kaiaspapayas

Latest Posts by kaiaspapayas

just a girl with big brown eyes against the world (a shift at the pitt)

They hate her for being the funniest bitch alive

THE PITT • Patrick Ball as Dr. Frank Langdon "So hot, but so feisty. Those are the ones to watch out for... more trouble than they're worth."

listen I am enjoying building a long and rich life together for mel and langdon in my head despite only having short moments together on the screen. it is not about deserve or what's good for anyone. i do not care what morals you are inserting into it. it is entirely about wanting to see them kiss and knowing that they are fictional characters I can project whatever feelings onto that I want. personally, on the show, I want to see an excruciatingly long burn where they both grow as people together and then finally admit that they're in love and then maybe hold hands. but in my fan fic I wanna see them fuck nasty. I don't get why this is so egregious.

the people's princess

Taylor Dearden as Dr. Melissa King in THE PITT (2025-)

and not Only! do i headcanon that mel can fuck, i also think she would absolutely rock langdon's world by being so normal and confident about it while he has his freakouts before, during, and after

i’m eating up every single fic where mel doesn’t have an emergency contact and frank ends up becoming hers. now i raise you this:

mel at a solo medical conference trip like 3 or 4 hours away? far but not too far

everything is going well she’s learned a ton and made connections and she even did a bit of sightseeing too?

mel & frank has been texting back and forth the whole weekend. abby has the kids so it’s just him & the goldendoodle

on mel’s last day there she ends up going out for dinner by herself, encouraged by frank alongside trinity, samira, victoria, and dennis. it’s nice. she’s not totally alone, she’s facetiming becca and then facetiming frank (so she can see his dog obviously) and it’s so so nice

but on the ride back to her hotel the weather is shit and she ends up in a wreck with her uber driver

she’s okay!!! nothing major beside a head injury and bruises/scrapes and the driver is fine but when she gets to the hospital they end up trying to persuade mel to. All someone because there was no one on her emergency contact list

mel drags her feet and tries to insist she’s okay but they are even more insistent. mel ends up breaking down and calling frank even though it’s the middle of the night and she knows he’s sleeping

he picks up pretty quickly and mel sort of blurts out she was an accident but she’s okay truly (and she is physically but she’s exhausted and overwhelmed and alone in a new place and her brain just keeps on spinning and spinning and spinning)

he promises to come asap and sure enough, by the time mel wakes up a few hours later still in the ER, frank is there. he drove…all the way over…in the middle of the night…and he’s there in pj bottoms and hoodie and beat up sneakers like he really did just wake up, roll out of bed, and leave

when mel sees him—when she sees how his dark strands are sticking up everywhere and his eyes are panicked, she lets him fuss. let’s him look her over and cradle her cheek and sit on the bed and hug her with the exact right pressure

she doesn’t say anything when the nurse assumes he’s her boyfriend and tells mel (very kindly) to add him to her contacts since he proved he would drop everything to be here

she lets frank drive her back to her hotel and settle her in bed

she lets him—no. no, she pulls back the cover and asks him to lay down with her, that he doesn’t have to force himself to sleep on the fold out couch

and then as they lay there next to each other side by side, mel and frank naturally gravitate toward each other, and then mel is curled up against frank’s side and their legs are tangled and he’s bumping his nose against her own and then—and then mel falls asleep to the feeling of hands gentling through her hair and hot lips whispering sweet words in her ear that mel wishes she could understand but she does have a migraine and she’s so sleepy~

santos purposefully pissing langdon off by being touchy with mel.

during the time the langdon was gone, trinity and mel became better friends. actual friends, not just people at work who are friendly (this is an important distinction to mel). they’ve had dinner together, gone out drinking a few times, they text regularly. it’s nice. mel has helped trinity be more forgiving to herself and others while trinity has helped mel stand up for herself. they have little jokes and private smiles.

when langdon gets back, there’s the few weeks of awkward adjustment where mel has to balance her friendships with two people who can’t fucking stand each other. she breaks one day, softly crying because she loves both of them but they keep making her feel bad about it. they realize that they love mel more than they hate each other so they come to a truce.

santos, now that she has this weird frenemies relationship with langdon, can now observe him without seeing him as an evil asshole. she notices that any time she makes mel giggle or when mel grips her arms in excitement, langdon makes that stupid fucking pouting face that he has. it’s like she’s hit a gold mine and makes langdon jealous becomes her favorite pastime.

