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.

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[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.

[biteybaby]

Sunny is studying the dragonfly. "Studying" is a word which here means, "staring at it entirely too closely and going a little cross-eyed as a result". But when Galahad stars speaking she looks up, confused. "Accident?" she asks.

[onthewillowsthere]

That's an excellent question. He doesn't know if it was an accident. Partly because that memory is Damien's, certainly, but also because-- he was so angry and disappointed in that moment, angry because he thought he was trapped as a person Claudius could never love, because the only memories Crowley had restored were the ones that cemented him as a thing created for violence. He hadn't known he could catch fire, that he could immolate Crowley and the kitchen together, burn everything down and be spared himself, but he still did it.

"I don't know," he tells her honestly.

[biteybaby]

"Hypnotized?" she asks. Klaus was hypnotized one time, and did things he wouldn't ordinarily have done.

[onthewillowsthere]

"No. I wanted him to return my memories, and he didn't know how."

[biteybaby]

Sunny thinks she is missing some critical pieces of information for this story to make any sort of narrative sense to her. She would say as much, but that seems a silly thing to make Magnu translate, so instead she just asks, "Say sorry Colee?" which is her way of asking, "Did you tell Crowley you were sorry?" Whatever happened doesn't seem to be something Crowley is still hurt from; he seemed to be doing fine the last time Sunny saw him. There weren't any bandaids anywhere at least. If he has apologized then maybe it's all okay now! Galahad doesn't seem like the kind of person who would purposefully harm someone and feel no remorse. "Feel no remorse" is a phrase which here means, "not apologize".

[summerdude]

Magnus starts unpacking snacks from his backpack, listening, ready to interject if anyone asks for it.

[onthewillowsthere]

"He said he forgave me, and then I protected him from something that wanted to hurt him. I think that mattered."

[biteybaby]

"Oh," Sunny smiles. "That's okay!" If Crowley forgave Galahad, and Galahad doesn't want to do that again, and Crowley isn't still hurt, and Galahad even protected Crowley from something else, then it seems like everyone's in a good spot here.

[summerdude]

"Did you know he can talk to plants?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Is that why he likes the orchids?"

[biteybaby]

"Gossip," Sunny says, helpfully.

[summerdude]

Magnus glances over. "Does he tell you the gossip?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Do the orchids gossip?" This is vital Claudius intelligence.

[biteybaby]

"Uh huh," she says to answer Galahad's question, and then, "Some," she says to answer Magnu's question.

[summerdude]

"Can you tell us the gossip?"

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad nods seriously.

[biteybaby]

“Nigale daihare,” she says, which here means, “A bird dyed his hair, but I don’t know what bird. I also didn’t think birds had hair.” It is entirely possible this has gone through several levels of the telephone game before this moment.

[summerdude]

"A bird dyed his own hair?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Crowley dyed Claudius' hair."

[biteybaby]

Sunny shrugs. "Dunno," she says. She is, after all, just going on what the flowers said.