#This is my interpretation of house up till s4

[cmkren]

— a human’s touch

; house x gn! reader

Maybe in some other lifetime romanticism wasn’t lost to House. That he had grown into a man capable of giving clear-cut affections— and capable of receiving it as well. The first ever puzzle he never wanted to solve, and it was of his heart. You, on the other hand, couldn’t give a damn about it all. You tied yourself to him after all.

In your lap, maybe that fact of House’s could be forgotten. For an hour or two.

a/n: i’ve never written for house, or house md at all. Currently in s4, and I’m just so attached to this crowd of misfits. I’m sorry if he ends up ooc— I just wanted to write something as close to fluff as I can with house LMAO 😭

tws; nothing you wouldn’t find in the show — 1.08k words

“What, are we playing mommy and her sexually frustrated boytoy? I don’t recall putting this into the search bar.”

“I don’t think you’re young and spry enough to be playing the pool boy in this scenario. Take as much offence as you’d want to that shocking revelation.”

Despite the very particular banter, nothing nefarious was happening in this scene. It was quite normal actually. In the tidiness of his apartment the two steeped in each other’s presence. Steeped may have been a strange word for it, but it fit the two. House was chatty like always, but even now and then he had grown quiet. Either getting caught by a specific feature of his partner (still thick on his tongue, not something he ever says really) or deep in his own thoughts.

What prompted him to make the off handed remark? Some might ask, especially when they were having such a peaceful moment!

The obvious answer would be because he’s House. What else was he supposed to do? The not-so-obvious answer was the strange feeling in his chest, as his head lay against the thighs of the person he oh-so cautiously let pull him down to such a position. If he turned his head sideways, you’d most certainly feel the prick of his unkempt beard.

He flexes his fingers, arms sort of kept… limp. Close to his chest. The pale blue of his eyes looking up to the other, brow wrinkled into a furrow as he felt awkward. He only allowed himself to be so hesitant for a second more before he went slack jawed and widened his eyes— a mockery of coming to another ‘revelation’.

“Oh! Pray tell me then, what are we?” Spoken like a young teenager picking out lines from a rom-com they watched the day before to aid them in romantic endeavours. His arms even moving just the slightest to resemble a ‘gosh darn it!’ kind of movement. That garnered an amused noise out of you, your hand very gently resting atop his mess of hair.

“Not we, you. What you are, is a man who can’t even sit still and let me dote on you. So I resorted to,” your free hand gestured to him. Legs stretched and resting on the arm rest of his couch, his head comfortably in your lap, “this.”

Then it was House’s turn to give a little snort.

“What you’ve resorted to is crippling a cripple. Can’t move! Should I go dial 911? Or are you going to kick my legs from behind just as I reach my phone?” This time, there wasn’t any sort of sound akin to laughter. Instead, you gave the hairs atop his head a bit of a tug. A warning.

A grunt left him, his eye wincing a little from the sensation but his wit outran any sort of complaint, “Pineapple! Oh— right we aren’t doing anything like that.” He still shot you a half-hearted look. All the playing around didn’t get him anything but a gentle expression though, a soft look in your eye that said that you would put up with him more than he could ever dream of.

A look he’d seen, but never truly appreciated. He wasn’t quite sure if he did so, even now.

“I would tell you to stop being stupid, but I know I could never stop that.”

“Wow, thanks.”

The way you leaned down to give press a kiss atop his forehead spoke to the fact that you never meant any malice or exasperation in their words. Sure, there was bound to be exhaustion, everyone had breaking points. You were always so lenient with him. Even if you wouldn’t admit that yourself.

Suppose in a way, they understood each other like that.

House didn’t react much to the kiss. You gave a lot of those, so. He didn’t say anything though, so that was either a good indication or a bad indication. 50/50, who knows maybe you should flip a coin.

“Good day at the hospital?” You mumbled, slowly twirling the short strands on his head, coiling them around your fingers. House’s face visibly relaxed, only flexing and moving as he responded. “Oh, yeah, like Santa’s little workshop there. Bundle of joy, fun bright lights.” He muttered, eyes closing for a moment.

Everyone knew that his days were full of pain. He made sure everyone knew, actually. Always made sure that everyone had to be dragged down with him. With you though, he toned it down. Just a little bit.

