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

[biteybaby]

Sunny likes how the cooking is making the room smell, and she is happy that she did the cooking correctly enough that Lan Wangji told her "well done".

"Stir?" she asks, wanting to help stir.

[lightbearinglord]

"Mn," Lan Wangji agrees. Because the cooking chopsticks are quite long, he slides open a drawer and presents her with a smaller pair, bronze and usually meant for eating. "You stir and I will add the spices."

[biteybaby]

"Euphemia," Sunny says, accepting the chopsticks. This is a word which here means, "Thank you for finding me an appropriately sized pair of chopsticks with which I can help you cook by stirring the food while you add the spices".

As the person in charge of relaying and narrating Sunny Baudelaire's time at the mansion to all of you, I realize I may be slightly biased, but I would like to happily report that Sunny is indeed much better at stirring the food than most people her age would be.

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji was prepared for the contents of the wok to go flying, and poised to deploy some cultivator reflexes to mitigate the situation, but he is not terribly surprised that Sunny is an exceptionally competent baby. He watches her, just for a moment, with banked warmth in his eyes. "Thank you," he tells her, and then he sets to fulfilling his half of the proposed bargain: peppercorns, fennel seeds, the cassia bark, a star anise, and a pod of cao guo all join the ingredients.

[biteybaby]

“Welcome!” Sunny says to Lan Wangji as she continues to stir.

[lightbearinglord]

He can't possibly help but smile at her; as usual, it's a tiny thing, the sort of glimmer of sudden warmth that calls to mind a distant lantern spotted from faraway on a cold night. Because Sunny is stirring so diligently, Lan Wangji is free to pick up the platter of sliced beef and use the cooking chopsticks to neatly slide it all into the medley of ingredients.

[biteybaby]

As she continues to stir, she sniffs the air and smiles. "Yummy!" she says, a word which here means, "It smells good!"

[lightbearinglord]

"With luck, Wei Ying will agree." Ultimately, there is little Wei Ying will not eat, but Lan Wangji can tell by now when he has truly pleased his husband.

[biteybaby]

Sunny grins. If Wei Ying likes how the food tastes, he will probably be happy! And because Sunny helped cook the food, it will be almost like she has made him happy! That's good, she thinks. Much better than making someone upset.

[lightbearinglord]

Frankly, that radiant smile is an apt reflection of how Lan Wangji often feels when he thinks of caring for Wei Ying. He doesn't smile again in return, but his eyes are still soft and warm. "We will need to exercise patience now," he warns Sunny, fetching the bowl into which he strained the liquid that was left over from cooking the beef. He pours it into the wok until most of the contents are covered.

[biteybaby]

Sunny watches, making a mental note of everything.

[lightbearinglord]

"First, we must wait for this to come to a boil," he says. "Stir again, once more."

[biteybaby]

She stirs again, once more.

[lightbearinglord]

"Thank you." With gratitude for his incredibly deft helper, Lan Wangji slides an iron lid over the wok, not quite covering it entirely. "This will make the meat more tender."

[biteybaby]

Sunny assumes most people must prefer that, from how Lan Wangji said it. She cannot relate, but she appreciates the lesson nonetheless.

[lightbearinglord]

Before long, the liquid within the wok comes to a boil. Lan Wangji makes a little two-fingered gesture at the flame of the burner, and it obediently diminishes itself to a lower heat.

[biteybaby]

Sunny repeats the gesture, expecting something to happen. When it doesn’t, she says simply, “Broke.”

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji is irresistibly endeared by the imitation, but he says, without hesitation, "No. That was cultivation. Most cannot use qi that way."

[biteybaby]

"...Bafly?" She asks. Crowley never did quite get around to explaining that one. They must have gotten distracted by something else that was, undoubtedly, more important, such as looking at flowers, or taking a nap, or that thread ending and being safely archived.

[lightbearinglord]

No one could possibly have a better excuse for not having read the cultivation pamphlet. Hoping that the question means something generally like what he imagines it to mean, Lan Wangji endeavors to answer. "Qi is the energy that sustains all life. It is in everything. Cultivation is the practice of gathering and refining that qi." He touches a hand to his abdomen. "I have formed a golden core, here, that serves as a store of qi. It prolongs my life and enables some feats that those with lower or no cultivation cannot accomplish."

[biteybaby]

“Wow!” Sunny says after listening intently. She is very proud of her close friend Lan Wangji for having eaten gold! Sunny now has something to aspire to. She may have slightly misunderstood his story.

[lightbearinglord]

He gives her another small flicker of a smile. "It is hard work that requires daily discipline."

[biteybaby]

She nods, agreeing. It certainly would be a lot of work to bite up gold into pieces you can swallow.

[lightbearinglord]

They are in perfect accord, naturally. Because he is fond, which makes him inclined to fuss solemnly over the person who has earned his fondness, Lan Wangji reaches to smooth back a wisp of Sunny's hair. "I need to clean up. Would you like to sit there or return to the floor?"

[biteybaby]

Sunny thinks this over, and decides the floor is the best place to be now. She turns and attempts to climb down on her own.