Thank you so much for this beautiful comment, and also for the lovely rec that you shared at the 221b-recs comm -- they really meant a lot to me, and I'm so happy that you found the story touching. It was my first try at epistolary fiction, and I did love the challenge of trying to make the relationships and emotional development satisfying while also keeping to the circumspect nature of the correspondence and allowing the resolution to happen "off-screen." I'm so happy that it was satisfying nonetheless -- I do love being able to hint at things and to come at passion sideways, so that you can sense the love imbuing a conversation rather than having it spelled out. It's more fun sometimes to catch the hints rather than to see everything in detail.
I'm especially happy that you had that slightly on edge reaction to Watson's letter to Mycroft -- I also find it an uncomfortable moment. Everyone can bring their own headcanons to the story, of course, but for me, it seemed to be a revealing detail about both Watson and Mycroft's characters.
I see Watson as a man whose first instinct whenever someone is in trouble is to act, and usually in the most direct way possible, addressing the difficulty head-on. In addition to his usual instincts, he is - after years of being surrounded by absolute carnage - somewhat desensitized (as he himself admits), and any scruples about privacy or sensitivity to boundaries that might have nuanced the situation for him either before or after his wartime service are simply deadened at this point. So he takes action right away and writes forthrightly to Mycroft.
In another person's case, that might not have been the right approach and it could have gone quite badly. But this is Mycroft. For him, facts are facts and knowledge is knowledge, and he's spent so much of his life knowing private things about other people that I didn't think he would resent Watson's knowledge of his situation or react defensively to his attempt to discuss it with him respectfully. Sherlock was too close to the situation; he was tying himself up in knots and living in fear that Mycroft would hurt himself, but he couldn't just ask him about his feelings and intentions. So I think in this case Watson's approach was able to open up communication and help Mycroft realize that taking care of Sherlock necessitated taking care of himself as well. In my head, I also feel that Mycroft is able to regard Watson's intervention as a kindness rather than an intrusion in part because he understands how much John and Sherlock love each other (though he's never said a word about it) and he already privately considers Watson to be equivalent to a family member. Anyway, all of that is just my own imaginings, but that's what I thought might have been going on behind the scenes.
I'm so happy that you found this story moving, and it's such a gift to have someone like you as a reader. Thank you so much!
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2017-11-02 05:53 pm (UTC)I'm especially happy that you had that slightly on edge reaction to Watson's letter to Mycroft -- I also find it an uncomfortable moment. Everyone can bring their own headcanons to the story, of course, but for me, it seemed to be a revealing detail about both Watson and Mycroft's characters.
I see Watson as a man whose first instinct whenever someone is in trouble is to act, and usually in the most direct way possible, addressing the difficulty head-on. In addition to his usual instincts, he is - after years of being surrounded by absolute carnage - somewhat desensitized (as he himself admits), and any scruples about privacy or sensitivity to boundaries that might have nuanced the situation for him either before or after his wartime service are simply deadened at this point. So he takes action right away and writes forthrightly to Mycroft.
In another person's case, that might not have been the right approach and it could have gone quite badly. But this is Mycroft. For him, facts are facts and knowledge is knowledge, and he's spent so much of his life knowing private things about other people that I didn't think he would resent Watson's knowledge of his situation or react defensively to his attempt to discuss it with him respectfully. Sherlock was too close to the situation; he was tying himself up in knots and living in fear that Mycroft would hurt himself, but he couldn't just ask him about his feelings and intentions. So I think in this case Watson's approach was able to open up communication and help Mycroft realize that taking care of Sherlock necessitated taking care of himself as well. In my head, I also feel that Mycroft is able to regard Watson's intervention as a kindness rather than an intrusion in part because he understands how much John and Sherlock love each other (though he's never said a word about it) and he already privately considers Watson to be equivalent to a family member. Anyway, all of that is just my own imaginings, but that's what I thought might have been going on behind the scenes.
I'm so happy that you found this story moving, and it's such a gift to have someone like you as a reader. Thank you so much!