getithere | The one where...

That is a Myrna fic, the unfinished WIP that will forever make me want to cry even thinking about it.

The One Where Justin's With Another Guy, and Brian Interferes

Found hereish: scroll and click back to find the chapters
http://myrna1-2-3.livejournal.com/?skip=20

What I wouldn't give to see that finished, alas, its been 7 years. :(

"...that will forever make me want to cry even thinking about it.I know what you mean."

I felt exactly the same way. I didn't know it was a WIP when I read it recently. It ended at a cliffhanger.

Words to live by:

Peeking at the last paragraph can save much fandom heartbreak.

I think of this fic as the kinder gentler Tarot Series.

The Tarot Series will always be the one that I resent. How she could leave it there I'll never know.

I have no clue. There were posts about it and how she felt about not finishing it, and even after all this time I thought my irritation would go away, and It hasn't.

That wasn't just the run of a mill fic either. It was well written and I can still feel that fic, it's romance and it's lightness given the plot, and to not know if Brian and Justin ended up back together... It just makes me feel like the whole story was a wash.

The Myrna story that inspired this post, on the other hand I get why it wasn't finished. She was at the end of her enjoyment of the fandom, given her feelings about Brian it wasn't really clear if Brian and Justin would reconcile and the story's non ending is actually appropriate in a weird way.

Edited 2012-06-16 12:47 (UTC)

That was the fic that convinced me that Myrna really didn't like Brian, which made me sad. I suspect that had she finished it, Justin would have wound up with the other dude.

I didn't realize that the Tarot Series was unfinished! Good to know, I'll strike it from my to-read list.

Alright Heidi, I have a question. I never got to read the chapter titled Judgement because it apparently was not posted long enough for any of the web archives to grab before any of the places the fic was archived at were shut down.

So the last chapter I'm at leaves them in sort of a 'good' place, you still don't know what's going to happen after that, but at least Brian and Justin are on talking terms and Justin does say he wants to go home with Brian.

I've stumbled across a review one time of the missing chapter and the reviewer discussed how heartbroken they were that Brian and Justin seemed to be getting to a good place and once again they were having petty fights, etc. As I never saw the chapter I'll never know, but I still love The Tarot Series, it was one of the first fics I came across in the fandom and every now and then I reread it.

Oh I so remember it, so sad it was never finished.

I must be the most gullible person in fandom. I had no idea that was a WIP too. It was another emotional trap. I would not have cared if the story was lousy or shorter.

I have adopted wjsc99 edict because I have been burned too often with WIPs and Brian ending up with other or with Justin but in a threesome relationship or (so gross) with Michael. I end up so traumatized that I have to watch SpongeBob all day to erase the memory.

Is there a tag for WIPs?

Edited 2012-06-16 15:10 (UTC)

"That was the fic that convinced me that Myrna really didn't like Brian..."

I didn't get that Myrna didn't like Brian in the fic. I thought she only painted a realistic portrayal of him. The way the story ended was pointing more in Brian's favor than the boyfriend. The boyfriend was wavering (if I remember correctly) about Justin and the effect on his career.

The dynamics reminded me of the same in "If He Needed Me".

I will say that her Brian was tad too much to take a times and I was thinking if Justin wanted to head off with the new boyfriend, it may not have been a bad thing, but I didn't get that he really loved him.

Edited 2012-06-16 15:08 (UTC)

I didn't think there was anything realistic about Brian shipping Justin off to college in NYC right after getting him back after the Ethan fiasco, but miles vary. :)

Yes, there is. Abandoned wips. Up near the top of the tags list.

"...Brian shipping Justin off to college..."

Huh?

I was wondering if I'm thinking of the same story...I can be pretty clueless sometimes, LOL. Sooo, I was forced to go back over the story. DAMN, that is such a good story. Here is what I got from it:

"You ordered him to go to school in New York, he refused, you told him to get the fuck out of your life and never darken your doorstep again."

The famous Kinney's cliff. This is so Brian to me. But when I referred to the story being realistic, I was referring to Brian's antagonistic attitude toward the good doctor and or rather his personality. I thought it was a good portrayal in that aspect, but everyone sees Brian a little differently than the next person.:)

I also looked at part of ending again. I think or I rather hope that it hints at the future of the story:

"When Brian finally spoke, his voice was barely above a whisper. 'We're not finished yet, Justin,'"

I read the part you spoke of:

"Bull shit!" Brian said. "Bull fucking shit! After Ethan, all you had to say was 'Take me back,' and I did! That was it! And I never asked how I could trust you again, and I never wondered if it would happen again, and I never fucking looked back!"

