*Your work is incredible...

Just came back to read this amazing stories after so long and I noticed that I made a mistake on my review. Just thought I'd fix that. I really wonder what you're up to these day's. Maybe you were able to achieve your career during these past few years. I really hope you come back with Advanceshipping stories someday. Take care.

This was amazing!

Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. You really know what you're doing. The emotions woven throughout the piece were done so incredibly skillfully. Your attention to detail gave the story a wonderful glow. It really was a story of light.

I know I'm late to post a review, but you were right about what you said when you mentioned that you hope we learn something new by reading your stories and yes I have learned a lot from you already. You're work is just incredible which I have already mentioned in a review that I posted on your Halves Make a Whole story. Your grammar is just PERFECT. I really do wish that I can become just as good at writing as you are someday. I know the writers of Pokémon have already announced that Serena has a crush on Ash, but I don't care because it will always be Ash and May for me.

Advanceshipping is literally the perfect pairing that has happened in Pokémon and it will always be my favorite Ash shipping no matter what.

LONG LIVE ADVANCESHIPPING! RIBBONS LAST FOREVER! _

loved it

I love how in character they both are

So good

Amazing! Had me tearing up there by chapter 2. Advanceshipping ftw

Gah the nostalgia, this is perfection. In the anime I can seriously see this is the way it would go, they both accomplish there dreams and feel empty. Then they realise that they love each other and go to find one another and admit their love.

This brought tears to my eyes especially the confessions. Ash and May are just perfect and I don't care if its not anime canon for them to get together, Advanceshipping will be the only human ship in pokemon I will ever support.

This is truelly a masterpiece and I know you are princess of Hoenn on Bulbagarden forums because I read the Advanceshipping threads both new and old and you were one of the reasons I have kept hope for this pairing for so long. Your banners are perfect and so are your stories and.. and everything. You aretruelly talented and amazing and have kept my AS faith for so long. I almost gave up in 2010 but you kept me going so thank you so much.

May Advanceshipping live forever in our hearts and in the anime. AshxMay Forever 3

I've been waiting for you to post another story for a long time, so I was overjoyed when I saw this!

Now onto reviewing the story. It makes sense that you made May a newscaster, considering she did the whole 'May's expedition' thing in many episodes. I got kind of worried when May thought that Ash had a wife and kids. I was glad when Ash said that he wasn't married, because if he was and got together with May then he would've been cheating on his wife.

I really like the café scene. Ash and May are sitting in a café, and they're too nervous to start a conversation.

I love, love, love the part where Ash asks May if she still has her half of the ribbon and it turns out she doesn't. It made me feel of sad for Ash, but this scene shows how much May has matured since she travelled with Ash and that she's trying hard to move on.

I was amazed with what you made Ash said here: that he didn't want to be a Pokemon master, he just wanted to travel and be with his friends and his pokemon. What you did with Ash's character here amazed me. Just Bravo.

They eventually start talking and they both express their feelings toward each other. I think the part that saddened me the most was when May told Ash that she had dated Drew and for a while, she thought she had loved him. I felt horrible for Ash when May thought, 'the sun should never be pained.'

And you ended the story beautifully; May and Ash watching the dance and May saying, ''The dance has just begun.''

This story is amazing! Thank you for making it! I give it a 10/10!

Well, once again, a slightly melancholy yet powerfully moving story. Thanks Wings of Rain, you've given my collection of great Advanceshipping works another boost. Perhaps in the future, you could write a story telling their struggles as a couple? All of them so far seem to end with them getting together; placing that pivotal point near the beginning could open a new world of possibility, although it's not like what you're doing now isn't fantastic. Keep up the great work!

WoW!powerful use of words great tone. Can't believe why you're not writing books was great I enjoyed reading it you went in depth with may's character and ultimately finished it.

Just as a preface, I debated long and hard about whether or not I should actually do this. Considering it won a contest from a community which hates me, and I unwillingly have to ignore back, I was hesitant. But all the same I think it would be appropriate to post my opinions.

But I think I should lead with the fact I went in chronological order instead of good to "needs work" in my critique. Ya know why?

...well this is one of the most absolutely fantastic pieces of writing I have .

My notes:

********************

Nice, powerful opening. It is ambiguous and objective yet very easy to understand. I like your whimsical approach.

I will say one cliche which held it back form a perfect 10 - "one ribbon at a time"
…I see the point and reference you're making here. Emily Dickinson is a fantastic writer and I love that poem. And normally I would love the use of symbolism but the phrase just doesn't fit right. I think you mean to intermix many ideas: the rising of the sun and the hope imbued with that, the symbolism of the half-ribbon, and the use of physically lifting the ribbon to the sun. However your diction is just a bit flat here. It feels…empty almost. It's a hard lesson, but learning when your saying something but not actually saying anything is key to good writing. I am being picky, I know, but it is true. But barring the "thisboy" it was really good.

