Song rework: "Reclamation (House's Song)"

[lit_luminary]

Title: Reclamation (House's Song)
Author: lit_luminary
Rating: PG
Summary: House, realizing his relationship with Cuddy means denying everything essential to himself, ends things with her. A song rework to the marvelously venomous tune of S. J. Tucker's "Girl with the Lion's Tail (Lucia's Song)."
Note: This is necessarily AU, as I only wish House had been this honest with himself in canon.

HOUSE:
Do not look disappointed now that life has crashed your fairytale:
I never promised perfection.
So go back to your life; I’ll go back to mine—
I expected your rejection.

Call me a bastard, an ass, a jerk—
I am; you could never mistake it.
So how could you think that we’d ever work?
Wishing for change doesn’t make it.

Though I compel and fascinate
I never was your ideal mate:
The very thought of domestic
Bliss is enough to make me sick!
So keep your Stepford paradise;
I’m not prepared to pay its price.
I always knew that we’d fail.

I don’t want to be the man you tamed,
A wreck saved from himself and taught feeling.
I don’t want to be the man you tamed;
I don’t need that poisonous healing.

I’m going back to who I was, the man I used to be;
This farce’s course has been played out.
I’m not the piece that’s been missing from your fantasy;
We both know that I should have stayed out.

So go and draw the lines; take your former role:
Try to hand down commands.
I’ve had enough; I’m done selling my soul
It is no longer your job to screw with—

Mine—which is to diagnose, to see what others never see.
I’m taking back everything that I put aside.
Toss your archetypal dreams,
That mold you knew I’d never fit—
And I’m sorry that I ever tried.

Now I’m through self-deluding to please you,
Through twisting into a knot.
My place was never beside you—
We knew, but we forgot…

I don’t want to be the man you tamed,
A wreck saved from himself and taught feeling.
I don’t need that poisonous healing:
I am nobody’s docile partner.

I won’t be the man you tamed.
I won’t be the man you tamed.

I am going back to the home I left.
Find a man who will bend to you.

(You demanded more than your right:
Break me, then ask me to love you?
No—no more!
I will not be the man that you tamed!
I won’t be the man you tamed!
I won’t be the man you tamed!)

I won’t be the man you tamed.

Comments

[damigella-314.livejournal.com]

So good to read something new of yours! And yes, I can only wish this was canon, instead of the [insert polite word for crap] we've been seeing lately. Now how do I ask you to pretty please write another story? :-)

[lit-luminary.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'd wanted to write a song rework for a while, but couldn't find the right tune--I was so pleased when I remembered this one. It was good to portray House being true to himself.

I have several long stories in the works (including one that branches off from the Werewolf Saga that I'm hoping to finish before summer). As for shorter, in-the-near-future pieces, those generally depend on whether or not canon gives me anything that interests me enough to inspire the effort--but I'll see if I come up with anything.

[yarroway.livejournal.com]

Another excellent filk. If only House were able to say this to himself! If anything, it's the show that has gone AU. You are true to the character.

[lit-luminary.livejournal.com]

Thank you. It does seem that way these days, unfortunately.

I thought this was the perfect tune for this situation: something with the venom to suit House's original personality. (I so wish that he'd been the one to initiate the breakup: I wanted to see him stand up for himself--and his right to be himself--rather than watch Cuddy's rejection send him on another bender.)

[chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com]

this is amazing. I'm not familiar with the original song.

[lit-luminary.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you enjoyed it!

There's a link to the original song above the reworked lyrics: I never post a rework without linking to something the readers can listen to.

[chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com]

I recently wrote a House-oriented filk too; it's parodying "Hand in My Pocket" by Alanis Morrisette. want a link?

[cuddyclothes.livejournal.com]

Well done! (Wild applause)

[lit-luminary.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I had a lot of fun with this rework: the tune suited the kind of passion I only wish House had shown in protecting his own interests.