#0499

the void, but like. in a nice way

Thank you for your support, @post-transport! It means a lot.

p.6 One of the things Violet, Klaus, and Sunny really liked about their parents was that they didn’t send their children away when they had company over, but allowed them to join the adults at the dinner table… The Baudelaire table was not used exclusively for dinner. Its surface was handy for unrolling maps, completing jigsaw puzzles, and tracing the faces of people from photographs. One thing I remember from my time at the table was that it was always necessary to use a coaster underneath one’s beverage so as to not leave an unsightly ring on the wood.[The Bad Beginning: Rare Edition, pp.171-172]

This is a good question but Bertrand and Beatrice, all in all, were pretty good at keeping their V.F.D.-related activities on the downlow. They also sent their children away on the day they invited Olaf into their home (Link). They also hosted a party where the sugar bowl was being exchanged, some time before their death (according to “The Dismal Dinner”, see the link above for the quotes).

Because volunteers are used to speaking in codes and exchanging information discreetly, it’s understandable that Violet, Klaus and Sunny never caught on to anything. They did pick up some stuff about the organization without realizing it, however (Link). They weren’t part of the organization but were very much part of the VFD culture, so to speak.

Whoever the Baudelaire parents usually invited into their homes must have been “lesser” members of the V.F.D. circle who mainly acted as messengers, I suppose. Inviting Jacques, Kit, or any of the people they knew from their time with Lemony would have put the children in too much danger. All in all the most relevant members of V.F.D. are very scattered, doing important stuff in their own part of the world. It’s understandable that Monty was always abroad for scientific expeditions, for example.