Open: Well young lady, have you been good to your mother?

[biteybaby]

Sunny Baudelaire has been having quite an exciting time lately. For once, "exciting" means "filled with fun" and not "filled with terror, pain, panic, and an inordinate amount of running and hiding". Without the threat of Count Olaf and his associates finding her in an attempt to steal the Baudelaire fortune, Sunny has had more time for her studies. "Her studies" is a phrase which here means, "catching up on learning how to do things most people take for granted".

She has finally learned how to walk. She thinks the amount of words she is now able to say has increased. Magnu has even taught her a few things in sign language, which she finds is a little easier than speaking. The biggest news is that she now has five very sharp teeth, as opposed to the four she started with when she arrived.

Shortly before she arrived, Mr Poe had told the Baudelaires about an aphorism: It takes a village to raise a child. She wonders if that is why she has had so much time to grow. Her days are spent rotating around between several different guardians, babysitters, and friends, and it has been lovely. She hopes her siblings are having just as good of a time in the village of V.F.D.

Unfortunately I must report that her siblings are not having just as good of a time in the village of V.F.D., nor are they even still in the village of V.F.D. Sunny does not know this. It would probably be for the best if nobody tells her.

Comments

[summerdude]

"On the count of three, okay?" Magnus says, quickly signing to Galahad, too much? Sorry. She's tiny I thought it'd be fine. Need anything? and then slowly saying "One... Two... Two and a half... Two and three quarters..."

[onthewillowsthere]

It's okay, he signs back, equally quick. I will drink after she sees. He's winded, but it will be worth it if the surprise delights her.

[biteybaby]

Sunny cannot count very high, but she does know how to count to at least three. There are three Baudelaire orphans. She is one of them. There are two Quagmire triplets, but there used to be three. She is not one of them. Sunny might be a very patient young lady, but she is still roughly 20 or so months old, so her patience only extends so far.

"Three!" she finally shouts, and uncovers her eyes. She gasps as she looks around. "Wow!" she says, which here means, "Wow!"

[summerdude]

Magnus grins. He doesn't ruffle Sunny's hair even though he kind of wants to, because he doesn't want to upset the dragonflies, and instead opens his backpack and tosses Galahad a juice box. "You like?" he asks Sunny. "How many bugs do you see?"

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad takes it gratefully. He finds the strong taste of apple juice mildly unpleasant, but right now, when he's so thirsty, it's completely acceptable. He's watching Sunny closely, and when she gasps he smiles -- without actually smiling, but he's very pleased.

[biteybaby]

Sunny tries to count the bugs she can see, but she loses track quickly, and instead just holds up a number of her fingers.

[summerdude]

"Yeah, definitely at least eight," Magnus says, grinning as a dragonfly alights on his nose.

[onthewillowsthere]

"There are four or five genera," Galahad tells her, in his serious way. "At least. Those are different kinds. They shouldn't all be here together, so I think this place is like the mansion."

[biteybaby]

Sunny smiles at Galahad. He's reminding her of Klaus again. She thinks that whenever Klaus shows up she should introduce them, as they will likely get along very well. "Klaus ekajorlaj friend," she says, which here means, "Whenever my brother Klaus shows up I'm going to introduce you two, I think you will likely get along very well". She then looks at Magnu expectantly, hoping he will translate. She would have signed it herself, but she doesn't know all of those words just yet.

[summerdude]

Magnus translates it word for word, signing each word as he does. Then he adds, "Klaus likes to read a lot and know a lot of things," as clarification.

[onthewillowsthere]

"I would like to meet him. I have liked meeting new people here."

[biteybaby]

"Me too!" she says, which here means, "Me too!"

[summerdude]

"Sunny has great opinions about the people here," Magnus informs Galahad. "She keeps me updated." To Sunny, he adds, "Galahad likes to keep Claudius updated on people here, too^*."

*Obviously he knows this happens because he's the secondary beneficiary in many (but not all) circumstances... but does he really grasp the whole scope of it? Who can say!

[onthewillowsthere]

"What do you know?" Galahad asks. This is actually very important -- anything she knows about people is valuable information that Claudius might not already have.

[biteybaby]

"Who?" she asks, meaning, "About who, specifically?" She knows a lot of things, she isn't sure where to start.

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad considers. "What do you know about Grantaire?"

[biteybaby]

Because this thread is happening further down the page, we can deduce she has already met Grantaire and had her entire adventure with him, so she is, of course, a resident expert on Dr Grantaire now. "Helper," she begins, signing help at the same time. She thinks real hard about words, and says, "Aire..." she can't remember how to say 'said', so she instead just pitches her voice down for this next part. "no helper." She then signs fake! big help!

She sighs and turns to Magnu to ask, "Quashalope?" This is a word which here means, "Did that make sense? I was trying. Will you tell him about the room with the bouncy house and the big slide?" She surely has made a point to tell Magnu about that by now.

[summerdude]

"You did a great job explaining," Magnus assures Sunny, carefully flicking a dragonfly away when it tries to land what he thinks might be too close to her eyes. Then he turns to Galahad.

"They found a room," he explains, faithfully. "Kind of like the playground, but everything is made out of inflatables... they're, like, structures full of air that you can bounce on like a trampoline. Actually, Sunny, you should show us where that is sometime. Maybe after you're done studying all the bugs here? Anyway, Grantaire did a great job helping her climb and slide and get snacks and stuff."

[onthewillowsthere]

Claudius will absolutely like knowing that Grantaire is good with babies. "Thank you," he says. "Crowley and Aziraphale?"

[biteybaby]

Sunny grins and goes on a long rant about how much fun Crowley is, and how he can understand her like Magnu can, and he's sometimes a snake, which is clearly the best animal, and how he likes to kidnap her, but it's just play kidnap and not real kidnap, and they go look at plants and he tells her their names and all about which ones are doing a bad job at being plants and which ones are the gossipiest and which ones she should yell, 'raaaa!' to, and then she remembers that Galahad doesn't know how to understand her when she's talking so she stops and signs fun, nice, love, snake.

Because he also asked about Aziraphale, she adds, "Zirfale nice!"

[summerdude]

Luckily for all parties involved, Magnus has been dutifully signing along with her story. "Which plants do you yell 'raaaa' to?" he asks, curious.

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad nods as he follows along -- always, always serious, like a young Lan Wangji. This is also information that Claudius will enjoy hearing, and he's so focused on that that it takes him a little while to realize that this is a side of Crowley that's fascinating in its mystery. His and Crowley's interactions have been... fraught, historically, and the uneasy truce they have now is due to Galahad burning someone to death for him.

"Is Crowley nice?" he asks.

[biteybaby]

Sunny is part of the way through listing out which plants she yelled at most recently, by their given names, when Galahad asks his question. She smiles her widest smile and says, "Yes!" Crowley is very nice, she thinks. One of the nicest people here.

[summerdude]

Magnus pauses in his signing Sunny's explanations when a dragonfly alights on his finger. He grins, and slowly moves his hand so that Sunny and Galahad can see it better.

[onthewillowsthere]

"I hurt Crowley," Galahad says, watching the dragonfly rest. Its thick body is as glossy and substantial as something cut from emerald; by contrast the wings are like vellum. "I was angry. And afraid." He spreads his fingers wide and makes a frightened face.