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snicketstrange · 3 years ago

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Rereading The Chapter 14 (The End)

I believed that in ASOUE's universe, chapter 14 was apparently written some time after the rest of the book. But I abandoned that idea. Lemony wrote to the editor that chapter 14 could be found at the end of the same manuscript.

We then have the epigraph of Le Voyage. It's an excerpt that portrays the moment of death, and perhaps the acceptance of death. But I don't think this means that Lemony is completely certain of the Baudelaires' death. I think it means he's pretty sure he won't write about the Baudelaires anymore. I think the right question is "why did Lemony decide to stop writing at this point in the story?" "Why did he plan to write more and then stop writing?" I think Lemony didn't promise to write the entire story of the Baudelaires. He promised to write the story of the conflict between the Baudelaires and Olaf. So when he was sure of Olaf's death, and that was only with the additional information he had probably had access to through Beatrice Jr, Lemony realized that the research might be over. The certainty of Olaf's death was the event he determined when the narrative came to an end. So, it makes us wonder what kind of promise Lemony made. Apparently he promised that he would clarify the facts surrounding the charges the Baudelaires went through, as well as the contexts in which these events took place. That's why it was so important to get this information out to the general public. Because it involved the honor of the Baudelaire family. Furthermore, this explains why he could not rely solely on the account given by the Baudelaires themselves: after all, they were being accused of being lying criminals. Lemony needed to clear their name, proving, so to speak, that the facts reported by the Baudelaires were real, and it was not enough just to record what he read in the island book.

I think this is the most sensible explanation, and as a theorist I will defend it. But as a fan willing to come up with slightly bizarre ideas, I feel like imagining Lemony realizing that his own death was close to happening. It would be interesting to imagine that Lemony's research took so long that he was an elderly man when he was publishing The End. And the reason Lemony finished his work at this point would be his physical limitations. That would explain shocking secret #13: "he's finished." And more than that: it would even explain the title of the book: "The End of Lemony Snicket". And furthermore, this would explain Lemony's dedication to Beatrice in chapter 14. After quoting the words of Charles B., in which the poet compares the hour of death with the setting off of a ship, Lemony claims that both he and Beatrice are like boats sailing at night, but especially her. Both were on a dark and lonely journey, but she was already dead. "

Beatrice's last words recorded in the book were really emotional to me when I first read them, and they still are today. Especially after I watched the Netflix series, it's now possible to imagine a very specific face when I picture Beatrice. And it's possible to think of a specific soundtrack when I read this.

About the baby's name, on my Headcanon Violet is the name of Mrs. W, who was presumed dead around the same time as Lemony. And in my Headcanon, just as Lemony didn't really die, she didn't either. I still like to think that she was the mystery woman on TGG, and that's the real reason Quigley used the name Violet in the message he sent to submarine Q.

I think this is the first time I stop to think that the Baudelaires ate crab. This is unclean food for those who practice Judaism as a religion, isn't it? I even thought the roast lamb was a reference to the Passover celebration, but they wouldn't do that by eating crab. Or is it that in a book in which Daniel Handler implicitly criticizes religion, he did so on purpose? I think it's unlikely, but still possible. But, albeit unintentionally, the Baudelaires rejected the religious customs of their ancestors in a book in which religious customs are questioned and this is significant.

"The baby had heard about danger, too, mostly from the register of crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind from which the Baudelaires read out loud each evening, although they had not told the infant the whole story. She did not know all of the Baudelaires' secrets, and indeed there were some she would never know."

The above excerpt is important as it reveals that Lemony has information about Beatrice Jr's future as he was writing this chapter. This explains how Lemony knows what happened in this chapter: Beatrice Jr told him. Lemony did meet her, and he realized that the Baudelaires hadn't told her the whole story.

A detail that has always pleased me in this book is to notice that after 1 year, Sunny stopped babbling words and has a more conventional and extensive vocabulary. I find this compatible with the fact that 1 year has passed and it's also compatible with her character development arc. One of asoue's themes is "how some children are forced to mature too quickly because of tragedy". Sunny, for example, needed to learn how to cook and convince herself that she loved doing it and that she was good at it in a few days. And all this before she learned to speak English properly. She needed to help with a birth long before she fully understood issues related to human procreation. But in chapter 14, she finally had the opportunity to develop without tragedies forcing her to skip important steps in life.

"Do we take this?" Violet asked, holding up the book from which she had read out loud.

"I don't think so," Klaus said. "Perhaps another castaway will arrive, and continue the history."

"In any case," Sunny said, "they'll have something to read."

Please realize how important this dialogue is. Daniel Handler placed this dialogue here to make sure the reader understood the source of information Lemony had access to: the island book. The children wrote about their own story in that book, including their thoughts, feelings, and private conversations. The children shared some details about ancient events, about when Sunny wasn't even born. In the book, Lemony found details about some events that took place on the island before the arrival of the three Baudelaires.

"I want to make sure these life jackets I've designed will fit properly."

Well... It's good to know that, even though the boat sank, the Baudelaires had lifeboats. Their chances of survival really increased a lot. And knowing that Beatrice Jr managed to survive a shipwreck, it's quite possible that they did too.

The Baudelaires watched her approach, wondering what the next chapter in this infant's life would be, and indeed that is difficult to say. There are some who say that the Baudelaires rejoined V.F.D. and are engaged in brave errands to this day, perhaps under different names to avoid being captured. There are others who say that they perished at sea, although rumors of one's death crop up are often revealed to be untrue. But in any case, as my investigation is over, we have indeed reached the last chapter of the Baudelaires' story, even if the Baudelaires had not.

Lemony just reports here what he heard. Although Daniel Handler intentionally wishes the ending to be left open, and I will respect his decision, I will speak my opinion. They didn't die at sea, though. Note that Lemony directly relates the baby's future to the future of the three Baudelaires. The way Lemony wrote here suggests that the baby's future is as uncertain as the future of her adoptive parents. But we TBL readers know the truth about Beatrice Jr.'s future. Beatrice is alive! So the most likely situation is that her parents are also alive. ( And who knows other characters that we thought had died there on TBB... could it be that at least one of them could also have survived?)

But the question is: if Lemony knows the baby survived, why did he hide this information from the reader? Certainly to protect his niece. Lemony didn't lie, just omitted some details.

The baby paused, and looked at the back of the boat, where the nameplate had been affixed. She had no way of knowing this, of course, but the nameplate had been nailed to the back of the boat by a person standing on the very spot she was standing—at least as far as my research has shown.

Lemony once again dismantled specific knowledge through research, which could only have been done through information provided by others. Beatrice Jr needed to tell Lemony exactly where she was at that moment and Lemony needed to compare that with the information Beatrice Sr and Bertrand wrote in the island book. And then, on visiting the site, Lemony was able to ascertain the most likely position for those descriptions. While Lemony is a bit mistaken, the research process must have been like that.