Now these words may mean nothing to you, but anyway fantastic use of asyndeton and parallelism.

The final statement. OH LORD the final statement. You know me, I hardly spend this much time praising the opening segments…but this truly was utterly awesome.

For once in my life I have only one petty criticism in a section of a paper (II). You were ALMOST perfect with your use of punctuation. I'm not gonna point out where and why, but there were times where using ellipses would have been .POWERFUL than commas. But that is up to your digression. The reader digests the point, don't worry.

But other than that you were very euphonious in your diction and swooned me into being just as lost and whimsical as May. That truly takes talent. The ability to not only convey to the reader, but also make them ADAPT to the situation is incredible. Your tone choice was perfect: the lost and fluent, almost aloof and stoic presence the words take is phenomenal. Great job.

Yes I said it, great job.

There was some less than stellar repetition in part (III). Namely THAT.

Punctuation flaws here and there. No big deals. Just pointing out for pointing out's sake.

Your eclectic vocabulary amuses me. It's pleasing to hear to words that have just SLIGHT twists to more general words. (i.e. - melancholy as opposed to sad).

Okay I'm not sure if you INTENDED for this, but you used a very specific metaphor in your story. The lemonade acted as what is called a "dynamic present metaphor" or what I call a "fickle device." No matter what the pseudonym, the point is the way the lemonade represented how May was feeling about her presence in Pacifidlog was fantastic, and the way it CHANGED IN STORY as May changed AT THE SAME TIME was superb.

The way you made Drew seem like a nice guy I love. Too many people hate on him in the ADV "community." All I can say is that he is a fantastic character and doesn't deserve the due hatred. Your ability to show May reminisce so solemnly was fantastic. The way the portrayal of absolute sheer depressive connection of May and her surrounding wowed me. Absolutely wowed me. I almost cried. Believe me it's hard to do that (only 2 or 3 stories have done that to me on FF).

I should say in transition I have to ovate you for your use of structure. The way you put some words in parentheses, italics, quotations…you execute it flawlessly. It exponentiates the power of the story 100000 fold.

I think I love the section of Ganlon berries because I relate to it creepily perfect. I was but a couple months ago in an airport saddened and bawling because of the loss of a girl of mine, choking on the bitter tears and air. I had a bag of half-eaten Au Bon Pain stuff and I was buried in my pillow. This section brings me back there. Perhaps unfair to bring up personal relations in a critique, but all the same you should know about how this affected me.

Fantastic symbolism with the balloon.

-(break in chapters)-

The sharp interruption I love. If you know my hiatus fic which I plan on finished (hush-hush), Journey of a Psychic, you know how much I love these lost-hearted empty, dragging-on-going-through-the-motions-despite-their-will stories. Oh and that's a pun, because the sharp interruption of her thought train was brilliance.

Butterfly reference. Seems like no one remembered how this relates to May and Caroline these days…

First critique in a while: the paragraph describing May's new life bored me. Perhaps this was on purpose in order to adapt the reader to boredom like May, but it's a dangerous fire you played with and you missed the mark. I got so bored the words turned to meaningless marks of black ink on the screen and jumbled around in my mind incoherently, losing my interest ever so slightly.

Sudden interjection of Ash. Wow. Nice.

I have a sense of tension about the thought of kids he had. If Ash actually ends up later on being taken I will frown greatly upon that. The idea of "forbidden love" due to being taken irks me. Because if May goes away empty, the audience is left empty and complaining (usually), and if Ash goes with May, then the sense of "true love" is lost since Ash gave up his previous marriage for her. Even if he is a male widow, the sense of love is lost. It turns into petty princess dreams of lust over an untouchable celebrity.
But if ends up being a fake allusion and foreshadowing, I will give you endless praise, as this is one of the highest forms of maturity and skill for a writer to possess, being able to play and toy and manipulate the audience's feelings.

This initial interaction between Ash and May is done so tastefully fantastic. Ash being the mature and Ash-y guy with May being the stuttering post-traumatic girl.

I am disappointed with the ensuing description though. It's lost and everywhere and needs editing. It just wasn't as concrete as it SHOULD have been. It took too long for me to figure out that May wanted to relive Ash and his old self even though he was unconsciously so completely making it painful and hard and being so aloof and TOO mature. I know you're capable of better, so show it girl.

This revitalization of her heart was done well. Nothing spectacular, but done well.

Powerful use of using a one-sentence section. Actually it was colossal in effect. That is a technique I admittedly never have thought of using…well that's a slight lie but the point is it was FAN-TASTIC.