Your hand caressed the side of his face, gliding down the rough surface and down his scraggly beard. Mindless shapes formed along his skin, his eyes trained on your face. Whether your face would contort the longer you looked at him. As if waiting for you to have a revelation of your own— that he wasn’t who you wanted to spend your time with. That’d you’d wake up soon. Wake up from the dream you seemed so content with, him in your lap and the carefulness of your gestures.

“Something on my face?” Your hand trailed back up to his cheekbone, before pinching the skin there. A smile on your face, for him. For a moment, he stayed silent. Lips that were once parted were now pursed into a tight line, furrow of his brows suggested that he was thinking again.

The longer you waited though, the lighter your touch became. As if you were drawing back. An end to a gentle moment.

“No,” his hands shot up, taking yours in his own. His eyes firm, before they would soften and close as he brought your hands to his face. “Keep it this way a little longer.” For once, not a quip. A moment of genuine love, one that came out of him thinking this was all but fleeting.

In reality, you hardly moved at all.

You were just going to shift, hopefully making him more comfortable if he had felt the position a little awkward. Instead he cradled your hands as if they were the one thing keeping him off his pills. Even just for a short amount of time. Your shoulders went lax, tilting your head as you gave a faint smile. “Okay.” Was all you said.

“I’d rather have you touch me than the old reliables here,” one of his hands let go, giving a bit of a jazzy shake as if to emphasize, “god knows I’ve touched myself enough. Your hands are softer.” You snorted.

“I don’t doubt it.”

[valandhirwriter]

@astaldis: i did not mean to hit you with a wall of text. ;) Regarding the "woke shit" that accussation annoys me too, no matter the fandom. Some people never tire from throwing that around.

Now, back to the Witcher - up till the end of Season 2 I liked the series. I didn't mind the departures from the book, the changes, that was all good. The series had something inspiring, something that sparked stories and ideas inside of me, and I liked it for that. Season 3 was a total letdown for me. I quit after half, because it was so embarrasing. Not just the Vilgefortz fight (heard about it, never saw it) but Geralt/Yen/Ciri playing house in episode 1, not to mention some of the costumes, the vibe... I was honestly totally disappointed and not because I am book purist. I love interpretations, and if a series became a seriously good AU fanfic, I'd be on board for it. Witcher S3 really failed for me, and I have yet to make myself watch the rest. Which is sad.

While I am not an Asiof fan, HotD worked for me, because I could take the story, the plot, seriously. I might not like it, I might hate some of the characters, and I dislike my favourite two are dead (some of my friends laughed hilariously, and said they saw it coming from a mile away, that my favourites would be the Cargyll twins, especially Erryk.) but I can take the story, the series seriously. it's not like with Witcher S3, where you had forced funny/embarassing moments, or total WtF stuff. Take Jaskier and Radovid, I am slash writer, I'd love a good male pairing center stage; I loved Bel Riose and Glawn in Foundation, for example, but that whole thing with Jaskier and Radovid was a mess, WTF and the "funny" scenes were only annoying.

Maybe it is my fault, that I am more drawn to stories that have little comedy. They can have humour, some witty barbs, some black sarcasm I appreciate, comedy not so much. I guess that is me being me. I think I only ever wrote one funny story in my life myself.

I agree totally with you, that the Witcher fans who complain want Geralt to hunt monsters, take names and be an overall tough guy. Coming into town, killing the monster, riding away... that kind of thing, and that's not the main story. I am honestly afraid what S4 will bring. Not because of Liam taking the role, but because of the split story, Ciri with the Rats (my least favourite part of the story) and Geralt and the Hanse (also not my favourite part.) It will be hard to create good dynamics there and the books weaknesses will translate harshly onto the screen.

While I think it is true that HotD is better than Witcher S3, I think the 17% on Rotten Tomatoes are mainly review bombing. It's becoming a popular sport in certain groups.

Oh my... the next wall of text. Sorry. I didn't mean to blather at you. And in case it was not clear: i totally respect your view on the matter and I admire you for standing up for the Witcher.

Why is House of the Dragon allegedly so much better than The Witcher?

Just watched House of the Dragon S2 and I must say - I found it pretty boring in many parts?

Sorry, but the whole thing mostly and disappointingly feels like a very long and repetitive prologue to what might come in S3. And they do many things that are loudly criticised in The Witcher, some even a lot worse, but with HotD people seem to not mind? Honestly, this really puzzles me. Yes, the costumes and make-up might be better, but:

It's all over the place on the whole continent of Westeros and even outside of Westeros with people traveling from place to place in no time at all. OK, on dragon back, you can do that, but they also do it on foot and by boat. I remember some of the geography of the continent because I was very much into Game of Thrones some years back when it aired and also read all the Song of Ice and Fire books that were available (not the ones HotD is based on though), but the constant jumps from one place to the next are really confusing imo and you'd need to have a map by your side all the time to remember where is what. When the Witcher does that, it is criticised heavily.