Justin gave an inarticulate shout of utter frustration. "Until you kicked me out of my fucking home and tried to ship me out of the state!"

It seems that it was more a misunderstanding of Brian's intentions and Justin was feeling vulnerable or perhaps guilty about Ethan and it put him on the path to the doctor.

And then the very last paragraph spoke volumes to me:

"With nothing left to say, Brian grabbed the back of Justin's head and fiercely pressed his lips to Justin's. He shoved his tongue into Justin's mouth and figured if all else failed, maybe he'd get his message to sink in through fucking osmosis."

But I could wrong. I'm no authority. I only read this once and cried myself to sleep that night. It was worse than watching the last episode of QAF. It is only now that I can rationalize the story in order to past the fact it was never finished. :)

Edited 2012-06-16 16:38 (UTC)

Oh, BLESS YOU, my child!

It seems that it was more a misunderstanding of Brian's intentions and Justin was feeling vulnerable or perhaps guilty about Ethan and it put him on the path to the doctor.

Perhaps you should read it again, because I don't think this is quite what happens in Myrna's story. Brian is very deliberate and quite brutal in pushing Justin away, and Justin is very strong and determined in moving on with his life. There's certainly no guilt over Ethan involved at any stage.

I won't go into a dicussion about whether it's in character or not because I think there's a lot of personal interpretation and wishful thinking involved in issues of IC-ness. We tend to consider IC what we like to be IC.

But what I can say is that this is one of my absolute favourite stories in the fandom, one that I've re-read many times despite its being unfinished. In fact, its open-endedness (although I suppose in the last published chapter it's pretty clear where it's headed) makes it even more appealing for me.

Well, I'm glad that her characterization of Brian worked better for you than it did for me. :) In spite of my issues with how she wrote Brian (I agree with JLA below -- it was too brutal of a push away and especially at the time when he had JUST gotten back together with Justin and was *so* happy about that in canon) I still enjoyed the story and think Myrna is amazing.

I'm going to have to go back to read the full story again. I know I usually can be a little harsh with Brian because I don't think he treated Justin all that well at times in canon, so I try to stay open minded. I remember thinking one way about him when I was reading If You Needed Me and then I read another POV of/in the story.

I just finished reading over 400 pages of Randall's Deconstructing Brian (could not put it down), so I'm a little overdosed with QAF right now and need to clear my head, but I will definitely read this the fic in it's entirety again, tears be damned.

I will give my final analysis or my myopic opinion at a later date. :)

I don't think your vision is myopic, by the way. Myrna's Brian is brutal but so could be the canon one. In my opinion (and it's an entirely personal one) she writes him IC.

"When he finds himself falling in love with someone else, he realizes that time might not erase the presence of past love, but it certainly changes its quality."

OMG!!! Duh, I just realized you wrote one of my favorite stories...one of the ones I searched high and low for, lol. I thought that it was the best realistic Justin/other story I've read. I also loved that it was focused on Justin and not Brian.

Love that story!

Okay, gush over.:)

I have Phineas and Ferb blasting in my ear as my crazy kid jumps on my bed and sings at the top of his lungs while I contemplate how I can get away with justifiable homicide for both him and my husband who doesn't think we should put him in daycamp and I would be doing it on Father's Day without guilt, but I still managed to enjoy reading your story again.

Now, since Myrna's fic this is very passionately loved fic as all her stories are, I will be reading it again tonight. I will admit that I always thought her Brian to a bit of an...ahem, well, you know. It is one of the reasons I started searching for fics where Justin got fed up because I felt that way reading some of these stories.

But, ultimately, I feel that Myrna would always keep the two together. I'm going to read this fic again, once I can get some peace and quiet, to see if I feel this holds true for this fic for me, and to see if Brian seems to be as brutal as depicted

You're very kind, thank you.

The thing about Myrna is that she writes the strongest Justin out there, one that does not take Brian's shit lying down, not ever. And for a Justin fan like myself that's what matters most.

But don't be intimidated by fandom's general opinions: we like what we like and that's all there is to it.

You're welcome.

No,I'm not intimidated, just curious to see if I may have misinterpreted the story. I am a person who always forms her own opinion even if I'm standing all alone on the other side, but I also know that the older I get, the less I know, and I am not afraid to admitting to a mistake in judgement.

No, you all have just piqued my interest and I won't be able to let it rest until I get to the bottom of it.

And I love a strong Justin! I'm going to look for a tag for that.:)

'Judgement' is uploaded to the 4shared fic folder now.

