fandomhigh | Young Entrepreneurs; Monday, Period 6 [ 01/19 ].

Always excited for another semester of YA, Turtle had the classroom all set up for the meeting, desks pushed together into a long sort of business table. Donuts, coffee, and hot chocolate for available for snacking, and the table was littered with arts and crafty stuff: paper, scissors, markers, colored pencils, stickers, and glitter. Somehow, there was always glitter, even when Turtle went out of her way to not include glitter. Go figure.

Either way, Turtle sat at the end of the table, waiting for everyone to get there, and then she went into her introductory schpiel. "Welcome to this semester's meeting of Young Entrepreneurs! I'm sure you all know me; I'm Turtle Wexler. I started this club forever ago, and am a young entrepreneur myself, as I co-own Turtle & Canary here on Fandom Island and soon to be in London!" There was a small bounce for that. "But, anyway, you all might not know each other and, even if you do, re-introductions still aren't a bad idea. For our first meeting, we're just going to make some very simple, fun, clearly not-official --that comes later-- business cards that represent who we are and why we're here. Take a piece of paper, cut out a nice size for a card, and then put on it anything you think might represent you as a member of YA, and then we'll go around and talk about it! But, remember, one of the key points about being an entrepreneur is that you know how to sell yourself! Sell us on your introduction on why we should be interested in you."

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That caused Turtle's head to tilt a little. "Your father can see the future?"

"He's dead," Leto replied. "Or so most people believe, but the desert never leaves a body."

And Turtle's head tilted a little more, not sure how that exactly answered her question.

"Does that mean you do, or don't, believe he's dead?"

His father would never be quite dead to Leto as he lived on in his mind, but he couldn't tell Turtle that. "I... am not quite sure."

"...oh."

And Turtle seemed stuck for a moment, shifting a little in her chair, not sure what to say.

She decided to just forge on with business as usual.

"Well, a blank slate's still good, Leto. It gives you plenty of room to move around until you decide a little more which direction you'd want to take. And it also means that any direction's wide open."

He turned to look straight at Turtle. "No. I am my father's heir. Someone will have to... find his path."

He smiled a little, admiring her ability to stick to the subject and not be distracted by emotions.

[have to disappear for a while]

That steady look, those words, and then the following smile sort of took Turtle even a little more back and she...was definitely not used to that. It made her chest feel a little funny, a little hiccup in breathing, and she blinked a few times before she got back on track.

"Well," she finally managed, dipping her head a little as if that would help her keep the course, "there you have it, then. Heir, then. And you mentioned the economical-political facets of where you're from. What path was your father's? Was it something you agreed with?"

His father was the Kwisatz Haderach, the Lisan-al-Ghaib of the Fremen, Duke Atreides and Emperor. Leto decided not to mention that right now. "He wanted to avoid the destruction of humanity. But I don't have his vision."

Turtle frowned, slightly worried, feeling like she just couldn't catch up with Leto on this. He was being vague, which she understood, but in a way that didn't feel very helpful. "So you don't want to avoid the destruction of humanity? Or are we talking 'vision' not so much as a idea of the future and more of an actual vision of the future?"

Could never be too sure about that around here.

Leto gave her an apologetic smile. "Actual vision," he said. "And I don't seek the destruction of humanity. I'm sorry if my explanations are unclear to you. It is... not always easy to talk about."

That was much better; Turtle could deal with this a lot better knowing that Leto's dad was a psychic of sorts and that it wasn't that Leto was a psycho of sorts who wanted human destruction. She sighed a little, leaning an elbow on the table and resting her chin in her hand. "Well, it probably doesn't help that you're from a place about a gazillion times different from mine, but I can get that it's hard. But, you know, tons of rulers have made due without stuff like that before. I mean, and if you pull it off, you're even that much more impressive."

"Sometimes it's hard for me to explain the obvious," he admitted. "But that also gives a freedom which I have never had before." He looked down at the table, smiling. "Thank you for your encouragement."

Turtle lifted a finger on her free hand and grinned at Leto. "Now you're thinking. And you're welcome. One of my first rules of business and politics is to never think yourself incapable, because the moment you do that is the moment you become incapable."

"And what if you should in fact be incapable, but think yourself not?" Leto asked, raising his gaze and looking straight at Turtle. Then he smiled and reached out to gently squeeze her hand for a short moment.

...Leto was capable of something, all right. When he squeezed her hand and looked at her with those eyes, she felt like her heart took a jump up into her throat and she had to swallow hard to force it back down. She knew she was turning pretty red, too, could feel it spread across her face, but she also knew that the one thing she couldn't allow herself to do was look away. She had to keep a steady gaze, firm with a slightly lifted chin, eyes matched, light green to brilliant blue.

"Then you fail," she said, "at the hands of someone who is more capable, despite what you think, and probably for the betterment of everyone involved."

Leto couldn't help enjoying seeing her reaction, but he was also embarrassed by himself. He shouldn't behave like this towards Turtle. But when she met his eyes, he smiled, then laughed, shaking his head to himself. Not everyone would have done that. "You are wise, as always, Turtle."

Turtle wasn't exactly sure what to make of a response like that, but it did have her wondering if that was why Leto could almost derail her so easily: he was so unlike anyone else she'd ever really met. She gave an appreciative nod of her head, a small smile back, and said, simply, "Well, thank you."

That was mutual; Turtle was unlike anyone Leto had ever met, and he couldn't help being curious. "Perhaps I do need help figuring this out," he said, half to himself.

The way he said that, Turtle wasn't sure it was intended to be really heard or responded to, but, with a slight quirk to her grin, she couldn't help at least saying, "Good thing you ended up sticking with YA, then, right?"

"Yes." He smiled to himself. "I believe it was."

Young Entrepreneurs; Monday, Period 6 [ 01/19 ].

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