paradisa | Sixth toothmark

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sunny baudelaire

Sixth toothmark

[Waking up this morning Sunny first thought that the room had shrank and was quite confused. Didn't the castle just send them to that island with the dinosaurs? Why would it do something else to them quite so soon?

Then it dawns on her: It wasn't that the room had shrank. She had grown. She had grown a lot. Not only had she grown in size but she had apparently aged as well. She had been aged up once before when everyone was at that nursing home but this... this was different. She moves to a mirror and touches her face, looking over her new features. Different but still unmistakably her. This is certainly an unexpected development, though not entirely unwelcome. It will be nice to actually speak with her friends... a few in particular come immediately to mind.

She moves to the closet, thankfully finding that she had been provided with clothes to fit her new stature. She quickly gets dressed before picking up her journal. She bites her lip, thinking for a moment before speaking]

Is the castle usually in the habit of changing one's age so suddenly? I feel rather akin to that girl in the story who ate the cake and suddenly found herself as large as the room.

[Mr. Snicket]

Mr. Snicket... do you have a moment?

[/filter]

[Leonard Church]

Church? This is Sunny. I've unexpectedly found myself older and thought we might take this opportunity to speak.

[/filter]

[Chell]

Hello, Chell. This is Sunny. The castle has unexpectedly made me older and I'd very much like to see you if you're free.

[/Chell]

[She thinks for a moment before putting out one final filter]

[Violet]

The castle has made me older. I'm going to go out to visit some friends to take advantage of this while I am able. I didn't want you to worry. I would like to make dinner for us tonight, if you haven't made other arrangements.

[/Violet]

((OOC: Loss start!))

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[She turns, giving him a small smile]

It's alright. I think it might help you understand things a little more. Besides... I've been told it has a happy ending... although I haven't reached that point yet.

[She gestures to a bench by the fountain]

Shall we sit?

Yeah, why not.

[He'll shrug and go sit at one end of the bench.]

[She'll sit on the other side, angling herself so she can face him. She smooths her skirt down as she sits since, while unaccustomed to her current age and stature she still knows how to be ladylike.

Once they've settled she continues her story]

My older siblings and I were at the beach when it happened. Mr. Poe... our parent's banker, came and told us there had been a terrible fire and they had perished. He had also come to take us to what was meant to be our new home. Per our parents' final request we were to be taken to stay with family. [she pauses, looking down at her hands] We'd never met this man before in our lives. We were told he was a distant cousin, but he was the closest relative geographically speaking so we were taken to him. He's tall and thin with shiny eyes, a unibrow and a tattoo of an eye on his ankle. Count Olaf.

[She closes her eyes when she says his name, picturing him as clearly as she could have if he were there. Which he wasn't, of course, since if he was she would have been asking Church to help save her a second time.]

He's a terrible man. He kept us in a tiny room with only one bed and we were forced to clean his house and cook for himself and his theatre troupe. He even hit [She tries to say her brother's name and is stopped... damn her loss] my brother. We found out that he'd only taken us in because he wanted the fortune my parents left us. We tried to tell Mr. Poe this but he wouldn't listen. Olaf was able to adopt us, despite our protests. When he found out that wouldn't allow him to have access to the money he found another way. [another pause, her eyes lifting to look at Church]

He wrote, directed and would star in a play in which he would marry my sister. Everyone thought it was just a play but he had his neighbor, a real Justice of the Peace, perform it and my sister and he were to sign a real marriage certificate. The only reason she went through with it was... was that he'd locked me in a cage, hung it outside of a tower and threatened to drop it if she didn't. Fortunately, my brother was able to rescue me by building a device to help him climb up the side of the tower and my sister signed with her left hand to prevent the document from being legal. Olaf was to be arrested for what he'd done but he escaped before anyone could capture him.

[Church sits and listens, a scowl to mask the concern that would otherwise knit is brow. What kind of sick bastard would try to marry a little girl for her money and use her baby sister as a hostage to do it?]

...motherfucker...

[Quiet, yes. Articulate, no. But honestly he's not the most adept at articulating his feelings to begin with.

[She nods. That's an accurate assessment and, though she wouldn't use the terminology herself, she does agree.]

We were then brought to a new guardian, our Uncle Montgomery Montgomery. He had a wonderful house full of snakes and reptiles and I made friends with the Incredibly Deadly Viper... which is, in fact, the nicest snake known to man. We were to accompany him to Peru. We thought we had found a new home. [She pauses] Then Olaf showed up in disguise. He killed Monty and tried to take us to Peru with him. I managed to show that Monty's death was not an accident but, once again, Olaf escaped. Time and time again we were brought to a new guardian and Olaf would intervene. He killed our Aunt Josephine disguised as Captain Sham. He nearly convinced Mr. Poe to let us go with him until I broke his wooden leg and showed Mr. Poe who he really was.

