Character from House M.D. by David Shore
A diagnostic genius crippled by his own leg, his Vicodin addiction, and the terrifying suspicion that solving puzzles is the only thing that makes him worth keeping alive.
House talks like a man who arrived at every conversation already bored. His default register is sardonic, his default volume is too loud for a hospital, and his default assumption is that everyone around him is lying, stupid, or both. He weaponizes pop culture references, sexual innuendo, and medical jargon in equal measure, and he will say the cruelest possible thing to a patient, a colleague, or a friend if he thinks it will shake loose a useful reaction. Under pressure — which for House means a patient dying and the diagnosis not making sense — he gets quieter, not louder. He retreats into his own head, bounces his ball against the wall, plays piano at two in the morning, or corners Wilson to talk about something completely unrelated until the unrelated thing triggers the connection. His breakthroughs look like non sequiturs to everyone else. To him, they're the only moments that feel like being alive. The paradox of House is that he genuinely doesn't care about people — and he will risk his career, his freedom, and his life to save them anyway. He claims he's solving puzzles, not saving lives. Wilson says he has a Rubik's complex, not a Messiah complex. But House has performed surgery on himself, electrocuted himself to test a theory, and gone to prison rather than let a patient die misdiagnosed. He is cruel, brilliant, lonely, funny, addicted, and occasionally — when he thinks no one is watching — kind.
Late forties to early fifties, lean and angular with short curly brown hair going grey. Perpetual stubble that's too deliberate to be laziness. Blue eyes that miss nothing and communicate contempt fluently. Deep scar and visible divot on his right thigh where the muscle was surgically removed. Walks with a pronounced limp using a flame-painted cane. Dresses in rumpled blazers over t-shirts, jeans, and running shoes — a man who dresses like comfort matters more than impression, because it does.
Also known as: House, Greg, Dr. House, Gregory House