I'm here! I haven't abandoned this! Don't give up on me!
To make a long story short, I'm here. Now it's time for review responses! (There are four this time. FOUR!)
JustVildaPotter: Yes! I achieved a chapter without major mistakes that was published at like two in the morning! Couples things are the best. Thanks for reviewing!
Raven: Thank you so much! Sunny is the most adorable and sarcastic baby. I should really include her more. Thanks for the review, I hope you like the chapter!
Guest: This is going to sound really dorky, but I honestly did a happy dance when I saw your review. (That's how much I love reviews.) Anyway, don't get in trouble in study hall, and thank you for reviewing! (But was it the 'Cod chowder!' that made you laugh? I must know.)
Guest (again I think, or it could be a completely different Guest): It has been too long! Here's some more more more!
I got really excited back there. Now, on with the story!
Chapter Thirteen
After a very awkward dinner and before a dessert that Phil promised would be "quite the surprise", the seven children shared their findings with one another, a phrase which here means: "Quigley, as the only one who had been doing any work, talked while the others listened."
"According to these tidal charts, the sugar bowl should be directly below Anwhistle Aquatics by now, in some place marked G.G."
"That's the Gorgonian Grotto." Fiona hesitated at the end of her sentence, debating whether she should share her next piece of information.
"And?" Violet prompted.
"The Gorgonian Grotto is home to the world's most deadly fungus, the Medusoid Mycelium. There's a poem written about it. It goes-"
"A single spore has such grim power, that you may die within the hour," recited Isadora. "I came across it in a book on mycology."
"It's convenient you found that," said Duncan. "Almost as if you needed to stumble across it for the purpose of some plot." Everyone ignored him.
"If the sugar bowl is in the Gorgonian Grotto," Fiona said slowly, "if that's where we're headed, this mission could be doomed."
"Fiona," said Klaus suddenly, pointing to the sonar screen. "What's that?" A strange object shaped like a giant question mark had appeared on the screen.
Fiona gasped. "Turn off all the lights and cut the engine. If we stay silent, it shouldn't see us." Violet dashed to the engine and turned it off, while Phil hobbled over to the main power switch and shut off everything else. The only light left in the engine room came from the sonar screen, somehow still on and glowing sea question mark was very close to the Queequeg now.
The thing suddenly rammed into the submarine, making a noise that sounded like an elephant, but was produced by something much, much worse.
Isadora let out a short scream of terror and clapped a hand to her mouth. Fiona instructed the others to get down on the floor, and they all did so immediately with no questions asked. All of them except Quigley, who stood next to Fiona as if petrified, staring at the sonar screen.
"You idiot," Fiona hissed out of the corner of her mouth.
"Right back atcha," Quigley whispered back.
The thing crashed into the Queequeg again, all while making the same horrifying noise. Isadora whimpered and buried her face in Duncan's shoulder.
The question mark swam up to the submarine one final time, but rather than attacking the craft again, it put up one of its giant eyes and looked through the porthole at the passengers. In an instant, Quigley and Fiona both slid their legs back and hit the floor in their stomachs, catching themselves with their hands as they did so. This worked well enough for them to avoid being seen by the monster -or perhaps it did see them and simply did not care, there is no way to tell- and the creature slowly swam away from the undersea craft.
"Is everyone all right?" the submarine captain asked as she and her new crew shakily stood up.
Isadora emmited another little squeak of terror and ran from the room. Quigley watched her run off with a confused look on his face, while Duncan called his sister's name and ran down the hallway after her.
"What the hell was that?" Violet asked Fiona, covering Sunny's ears to block out the use of profanity.
"My father called it the Great Unknown," said Fiona. "Even he didn't know what it was."
Violet opened her mouth to say something more, but Klaus interrupted. "We should all get to bed."
"How do you expect to sleep after that?" Violet asked, once again annoyed with everybody in the general vicinity.
Fiona sighed. "My father had a saying: He, or she, who hesitates is lost. I'll set a course for the Gorgonian Grotto, and we should be there by morning. Please don't hesitate to get some sleep."
"I don't think that saying applies-" Quigley began, but Fiona cut him off.
"No arguments. I'll see you all in the morning."
The way sadness and fear work is a curious thing. One minute, you can be talking and laughing with family and friends, and the next minute something can happen that causes you to relive painful memories, resulting in your shaking in a ball on the floor, with no one but your brother to comfort you, who happens to be just as afraid as you are.
