#the house is established

[mantisgodsdomain]

the house is established vi and tsm2 vi play a board game together who do you think is winning

The House Is Established Vi has approximately fifty seven years of experience in cheating at games and approximately zero years of experience with board games but it's very good at catching on to new things and will be DELIGHTED to play something new after a century of almost nothing being new so it mostly depends on how quickly tsm2 Vi can catch on to its sleight of hand and start cheating back

[secret-bug-pain-blog]

Whumptober Day 4 - Forgotten (REPLACEMENT PROMPT)

Back at it again. For proper reading experience, please read this while being screamed at by one to five 3-4-week-old kittens. We're borrowing Jay from @zombiebugbites - she's from the Everlasting Primordia AU, and giving us a lovely opportunity to bring up fun aspects of The House Is Established's universe that won't come up organically in normal AU posting! Very exciting.

Ink smeared on the word count lettering a bit, but it's fine, nothing's perfect. We will now go try and finish the Day 2 fill so we can finally dedicate our Carousel pen to something else and/or work on Day 5. See you... soon.

[mantisgodsaus]

is that one post that goes like "i fixed a problem that i saw my manager do once and i did it faster so i get to take his skin i get to take his skin" an anyone post. we were thinking vi but we dont actually know

The House Vi does this every time that it does something it's seen Kjdrira do once and it is too small to actually, like, effectively do anything like skin-taking, and also doesn't have the dexterity for it, but it brags to the network about it and sometimes chews on Kjdrira for bragging rights and releasing the immense amounts of energy contained within it that it cannot properly release because the exact same rocks that let it store such massive stores of energy also prevent it from having a proper range of motion

[bloodraven55]

i think this is my fav lumity moment in the finale bc i love how you can tell they've been together a while by this point just from the way amity kisses her cheek without any hesitation and luz instinctively puts her arms around her even tho her attention's on the others

[egophiliac]

Serious question.

Do you think we’ll see the parents/family of each of the guys???

Like, We’ve been TEASED with Ace’s brother, that I’m starting to think it’s just a reference to that Alice in Wonderland park character in Japan and nothing else….

Jack’s family, Ruggie’s grandma, Falena, Maleficia, Ms.Rosehearts, Just now Vil’s dad is in the picture which I am really happy but now I’m wondering about his mom, and so Deuce’s mom.

I mean, some HAVE a silhouette!! It could mean they do have a design in the making/ready to show. They could’ve shown us Falena in the Tamashina (hope I said that correctly) event, but didn’t (prolly to make Leona not so σ(▼□▼メ) and it’s understandable)

Anyhow, any idea/headcannon about this? Who do you want to see first?

I'm wondering if everyone might eventually get a travel event? like they've now introduced with Vil's that it doesn't have to be specifically hometowns, so that opens things up a lot! (especially if they have to figure out how to do three separate Coral Sea visits) (how would that even work otherwise)

but yeah, I hope everyone gets a chance! there's a lot of backstory characters I would LOVE to meet. :D :D :D though I do think some of them don't really suit the more light-hearted tone of the events (pretty sure you're right about that being why Falena wasn't in Tamashina-Mina, that would've just been. too much for Leona.) so like...we're probably not ever going to meet the Rosehearts. or Maleficia (although I maintain that this would be THE funniest possible way to introduce her outside of the main story, and actually I would love this a lot, can we please Twst) (I need to see her to put Malleus in a froofy little outfit and tell him what a handsome boy he is). but they've sprung surprises like Kifaji on us, and honestly anyone who shows up and tells embarrassing stories about characters' childhoods is good in my book!

characters off the top of my head who I most want to meet: literally any of the Zigvolts, Azul's mom, Ace's brother, Che'nya's grandfather (<- I think he would be a good one for Riddle) (please just any non-terrible adult in his life), any member of Rook's family because I need to see how they managed to produce him, and...really just whoever they can come up with for Silver.

