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

[onthewillowsthere]

"There are still bugs," Galahad agrees.

[biteybaby]

"Small," she says, thinking out loud. What she means is, "I wonder what the smallest kind of bug is."

[summerdude]

"Something so small you can't even see it without a special tool," Magnus tells her, signing the full extent of her question to Galahad.

[onthewillowsthere]

"Springtails and mites are very small, but the smallest known insect is a parasitic wasp called a fairyfly," Galahad says promptly. "It is the same width as a hair."

[biteybaby]

That is very little. Hairs are super small. There could be one of those bugs on her right now and she wouldn't even notice, probably. She giggles.

[summerdude]

"Are waterbears bugs?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Tardigrades are a micro-animal. This term refers to organisms that exhibit animal-like qualities, and have body sizes that are usually less than point-one millimeters."

[biteybaby]

Thank you explaining she signs to Galahad while simultaneously trying to imagine a bear that is made out of water and also so small it's called micro.

[summerdude]

"Dang, okay." Magnus looks over at Sunny. "It's so cool how much stuff he knows, huh?"

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad blushes, but it's a pleased blush. Magnus is one of the first people he can remember thinking it was cool when he knew too much about something. You're welcome, he signs back to Sunny. "I've been studying."

[biteybaby]

She nods and signs book. Because that's how Klaus studies and knows so much too.

[summerdude]

"Yeah, Galahad reads a lot," Magnus says, proud. "But he also listens a lot, too, so he learns a lot from that, too."

[onthewillowsthere]

"I like listening," he agrees.

[biteybaby]

"Listening's good," Sunny says knowledgably. "More listen," which means something like, "If more people listened I think the world would be better than it is."

[summerdude]

Magnus, of course, translates the full message with sign. Then: "So true," he tells Sunny.

[onthewillowsthere]

"You listen well too," Galahad says to Sunny, signing along with his words. "I will learn to understand you better."

[biteybaby]

"Can't read," she says with a shrug. "Only can listen."

[summerdude]

"You want us to teach you how to read?" Magnus asks. "It might make the alphabet easier." He starts signing through the alphabet demonstratively.

[onthewillowsthere]

Isn't this reading? he signs.

[biteybaby]

"Oh," she says. Well then. In that case, "Can read!"

[summerdude]

Is it? Huh. "Is it?" Magnus asks. Obviously Sunny can do absolutely anything she tries to, but she's still... middling to bad at the alphabet in order.

[onthewillowsthere]

They are words we see instead of hear. He looks at Sunny, and makes himself smile, on purpose, which is a little awkward.

[biteybaby]

She smiles back. "Bookstoo," she says after a moment's consideration. What she means is, "I want to learn how to read books too though."

[summerdude]

"Books too," Magnus promises. "Hey, did you know Galahad is really good at storytelling? He reads to Temeraire a lot."

[onthewillowsthere]

At once his smile drops back into the more comfortable blank expression. "Reading is not the same thing as storytelling," he says, because it's an important distinction and he doesn't want Sunny to get the wrong idea.