I love cafes. They work so well, and thats why they are so overused in movies and stories yet not so cliche.

I raise an eyebrow at the choice to leave Pikachu behind. Upon inspection, this is perhaps to simply show that he is not currently looking and acting like the Ash May liked, but all the same I question it. Nothing more, nothing less…just question it.

OH MY GOD thank you for having the bikes be insignificant. I love you (not that way, but you know what I mean).

Wow…way to use the effects of her not using the Terracotta. Just…wow.

Aye…the "the" in the middle of "but the she's more stubborn" takes away a little power. But this paragraph was so fantastic it doesn't matter.

A good transition into this. Everything else from here on I think a few words are best in this situation.

Heart-wrenchingly perfect and omnisciently playful, full of every rhetorical device and diction and tone and asjkchlueidjsknc a reader could ask for.

And that sums up everything. I need not offer further criticism since I have none to give for now.

-

As side notes to your footnotes:

[1] I love your use of roman numerals
[2] Perfect use of symbolism. I saw this all the way through, and honestly I think it is the most creative and effective use of light and earth imagery I have EVER seen, including in professional prose and poetry.
[3] 3rd gen is best your argument is invalid ;)
[4] Nostalgia
[5] I saw this, and offered no gripe because I understood your reference. However, I did dislike the sudden jump from 8 to 12 years. Took a while for me to see how it would chronologically make sense, but keep in mind I may be a bit brighter than the average joe. Or maybe dimmer. Depends on PoV
[6] Never heard of this. Guess ya learn something new everyday.
[7] Valid point.
[8] Love the daisies. Personally I prefer Lotuses (which I stubbornly and adamantly insist the plural should be Loti), but to each their own.
[9] Wow. This episode was the first episode I had a conversion factor with. You may recall I used to be an avid PokeShipper, so anything that suggested ADVS disgusted me. But when I transferred beliefs, I loved it to pieces. How May had ASH of all people be Juliet? Sounds like a playful form of flirting to me hehe :)

**************************

I suppose it should be mentioned that if you noticed I wrote less and less as the story progressed. This is a good sign. This is how the writing SHOULD be. I should become so involved with the story that I become apathetic to the actual critique itself :)

Bottom line is this: The truth is that if everyone here doesn't start dead-near worshipping you they have poor judgement and are badly mistaken in their sense of literature and concept of ingeniousness.

Cheers girl. You earned this favorite, and plenty more to come.

Finally, some time to post a proper review!
I was left speechless by the end of this, to be quite honest. Like always, every word draws me in and then pushes itself deep inside my brain, where it always seems to leave a lasting impression. And it's so charming and utterly romantic and nostalgic- the whole thing leaves you with a sort of feeling like the kind after you drink hot chocolate on a cold winter day.
It's hard to include symbolism in writing effectively and subtly, but you did just that! I especially loved the purple theme. Besides meaning what you alluded to, purple also reminds me of confusion, something that our two heroes had to deal with a lot in this.
And then, May's inner conflict, her uncertainty about herself about Ash- it felt so, hm, right, I guess. Especially because it illustrates just how much she really does care for him and how much pain she goes through just by his not being there for years. And her job as a journalist is completely justified- I can see her in front of a camera reporting like that, and now, the picture won't disappear from my mind.
Cafe Kina sounds delicious. *sobs* If only it existed. And may I add, it fits just perfectly that Ash and May bond together after so many years over food.
Why are your words so perfect? Why. The beginning of Part I, where May is remembering the past, diving into the deep sea of her memories- so beautiful.
"But what she remembers most is the silence of each early morning, when the sun rises one ribbon at a time and the whole world is at peace."
There's no point copying down the whole beginning, so just my favorite line from it. One ribbon at a time, hm, so I smell symbolism? :)
But all in all, I can't really say anything more, probably because this is almost perfect. Or perfect- I say almost because people say nothing can be perfect.. but this comes close. I've said everything, I wanted to say, I hope, and I conclude with good-bye and keep writing. :))

Well even though I'm on a bit of a downturn when it comes to reading and I was going to read this eventually, I have to thank you for giving me that last little push to actually do it. This is instantly going on my favorites list.

Sheesh, I'm constantly told that I'm good with description in my stories but every time I read one of yours it reminds me of how far behind I am compared to you in that area. And this one is no exception, and I'm in complete awe of what you can do in that area. Similes and metaphors galore as you accompany them with the many different colors vividly showing every last detail as they go from the darker more melancholy tones in the first chapter and continue to lighten up as we go through the second.

