Trixie, while generally quite affectionate with you in private, isn’t so quick to warm up to more public displays of affection.
That’s not to say that she won’t warm to it, as she certainly will, but it'll take some time.
She’s always concerned about her image, from the clothes she wears to her patients ease in trusting her. And being too affectionate in public with you, might tarnish that polished little reputation of hers.
Of course, as time goes on and she really starts to fall for you, she’ll start to let little things slide around her fellow nurses. They all support her and from them she fears no judgement.
She’ll then let you continue on to kiss her on the cheek as she leaves Nonnatus House to start her day.
After that’s gone on for some time, she’s much more comfortable being open with you. She never lets anything get out of hand.
There will be no making out anywhere around Poplar, but holding her hand while going shopping or taking a moment to tuck her hair behind her ear are now very welcome from her.
Can I ask what's your favorite headcanon for the CTM characters? Like with or without any real basis in canon, favorites. I love your writing both fiction and show discussion, and your takes on them, so I'd love to know yours.
Sorry I know you asked this ages ago but shit’s wack so I’m just getting to it now. My apologies.
I’m not sure I really have a favourite headcanon for anyone, and I don’t even know that I have particular headcanons for everyone. Headcanons I like can vary a fair bit. That being said, here’s some that I enjoy for the current main characters and yes I am counting Valerie Dyer shut up.
Under a cut for length.
Trixie - Not sure if this is properly a headcanon, but my favourite idea for her character is that her most profound and meaningful relationships throughout her life are with her friends. She seems to me someone who values found family especially highly and cares strongly about being there for friends. I think she’s often the glue for present and past secular Nonnatus midwives and I that she’s quite good at keeping in contact with folks and organising get-togethers.
Val - Never loses contact with Lucille, though their relationship goes through several different phases. Along with several members of her extensive family, her relationship with Lucille is the most important relationship in her life.
Lucille - Her mother is able to come visit her in London, helping the city truly feel like a home to Lucille. She particularly enjoys that in future letters, she is able to reference people and places that her mother had become familiar with during her visit.
Phyllis - help all of my favourite headcanons for her also involved Barbara
She develops a strong friendship with Miss Higgins. Millicent is one of the only people she feels able to discuss and process the losses she has suffered with (and vice versa). They enjoy the relaxing company of another person who has made similar choices in life, particularly given that the choice to remain a spinster is socially under-appreciated.
Shelagh - She speaks Doric and, though she didn’t use it for many years living in London, she has had the opportunity to use it with patients and uses it more as she gets older, especially with her grandchildren.
Bonus 2nd HC: She wasn’t an ingénue before she became a nun. She was always quite a reserved person, but she grew up fast and processed events and emotions in a variety of ways that she sometimes struggled with as an adult, though she came to accept her early life in all its complexity.
Patrick - Remained celibate during the war solely due to this moustache
Timothy - He’s bi or gay and that is accepted by his family. Has a lovely partner with whom he also shares a medical practice.
Sister Julienne - Though she finds the shift in calling from nursing to hospitality that Nonnatus undergoes difficult, but ultimately embraces it as a new way to learn from and serve the community she has come to care for so deeply (against everything she initially expected as a young nun arriving in Poplar from the country communities she had previously known).
Sister Monica Joan - Always feared growing old as she worried she would become stuck in her ways and unwilling to learn, as her parents were. Elements of aging do still cause her anxiety, but she has also found that having a long history can help her to imagine all sorts of new points of view and possibilities for the future, having lived through so many herself.
Sister Frances - Like Sisters Bernadette and Mary Cynthia before her, she leaves the order. She cherishes her time there and keeps in contact, but the questions she has clash with her vow of obedience and she eventually feels she can’t sustain that vow. This departure, however, does bring her closer to her family and she too feels she understands their point of view and her upbringing better after the experience of being a Nonnatus nun.
Sister Hilda - Covertly visits art museums and writes in to newspapers commenting on various collections. She feels justified as the museums are free, therefore she is not breaking her vows, nor spending the Order’s money. And what harm is there in being very knowledgeable on the subject of classical and modern British art?
Fred - His get-rich-quick schemes never quite work out, but he takes over Val’s aunt’s dancing school and it does surprisingly well. He becomes quite well known for his dance skill and for his patience and good nature as a teacher.
Violet - Maintains her position as counselor for Poplar for quite some time. She particularly enjoys going toe-to-toe with counselors from more well-off boroughs and shutting down their ignorant arguments.
Reggie - Becomes quite well known in the community, much in the same way his surrogate father Fred is. He and his wife are well liked and neighbours often stop in to consult with him about gardening.
So last week I asked about Shelagh headcanons, and I thought it would be fair to ask about Patrick headcanons this week. So…
This week’s Quick Question:
What is a headcanon (or headcanons) you have about Patrick and how did you come up with it/them?
