1 [Report This]Date: February 14, 2019 08:30 pm Title: Casino Night: A Triptych
I love this story arc so much ahhh! Great work!
Author's Response: Aw, thanks! I really appreciate hearing that.
Date: January 28, 2019 08:02 am Title: Casino Night: A Triptych
"Only she didn’t know how. It became awfully, terribly obvious how uneven their relationship was—how much she took from him and how little she was used to giving—as the words tumbled out of her mouth and she discovered that while he had been comforting her for years, she didn’t know how to comfort him." So heartbreaking; right up there with the possibility that at first "I can't" was only the beginning of a sentence.
And then there was this: "For a woman who loved jinx so much, silence from her was a real threat." DAMN COMFECT. This is so real. I love it.
As for Roy's part... to quote Michael Scott, "Oh my god, something's happening" And I Am Here For It.
Author's Response: Thanks so much! I was really trying to tug those heartstrings (it's Casino Night after all!) so I'm delighted to hear I did. Weird as it feels to say I'm happy you're sad...
Date: January 23, 2019 08:08 pm Title: Casino Night: A Triptych
Wow! Wow. WoW. Comfect. Every bit of this is a thing of beauty. Really. You hit every single moment directly on the head. I can't say anything but gushing over how wonderful it is. So. Perfect. Especially for an iconic scene that has been done 1,000 times. Bravo.
Okay, I have to tell you a few things I absolutely love:
-I mean, every bit of Pam's PoV. But, that reference to her delayed processing in the parking lot was too much and too wonderful. What "I can't" could have meant...
-Jim understanding how Pam uses silence. Yessssss! This goes back to an earlier review where I mentioned that Jim just gets her and (even if he's not fully dialed into it and able to articulate it) he knows how to read her in ways that Roy never will.
-Roy's "Keep an eye on her" being a bro version of I'm onto you, but I'll let it slide is ABSOLUTELY correct. Roy's an idiot, but he's not dumb (or vice versa, but you know what I'm saying there).
Author's Response: Thank you so much. That's really wonderful to hear. I think the trick (at least for me) of dealing with a scene that's been done 1,000 times is that I've read pretty much everything that's been written on this site (not quite as much as BecauseOfYou, but if it's over 1000 words and not a romantic pairing I strongly object to I've almost certainly at least glanced at it), and so I am in a lot of ways either reflecting this archive's consensus back through my writing or very deliberately taking an angle I haven't seen before. I'm not actually sure which one this is--but I'm so delighted you liked it!
Date: January 22, 2019 08:42 am Title: Casino Night: A Triptych
This is, hands down, the most perfect version I've read of "Casino Night". I love the way you manage your PoV, and how you paint the whole picture putting all three together. Really beautiful.
"like reading closed captions lagging two to three seconds behind the action, the words not quite making sense". This is perfect. Just perfect.
And of course, Pam being silent was the worst.
Thanks so much for a wonderful update.
Author's Response: Thank you so much! That means a lot to hear. I tend to try to steer away from Casino Night since for AUs I like to go happy, but I've had a lot of ideas about it bouncing around in my head ever since I started writing on this site, and this is how they came out. I'm very glad it worked well for you, because I had a lot invested in this version.
Date: January 19, 2019 04:14 pm Title: Casino Night: A Triptych
For a short-ish chapter, you did all three of them justice.
We'll start with Pam. That there could have been more to the "I can't," was inspired. Her feeling of shock and only being able to choke out those words seems very appropriate based on what we saw in canon and in all the chapters leading up to this. She's beyond deer-in-the-headlights here. You really get the feelings she's in a fog and doesn't know how to get out of it.
Moving onto Jim. Such a wide range of things we see here. From frustration, to a small glimmer of hope, to defeat. All the barriers he's had trying to carefully separate his emotions are utterly destroyed here. That last line in his section summed it all up so great. "If she couldn't even talk to him, there was no reason to stay." So easy to see how he reaches this conclusion.
Then there's Roy. No he's not the most observant guy, but after all this time at least on thing has sunk in. He finally figured out that Jim is interested in Pam in more than a friendly way. Makes sense that Roy would notice competition first. It's clear he's still thinking that Pam would never leave him. Why would he think anything else? He's been focused on himself and outside threats that the idea of a threat to his relationship from Pam isn't anywhere near to being on his radar. Looks like he's in for a rather surprising revelation in that regard.
I wish I still had some jelly beans to give to this story, because this chapter most assuredly deserves them. Great job.
Author's Response: Thanks! For me this was a longish chapter ;) though yes, since I did 3 it was on average short per character. I'm glad the treatment of this night for each worked well for you. For me this is one of those moments where choices I'd made while writing the rest came home to roost a little. Pam is sufficiently done with Roy, for instance, that I definitely wanted the "I can't" to be more than sheer intransigent disbelief. That was the biggest risk I was worried about here, so thanks for touching on it.