[fox-guardian]

I can't get over that last scene from this episode. that long pause where sam was quietly grabbing a drink and you could barely hear celia talking to jack as she put him to bed in the other room. nothing was happening in that moment that needed to be recorded. no terrible events no big revelations. just sam and celia quietly going about their lives, sharing a domestic moment.

as something watched and listened. and we don't know why it's listening.

[mrschwartz]

don't mind me, i'm just sitting here marinating in the fucking implication of that scene in the PILOT episode of house md where the patient is trying to understand a little better the doctor who's saving her life because he's cold and a jerk (and hasn't even bothered meeting her) but also works in an ultimately caring profession, and she picks up on the fact that wilson must be the closest thing house has to a friend the way he talks about him so confidently and asks him "is he your friend?" to which he answers "yeah" which is Already the opposite answer of which any of the other doctors in that hospital would give, and then she follows it up with "does he care about you?" to which wilson hesitates and goes with "eh i don't know. like he says, everybody lies" BUT THEN. she says, "well it's not what people say, it's what they do" and wilson thinks for a moment and fucking delivers the heaviest, most heartwarming answer that is "yeah. he cares about me" because fuck me if that doesn't establish not only the tone and the themes the entire fucking show would permiate for the next 8 seasons, but also what it would Culminate in 8 years down the road. shoot me

[sparsilees]

the blacks aren’t an incestuous family

you can say sirius is rather unhinged and depressed from prolonged dementor exposure and the violent tragedy of betrayal and loss. you can say he’s traumatised by his upbringing and the first wizarding war. or that the horrors™ have done a real number on him. that bellatrix lestrange was too brilliant, too enchanted with the dark arts, or too broken from azkaban.

don’t blame it on ‘black family madness’, it doesn’t exist in canon. don’t blame it on inbreeding.

the pureblood families generally intermarried between ‘suitable’ bloodlines (sometimes they brought in halfbloods, too). the blacks are no exception—why marry your silly cousin when there’s a wider pool of eligible pureblood contenders? because according to the back family tree *checks note* walburga and orion are the only cousins known to have married in canon—specifically, they’re second cousins.

the black family tree roots are far-reaching and expansive. there’s always a black daughter that’s married into every other notable family—the burkes, the crouches, the lestranges, the longbottoms, the malfoys, the prewetts, the potters, and the weasleys—the wizarding world is built on the black bloodline.

everyone’s related in some capacity to the blacks, with certain individuals more closely than others, like how sirius black and arthur weasley are second cousins once removed, with their closest common ancestor being former headmaster phineas black.

the black family members featured in the books descend from either arcturus (the main branch) or pollux. this means that, due to their parents’ union, sirius and regulus have black, macmillan, and crabbe ancestry. whereas the black sisters are entirely removed from the heir line and share black, crabbe, and rosier bloodlines. sirius and regulus, and bellatrix, andromeda, and narcissa share exactly one set of grandparents and one set of great-grandparents.

(also, if you subscribe to the alternate canon that james’ parents are dorea and charlus, it means sirius and james are first cousins once removed; james and arthur are second cousins; and harry and ron are third cousins, placing them in the same generation as the black quintet and closer to phineas black than draco or tonks.)

canonically, it’s the gaunts who were “a very ancient wizarding family noted for a vein of instability and violence that flourished through the generations due to their habit of marrying their own cousins”, and even nearly pulled off sibling marriage to continue their line.

unlike the gaunts, the blacks did not bring together first cousins into a union and added various bloodlines into the family, so the ‘black family madness due to incestuous practices’ theory doesn’t hold water, bye.

[cable-salamdr]

When the fandom normalizes characters swearing so much that it takes you a second to remember that the actual media has (little to) no swearing

[aroaceleovaldez]

It's honestly wild to me that ToA went through so much trouble to emphasize the fact that Will did not magically fix all of Nico's problems and was explicitly not Nico's only doctor.

Only for TSATS to have Will fix all of Nico's problems and have Nico be entirely reliant on him the entire book and literally helpless without him and LITERALLY have Nico's problems be magically removed.

