#i started watching house md yesterday

[realbeefman]

the way i ship gay ships is undoubtedly kind of regressive and heavily influenced by my severe internalized homophobia but i can always count on my beloved mutuals to understand what i mean when i say things like “this 40 year old white man should be barefoot n pregnant in a kitchen cooking meals for his loving husband”

[jurassic-cunt]

wilson LOVES being house's only friend. if house made another friend wilson would do something totally insane like make up symptoms to have a mysterious illness only house can solve

[warlenys]

but i need you // cool about it, boygenius

[whydidoth]

Thinking about one of those soulmate aus where the pair experiences each other's pain from a medical perspective and how much that would screw up diagnosis and seeking treatment to begin with. Like, if you suddenly start having acute abdominal pain, would you bother going to the ER or would you just assume your soulmate got stabbed in the gut? And people who do genuinely have chronic pain syndromes that lack really obvious outward indicators would be even more likely to be dismissed by doctors because why order a panel to see if there's inflammation in the joints of a young person when occam's razor would suggest it's something the soulmate is experiencing. Would doctors opt to prescribe painkillers that are more associated with neurological/nerve pain like gabapentin since there's no actual injury for normal NSAIDS or acetaminophen to treat? Or would they be even less likely to treat pain since an allonormative perspective might fetishize experiencing pain as a way to be connected to their apparent fated love?

[oediex]

The reason House episodes are fun to watch is because they solve the riddle, right? There's a problem and a number of side streets are explored but eventually they hit the jackpot and at the end there is a treatment.

It's for the same reason that gaming is so fun. There's a puzzle that you have to figure out, even if it's just figuring out the right way to shoot the baddies who invariably deserve to be killed, until you make it to the next level.

It's dopamine hits. You're rewarded to stick it out until the end and you know that it's coming, so you do stick it out. Arguably watching a tv episode doesn't require you to do much, but depending on the difficulty setting you've introduced - and I happen to like the highest one - gaming does.

Now the question is - are we supposed to find ways in life to get the dopamine hit? Is that how you stick with something? Is that how you get disciplined? How to get things done? Or is it about finding the same fulfilment and reward even when the neurotransmitter is lacking? Is my brain supposed to work in other ways too?

[cupuacu]

my brother got the no personality syndrome he always copies someone else he saw for at least 2 months before he moves to the next personality

[hilsonamore]

i finished house md yesterday and obviously i started watching it all over again today because im a freak, and i love how innocent the first episode is. I love how the ducklings are like “oh! You hired me because i have a criminal record? Because i’m pretty? Because i have daddy issues? Because i’m some kind of flavour of broken and interesting?”. I love the low voices and how everyone is talking about the mysterious Dr House who never visits his patients yet he ends up doing so in the very same episode. I love the “He’s your friend, right?” “Yeah” “Does he care about you?” “I think so” “You don’t know so?” “As Dr house says, everybody lies” “It’s not what people say, it’s what they do” “Yeah…he cares about me”. I love my sweet Cuddy and the way she snaps at house and puts him in his place like the lap-dog that he is. I love how fresh it feels to see House get “the look” on his face when he’s solved a case without any medical proof to indicate anything whatsoever. I love the “i just wanna die with a little dignity” “there’s no such thing. Our bodies break down. Sometimes when we’re 90 sometimes before we’re even born. But it always happens and there’s never any dignity in it…you can live with dignity, you can’t die with it”, and how well it ties together with what house told wilson in the last episodes on s8. I love the way that the shows opens with house and wilson walling the corridors of PPTH and how it also ends with them side by side. I love their soft and loving and knowing looks. I love how wilson lies to house about this new patient being his cousin because he knows that if house were to believe that this patient is important to wilson he’d take the case. I love how house doesn’t even argue with him.I love the color-grading, the freshness, the beauty, the rawness and the sense that fills you up when you watch this episode knowing full well that this is going to be a good ride.