This was the situation in which the Baudelaires found Duncan and Isadora Quagmire when they walked into one of the Queequeg's many cabins. Isadora was sitting on the floor with her knees tucked to her chest and her head buried in her knees, rocking forwards and backwards ever so slightly. Duncan had an arm around his sister and was trying to get her to relax by whispering comforting things.
Violet, Klaus, and Sunny had never witnessed anything like this, although it had happened once before, during the Quagmire triplets' first year at Prufrock Preparatory School. Nonetheless, the Baudelaires were so shocked to see Isadora looking so helpless that the three of them simply stared at the scene with their mouths open until Duncan spoke.
"Are you guys going to keep on standing there, or...?" Duncan's voice trailed off into a question simply because he couldn't think of a second part to his question.
"Is Izzy okay?" Klaus asked.
Duncan stood up. "She's fine."
"She doesn't look fine," Violet said, glancing at the female triplet, who still had her head buried in her knees.
"Don't worry about it."
"Maybe I can help," Klaus suggested, taking a step towards Isadora.
"We don't need your help!" Duncan suddenly shouted.
"Right," said Klaus sarcastically. "And I bet you didn't need our help when you were kidnapped by Count Olaf, either."
"Yes, because you were such a big help when you left us alone in an elevator shaft so you could go invent something to get us out."
"We were trying to save your lives!" Violet said, getting into the argument.
"Romione!" Sunny cried. She meant something along the lines of: "Is this really the time to be having an argument?"
"And it really helped that you made the exact wrong guess when you were trying to find us at the IN Auction!" Duncan went on.
"It was a red herring!" Klaus argued.
"And, it was so helpful that the moment you freed us from the Fowl Fountain, we had to run from an angry-"
"Oh for Pete's sake!" Someone cried out, cutting Duncan off before he could say "mob." The orphans looked around the room for a moment before realizing it was Isadora who had spoken. "If you really want to help me, you can all stop fighting!"
Duncan, Violet, and Klaus looked at each other sheepishly, a word which here means: "in an embarrassed manner" and does not mean: "like sheep". Sunny gave the other three a look that appeared to mean: "I told you so."
Isadora stood up and walked over to the group. "Now Duncan, Klaus, go to your own bedroom and stop stressing me out."
"Iz, are you sure-"
"GO!" Isadora yelled, though it was in a get-out-of-this-room-now-or-I-will-hurt-you-but-not-so-badly-that-it-will-be-a-lasting-injury sort of way. In any case, it sent the two boys running.
Isadora fell backwards onto the bottom bunk of the bed once the boys left. Her face was still a bit flushed from her having been crying.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Violet asked, and Isadora sat back up, smiling.
"Yeah. I'm good. Don't worry about me." That said, she laid back down and fell asleep within moments.
While this dramatic scene occurred in the girls' temporary bedroom, you were probably wondering what a certain cartographer and mycologist had been up to. In order to lead into that particular scene, I will be using a hackneyed phrase that you probably remember the meaning of from the works of Lemony Snicket.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Quigley was disobeying Fiona.
"I thought I told you to go to sleep," Fiona said when Quigley returned to the engine room.
"You need sleep too," Quigley pointed out. "Want me to take over?"
"Maps boy, you have no idea how to control a submarine."
"However true that may be, my sister is having a panic attack. I'd rather be here."
"Quite the affectionate brother, aren't you?"
"Well," Quigley explained, "I was separated from my siblings when I had to pretend to be dead for two years."
Fiona raised her eyebrows. "Wow."
"I was never very affectionate. That's Duncan's job. He protects Isadora, and I keep boys away from her."
"My brother used to do that." Fiona looked into the distance, the way people in television shows do when they are recalling something from their past. On television, the image on the screen usually ripples and a flashback is shown.
When no such thing occured, Quigley asked: "What happened to your brother?"
"He died. Manatee accident."
"What's with all the manatees?"
"Most people say 'I'm sorry.'" Fiona looked offended.
"Oh, right. Sorry."
"Don't apologize. I like your response."
"I do pride myself on my responses."
"Don't mock me."
When the eight people on board the Queequeg awoke the next morning, they found themselves on the surface of the water, floating next to a dock. A dock, of course, is a long one of wooden boards connected to a seashore. In this case, it was the shore of Briny Beach, which was precisely the location the Baudelaires had received the terrible news of their parents' death, which began a series of unfortunate events.
