Fic: Vacation Planning

[namaste]

Title: Vacation Planning
Author: Namaste
Summary: What was the attraction in all those potential vacation spots for House? And what changed his mind?
Warning: Spoilers for “Fetal Position.”
Author’s Note: Just a quick ficlet made up of a series of drabbles on each of the places House mentioned and where he ended up. For those following “Family, Friends ..." I promise that’s still proceeding on pace. This was just a little palette cleanser for me and something I started wondering about, and decided to work out in fic form.



Galapagos Islands

House wants to walk in Darwin’s footsteps. He doesn’t want the tourist islands, with their watered down brand of tourist science.

He wants to chase Darwin’s finches across the rocks, to measure their beaks, to watch every seed that they eat. He wants to see evolution as it happens, to hold the answer to everything in his hands.

But there’s no dock on Darwin’s islands. You jump from a small ship to a narrow ledge, then scramble up the rock cliff. House’s leg aches when it rains, and hates crossing the parking lot.

He takes the Galapagos off his list.



Cambodia

House thinks he never really understood evil until Tritter -- until he looked into Tritter’s eyes and saw nothing. No remorse. No caring. Nothing remotely human.

He wonders if that’s what happened in Cambodia, where a nation killed a third of its own. Maybe there, someone can tell him what turns a human being into something that isn’t.

But in Cambodia, he would’ve been among the first to die, and someone like Tritter would have been the one waiting to bash his head in. He’s not ready to look into another face like that again.

He takes Cambodia off the list.



Mount Aconcagua

John House lived his life at sea level -- when he was at home -- and at 50,000 feet when he wasn’t.

Aconcagua tops out in between, and House likes the idea of occupying the space in the middle that his father couldn't. During the summer, he’d picked up some adventuring magazines, back when he allowed himself to imagine a different world for himself, and read that it was an easy climb.

But then he stares at the cane leaning against his desk, and calculates the steps between base camp and the summit, then back down.

He takes Aconcagua off the list.



Vancouver Island

House tells himself and everyone else kayaks are the answer. No legs required, he says.

It’s the sensible thing to do. His arms are strong, though his right shoulder still aches deep down sometimes. Wilson and Cuddy would say the pain is a reminder of his guilt. The physical therapist would blame worn cartilage.

House just pops another Vicodin and tries to tell himself that it’s not cheating, that he’s not giving up on everything he’d hoped for during the summer, when Ketamine seemed to offer him the world.

He can’t quite convince himself. He takes Vancouver off the list.


Princeton

The German study mentioned something about an alternative in Russia, so House buys himself a Russian-English dictionary and goes in search of the paperwork. So far, he’s only found promises and blind alleys leading back to the same cocktail of drugs and therapy that everyone else uses.

But he remembers a footnote in one of the Indian journals on Weber’s meds that mentioned a pain management technique he wants to check out.

Someone in New Zealand has offered to send him information about a conference in Singapore.

House picks up one of the papers. He sits back and settles in.

Comments

[pwcorgigirl.livejournal.com]

Ah, I love this look at House's rather eclectic vacation choices. The explanation for Darwin's islands is just beautiful, such a lovely mix of the scientific and the poetic and the desire to do things authentically, even if that's not easy. That is so very House-like.

And this passage really struck me for what is says about how House regards his relationship with his dad, though: "House likes the idea of occupying the space in the middle that his father couldn't . . . back when he allowed himself to imagine a different world for himself."

That goes straight to the heart.

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

Thanks. The Ann Arbor reads selection through the library a few months ago was "The Beak of the Finch," about the studies of the Galapagos finches. So the memories from that book combined with House bringing up the Galapagos sparked the idea for the fic, but I just wanted to do something short before the next episode, so ... hence the drabble format.

I fully admit that I had a fic thought I wanted to scratch, so I grabbed a few hours to do it.

[blackmare-9.livejournal.com]

Thank you for doing something to help me get over my annoyance with that whole weird vacation subplot from last week. You turned my irritation into something so much better. I particularly like House's thoughts about Tritter--that was a character I'd been ready to like, but the more I saw of him the more he simply seemed vicious and cold. Cruel on a level House himself could barely dream of.

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

I hadn't intended to get into the Tritter angle, but the catfish thing sounded weird for House's reasoning for Cambodia. The whole Cambodia angle was tough to reason out. I couldn't figure out a way to use Angkor Wat, which was another alternative, then I thought about how dark House's thoughts can go, and went with the Killing Fields.

[angelfirenze.livejournal.com]

Very well done work, but is it just me that sees a thread of discouragement that has John House written all over it?

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

Admittedly John House is finding ways to seep into my writing lately, but I think House has more reasons to be depressed than just his father.

[tiggpwns.livejournal.com]

Wow... I think that this manages to seamlessly capture House's mindest, and sort of bridge the gap between Fetal Position and Airborne... And I could picture all of these thoughts flitting through his mind as he tried to choose a vacation spot, and the reasons that he ultimately doesn't go to them...

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I admit that House's reasoning for why to go places is different than mine, but it was interesting to think about what he'd considered.

[goddesspharo.livejournal.com]

I love that you've made it so that House's seemingly random vacationing spot choices have meaning. Very nice!

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I do figure that he had to have some reason -- other than "my uncle is a turtle" and the giant catfish. But then maybe that was the only reason. House's brain goes in odd directions.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Nice. Definitely adds something to the episode.

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

Thanks. The concept got in my brain and I decided to go for it.

[snowrabbitses.livejournal.com]

The vacation subplot nagged at me because House is never random; there had to be some deeper meaning to his choices, and the fact that he was voicing them to people.

I liked your Vancouver Island- makes it even more fitting that it was Cuddy who tried to make it happen.

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

Thank you. It was one of those things where I understood the potential behind one or two of the spots, then had to work out his reasoning for the others.

[daisylily.livejournal.com]

I like that a lot, although it seems terribly sad. I'm sure House is getting more depressed, and it comes through here. Great writing!

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

Thanks. It might be interesting to think about what he might have done with vacation, say, 10 years ago and how it would have compared -- though I think his plans always would have been odd.

[hibernia1.livejournal.com]

Thanks for making sense of House's vacation-thoughts... It's sad, though!

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

House is a sad guy isn't he? So I took his depression and mutated it into vacation plans. Needless to say, it's not fun in the sun.

[bmax67.livejournal.com]

I love the subjects you choose for your House fics. You seem to be able to take one small piece of an episode and turn it into something more detailed, more explained. Did that make sense?

Anyway, I love how you showed us his different choices and the explanation behind each of these destinations.

Especially love the Vancouver Islands, mentioning the shoulder problem- a small detail from one episode this year. Also love the way you bridged the gap between Fetal Position and Airborne with the mention of Singapore.

Would you mind if I friended you? I just love your writing.

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

Go ahead and friend. That's fine with me.

For me, personally, it's the small moments within the episodes that get my creative juices flowing. I once wrote 6,000 some odd words for one story that began by just wondering where the wooden "box shaped box" came from in "Clueless." It's harder for me to just take a stand-alone concept -- House and Wilson go to Disneyworld, for example -- and make a fic out of that.

[sassydew.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this, namaste! I've been trying to make sense of House's vacation destination ideas since the episode aired!

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. I'm glad my choices (on House's behalf) make sense.