Oh WOW.

I am absolutely mesmerized by this - fantastic! Your Shelley is just wonderful, and you found so many more eminently suitable lines of his; awesome work on that front! I love the way Mary is a bit of a ghostly presence in the story too, in her way.

And your DEATH is delightfully blunt and sardonic - you really got that essential quality of his, that his sense of humor is just a little bit off=kilter and uncomfortable for humans.

If anything had actually bugged me about this story, it's the way Shelley just kind of lurks around the edges as a plot device, which is hardly fair to him. :) You rectified that injustice beautifully. And I do like the ambiguous ending of their segment as well, Shelley wanting very much to find a way to avoid regretting his advice.

And the coda at the end. Ouch, and wow again.

So, so many great lines too - there's such a wry humor in the Aziraphale/Shelley parts, as well as tinge of sadness, and Death wanting to hear more poetry about himself is just made of win.

Thank you thank you thank you! (I know it's not a "gift exchange" per se, but I certainly feel like I've been given a great one.)