Thought you'd like that. [Flynn gives a small smile.] Though, not exactly. To him, happiness was the absence of physical pain and mental disturbance. [Which would be so nice right now.]
Everything we do, he claims, we do for the sake of gaining pleasure for ourselves. Problem is, as we get older we lose track of what really makes us happy. Fear of punishment, of the gods, of death inhibit us, make us seek out pleasures we think we want? But won't actually fulfill us in the end.
He actually proclaimed that humans should not live in fear of the gods which at the time was pretty revolutionary.
[Stop you're losing him you're making him think this is hard he's about to fall asleep again. He stares for a little too long, about to nod off, before continuing.]
Explains a lot of the older Ravager guys I've seen that get grumpy in their old age.
[Peter blinks, caught completely off guard. He has to think about it for a minute.]
...my friends, I think. And flying, of course, piloting my ship. Candy. Hot babes. I mean, not so much random babes anymore, there's someone that I...yeah, her. She makes me happy.
[Imagining his mom was proud of him. Him telling her he saved the galaxy--twice even--and her laughing and calling him her little Star-Lord.
Imagining things like that made him happy.
God, he was gonna get choked up again. He clears his throat.]
[Flynn smiles at Peter's list and the subtle transition from 'hot babes' to something more personal and real.]
I don't know.
[He rests his chin on top of the book in his arms.]
Learning. Learning makes me happy. [Learning will always make him happy.] I used to think it's the only thing I need and then I became a Librarian and then that made me happy. And miserable, and stressed, and lonely but... happy. I just want to do right by it all.
Learning, really? [Peter smirks, but it's not mean.] God, you're such a smart guy, but I mean that in the nicest possible way. [He's so used to dealing with outlaws and practical people that the only intellectuals he knew were a scarce amount of his contacts to sell things to.]
Come on, learning is the greatest feeling in the world. There's just so much knowledge out there we don't know. So much history! All the languages? And cultures. Art!
[He exhales, deflating a little.]
Well, I... back in my world I can't tell anyone about what I'm doing and I'm very busy so... it can be.
Learning is haaaarrddd. [A whine. He thinks all it has to do with is memorization and boring things.]
Art is great when it gets me money, I guess. I actually know a little bit about it because of...things. [Totally didn't steal fancy art to sell it on the black market nope.]
It's like you have a secret identity. That sucks, dude. I mean, secret identities are cool when you have someone to share the secret with. Do you have like, a sidekick or anything?
Okay, but take history for example. There's just so many fascinating stories out there, how people lived, what they did, how they experienced the world... Give me a time in history. I'll tell you something cool about it!
[Challenge accepted.]
Mysterious? [Flynn puffs his cheeks, thinking.] He's... pretending not to be. Which, in turn, makes him kind of mysterious, yeah.
Yeah, but they're all so booorrring. Like hey, man, I'm a dude in ye olden times and I watch Shakespeare and everyone I know died of the plague.
Well that kinda does sound like a gnarly way to go but anyway. Sure, let's see...what's the most boringest time ever...what about...like...? Oh! I know? John and Sherlock's old timey times. Not the guys we know, but the ones from the books and the tv show. With the ladies in those really awful poofy dresses and horse carts and little kids selling papers and stuff?
[Peter, you are causing him physical pain.] The plague hit Europe in the 14th century, Shakespeare did not live until... well, I guess if he were immortal it could have happened, but...
[Right. Just... moving on.]
Sherlock and John? That would be the Victorian Age, sometimes leading into the Edwardian Age. Boringest time? You'd be surprised, definitely not for the people who lived in it!
[His voice warms with sudden enthusiasm.]
It was a time full of change, especially towards the end. The arts were alive with fin de siècle, the anxiety and euphoria that a century was ending. Everyone was excited but also afraid – what would the 1900s bring? Advances in technology and means of communication were everywhere. Everything was brimming with movement and change! Take the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes for example. Rationality and science at the forefront – and forensics, which back in the day was still in its infancy.
Newspapers increased their numbers, turning into a mass medium. The telephone was still a very recent invention. New means of traveling and transportation appeared, the automobile, the airplane – which, you of all people should have an appreciation for. Can you imagine it? Being there, experiencing these new technologies for the very first time? The world was changing!
[His eyes are gleaming, his voice rising dramatically, his arms spread, he is so into it.]
These people were living in a time where the world around them sped up considerably. Some were on the losing side of this advancement, of course. A lingering Depression, class unrest, people losing their jobs, and unbeknownst, looming in the very near future [his hand curls into a dramatic fist] the approaching shadow of the Great War.