The first chapter gave off exactly what you were probably hoping for with May's mood. There were several moments in which I was actually questioning whether her missing heart was literal or figurative but it just gave that extra piece of symbolism for what it represented. And while we as the readers probably knew that it represented more than simply achieving the life-long goal and losing purpose, the way you had May unconsciously jump around the true reason was interesting to read. Drew's position in that chapter was that of a simple supporter and not of the ex-boyfriend which he turned out to be, even if there were those hints as to him possibly wanting May back and searching her mood as they talked trying to find any lingering feelings for him.

Before I move onto the next chapter though I want to take a special mention with the daisies/rose comparison. As soon as I heard you talk about the dead rose petals and the vibrant daisies, that poem was the first thing to come to mind. When I saw that you were going to mention it in the next chapter I just had to know if you were actually thinking of the same one. I found that poem a while back and it received a cameo in my last fic, and although it was Pikachu and not Ash giving May the daisies and the rose having disappeared thanks to Eevee, it still fit surprisingly nicely. Though you did a much better job at incorporating it than I did.

And on that note, I see many different themes I've used in past stories within these two chapters. While I'm of course not in any way laying claim to these ideas, you've brought them into a much brighter light than I have done in any of my stories. One of my favorites though was the seemingly simple idea, "she really is home." The word home is usually synonymous with house but the way you used it, as like the way I did, it more means someplace that you are unquestionable comfortable. A place where you aren't afraid to let out whatever you feel and the place where you feel as though you can come back to time and time again and still feel as happy, if not happier, than the last.

But now onto the real jewel, the second chapter. It was rather obvious that May's assignment was Ash right off the bat, but it was at that moment I found it rather interesting that the two of them moved to the others' home region. While we heard May's reasoning in wanting to get away from her memories and Ash wanting to get out of the public eye, I can't help but think that there was another un-thought of decision when they chose where to live. The idea that either they could run into the other or at the very least remind them of the happy memories they shared.

May had quite the surprise though when she found Ash as her interviewee. A forced reunion so to speak, but while she was simply thinking that it was Ash's fault for not making contact with her, he was the one with a more reasonable excuse to not wanting to disrupt a possible relationship she had with Drew. So while she was the one who felt as though she was always the one breaking through those barriers to get them to talk about, she was the one who unknowingly put them up in the first place. Even after finally breaking the first section of ice May was having problems keeping it going as she only met with him three times after the interview.

"She's not sure how, but suddenly she just knows; in that glorious moment, May realizes that she had never left her heart behind somewhere.

She had left it with someone."

Something that we as the readers probably knew for a while, but wonderfully worded nonetheless. It brings everything from the first chapter back to light and is a major turning point for the chapter.

But coming back to May's initial outburst, along with Ash's rebuttal, was a great representation of all that pent up frustration that was building up within her all those years. She finally opened the lock and let everything come gushing out. And within that was the reasoning behind so many things, but most of all it was her feelings not only towards coordination but towards Ash himself. All in all this was probably the best part of the chapter, everything was put out on the table for the other to see and they were showing vulnerabilities that both were trying to hide for over a decade. They were now metaphorically as naked as they could get to each other and more fragile than a thin sheet of glass, in those few moments it could have gone as wrong as it could have gone right. But in the end while everything came crashing down, it allowed something new to built from the debris.

And for my last quote that I really enjoyed "The sun should never be pained". It just goes to show how highly she views him. Most of us have used Ash as her guiding star in some fashion before, but you take the concept even further by comparing him to Drew as the earth. So many things can be pulled from just this is fun to think about.

And finally we get to the ending with the final stage of them rebuilding their relationship. As Sara mentioned in her review your use of the more uncommon symbols of Advanceshipping, along with May not having her ribbon when Ash asked to see her half, gives this a different feel. And she already covered most of my sentiments about the kiss so instead of making this rant go on any longer I'll leave it at that.

I noticed a few places in the first chapter where words weren't spaced apart but other than that I saw no real mistakes. Having someone actually do a present tense story while keeping it in the chosen tense isn't something I see too often, but while it does have an odd feel to it, there is something about it that adds to the story. Probably with the fact that it seems more like we're following May along as she experiences it for herself.

Time to end this stupidly long rant of a review. In the end I can sum it up in about one sentence, excellent work as always and it only reinforces my thought that you deserve that place on my favorite authors list. And no matter what people say, if I was still writing, I would have a long ways to go to even try to catch up to your level of work. As I said before, I am in awe of this story. While it is an angsty type in one fashion, the entire way I found myself smiling and simply immersing myself in the world that you painted for us. And for that I say thank you. Hopefully I didn't bore you with this rant but I do get a bit longer the more I immerse myself and enjoy a story.

Keep 'em coming!