Same with people, there are so many main and minor characters, some even with similar or the same names, how the fuck are you supposed to remember who's who and who is related to who and how, who belongs to which house, and who's allied to who and who's feuding who without looking it up again all the time somewhere on the internet? With all the incest and extramarital activities resulting in a host of illegitimate progeny, I found this extremely confusing, a lot more so than in The Witcher.

And does anybody have a shimmer of an idea of how much time has passed since the old king's death? Must be at least months but you hardly ever get any hints about it. And this poor girl, how long is she wandering around the desolate highlands alone trying to find the wild dragon? Must have been weeks judging by the other things that happened in the meantime ...

Maybe it's just me, but I did not find any of the characters really compelling. Not that they are not well acted, the acting is good enough, but emotionally they did not really leave any impression on me. Maybe the only character I find a bit interesting is Queen Helaena and this very young Lord Tully who shows unexpected spine and stands up to Daemon in front of the Riverlords. There are so many seemingly random new side characters popping up all over the place, too, miraculously gaining importance that one is supposed to keep track of, but also none of them that was in any way inspiring it me. And the poor cute Bracken knight only drew his sword and was already dead in the mud on a battlefield with hundreds of men hardly a second later ...

Rhaenyra suddenly and out of the blue kisses this lowborn woman (was her name even mentioned? I cannot for the life of me remember it). I don't have anything against women kissing, not at all, but why? There is no mention of anything going on between those two at all afterwards. Are they in a secret relationship now or not? I haven't read the book and don't know if it's in there, but how is that kiss, as it seems to have no relevance to the plot at all, not 'woke' catering to the LGBTQ community? But everything the Witcher does is?

Then there are the dragons you have to keep track of in addition to the many people and places. How many dragons are there? And who rides which one? And why the heck would a dragon in its right mind choose this dubious Ulf character who accidentally stumbles into its cave as a rider???

And the plot? Honestly, was there, beside the one fight between the three dragons, anything that was really exciting? I remember nothing, no battles, no good sword fights, nothing but TALK. At lest 90% of the plot is repetitive talking about politics and plotting and scheming. I have nothing against a nice political intrigue and of course that's what happens at courts and it can be interesting too. It was in Game of Thrones where you had really interesting characters, too. But here I found it mostly boring and uninspired. And The Witcher is criticised for having too much politics and too many side characters although it has a LOT less so than this season of HotD.

They also seem to have conveniently forgotten that in GoT they established that Targaryans would not burn from fire. In the books this happens only once because some kind of blood magic was performed, but in the show it happened several times, so it seemed to be the rule, not the exception. HotD thus kind of refutes their own made-up lore, which I found confusing and had to look it up online. (They could easily have made Aegon suffer from bad injuries due to the fall instead.)

The music was rather uninspiring, too, imo, except for the intro which is the well-known one taken from GoT and the music at the end of E8 which was partly based on the Rains of Castamere, otherwise there was not a single piece of the soundtack that would make me want to buy and listen to it. The Witcher has quite a few that I listen to again and again (including, of course, Jaskier's songs, but many more).

What I also like a lot better about The Witcher: It does not take itself that seriously and there is quite a bit of humour in it. In HofD S2, the imo funniest piece of dialogue was: "I want you to fuck my wives." - "How many wives do you have?" (that was between this pirate commander, don't remember his/her? name, and Lord Tyland, was that his name?) . And maybe the truest sentence in the show by this random braggart in the tavern who miraculously turns into a dragon rider Ulf: "A sense of humour would do you all good."

All in all, the only thing that I have found to be really good and outstanding about HotD S2 are the dragons. Without them, it would be less than mediocre. I don't think I would want to rewatch it and feel no desire to look up any of the characters and their relationships etc to find out more about them. I cannot say in how far it is or isn't faithful to the source material as I have not read the book(s?) HotD is based on, but even if it's more faithful to the source material, this has failed to make it a great watch like GoT (minus the ending, that was worse than the poorest fanfic could have thought it up). With the dragons it is alright to watch once, hoping for a more exciting S3, but there is absolutely no way it deserves higher critic/audience scores/ratings than The Witcher S3, the contrary.

