"Self-Flagellation": AU S7 one-shot.

[lit_luminary]

Title: Self-Flagellation
Author: lit_luminary
Rating: R for discussion of (non-sexual) BDSM content.
Characters/Pairings: House, Chase; House/Chase mentorship/friendship.
Summary: House diagnoses the aftereffects of a coping mechanism.  (S7 AU, sidestepping out-of-character serial womanizing and Cuddy-induced myopia.)

Comments

[damigella_314]

Wow. Catholicism 2.0, beyond the hair shirt :-).
You get Chase so much. And of course you flattened me with the Foucault quotation, there's no way I'll ever get there (and it's among my regrets).
Fantastic work, as usual.

[lit_luminary]

*Laughs* 'Catholicism 2.0'--I like that! (And while I hardly meant to suggest that this is the endpoint of what House would call "massive Catholic guilt," I do think that religious glorification/sanctification of suffering is problematic, regardless of the religion.)

Chase is a character I've devoted quite a lot of analysis to; and his relationship with House (and House's with him) is something I never tire of exploring--so few writers do, and it's full of subtle nuances and analogous scars. Each of them gives me a view of the other no other character does.

(And thank you for appreciating the Foucault quotation: I thought it might be a bit too academic, but in the end, it was too perfect to leave out.)

[flywoman]

“You’re in the wrong office if you want personal boundaries,” House breaks in.

So true!

“Either you let me look so I know you didn’t do anything stupid, or I start devising creative ways to extract you from your shirt.”

I can't help wishing that we'd been allowed to witness some of this creativity ;).

I do wish that House had had his head in the game enough this season to help Chase cope a little better with his own crime and the loss of Cameron.

[lit_luminary]

Well, House's personal orbit is very much a 'What right to privacy?' kind of place, and Chase has been in it too long not to have learned that. And he definitely knows better than to invite the kind of thing House does when he's not given the information he wants.

(I'm willing to bet news of Wilson's experience on speed and the reason for it made its way back to House's staff, for example; and of course Chase would've known about the 'bring me Cuddy's thong' test House set for the fellowship candidates if the hospital grapevine is anything resembling functional. And knowing those things, Chase would've reasoned he didn't want to be the target of similar insanity, and how much privacy did he have to preserve anyway?)

I wish House had had his head in the game at all this season, because the Cuddy-induced myopia has a lot to answer for. But yes, House's total obliviousness to Chase's pain was a particularly emphatic indicator that he (House) was no longer himself.

[freddie_mac]

When I saw this summary pop up on my flist, I immediately started laughing. Well done and spot-on; in this 'verse Chase is well on the way to healing.

[lit_luminary]

*Grin* It's not sporting to take shots at canon when it's this easy, but I can't resist: this season hasn't left me in a forgiving mood.

Thank you for the push in this direction: I'd never included this kind of content in my previous work, but it was a natural extension of established characterization here, and I'm glad to have explored it.

[menolly_au]

Love the House/Chase interaction and Chase's way of coping, I think that would make perfect sense to House. Much better than the follow-up (or not) the show has done.

[lit_luminary]

Well, 'better than the show has done' is hardly difficult these days, but I'll take that in the spirit intended.

Joking aside, I think it was that parallel--the shared understanding of pain-as-mechanism--that brought this piece together for me: House is probably the only one of the cast who could understand, and accept this as a coping mechanism superior to many alternatives.

And I'm always glad to hear the House/Chase interaction is tone-true, as it's one of my favorite things to write.

[pinkuro]

aww I love it :D Very interesting take on it <)

[lit_luminary]

Thank you. This approach seemed, at least to me, far more plausible than the behavior canon gave us.