Day 1
Wade was going crazy. Well, crazier. He pinched himself to make sure he was awake, because there was absolutely no way that this was real.
He stared up from where he was bathed in moonlight and did his best to ignore the trembling of the man he had pinned beneath him. "Hello? He called out, not really expecting a reply.
Hello, the moon seemed to twinkle back at him in amusement. What are you doing?
"Um, you're talking to me. The moon is talking to me" Wade managed to stutter out in bewilderment. As far as he knew, celestial bodies didn't go around talking to random people in back alleyways. Hell, he hadn't even known they could talk.
No, the moon seemed to glow with laughter. That's what I'm doing. I asked you what you were doing.
"Um, I'm just unaliving this here scumbag. What are you doing?" The aforementioned scumbag started to whimper pathetically, curling even farther in on himself. Wade kicked him just to shut him up.
I can see that, the moon seemed put off, and for a moment Wade wondered if he had upset it somehow. But why are you ending this poor man's life? He did not provoke you, and he seems genuinely upset. Why do you not simply let him go? Whatever purpose you had in scaring this man must surely have been accomplished by now. What good will killing him do? The light filtering into the alley seemed to shift in confusion, as if the moon was actually struggling to comprehend Wade's actions.
"Because it's what I was paid to do." As Wade said it, he suddenly wished he had a better reason.
Ah, yes. Money: the great backbone of human society. And that is your only motive? Monetary advancement? You have no ulterior motives, no hidden agendas? You wish to trade in this man's essence for nothing more than a stack of paper?
"Well, actually, I usually just get it wired into my account, so I won't be getting stacks of paper, but uh, yeah. I guess I am." Wade's awkward words seemed to dissipate into the thin air above him, and he slowly realized that the alley had grown dark and cold once more.
"Uh, Moon? You still there?" Wade didn't get a reply, but then, he hadn't really been expecting one.
Wade drew back to look at his sniveling quarry. He grimaced at the terrified 'Eeep!' this earned him, and rubbed his eye in exasperation. He was going to get in so much shit for this.
"Go." Wade drew back and twitched his head at the opening between the walls. The man stayed where he was, seemingly torn between cowering and certain death and the possible red herring of an escape. Wade sighed and smacked his companion squarely across the buttocks, sending him jumping away and squealing like his life depended on it.
Day 6
It was a beautiful starry night. The earlier lingering clouds had been chased away by an eager breeze, and now the hill upon which Wade was rested seemed to glow with vibrancy. The grass was damp, but not uncomfortably so, and the way the light glittered inside each determined droplet seemed to give life to the field in such a way that Wade was glad for the slight dampness nestled along his back; if only so he could drink in the beauty surrounding him for a little while longer.
It was a nice surprise, seeing the stars. The lights combing the city could be blinding, and the everyday hustle and bustle had a way of forcing one's head down, not up.
Wade sighed, it seemed ironic how something so weightless and distant could rest so heavily within him. The stars were beautiful, yes, no sane person could deny that, but they were not his reason for coming. He longed to see a pale face hung above him alongside those dainty lights, but it seemed that tonight he was about to see the resolution of yet another pointless journey.
This time, he could barely hear the gentle roar of the freeway in the distance, the occasional jar of an angry horn the only thing to ruin the precious scenery.
The breeze seemed to curl around his head in consolation, gently shushing him. Somewhere off to his left an owl hooted, its elation reverberating through the clearing. Both were pleasant sounds, but neither assuaged his discontent.
He yearned for the voice that wasn't a voice. The smooth satin tones that somehow managed to convey words through emotions rather than sounds. The voice that he was unable to force from his thoughts. The feelings that had yet to cease giving him shivers simply at their mere recollection. A more ignorant man may have mispronounced it love. A more knowledge man may have called it a 'longing for companionship and emotional validation masquerading as curiosity' or some other such emotional bullshit. Wade just knew that he missed the moon.
He rolled onto his stomach and buried his face in the dewy earth. What was he doing? This was madness, even for him. The moon didn't talk. Even if it had, it certainly didn't want to now. Wade couldn't imagine that he had done something wrong, letting that guy go was a good thing, wasn't it? If killing was bad, then certainly its opposite must be good? Perhaps that was why the Moon was mad, because Wade had acted unexpectedly. Or perhaps it was simple because he was just a single human on a planet full of billions and was so insignificant to an eternal being that he had been forgotten as nothing more than a passing irregularity. He flopped back over onto his back and blinked in confusion at the startling brilliance that greeted him.
