Office Fic: Waking Expectations

[obsession_inc]

Title: Waking Expectations
Pairing/Character: Pam/Roy
Rating: PG-13 for a few F-bombs.
Spoilers: Through Business School
Author's note: Many thanks to my lovely beta readers, allthingsholy and sophia_helix, who gave up their Saturday night for this. Ladies: you're the best.

Comments

[semby]

I love this SO MUCH. You have utterly captured Roy, and wow - his confusion, Pam's pain, it's all so lovely. It's clear how deeply he loves her, and how much he wants to be with her *forever*, and yet he still has no idea where she's coming from. Amazing.

[obsession_inc]

Eee, thanks! I'm so glad it worked. I've always had a big ol' soft spot for Roy.

[dollsome]

Ohh, this hurts. Good God. I don't think I've ever read another Roy fic that captured his character so achingly well -- every description, every word is perfect, and the whole thing is heartbreaking.

There were certain lines that were especially so Roy -- "some girl thing involving astringent or tampons or something," "who the hell ever remembers to buy Kleenex?". And his uncertainty about Pam now, after what having her leave did to him - I wish I could be more coherent about this, but it's all just perfect and I have no idea how to do it justice. (So there. ;-D)

I love the way you captured that even though he doesn't get her, he still loves her so much -- she's Pam, she's perfect, how could she not be good enough for anything? seriously broke my heart while I read it. Such a perfect insight

[obsession_inc]

(So there. ;-D)

(Dork. ;-D You're sweet.)

even though he doesn't get her, he still loves her so much

Exactly! As frustrating as it must be to deal with Roy, I can totally see why Pam would stay with him all those years, and why she'd want to marry him and why she'd go back to him-- that sort of loyal, unquestioning, uncomplicated, overwhelmingly big love has got to make up for a lot of things. How could a girl resist being loved like that? Particularly someone like Pam, who's so insecure?

[obsession_inc]

Thank you! Roy/Pam is a tragic relationship, I think, in a tragedy-as-defined-by-Shakespeare kind of way-- they love each other very much, but they don't understand each other, and as much as they try to overcome that and reach across that gulf, it just can't work. I just feel so BAD for them, you know?

[fiorie]

Oh, man. I'm going to admit my nerdiness and say that once I began to read through this, I started finding so many things that I wanted to quote back that I actually had to open a Word document so that I could paste them all.

Now that I've said that, this is so Roy. It amazes me how much this sounds like him, and even the metaphors are Roy-like: She shakes her head, rotating under his chin like a disk sander.

His bringing Pam a roll of toilet paper, and his big black garbage bags that won't tear with six or seven pizza boxes, just everything.

The very fact that Roy has no idea what to do when she cries, man. I can just imagine that being so true because I highly doubt Pam broke down very often over the course of their relationship. As true to Roy as this is, you've gotten Pam perfectly here, too.

Two parts that really just slugged me:

When she cries, Pam is somewhere he can't reach, responding to things in her head that he can't see and doesn't have a clue about how to fix, and it always feels like he's locked outside in

[obsession_inc]

You never know what's going to be a hit in stories, I swear; I had no idea that Roy's sturdy garbage bag was going to be so popular. Hee!

So glad you liked it! I feel really bad for Roy; always have, but I think it's even worse for him now because he's a simple guy who's trying to navigate a very complex situation, and he's so inept at it but he tries so very hard... aw, ROY. Big dumb loyal puppydog Roy.

[elsbeth_lynn]

I looooove Royfic that moves beyond "What the fuck, Pam?!" and this is miles, light-years beyond "WTF, Pam" Royfic. So many terrific details; so true to both of these characters.

And the trash bag. GAH!

[obsession_inc]

BWAHAHAHA! Oh, man, I'm incorporating "'WTF Pam' Royfic" as a category in my mental filing system, like, RIGHT NOW.

I'm still so pleased (and yet so baffled) that everyone likes that trash bag! It makes sense, though, yeah? He needs a sturdy bag!