. "This one bad dreams." She tosses another balloon down.

[summerdude]

"You know what? I think I'll throw a bad dreams balloon, too," Magnus says, yeeting it with all his strength against the mulch below. It fully vaporizes upon contact.

[biteybaby]

Sunny watches as Magnu's balloon explodes. "Wow." He's big strong. Sunny wants to try, so she takes another balloon and thinks of something really awful to blow up. "Fires," she settles on and tries her hardest to throw the balloon as hard as Magnu did. It doesn't have quite as intense of a reaction (a phrase which here means, 'it sort of just does exactly what her other one did') but she's pleased with the outcome anyway.

[summerdude]

Magnus gives her a double thumbs up. "Good throw, bug," he says, hefting another balloon. "This on is... wolves." He lobs it over the edge.

[biteybaby]

"This getting kidnap!" she says as she tosses another balloon.

[summerdude]

"This one is useless adults," tossing.

[biteybaby]

She selects her next balloon and tosses it over while quietly saying, "Olaf." She watches it splat on the ground, much like she herself would have splat on the ground had Olaf gone through with his threat to drop her from the window that time he tried to marry Violet. She rushes back to the bucket and picks up two more balloons, throwing them as hard as she can down to the ground.

[summerdude]

Magnus waits until the last balloon smashes on the ground and then opens his arms. "Want a hug before the next one?"

[biteybaby]

She nods and goes to Magnu, hugging him tightly as she starts to cry again.

[summerdude]

Magnus squeezes her as tight as he dares, sinking down so that he's kneeling, roughly Sunny-height. "He's gone," he whispers, pressing his mouth against the top of her head. "He's never gonna hurt you or Violet or Klaus or anyone else ever again."

[biteybaby]

"Gone," she repeats, nodding. "Everyone kill him." Doesn't change all of the hurt he did before that, but at least she doesn't have to worry he will hurt Violet and Klaus and Isadora and Duncan any more.

[summerdude]

"Everybody," Magnus agrees, with another squeeze. "It doesn't change what he did before, but everyone is safe from him now. He won't hurt Dad or Dad, either, or Crowley, or me, or anyone else."

[biteybaby]

"Uh huh. Violet and Klaus safe."

[summerdude]

"And Jerome and Justice Strauss are helping them, remember? So they're extra safe."

[biteybaby]

"Maybe Justice Strauss adopded them..."

[summerdude]

"Maybe! That would be nice, right? They'd have access to so many books."