Hello again. The moon didn't have any sort of mouth that Wade could see, but he swore it was smiling.
"Uh, hi." Wade's earlier prepared speech disappeared from his mind, and was left to once more wrangle his tongue into forming actual words.
So eloquent. Once more, the moon seemed to chuckle. Why are you here?
"I was looking for you."
Yes, I've been watching you. But why come here? I see everywhere, after all. Surely if I could find you once, I could find you again, no matter where you were.
"You-You've been watching me? I've been looking for you stupid!" The words tumbled out before Wade could stop them. Shit. He wasn't going to blow what might be his last chance with the Moon. "I mean, you aren't stupid. How could you be? You don't even have a brain." Wade winced; his babbling usually did him more harm than good, and this was no exception.
"Ugh, I'm sorry. Let me start over. Hi, I'm Wade Wilson. Last week, the Moon decided to talk to me, and it wasn't 'till a day later that I realized that I wanted to talk back. So, uh, here I am. Saying words. Forming sentences. Establishing paragraphs and eventually pages if the author makes me keep rambling, so feel free to stop me anytime." The Moon didn't reply, opting to instead brush Wade's cheek with a stray moonbeam. Wade smiled at the cool tingle the brief touch left behind.
"Okay, so I guess I wanted to know why you wanted to talk to me in the first place, not many people do."
The moon seemed to consider. Do you find me strange, Wade Wilson?
"What?" Wade asked bewildered. "No! I would never-"
I find you strange. Moonlight rushed to cloak him as Wade frowned, the unintended slight cutting deep. I did not mean that. Emotions are a difficult concept, and I do not wish to cause you pain. I meant only that I find humankind to be peculiar. The Moon paused, gauging Wade's reaction before deciding it safe to continue. I live very far away. The place I call home is the place you call space. It is…The Moon paused, searching for the right word. I suppose you your people would call it boring; it is undoubtedly uneventful.
"So what, you watch us for entertainment?" Wade smirked. "Are we to you what reality TV is to us? Because that's kind of sad.
No, I cannot say that humankind brings me a sense of fulfillment or any sort of misguided catharsis. I watch because you are different and alive. I watch because I seek to understand.
"You know curiosity killed the cat."
I am not a cat, and you are less capable of hurting me than the dust that sweeps along my surface. With that, the moon disappeared and Wade was left alone, once more surrounded by nothing but the cold beauty of Earth.
Day 14
Wade continued to seek out the Moon. He set up a canvas tent next to a lone cypress on the hill where he had found the Moon the second time. He waited in that tent every night; It didn't matter the weather. Occasionally, the Moon would grace Wade with its presence and they would chat for a bit before, inevitably, the Moon would drift away, forever seeking answers to questions it couldn't put into words.
Tonight was one of those nights. Wade was spread out in the open on the blanket he kept protected in the dry tent. His ankles swung freely over his back and he both hands to crane his neck up at the cream beauty hanging above him.
"So what exactly are you trying to understand?" Despite their infrequent meetings, the Moon still had not been able to form a comprehensible answer.
I seek to understand.
Yeah, you've said that already," Wade groaned in irritation. "Understand what, exactly?"
Everything.
"That isn't an answer, you're just avoiding the question." Wade had gotten bolder now that he knew there was no danger of scaring the moon away. He was no longer afraid to voice his mind during their little chats.
I suppose, that I wish to know why humans act the way they do. The moon had the decency to sound abashed, but it was soon replaced with such a passion that Wade felt dizzy. What drives them? Why do they tend to act in a certain manner when pressured by external forces. Why do they spontaneously choose to do differently. What is good, and what is bad?
Wade was surprised. "What's good and bad? Surely that must be obvious."
Is it though? Can you define them?
"Well duh." Wade rolled his eyes. "Good is…good. And bad is…bad."
Ah yes, that you for that concise definition. Very helpful. Wade huffed, a little miffed, and glowing moonbeams hurried to soothe his prickly scalp. Wade imagined it was the Moon's way of patting him on the head.
I think I have it figured out though. Terms like good and bad are impossible to define because they are so subjective. What is good to one person, may be bad to another. What is good in one situation may prove to be very harmful in a different one. Each individual has a different set of 'morals', here the Moon's tone changed, as if to alert Wade that it didn't quite understand the concept, and each perceives the actions of others differently. Thus, to understand the nature of all, one must examine the individuals. That is what I have been doing Wade Wilson. That is why I found you.
