[ Gifted with prescience, the ability to divine the future, to pull out light from the darkness ahead; what does the Pale King dream of? What are his nightmares of?
Dreams are barred to him. He does not dream of anything but his own memories, breaking them down, dissecting them for further use and analysis.
His nightmares are
they are of things going wrong. Of everything that could go wrong, a morass of failure and possibilities and things that must be prevented, that can be prevented on the right course.
Everything that can happen, that could happen, that must not be allowed to happen.
He meets Grimm's eyes and then looks away, as if looking at him is painful. Perhaps it is. ]
It will be.
[ (In many ways the Pale King will be like, is like, the vessel that in the future - in a future? - that he will one day strive to create.)
Minute flaws in a machine constructed for precision, for balance, for efficiency. They add up and create catastrophic failures.
The ability to see the future means he must take that path, no matter the cost. Otherwise, he cannot see at all.
He cannot and will not trust; this world will not function without him; that is one of the greatest and most glaring flaws in his designs.
(He has never considered whether the heart in him is truly as useless as he thinks it is.) ]
no subject
Dreams are barred to him. He does not dream of anything but his own memories, breaking them down, dissecting them for further use and analysis.
His nightmares are
they are of things going wrong. Of everything that could go wrong, a morass of failure and possibilities and things that must be prevented, that can be prevented on the right course.
Everything that can happen, that could happen, that must not be allowed to happen.
He meets Grimm's eyes and then looks away, as if looking at him is painful. Perhaps it is. ]
It will be.
[ (In many ways the Pale King will be like, is like, the vessel that in the future - in a future? - that he will one day strive to create.)
Minute flaws in a machine constructed for precision, for balance, for efficiency. They add up and create catastrophic failures.
The ability to see the future means he must take that path, no matter the cost. Otherwise, he cannot see at all.
He cannot and will not trust; this world will not function without him; that is one of the greatest and most glaring flaws in his designs.
(He has never considered whether the heart in him is truly as useless as he thinks it is.) ]
There is no practical use for it. It is...
[ A small but noticeable pause. ]
...a flaw that does not need to exist.