Midnight Whispers
QAF Brian and Justin Fanfiction
Reviews For Why Not With Me
Reviewer: SunshineSally (Signed) · Date: May 13, 2015 06:13 AM · On: Take Me In

OMG I hope you have him talking to that witch!

Reviewer: Minoloushe (Anonymous) · Date: January 01, 2010 11:33 PM · On: Take Me In

It will be interesting to see what type of memories the family come up with and how curious they are about Brian’s reaction. It raises the issue about how much the new Brian aka Beautiful will be integrated with the world outside of therapy and Justin (it’s all your fault  thatI’ve started thinking about him as Brian v. Beautiful lol).


 


There was so much I enjoyed about this chapter – Brian’s growing awareness of relinquishing control to Justin, his concern over Justin’s ability to cope and reference to the street bowling scene following Jack’s death. I think the concern Brian expresses about Justin ties up with some of the anger he felt over the monitoring of his drinking. Because in both this chapter and the last we get to see just how desperate Brian was to escape, how soul destroying his family’s dysfunction was. It makes sense that he’d fear one day seeing Justin brought to the same place. Justin’s response that it’s simply “natural” for him to take care of Brian is lovely – I think it’s also very reassuring to Brian. I always hated that with the chicken soup scene Justin phrased it as “standing by a commitment” (paraphrasing). It sounded like he was making something of a martyr of himself, even though his actions indicated that wasn’t at all how he felt. Which leads us straight on to….St Joan.


 


I’m definitely in the camp that thinks it may be beneficial for Brian to confront Joan. Not only because it gives rise to lots of lovely, potential angst but because sometimes in the absence of a confrontation, you just end up having an imaginary dialogue in your head which becomes increasingly melodramatic, unsatisfying and obsessive. Okay, so what I’m about to say will probably not be popular *ducks flying objects* but my feeling is that unlike Brian’s father, Joan does have some residual type of love for Brian. Yes, she’s cold, homophobic, angry and bitter but…I don’t know. I think you can only have that type of anger or hate if you care about someone – her attitude is not one of indifference. We see a reasonable amount of her throughout seasons 1 – 5 and on many of those occasions, it appears that Brian and Joan are still trying to maintain some sort of tenuous relationship (usually with disastrous results, but still). The scene in the church especially comes to mind, where Joan indicated that she may have attempted to draw Jack’s anger to herself to avoid it being focused on Brian *sighs* Although who the hell knows whether that’s simply a self-justifying tale she’s created so that she could live with things. But it certainly leaves room for interpretation. Oh, and the ending scene with Brian pushing his finger into the scar on his wrist? Loved it *flails*



Author's Response:

No, it's *your* fault that I started thinking in terms of Brian v. Beautiful! *laughing*... 

Um - I guess I'm not breaking any news with this -- but that exact issue of a "public Beautiful" and the support that Brian would need to accomplish that is one good "outcome" of dealing with the D/s side. Justin can make sure that this is balanced well for the difficult confrontations. 

I agree, that comment of Justin's is off-putting for the reasons you mentioned. Maybe he was trying to shield Brian from having to discuss it in another way. I have no idea... 

I've thought about that inner dialog aspect; you'll see that Dr. Stevenson warns them about something similar -- a post-hoc reconstruction of the conversation that usually becomes increasingly "altered the more it is remembered. *is starting to get nervous about writing this confrontation scene!* 

I sort of agree about canon Joan. Which makes me think I sort of messed up WNWM-Joan.  Well...sort of. *Takes a deep breath* I guess we'll have to see what words I end up putting in her mouth, huh!? *smiles!* 

Thank you..I loved that ending too and was hoping someone would mention it *blushes*

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