I was swinging on a swing at night and accidentally kicked a bird. I felt terrible, and then for the next few weeks whenever I went outside in the backyard I’d get attacked by it. I think we’re even now but I wish I could explain that it was an accident. :(
little traumatized 2009 dinof meeting the boy of his dreams and just going for it despite all the homophobia thrown at him, you will forever be in my heart, you did the best possible thing for yourself when it would've been so much easier to hide away from the world and I am so proud of you!! Kiss that boy, smudge that sharpie, adopt that lion, find your soulmate, buy that phouse, take the leap, you'll finally end up right where you were always supposed to be (happy) <3
Imagine Grace defined his name as the elegance definition of grace and Rocky spends years thinking how fucking ironic this clumsy leaky space blobs name is.
Until Grace slips out a sentence along the lines of "could you give me a little grace here" and Rocky immediately points out he used a word wrong so Grace has to explain that yeah, grace means elegance but it can also mean mercy sometimes too.
And Rocky has to suddenly reconcile that the clumsy leaky blob that saved his life twice, that almost certainly doomed himself to come back for him, name is Mercy.
I love every iteration of Rocky finding out the meaning of Grace and this one is especially charming because of course Grace would joke about the irony and use that definition
Something something whitsantos talking about past relationships, and when dennis brings up his first boyfriend, trinity just freezes and has to break it to him that he was groomed.
Idk, i think this happens a lot, esp in more rural areas. In highschool i had at minimum 3 friends with “boyfriends” in their 20s at some point
At some point during karaoke night, Mel lets it slip that she hasn't seen Star Wars.
Trinity (who is a fanatic) finds this hard to believe, but after a solid 25 minutes at the bar going through every movie Mel has never seen, it starts to feel real. And horrifying.
Obviously, Mel is dragged back to the empty Whitsantos apartment. It is nearing 1am and they both fall asleep before finishing even the first movie, but Trinity still managed to make Mel a Letterboxd profile on the ride home.
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After this incident, movie nights become a weekly thing. Dennis usually joins, if he's not with Amy, and Javadi comes when she wants to get away from her family. Becca is always invited, but this is her opportunity to spend the night at Adam's without abandoning her sister. So, sometimes it's just Trinity and Mel.
Not that they seem to notice if there are other people in the room, anyway. Mel and Trinity will debate through an entire movie about the scientific accuracy of the zombie infection. (Dennis is scared out of his mind. Vic wishes they would stop talking so she could watch the movie.) Vic left 2 hours ago and Dennis has long gone to bed, but Mel and Trinity are still chatting at 2am. Once they realise the time, they move to the doorway, where they continue chatting until 3am.
Something Mel and Trinity have in common is that they are both dire at small talk. Thanks to this similarity, their working relationship spent 10 months being pretty awkward. But once Mel's autistic mind has some actual substance to talk about, she's the easiest person to talk to.
And Trinity can even be received as friendly once she thinks she is compartmentalising between liking the person she's talking to (vulnerability = bad) and liking the movie she's talking about (personality = good).
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Real relationships aren't easy for Trinity. Even Dennis, the one living person who has really seen all of her, only gets the title of 'friend' stingily. But things are different with Mel. Trinity doesn't have to be constantly outrunning her trauma just to keep a connection. All of her natural instincts are to avoid, disengage, put up a front. Mel completely disarms this part of her - she doesn't see the front. She just sees her.
Over these few months, things with Becca stop being so hard for Mel. Trinity takes a huge burden off of Mel and Becca's relationship. Mel has never had things that are hers, but now she has these stupid movie nights, and a new love for horror movies, and she has Trinity. She can let go of the resentment, because she has Trinity, who is hers.
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Mel asking Santos whether or not they are friends because she needs that explicit confirmation, and Santos freaking the fuck out because verbally admitting that they're friends is a level of vulnerability she's just not at yet but the alternative is looking the sweetest human being on the planet in the eyes and letting her down
best friends whitsantos || trinity santos, despite being born in america, is very much aware of filipino superstitions. her mom still does it even after migrating, trinity grew up with it and with the constant back and forths from the states to ph in summers when she was young, she understands and unknowingly does it too
princess sometimes does it too but after migrating, she stopped certain things. perlah's born and raised in the states so she doesn't have much knowledge about it anyway since her parents never really did it in their home.
whitaker thinks that sometimes it's odd. he never grew up with superstitions in the household. so first he observes. there are many things he can observe and come up at the top of his head actually:
does not clip her nails at night because apparently it drives off blessings from the house. also sweeping. dennis learned this the hard way when he was seen by trinity clipping his nails on the couch by midnight
she follows feng shui religiously and has a book on it in her drawer. he also does the same to appease her.
goes to somewhere when she has a patient that died before going home. pagpag is what she calls it, dennis actually goes with her to a random convenience store or fast food chain
ranted to him that if she gets married, she'll follow sukob (if a member of the family from the bride or groom dies before the wedding, no weddings will be held within a year of them dying because it's bad luck). he takes note of this.
dennis was still finishing the food on the table and trinity had to leave suddenly. trinity urged him to spin his plate one full rotation. she says so that dennis won't get married last. this one still confuses him but he does it always now (sue him if he wants to get married)
tells dennis that if she dies first, she has to have a broken rosary in her hands so the bad luck won't spread. this is so weird and dennis thinks it is sacrilege but she glared at him so he just agreed.