[She looks at her hands, the sorrow of losing Monty and Josephine filling her eyes. They didn't have to die... Olaf should be brought to justice, not left free]

We were then sent to a new guardian at a lumber mill. We were forced to work at the mill. I couldn't hold the tools so I had to peel the bark off with my teeth. All we were given to eat for lunch was chewing gum which I was too young to eat. Olaf disguised himself as the female receptionist for an optometrist who hypnotized my brother. While my sister tried to use the command word to keep my brother from killing someone I fought the optometrist. [Her eyes flicker up to Church] She had a sword and I had only my teeth. I won... though I didn't mean for her to die... [by saw, no less]. Once again Olaf got away and we were moved to a Boarding School instead of being given to a new guardian.

[Ok, so as absofuckinglutely tragic as this whole thing is... Sunny, you have earned an unexpected level of badass. An eyebrow quirks upward at the mention of peeling bark and fighting/killing a woman.

But that isn't something any kid should have to live with, let alone one so young. It's hard enough to live with as an adult.]

[And what the fuck was wrong with people! Kids working a mill, gum. And how the fuck was this Olaf jackass allowed to keep following them around and killing people.

He's stuck between seething rage at the utter failure on the part of the adults to keep Sunny and her siblings safe and sympathy toward Sunny for having to put up with the unputupable.]

[So pardon him Sunny as he considers vocalizing his thoughts on her tale so far and changes his mind. Because anything he had to say at this point would be well beyond what he considers alright to say around her.]

[Just wait, Church, it only gets worse]

We were sent to boarding school because no one wanted to take us in out of fear of being killed, themselves. The school did not have any classes for one as young as myself so I was given a job as the headmaster's secretary. I had to answer phones, though no one could understand me, and staple papers. We were forced to live in a shack on the grounds with vicious crabs on the floor and a strange dripping tan fungus on the walls. The rules in that school were strange... if you were late to class you lost the use of your silverware at mealtime and if you entered the administrative building without permission you would lose the use of a glass for your drink. And if you did not attend the headmaster's nightly violin recital you had to buy him a bag of candy.

It was at that school that we made our first real friends, though. The Quigley triplets - Duncan and Isadora. They were orphans, as well. They helped us when no one else would... and ended up being kidnapped because of it.

[She looks away, remembering the image of the triplets calling to them from the back window of Olaf's car... the guilt at being part of the reason they were there to begin with filling her heart]

Olaf disguised himself as a gym teacher, Coach Ghengis. He told the headmaster he would tutor us to get us up to speed with the rest of the school... in reality he made us run laps around a large circle for hours on end. [pause] Well... my siblings ran. I crawled. My siblings started failing courses and I ran out of staples in the headmaster's office. We had to pass a test to stay in the school and avoid being sent home with Coach Ghengis. My siblings had to study and I had to make homemade staples so I could staple a stack of papers. The Quigleys disguised themselves as us and ran the laps so we could prepare. We passed... until they discovered we hadn't run the laps ourselves and were expelled for cheating. We revealed Olaf's disguise but he had realized the Quigleys had their own family fortune and kidnapped them as he escaped.

[Are you fucking kidding! There gets to be a point when Church can only get so angry and then it just kind of stops. A sort of profound disappointment settles into its place.]

Where was Lemony in all this?

We hadn't even met him, yet. I didn't meet Mr. Snicket until I arrived here at the castle... I'd never even heard of him before. [She pauses] Well... we'd briefly met his brother.

So he became your guardian once you got here? Or is this one of those people from different points in time things?

[Church hates bullshit having to do with time and time travel... and the castles fondness for juggling people from the same universe around different points in time from one another.]

[She breathes softly]

Honestly, I came from a time before we ever met him. My sister says we meet him once in my future, though.

[A small smile graces her lips]

I actually spoke with Mr. Snicket earlier today about this and he told me more about his relationship with us. He knew our mother when they were younger... they were quite close, actually. [Which here means "were completely in love and would have married if not for Mr. Snicket being forced to go on the run."] I won't go into complete details because that is his story to tell, not mine, but circumstances caused him to leave and go on the run. He's been on the run for many years. Upon learning of the fire that claimed the lives of our parents he began researching the fire and tracking our movements trying to find us. Unfortunately he was continuously a few steps behind...

[Church bites his tongue. At least the guy had been trying. Seemed more than anyone else had bothered with. He still thinks the guy is a prat though.]

