Check With the Sun (Sticking to the Lowest Rung Remix) [House, M.D.; Gregory House, James Wilson]

[dmx_men]

Title: Check With the Sun (Sticking to the Lowest Rung Remix)
Author: Dee Laundry (deelaundry)
Summary: Stand in the place where you are.
Rating: PG
Fandom: House, MD
Spoilers/Warnings: Spoilers through episode 5-24, "Both Sides Now." Warning for mentioned character deaths.
Notes: The title comes from the song “Stand” by R.E.M. References to several

Comments

[hannahrorlove]

The idea of Wilson collecting apartments, or at least residential addresses, isn't something I'd thought of when I wrote the original story - yet it's something so appropriate to his character and the original itself that it blends and fits in perfectly. It's an extrapolation of something I'd never have considered that I'm happy occurred to you.

Wilson's urgency and necessity to hang onto his past is something fascinating, and the image of him sort of hermit crabbing his way through life is a bittersweet one, especially with his inability to communicate it to House - the readers only get that at the very end, in the simplest terms House would never have accepted. It's a fine balance, and you kept that going throughout.

Thank you.

[dmx_men]

Thank you! Wilson collecting apartments/addresses wouldn't have occurred to me either, had I not read your story now, in the post-Amber era, when he's stayed on in Amber's apartment. He seems very much like the kind of person who can't let go of relationships, and this would be one way to hang on. I hadn't been consciously thinking of Wilson hermit-crabbing, but that seems an apt description as well.

I didn't do much to your original text, and I fretted a bit over that, but in the end decided that setting a diamond into a new piece of jewelry was remix-y enough.

[hannahrorlove]

In retrospect, it's one of the very few things I've predicted in fandom - perhaps I should be proud of myself for doing so, especially as it was completely unintentional.

For my remix, to extend your metaphor, I melted the base piece down and reforged something similar. The same material is re-used for the same purpose, but it's not the original.

[deelaundry]

*waves*

Did you know it was me? I didn't guess your remix at all, but in retrospect, I should have.

I had another story in mind for remixing but ran out of time to do enough research to make it plausible.

[kassrachel]

This is really lovely.

[deelaundry]

Thanks!

[joe_pike_junior]

I too like that you've extended on the idea that Wilson "collects" apartments. Interesting angle.

[deelaundry]

The tie between this Season Two-era fic and Season Five was too interesting not to explore. Thanks.

[deelaundry]

clinging to the things that have been "good" for him, as if he can never count on the present to continue to be "good".

Interesting take on a possible motivation for Wilson. I didn't see him being motivated by dissatisfaction with the present, but rather that this was a different form of perusing a photo album. A more visceral reminder of the past than pure memory.

I am still shocked that Wilson actually ripped a piece out of House's guitar. The equivalent of House taking a sledgehammer to Wilson's car, and seems totally out-of-character for Wilson to have de-valued something vintage. But canon is canon.

Thanks.

[deelaundry]

The cane wasn't a twelve-thousand dollar vintage cane. And while the stained-glasses window may have been that expensive and old, that incident was spur-of-the-moment and unintended. The destruction of the guitar was a deliberate part of what Wilson intended to be a campaign of fun.

It's mystifying. But then again, several incidents the show have been mystifying (including House's "You date caretakers" comment to Wilson in Season Five, which is directly contradictory to everything else they've said and shown regarding Wilson's love life) so oh well.

[blackmare]

I'm kind of choked up now.

Really, really well done. That's all I've got at the moment, but, yeah.

[deelaundry]

Thanks! *smiles*