[continuations with tiny!Charles]

[mind_over_metal]

[so short and tiny and cute etc.]

Comments

[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.

[goddamnemperor]

If I had not come, things might have gone terribly wrong.

At any rate, I left and went to find my father.

[mind_over_metal]

He'd gone into the desert, right?

[goddamnemperor]

We had assumed he perished. The desert is not kind, not even to the Fremen. But he survived. And became known as the Preacher.

[mind_over_metal]

Did you know that it was him?

[goddamnemperor]

I was never sure, until we met for the last time.

[mind_over_metal]

So... you were searching for him to...?

[goddamnemperor]

To talk to him. I needed his help to defeat my aunt.

[mind_over_metal]

And you found him.

[goddamnemperor]

I found him.

It was... a bittersweet moment.

[mind_over_metal]

*a mostly unconscious attempt to be open to feeling Leto's grief, to take whatever might be coming from him*

[goddamnemperor]

No, wali. The only grief you should ever feel is your own. Shouldering others will make it difficult for you.

[mind_over_metal]

But...

[goddamnemperor]

My feelings are very powerful, magnified by my state. I would not let you hurt yourself through me.

[mind_over_metal]

Were you able to get the help that you needed?

[goddamnemperor]

... No.