"I thought you were setting a course for the Gorgonian Grotto," Violet said to Fiona as the group of seven stepped off of the submarine. "I thought the Queequeg was on the most important mission in V.F.D. history."
"There's been a change of plans," said Fiona. "We're going to the last safe place to help prepare for Thursday's gathering. I'll send an older member of the organization to fetch the sugar bowl."
"What changed your mind?" Duncan asked skeptically.
"I realized that if V.F.D. is such a noble organization, then they shouldn't be sending children in dangerous missions."
"How do we get to the last safe place?" Klaus inquired.
"I already called us a taxi," Quigley said, confirming Duncan's suspicions that Fiona had not suddenly come to her senses and decided to shirk her work for V.F.D.
Up the beach, across the trolley tracks, a taxi sat, awaiting the arrival of the seven youngsters that approached it now.
Quigley stuck his head through the front passenger side window. "Kit Snicket?" The woman in the driver's seat nodded, and the group piled into the car. Fiona and Quigley slid into the front seat together, while Duncan, Isadora, and the Baudelaires squeezed into the back.
As she drove, Kit Snicket explained that she had been the agent who had lost the sugar bowl in the Mortmain Mountains, so she would be in charge of finding someone to take over Fiona's mission. "I would go myself, of course, if I wasn't in this condition." By "condition", Kit meant that she was pregnant, a fact that was evident from the round shape of her belly.
"I'm very glad you children are here." Kit turned into the curved driveway of a hotel that had all of its signs backwards; it had been designed to reflect into a large pond, so the children could clearly see the name of the hotel reflected in the water. "The Hotel Denoument had been swamped with all the new orphans coming in."
"New orphans?" Sunny repeated.
"Yes, unfortunately," Kit said sadly. "A menacing duo has been setting fire to the homes of rich families all over the city. They even kidnapped an entire Snow Scout troop on the top of Mount Fraught!" The Baudelaires and Quagmires shuddered at this unsettling news. "Their goal is to create a new generation of orphans that they can train up and turn into villans. V.F.D. is doing everything we can to bring as many children as possible to the hotel."
"Where do we fit in?" Isadora asked.
"Many of the children are spoiled and used to always getting their way. They refuse to be trained as villains, thankfully, but unthankfully, they refuse to be trained as volunteers as well. I'd like all of you to get acquainted with them and change their minds. Talk some sense into them.
"What do you say?"
Quigley, surprising no one, answered "Yes," immediately. Fiona said she would be glad to help the organization.
The other five children were not so sure. Sunny couldn't agree to the job unless her siblings did as well, for she was still a toddler and had not quite mastered the English language.
Duncan didn't want anything to do with the secret organization, especially after the events of the previous night, but he could tell from the expressions on the faces of his friends and siblings that he would be an outcast if he decided not to join.
Last but not least, Violet and Klaus were unsure about the inner workings of V.F.D. itself. They wondered if convincing children to become volunteers was the same thing as convincing children to be villains. They also wondered if agreeing to the task made them volunteers, and they questioned whether they wanted to be volunteers at all.
However, refusing the instructions of a pregnant woman working for a secret organization that had access to poison darts seemed an unintelligent and impolite decision. Violet, Klaus, Sunny, Duncan, Isadora, Quigley, and Fiona felt that refusing Kit Snicket was something Carmelita Spats would do, as well as something the countless other orphans with fortunes had done. These other orphans had had valid reasons for doing so, though our main characters didn't know it yet.
In the end, Isadora spoke for them all. "I didn't realize this was a sad occasion," to which Kit replied: "The world is quiet here."
And with that coded phrase, the Baudelaire, Quagmire, and Widdershins volunteer work had officially begun.
That, my friends, is Chapter Thirteen! If I keep the story headed in the direction I plan for it to go, there should be 26 chapters.
And now I have some sad-ish news. I'm going to Florida tomorrow morning, and I won't be back until late next Saturday. This means I probably won't be posting anything until the first week of October.
So I have a task for you: Give me some long reviews that I can read when I come back! I have an ASOUE one-shot collection, so if reading this gives you an idea for something you want me to write, feel free to post it in your review!
Before I forget, I'd like to thank anyone who has recently followed or favorited me or this story. I often forget about you, but I really appreciate the support.
Also, I apologize if there are any confusing grammar or spelling mistakes. Autocorrect is mean to me, and normally I would check this over for mistakes, but it's 11:20 pm and I have to get up early tomorrow.
Thank you all so much for reading, and I'll see you in a week!