Finally, she uttered a word. The Baudelaire orphans gasped when they heard it, but they could not say for sure whether she was reading the word out loud or merely stating her own name, and indeed they never learned this. Perhaps this last word was the baby's first secret, joining the secrets the Baudelaires were keeping from the baby, and all the other secrets immersed in the world. Perhaps it is better not to know what was meant by this word, as some things are better left in the great unknown. There are some words, of course, that are better left unsaid—but not, I believe, the word uttered by my niece, a word which here means that the story is over. Beatrice.

Oh... How I love this ending. That's when I felt my head explode for the first time in my life, and I'm still picking up the pieces.

#asoue #asoue theory #lemony snicket #a series of unfortunate events #asoue theories #beatrice baudelaire #snicketverse #beatrice snicket #beatrice jr #violet baudelaire #sunny baudelaire

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lany-d-flow · 4 years ago

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Thoughts: Barret as a Father Figure

I wanted to give my perspective on this topic, as it's one of many stigma-heavy thoughts about the actions of FF7 characters. I'll try to provide examples based on anecdotal experience and the circumstances surrounding Barret and Marlene's lives.

So, is Barret overall a bad father?

So, short answer: No, I don't think so.

Long answer:

Okay, anyway, anyone who has seen or played Final Fantasy 7 is probably aware of two characters: Barret Wallace and Marlene Wallace.

We first see their dynamic early in both Final Fantasy 7 and Final Fantasy 7 Remake. We also see a bit of this written in further works of the Compilation of Final Fantasy 7 such as "On the Way To a Smile: Episode Barret and Episode Tifa".

On the surface, we see Barret's unconditional love for his daughter. So many quotes from the game reflect this:

"She's tougher than me"

"That's right, little angel, I am!"

"She's cute as a button, with the heart of an angel..."

...And many more quotes I could cite. As one more example, during the ending of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, we see a moment of Marlene taking care of reunion flowers while under Elmyra's care. After looking at them, Marlene and Barret call out to each other, foreshadowing a reunion in one of the next installments of Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

All right, so we see that these two love and think the world of each other. However, some view Barret as a poor father figure to Marlene for trusting her into someone else's care multiple times throughout the story, including but not limited to:

Having Tifa care for Marlene while AVALANCHE goes after mako reactors in Midgar; having Elmyra care for Marlene while Barret joins the crew to go after Sephiroth; and after defeating Sephiroth and Meteor, trusting Cloud and Tifa to act as parental figures to Marlene while Barret heads back to Corel to atone for his past and find a new purpose besides being a man with a weapon as his right arm.

All right, so based on these moments, one could argue that Barret is not being a good father due to how often he leaves Marlene in the care of someone else, and instead of truly settling down as her caretaker, pursues purpose(s) he thinks are more important.

However, I do not fully agree with this view, nor do I fully agree with other views that Barret's incapable of being a good father. Do I think he could be a better Father to Marlene? Perhaps, yes. Many of the roles that our heroes in Final Fantasy 7 have are not done perfectly. There are examples I could discuss now, but I'll save that for later. For now, I argue the reason Barret leaves Marlene in the hands of others is that...

Life’s answers for the greater good aren’t always as simple as they seem. To do what’s best for someone you look after--in this case, Barret’s daughter--there may come a time when someone else can fill in as a guardian if the person does not have enough emotional availability to care for an individual.

Allow me to demonstrate explain, first by starting with how long Barret has been her father figure in the first place: around 4 years. Barret adopted her to take his Dyne’s place as Marlene’s father figure. Dyne, his best friend, was lost when Shinra took their usual cover-up approach when a mako reactor incident occurred in Barret and Dyne’s hometown, Corel. Instead of owning up to their mistake, Shinra decided to destroy everything remaining in Corel, including its inhabitants. Barret tried to save Dyne, but his right arm that was holding Dyne was shot by a Shinra trooper, causing him to lose control of his forearm and leading to Dyne facing an unfortunate fall into the Corel prison. Among the inhabitants in Corel, Marlene was an infant when Barret took her in as an adopted daughter. Infact, here’s her character bio in a Final Fantasy Ultimania:

Barret’s four-year-old adopted daughter. She views Barret as her real father, having no memories of her birth father, Dyne (Barret’s old friend). Marlene is remarkably composed for a young child and even occasionally runs 7th heaven by herself. - Final Fantasy Ultimania Archive Volume 2 (Pg. 063).

So based on the context the story gives us, we can conclude Barret spent 4 years looking after Marlene while residing in Midgar. He was probably in the middle of taking on odd jobs during this time, of course, and could not see her 24/7. However, such action is necessary if he is to make a living for himself, and more importantly Marlene. Ultimately that part is up to interpretation. What’s not open to interpretation is when Tifa became a part of AVALANCHE, she was the one looking after Marlene during Barret’s missions with his crewmates (Wedge, Biggs, Jessie). While we know Barret was not always around to watch Marlene, we can conclude that he knew who to entrust his daughter’s safety towards, as someone like Tifa has many motherly qualities, and above many things, wants people to live, especially people she cherishes (And of course she eventually becomes Marlene’s mother figure along with Cloud acting as the father figure when Barret heads to Corel). Eventually, when the team decides to go after Aerith at Shinra HQ, Barret entrusts Marlene to someone else once again. This time. it’s Aerith’s step-mother Elmyra, who will continue to watch over Marlene until the end of our heroes’ journey. Perhaps we’ll get a moment of reunion near the end of Final Fantasy 7 Remake when the team returns to the people they are fighting for, but for the next month Marlene is without her father.

All right, we know the endgame of Final Fantasy 7. The team survives the Lifestream-Holy-Meteor clash and they are alive, but now they must find a purpose in their new lives. While Barret stays with Cloud, Tifa, and Marlene at edge for some number of months, helping to build a new Seventh Heaven bar and home for Cloud and Tifa, he eventually decides to embark to Corel and leave Marlene under the care of Cloud and Tifa.

Wow, what a way to not look after your child that you dote on so much, right? For being her adopted father, Barret sure does leave Marlene in the hands of someone else pretty often. For some people, this can lead to the conclusion that Barret is not a good father figure to Marlene and needs to learn how to settle down and act as a real parent for her. While it can be said that Barret’s not an amazing father, I believe what he’s doing does have a realistic approach. He has no job, he doesn’t feel fully available to watch his daughter, and in the midst of this there are two people who are more than willing--and happy--to look after the person he cares about so much. If Marlene can receive a better quality-of-life from someone close for the time being, isn’t it best to give her that better life for now?

