1

“Omigod! AN-GEL-A!!” Kelly giggles. “You totally just slipped me the tongue!”

This is winningly hilarious.

1

This is ridiculously hot and yet I still noticed the writing. That's how well written it is.

1

This is deeply sexy and also DEVASTATING. Really good look at how Jim's mind must have felt at this point in canon, even if this isn't inherently canon-compliant.

1

I think of Jim's amusement at clamping Michael's face in the George Foreman grill every time I watch The Injury. Congratulations, snoznoodle. You win.

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Kinda glad to see Karen and Pam get their comeuppance. And Jim's excitement about the snow is remarkably prescient.

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You know, this feels harsh for Karen on the surface, but in a lot of ways you've given her a level of dignity and agency here she didn't really get in canon. And the fact that Jim's reaction to this was "Pam's not in love with me" is just... perfect. Because obviously that's the problem he'd see here.

Author's Response:

I ended up liking Karen more than I wanted to admit, and I do think she deserved a better end to her Scranton journey (her actual story ended great for her, but not dramatically satisfying). I think Jim was using Karen as a human shield to protect himself from getting hurt by Pam again, so I'm glad you liked that line from Jim. It really sums up a lot of his season 3 arc, I think.  

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You know, I've read this one a couple times, I'm not sure I ever made the connection that it was yours before. I always love the idea of letting the camera crew impact events - one of the things that always ticked me off about Season 9 was that the Brian storyline was about the least interesting thing they could have possibly done with involving the camera crew with the story.

Okay, that rant aside - I like the idea of Meredith, as someone who isn't really a featured part of the documentary, getting a chance to get closer with them, and the line about her not having had a stressful day since she started talking to him was really sweet.

Author's Response:

Meredith was hard to write for (for the real show writers, too, I guess?) because they went so broadly comic on everything we knew about her. I was never quite sure if I had her tone right. Thank you for appreciating it here, though. 

And really, the whole Brian thing was just dumb.  

1

The story of the decline and collapse of Toby is one the show really could've taken a lot more seriously. I'm glad to see you acknowledging what he's going through here, and exploring the dramatic potential the show didn't.

Author's Response: I certainly went farther than the show ever did, but the man's face is the definition of "world-weary and downtrodden." It was hard to resist leaning into that. 

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And you ended it with a "the camera crew gets involved in JAM" AU! Love it. I have a far more cynical take on the crew's involvement with JAM, but I really enjoyed reading about them as shippers on board who JUST COULDN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE.

Author's Response:

Yes, I was too deep in the throes of my 'shipperdom to do anything else, right? Of course, there's the flip side-- that the crew encouraged and manipulated the JAM storyline because love triangles make compelling TV. But at this point in time, we collectively just wanted to shake some sense into Pam, so I created a character who could actually do it!

 Thanks for going through this. It made me laugh that you had read it before but not linked it to me--I have so many of these tiny things floating around that it would be easy to lose track of a few. 

1

I love these little moments in the beginning of Pam suggesting to Jim that she, too, is mildly obsessed with their relationship - something like her own version of the teapot. I think Jim needed to know this was as important to her as it was to him.

And kudos to Pam for putting a brave face on and not letting the charade go on any longer. And doing so in such an adorable way!

Author's Response:

I am fond of this one, I have to admit. (Except the formatting/line spacing is a little wonky!) 

 I agree, I think that it would have been important for Jim to realize that she'd been treasuring up those moments as much as he had (which I think you can see on her face in all of those scenes in season 1 and season 2). And this was one in a series of pieces when I tried to rush Fancy New Beesly into saying something (notice I'd dispatched with Karen off-screen).  We were just dying for them to get together, already!

 Thank you for making me smile on a Monday morning!  

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The Phyllis one is my favorite, but you've really got everyone's voices down.

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I like this idea a lot – I think if you’re going to have them living completely separate lives, you should at least show how they’ve had a fundamentally positive impact on each other, because especially post-Casino Night I do think that’s inevitably going to be true of Pam.

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This is unbelievably powerful.