So drawing Maria as just a random thing in stream unlocked a wild memory. Back when I was a young fujo, I had a fanfic idea in which instead of Shadow being locked inside the capsule and Maria getting merced; Shadow tries to save Maria instead using Chaos Control and throws her into the capsule. Gunfire ensues and the escape capsule gets hit by a bullet that went through Shadow, hitting Maria. When she wakes up on the surface, the capsule is destroyed and she's not only very ill, but also severely injured. However, the chaos energy transferred by the bullet interacts with her body and she became... able to wield a very unstable version of Chaos power.
Cut to modern day, you have a kind of wandering Maria who is trying to sabotage GUN. She possesses Shadow's chaos powers and is immortal, functionally, but severely at the mercy of her Chaos abilities and is very in danger of being consumed by them.
(This was... before Black Doom was even a thing.)
So like, this came up in stream and I was absolutely compelled to draw her. Who knows? Maybe I'll expand (or at least play around with) the idea in the future?
But for now, I just wanted to make my 16-year old self happy.