Well, I want to get a bit anecdotal about this. I come from a family of 7 children so I got 6 siblings: 2 older half-sisters, 1 younger full-blooded sister, 1 younger half-brother, and 2 younger half-sisters (5 sisters, 1 brother). Well over a decade ago when there was 4 of us, my biological father and mother divorced, and the aftermath was extremely detrimental to everyone. My mother was in a heavy state of depression and lost a lot of money; there was very little food to come by; us children were pretty much doing as we pleased with little consequence at the time; and my birth father was hardly there to support anyone but my younger sister and me.

So what action did my mother take for my older sisters? She sent them to another state for a year where our grandparents resided, as they were in a financially and mentally stable situation that could benefit my sisters for the time-being.

I could be here all day talking about the outcomes in minute detail, but to make sure that doesn’t happen, I’ll give the general aftermath: Eventually my mother recovered, found someone who became a doting step-father for all of us, and has unconditionally supported all of us in what we do with our lives.

The point here is that life throws us in complicated situations, and parents sometimes hit said situations that involve their child(ren). Many parents will absolutely dote over their children. Barret absolutely dotes over Marlene and is extremely concerned for her safety. But like Barret, there arise decisions in one’s life that involve changing guardianship for children. Some people have to work overseas and cannot take their children with them, so for a little while they can entrust that duty to someone else they are close to. If I’m going to draw parallels from other games, then the Persona series is a good example. I’ll be more specific: Persona 4. The protagonist is sent to Inaba where his uncle, Ryotaro Dojima, resides with his daughter. This happens because the protagonist’s parents’ jobs require that they be sent overseas. But his parents do not have to worry about their son’s livelihood because he’s sent to be supervised under someone that they trust, and someone they’re related to.

Conclusion

Nobody is perfect, and life is complicated. Sometimes there are roles in our life that we want to accomplish, but when it involves someone you care about, especially your own child, you want to make sure they have the best life possible. Maybe Barret would love to spend his time with Marlene as much as possible, but before he can really do that, he needs to get his own life together first. When that happens, then he can return to the person he loves more than anyone else in Gaia. Let’s always remember: Children are brought into this world, and it’s a cruel world, just like the real world. We want them to be as prepared as possible for the challenges life throws at them, so while they’re still young, look for the greatest good they can get, like Barret does.

#ff7 #ffvii #ffviir #final fantasy 7 #final fantasy 7 remake #final fantasy #barret wallace #marlene Wallace #barret #life gives us interesting situations #anecdotal experience #ff7 remake #Ff7r

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deadofwinterrp · 5 years ago

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[Character information]

Full Name: Rooney Dubois

Age: 19

Gender: Female

Place of Origin: Denver, Colorado

FC: Halle Bailey

Role within the community: Runner

How long have they been in Sanctuary: 1 year, 2 months

[Traits]

+ Hardworking, Resourceful, Courageous. - Stubborn, Bitter, Vindictive.

[Connections]

Quincy Dubois (Older brother), Riley Dubois (Older sister), Wesley Dubois (Twin Brother), Beanie Dubois (younger sister- deceased), Maizie Dubois (adopted as an infant)

[Biography]

BEFORE:

[ TW: Mentions of child abuse/death ]

Rooney’s life had never been easy. Growing up the youngest (by just a few minutes) of four in a down-trodden part of Colorado meant quite a few things. The most prominent thing was the abusive household the kids were in. Of the four, Quincy was the oldest. With Quincy around, the abuse and neglect was not nearly as bad. He defended his younger siblings and made sure they had food and clothing. Her older brother was her idol, and the one person in the house who actually took care of them. He’d send money to ensure they had food to eat. Even with his money from the military, things around the house were rough. Riley did her best to take care of her and Wesley, but it wasn’t easy. There were days when they wouldn’t eat. The abuse picked up as well, though no one around them seemed to pick up on that at first. Rooney, having no understanding of how the postal system worked, would try to write Quincy letters by simply placing them in the mailbox with his name on them. In one of her last attempts to do this, the postal worker must have read it. Rooney detailed how their parents had had another child (a girl that Rooney and Wesley named Beanie) and things were extremely scary. She guessed that their postal worker not only read it, but reported the letter to DCFS. Shortly after that, they were taken away from the home. Riley was placed in a girls’ home while Wesley, Beanie, and herself were put into a foster home.

At first, the kids were all kept together. They didn’t stay in one home for too long, and though a few showed interest in adopting Beanie, they were ultimately shuffled from place to place. For the most part they were kept together, though there were a few short times where they were seperated. At thirteen, however, Wesley was pulled from the home the three of them were in. The absence of her twin brother devastated Rooney. Rooney, who was already exhibiting behavioral issues as a result of trauma, started to spiral. She started to run away with Beanie whenever possible. A few times they were able to track down Wesley before ultimately being caught and put back into a home. At fourteen she was pulled from Beanie permanently. Throughout their time in foster care, they’d had their fair share of abusive homes. Most of which, Rooney thought, were just as bad or worse than the home they had with her parents. Rooney started getting into trouble at about twelve, and though none of the trouble was extremely bad…it was enough to put a strain on foster homes. More than once her antics landed her in a juvenile detention center, and when she emerged it was always into a new foster placement. At sixteen she was put into a new home where she was put through the worst abuse she’d ever endured. The mother was nice enough, but the father hated her. Most of the abuse was done when others weren’t around, and Rooney tried to tell herself that she would turn eighteen in a few years and that it would be over. She could find Beanie and things would be okay. Then a few months after her sixteenth birthday a day came when she did something she never thought she would have to: she killed her foster father. One day after school he came at her and started to strangle her. Rooney reacted by stabbing him in the stomach with a pocket knife she had. He collapsed to the ground and Rooney fled the house. She thought they would immediately be on to her, but that wasn’t the case. When she came home later that night, it was to the rest of the family and the police who sat her down to explain what happened. Rooney never told them the truth, and shortly after she was pulled from the home and put into a home for girls.

AFTER:

Things did not begin to fall into place immediately. It was more like a series of odd events that built up to the fall of everything. But once things started ramping up, Rooney knew she had to find her sister. Since everything started, Rooney was traveling with her younger sister Beanie for the most part. Beanie was a spritely kid who lit up each room she pranced into. The moment everything went to shit, Rooney knew she had to find her. She shouldn’t have known where her younger sister’s foster home was, but she did. She stole a car (‘Is it stealing if the car is abandoned?’, she’d asked herself) and made the journey to the home, trying to convince herself that her sister would be there. And by some odd stroke of luck, possibly one of the only ones that had settled upon Rooney’s head in a long time, she was. Unfortunately for Rooney, it seemed to be one of the very few times she wasn’t alone. Randy and Joy reminded Rooney far too much of their parents- the ones who’d gotten them into this whole foster care business in the first place. Randy was an abusive drunk, and Joy was much the same. When Rooney entered the house they’d actually tried to keep Beanie from her. Rooney told them in a rather unpleasant way that that wouldn’t be happening. Once Joy looked out the front window to see their neighbor eating the face of their other neighbor, they both relented. Perhaps it was best for Beanie to go with her after all.

