The summer she calls off her wedding, she spins a little bit out of control.
An AU that could be considered canon if you drink enough wine and squint your eyes just so.
1 Coley, the only reason I finished this chapter is because I love how you write. Because I hate Ryan/Pam with an deep passion that wells somewhere from the bottom of my soul. You do a good job of expressing angst and of expressing Ryan's who-cares attitude, though.
Author's Response: Aw, thanks for toughing it out, Comfect! I appreciate it! Everything will be okay in the end, I promise. ;)
An AU version of season 2's "Valentine's Day".
Pam is more than a little annoyed and Jim steps in. Holiday fluff ensues.
[I got the idea after reading "V-J Day", by Comfect. I you haven't checked that one out yet, do it. Now.]
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
1 Aw, I like this ending. Well, I like the whole thing. Thanks so much for sharing with us!
Author's Response: Thank you for all your support!
1 So I saw this, and I started reading, and halfway through I clicked back to make sure it was going to continue (and I was so glad to see "Complete: No"). I really like your setup, and I'm intrigued by where you're going to have Jim go with this. Also, independently, I'm flattered that what I wrote in some way inspired you. But more importantly, I'm very excited for where this might go.
Author's Response:
Thanks a lot!
No, this is far from done. I wanted to post it all last night, but I got sleepy and didn't get to finish it. I couldn't help myself from posting that first part, though. An introduction of sorts.
1 Oh, I loved this. I mean, the ending (pre-epilogue) was unexpected but well- choreographed, and the emotional beats were great, but before all that I wanted to highlight a paragraph:
“You got me. And I must say you’re a great victim. Very cooperative.”
This just hits the jam dynamic perfectly for me, between the joke and the context and the tone. Well done.
Author's Response: Thanks so much! I wasn't really sure about the ending, but I always wondered what would have happened if Jim didn't disappeared after Casino Night and gave Pam a little time to think things through :)
1 That is an interesting take, both the first person PoV and the way Pam acted. I like it, even if I'd say it's a bit abrupt.
Set after Roy shows up at the office to go after Jim in 3x18. What happens when he shows up at Pams later that night. This does involve abuse. Angst that eventually turns cheesy and cute. Rated MA!
1 So, after two chapters, I'm enjoying the emotional beats, but it's very choppy because of the repeated single lines, which make it feel kind of like seeing glimpses of the action in a lightning storm, disconnected. I like what I'm reading, but it feels a bit abrupt.
Author's Response: Yes I would agree, I believe I am going to ditch the one line format in future chapters. I might go back and change the format of the first 13 chapters as well just so they all match up for future readers!
Aw, this is sweet. I'm glad he told her he feels at home there, and I'm glad she told him how she feels.
Author's Response: Thank you for the review! d84;a039;
1 It is well-done AU except for me it's a little hard to jump into--not because of your writing but because of the fact that I work in academia and so minor details stand out a lot. They would have had orientation with each other, wouldn't they, if Jim's really new? If Pam's really teaching for the first time on a new campus as tenure-track, she'd have met everyone else except for new faculty already, so that fits with Jim being new, but I doubt she'd have gotten the position if she thought all the professors in the department were boring or stodgy, because they'd be the hiring committee. And the odds she wouldn't have met Dwight during either a campus visit or orientation are very low if he's actively going to be important to her position. There is very little chance a T.A. would show her around both because Marywood probably doesn't have a grad PhD program in graphic design and because as new faculty at a teaching school she would most likely be shown around by another faculty member from her hiring committee. All of this is minor, I'm just very sensitive to it because it's my life (I started at a new university this fall, so it is also fresh).
That said, I like the role-reversal AU, I think that you have the JAM elements here down pat: they sound and act like Jim and Pam and I can see them doing so in the context you've chosen. All of that is much more important than the details of academic positions. So please, keep going! I want to read more of this, and I hope you update again soon.