Did Shakespeare get bit by a vampire or something?
[Because that would be AWESOME.
As Flynn continues, Peter can immediately feel himself start to drift off when he uses that French word thing...but he snaps back awake because it would be rude and mean and he might be rude but he certainly wasn't mean and he had to stay awake please just stay awake--]
Oh, cool, so that's when everything kinda like...got modern then, right? Those old timey airplanes must have been a trip to fly. Especially like when they first invented it?
[Look, he found something to be interested in! It's working!
What? No. No, no, I meant the guy who lost everyone to the plague and went to see Shakespeare's plays, he would have to be... nevermind.
[You like airplanes? He can do airplanes, Peter.]
A trip indeed! After all, mastering flight is often referred to as mankind's oldest dream. People have tried for centuries, attempts even show up in the myths of the old Greek. Imagine being up there seeing the world from above. It's such familiar imagery to us nowadays but back then a lot of people couldn't even picture it – mind you, there was no tv and color photography was in its infancy. There was no way to simply share things like that and it was so new. A set of completely new impressions for the mind.
[He nods at Peter's question, a grim expression on his face.] World War One. The dark side of the technological advancements in the late 19th century. New weapons had been developed, artillery and machine guns and poison gas, sending men and women into one of the most brutal forms of warfare of our history.
[Now this is what got him. He listens eagerly, finally something is super interesting. He can only imagine what it must have been like when people first learned how to fly.]
Oh man, I think you're blowing my mind here.
[He sounds genuinely in awe.]
Kinda like when I first went in space and just...the technology man, it was incredible.
[A beat.]
See if they went over the scariest parts in school I totally would have paid more attention to that.
[Flynn's grim expression shifts back into a wide smile when the enthusiasm finally catches on.]
See? It's incredibly interesting! It's not just dates or... or singular events at a certain point of time. It's all connected, it's people's lives, it's... an entire world. I can only imagine what going to space must have been like for you.
[Seriously, he's struggling with the everything of one planet. The chance and opportunity to travel the entire galaxy? He'd be depressed how impossible it would be to learn everything about it in one lifetime.]
Oh man, yeah, going into space was AMAZING. Dude, just...learning how to fly, seeing all these aliens--yeah, it was terrifying too at first cause Yondu kept telling me they were gonna eat me but he taught me to shoot, how to fly, just...it was like livin' in Star Wars.
Totally an adventure. And yeah, it was his thing. He kept trying to make me feel grateful for not being eaten, like he had to talk them down constantly about it or something.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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[Flynn settles back, drawing his blanket around his shoulders.]
Epicurus was all about hedonistic ethics, meaning he regarded happiness as the highest good one could obtain, the goal a person should aspire to.
[Maybe the right school of philosophy to talk about today.]
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You mean living it up for the sake of living it up like there's no tomorrow? My man.
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Thought you'd like that. [Flynn gives a small smile.] Though, not exactly. To him, happiness was the absence of physical pain and mental disturbance. [Which would be so nice right now.]
Everything we do, he claims, we do for the sake of gaining pleasure for ourselves. Problem is, as we get older we lose track of what really makes us happy. Fear of punishment, of the gods, of death inhibit us, make us seek out pleasures we think we want? But won't actually fulfill us in the end.
He actually proclaimed that humans should not live in fear of the gods which at the time was pretty revolutionary.
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Huh. That's...interesting...
[Stop you're losing him you're making him think this is hard he's about to fall asleep again. He stares for a little too long, about to nod off, before continuing.]
Explains a lot of the older Ravager guys I've seen that get grumpy in their old age.
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Yeah, maybe.
What makes you happy?
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...what?
[Peter blinks, caught completely off guard. He has to think about it for a minute.]
...my friends, I think. And flying, of course, piloting my ship. Candy. Hot babes. I mean, not so much random babes anymore, there's someone that I...yeah, her. She makes me happy.
[Imagining his mom was proud of him. Him telling her he saved the galaxy--twice even--and her laughing and calling him her little Star-Lord.
Imagining things like that made him happy.
God, he was gonna get choked up again. He clears his throat.]
How about you?
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I don't know.
[He rests his chin on top of the book in his arms.]
Learning. Learning makes me happy. [Learning will always make him happy.] I used to think it's the only thing I need and then I became a Librarian and then that made me happy. And miserable, and stressed, and lonely but... happy. I just want to do right by it all.
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It's lonely being the Librarian?
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[He exhales, deflating a little.]