The two girls holed up in an L.L. Bean store for a week and a half following that initial day. There were a number of scares, but they made it through. They always made it through, she remembers telling her sister. Until one day they didn’t. After one too many close calls, they made the decision to leave the store. Well, Rooney made the decision for them. At nine years old Beanie was in no position to make a decision at all. Especially given that her suggestion was for them to live inside of ‘Lollipops and Gumdrops’, the candy store that neither of them ever had money to buy anything from. So they went on the road, hopping from house to house. On the fourth day after leaving their temporary safe haven, disaster found them. They were in a house when Rooney heard it. Engines. Beanie was fast asleep next to her, and didn’t wake up quick enough for the two to make their getaway. The group found them running through the back of the house and barred them from leaving. Rooney was strong, but she knew it wasn’t possible to take on the grown group of adults in front of her. One of the men approached Beanie and threatened her with a knife. Rooney made a go at him, but it made no difference. Within the blink of an eye, he’d stabbed her little sister. In a place that Rooney knew all too well was one you didn’t come back from. He turned and stabbed Rooney a few seconds later. She saw the blade go into her stomach and stumbled backwards, falling to the floor. She was convinced that she was dying as she lay on the floor next to her sister, but then there were suddenly more people. And before Rooney knew it, they’d killed most of them.

After what happened to her sister, Rooney decided to stay with the group that had rescued her. Not that she had much of a choice, due to her injury. Surely if she’d gone off on her own then she would have died. And while she wasn’t completely keen on spending her time with strangers, she did want to live. It didn’t take long for Rooney to actually start to like the group. On their journey they mostly ran into zombies that were either alone or in pairs. But one day they ran into a hoard and were separated. Rooney has absolutely no idea whether the others survived, or where they could possibly be, but she wants to find them. The event that happened that day with her foster father has deeply scarred Rooney. But if that had been the only thing that happened then maybe she would feel different. However, her sister’s murder sealed the deal in regards to her position on violence. She hates it. It scares her, and it scares her that she could have done something so violent. Sure, it was self defense, but her brain won’t let her forget the outcome. When you grow up in environments that have abuse, violence can become second nature. You’re constantly having to defend yourself, or those around you, and so it’s easy for her to fall back into old habits. It’s easy for her to fight, because that’s what she’s always known but she’s no longer rushing at the opportunity. In fact, as of late she’s purposefully gone out of her way to not get into fights.

Six months since the horde passed through the Sanctuary and Rooney’s life is completely different from what it was before. Not long before the horde, she discovered that her brother Quincy was still very much alive. Not only that, but he’d found her and was now a part of the Sanctuary. At first, this was something she hated. For years she’d told herself she hated him for leaving them. Blamed him, even. But time has softened her disposition towards him. The more time she spends with her brother, the more she sees bits of her other siblings. Her brother isn’t the only different thing in her life. During the horde attack, Rooney found herself with a group containing a single mother who was struggling to help her four children get away. One of them was a newborn baby. The mother put the baby in Rooney’s care, and ultimately perished with her other three children. Rooney has adopted the baby into the Dubois family- small as it is. The tradition of naming kids in the Dubois household was rather interesting. Their parents never actually named any of their kids. Instead, the children themselves did it. This was not done as a gift from their parents, but rather out of disinterest. Quincy started by naming Riley and on went the names. Beanie was named by Rooney and her twin brother. All of the Dubois kids have a name ending with ‘y’ or an ‘ie’ sound. One day out of interest, years before zombies were even a blip on their radar, Rooney asked her little sister if she had a chance to name a sibling what she might go with. They both knew this was an impossibility, but it was a bit of fun. Beanie immediately responded ‘Maizie’. With things so chaotic during the horde attack, it wasn’t until after that Rooney realized the little girl was nameless. Per tradition she gained the name her baby sister loved so much- Maizie.

#survivor: female #tw: child abuse #tw: death #survivor: all

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justanoutlawfic · 7 years ago

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Broken Together: A The Lost Get Found Prequel

I was watching This Is Us last night, which showed the story of how one of the couples chose to foster adopt. It made me want to write about Snowing’s journey to adopting Emma (and later Neal) in this verse. My late anniversary one shot for this series, because I’ve been writing it for over a year now. You guys have given it so much support and love and I’ll be forever grateful for everyone who has read and shared. This verse means the world to me, as does all of you who read it.

Trigger warning: mentions of infertility.

Also on AO3/FF

Maybe you and I were never meant to be complete

Could we just be broken together

If you can bring your shattered dreams and I'll bring mine

Could healing still be spoken and save us

The only way we'll last forever is broken together-Casting Crowns

David could hear Mary crying and it broke his heart.

That morning they had gone to the doctor, buzzing with excitement. On Christmas they had gotten a positive pregnancy test. They had spent the next few days talking about the baby, picking out names. They had gotten so ahead of themselves, it had just been a long time coming. They were finally going to be parents!

Then the doctor ran some tests and a few more. He walked back into the room with a sullen face. Mary wasn’t pregnant. She hadn’t lost the baby, there had never been one to begin with.

“It’s rare, but false positives do happen,” he had told them.

Mary didn’t say anything, she was quiet. From the moment they left the office and on the whole car ride home, not a single word escaped her mouth. David tried to do what he did best, comfort her. He told her they could try again, that they would have a baby someday. Her eyes stayed focused on the road ahead of them. When they got home, she went straight up to their room. David followed at first, only to get a door slammed in his face. She needed her space, he respected that.

Now she was sobbing and he wanted to do anything he could to fix it. He knew he deep down there was nothing he could do. She wasn’t pregnant, they weren’t going to be welcoming a child into the world.

Next Christmas, once again, it’d just be the two of them.

David was okay with that, he would be fine if it was just the two of them until the day he died. He married Mary because he loved her, not for the possibility of a baby. He knew she would be, too. It still wasn’t their dream.

A single tear fell down his face. He wanted a child, he wanted a family. David had been that kid obsessed with dolls and babies, he babysat for families nearby the farm. He loved kids, he ran lots of events for the children of Storybrooke. Everyone always asked when he was going to have one of his own.

Maybe it wasn’t going to happen. Maybe his dream wasn’t meant to come true.

“I don’t want to try again.”

The words slipped out of Mary’s mouth so quickly, she couldn’t take them back. She didn’t want to, but she had been keeping it in since the doctor’s office. It had been 2 weeks and she was due to return to work soon. She and David sat at their usual table at Granny’s. His hand hovered over his coffee mug, staring at her.

“What?”

“I…I think I want to get on the pill. Just so there’s no possible way that I could get pregnant.” It was pretty redundant in her mind, since it clearly wasn’t going to happen, but she didn’t even want to think it could.

