Date: December 07, 2020 01:32 am Title: Epilogue: In Which Two Happy Endings Are Achieved
Okay, this is a perfect epilogue. Seriously, Regency Dwangela forever.
Great job with this one. You always do such good work developing Jim and Pam in these very different worlds and finding new things to say about them through those worlds. I'm really looking forward to seeing what you come up with next.
Author's Response: Thank you so much! Regency Dwangela indeed :) I am so glad you enjoyed this one!
Date: December 07, 2020 01:28 am Title: In Which News is Delivered Late
I mean, I know we were always headed for a happy ending, but it's still great to read it - and sending them to Tuscany is a great touch.
Author's Response: #GivePamRenaissanceArt
Date: December 07, 2020 01:25 am Title: In Which Pam Delivers a Rebuke
I think this worked well! You effectively closed the door on Katy and let us witness some lovely little happy moments with Jim and Pam.
Author's Response: Thank you! I think it's vital in this genre to close that kind of door very clearly, because otherwise you end up with loose ends.
Date: December 07, 2020 01:21 am Title: In Which Indecency is Discovered
I love this version of Dwight and Angela. They seem to fit in so well in this time.
This chapter was just hilarious.
Author's Response: In some ways I think Dwangela work better here than in the canon time...people out of time.
Date: December 07, 2020 01:18 am Title: In Which a Question is Answered
The detail of Roy being regularly hangover and sufficiently unpleasant when hangover that his butler has a whole routine about avoiding him is really solid.
Good for Mark for refusing to let Roy's behavior go unanswered - feels like the kind of thing that under the in-love-with-his-maybe-ex-fiancée circumstances Jim might feel inclined to leave alone. I'm curious to what extent Mark knows this is a bad approach with Roy - he seems to have a good sense of people, and it would be in his character to try to provoke Roy into more stupidity to help out Jim.
The scene at Michael's was just very well written - well-paced and fun to read.
Author's Response: I think Mark is just very firmly on Jim's side here, all else aside. He's committed to helping Jim however he can (because why else include Mark?).
Date: December 07, 2020 12:53 am Title: In Which Dwight Helps
Hmmm. The vapors, huh? Suuuuuure, Angela.
It's quite nice to see that the evening's events have actually provoked Pam to show some backbone, along with her recognizing what Jim's reactions to all this actually mean. In an odd way, it seems like the restrictive social codes of the time have given her an opportunity to recognize her own feelings and the failings in her relationship with Roy - they've allowed her to recognize his boorish behavior for what it is.
Author's Response: Yes, the clearer social code can really help underline the misbehavior in this case. Thanks for noticing!
Date: December 07, 2020 12:37 am Title: In Which Roy Makes a Cake
I appreciate you leaning full-on into the sheer buffoonish of Roy here - it's all a pretty natural culmination of what you've established about him in the past.
Author's Response: Thank you! I always try to ground my buffoon-Roy since I always make him a buffoon...
Date: December 07, 2020 12:29 am Title: In Which the Farce Begins
Whelp. You have arranged the ingredients for some comedic chaos, that's for sure.
Author's Response: Thank you! I hope the stew that came out of it is satisfactory!
Date: December 06, 2020 06:04 pm Title: In Which Jim Throws a Party
This is an interesting twist on Katy’s role in the story – we see her relationship with Jim coming more directly at the expense of Pam’s time with him, and at the same time Roy’s interest in Katy is more than a passing fancy. Certainly a whole new set of burdens of Pam that will be interesting to explore.
You’ve done a good job in this chapter conveying the longing and loneliness that’s so fundamental to Pam at this stage in the story.
Author's Response: Thank you! I feel like Hot-Girl-era Pam is best when she is aware of her loneliness a little more.
Date: December 06, 2020 04:28 pm Title: In Which a Lieutenant Buys a Bag
Ooooof. The idea of Pam dealing with her unhappiness and jealousy by throwing herself into being kind to Katy is just… so very Pam, in both her natural kindness and empathy and in her fundamental inability to self-advocate and get in touch with her feelings. Good writing, but it stings.
Author's Response: Do you wonder how that might have looked in canon-universe? Because I did when I was writing it.
Date: December 06, 2020 04:28 pm Title: In Which the Incomparable Comes to Town
Regency version of the classic beats of a Michael scheme – and of Hot Girl! You slay me. This was a really fun read.
Author's Response: Thanks! I really wanted Hot Girl in there for genre reasons...
Date: December 06, 2020 04:28 pm Title: In Which Two Gentlemen Begin an Association
It’s a clever move to use their need to connect without breaking the rules of the society they live in to further Jim’s pranks on Dwight and vice versa.
It’s interesting, albeit concerning, to see a Roy who is markedly more suspicious of Jim than in canon – feels like we’re on a speed track to a Negotiation moment.
Author's Response: He is more suspicious but slightly less confrontational...
Date: December 06, 2020 04:27 pm Title: In Which Mr. Howard Gets Advice
“Apparently the idea of intentionally making himself personable to any person not of his own class or of a direct romantic interest to him was a novel conception” is a such a clear insight into Ryan.
Author's Response: Can you tell I don't like him much? ;)
Date: December 06, 2020 03:36 pm Title: In Which Pam Buys Paints
Oh, Pam. I’m glad to see she’s waking up and recognizing the patterns here.
Author's Response: It took her long enough...but that is the genre...
Date: December 06, 2020 03:36 pm Title: In Which Cricket and Not Cricket Occur
I know nothing about cricket and I can't imagine having to write about it at length, so I will confess myself to having nothing but admiration to you for taking on this chapter in the first place.
Author's Response: Thanks! Dorothy Sayers' "Murder Must Advertise" has a cricket scene I'm referencing here.