[jameswilsonsupremacy]

started testosterone yesterday!! celebrated by watching House MD, s8 ep13 (Man of the House) so I could hear Taub say “T time!”

[redgoldblue]

Fic Writing Review 2023 🌈

tagged by @itwoodbeprefect - i have also been thinking about this so thank you for taking the initiative!

tagging @faorism @gallantrejoinder if you'd care to do this in any form (including as writing/art review)!

Words and Fics (on ao3) 📚

words posted: 52,220, apparently. Which is actually... basically last year's but minus 10k because I didn't do H50 Big Bang this year, because med school. most things in my life now can be stated as 'because med school'. (actually I just realised I didn't do it last year either, but that was because I was already finishing a 10k H50 fic. so my point stands)

fics posted: either 6 or 29, depending on whether one counts the advent calendar as one fic or 24. plus 3 posted only on Tumblr.

first fic: love don't treat you like that (babe, I'm letting you know) (H50). on the NINTH of january, apparently. i've already lost my first-fic-of-the-year contest to last year, unless i unexpectedly finish something today.

last fic: Advent Calendar 2023 / ...Zaph Kilkane, the pre-eminent climate scientist of the 22nd century...

-

Ships and Fandoms ⚓

would you believe I literally did not repeat a fandom this year, outside of the advent calendar. and this year's AC had the most fandoms since 2019.

Hawaii Five-0 (McDanno)

NCIS: LA (Sallen)

Starsky & Hutch (S/H)

House MD (Hilson)

MASH (Punnihawk)

and then AC-only ones:

Star Trek (Spirk)

The Man From UNCLE (Napollya)

911 (Buddie)

Due South (i don't know ship names. are there ship names? Fraser/RayK)

Good Omens (Azcrow)

Leverage (thiefsome)

Almost Paradise (Ernesto/Alex. alesto. i'm coining it)

-

Top 5 Fics by Kudos 🏆

I mean, I have 6 posted fics that can be kudosed separately.

love don't treat you like that (babe, I'm letting you know) (H50)

When You're Loving Me (That's When I'm Loving You) (NCIS: LA)

Advent Calendar 2023 (see above. nine fandoms)

my powers of expression and thoughts so sublime / could never do you justice in reason or rhyme (House MD)

Finding A Cure In You (S&H)

-

Top 5 Favorite Fics 💖

okay, I'm going to count distinct chapters of the advent calendar for this. in no particular order and subject to mood change:

When You're Loving Me (That's When I'm Loving You) (NCIS: LA) - I cited this as a contender for my favourite fic I've written a couple months ago, so obviously it has to go in the year's. what can i say, fake dating is an immaculate trope, and this also all came onto the page very easily which is always vaguely miraculous.

there you go pulling me right back in (H50) - sometimes vague prompts i've had down for ages write up as something that's. fine, but a bit clunky, and I just have to move on bc it's the advent calendar and a new fic each day. sometimes I start writing them and they spring into life with joyous delight. or in this case, uninhibited grumpiness and love.

singing yesterday's songs wishing i could be with you tonight (MASH) - the one that didn't make it into the top 5 kudosed, I assume partially due to being locked and partially due to being a serious tone, not terribly shippy, and Peg POV. But I've had some version or other of it for a long time, it's one of those stories I'm genuinely proud of, and I was glad to finally post it.

Totally Normal (Due South) - it's fun. it was fun. I was slightly nervous about it, because the only prior Due South thing I'd written was Dief POV and this was Fraser and RayK POV and the first time writing either of those, but it turns out watching + liveblogging four and two seasons, respectively, of a character in four months is. enough to cement their voices in my head. it was unexpectedly easy and also. fun.

Festive Spice (MUNCLE) - i just think it epitomises the advent calendar. in the words of coolbreezemage, 'yesssss bake cakes and kiss your partner'.

HMs:

Finding A Cure In You (S&H) - this doesn't make it to the above list due to the fact that I haven't actually managed to reread it since I posted it. but just for the amount of time I spent with it, how different it is to my usual M.O. of writing, and the weird way I wrote it (entirely in the notes app, with almost zero rereading while writing), I have to somehow mention it.

