(2/2) but with truly world-weary souls . I feel as it gets easier for them to accept and live with and take advantage of the opportunity they’ve been given, the more comfortable they become with this reconciliation, the easier it is for me to reconcile the characters i know w/ who we have in your fic and i love it a lot it’s beautiful and an incredible experience. Experiencing their frustration and growing comfort as my own is truly unique.

*blinks* *smile gets wider* This is legit the first time that anyone’s done anything meta-ish about one of my fics and I love it so much! *hugs enthusiastically* I am so, so, so happy to hear that my character development is so solid and that it works so well, because I’ve spent this entire fic biting my lip and wrangling the characters behind the scenes and trying to get in everyone’s heads to know what’s going on in there! And you’re absolutely right – up until about Chapter Five I was picturing Flint in my head, especially, instead of James, whereas sometime in Chapter Six or Eight, he turned back into James in my mental picturing of the scene, which is fitting since that section is a big turning point for him. It’s interesting because Miranda is sort of going through the opposite transformation, which is to say that while James is slowly getting comfortable in his own skin again with who he is outwardly, Miranda is busy realizing that she can’t turn into Lady Hamilton again and has to figure out who she is now that she’s aware of just how deep the betrayal ran and how angry she is about it. By comparison with those two, John just has to remember that he’s not missing a leg anymore and figure out how he feels about a James who isn’t interested in punching anyone anymore unless they’re really, really asking for it. Oh, and of course he has to figure out how Thomas plays into the whole thing now that he’s figured out that he’s not actually World’s Worst Bastard™. It’s an odd, odd day when John Silver is the most straightforward of your characters, let me tell you!