1 [Report This]Date: January 31, 2021 06:16 am Title: Lions and Leopards and Baboons, Oh My
... Forgot to say, I thought you had the characters absolutely spot-on...
Author's Response: Thank you!!! I feel like I have a deeper understanding of Oscar than I do of pretty much any character in The Office, so it was fun to play with him for a while.
1 [Report This]Date: January 31, 2021 06:06 am Title: Lions and Leopards and Baboons, Oh My
I just found this!* Thank you so much for the dedication, and for your extremely kind remarks!
And don't knock this - I think it's great. I love the depiction of the office as an eco-system (and there's also, on a more serious and more general level, a lot of truth in that), and I particularly liked Oscar's talking heads, and him recognising that there are actually collateral gains from Jim's messing with Dwight. Well written and funny!
Thanks for the story, and thanks again for the dedication.
* I forgot about the Dundies until about a week ago, since when I've been frantically cramming the vast amount of great new stuff that's been posted in the past year, and which I've fallen behind on. Running out of time - I have a few hours available, and LOADS of stories still unread... (a couple of yours on the list though!)
Author's Response: Thank *you* for writing In Sickness and In Health!
I'm really glad you enjoyed this one, and especially that you thought the ecosystem metaphor spoke to something real about the relationships and how things work within the office! It just seems to me that there has to be SOME reason that their co-workers aren't just out to murder Jim 75% of the time.
I know exactly what you mean - I've been the last six months inhaling everything coming in and my Dundies noms *still* took hours. Good luck with cramming, and thank you for the noms! (I will have you know In Sickness and In Health earned all sorts of plaudits from me when I submitted!)
1 [Report This]Date: December 01, 2020 10:46 am Title: Lions and Leopards and Baboons, Oh My
Oscars monologue is perfect. He’s one of the hardest characters for me to write so I am really impressed. I would have loved for Karen to get a bit more of the picture of “Jim and Pam” within the office, and this would have been a great way to do that. I can see the point about rabid fans attacking the writing staff though, so maybe it’s best it’s left here as part of your series. Again, great job!
Author's Response: I find Oscar really interesting and surprisingly useful fic-wise - he's got some distinct tics, but he's one of the few non-Jam characters who can come off as a kind of everyman observer to the craziness. (To my great shame I am also 100% a "well, actually" person, so it may be that he just sounds like me. Whoops.) Thanks for saying that, though - this was my first deep dive into him. Yeah, Karen never had much opportunity to see for herself what she was walking into, did she? What a lousy hand of cards she got dealt. Yeah, I absolutely would've been one of the people sending stuffed animals to the writing staff, so. Thank you - I'm glad you liked it, and I appreciate you taking the time to review!
1 [Report This]Date: November 26, 2020 05:44 am Title: Lions and Leopards and Baboons, Oh My
The part I loved the most about this one was the network notes. Priceless!
Author's Response: They're totally right, too. This definitely would've provoked a Response.
Thanks for taking the time to read and review, Kuri!
1 [Report This]Date: November 26, 2020 05:43 am Title: Lions and Leopards and Baboons, Oh My
The part I loved the most about this one was the network notes. Priceless!
Author's Response: They're totally right, too. This definitely would've provoked a Response.
Thanks for taking the time to read and review, Kuri!
1 [Report This]Date: October 26, 2020 04:00 am Title: Lions and Leopards and Baboons, Oh My
So the first thing I thought when Jim and Pam were both out was that Karen's head would be spinning imagining them together (not sure if this was pre or post her finding out) but this was so much better than that.
Stanley lines - brilliant. Oscar- the perfect narrator. Michael - left unattended - scary. Dwight left to his own devices - yikes.
The network notes - good stuff there, too. I've got to imagine they were already getting bombarded with get Jim and Pam stuff together and so good to expand on that.
Fun stuff as usual - keep 'em coming. At this point I'm starting to blur as to what was real from show and what were yours.