Author's Response: Thanks SO much! I am in academia too, but not in the US, so now I realise there are too many things that are just very different. Even though I've been a visiting professor there, there are many things that I never got, obviously. Gimme a moment and I'll try to fix most of the fixable things.
It would annoy me to no end, otherwise.
Please, feel free to point out any other discrepancies you might find down the road, although I'll be writing a lot less about the setting and more about them.
Yes, that definitely fixed the issues! I know US academia has its own little weird cultural rituals, and I'm glad to help a fellow academic navigate the weirdness.
One thing I picked up on reread: I really enjoy the time-shift between Pam's memory and the story's apparent present. Along with the (presumed) Karen-reveal, that was really well done.
Author's Response:
Thanks a million!! Really, this means a lot!
One task after another, one empty thought followed by the next, just like yesterday, just like tomorrow.
Season 9.
1 Wait, are you really setting us up for "so much worse"? This is convincing but sad...it really just makes me pissed at Jim, which to be fair I usually am in this part of the show. Well written, though, and convincingly so.
Author's Response: Chillax! I'm not that much of a sadist :)
I just want to give Pam a break, poor thing.
Thanks for reviewing! (I'll get back to Terra Incognita now, if you don't mind)
1 Ugh, the return of angst at the end...dude needs to stop projecting his own stuff onto Pam, and she needs to stop accepting the projection.
Glad Jim came home early. Now he just needs to do more of that to stay involved and invested in his family. I don't generally like married-JAM angst, but I do think you're doing a good job here.
Author's Response: Thanks a lot! I really appreciate it, considering that you don't like the premise. It's far from over yet, but I do promise a happy ending and not much collateral damage
Gonna put some blame on Pam's plate here: "She had wanted to call Jim and tell him." THEN DO.
Seriously, this is why I avoid S9. You're doing a good job of telling it, but it's not that hard to communicate in a marriage and they're just so bad at it (which I feel is a misstep on the part of the canon writers).
Author's Response:
Oh, but she did! But he was busy playing ball with what's-his-name. The phone rang. It is shown it was Pam and he didn't answer. So she went drinking with Meredith.
I'm going to write that so there's no doubt. :)
Thanks a lot! Really! I pinky promise it's almost over.
(BTW, season 9 has many sweet JAM moments, only they are so surrounded by the bad that it's easy to overlook them)
Again thanks SO much!
1 Yes, Jim is wrong here, most of all this: "Not since that first time he mentioned Philadelphia and she agreed because, let’s be honest, he’d already done it and all there was for her to do is catching up" (which again, later writers, why is he so inconsiderate? Why is that suddenly his character now?).
But also--yes, Harry is overstepping a line, and Pam needs to talk to her husband about this, not shut down on him ("There") and talk to someone else. I'm not saying it's out of character, either for Pam (remembering how she was with Roy) or for late-season The Office. But it feels like backsliding to early-season Pam for drama reasons (in the show, not just here) and that's precisely why I don't like it. Again, not criticizing your writing, just where the Pam-Jim relationship went in this season. You're doing a good job of making hay out of that.
Author's Response: Yeah... Maybe that's where the writers got it wrong. In order to make up from the season 8 debacle (what was that, really?) they tried to bring back some stuff from the first seasons. The saddest, I think, was Pete/Erin. And, hey, what not put Pam back on square one, make her hide her feelings and doubt herself again...?
I think is realistic, but also lazy. And the laziest thing in this whole season, the thing I have an issue with, clearly, is Brian. Especially at the end of Junior Salesman. Not subtle, not ok. When there were Roy and Jim, you could see Pam had feelings for both, hence, the conflict. Here, Brian just happens to be there and Pam doesn't show having feelings for him whatsoever. Not a threat.
So, the response came out longer than the review. Sorry about that!
And thanks a lot for keeping up with this, and for your inspiring feedback!