David’s brows furrowed. “I don’t understand. Are you saying you don’t want a baby?”

“I’m saying I don’t want to ever think I’m pregnant again.” Mary chewed on her lip. “David, these past few weeks have been hell on me, on us. This is just from us finding out that we weren’t really pregnant. What if I did…and then I lost the baby? I don’t think I could handle it.”

He slowly nodded. “Whatever you want.”

“I do still want a child,” she told him. “I just…it’s obvious that I’m not going to be able to carry him or her. There are other ways.”

David reached over and took her hand. “Of course there are, we can talk about them all.”

Mary let out a deep breath. “I’m sorry, David.”

“Hey, don’t do that. Don’t blame yourself.”

“But it’s my fault. You heard the doctor…”

“These things just happen. There’s nothing you could’ve done to prevent it.” David lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it. “Mary, I just need you to know, no matter what. I love you. If it’s just us, I’ll be okay with that.”

Mary bit her lip once again. “That’s not your dream.”

“Sometimes happy endings aren’t what we think they’ll be.” He smiled. “I just need you for mine, you have to know that.”

She nodded and gave him a weak half-smile. Mary knew he was right, she felt the same. Deep down, though, she really wanted a baby.

A few days later, school had started up once again. Mary stood in her classroom, addressing 20 4th graders, who were still on a vacation buzz. It was hard to get their attention, but she managed to convince them to share at least one fun thing they had done over the break. The day went by quicker than she expected.

After her assistant helped the bus-riders to their specific lane, she stayed behind with those who were going to be picked up. One of her students, Joselyn, was coloring when her mother walked in, holding two car seats. Mary raised an eyebrow and stood up, walking over to Dory.

“Hey Mary,” Dory grinned. “How was your holiday?”

“It was okay. Who are these two?”

“This is Nicholas and Ava,” she explained.

Mary smiled down at the infants, tickling their chins. They gurgled up at her, pumping their fists. “I didn’t know you were pregnant.”

“I wasn’t. They sort of fell into me and Michael’s laps. He had a niece who was pregnant, she didn’t tell anyone until she was in her last month. She wasn’t ready to be a mother, so she asked us to adopt them.”

Mary paused. “Adoption, huh?”

Dory shrugged. “We always talked about doing it, we had some troubles conceiving Joselyn, but she was our surprise. There are just so many babies in need of a home.”

Mary nodded in agreement as Dory walked over to help her eldest daughter with her things. She knew she had to talk to David.

“I don’t need a child that I share blood with,” Mary told David that night over dinner.

He nodded in agreement. “I was hoping you’d bring this up.”

She giggled. “Why didn’t you?”

“I just wanted to wait. We just found out that you weren’t really pregnant, I figured I’d give it time.”

“Michael’s niece was lucky, she had family to take her babies. Not everyone is. I just…I think we have a lot to offer.”

David grinned. “Well, then let’s start looking.”

The next few months were spent looking into agencies and putting out applications. They built a profile and allowed their agency to put it up. They got some interviews, but nothing concrete. Mary loved each young woman that they came into contact with, yet wasn’t surprised when they would get the call from their social worker saying she went with someone else.

Mary was a school teacher, David the town sheriff. They had references, a beautiful home. Yet, something just seemed to be working against them. After the 5th failed match, David was starting to lose hope.

He was sitting at his desk one afternoon when Graham walked in, holding two cups of coffee. David looked up with a grateful smile.

“Thanks,” he said, accepting it.

“No problem.” Graham sat across from him and took out his phone. “Aw, yes.”

“What?”

“Nothing, it’s just my sister and brother-in-law. They’ve been fostering these three kids for the past two years and just found out they get to adopt them.”

David arched an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Yeah, now that their other kids are older, they wanted to give back. There are so many children in the system in need of homes.”

So, David did his research. He found videos of people who had fostered, from former foster children themselves. The statistics of foster care were alarming, so many children were in need of good, stable homes. While a lot of the children were going to be reunited with their families at some point, there were many in need of forever homes.

He waited another week before bringing it up to Mary. They had yet another failed interview and he could tell she was growing discouraged. It started off by simply sending her a video of a family adopting their foster child. He figured at the least, she’d think of it as a cute little story. She was constantly tearing up over happy Facebook posts.

That night, he worked one of the rare late shifts. As sheriff, he normally would choose to be home before dinner, but Leroy had requested him to switch. He didn’t get home until a little after midnight, being careful not to wake his sleeping wife as he changed and crawled into bed.

Moments later, he felt a pair of arms wrap around his waist.

“Fostering, huh?” She whispered.

He slowly smiled. “You’re still awake.”

“I was waiting for you. You know there are risks, don’t you? There’s a chance that the child could be reunited with a biological family member.”

“And a birth mother can change her mind up until the adoption is finalized,” he pointed out.

“You really wouldn’t mind possibly not getting a baby?”

“I just want to be a dad. I don’t care how old the child is.”

He finally looked down at her, the moonlight drifting through their window. A smile had spread across her face and he traced her cheek with his finger.

“Okay,” she whispered.

“Are you sure?”

“You said that sometimes happy endings aren’t what we expect. We’d still be helping a child that needs a home, we’d still become parents. I want to do this, I already started looking into classes.”

He grinned and kissed her. “I love you, so much.”

“I love you too, more than words can say.”

She snuggled into his side and he held her closer.

“You do realize this means we could have a baby by Christmas after all, you know,” he whispered.

Snow smiled. “I can’t wait.”

Little did they know their baby, their child, was just 4 hours away in a group home in Boston. She had long given up hope.

Luckily for her, they had enough hope for all three of them.

#snowing #snowing au #charming family #charming family au #the lost get found verse #mama snow #mama snow au #daddy charming #daddy charming au

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axolotiels · 8 years ago

Text

That’s Not How the Story Goes

Once upon a time when I was a wee little writer who had recently finished ASOUE, I was displeased that Lemony Snicket neither met the Baudelaires nor adopted them. I fixed that, and uncovered it recently, only to have to fix it again because little me wrote like a gremlin. You’ll see that not much has changed.

Enjoy!

It is my unfortunate duty to inform you that Lemony Snicket, a man thought to be dead many times over and with great penchant for writing utterly dismal stories about three ingenious orphans and their many escaped perils, has stepped out for a moment. I do not use the term 'step-out' to give another insinuation that he stepped out either in front of a moving car or off of a cliff to add another false death to his growing list; I merely mean that Mr. Snicket now has other obligations that are far more important than chronicling his dismay, delight, and other words that start with the letter 'd'.

'Delight' is not a word that many would associate with someone as melancholic as Mr. Snicket, and with good reason. Not only is his life an ongoing disaster, he also took the liberty of chronicling the equally disastrous lives of the Baudelaire orphans following their parent's demise.

