Wow. I had to read this a few times to fully absorb and reflect on everything you were trying to do with this piece, Anonymous One. It's very much an onion of a fic: layers of moral, ethical and religious complexity, rich, imaginative language, and a hell of a premise. I loved it to pieces. The notion of Ray as a fallen angel who is doomed (?) to help repair poor Fraser's damaged life is a wonderful one. I sort of bridled at the cruelty of - whatever, God, Fate, The Powers that Be - for experimenting on Fraser to figure out the virtue of his soul, and that felt like an old-fashioned fable. A test of the gods, if you will, with Kowalski made to sit in judgment. Pretty brilliant, yo.

Y'know, some people have, in the past, written really sappy wingfic that was sort of the opposite of this premise. And in terms of this story, that person is really very much in awe of what you've accomplished here. Well done.

So this was gorgeous and painful and wonderfully visual (oh, those slashes on Kowalski's back!) and I loved the bittersweet but passionate love he has for Vecchio. The fact that he'll be quickly forgotten was sad, but j_s_cavalcante is right: it's a hopeful ending, and an incredible dismount. Great job, Author.

(You're so totally zabira. Don't even pretend otherwise! *g*)