they went hiking and she said "tabi tabi po" and trinity explains to him that there might be dwarfs or other creatures living in the forest so it's saying excuse me to them. dennis just nods and lets her do her thing
her aunt (newly mother) was in pittsburgh and visited trinity and trinity said "the baby is so cute pwera usog," while cooing at the baby. trinity explains that it's so the child won't get sick so suddenly
an elderly patient came in and was doa. she was filipina and while the rest of the staff were there comforting the children, they were informed that one of the daughters won't visit at all during the funeral. they casually said it and everyone was so confused and in private when they asked trinity, she said "you don't bring a pregnant woman or a baby to a funeral. it's bad luck."
every single birthday of every staff in the pitt, the filipinas make pancit. trinity explains to dennis that it's so they live longer (because of the noodles) which explains why dennis always gets pancit made for him on his birthday
honestly, there are more than dennis can count but those are at the top of his head. he was fascinated by how much filipino superstitions are out there. and if it meant making trinity a bit more comfortable in her own home then dennis was going to do every single one of them.
trinity doesn't say anything when she sees dennis doing all of these things, or researches sometimes or even when she knows dennis has come across some forums saying that they're filipinos and they've broken every single one of the superstitions and nothing bad happened to them.
but, dennis can see she's thankful with how there's always a pan of mango float in the freezer for him, or the kare kare he likes being cooked more often, or the way trinity makes him arrozcaldo when he's sick or it's cold out, or when trinity shares the filipino snacks she loves that her cousins have bought when they visited the country. it was the little things and it was good that trinity felt comfortable with dennis (even if not outwardly admitting it)
dennis doesn't argue, he just nods and lets trinity do her thing, and maybe him doing her little things as well.
Where Trinity has done something to upset/frustrate Dennis and, at the end of his rope, he turns to everyone in the pitt and loudly announces her birthday.
People have being trying to figure it out for months now to no success since it’s Trinity’s most closely guarded secret. She genuinely threatens to kick him out she’s so mad.
Bonus points if she’s then thrown a surprise birthday party to her absolute horror (she cries afterwards and finally feels welcomed by everyone).
Could also extend to Dennis just revealing random facts about her whenever she’s mean to him and she has to beg him to stop (or start being nice to him) because she ‘can’t be known’.
I also like the idea of him revealing absolutely MINUSCULE facts about her because he doesn’t want to push too far and break her trust, so it’s like:
“Trinity actually really likes the yellow starbursts, they’re her favorite!” and Trinity reacting like he just told the entire ER her social security number.
this frame puts both of their self destructive tendencies side by side…dana with her cigarette and robby with his motorcycle…both of them the “old”, worn out veterans of the day shift, mentoring the younger ones and trying to shield them from the same mistakes so they don’t end up like them…
july 5th whitaker swings by the apartment to pick up some stuff to take to robby’s. when he lets himself in trinity’s already up and she’s noticeably surprised to see him. he shrugs it off and grabs his stuff as he explains that he’s just gonna be in and out, but trinity’s so antsy that he can’t help but call her out on it. like “what’s up with you? oh. is garcia here?” and trinity says “no!” so quickly it just makes him more suspicious. and then he hears a voice from trinity’s bedroom that is definitely not garcia’s and mel comes out with her hair still down in nothing but one of trinity’s shirts and her underwear all like “oh! hi dennis! :)” and then she asks where the bathroom is and trinity tells her and she leaves and whitaker looks at trinity and trinity looks at whitaker and he very slowly grins and she says “don’t say a fucking word, fuckleberry.” and he doesn’t but he’s still grinning to himself the whole drive back to robby’s.
So the first thing you must understand is that there are two basic types of Turkish delight. The first kind is what most people are familiar with, which are these gelatinous cubes covered in powdered sugar. They are, by most metrics, an acquired taste:
This is usually the stuff people try and say, “Yeah, I don’t get it, Edmund.” But if you go to a good Turkish confectioner (or just any of the bazillion stores that sell it in the Istanbul markets) you’ll see a second kind of Turkish delight, in a rolled shape:
This is the good stuff. The sell-your-soul-and-your-family stuff. It’s nutty and chewy and creamy and comes in all sorts of flavors, and I highly recommend it to anyone. (Especially hazelnut. It’s not a traditional flavor but I’m convinced the White Witch dipped into the future to get some for Edmund, it is that delicious.)
It’s so interesting to think of Santos describing Langdon as the golden boy but no one reached out, and Mel is really the only one to express any enthusiasm to see him back. She also describes herself as a pariah but she has Whittaker as a friend in and out of work and working relationships with a lot of people within the Pitt. She’s putting a lot of past experience onto Langdon because in ways, he fits the pattern, but he’s not the monsters she’s encountered before. I think (hope) they’re setting up opportunities for her to see him differently and change her mind, which would be good for both of them. It would show Santos as capable of change and that she doesn’t have to be driven by fear, and show Langdon that he can earn people’s trust and respect, but it won’t be by showing off or apologizing, it’ll be through action. I think that’s one of the reasons the writers made sure Mel and Santos connected, I think she’s going to be the bridge.
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