"I think if you knew that you wouldn't feel quite so kindly towards me." Even if a few people have said that he deserved to be forgiven for it.
But he mulls it over. Soldat listened to him. Della listened to him. Eva listened to him.
"There was... somethin' like a god. Called a Celestial. His name was 'Ego'. He... he was goin' around from world to world, sowin' his wild outs. Knockin' up a bunch of species. Made a helluvalot of babies. An' one day he decides he wants to find 'em. He knew which one of us to ask. He knew which one of us didn't get how family really worked an'... which one of us just wanted the power that came with bein' wealthy. Bein' truly free. He knew which one of us was the weakest.
"Stakar had this Ravager code. One of the rules... we don't deal in kids. An' I thought I was bein' slick." He says it all distantly, finding some other place in the distance to look at. "If I was just bringin' 'em back to their daddy, that didn't count, right? I was a taxi service. An' he had a whole planet what he could keep 'em on. Nice place, gorgeous even."
He works his jaw. Sighs. "Started gettin' more attached to 'em, more I brought to 'im. Had fun with it. Would tell 'em big adventure stories. Promise their old man was waitin' on 'em. Then I picked up Peter Quill, an there was... I dunno, somethin' that he said when I called 'im. Made me realize none of those other kids'd be waitin' there when I took 'im to Ego's world. His own flesh an' blood, an' he'd just thrown 'em away.
"I ain't a good man by a mile but I'm better than my folks. When I knew what was gonna happen there wasn't no amount of money that'd convince me to take 'im. So I didn't. But when I told Stakar what I'd done, asked for help, that was the end of anything good I really had. Learned a real hard lesson in greed that day that I had to pretend not to know to my dipshit crew. Had to make Quill look like crew, like he wasn't nothin' special. Never had anybody give a real damn about me after that, not unless they was afraid of me."
And there, Devero could make the educated choice as to whether he wanted to sit on that step or not.
no subject
But he mulls it over. Soldat listened to him. Della listened to him. Eva listened to him.
"There was... somethin' like a god. Called a Celestial. His name was 'Ego'. He... he was goin' around from world to world, sowin' his wild outs. Knockin' up a bunch of species. Made a helluvalot of babies. An' one day he decides he wants to find 'em. He knew which one of us to ask. He knew which one of us didn't get how family really worked an'... which one of us just wanted the power that came with bein' wealthy. Bein' truly free. He knew which one of us was the weakest.
"Stakar had this Ravager code. One of the rules... we don't deal in kids. An' I thought I was bein' slick." He says it all distantly, finding some other place in the distance to look at. "If I was just bringin' 'em back to their daddy, that didn't count, right? I was a taxi service. An' he had a whole planet what he could keep 'em on. Nice place, gorgeous even."
He works his jaw. Sighs. "Started gettin' more attached to 'em, more I brought to 'im. Had fun with it. Would tell 'em big adventure stories. Promise their old man was waitin' on 'em. Then I picked up Peter Quill, an there was... I dunno, somethin' that he said when I called 'im. Made me realize none of those other kids'd be waitin' there when I took 'im to Ego's world. His own flesh an' blood, an' he'd just thrown 'em away.
"I ain't a good man by a mile but I'm better than my folks. When I knew what was gonna happen there wasn't no amount of money that'd convince me to take 'im. So I didn't. But when I told Stakar what I'd done, asked for help, that was the end of anything good I really had. Learned a real hard lesson in greed that day that I had to pretend not to know to my dipshit crew. Had to make Quill look like crew, like he wasn't nothin' special. Never had anybody give a real damn about me after that, not unless they was afraid of me."
And there, Devero could make the educated choice as to whether he wanted to sit on that step or not.