This will probably be some Ryan x Joe-/esque/ drabbles told from either perspective.
This one, in particular, is about how Joe sees Ryan.
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The ending of any story is important, but the ending of Ryan Hardy's story was designed to be extraordinary. The man's transformation from a humble civil servant to famed broken hero was captured by our first encounter. An exhilarating tale shadowed by recent events. This time, with my helping hand, his metamorphosis will redefine our journey, our story.
Our story.
My fixation with Ryan had always been founded, unsurprisingly, on another's obsession with him. Ever since he was a child there had always been a dark shadow lovingly leering over him, guiding him and shaping him exquisitely with only fear and pain as instruments.
Death is never fickle, favoring the beautiful and innocent, but if there was one I knew who had been truly loved by Death it was Ryan Hardy.
Tormented and tortured as a child by my god, my art, I understood immediately he was the hero of my story and that, like Death, he was mine to guide and shape. What force could have brought a better specimen to my doorstep other than Fate? It was clear that our story together would mean much more than any of the work I'd done before. I still didn't anticipate what the next decade would bring.
The shy and lonely man I met all those years ago had a heart, ragged from past pain, dedicated to justice and righteous action. Today, it is a pleasure above all else to see what a beautiful creature Ryan has become. His heart, damaged in new ways, beats a quick, synthetic rhythm cold with vengeance and fear every time our eyes meet. Every time he hears my name. Every time he glances at the protrusion on his chest.
I can feel it in his eyes and words.
I am now that shadow little Hardy had known and feared, and loved, so well.
That shadow he cannot truly feel, he cannot truly live, without.
Through his hatred, through the alcohol-drenched rot setting into the core of his soul, through my games and manipulations I've been reeducating little Hardy.
Teaching him, shaping him, guiding him.
Following him.
Long after I have died my shadow will remain over him.
Just as Death has chosen to remain, affectionately, by his side so will I. The memory of me and what I've done to him; what I've made him do and what I've made him become.
My writing, my victims, my followers: none of it the amounts to my work with Ryan.
Ryan is my magnum opus.
My art projected and reflected through such a pure man, tearing him apart and ruining him until he is something terrifying and unrecognizable – something like me.
Even after he thinks it's all over my shadow will follow him as his own.
Death follows us all; I am his Death and he will be mine.