A Thousand Words / To Be Spared (Good Omens) - I don't know if they're favourite but I do think they're good. and the format of to be spared was pleasingly experimental and i think it worked.

-

Fandom Fic Events 🤝

also the Starsky & Hutch SHarecon zine! which the zine still holds copyright on, but will be posted in April.

-

Projects for 2024 👀

mmm gonna sort this differently and also ramble

Ones that will definitely be finished in 2024 and if they aren't you have free rein to come to my house and tie me to a chair come November: MUNCLE wip, The Unwitting Truth Affair/The Honesty Affair, I haven't actually decided which title yet;

Starsky & Hutch, the still-unnamed Huggy & Pete wip.

Ones I have both hope and some amount of faith will be finished in 2024 and if they aren't you have free rein to come into my inbox and harass me about them: Hawaii Five-0 wip, Much Ado About Something (*salutes squares*);

other Hawaii Five-0 wip, state of disrepair. yes, I'm manifesting state of disrepair 2024. probably november/december 2024, but i'm manifesting it anyway;

Leverage wip, all that I want is a kind heart to haunt

Ones I would like to be finished in 2024, and if my brain decides it likes them might be, but all you have free rein for is to politely ask me about them once per business month: Hawaii Five-0 cath/steve/danny pwp, Wait A Minute Let Me Take You There;

horny S&H wip, Previews Of Your Body Driving Me Insane;

S&H Vanessa coda, so cordial / so rotten (don't ask me);

Good Omens wip, love won't you be as you've always been

Ones I don't expect to finish in 2024 but would like to get some words down in: angsty S&H wip, Relentless As The Rain;

ridiculous undercover H50 wip, Four Seasons of Love;

other ridiculous H50 wip, The Irritating, Annoying, Infuriating, (Effective) Seduction Techniques of One Steven J. McGarrett;

SPN ..wip? depending on the time limit on 'progress'?, Smells Like Turpentine.

vague thoughts: i'd like to write a full-length (for whatever value of that. the AC ones actually were full-length, especially the second one, but what I really mean is AC-independent) due south fic. they're very weird and i enjoyed writing them, and I'd also like to write something with RayV in it. maybe if I successfully inspired @itwoodbeprefect to write new ds, when she does that it will inspire me to write something, and we can set up a ping-pong game. no, wait, that's mixing fandoms.

I expect more MUNCLE fic. this one's already 3.5k and rocketing along, and i'm only two-thirds of the way through season 1. what form that will take i don't know at this stage but we'll see.

....i was discussing the vague concept of house/h50 crossover fic with squares literally yesterday and on the one hand I haven't written a crossover since 2014 and also don't want that to be my legacy, but on the other hand i think there is at least a 50% chance it's going to stick in the back of my brain and keep niggling.

[sacredglitch]

love this unconscious knowledge I get for fandoms

started House MD the last few days (currently on s3) after an urge to watch it came out of the blue

turns out yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the show

not the first time this has happened and I'm certain this won't be the last time it happens

[runituptheflagpole]

i didnt know we were house md mutuals as well! (as in we both like the show)

i just started watching yesterday actually haha, your house md posts worked

[itsbetterthananal]

i started watching house MD yesterday and im literally already on episode 12. new fixation incoming

[thefanficwriterscraft]

Hi!! This is going to be very long-winded so I apologize in advance.

I just discovered you guys yesterday so I am catching up on episodes. Today I listened to the OC one and it really made me want to throw in my two cents about x reader/x you fanfic written in second person because as of this summer it was pretty much unknown to me and now it's all I write.

A little backstory on me -- I first started writing fanfiction at 13 for House MD believe it or not. Which tells you basically everything you need to know about me lmao. Actually, Jo, when I heard your username, pebblysand it actually triggered a deeply distant memory for me, like I had seen your name somewhere before. Then when you mentioned you also wrote for House MD I was sure that is where I had seen it. I was also in the Harry Potter fandom (moreso was there for Snape) but never wrote for HP.

