still more on the Miranda Republic: ideally, it’d start the London bit with a flashback to bb!James and Hennessy, some showcase of their relationship. And then mb also how he first learnt about James’s darkness. Also, in the prison, Thomas would walk with a cane bc weak after confinement (when he made trouble in Bedlam, he was transferred to a private institution instead of let go or smth), so it’d be nice fake out on who the other man is in the scene. totally getting mental images now help

That – that is brilliant. All of the above. Hennessy and bb!James and how James learned to ride a horse from him (because how the **** else does a fisherman’s grandson learn to ride, especially if he’s a Navy officer, not a cavalry officer? It’s not like horses were cheap). Young James spending time at Hennessy’s estate, basically Hennessy’s ward after his grandfather died and before he was old enough to be living on his own when on furlough (young midshipman age, for example). Slightly older but still not out of his teens James and the time he absolutely flipped the fuck out on a fellow midshipman who implied that Hennessy was keeping James around because he was pretty, not because he deserved to have anyone give a shit about him. 

Also, that fake out is amazing. 

And the mental images are a foregone conclusion. I started getting them right about the time that you said prison scene, hence I am no help at all when it comes to the willpower not to write this.