Cryptic. Haunting. Beautiful.

It hurts to find a talented author and hope they wrote a hundred stories as good as your first taste of their work, only to see that was all there was.

A beautiful moment caught in time, so real and yet so dream like. In SA2 Shadow's memories are fake; maybe this is how Maria really died? Or maybe this is an illusion, a false memory that found its way into Shadow's mind by some unexplained means? Or maybe there's no rhyme or reason behind the images, just something sad and sublime to tease the reader, leave them begging for more. Maybe knowing the secret the story is hiding would ruin its magic.

What it feels like is an attempt to wrap up every facet of Shadow and Maria's relationship in one scene: their love, the promise they made, and how suddenly they were separated, without needing to recycle any of the materials from SA2 itself. Just a pure, crystalline distillation.

Amazing fic, but so depressing!

Oh my god. Maria died from something other than a gunshot?! Oh my god I'm gonna cry! Beautiful fic! Just beautiful! Poor shadow...

Your writing for this fanfic is beautiful. Your descriptions and language are so interesting and intircate, and I appreciate that. Maria died by a different cause here.

Poor Shadow! I would give him a friendly hug and hold him, but he ran off to cry! T_T Wah!

Aww. T-T I'm glad I got to stop by this fic today. Beautifully written.

wow, that was BEAUTIFUL, even better than the chao garden one.

i *loved* the line "The song continued, a dancer dipping and twirling on a stage of pitch and melody.", a really nice metaphor.

...and youre probably the first author ever to have maria die of something else than a gunshot. gee, wont shadow be ever so grateful? XD

although i have to agree, the summary doesnt seem to have ANYTHING to do with the fic at all, seems like you just put it there for the "that sounds weird, Ill read it" -reaction.

the only thing I would have liked would have been some lyrics for that song...

and I wonder what excatly shads understood. I mean, i could come up with several interpretations but i would like to know what you thought when you wrote that. :)

great work!

I realize that this is supposed to be angsty, but... I don't understand it... O_o ...and same with the summary...

Your oneshot are really good! The ending seemed a bit out of place to me, but I guess it was a good contrast for the warm and fuzzy feeling that the story had until it reached there. Sort of like a reality shock.

That...was so...beautiful!

It was so sad, but I loved it.

The symbolism and description within each paragraph encased my mind with memories of simpler days.

You actually made me cry because it was written so well along with the tragic ending. I never would have expected it.

Once again your writing skills shine with brilliance and makes itself ever present.

This is most definitely going on my favs. ;)

Wow. Beautiful and short. I love it.

This was wonderful... I loved it, you put plenty of detail in, and it was very good. Sad too. I really like it, good job!

A good story featuring Shadow and Maria that isn't named Descent into Darkness.

This is so pretty and sad... I'm glad I read it before it was bumped from the page by other fics. Beautiful.

So pretty, and so sad (sniff)

You don't see much good Shadow writing anymore, so I'm glad I checked the site today :)