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]

The next obstacle is a pair of tunnels to crawl through. Sunny hops into one, but rather than crawl through, she sits in it, reclined, to catch her breath. "Zoom," she says, which here means, "That was a lot of running."

[futaille]

To be entertaining, Grantaire sticks his head and shoulders into the other tunnel. "Zoom," he agrees.

[biteybaby]

Sunny rests for a while. It is important to take regular breaks, even when doing an activity you enjoy, such as sewing, cleaning, writing stories with friends about fictional characters trapped in a mysteriously large mansion with no way out and no way to bring their friends and loved ones to stay with them, weaving, or even running through an inflatable obstacle course.

Sunny slithers out of the tunnel on her belly, arms first, and crawls over to Grantaire. "Aire," she says, tapping his leg, then taps her own chest. "Aire. Baudelaire." She wonders if there is some significance here.

[futaille]

He wriggles out of the tunnel and looks down at Sunny. "Ah, a grand R and a handsome one, mademoiselle Baudelaire."

[biteybaby]

Having sorted that out, Sunny turns and goes back through the tunnel she had been resting in before.

[futaille]

And Grantaire follows her by squeezing through his own tunnel in turn.

[biteybaby]

The last obstacle is a hill meant for climbing, with nubs to grab on to and stand on. Sunny tries, but ends up falling and sliding back down. It rubs her knees in an unpleasant way that might make most people her size cry, but Sunny has been through a lot, and so she doesn’t pay much attention to it. She turns to look at Grantaire again. “Help?”

[futaille]

"Of course, mademoiselle." He lifts her just enough to give her a boost, so she can still work at climbing but without the danger of falling.

[biteybaby]

"Thanks," she says politely. Once she climbs to the top of the obstacle she sits down, patiently waiting for Grantaire to follow so that they can slide down together.

[futaille]

"Certainly." As she sits, he climbs up after her. "We have summited the mountain."

[biteybaby]

"Norgay," she says, which here means, "It was very tall but we did it". This is, of course, not the highest thing Sunny has climbed. That would be the 66 floors leading up to Jerome Squalor's penthouse apartment. But she can't use her teeth on an inflatable mountain, not unless she wants to climb a deflated pile of vinyl instead of a mountain.

[futaille]

"Well done," he says, holding his hand up in Sunny's high-five range.

[biteybaby]

She gives him an enthusiastic high-five, which has the unlucky side effect of causing her to lose her balance and start sliding down the slide. When she gets to the bottom she rolls off of the structure, landing on her stomach on the festively carpeted floor. She bites her tongue in the process, and as her teeth are very sharp, this hurts a good deal so she starts crying.

[futaille]

"Oh no! Rescue incoming!" He slides down himself and kneels down to help get Sunny back upright and scope out the damage.

[biteybaby]

Fortunately there is a doctor here! Sunny sits patiently as Doctor R looks her over. She isn’t bleeding, so the physician won’t need to worry about that. “Physician” is a word which here means, “Grantaire, who is very much not an actual doctor”.

[futaille]

He examines her with his very inexpert eye. "You aren't bleeding, so that's good. You'll probably be sore for a bit but you'll be just fine again soon enough."

[biteybaby]

She nods, grateful to have a grown up here who seems to know what he's doing. Definitely an improvement over the last doctor Sunny knew. More put together than she is as well, both literally and figuratively.

[futaille]

Grantaire would absolutely recoil upon hearing himself described as more put together than anyone, so it's a good thing he can't. "What would you like to do next?"

[biteybaby]

He is absolutely more put together than Dr Orwell, in that he has not been brutally sliced in half on a lumber mill saw. It isn't a very high bar to surpass. Sunny looks around the room before pointing at a rather large inflatable that is one giant slide. She has decided to show the slides who's boss.

[futaille]

Grantaire, not as grateful as he should be at not having been literally sliced in half at any point, takes Sunny's hand and heads toward the giant slide.

[biteybaby]

She needs help getting up onto this one as well, but by now that is likely to be expected.

[futaille]

And he happily provides, giving Sunny a boost.

[biteybaby]

Climbing the hill for this slide is a little easier, due to how it is manufactured. This is very lucky, as it is a much, much larger hill, and Sunny would hate to make Grantaire have to carry her up it the whole way. By the time she reaches the top she has to stop and rest to catch her breath.

[futaille]

"Well done, mademoiselle." He climbs up after her and sits next to her. "A monumental achievement, to be sure."

[biteybaby]

Sunny very carefully scoots over to the edge of the slide, preparing herself to go down. It is very high, but it isn't as high as the window Count Olaf and the Hook-Handed Man threatened to drop her from when they made Violet be in that terrible play. It isn't as high as Aunt Josephine's house used to be, before it fell into Lake Lachrymose. It certainly isn't as high as the top of the ersatz elevator shaft at 667 Dark Avenue, which Sunny and her siblings jumped down and climbed out of multiple times.

"Together?" she asks Grantaire, holding out a hand if he wants to hold it and slide down with her.