Date: December 06, 2020 03:30 pm Title: In Which a Conspiracy is Hatched
HA! I love the remix of Ryan and Kelly’s poorly-timed first hookup.
The metaphor of falling in love as being swept out to sea by a riptide is really good – and the line about not being able to stop himself any more than he could breath underwater or fly to the moon just sounds very genre-appropriate. Just high-quality writing here.
You have to hand it to Jim and Pam – putting things in Jell-o seems like it was not so easy in these days.
Author's Response: They really do have to try to get jell-o, yes. Thank you for the kind words about the language!
Date: December 06, 2020 03:27 pm Title: In Which Habits Are Disrupted
Of course, there’s limits to how much credit we should give to him because his complacency and lack of consideration isn’t actively malevolent. His self-centeredness is grating here.
I love Pam trying to adjust to her suddenly slightly more exciting life. Jim’s taking an awful risk by playing pranks in church, though.
Author's Response:
To flip the previous comment: is he really Roy if he's not at least a LITTLE annoying?
And Jim takes many risks with pranks in canon, so this was my attempt to make that truer here.
Date: December 06, 2020 03:26 pm Title: In Which Another Party Is Considered
Again, I really like what you’re doing with Roy in this story in giving us multiple perspectives – and in this chapter, again a relatively objective perspective. While not ignoring his complacency and lack of consideration for Pam, you’re mainly centering him as a fool who doesn’t quite understand the world around him and the consequences of what he’s doing, someone who isn’t paying enough attention, rather than a bad guy who just doesn’t give a damn about those consequences. Makes it a more interesting story, and makes Pam’s continued attachment to him make more emotional sense.
Author's Response: This might be my most sympathetic Roy, now that you mention it. Because yes, I think here he's more misguided and missing the point and less virulent.
Date: December 06, 2020 10:41 am Title: In Which Judgements Are Passed
This was a really great and totally in-character way to tell us more about the other characters. The metaphor describing Jan is AMAZING.
I appreciate that much like in canon, Jim is spending his time talking to Pam rathe than doing, you know, what he's there to be doing.
Author's Response: Thank you! It wouldn't be Jim if he were really paying attention to work and not Pam, would it?
Date: December 06, 2020 10:22 am Title: In Which a Friendship Is Reluctantly Formed
The first graf is just a very solid description of Pam's confused state of mind about Jim.
I love this exploration of Jim's fundamental, albeit somewhat reluctant, affection for Michael. And I'm glad that you rooted it in one of Michael's heartbreaking moments of self-awareness - certainly feels like an easier guy to like in canon and in this tale when we see the sadness underneath the clowning.
This mention of Jim's consciousness of the fact that his courtship advice looks a lot like his plans with Pam definitely has my attention. I don't think much about it, but it does seem like Jim did a lot of lying to himself about that relationship, too.
Author's Response: I think Michael should always have something grounding him, because if he doesn't he's just awful. I'm glad that came through here.
Date: December 02, 2020 05:17 pm Title: In Which More Whist is Played
"Pam felt something stir in her that she had neither the time nor the inclination to examine too closely" is a perfect character description for S2 Pam. Really, Pam's inner monologue throughout this is spot on.
HA! Ryan's losing all sorts of money tonight.
Author's Response: Thank you! Inner monologue was one of the main ways I was hoping to tie this to the canon, so that's good!
Date: December 02, 2020 04:09 pm Title: In Which a Dessert is Almost, But Not Quite, Eaten
Honestly, there's a lot of just very funny writing in this chapter, and some fantastic remixes of canon. I love that Jim's diplomacy experience ends up coming back to help create the yogurt-is-expired moment.
Author's Response: I'm glad that didn't feel too shoehorned in. I was worried!
Date: December 02, 2020 03:44 pm Title: In Which Four People Meet in Hyde Park
I love the regency version of Jim trying to talk himself out of his thing for Pam, and how it immediately falls apart upon him seeing her again. Feels like something that probably happened a *lot* when he first started at DM. True for much of this chapter, really.
"The Shrewsbury Martins" is very well played.
Author's Response: Jim trying to talk himself out of Pam is doomed, but I suppose he has to try, right? It's only gentlemanly in both worlds.
Date: December 02, 2020 03:31 pm Title: In Which Two Friends Chat
I really love this portrayal of Mark. He feels like he's going to be a fun character to have around. And you've managed to work Scott's Tots in here, so thanks for those flashbacks.
Is that Katy I spy on the horizon?
Author's Response: Scott's Tots couldn't not make it in (and I dislike that episode, so it really had to force its way in ;)).
Author's Response: Scott's Tots couldn't not make it in (and I dislike that episode, so it really had to force its way in ;)).
Author's Response: Scott's Tots couldn't not make it in (and I dislike that episode, so it really had to force its way in ;)).
Author's Response: Scott's Tots couldn't not make it in (and I dislike that episode, so it really had to force its way in ;)).
Author's Response: Scott's Tots couldn't not make it in (and I dislike that episode, so it really had to force its way in ;)).
Date: December 02, 2020 03:17 pm Title: In Which Shopping is Done
The note about Pam basically having invitations pre-prepared is VERY Pam. And I like this description of Angela - if you're going to have them already bonded, feels like you need to offer some context for why Pam would deal with her, uh, less appealing aspects. Also, "a prim and prissy miss" is just a great label for her.
Also appreciated you noting that Roy's unwillingness to spend time with/do things for Pam causes some genuine constraints on her given the social expectations of the time. Not something I had thought about going into this.
Author's Response: Yeah, Roy ignoring her needs makes him even more of an ass here...thanks for the kind words about describing Angela!