A/N: This was inspired by listening to the Les Miserables soundtrack way too many times. It probably comes off as confusing and maybe cheesy, but it wouldn't leave my brain alone and I have many other writing projects to attend to! In any case, consider this an experimental fic, and let me know what you think. :)
Look Down
Once upon a time there was a man who fell from the sky. And when he fell, he looked down, and he died many, many times.
They build cities of stone that turn into dust. They build governments on privileges granted. They destroy governments on privileges denied. They pride themselves in a history only as long as the blink of an eye to a man buried in the culture of an ancient planet and the traveler of a massive universe.
They are fragile. Human.
They know nothing, and they act as if they are everything that matters.
But she asks him to look down, to leave his lonely place in the sky, and he has always had too much heart.
He looks down, and he never looks back.
He travels through the stars and he learns many things.
He learns that there isn't anybody who is not important.
Sometimes they are important for good, just reasons. Sometimes they are important for terrible, horrifying reasons.
Sometimes he tries to be the judge between the two, the great equalizer who can see the end and the beginning, but he learns this also: the thing about equality is that everyone's equal when they're dead.
The peculiar thing about humans is that they are determined to succeed, to overcome, despite every obstacle they encounter. They fight. They make peace. They build up and tear down and start over. They make boundaries. But mostly, they push boundaries.
The peculiar thing about humans is that they die. They are dying, constantly, and their life is so short that it hurts him to watch.
Every day they live brings them closer to death, and they are more alive than any being he has ever met.
Soon it is not enough to just look down. Soon he is down, with them, among them, part of them. He watches their blood water the meadows, and soon he adds his own.
The colors of the world change, and he stays the same, always. He takes them under his wing, protects and defends them, and his soul is on fire in a way it has never been before.
But his name is an alibi, and he does not always know who he is.
He builds his own barricade. He gives all he can give. He saves them, over and over, and his life ends and begins, over and over.
The universe does not understand, and the humans cannot grasp, why he chooses to die for a lost cause.
There is no world beyond that he wishes to see.
Once upon a time there was a man who fell from the sky. He has never killed himself, but looking down was suicide all the same.