if mel is charting and discussing the patient with langdon, trinity will lean on the counter next to her and play with the end of her braid “waiting” for her turn. mel starts getting sad over a shared patient so trinity rubs her arm until mel leans against her and trinity locks eyes with langdon. smirking while he fucking fumes.

thinking about mel outside the pitt a lot

she has no interest in performing femininity. she hates the sensory experience of makeup on her skin, or tight glittery dresses, or, god forbid, curling her hair. she hates going to the salon (loud blowdryers, strangers touching her, eyes judging her when she stims and hums), so she trims her own hair herself (forgetting most times until her braid is too long and hits her waist).

she used to cut her hair very short in high school, a practical pixie cut, but becca always cried, upset by big changes, so she tries to keep it the same length now.

but she likes pretty things, collecting trinkets like a mockingbird. gold rings, clinking bracelets, a necklace with a deep green stone that kisses her breast bone. she barely wears them, but puts them on her window sill so she can see them gleam in the morning.

during the summer, she only wears loose flowy cotton dresses and linen baggy pants—anything else makes her skin hurt. she hates denim and corduroy, but loves cotton shorts and butter soft sweaters and long wool socks in a plethora of colors.

at home, she’s perpetually in shorts and a huge sweatshirt and fluffy slippers with rabbit ears

she lets becca play with her hair. frazzled space buns with colorful clips. twin bubbly braids with tiny butterfly hair pins. and she doesn’t mind nail polish—it’s soothing, the cool wet stroke of the brush, becca’s face wrinkled with concentration.

of course in the ED, she aims for comfort over fashion—boring orthopedic shoes and light t-shirts under her scrubs. she takes off the nail polish every morning with acetone wipes since it’s not allowed on shift.

(Frank sees her one day at a random restaurant with Becca and does a double-take because thats Mel King with twin buns in her hair and a huge band tee shirt and cotton shorts and dirty converse and it’s like now he knows this secret part of Mel, the Mel outside the ED.)

(She invites him to sit down and meet Becca. Every time they hang out after, on grocery store trips, in her tiny cluttered apartment, Frank looks forward to seeing what mishmash of clothes she’ll wear, discovering the books and jewelry on her shelves, the music posters on her walls.)

(And maybe, while walking with her through a park with his new dog, he touches her cottony skirt just barely with his fingertips and allows himself to want her—just for a second.)

i’m sick and tired of everyone beating around the bush as to why ships like melfrank or sydcarmy or even fucking. garcia and morgan from goddamn criminal minds and the like get the ‘why can’t two people just be friends/i think it’s important to highlight platonic male/female friendships/asexual representation!’ treatment. like ok sure yeah let’s get some asexuals in here lets let ppl be friends lets show a platonic friendship between a man and a woman. why this one though. what is it about this man. what is it about this woman. stop beating around the bush. say it out loud!

every kingdon fic is like oh frank langdon? he's the Most Divorced Man Ever and he's a (recovering) DRUG ADDICT who's DIVORCED or GOING TO BE because he's IN LOVE with DOCTOR MEL KING and he has custody of a DOG who's name NO ONE can agree on that he bought WITHOUT ASKING his wife who probably isn't his wife and her name is abby and she is a BITCH but she DESERVES to be and he almost NEVER sees his kids of varying age but are super young and who's names are tanner and [insert any white girl name] because did i mention he's DIVORCED and a (recovering) DRUG ADDICT who's IN LOVE with DOCTOR MEL KING who he always CARPOOLS with and she's ALSO IN LOVE WITH DOCTOR FRANK LANGDON even though he has the Most Unmoanable Name Ever and he ALWAYS knows what she NEEDS because he FELL IN LOVE with her AUTISTIC SWAG and UNDERSTANDS HER and she visited him in REHAB and she treats him like NORMAL PERSON and when he's out they see each other at a PARK because apparently pittsburg has So Many of them and he learns dr king has a SISTER who's ALSO autistic and becca either lives at The Facility or DOESNT but no one can agree on which one and EVERY TIME mel and frank wanna almost-bone she's conveniently NOT THERE (and neither are his KIDS) but at some point becca has met frank and LIKES him and wants her sister to KISS HIM and maybe mel DOES or DOESNT kiss him BUT THEN Something Bad Happens at work and it's so OBVIOUS they're in love and ROBBY is UPSET because NOW he has to call HR and deal with PAPERWORK

in a week

Cream coloured courser and her chicks. Seyed Babak Musavi.

imagine having a personality so morally bankrupt that the pope himself said "i'm telling god" and headed out

exhaustion gap friendship

I'm a simple bitch. i believe the purpose of government should be to improve the lives of its citizens and protect its most vulnerable members. unfortunately i live in a day and age where this gets me labeled an enemy of the state

your email has found me on the fucking brink

I've tasted employment. I've tasted unemployment. I suggest money should start growing on trees so I can buy whatever I want.