Update: To clarify, I don't really mind many things that I mentioned about HotD, I can totally live with an unclear timeline and many characters, even if it's not easy to remember every name, relationship etc. If I really like a show or character, I simply look it up, no problem. But these are all things I have seen people criticise The Witcher for on social media, and then they say HotD is so much better. That's what really puzzles me. What I definitely liked about HotD is the diverse cast and that there are many female characters with a lot of screen time and importance. It's not a bad show, only I like The Witcher much better despite its flaws. This is not meant as an anti HotD post but a pro Witcher post.

[seddm]

I'd like both you & Ngame to answer this. I, like you, thought the romance writing was solid up until S4. & I, like you, was expecting immediate payoff for what the S3 finale set up. Do you think objectively speaking, that despite it coming from a good place, that the romance was written & handled badly so far in S4? & if so what are the objective flaws about the romance in S4 when compare to the past 3 seasons? May as well get this discussion out of the way. Yes I like long & detailed posts =)

Part 2: And I don't mind you and Ngame taking your time when it comes to gathering your thoughts on S4's objective flaws when it comes to its romance 

I think I can sum it up my issues with most of the characters and romance writing in S4 in the concept of things feelings natural. Marco getting with Jackie, Star running away from her feelings, Marco running away from Star, Star getting with Tom. All these developments were, in my opinion, at least 80% natural given the state of mind of the characters at the time. Things could have gone differently obviously, since this is a work of fiction and the writers just have to decide something for it to happen, but it was extremely realistic for these characters to have the reactions they had, to take they decisions they took, over the first three seasons. However, by the end of S3 Star, Marco and Tom were... quite mature. Not completely, obviously, but the events of the season supposedly lead them to a place where they could have reasonably and realistically took decisions leading to Tom and Star breaking up from realizations and considerations about their relationship, and eventually Star and Marco getting together.

S4 decided... not to. It didn’t erase the developments from S3, nor it retreaded them, but it made them vastly insufficient. It took moments that should have lead to huge epiphanies in the characters, and made them “just” important ones. And so we got Lake House Fever, and Kelly’s World, and essentially no references to romance at all from the premiere until Curse of the Blood Moon, despite Marco and Star apparently being eaten inside by their unexpressed feelings. Things went from being 80% or more natural, to being 50%: having Kellco become a thing, or Star and Marco latch onto a supposed curse as a way to erase their unwanted feelings, or Tom being too much of a wimp to actually stand up for himself and see what would be better for his growth, aren’t unrealistic developments, nor out of the blue asspulls, but they’re vastly more arbitrary than anything else before: they could happen, but they didn���t really have to. And this is what makes it truly hard for me not to interpret everything that’s happening now as a way to delay things, to keep the will-they-won’t-they going on to have Starco happen in the series finale. I used a Pokémon comparison some days ago, I’m going to use it again: imagine that Starco is a Pokémon that evolves at level 50. Season 1 to 3 were all grinding, the S3 finale left it at level 49 and something, on the brink of evolving. S4 is now levelling it up ‘till level 70 while pressing B everytime to stop it from evolving. This way it’s going to be even stronger when it eventually evolves, sure, but was it really necessary? And isn’t it making the grind for this additional 20 levels harder and more annoying?

That’s my opinion on this season. It’s not all bad, and individual moments can still be very good, as evidenced by Curse of the Blood Moon and The Knight Shift, but most of it feels so unnecessary. Not bad, nor useless, this Free Will / Choice arc is actually very good and could bring some juicy moments (and it already did with The Knight Shift), but all these things could have easily happened in a scenario where Star and Marco were already dating, and we wouldn’t have had to endure ships that go from useless to genuinely hard to watch for almost one more whole season. So it’s not horrible, the situation is not tragic, but it’s certainly a terrible waste from my subjective point of view, and a tier down in quality compared to usual as far as “how needed was this?” from a more objective point of view. But at the very least the execution of the individual moments, on the other hand, can still be as good or even better than in the past.

[theboatbuilderswife]

TAGGED BY :  @curiiousman !!