1 I like this, but I can't shake the idea that a) Pam is still being super evasive and b) she's also postponing right after Jim told her that what he loves is when she decides to do things. It still feels very early-season Pam to me, and while I like that you draw that distinction strongly in the chapter, I just want her to (and Jim to, but less in this chapter) remember that they've grown up.
Also lying to her partner about someone else's potential interest in her and place in her life (it's only one chapter since she was wishing she could see Harry play with her kid) is textbook early Pam and thus bothers me.
Author's Response:
As it should (bother you, I mean). Pam has to make some changes and I don't think they'll just happen after Paper Airplanes.
If we take the airing dates as more or less a timeline, between now and P.A. there are over 2 months.
They need to do much less sweeping under the rug. And I mean both, because now Jim is sweet, but not really fighting and thus avoiding the issue altogether.
Let's just hit them!
Thanks a lot for your review, btw!
1 Again, quite true to the season, and you do a good job of illustrating around the detail we are given in the canon.
Author's Response: Thanks very much!
Hey! To be clear, I liked your writing! I just couldn't and still can't stand the season underlying it. You do a wonderful job working through and then past the angst. And I agree with one of the earlier reviews I saw: you're doing a major service to the site, because S9 angst is underdone on here. So huzzah and hooray and good job.
Author's Response:
I know, I know! Thanks so, so much!
That's what makes your reviews are the more valuable to be. I don't know if I could keep on reading fics from parts of stories I don't really like. Then again... I might.
What I like the most about JAM in season 9 is that is so very real. That happy ending kiss and how everything is supposed to be perfect afterwards is just a big fat lie. Couples have issues, and they might get over them.
Again, thanks a lot for your support. :)
1 Aw man, that "Did you" had such nice potential. Reminds me of the almost-question at the Dundies. Nice job imbuing your fic with the spirit of S2-3 angst. I am glad you decided to go forward, and gladder still you are going AU. Hope to read more soon!
Author's Response: Thank you so much! The "Did you" opens up an entire universe of possibilities and I was DEFINITELY influenced by the Dundies on that one bc I still want to know what she was going to ask!! UGH!! The AU part of it is slowlyyyyyy coming. I gotta get a certain paper salesman back to Scranton first. haha.
I like your version of this night. It fits nicely in with your AU while still feeling true to s3 and the episode in particular.
What a night indeed. I think you did a great job here with both the emotional beats and their respective reactions to them. It's quite in character for S3 for these kinds of emotional revelations to push them apart at first instead of together. Well done.
Author's Response: Thanks Comfect! It's a one step forward, two steps back kind of dance right now, but as we all know, they eventually learn a new number. Thank you for the feedback. It means a lot!
Dun dun dun. I wouldn't worry about this chapter--it is perfectly lovely. You do well with Pam's thoughts here and I like the slight deviation from canon but appreciate the canon conversations as well. Good work.
1 "If Roy Anderson found a way to become friends with her, then why couldn’t he?" A nice moment of insight for Jim, although of course so near and yet so far to the real situation. Nice chapter, in general.
Author's Response: Thanks Comfect!!
1 Well, that was somehow even more tragic than the original. Nicely escalated, angst-wise.
Author's Response: Thank you so much for taking the time to read it and for the review. It was meant to be a one and done look at the end of that episode, but then I started watching season three and now I'm working on a potential follow-up to this.
1 Cliffhanger!
I am interested what having Jim and Karen be explicitly casual (not publicly but explicitly between them) does to the dynamic. You've done a good job with it.
Author's Response: Thanks Comfect!
I think it's a perfectly interesting chapter. I like how you told the story of Andy's meltdown. Looking forward to what you're setting up, and interested to see what if anything changes at the wedding.
1 Cliffhanger! Since we don't know how AU this will be, this is an actual cliffhanger. But I'm definitely enjoying the way your Pam thinks. It's really nice to see you getting inside her head this way.
Author's Response: Yes, I do a lot of internalizing in my fics, so I'm glad you're enjoying it! Thank you so much for reading it!