Good news, fellow artists! Nightshade has finally been released by the UChicago team! If you aren't aware of what Nightshade is, it's a tool that helps poison AI datasets so that the model "sees" something different from what an image actually depicts. It's the same team that released Glaze, which helps protect art against style mimicry (aka those finetuned models that try to rip off a specific artist). As they show in their paper, even a hundred poisoned concepts make a huge difference.

(Reminder that glazing your art is more important than nighshading it, as they mention in their tweets above, so when you're uploading your art, try to glaze it at the very least.)

art will save you, being unreasonably passionate about something niche will save you, letting past sources of joy show you the way back to yourself will save you, earnestness over composure will save you, the natural world will save you, caring for something bigger than yourself will save you, daring to be seen will save you, kindness not as a whim but a principle will save you, appreciation as a practice will save you, daring to try something new will save you, grounding will save you, love will save you, one good nights sleep will save you

Azuki Furuya — The Three Graces (acrylic, oil, mixed media, on board, 2024)

staying strong

she (eddie's mustache) is the moment.

if you like lego + jumping spiders, you should vote on this user created lego product idea! if it gets 10k votes it has the chance to become a real set 🕷️🕷️🕷️

VOTE NOW!!!

Food Crime: Frosty the Slawman

so a while ago, I saw this photo going around on tumblr:

at first, I thought this was photoshopped. I mean, "welcome new man in your life"? that feels like a translation error, or someone being silly on purpose.

but guess what! turns out, Frosty Slaw Man is real!

and soon...he will be mine. let's get cooking

(full disclosure: I crafted this snowman and took notes about it over a year ago. and then, like with many things in my life, I forgot about him, and let him drift into the ADHD void of Things I'm Not Currently Staring At, where object permanence is tentative and largely unrealized.

but here we are! and here he is: the slaw man. it's time to share him with you, so that you can suffer as I have suffered, and/or rejoice in my gelatin creation!)

so this recipe photo originally came from Mid-Century Menu (archive link), a blog that seems like one after my own heart, and which once tried to make the Slaw Man (with not much success; but we'll get back to that)! but it's not just that blog that has copies of this ad. I also found it on reddit, and in a few different places on ebay!

lookit that guy! he's a real guy!

both the reddit post and some of the ebay listings say that this is from 1963 (though I haven't been able to figure out which magazines it was printed in, to confirm this for myself). but in looking this up, I discovered something else fun! there's another version of this ad!

Best Foods is what Hellmann's stuff is called on the west coast, and the "this is no place for second best" thing makes a lot more sense when you consider that the ad was probably made for Best Foods first, and then just reused and rebranded for the east coast

the more you know!

anyway the benefit of finding this alternate ad is that the scan on this image is a lot clearer, and so the recipe is more readable! and in looking at it, I've realized something important:

when Mid-Century Menu tried this recipe, they got an ingredient amount wrong.

when they made their beloved Slaw Man, they had the water amount written down as 1/4 cup, but looking at this scan up close, it is actually 3/4 cup of water! something that might make a significant difference, considering we're working with gelatin!

(there's also another change I want to make compared to what they did, when I do this recipe. but we'll get into that in a sec.)

for now: we begin

so. there's no way I'm making a Slaw Man this large. I am just one person, and considering the ingredients of this, I don't think I'm going to be able to consume that much Slaw.

two entire heads of cabbage? three pounds of cottage cheese, a thing that I don't even like to eat? no. that's a bad idea.

so I'm starting small here and making this 1/3 the size of the original:

2 packets of unflavored gelatin 1/4 cup cold water 1 cup mayo 1 tsp salt 1lb cottage cheese 4 cups shredded cabbage

surely this will result in a reasonable amount of Man

...okay, I started chopping the cabbage thinking it would be easier, but I've given up and pulled out a grater. this is much better! and somehow more violent (affectionate)

the recipe says to soften the gelatin in cold water, and then stir over hot water until it's dissolved. I'm going to assume "stir over hot water" means a double boiler, so let's do that

hmmm, the gelatin is very foamy? it’s melted, but the bottom of the pot feels really....sticky

okay. after a couple minutes more and no change, I’m calling this good enough.

so one thing that others who have attempted this recipe have not taken into consideration is the cottage cheese. you see, the others used normal cottage cheese, but the recipe says to use "cottage cheese, cream style"

I’ll be real, I’m not 100% what that means, since we don’t have that here. but I can take an educated guess! so let’s blend the cottage cheese!

(with an immersion blender. I am not willing to wash an actual blender because of this)

mmm, yes. very smooth

...actually. why isn't all cottage cheese like this? the thing I hate about cottage cheese is the texture, so why isn't it all smooth and creamy like this?? I could eat this!!

a new discovery is made every day in this house.

okay, time to start mixing things together.

ah, frosty. I opened a whole new thing of mayo for you! do you feel special?

(I'd make a "pre-dinner snack?" joke, but sometimes I think I'm the only one that remembers Regular Ordinary Swedish Meal Time)

okay, the mayo, cottage cheese, and salt have been added to the gelatin. but as this cools, the texture is getting...hmm. less than appealing.

lastly: the cabbage

oh. oh this is not very nice

next it says to pack the "salad" into a one pound container, and two six-cup bowls, but since I made this recipe so much smaller, I'm going to uhhhh. uh. find some bowls that seem like they'd be correct...snowman? proportions?

ah. this bowl is too big.

hey, these'll work!

now I just have to let them chill for a while, and continue another day.

(edit from current!me: ahhh oh my god I forgot this was pretty soon after we adopted Jackie! look at these cat pics that I took while I was food crime-ing!

look at them having their little interactions! Knuckles was trying so hard to be friends with her! I love them)

hello! two days later and we are ready to assemble the slawman. and my sibling has started referring to him as "frosty: attorney at slaw", so that's fun.

I've done a thing where, as these set, I flipped them around in the bowl so that hopefully they'd be more round. we'll see if they actually stay like this.

I have also made some decorations for him out of peppers, olives, and carrots!

let's build our boy

oh he's so heavy. and wobbly

no no no he almost fell over!!

okay. he's fine. but more skewers were needed.

and...okay. he is complete.

behold!

gaze upon my beautiful man!

(he is not structurally sound! he wobbles unsteadily as I rotate him! there are already cracks forming in the gelatin around where his arms are! don't worry about it!)

 now it's time to stab him

and...to devour him

this tastes like...a bland coleslaw? and not even that. it's just sort of a salty, cottage cheese-y cabbage. the ingredients don't combine to become something greater, they simply...sit there. like this.

and the texture is...mmm. it's not a jello kind of texture, but it is a bit squashy in a way that's mildly strange.

it's very creamy once it softens in your mouth.

...I don't like this!

and look! taking just that one chunk from him was enough to destabilize him entirely :(

RIP frosty. now I just have to see if I can eat all of you before you go bad.

(note from current!me: I could not.

 I ate maybe half of him over the course of many days, often adding other stuff to him to try to add some flavor: bacon, frozen peas, cheese, etc. but even with that, I just couldn't stomach him.

after a while I stuck what was left of him in the freezer, hoping that maybe I'd find the will to consume the rest of him some other day.

do you know what a frozen-and-then-thawed mixture of cabbage, cottage cheese, mayo, and gelatin looks and tastes like?

bad. the answer is: bad.

I threw him out pretty quickly after thawing him.

do not try this recipe at home)

you may doubt that "they" are doing buddie canon but you can't deny that oliver stark is definitely doing buddie canon

i need a sort of reverse 8x09 where when eddie gets back from texas, (maybe all figured out, or maybe not, but some kind of realisation happened there) buck is all ready to start searching for new apartments so he doesn’t crowd the diaz house (even though they definitely don’t see it that way) and eddie keeps finding increasingly ridiculous reasons for buck not to leave, and even starts sabotaging buck’s apartment viewing in order to get him to stay with him and chris.

Vulture showed Rachel Weisz that Reductress piece

I’m deficient in vitamins they haven’t even discovered yet