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]

She starts signing through the alphabet, but she does get many of the letters mixed up, as she is not even proficient with the written alphabet yet.

[onthewillowsthere]

"It's good that you've started. We'll practice."

[biteybaby]

"Okay!"

[summerdude]

"Is that Sunny I hear?" Magnus calls. He's perched on a tree limb at the far edge of camp, reading -- comics, this time, so he can refresh his memory enough to make decent feminist recommendations to Tally -- and he lets himself fall back so that he's swinging upside down by his knees in a sort of whole-body peekaboo. From upside-down, with delight, he sees -- "and Galahad?! This is my lucky day. Sup?"

[onthewillowsthere]

Solemnly, "To sup is to take drink or liquid food by sips or spoonfuls."

[biteybaby]

Sunny appreciates the definition, but it does make her miss Klaus and Violet in a terrible, stabbing pain sort of way. If you have ever been in a situation where, for whatever reason, you are no longer able to see or talk with or visit someone you love very dearly, you might know what that feeling is like. I do hope that, unlike what Sunny Baudelaire is currently going through, you have never been whisked away to an alternate dimension, separated from the few remaining family members you still have, with no warning or explanation, but if you have been in that situation before, I offer my most sincerest apologies, and hope that you are at least enjoying the lack of capitalism and unlimited clothing options.

Sunny does her best to ignore the terrible, stabbing pain of missing her siblings, and instead waves up at Magnu. "Friend," she tells him, which here means, "Galahad and I ran into one another, and now I am going to help him find bugs".

[summerdude]

Magnus can tell that Sunny is having a little sad moment, so he drops out of the tree and sweeps her up in a big old welcome hug. Then he gives Galahad one, too, for good measure. "You're going on a bug hunt?"

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad hugs back tightly. "Sunny is very fast. Do you want to come with us?"

[biteybaby]

Sunny little. Bug little. she signs, not sure if it makes any sense. For good measure, she crouches down and holds her hand above the ground, as that is where the bugs live.

[summerdude]

"You will be able to see them better," says Magnus, encouragingly. "I'm down." Real bug hunt or dragonfly room? he signs, and then pauses. "Sunny, do you want a snack first? Or Galahad?"

[onthewillowsthere]

Dragonfly room, immediately. He's been wanting to go back with his sketchbook, and it's fine for Sunny to try to catch some of them.

[biteybaby]

“Puwdestee,” Sunny says, which here means, “I’m not terribly hungry right now, so unless either of you needs a snack I should be fine without it.”

[summerdude]

Magnus translates this for Galahad, and then puts a bag of pretzels in his backpack anyway. And a juice box. And an apple and some carrots. He's learned that it's best to be prepared in case the hunger situation changes. He doesn't bother asking Sunny if she has a fresh diaper; they've worked out a signal for him to stumble across someone who can handle that if she doesn't and she hasn't given it. "Okay," he says. "You wanna walk or you wanna piggyback?" He purses his lips, mock-thoughtful, and winks at Galahad. "You could teach Galahad how to give you a piggyback ride."

[onthewillowsthere]

"You could."

[biteybaby]

"Yeah!" She runs behind Galahad and starts reaching up, as if she's planning on just climbing his back by herself.

[summerdude]

Magnus catches each of their eyes in turn. "Are you asking Galahad to crouch down so that you can climb up?" he asks, signing as he talks.

[onthewillowsthere]

The translation is helpful. It reminds Galahad of how much easier it is to understand what someone is saying when they sign it, as if being able to see the words instead of merely hearing them makes them quicker to resolve from sounds to language.

He kneels down on the ground at a more accessible Sunny height.

[biteybaby]

"Oh thanks," she says as she climbs on Galahad's back, her arms wrapping around his neck to hold on with.

[summerdude]

Magnus watches for a moment, wibbling, as his best friends get situated. Then he grins and says, "Last one to the dragonfly room is a rotten egg!" and takes off running (in very slow motion) back toward the Mansion.

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad's endurance has built up a fair amount under Lan Wangji's training, but he's never going to be as fast or unflagging as Magnus is. On the other hand, Magnus is running in very slow motion. Galahad keeps pace for now.

[biteybaby]

Sunny is very happy. She hasn't often had friends, and historically speaking her friends tend to get kidnapped by Count Olaf, which does cut down on the amount of time you can spend hanging out with them, among other things. So getting to hang out with both her best friend Magnu and her new friend Galahad is great!

[summerdude]

Magnus wants Sunny to win the race, obviously, so he keeps an eye on Galahad and maintains a pace that is plausibly -- to Sunny, at least; probably not to Galahad -- between one and three paces behind Galahad's the entire way to the Mansion -- though he does pull ahead once or twice, just to make it feel like a real nailbiter. (He's held Sunny a bunch. He's pretty sure Galahad can manage this, even without his, like, superpowers or whatever. But he keeps an eye out just in case.) It's harder, in the halls, since there's doors to open and stairs to navigate, but he tries his best.

[onthewillowsthere]

It takes him a little while to understand exactly what's going on -- he almost asks why Magnus is running so slowly before he realizes -- but once he gets it he also tries to lend some verisimilitude to his efforts, speeding up whenever Magnus starts to pull ahead.

Sunny isn't heavy, but she's weight he's not used to, and he's definitely starting to flag by the time they're clattering down the stairs.

[biteybaby]

"Go go go!" Sunny giggles, cheering Galahad on.

[summerdude]

Luckily, there's not much farther to go. Magnus makes a great show of almost getting his hand on the door first, and then lets Galahad take the win in the last segment. It's a good thing he packed all those snacks... he's getting the sense that Galahad deserves a juice box.

As soon as the door is opened, though, he sighs, "I guess I'm a stinky rotten egg," sounding very aggrieved indeed, and then says, "Sunny, cover your eyes while we get situated in here? So that it's, like, a surprise or whatever."