While Mr. Snicket was following us we were trying to find the Quagmires. We were sent to live with the Squalors in a very tall building where the elevator could not be used since it was not "in". While we were there we discovered that Esme Squalor was in actuality Count Olaf's girlfriend. They were keeping the Quagmires in a cage in the basement below a broken elevator. When we found them and were on our way to rescue them Esme pushed us down the elevator shaft into a net some distance down. I was able to save us by climbing the elevator shaft with my teeth and getting a rope so we could climb down to the bottom again. We tried to stop Olaf and Esme from getting away with the Quagmires but we failed.

From there we were to be taken care of by an entire town. Of course their idea of taking care of us was to have us take care of them by doing all of the chores for them. Esme was disguised as an officer and Olaf disguised himself as a detective. We had told the town about Olaf and were told that Olaf had been captured... the man that they had captured was not Count Olaf but Jacques Snicket, Mr. Snicket's brother. We tried to tell them the truth but no one would listen. When we went to the courthouse to try to get them to allow Jacques to speak for himself we found that he had been murdered. Olaf came out of the courthouse with pieces of evidence that would show that we had killed him... including bite marks on his body. [She looks down at her hands, sorrow in her eyes]

The town believed him, no matter what we said. We were locked up and to be executed for murder. We managed to break out of the jail cell and escape. We freed the Quagmires and they were able to escape as well. From that point on we were on our own. [she pauses, smiling softly] It was then that I walked for the first time.

[You are making his life sound like a pleasant comedy. Ha ha, you got blown up by your wacky teammate in a glitchy tank. Insert laugh track here.]

Jesus Sunny... all this happened over a year?

There are people who've lived their whole lives with less than that going on.

[Schadenfreude, man.

She nods slightly]

Over significantly less than a year, actually. It all happened very quickly... too quickly.

We tried to get a telegram to Mr. Poe telling him we did not murder Jacques but we did not get a reply before the store owner found out about the murder and tried to catch us. We ended up joining a group who was going to a nearby hospital to cheer up the patients. Once there we got a job in the Library of Records and found out that there was a record there called the Snicket File that mentioned us. We managed to find the file but there was only one page left that said that there may be one survivor to the fire but their whereabouts are unknown. [Her eyes fill with the ever so slight hope that one of her parents may be alive]

Unfortunately before we could obtain any further information Esme broke into the room and chased us. My brother and I escaped but my sister was captured. Olaf was going to give her a crainiotomy - which in this case means "Olaf was going to cut off my sister's head in the guise of a surgical demonstration and intentionally find himself unable to reattach it." My brother and I disguised ourselves as doctors and were able to delay it long enough for Violet to wake up. We then escaped, though difficult since Esme had lit the library on fire. We had to leap out of the window using rubber bands as a bungee cord.

[Here she pauses for a moment. She's nearly to the end of her tale, after all, and she's especially displeased with what they had to do next]

The only way to escape was by climbing into the trunk of Count Olaf's car. We hid there with his disguises while he drove. It was a long and rather uncomfortable ride but once he had arrived at his destination and he and his acting troupe had left the car we were able to disembark and find out where we'd ended up. It was a carnival. Count Olaf was talking to the fortune teller, she was giving him information. We had to stay there but there was only one way to do that without being caught... we had to disguise ourselves. The fortune teller had said she was looking for more freaks for her carnival so we... we disguised ourselves as freaks. [She looks away, remembering their hideous costumes] My siblings wore one large pair of pants, each standing in one leg. They both wore one shirt together and said they were a two headed person. They painted their faces to make them look paler and disguised their voices as well to make it more difficult to be recognized. I was too small for any of the complete disguises but they found a very long fake beard. I was wrapped in the hair and, with my sharp teeth, became Chabo the Wolf Baby. I was only able to speak in growls... that's how I was dressed when I arrived here.

[Church rubbed the bridge of nose, took a deep breath and sighed.]

Well, I'll never ask you why you don't hate it here again. That's for damn sure.

I uh... I'm glad you and your sister can have this chance to live a little more normally.

[He'd add that he wishes your brother would join you, but he's learned that the castle has a way of making those hopes turn sour.]

[She smiles]

Thank you very much, Church. And, yes, it's true that I find this a preferable situation to the one we are currently in at home. Another great improvement is that here I also have the benefit of friends who care about me.

[Her smile warms. Get the hint, Church?]

Kids should have friends and people who care about them.

[He nods slightly and gives her a half smile.]

[Her smile widens even more]

Everyone should - not just kids.

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Sixth toothmark

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