Anyway, bringing us up to present day, in college I wrote for both Fable and Once Upon a Time, but after that I stopped writing fic for about 10 years. It wasn't until early June of last year that I fell in love with a certain metalhead that took the fandom world by storm -- Eddie Munson.

Coming back into fandom like this after being away for so many years was a bit of a shock for me. It took me a while to feel it out and find my place in it all, especially when it came to writing fanfic. Actually, this fandom was my first encounter with second person fic writing, in fact it is the most popular ship in the fandom -- Eddie x Reader. Even wildly more popular than Eddie x Steve (Steddie).

I immediately fell in love with this concept and thought it was actually quite brilliant because at the end of the day, that's what we want. To be able to insert ourselves into a story where Eddie falls in love with us. Not through some OC as was the norm before. But going further than that, what I really wanted to get into was that depending on the length of the story, these reader characters really are OCs. But because they are never given a physical description it is so much easier to insert yourself into their role in the story, which is why a lot of us read this kind of fic in the first place.

In the podcast, it seemed like the two of you didn't have a ton of experience reading this kind of fic, so I wanted to elaborate on the concept. In some cases, yes, people are writing based on request. Especially for oneshots and drabbles where characters can be a bit more vague. Physical descriptions are kept to a minimum as a standard, but in a lot of cases, people like myself do give their reader characters fully fleshed out backstories and room for character development just like any other leading character in a novel. The story I am writing at the moment is truly a novel with all the benchmarks of one, but written in second person.

You would think that this would defeat the purpose of x reader but quite the contrary, in my opinion. When reading second person it really allows you to immerse yourself into the story, for you to pretend to be someone else for a while. That's the real beauty of it for me, because I'm not constantly jarred by seeing someone else's name and picturing their OC as if I'm watching it from a 3rd person pov. It removes the barrier which typically turns me away from reading character x OC fic and allows me to really be immersed.

I adore this trend. I think it's the best thing to happen to fanfiction in recent years. It doesn't appeal to everyone, but it functions beautifully in storytelling.

I also adore this podcast that you've created together! It's a gift, thank you so much for it.

Thank you so much for this amazing message, this is so interesting. For anyone who needs context, our episode on OCs is here:

I (@pebblysand) will add my thoughts in here and I'll let @copper-dust reblog if she has anything to add.

Firstly, as a side note, the fact that you know my username from House is wild, thank you so much, I'm in awe that you remember me haha. Also, interestingly, one of my House fics (which only exists on ffn and is really bad) is actually from a second-person POV (though no reader insert). I haven't written second-person POV since but as I said on our POV episode, I really do like it when it's done well (which definitely wasn't the case in that fic, lol).

Regarding the reader-insert info you gave us, thank you so much, that is so interesting. As (I think) I said on the ep, the only fandom that I'm familiar with where I've seen this be quite an important trend is Peaky Blinders, though I have seen quite a few people talk about them on TikTok as well. I can imagine it being prominent in real people fandoms, I can see how it suits the appeal that you've described so well.

I think (IIRC) I was quite dismissive of this trend in the original episode, and for that I apologise. I think my struggle was very much rooted in what you're describing in your ask, which is that these reader-insert characters generally seem to be fully-fledged people! The ones I've skimmed through on Peaky Blinders seem to not only have a certain appearance but most importantly fully-fledged personalities. Thus, I've always struggled to see how a reader "inserts" themselves in them. To me, it feels like this is the complete opposite of a self-insert, it's like being asked to insert myself into someone who isn't all like me 😅. To give you an example, I'm someone who is quite loud IRL, so if I read a reader-insert that's like "you are small and quiet," I'm like, "well, no" 😆 and that kind of puts me off. But now that you've explained people use these to basically cosplay in the story as someone else, that makes a lot more sense. And, I can totally see how having a second-person narrative also helps with that because obviously, you're probably having an easier time including the character in the story.