Can I ask for a direct link? I did not see it when I looked just now and the two Tarot Series are the same file just one is a .doc while the other is .pdf and they are both missing that chapter.

Sorry if that's too much to ask, I'd be thrilled to find the missing chapter, but I didn't think anyone had it.

http://www.4shared.com/office/V8OkTxWK/LJ_Gray_-_The_Tarot_Series_-_m.html

No idea what happened. Sometimes if I try to upload something to this 4shared folder it ends up in nirvana. Now it's def there. I checked.

But remember, the final chapter is still missing!

Edited 2012-06-18 12:42 (UTC)

Thank you! I didn't even realize you replied, I had kept looking and suddenly it appeared. :) I came back to edit my comment and it said I couldn't because someone had already replied to it.

Yes, I know the last chapter was never written, I just had no copy that had the 'missing' chapter. The few times it was brought up, everyone said they never copied fanfics (didn't think they needed to) or you couldn't access via the wayback machine. (There were a couple of one shots and one smaller series that I could not access from her website, and I think even the files on the 4shared only have the chapters you could access, not all the ones actually written.)

<3 No idea when I'll get to reread the series to add this chapter in, but I'm glad to finally get a chance to read it. So again, thank you so much.

OMFG!!!!

WTF was I reading before? I could not have read the whole story. I remember details but none of Brian’s ass-itude.

“Brian judged, noting with some satisfaction the lines around his brown eyes.”

"’Brian Kinney,’ Brian said, certain the introduction was unnecessary.

So vain, how did Justin ever put up with him?

“He'd met Craig Taylor at the funeral, finding him remote and barely tolerant of Justin, certainly unsympathetic to Justin's grief. Nightmares of the bashing had followed swiftly on the heels of the funeral and now, right when Justin was starting to gain some equilibrium, Brian Kinney bulldozes his way back onto the scene.”

What got me was that Brian gave no care to all Justin had gone through and focused instead on himself.

"’I thought...he'd get to school, make some friends, get into the classes. Realize I was right about everything.’

"’Then what?’ Michael said. ‘Beg you to let him come back?’"

"’No!’ Brian said. ‘That would have happened...naturally.’"

"’That is so fucked,’ Michael said.”

Brian was so smug that Justin would take any shit he threw at him and still take him back.

“Unsure how to explain to Justin that being with him was going to kill Brian, he managed to avoid Justin for another two days, but being a total chicken shit loser wasn't really his style, so he drove over to Justin's apartment after work on that second night, prepared to set the record straight.”

This was no gentle push off the Kinney cliff. This was a hard shove without a backward glance and a maniacal laugh to boot. I will continue to read the rest of the story, but after reading the the A/N:

“I really don't have anything mapped out for this story. I go back and forth trying to decide what I want to have happen, and I haven't really come to any conclusions.”

I have made my own conclusion that Justin would not have gone back to the creep. At least, that is what I would like to believe. There are just too many incidents where Brian had done some unbelievable things and in despicable ways. I mean, even the gang left Justin out of their lives. No wonder he didn’t call them when his mother died. But I can also see Justin wanting to cut all ties to Brian.

DAMN good story. Myrna did not paint Brian in a very positive light. That’s for sure.

Thanks for setting me straight. For some reason I remembered this being like the other story where Brian antagonizes Justin and his boyfriend until he goes back to him. This is nothing like that one. And now that I am re-reading this one, I’m going back to read If He Needed Me again. I’m beginning to wonder about myself, LOL.

Please see reply to Justinlovesart

LoL. I just didn't even know how to respond to your previous comments because... yeah. All the stuff you point out here. :)

DAMN good story. Myrna did not paint Brian in a very positive light. That’s for sure.

Co-signed. I don't see Brian as a saint who can do no wrong, but he's really not the smug arrogant asshole from this story. I'd read elsewhere that Myrna didn't like Brian and I didn't believe it... until I read this.

But after you read a few zillions stories, it's easy to start getting them mixed up.

I don't see Brian as a saint who can do no wrong, but he's really not the smug arrogant asshole from this story. I'd read elsewhere that Myrna didn't like Brian and I didn't believe it... until I read this.

YES, exactly. I'm actually in shock sitting here. If You Needed Me Brian felt very true to Brian. I started reading TOWJWAGABI to tag it and... I don't even know. I guess Brian really pissed her off somewhere between writing the fics. He was "smug arrogant asshole" to the point of complete stupidity, which is a bit too far to make sense for me.

But hey, we're finally getting an "anti-brian" tag.

Yay.

If any story deserves such a tag, it's this one. :|

The one where...

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