[all-pacas]

wait i need to talk about this cut scene from the pilot.

I really love this scene. I get why it was cut — it's sort of random and doesn't fit in the episode pacing-wise — but it does such a good job introducing the team and their characters. It literally tells us everything we need to know about all three of them.

Foreman is a little haughty. He's gone to top schools, has top opportunities, is impatient and ambitious and smart. When Chase doesn't know a medical term, he does immediately. He's been here three days and is Unimpressed by House. He's completely dismissive of Chase, but takes more of an interest in Cameron, asking how long she's worked here and what her specialty is, and seems a little offended on her behalf at her secretarial work.

Chase is lazy. He likes not having work to do, he's a flirt, he comes off as a little dim and apathetic. He's unimpressed by Foreman's humble bragging, and rather sarcastic. (This scene alone also completely clarifies Foreman's much later "fire Chase, he doesn't appreciate the job" rant to House.) He makes fun of both Foreman and Cameron. Twice he jumps into the conversation uninvited, first to share his specialty and then to explain Cameron's secretarial work.

Cameron is helpful. She is nice. She is… a little anal. No one asked her to answer House's mail, she does it because she can't stand to see it piled up and deleted. While Foreman is being Visibly Bored and impatient, and Chase is doing his crossword puzzle, she's actually working. She's unoffended by Chase's teasing, and — as she does much of the rest of the pilot — gives Foreman some exposition about how long she and Chase have been here.

In the pilot proper, we get quite a lot of exposition about Foreman — we learn his education and history and he's sort of our viewpoint character for House; he has by far the most scenes and lines of the team — and a bit on Cameron (and almost nothing about Chase). But this scene introduces them so perfectly. I love it so much.

TRANSCRIPT:

FOREMAN: I’ve been here for three days and I haven’t seen an actual patient. This is all we do? CHASE: [doing a crossword] Until the checks start bouncing. FOREMAN: So glad I passed up that neurology job at Sloan. So glad I was able to parlay a chief residency position to this — CHASE: So glad you’ve filled us in on your vaunted past. FOREMAN: My point was it doesn’t matter how smart the guy is if he’s just wasting our time. CHASE: Yeah. See, uh, you completely discounted the possibility that I’m here because it’s boring. I get to tell women I’m a doctor and I have time to actually date them. [beat] Nine letters. Iodine deficiency in children. FOREMAN: Cretinism. [to Cameron:] So, uh, how long have you been here, Cameron? CAMERON: Six months. Chase has been here a year. FOREMAN: What’s your specialty? [simultaneously] CAMERON: Immun — CHASE: Intens — CAMERON: Immunology. CHASE: Intensive care. FOREMAN: Is House abusive? A misogynist? Or just can’t afford a secretary? CHASE: He doesn’t need a secretary. FOREMAN: He’s got her answering his mail. CHASE: No, he doesn’t. FOREMAN: What are you doing? CAMERON: Answering his mail. FOREMAN: She’s answering his mail. CHASE: But he didn’t ask her to. CAMERON: He throws all of the requests for consults in the trash. I get them out and apologize that he’s too busy. [Foreman sighs loudly.]

[mantisgodsdomain]

Since we've got all three character chapters of The House Is Established posted, we can now talk about fun things like roach pronouns. Come, learn about the grammar toys for Roach we've been tinkering with.

There are, at current: 8* distinct pronouns in Roach. Three of these are the "original" pronouns, and five were later adapted during communication with social bugs in order to avoid paying deadly insults to the queen or her colony through either treating the queen as interchangeable with other colony members or referring to an entire gender of the colony as objects. The cordyceps of Snakemouth Den speak a dialect that uses the "object" pronouns far more heavily in personal speech, and adds another set of pronouns for specifically inanimate objects.

