[continuations with tiny!Charles]

[mind_over_metal]

[so short and tiny and cute etc.]

Comments

[mind_over_metal]

*curious, not judging*

Why not?

[goddamnemperor]

I did not want her to choose. I did not want to see her make this choice. It was cowardice.

[mind_over_metal]

Would she have done it if you had told her?

[goddamnemperor]

She might have. She loved me dearly. But she might not. Her love did not extend so far.

[mind_over_metal]

Still, you were just protecting her.

[goddamnemperor]

I was. [there are a flicker of images] At least, that is what I believed then.

I left. I made my way to the sietch.

[mind_over_metal]

*makes a bit of a face at the last word*

What's that?

[goddamnemperor]

A... town. A town within a cave. Jacurutu. It was the land of the water-stealers, heretics. They were wiped out, but there I saw my fate. So I went.

[mind_over_metal]

What did you find there?

[goddamnemperor]

Sandtrout. The infant form of the giant sandworm. They were kept in sandpens for breeding purposes. And to be sold-offworld. There, I was captured by smugglers.

[mind_over_metal]

Was that part of your plan?

[goddamnemperor]

Yes and no. I knew it was a point of time that was important to me, but the sandtrout, I did not expect.

[mind_over_metal]

*nods*

You must not get too many surprises.

[goddamnemperor]

One hopes so. But the truth was, my powers were not as they are now.

[mind_over_metal]

What were you like back then?

[goddamnemperor]

I wasn't much different. I was weaker, more... fearful.

[mind_over_metal]

Everyone has something that they're afraid of.

[goddamnemperor]

I wonder. Anyway, we are digressing. They kidnapped me and drugged me with spice. I spent my time in waking dreams, unable to tell my visions and reality apart.

[mind_over_metal]

*.............that sounds like one of the most terrifying things*

[goddamnemperor]

No. You will not face that problem. I dreamed... of grass, fields and hills. I dreamed of death, the death of the sandworms. Then I woke up and I was myself again.

[mind_over_metal]

*trusting of and reassured by that, but it's still scary to think about*

Were you still in Jacurutu?

[goddamnemperor]

I was. But Jacurutu had no power over me any longer. So I left. But not without taking with me, their sandtrout.

[he raises his worm-skinned hand]

[mind_over_metal]

And that's how you got the wormskin?

[goddamnemperor]

All that spice that they drugged me with, helped me forge a link with the sandworm.

[mind_over_metal]

So that was the important fate that you found there.