Author's Response: The timing of this moved around a little (people come and go way too much in Season 3, which makes tracking them a pain - come on, writers, think of the fanfic), but it ended up landing sometime between The Return and Business School, so Karen knows Jim had a thing for Pam, but has a deeply inaccurate idea of what "thing" meant. There was originally a bit at the end where Ryan makes unsubtle reference to how weird it was that both of them were out on the same day (in an effort to win over Karen for himself), but it just felt crammed in. I'm glad you liked where it ended up, though! Oscar is such a useful fanfic character - rational and removed enough to serve as a narrator when Jim or Pam won't do, but not quite as separated from the silliness as he thinks he is. And the central metaphor here is definitely something only Oscar would say. And Michael and Dwight SO need adult supervision. I'd imagine they were. They got lucky, really - a couple years down the line #ApexPredatorsInLove would have been trending immediately. That's far too kind of you to say, but I'm glad you're enjoying these! Thanks for reading and reviewing!
1 [Report This]Date: October 25, 2020 11:14 pm Title: Lions and Leopards and Baboons, Oh My
Oh, that's lovely! I think that my message, probably, might have been one of these 1500, but I genuinely enjoy this story. Thank you!
I especially like Oscar here. We need more stories with Oscar in, he's such an underrated character!
Author's Response: Oh, mine too. Apex predators deserve love. I'm really glad you liked it!
We really do need more Oscar. He's such a great character for fic - relatively normal, but far more quirky than he thinks, and pretty underutilized in canon, too.
Appreciate you taking the time to review!
1 [Report This]Date: October 25, 2020 11:26 am Title: Lions and Leopards and Baboons, Oh My
This was a blast. I 100% can get behind the fact that Jim and Pam are the only things that keep Micheal and Dwight in check. Micheal without a babysitter (and yes that's the appropriate phrase) would absolutly see himself as the cool laid back kid like Jim. It would go completely over his head that he's not cool, laid back, or a kid. Thus without Pam to reel him in or distract him from something, Micheal runs rampant. She may have to roll her eyes about 100 times a day, but without Pam, the inner 6 year old "Look at me! Look at me! Look at me!" Micheal has free reign.
Also same goes for Dwight. Since he's not worried about having to defend himself from Jim, he thinks he's cock-of-the-walk and is trying to strut his stuff. We've seen that in canon many a time. You did it justice that Dwight would act that way when there's not someone to take him down several pegs.
Love that the normal people in the office also know what a Jim and Pam-less office means and as soon as they realize what's going on, they baten down the hatches.
Also interesting that Karen only reflects on Jim being gone at the end of the day. Maybe Pam just doesn't really register with her? Which could also lead to why she is really taken aback when Pam does get more assertive like after the coal walk. Pam always flew under her radar.
Great addition to this series. The opening disclaimer was great too.
Author's Response: Oh, Michael desperately needs to be mothered and attended to at all times. Pam is way more ready to be a parent than she gave herself credit for in Take Your Daughters to Work Day. And Dwight's ego desperately needs to be regularly punctured for the safety of everyone around him.
Yeah, the Coalition for Reason has been here before, they know what's coming.
I had a slightly more positive interpretation of Karen's response, which is that she just doesn't really understand Scranton yet. She pays enough attention to Jim (and the fact that he's messing with Dwight instead of working) that she can make that connection, but she's not aware enough of the normal ebb and flow of life in the audience to realize that Michael's craziness is directly related to Pam being gone. Given enough time and enough of seeing this for herself, she might get it. On the other hand, this is also set between The Return and Business School... so it's very possible she's willfully ignoring the importance of Pam.
Glad you enjoyed this one - and thanks for always reviewing!
1 [Report This]Date: October 25, 2020 10:28 am Title: Lions and Leopards and Baboons, Oh My
Oh I was so looking forward to your predator-prey story element since you left your review on my story, and this totally delivered! We get a lot of hints in early season 3 that Pam kind of becomes the leader of the office when Jim is gone, and so I think this whole concept of chaos when they’re both gone really works. Loved it!
Author's Response: Yay! I'm happy you liked it!
I agree that canon offers a lot of reason to think that Pam and Jim are crucial to the branch functioning (at least as well as it over does), but aside from Mafia we don't get much of a taste of what it's like without them, which seemed like it had a lot of rich comic potential - especially from the perspective of a relative outsider like Karen.
Thank you for taking the time to review!