Like it was my duty to inform you that Mr. Snicket has stepped out, it is also my duty to inform you that something most unimaginable has occurred following the end of his series following the Baudelaire orphans.

For those of you uninitiated in the final book written in his series of increasingly unfortunate coincidences, he stopped writing about his findings about the Baudelaires. Or rather, he stopped publishing his findings, because after that final book (Entitled 'The End') he had a very difficult time finding and following the Baudelaires.

He has entrusted the manuscripts that he has written to me, and I can safely assure you that there is little to no substance to them other than his signature writing style and Mr. Snicket bemoaning things as he is often prone to doing.

The Baudelaires, who had been through just about as much as a group of children could possibly go through, were staggering into a seaside town. It was a quiet place, and thusfar, nobody had noticed them. I wish, dear reader, that I could tell you how the Baudelaires managed to acquire new clothes, food, and medical treatment in such a short amount of time with nary a penny in their pockets (But with many pennies in the bank, which in retrospect, probably explains quite a lot.). I wish that I had been there to see it to pen it down with such accuracy as Mr. Snicket had before me, but alas... I would if I could, but I can't, so I shan't.

The Baudelaires were hardly lucky in anything that had thusfar happened to them, but in this tiny, dreary, seaside town that was riddled with caves and people who did not ask too many questions, they were relatively well off. Both Violet and Klaus were able to acquire jobs, though they didn't pay enough to allow them much extra beyond paying rent and eating food. It was almost a ritual that the Baudelaires had whenever either Klaus or Violet received a paycheck that they made some remark or other about 'it's better than being paid in gum and coupons'. Nobody laughed but it was in good enough humor.

They didn't see that many people, and were quite reclusive, as children who had been through so much were prone to being. In truth, they did not need the jobs they had. Violet, the eldest, had inherited the Baudelaire fortune on her eighteenth birthday; the fortune was one of the things that caused their many problems, but they would be quite foolish not to use it. Besides that, Violet and Klaus enjoyed having something to do, including forgetting that they had quite a lot of money as they tried to subsist off their wages, panicking, remembered their savings account, and starting the cycle again.

It just so happened that the 'something to do' on this fateful cloudy day was going out for a stroll while they went to the nearest supermarket in the midst of the town.

Klaus Baudelaire was the one who was walking along in the middle, Violet was tailing behind him and reading a list of whatever it was that they needed to procure, and Sunny was walking resolutely ahead of them. An old man was sweeping up the barber shop that stayed open despite seemingly only having three customers, and when they passed, they waved.

It is my gathering and the gathering of a fellow agent by the name of Kingsleigh that the Baudelaires largely enjoyed their home in the town by the sea because it was so close to water. It was not a beach, like the place from whence they had come, although there was certainly a gray and pebbly beach nearby, but it was a town that was so nearby water that it made them feel the littlest bit safer. After all, when everything you had kept going up in smoke, literally and figuratively, you'd take measures to counteract such things.

After disappearing into the supermarket that was hidden beneath a dull gray sky, they reappeared with a few bags of groceries and other assorted items. Klaus had picked up writing materials and common-place books, which he seemed to have an awful lot of, Sunny had purchased a few extra-strong teething rings for herself, and Violet had purchased a few random screws, nails, gears, and whatever it was that the market had in its tiny hardware section. Klaus was a reader, but he had taken quite a shine to writing as well. He remembered everything he had ever read, from the Baudelaire library, to the dismal secrets of VFD, even recipes to make foods which he was sure did not exist. Sunny was still working on special skills that could apply in a much calmer setting, but since she was a small baby (Which was not that very long ago, really) she had four very sharp teeth that could sever the toughest wires and even be used to climb large elevator shafts that happened to be empty. Violet was an inventor, and though her inventions now were mostly alarms, detection rackets, and ways to keep track of things that did not need keeping track of, she had proved quite adept at pulling inventions out of thin air when hurtling down a mountain backwards at high speed.

These skills were, for the most part, useless in their quiet life in the quiet town next to the quiet sea where scarcely anything happened. This was quite fine by them.

As they walked down the main street of the town, each of them thinking their own thoughts as most are prone to doing, Klaus suddenly looked at his elder sister and said, “Do you think we could stop for some tea?”

Violet looked up, surprised. “I don't see why not, but it does look close to raining.”

Sunny, who had overheard their conversation, responded with, “It always looks like it's going to rain.” But she said it in a merry way, like she was daydreaming, which the young Baudelaire was most certainly not.

Violet considered this and motioned for them to turn a corner a bit earlier than usual. Down the street was the town's only tea-shop, a store for tourists that sold the usual sand in bottles and colored seashells, a paint store that helped to paint said seashells, and a library that had been abandoned long ago and was now hollow of its books.

They stopped at the tea shop that only had outside seating beneath two weather worn umbrellas, and the Baudelaires sat down outside at a table and rung the service bell. Now that nothing was happening to them, they had a lot less to talk about, so they sat there in silence and watched whatever bird dared to flit across the sky above the town.

I impart something else upon you, for those initiated: the Baudelaires had previously acquired an infant. This child was someone they often thought about in their silent gray town, wondering where she was and how she was doing and whether or not she had been carried away by some large sea bird. The Snicket whose place I now take once had two siblings: a brother named Jacques, who was rather unfortunately murdered at the Village of Fowl Devotees, and a sister named Kit, who also perished but due to something that I am not allowed to talk about, despite Mr. Snicket having written at least 3 separate books containing information about what I am not allowed to talk about. (Which is a deadly fungus named Medusoid Mycelium). This sister, Kit, had accompanied the Baudelaires to their previous home (Here to mentioned in book 13; honestly, if you don't know all of this please go read this abysmal series for yourself.) and had the baby that the Baudelaires now thought an awful lot about. Beatrice, named after their mother, was quite ingenious and could read after only a few months, which is not something that babies are often inclined to do. The Baudelaires and Beatrice had been separated on their journey from their island home to the dreary mainland at which they found themselves now.

One can imagine that, though the Baudelaires tried their hardest to be happy and were happy for the most part, that such things like thinking about a lost infant that had become a part of a family that you no longer had would bring down your mood considerably. The saddened thoughts spread from sibling to sibling sometimes, as if they were all telepathically linked, which is a phenomenon that has not yet been taken as fact but may explain an awful lot.

The owner of the tea-shop stuck his head out of the door, took their order (Which, like the weather, was much too drab to remember properly, especially with only Mr. Snicket's rather hazy eyewitness account) and went back inside.

The Baudelaires, as you may have gathered, had become very suspicious people. They had not set out to become suspicious people, just as you never set out to become a strawberry-crazed maniac with a large stick or an associate and I to become ghost writers for one of our organization's last standing agents. It was merely the circumstances with which they found themselves that forced them from becoming three nice young kids to three nice young kids that would jump at the drop of a hat. Agent Kingsleigh has relayed to me that there was scarcely a day when they did not jump at shadows or unexplained noises in the night. So as you can imagine, the sight of a man in a gray suit staggering toward you with a suitcase in one hand and a look that was an amalgamate of several other emotions would most definitely arouse suspicion, even in a town as small and as nameless as the one that they lived in.