Roach, when used purely among other Roaches, has three gendered pronouns: Male, Female, and Object. These are used in all personal pronouns (i.e. "I" "me" and "myself" will be different depending on what gender the speaker is using for themself). Object is not generally used to refer to oneself in first person, but can also be used to refer to any non-roach you do not know the gender of, or people you do not respect.

Male and Female also have distinct "plural" variants, for when referring to oneself in first person while speaking for a group. This is similar in usage to the Royal We - it expresses some amount of authority on the speaker's part, and indicates that they are acting as the voice for a group, rather than only themself.

During initial diplomatic relations with the Ant Queen, the genders of Queen, Drone, and Worker. While Worker pronouns have both singular and plural variants, Queen and Drone are plural by default - it is assumed that the speaker is always speaking as the voice of the colony, as these were primarily used for diplomatic purposes, and thus would generally only be used by people actively engaging in diplomacy.

Roach pronouns would later merge into general diplomacy between kingdoms, which would stick around as loan words after the Roaches themselves declined. Two more would also come into formal use by present time. Queen-Alate pronouns refer to an alate that is not yet a queen, and have both singular and plural variants, as a queen-alate is not necessarily attached to a colony by default. King pronouns are plural by default and almost exclusively used by the current Termite King.

Roach pronouns in modern bugnish are considered excessively formal and almost exclusively used for kingdom diplomacy. As all major factions participating in diplomacy at the time of language exchange were social bugs except for Roaches, Male and Female pronouns fall into the category of "obscure enough that no one uses them anymore", as the only people using them were Roaches, and not the surviving Kingdoms. Object also technically falls into this category, but its dual meaning as an insult is somewhat retained, though it is extremely antiquated and would warrant a response similar to calling a real human person a "parasitaster" in the year 2024. Canon Leif, specifically, uses Drone (Plural) almost exclusively.

If this all seems very confusing: don't worry! We have a chart of what pronouns do or do not exist in these variants of roach for your viewing pleasure. Character pronouns are below the cut.

Vi: It/its. Object (Plural). Sometimes swaps to Inanimate Object (Plural) for a few months every decade or so. Will refer to self as Queen (Plural) exclusively when trying to piss people off. No one will call it by Queen (Plural) pronouns unless they are also trying to piss it off.

ZB-159: They/them. Worker (Plural). Occasionally Object (Plural) when referring to self when inactive or under maintenance but English doesn't gender its first-person pronouns in a way where we can get this across.

Leif: He/they/it. Varies between Drone (Plural), Object (Plural), Object (Singular), and Inanimate Object (Singular) based on current mental state. Occasionally will use Queen-Alate (Plural) when speaking as a figure of authority, but English still doesn't gender its first-person pronouns in a way where we can get this across.

Kjdrira: They/it. Either Object (Plural) or Queen (Plural). Situational.

ZB-162: It/its. Object (Plural), Object (Singular), or Inanimate Object (Plural). The conditions upon which ZB-162 will be referred to as any given pronoun roughly correspond to the conditions under which the hive network may be referred to as such. Most of the time, sentences that mention ZB-162 will also include the hive network either by mention or by implication. There is very little distance between ZB-162 and the system it maintains.

[whoopseydaisy]

[mantisgodsaus]

Normal Kabbu does dumb reckless shit and has Vi go "don't fucking DO that you could have died like FIFTEEN TIMES in the past ten minutes and for what??? some random termite guy???" and ZBT-159 does reckless shit and has Vi go "okay. we think something fucked up in your priorities and planning again. let's, uhh, rejig that again, buddy" and then they go along with that because they are well aware that is an expression of affection despite being equally aware it will probably never actually work.

[danandfuckingjonlmao]

good night and sweet dreams to the best, sexiest, sluttiest, smartest, realest, most based, valid, relatable, girlipop, sympathetic, cunt, fun, cool, feminist, aspirational girlboss character in dead boy detectives: doll spider <3

good night to her and no one else. i hope the rest of y’all have a bad night and terrible dreams.

[smallpapers]

They are so. In love. Help me. I can’t