Well, I... back in my world I can't tell anyone about what I'm doing and I'm very busy so... it can be.
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Art is great when it gets me money, I guess. I actually know a little bit about it because of...things. [Totally didn't steal fancy art to sell it on the black market nope.]
It's like you have a secret identity. That sucks, dude. I mean, secret identities are cool when you have someone to share the secret with. Do you have like, a sidekick or anything?
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No, I don't have a sidekick. [It's clipped and a little abrupt and he looks away for a moment.] I have a... mentor but I go on missions alone.
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[Teach him to like learning, Flynn!]
That's too bad. [Hmm.]
A mentor? Like Obi-Wan? Because that would be awesome.
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And he is awesome. [A small smile crosses his face.] He's the greatest man I know.
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Is he mysterious? Please tell me he's mysterious. He needs to be mysterious.
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[Challenge accepted.]
Mysterious? [Flynn puffs his cheeks, thinking.] He's... pretending not to be. Which, in turn, makes him kind of mysterious, yeah.
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Well that kinda does sound like a gnarly way to go but anyway. Sure, let's see...what's the most boringest time ever...what about...like...? Oh! I know? John and Sherlock's old timey times. Not the guys we know, but the ones from the books and the tv show. With the ladies in those really awful poofy dresses and horse carts and little kids selling papers and stuff?
[He's trying so hard, Flynn.]
Does he talk like Obi-Wan?
oh no
[Right. Just... moving on.]
Sherlock and John? That would be the Victorian Age, sometimes leading into the Edwardian Age. Boringest time? You'd be surprised, definitely not for the people who lived in it!
[His voice warms with sudden enthusiasm.]
It was a time full of change, especially towards the end. The arts were alive with fin de siècle, the anxiety and euphoria that a century was ending. Everyone was excited but also afraid – what would the 1900s bring? Advances in technology and means of communication were everywhere. Everything was brimming with movement and change! Take the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes for example. Rationality and science at the forefront – and forensics, which back in the day was still in its infancy.
Newspapers increased their numbers, turning into a mass medium. The telephone was still a very recent invention. New means of traveling and transportation appeared, the automobile, the airplane – which, you of all people should have an appreciation for. Can you imagine it? Being there, experiencing these new technologies for the very first time? The world was changing!
[His eyes are gleaming, his voice rising dramatically, his arms spread, he is so into it.]
These people were living in a time where the world around them sped up considerably. Some were on the losing side of this advancement, of course. A lingering Depression, class unrest, people losing their jobs, and unbeknownst, looming in the very near future [his hand curls into a dramatic fist] the approaching shadow of the Great War.
help
[Because that would be AWESOME.
As Flynn continues, Peter can immediately feel himself start to drift off when he uses that French word thing...but he snaps back awake because it would be rude and mean and he might be rude but he certainly wasn't mean and he had to stay awake please just stay awake--]
Oh, cool, so that's when everything kinda like...got modern then, right? Those old timey airplanes must have been a trip to fly. Especially like when they first invented it?
[Look, he found something to be interested in! It's working!
...but man, Flynn. You're really into it.]
World war 1, right? [He remembers something!]
can't stop won't stop
[You like airplanes? He can do airplanes, Peter.]
A trip indeed! After all, mastering flight is often referred to as mankind's oldest dream. People have tried for centuries, attempts even show up in the myths of the old Greek. Imagine being up there seeing the world from above. It's such familiar imagery to us nowadays but back then a lot of people couldn't even picture it – mind you, there was no tv and color photography was in its infancy. There was no way to simply share things like that and it was so new. A set of completely new impressions for the mind.
[He nods at Peter's question, a grim expression on his face.] World War One. The dark side of the technological advancements in the late 19th century. New weapons had been developed, artillery and machine guns and poison gas, sending men and women into one of the most brutal forms of warfare of our history.
pls
Oh man, I think you're blowing my mind here.
[He sounds genuinely in awe.]
Kinda like when I first went in space and just...the technology man, it was incredible.
[A beat.]
See if they went over the scariest parts in school I totally would have paid more attention to that.
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See? It's incredibly interesting! It's not just dates or... or singular events at a certain point of time. It's all connected, it's people's lives, it's... an entire world. I can only imagine what going to space must have been like for you.
[Seriously, he's struggling with the everything of one planet. The chance and opportunity to travel the entire galaxy? He'd be depressed how impossible it would be to learn everything about it in one lifetime.]
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Wait.]
Did you just say 'eat you'?
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[Total jerk move, Yondu.]
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What? Normal people don't eat other people.
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