Violet looked up and eyed him down fiercely, sitting as straight up as she could. Before the man could speak, she held out one hand in a 'stop before I throw this screw-driver at you' gesture. “Can we help you?”

The man stopped, and the Baudelaires finally were able to get a good look at his face. His hair was black and neatly combed but still looked as all hair looks when its owner is under tremendous stress. His suitcase looked to barely be holding itself together, watermarks and scratches ripping their way through the dusty brown leather. Klaus held back a grimace; perhaps the most disconcerting thing about this shambling man was his face, and by extension, his eyes.

Eyes, like being suspicious, were also something that the Baudelaires were exceedingly familiar with. The man did not have eyes that resembled the insignia of VFD, but they knew those eyes. They were scarily similar to their own, weathered and gray beneath their actual color. The eyes of a person who had seen everything, lost it, worked hard to regain it and had it ripped out from under them like a poorly-woven rug. The man was not old but looked to be aged by stress, much like his hair.

Having met Mr. Snicket on a few occasions, though most of these were as he was on the run from quite a few rather rude men and women who wanted to tie him to the front of a boat and sail into the sunset or things of a similar ilk, I can say that Mr. Snicket exudes a very depressing aura. He is melancholy by nature, and with good reason to be. A melancholic aura was not the aura that the Baudelaires gathered about him that day. Agent Kingsleigh has reported that the aura that Lemony Snicket projected was that of horrifically happy disbelief, which is an amalgamate of 3 separate emotions.

He stood there with his mouth agape and the hand that held his suitcase shaking.

“I...” The man tried to speak and found himself unable, taking another step forward before being stopped again.

“Can we help you?” Violet said again, not in the mood for any more nonsense for the rest of her life.

The man in the gray suit cleared his throat and straightened himself up, but still looked windblown and disheveled. “I... you do not know me, Baudelaires,” He said, his voice a deep and saddened baritone that sounded like it was trying its best to be both nonthreatening and to keep its owner from coming to tears. “But I know... I know you.”

This is a very alarming thing to hear when one has led a completely normal life and has not been chased across the country and over the seas by a man with a unibrow and a bad habit of setting important things on fire while blaming other people. The Baudelaires had in fact spent quite a few years of their lives fighting away this man with a unibrow and every bad habit imaginable, so hearing a man who looked as though he'd been dragged through a hurricane over a particularly angry lake say that 'he knew them' was a rather frightening thing to hear.

“No. No, no, no, we have had more than enough of people following us and giving us trouble.” It was Klaus who spoke up this time, a defiantly cautious glint in his eye.

The man looked mildly disappointed for a second, but his expression remained mostly unchanged. “I-I know, Baudelaires. Forgive me for surprising you but-”

Violet stood at the table as the pleasant smell of blueberry pastries and sugary tea contrasted sharply with the less-sweet attitude with which the Baudelaires had surrounded themselves. “Unless you have come bearing news about anyone named Beatrice Snicket, we would appreciate it if you let us alone. Good day sir.” She said this like a man who was attempting to throw a small child from a chocolate factory. I do not know why she mentioned Beatrice, but bless her for doing so.

At the sound of the two names, both 'Beatrice' and 'Snicket' respectively, the man froze again. Even his shaking stopped, and for a few moments, he looked as though he were on the brink of collapse. His eyes flashed and he faltered again, but this time he asked a question. “Beatrice... Beatrice Snicket? There is no Beatrice Snicket.”

A cold wind blew through the street and shifted him a bit in place, hiding the shiver that racked him. With every passing second, his eyes seemed to grow bigger and the Baudelaires said no more, waiting.

“Beatrice married Bertrand.” The man in the gray suit said slowly.

“Beatrice didn't marry our father.” Klaus said, and saw Sunny give the man the most suspicious once-over he'd ever seen. “She never even knew out father.”

The man in the suit looked bewildered, running his hand through his dull black hair. “Who is... Baudelaires, I...” For someone who made his existence entirely on words, he found himself at a remarkable lack of any.

“We would greatly appreciate it,” Violet said in a calm but utterly venomous voice. “If you would leave my siblings and I alone.”

Once again, the man only stared, and the Baudelaires were left to wonder what was taking their tea so long. He straightened himself but still did not move in the quiet street of the quiet town. After he appeared to be lost in thought even among all of the other emotions that his face betrayed him of feeling, he said in a hushed voice, “My niece. Beatrice Snicket is... is my niece.”

It had taken quite a bit of time for Mr. Snicket to gather this information despite all of the evidence pointing at it in the most obvious way. When one has been through as much grief and gross disbelief as much as Mr. Snicket and the Baudelaires both had, it can be quite hard to articulate speech. This was precisely what was happening to Mr. Snicket at that moment in time. He actually managed to take a deep breath and exhale it slowly enough to speak in a more understandable and less chopped up manner.

“Baudelaires, I am sorry to intrude on your personal space but please allow me to introduce myself. I am Lemony Snicket. I'm the last...” He faltered, and spoke up again. “the last living Snicket. Unless my... my niece Beatrice is still alive.”

The Baudelaires said nothing, stunned but still not quite as stunned as they once would have been. They collectively wondered where their tea was.

“I.... Baudelaires, I've been trying to find you since the fire. The-the fire I was framed for.” He was allowed to take a few flat steps forward as another gust of wind funneled down from the sky.

Violet, Klaus, and Sunny exchanged judgmental glances. “The Snicket file?” It was Sunny who spoke up this time. Despite not even being a fully-fledged child, she was remarkably articulate, especially when things such as this came into the equation.

For a second, Snicket looked relieved. “Yes, that's... that's the one.” He became serious again quickly. “I'm very sure that you're well aware that Count Olaf started a great many of those fires, including yours.”

“What do you know about Count Olaf?” Klaus asked, trying to funnel away the almost mocking tone he had acquired. They were less threatened and more annoyed by now, but they were also curious.

A clatter came from inside the tea-shop's kitchen, and everyone jumped. 'Clatter' is a word which means a loud crashing of plates, or in this case, 'agent Kingsleigh finally realizes that Lemony Snicket is standing outside and rushes to contact our supervisor'. I am sorry to inform you that this clatter overshadowed the conversation. What you are about to experience is what is known as a chronological jump, in which I am forced to skip a few details which, fortunately enough for me, are not absolutely instrumental in the retelling of this account.

By the time the tea-shop completed the Baudelaire's order, Lemony Snicket was seated across from them at a table. The siblings had crowded close to each other like birds in a storm, listening and talking whilst trying to make some amount of sense. They could tell that this man who now sat across from them and who was trying to keep from bursting into tears at any given moment, had been through a lot.

