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]

"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."

[biteybaby]

"Not as many as here."

[summerdude]

Magnus looks at her for a long, long time. "I wish they could come here, too," he says softly. He picks up a water balloon, says, "The fact that Violet and Klaus aren't here yet," and lobs it over the edge of the play structure, all without breaking the hug.

[biteybaby]

Sunny does finally break the hug, out of necessity so that she can grab a balloon for herself and throw it over the side as she says, "Don't even get visit."

[summerdude]

"Can I ask you a question?" Magnus asks, slowly and with a little trepidation. "A maybe really hard question?"

[biteybaby]

"Uh huh."

[summerdude]

"Do you think it would be worse to have Violet and Klaus visit but not be able to stay?"

[biteybaby]

Sunny thinks about this for a long while. "Some people stay. I make them stay."