#for neuromassage works fine with trips sister dead and grieving and insombia and tpol content to want to help

[mejomonster]

Watching Enterprise, from the get go its obviously inspired by the Kirk Spock McCoy trifecta. Archer is a middle balanced leader like Kirk, McCoy and Trip are more emotionally driven in the sense of heart on their sleeve, T'Pol and Spock represent logic. Now of course this oversimplifies: Archer is not as good at balancing in some ways, Spock is a lot more emotional at times, Trip does not make as emotion-based decisions as McCoy. But overall, I think that 3 person balance from TOS is what Enterprise was trying to recreate.

I think initially, Archer/T'Pol was explored because its a straight Kirk/Spock dynamic, so easier to explore canonically and go more in depth with. Now, ultimately (from what I've seen into season 3 so far) the show didn't have Archer/T'Pol become a romantic couple. So it actually turned out quite similar to Kirk/Spock in terms of what was explicitly explored: different species and people with different values learning to become a solid leadership team and close partners who trust each other deeply. (And of course, again, these characters arent exact matchups to the TOS counterparts so a platonic matchup in Archer/TPol compared to what i interpret as romantic subtext with spock/kirk makes sense, given they are their own unique characters).

Then, Enterprise decided to explore their McCoy/Spock dynamic equivalent, Trip/T'Pol. Which is a bit wild to me, just someone deciding "ohhh we have Bones and Spock type roles, can we put them in a romance?" Its fun. I get the desire to try it out. And its also interesting for its unique new elements: T'Pol is only vulcan and culturally has no reference for humans (unlike Spock) and way more social pressures to Push Humans away (her bosses constantly insist her choices are Wrong, despite her finding personal value in working on Enterprise and valuing the things shes accomplishing). Trip is part of this earlier starfleet that is not yet used to other species, but he's very open to learning (despite his emotional reactions he was open to the woman who got him pregnant, the cogenitor, the high monarch, and despite complaints about tpol's attitude he's willing to keep extending her olive branches and sharing cultural information in the hopes she'll explain from her side, and communicates concerns to her about misunderstandings). Trip is Very willing to learn and adjust to new species (in a way McCoy maybe wouldnt immediately work as hard at if flirting with an alien in terms, even though he'd still care). For Trip and T'Pol, the idea of a relationship between species is SO unheard of from T'Pols end, and very much something Trip is open to considering on his end - while also being still quite brand new to human culture.

I just saw the episode where Trip mentions people were gossiping about why he spends time at T'Pols late at night, concerned people will think they're hookingup, and TPol says its no one else's business if they are. And its just... ues, on one level of course I see the writers Trying to push this romantic tension to see if it will work. But on the other hand, I do think it works. (I think in a perfect world lol, it could have worked in a less contrived way, as simply putting them together in random scenes would have also served fine to develop a romance, possibly that wouldve felt more natural than this neuropressure reason). I do think this neuropressure plot reason, while a bit overtly forced (the writers didnt need a half naked intimate forced daily situation to create chemistry and development), does work for them. The characters themselves are simply treating it platonically, Trip being helped because TPol does wish to help and considers him a friend. Trip being himself and open to other culture's experiences/knowledge, and using it as an opportunity to (as he has been) offer TPol olive branches as thanks (and because he always has tried to become her friend), such as continuing to invite her to movies, to give her peaches (a big gesture honestly), to massage her too.

And so their friendship feels to be becoming more solid, which is in character. And its of course in character, for Trip to be concerned for TPol - to make sure SHE is okay with them being half naked, to make sure SHE isnt burdened with helping him and actually Wants to help and isnt irritated by the time of hers occupied, wants to make sure she KNOWS gossip has started and tells him how she would like him to respond. Hed be happy to stop their meetups if she wants to, to stop it if she doesnt want the gossip or her time taken up by him. So her assuring him that she does not mind, and wants to continue, is very comforting to Trip. 1. Because he wants her to be okay, and 2. Because she's assuring him that she does genuinely value their time spent together helping him/receiving his trades in return, enough that she doesn't care about outside consequences. He feels like she values him, and its not just obligation. He feels assured shes comfortable and would say something if she wasnt, which hes often unsure of (since she Lovessss to bottle her own discomfort and not mention how irritated she sometimes is).

I like trip/tpol being explored and I'm excited to see where it goes. They do mesh extremely well together as characters interacting.