Day 53
"Why me?" Wade hadn't meant to ask, but the words had been trying to force their way out since when they had first met, and he hadn't been able to hold them back any longer. "I mean me specifically. You talked to me. I can't imagine that you do that to everyone you observe. People would start to notice. There would be talk. So, once again: Why me?"
The moonlight danced over Wade's back uncomfortably. It seemed to linger in the grass, almost unwilling to touch him. I do not.
"Then why?"
You were interesting.
"How so?" Somehow Wade doubted it was his charming personality or stunning good looks.
Would you really wish to know? You seemed…perturbed after our first encounter. Wade stared down and fussed with the daisy chain he had started. After a moment, he nodded his head.
Very well then. You were about to kill a man, that much was apparent, but what I couldn't discern was your motivation. Murders are crimes of passion or necessity, neither of which seemed to be applicable to you.
"Then why did you leave? Surely you couldn't have met too many mercenaries."
No, but I have met many driven by greed. Mercenaries are not so different in that regard. I have found that those driven by money do bad things.
"Lots of people do a lot of things for a lot of different reasons. Greed isn't always the driving factor in bad decisions. Sometimes, it's love. Other times it's something completely different. You can't just lump everyone on together. It doesn't work like that.
But it does. Greed drives people to do bad things. Some people want money, others want power, some simply want respect. Here, the mercenary felt a column of light seemingly dig its way into his back, almost as if it was signifying something. Each of these is its own form of greed. Every individual may act differently, but at the core, every one of you apes are the same. Love, though, love is different. Love makes people foolish.
"I hear that."
No, listen, a breeze stroked Wade's lips, encouraging them to close.It clouds the judgement. Decisions based on greed are clear. They are thought out, have a purpose. Maybe not always a resolution, to be fair, but there is a clear goal in mind. Love is not rational. Decisions are made without regard for consequences. Love is reactive, not methodical. It baffles me.
"So you figured out the whole 'Good versus evil' thing, but not love? Even a child can understand that!" Wade laughed mirthlessly, a small part of him seemingly hollowing.
I am made of rock, Wade Wilson. I am alone up here. There is nobody for me to love. Surely you can understand that. Wade opened his mouth to apologize, but the Moon continued, unheeded.
And I do not believe in evil. I have yet to find a being who, at its very core is nothing but a corrupted worm of a man. Even if I did, I doubt I would consider it to truly be evil because, as I have said many times, everything is subjective. For there to be evil, surely there must also be perfection and absolute tenderheartedness, and those too I have yet to find.
"So you don't think-"
You are not evil Wade. You never have been. In truth, I believe you to be the closest thing to perfection that this planet has to offer.
Wade felt a building tightness form around his eyes. He shut them tightly and forced the lump in his throat back down. "You don't mean that. How is that even possible? I kill people for a living, remember?" He curled in on himself, effectively shielding his face from the soothing light. He was damned if he was going to let the Moon see him cry.
I realize that. Wade swore that if the Moon had eyes it would be rolling them. But you have a code. That alone isn't enough to redeem you, but know that you do make a difference. Your actions, though they may seem 'wrong' actually do much 'right' in the world. Remember what I said about sliding scales? Wade gave a quick nod, still not trusting his tear ducts enough to show his face.
You are everything that should be wrong, yet you do much right. More than that though, within you is not only great potential, but a true desire to do good and make a difference.
It is interesting, I find that those who choose to do good do so without prompting. They choose to do something not because they feel it will do good, but because they feel as if they have to; as if the alternative is not an option. You, Wade Wilson, despite all indications that you should do wrong, choose to do right. You are a walking enigma. You find a path where there is none, and the way you choose 'good' even in the face of extreme adversity is truly beautiful.
"You-You think I'm beautiful?" Wade was too shocked to fully process the Moon's speech, choosing to instead focus on the last words. And then, because he had to ruin it, because he didn't know how to take a compliment and couldn't be happy for even one fucking moment, he opened his mouth. "Isn't beauty a subjective concept though?"
The wind picked up and howled in his ear. The clouds crept out from where they were obscuring the Moon and Suddenly Wade felt himself being forced down onto the ground as the meadow was set ablaze with the Moon's urgency.
Yes, I suppose it is, Wade, and I'm sure others may think differently from me. However, those naysayers are most likely confused by whatever worthless and impractical emotions they may be experiencing. My mind is as clear as the sky, Wade. Wade frowned at the haze gently obscuring the stars. Believe me when I say this. You are beautiful, and you are loved.