I think I've also wondered at times if those reader-inserts aren't actually self-inserts on the part of the author, but I suppose that is just the same deep-rooted biases we all exhibit when it comes to assuming that there's a little bit of the author in every OC (which isn't true). And, also, as @incalculablepower said in their original ask, even if some OCs are self-inserts, there is nothing wrong with that, as long as they're well crafted.

So, yeah, thank you for reaching out and defending your trade, it really opened my eyes to some things. I don't think it's a trend I would particularly like to dive into - personally - but I can now totally see the appeal, and I definitely think that regardless of how you write them, creating OCs requires a lot of work and mastery of the craft, which is super commendable. This is making me want to do an episode on real people fandoms and reader-inserts now (lol), so if you'd like to come on to talk about that, give us a shout! I have so many questions haha.

[chocolatepot]

tag 9 people you want to get to know better!

Working my way through memes I was tagged in! @adickaboutspoons tagged me for this late last month.

Three Ships of All Time:

Ed/Stede (OFMD), of course. Have to start with that. THE ship of all time. Need I say more?

Mobei Jun/Shang Qinghua (SVSSS). I actually started shipping this before I read the book based on fanart and such, so I was so disappointed when it's like ... not there until the very end. 🙃 But it's so cute!

So much pressure on the third one here. I could put a couple other MXTX pairings, but I'm tempted to go with Hilson (House MD)? When I watched the show as it aired I was actually a Huddy fan, but on rewatches House/Wilson really stood out to me.

First Ever Ship:

I can never remember! I usually go with Anne Shirley/Gilbert Blythe because a) I know I did ship it early and b) lots of people I've been friends with have said that that's their first ship, but I literally have no idea if it's true. Mary Lennox/Dickon Sowerby is another contender, and may even be more likely? (Mary/Colin shippers DNI)

Last Song:

I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) by the Proclaimers. Classic.

Last Film:

Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris, the new one with Lesley Manville.

Currently Reading:

A Restless Truth by Freya Marske! I'm only a few pages into it, so I can't may much about it, but I am loving it. Very excited for the lesbians!!

Currently Watching:

Game Changer, the most recent ep. They're forcing Grant to do a Bachelor competition. It's amazing.

Currently Consuming:

Cottage pie, warmed up on the stove. It's very good! All the ingredients came from the farmer's market. Also broccoli and a really nice brownie from the local bakery.

Currently Craving:

To be able to write! I was PMSing the last few days and simply could not write anything. I finally stopped trying yesterday, but I feel like maybe I could work on the "Sweet Damsels learning to dance in the moonlight" wip now ...

Tagging:

@one-more-page, @brigdh, @thisgirlshouldbeworking, @ghostalservice, and @marzipanandminutiae

[zalrb]

(soa anon) I continued my House MD watch yesterday and I watched the first episode of season seven and was reminded of something else I love about House and Cuddy. The way he cares about the hospital and what it means to her is so special to me. Like there was that quarantine episode where he referred to it as “Cuddy's baby" then at the beginning of s7, Chase and Thirteen go to get the sick neurosurgeon from his house (on House's order) because the hospital will be shut down without a NS present then they start diagnosing him and Thirteen calls the hospital “their patient” and I don't mean to ramble but I just think they're neat.

Oh for sure, the way that things that didn't really matter to House start to matter to him because he's in a relationship with her is done well and organically, it's sweet.

[meerkoetjes]

thank you @spiiderpunk!! 

last song: wrecked by imagine dragons

currently watching: house md! i will however start good omens again soon to prepare for the new season next week :)

currently reading: not reading anything atm but only bc i finished the last two books of lauren destafano's chemical garden trilogy yesterday! 

last obsession: i am SO ready for the barbie movie. i never was much into barbie as a kid or anything but i've already been thinking about outfit and looks etc 

tagging whoever!