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]

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.

[biteybaby]

She knows that those are different skills. She cannot read, but she could make up a story to tell someone if she wanted to, so she nods in agreement.

[summerdude]

"Okay, but you know what I mean though, right?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"You mean that I'm good at reading," Galahad says.

[biteybaby]

"Like Klaus!"

[summerdude]

"Reading, and specifically reading out loud," Magnus nods, and tweaks Sunny's ponytail. "Just like your brother."

[onthewillowsthere]

"What kinds of stories do you like? Temeraire likes poetry and stories from China. He doesn't mind what they're about."

[biteybaby]

"Any," she says. Her mother used to read her a wide variety, before she perished.

[summerdude]

Magnus twists to look at her. "What's your very favorite?"

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad is watching too.

[biteybaby]

Sunny thinks about this, and tries to remember some of the stories her mom used to read. She shrugs, because she can't remember what any of them were right now.

[summerdude]

"How about we make a little library just for you? Of books you might like so Galahad -- or me, I guess -- can read them to you? We can keep it in our room." Magnus, of course, means the one Galahad painted for him, that was Galahad's temporary chapel, where he and Sunny play Godzilla Attack!

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad's eyes light -- he's already thinking about his favorite books, when he was a child at the nunnery.

[biteybaby]

Sunny is visibly excited about this idea. "Library nice!" If she has her own library it will make looking things up a lot easier, if she ever needs to look something up. She and her siblings often found answers to questions they had about things by looking them up in libraries, even if said library was unusual or limited.

[summerdude]

"Maybe some picture books about bugs," Magnus adds, thoughtfully. "So you can help Galahad with his science."

[onthewillowsthere]

"I will look," he promises.