They had told him about their endeavors on the island, which he had not been able to follow, and were about halfway through when the shop owner passed them their tea and blueberry turnovers before going back inside and tending to the telegram he'd received from me.

“So, Baudelaires please allow me to attempt to digest this,” They did and waited for his response. “Kit is in fact deceased, she had a baby whom you named Beatrice, and on your way back you somehow lost her and you have ended up... here.” He sounded as though he were about to cry, which was not a new development but a distressing one nonetheless.

Violet nodded. “We're sorry about your siblings, Mr. Snicket.”

“I can't imagine what it would be like to lose Violet or Sunny, especially after all we've been through.” Added Klaus, suddenly feeling very ill at ease, though he couldn't figure out exactly what made him feel that way besides everything.

Snicket gave them a weak smile. “I don't expect you to, Baudelaires. With all that's happened, I'd hoped that you wouldn't have to.”

There was something both oddly comforting and oddly unnerving about the things the man called Lemony Snicket said. I am to believe that at that point, he had told them that he'd been chronicling their misfortunes, and they had understood that it had something to do with VFD. There was also something else that Mr. Snicket was hiding, and this they knew well, despite having seen him for all of about twenty minutes.

“What are you going to do now, Mr. Snicket?” Violet asked while taking a tentative sip from her tea. She didn't think the tea would harm her in any way, but she was very put off by whatever was occurring, even if it was harmless and terribly sad rather than harmful and terribly sad.

He thought for a moment, penning down details that he had observed from the Baudelaires and their tellings of their time on the island whilst attempting to keep the wind from blowing them away. “I don't know. I never do. But,” he looked up with his eyes flashing, if only a little, “I'm not running from anyone anymore, not at the moment anyway. I suppose I have you three extraordinary children to thank for that.”

They looked at him a bit stunned. He was correct, of course, but it was still an odd thing to hear. What he said was 'thank you'; what he meant was 'thank you for killing Count Olaf or otherwise letting him die, as it now puts me further away from danger as well as you further away from danger'.

Lemony Snicket went back to his papers for a moment, his pen scratching furiously.

The Baudelaires were faced with a dilemma, a word which here means 'should we turn away this incredibly sad man with a tip of the hat once we leave' or 'should we further our interactions with this sad man though we are not obligated to do as such'.

Violet, Klaus, and Sunny all excused themselves for a moment and walked far enough away that the gusting wind disguised their hushed voices.

Again, I wish I could tell you what transpired, but neither I nor the agent working there that day was able to write down what it was that they were saying. Snicket was busy writing down thoughts of his own and glancing balefully up at the Baudelaires, appearing to almost believe that they would disappear like spirits or those who had been framed of murder if he did not keep looking to see if they were there.

Suddenly, Lemony Snicket had most of his work go up in smoke, a phrase which here means 'his papers did not spontaneously combust but a great few of them were scattered into the empty street by a rather rude gust of wind.' He clamped his suitcase shut and sprinted into the street, which is remarkable when one knows how many bone fractures he's had in the past.

The Baudelaires all rushed back to try and swat down the flutter of parchment, and with four people all hunting paper like cats, it was easily accomplished enough. Violet was given a perfunctory nod by each of her siblings while delivering a stack back to Snicket, and as she handed him the papers, she looked him in the eye.

“Mr. Snicket... do you have a place do stay?”

He furrowed his eyebrows, as if unable to comprehend the question, and then responded, “No, no, but I'll manage.”

“We know it isn't much, but we do have a couch.” Klaus spoke up from behind Violet; he'd taken his seat again alongside Sunny.

For a second, Snicket looked horrified. “No, no, Baudelaires, I couldn't accept that offer.”

Violet, who still held her cautious demeanor, was also struck with something akin to pity. “Please, Mr. Snicket you won't be any trouble.”

“Not to mention, it's getting a bit more blustery than this later tonight. Your papers won't survive a storm like this outside.” Klaus looked calmly at the man in the gray suit.

Snicket pursed his lips, deep in thought, as he often was. “I believe I've put you in enough danger already, Baudelaires. You never know who's following you when you're someone like me.”

Violet straightened up and looked him in the eye, an act that can be quite frightening, especially when one is a young woman who was ready to fight tooth and nail at any given time, should something go awry. “Even if you are being followed, Mr. Snicket, even you should know that we are more than capable of defending ourselves.”

Sunny glanced slyly at her sister and the now startled-looking man she was talking to. “She's right, you know. I still have my teeth.”

“I still have my inventing skills.” added Violet, crossing her arms.

“And I still have my memory and my books. More of the former than the latter.” Klaus crossed his arms as well, as did Sunny, and soon three fourths of the table was sitting resolutely with their arms crossed and their hair being mussed by the cantankerous winds.

“You've been through quite enough.” Snicket muttered, averting his eyes in favor of his scrambled parchments. It was not that he lacked empathy, but the fact that he thought he didn't deserve to be among their good graces. “If I were faster, perhaps I could have stopped some of those... those atrocious acts, but I was not. I don't want to be too slow for you again... it's best if I leave you be.”

The Baudelaires shared a thoughtful glance in the gusty afternoon in front of the tea shop. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny made a silent agreement without so much as a flick of the head. They ignored their forced cautious nature for the first time in a very long while.

Snicket had begun packing up his things when Sunny got up and placed one tiny hand on his forearm, and said in a strangely adult voice for someone so young, “We forgive you, L.” She said it with the implication that there was nothing to be forgiven, but all three of the easily startled siblings knew that he needed to hear it.

He looked up, and his expression of alarm seemed to melt into melancholic relief that only people like Mr. Snicket can manage. Once again, he looked as though he were about to cry, but once again again, this was not very new.

It took a moment for Snicket to respond while he made sure all of his papers and pens were in the right order and had not been rigged to explode. Once he was done, he was met by the three faces of the children it had taken him so, so long to find. He sighed and put one hand to his forehead. “I'm not going to change your minds, am I?”

“No.” They all responded in unison.

He quickly looked away with a soft grin playing on his lips as he wiped nonchalantly at one of his eyes, as if hiding tears was something he had to do often.

As it was my unfortunate duty to inform you that Mister Snicket stepped out, it is my much more pleasant duty to tell you that he did accept the offer to sleep on their couch. An even more pleasant bit of news is that this is the first time in at least ten years that he has not left the same post after three days of staying their. He has asked me to stop the recount here, and I shall respect his wishes. One more parting bit of information, but you did not hear it from me, and I did not hear it from Kingsleigh: The Baudelaires are quite enjoying having an uncle again.

#asoue #a series of unfortunate events #lemony snicket #his is prolly ooc af #lemony sniclets #jinx writes

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