Aphorisms of a Rainy Day [ Alternate Universe ]

Her voice thinned with fumes of annoyance and curiosity as she regarded the crimson tuft of hair flopping into her eyes. Scrunching her face up, she pushed the head obstructing her view, but barely had time to protest as her book was swallowed up by his grip.

"Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure." She recited.

"The theory of pleasure is a simple one." She finally broke out of her trance, as she dispassionately reached a hand out for him to allow the book to fall back into the rightful palm.

"I suppose you haven't have much of it." She said after a while, watching his filthy hands thumb her ragged book. Her eyes flicked over his face, and came to pauses, either on his slightly torn clothes, or disheveled hair. Pausing her glance, she reached over to dip a hand into the woven basket next to her, for a scarlet strawberry. Finally, Ira bit into it while disregarding him, and berry juices stained her lips, as sourness danced on her tongue.

"Well?" She looked at him expectantly, a juxtaposition of light curiosity and irritation.

T A G ( S ):
Macht Stärke

Shifting backwards slowly, she cast her darkened eyes on the tufts of red hair brushing against her thigh. A scowl drew a few downwards line on her pale face, and while a strand of hair flew loose and brushed against her cheek, her line of sight did not waver.

There were still berry stains on her fingers.

Examining those stains rather distastefully, she shoved the male off her lap, and threw a few glances of irritation his way, before reaching out for her book. There wasn't really a point gracing him with a speech.

Disgruntled, she snatched the book from the toss in mid-air, and flipped through a few pages rather harshly as though the print had personally wronged her. Even so, her eyes finally softened when she came to rest to the spot before she was disrupted by that impertinent adolescent. Her voice softened, in adjacent to her glance, albeit grudgingly so.

"To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?" She finally spoke, her finger running down the spine of the book lightly.

Frowning at him, her face displayed that she was evidently displeased by his insolence. He was missing the bigger picture here, and she wasn't sure if she genuinely wanted to snatch some time to explain things thoroughly him.

'The whole concept behind pleasure here is the fact that we denounced people for receiving instant gratification. We delude ourselves into believing that everything is ultimately democratic, and hence, turned a blind eye to the fact that there are aspects of life we can't alter, despite the immense amount of work placed into it." She said rather coldly.

Her scowl deepened on her face, but her lips finally displayed a small amount of teeth biting down on the lower lip, as she deliberated between snatching up the grass and forcing that obscene ignoramus to chew on them, and leaving the scene of irritation, to void further exchanges.

Unfortunately, she choice the former, under the impression that she never did attempt the futile mission of throwing a wise facade on for the world.

"No, it themes with the concept of pleasure, for people are genuinely accustomed to the idea that they could attain anything as long as they are willing to enter hours of toil for it. With that in mind, they denounce those who seek instant gratification, and void hard work in favor for immediate luxury. There will always be luxury, and due to that, it's not impossible to constantly seek instant pleasure, as long as you are willing to, perhaps sacrifice your future luxuries for it. In other words, instant vs delayed gratification."

She thought for a moment.

'I'm sure the protestants will have things to say about this." She muttered under her breath.

Eying his filthy demeanor, coupled with his mouth that seemed to possess the talent of verbalizing uncouth words that most damsels would giggle at, her expression didn't change. Quite foolishly so, she decided, while gazing into his green eyes.

"On the other hand, we denounce with righteous indignation and dislike men who are so beguiled and demoralized by the charms of pleasure of the moment, so blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee the pain and trouble that are bound to ensue; and equal blame belongs to those who fail in their duty through weakness of will, which is the same as saying through shrinking from toil and pain." She quoted sarcastically.

"However," she continued, "These cases are perfectly simple and easy to distinguish. In a free hour, when our power of choice is untrammeled and when nothing prevents our being able to do what we like best, every pleasure is to be welcomed and every pain avoided. But in certain circumstances and owing to the claims of duty or the obligations of business it will frequently occur that pleasures have to be repudiated and annoyances accepted. The wise man therefore always holds in these matters to this principle of selection: he rejects pleasures to secure other greater pleasures, or else he endures pains to avoid worse pains."