TAGGING :  Yo- it’s impossible to tag my entire followerslist so pls steal this from me okay c:

* GETTING  TO  KNOW  THE  MUN :

NAME :   Yara NICKNAME :   tbh most people know me as Helga or Thordottir on most social media FACECLAIM :   Maude Hirst, surprise, surprise. PRONOUNS :   she / her HEIGHT :   1.80m  BIRTHDAY :   3rd of Sept AESTHETIC :   Scandinavian interior, house bordering on the forest, lots of furs, long, flowy boho dresses & the smell of vanilla LAST  SONG  YOU  LISTENED  TO :   Elddansurin by Heilung FAVORITE  MUSE (S)  YOU’VE  WRITTEN :  Will Smith poses towards Helga. Tbf she is my all and everything. If I ever drop her you know something is very, very wrong. I’ve also really gotten attached to Helga’s mother, Sigrúnn, whom you might see pop up here on this blog from time to time as I am far too lazy to make her her own blog. She is probably one of the few OCs, apart from Helga’s canon divergent oc babies, I’ve really managed to work out in full detail and it just works. I am also really fond of my renaissance bb Simonetta Vespucci who I write over at @venusdefirenze

* GETTING  TO  KNOW  THE  ACCOUNT :

WHAT  INSPIRED  YOU  TO  TAKE  ON  THIS  MUSE :   hM okay you prepared for a long ass story ? So I’ve watched vikings ever since the beginning. Thought it was a fun show, esp as an aspiring viking reenactor. I’ve always been on dumblr, although not really aware of the RP part of it till I bumped into a Floki rper somewhere in the tags. I followed them for a while from my personal, and while 2014 rp was wild, I thought it was interesting. Now, why Helgs ? Idk, I think I have tried to explain this so many times already, but I just can’t seem to put it into words properly ? She just stuck to me from the very beginning. The looks, her carefree character, the way she just fits into the whole vikings world, her quirkiness. It just grew on me in an instance. So yes, I decided to make my first rp blog over here in 2015. I even did it while I was on a small vacation to London with my little sister which is something I would not recommend, trust me. Thankfully icons and formatting weren’t really a thing then so doing stuff from an ipad wasn’t even that bad, haha. But yes- I instantly connected with Helga on the show, there is just no other character who speaks to me like she does- in any fandom, really. My lill’ viking hippie is my everything and I would fight M.ichael H.irst for her.

WHAT  ARE  YOUR  FAVORITE  ASPECTS  OF  YOUR  CURRENT  MUSE :  I think I have already spoiled a lot during the last question, haha. There is something I love about writing minor characters. You have the basics to work with, and the freedom to just do with them whatever you want and still be able to fit them into the show. Helga was introduced to us naked, flirty and making sex jokes and just be stoned out of her mind in Uppsala, but there is just so much more to her character, something the other seasons haven’t even done her justice. Her dynamics with Floki are so extremely interesting, and often just ignored by so many people. Those who have read the comics know how feisty she can get when people she cares about are threatened. She is not a warrior, but she isn’t weak either, not at all even. Surely, she has her flaws, but that is just something I love to interpret into writing her. It makes it so much more fun, and genuine.

WHAT’S  YOUR  BIGGEST  INSPIRATION  WHEN  IT  COMES  TO  WRITING :  Tbf, everything in daily life is pretty much inspiration. Over the past 4 years there have only been a rare few moments where I lost muse for her, and usually that lasted only 1 or 2 days and was often my own fault. Music often really helps, and I am a proper AU whore and Helga is just that character you can place in any kind of au/situation and make it work. Meditation and yoga with Maude often really helps as well. We don’t really speak about the show, but she sometimes mentions it, and is still very fond of it.

FAVORITE  TYPES  OF  THREADS :   Another angst whore here. Honestly, just give me threads that leave me overly emotional in any kind of way and you have me weak and wanting moooore. I feel bad for hurting Helgs like that sometimes but eh, sacrifices have to be made.

BIGGEST  STRUGGLE  IN  REGARDS  TO  YOUR  CURRENT  MUSE :   Well, I started writing Helga during s3 I think it was, or I joined just before it aired ? So yes, it was sometimes difficult to see what they did to her on the show, because I am not at all agreeing with her storyline during s4b. I went canon divergent pretty quick after that, which was somewhat difficult because I loved how the show wrote her during the first 3 seasons and the beginning of s4. I’m a sucker for writing fake deaths, so that wasn’t really the problem either, but getting people to recognise your canon divergent can be a little difficult sometimes. Not that I blame anyone, it is a lot, and very extra in some aspects, haha. That said, Helgs hasn’t changed at all portrayal wise, and I hope I still write her very true to the show.