flywoman | a limp down memory lane

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a limp down memory lane

I've been catching up on the second season of Castle, and I just saw an episode that featured Marc Blucas (Riley Finn on Buffy) and Anne Dudek (Amber!!!!) as a divorced couple about to get a second chance at making things work because Marc's character has lost his memory and with it the fifteen years of emotional baggage they'd accumulated. Aside from eliciting a squee of recognition, this made me think of the Buffy episode "Tabula Rasa" and the interesting dynamics that occur when the regulars all find themselves in a room together with no memories of their established relationships.

So now I'm thinking that, in addition to "House M.D. the Musical," I'd enjoy seeing a similar exploration of the effects of amnesia on our favorite show, and particularly with regard to House himself. Who would he be if he still had his brilliance and musical/linguistic talents and eidetic memory, but he couldn't remember his childhood or the infarction or his previous interactions with his colleagues? Any thoughts? Has anyone read a really good fanfictional take on this?

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I've never read such a fanfic, but I did once have an idea of writing a long fic where Wilson is in some kind of an accident and when he regains consciousness, he has lost the last three years worth of memory. So, he doesn't remember starting a relationship with House, nor does he even know that he's gay now. (This admission/realisation comes much later.) As far as he's concerned Amber is till alive and they're dating. So he has to go through the whole grieving process again and he doesn't feel as though he can be in a relationship with House again, and poor House has to try to make him fall in love with him all over again. Someone once did an excellent job with this in a Goren/Eames Criminal Intent fanfic.

Which, of course, has nothing to do with House losing his memory. This would be a very intriguing idea...maybe you could try it?

Oh, that's such a sad and compelling idea, especially given House's own memory issues surrounding his exact role in Amber's death. Poor Wilson and poor House! Any chance that you would want to pick this up?

I was thinking more of playing it for the bittersweet humor - House being a brilliant, sensitive guy with lots of things going for him, whose psyche got sort of deformed and twisted along the way. I could see him trying to conceal his amnesia and being smart enough to figure out who he's supposed to be and relearning medicine on the side, but not realizing that he's historically been a pain in Cuddy's ass or a mooch when it comes to his colleagues and employees. And also being less guarded about his feelings, which would allow him to finally get together with Wilson ;).

Oh, I like where you could go with this, especially the deformed/twisted psyche aspect, and House forgetting this about himself. I've often wondered whether House's personality is more nature or nurture...and it would make for a great exploration!

Yes, exactly! There are a lot of interesting ways to go with this, and big questions include how open-ended to leave it, how much House is able/willing to learn about who he was and why, when/whether he learns the reason for his memory loss, whether his memories return and if so how he responds... gah! Strikes me that this would be a great challenge fic to produce all kinds of intriguing takes on the situation. But I think I'm starting to get a handle on mine...

ZOMG, THANK YOU, I totally have an idea. But also work to do and family to call and... yeah. Still, I'm very excited! And the best part is that it's going to push this damned 13/Cam fic right out of my head, at least for a while!

There was a great fic couple of years back called Watermarks (or possibly Watermark not sure) and in that House fell into a river a couple of hours away from the hospital and suffered brain damage so that he lost everything (memories, even the ability to read etc) and had to relearn everything from scratch. If you've ever seen Regarding Henry (movie) it was like that. I enjoyed it very much. At the time I had just started a post-House's head amnesia fic but after reading Watermark I figured I couldn't do anything like as good as that so I abandoned it :) I think there have been a few others where either House or Wilson have lost some memories but I can't think of titles.

Weird, I am no longer receiving email at my linked account, so I haven't been getting comment alerts. Anyway, I hadn't heard of Watermark(s), and my idea was to call the story "Regarding House" precisely because of that movie. Although now I'll have to decide if I want to write this fic anyway, in which case I'd better avoid reading that one for the time being. Do you happen to recall whether it was H/W?

Pretty sure it was friendship with subtext :) The author was a H/W author but I don't think she took the story there - but there was a lot of House and Wilson interaction. I'm not sure if the story is still posted somewhere, think I went looking for it again once and the journal had been deleted (:

Thanks! For mine, I'm thinking friendship with text :). Too bad that the one you read may not exist anymore...

I'm thinking friendship with text???

And also being less guarded about his feelings, which would allow him to finally get together with Wilson ;).

The blinks are always right! always

Cool, I want to know the code you're using to do that!

Yes, text, not just subtext. And feelings. God,

jezziejay, I think you're turning me into a sap ;).

Hee :) And yay!
It's just (blink)blah blah blah(/blink), only replace () with <> and the blahs with what you actually want to say!

Welcome to Sapville!

Uh... thanks? Seriously, this fic has been so much fun to write so far. I've always tried to write House and Wilson the way they are on the series, with minimal physical contact and most of the important things left unsaid. But since House without his memories is not exactly the same man he was, I can stretch their interactions out of that familiar shape just a little. And I love hearing them inside my head again - they just weren't talking to each other that much for a while. (I blame the show!)

There's a good fic by Cardio Necrosis cslled "A New Divide" (it's on fanfic.net) where Wilson lands in an AU where he was never friends with House. Wilson remembers the real world and assumes that everything is the way he remembers it; accordingly, he has difficulties in adjusting to the new state of things where he has to build his friendship with House up from scratch. The new world has its disadvantages, for both House and Wilson are a lot more screwed up than they are in the series, but Wilson soon realizes that going into the friendship with no baggage attached has its advantages too. It's a bit like an amnesia fic because both parties (House and Wilson) have completely different memories of their past. In the AU House's memories are valid and Wilson has to adjust accordingly. If I remember correctly, the first chapter reads a bit mushily (an 'angel' placing Wilson in the AU because he's on a rant about how his friendship to House is ruining his life), but after that it's well written, with memories of the AU intertwined skillfully with the present.

Interesting. Did you say that they're both a lot more screwed up than in the series ? Thanks for the recommendation.

yes, this was good!

Flywoman, it is an awesome idea! And it's a great challenge!
May I share my own experience...
I've written one story in my native language (Russian) where Wilson got amnesia because of a car accident (post-traumatic amnesia which is temporarily in most cases). He was dating Sam, but House and Cuddy weren't a couple. Timeline - after "Baggage" episode and Wilson making House move out.
The main idea of my story was of House leaving hospital to work as a piano player in a small jazz-bar. So House changed his life in totally new direction. To turn him back to medicine I wrote this amnesia storyline. The only thing was that Cuddy behaved badly (cruel and bitchy she was), so she didn't allow House to be Wilson's doctor. She and Sam made a plan to deceive Wilson as if he was never friends with House, but House with help of the Ducklings met Wilson and played piano for him... Wilson remembered everything and they hugged in front of a lot of people. But it wasn't slash, just friends reunited.
I was very proud of myself when I finished the story!
As time passes, I see that I paid not enough attention to Wilson's feelings, his slow realization of who he was... Now I regret it. I tried my best to describe Wilson's first days in the hospital, understanding he was a doctor which meant he lost his ability to do his job until the memory would be back, his first meeting with Sam - a girlfriend who became stranger to him now... I was more focused on describing events than feelings...
So I wish your inspiration to start writing! Your previous fics were interesting and "in-character", so I believe this idea would end up in exciting story!

Thanks for sharing your experience and also for the encouragement! My plan is also for a type of temporary post-traumatic amnesia, although with the retention of his skills and abstract knowledge, but loss of his personal self-knowledge. I am interested in looking at how he behaves when he doesn't have his memories, and how he feels about the person he comes to understand himself to have been.

I don't really have much to say, being rather zombified at the moment, however - Yes Yes a House musical. There is in fact a fic in which they redo the Buffy musical ep for House (called DDX with Feeling, I think?) and it's amazing. So much so that I've spent a fair amount of time wondering if I can find any dying kids to ask the Make a Wish Foundation to get the cast to record it... or just trying to find friends who sound enough like the characters that they could sing it instead ;)

Hon, did you seriously just suggest taking advantage of dying children in order to get your House fix? :O

Actually, I'm pretty sure I've read the fic you mentioned - is it this one by

lit_luminary: http://lit-luminary.livejournal.com/5867.html ?

I adore the House/Wilson version of "I'll Never Tell."

lol, well, in a 'never seriously go anywhere near going through with it way' ;)

it's a fab fic though

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a limp down memory lane

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