My answer: I actually don’t think Patrick is a terrible cook (contrary to what seems to be popular opinion). I know he said Timothy didn’t like his cooking in the 2012 CS, but I imagine he isn’t a *great* cook, but still is able to make a few meals without setting the kitchen on fire. I get this idea because (at least according to Heidi’s foreword in Dr Turner’s Casebook) he didn’t get married for the first time until after the war, so I think he would have had some time living alone and would have had to learn to cook at least to some degree. What I imagine is that he doesn’t have an especially varied repertoire of meals, so Tim gets tired of having the same meals over and over, or that his cooking style is edible, but on the bland side. I can’t imagine he would have survived as long as he did pre-marriage without at least being able to cook a little bit.
So, Nonnatuns, what are your Patrick headcanons?
That’s all for this week. Next week, probably another Quick Question!
Done and done! @habitsandbicycles thx for the prompt it was fun to get back into Patsy’s headspace again 😘 I hope you enjoy (also shout out to @callthepupcake… You’ll see)
P: How do they handle money? - Meticulously. Having gone without money and relied on trading in the camp, Patsy is strict about money, where it goes, and what it’s used for. From the brief time she lived with her father after the war she quickly learned that having too much money led to issues so when the time came to live on her own she decided she wanted to do it independently. Her father allowed her to, thinking she’d fail and ask for money, even sent a monthly allowance. But Patsy managed, tucking away her father’s cash in a rainy day fund, which came in handy when a certain brunette fell in love with a Chelsea flat with a view of the city.A: What are/were this character’s best subjects in school? - Outwardly, biology. Patsy liked the order of it all, everything has it’s place and “mistakes” weren’t viewed as such, rather as nature adapting, changing, becoming more diverse. She felt a kindred to those natural quirks. Secretly, however, she loved English, poetry specifically. She loved the beauty of it, she even learned how to read Greek so she could read Sappho in it’s original form.T: Where are they ticklish?- Patsy isn’t ticklish anywhere except her sides and inner thighs. The latter of which was a surprising discovery for both herself and Delia on an evening the nurses home was fortunately empty. I: On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do they love themselves?- Before Delia, 3. After Delia, at least a 5.E: How are they with children?- Surprisingly natural. One wouldn’t suspect it from her clipped, posh tone, and stiff mannerisms but Patsy is adept at connecting with young kids. She understands the volatility of their emotions and how they view the world in extremes at times. For painful as her childhood was she wants to make the lives of each of the children she works with that much better. N: What do they usually eat for breakfast? - Porridge with a spoonful of honey, if she couldn’t start her day with a kiss she thought she may as well start it with something else that’s sweet.C: Can they swim well? - Not particularly and she doesn’t enjoy it when she has. It brings back to many painfully happy memories of swimming in the sea with her mother and sister as her father watched on, smiling in a way Patsy can’t remember him ever doing again after the war. Plus she was more of a field hockey and polo type of gal.E.
E. L: What is their favourite board game?- (Echoing others) Patsy prefers “card games” to board games, but loves monopoly (see “P”). I.Z: How do they sleep? - Poorly on nights she isn’t 100% spent from her day biking to and from one patient to the next. She is a chronically light sleeper even when she is fortunate to steal a night with Delia by her side. Unless she finds herself both exhausted and enveloped by Delia’s soft, yet deceptively strong arms. In those instances she’ll sleep like a rock.A.B: Do they have any allergies? - No, but she does have an aversion to any spices used to cook Asian food that takes her years to realize and overcome.E.T.H: What is their deadly sin? - Envy. But for a just cause. The one thing Patsy can’t stand but be envious of is affection. How easy it is for women to show other women affection without worry or fear. Or how couples can be out and open with their love, given that they consist of one man and one woman of course.
M: What is their favourite dessert? - Too dirty to say Delia? Yes? Okaaaayyyy fine. Strawberries and cream (or custard) is her second favorite. O: What would it take to break them, inside and out?- If Delia were to die. Patsy would find it hard to go on living herself knowing her love was no longer alive. It was hard enough when Delia lost her memory but at least, even then, Patsy knew she was still drawing breath, looking out at the world, or even laughing. As much as it hurt her to not bear witness to the beauty that was Delia, she was comforted by that fact others were there, that Delia was still existing.U: What’s their voice like? - “Patsy as much as I hate that horrendous habit of yours, I must say smoking makes your voice so much more…” - “What? Husky? Man-ish?” - “Alluring is more like it… Sexy in fact.” - Cue all the blushesN.T.
i’ve always viewed Patsy and Barbara’s relationship to be very sisterly - Patsy is absolutely a natural caregiver, and in my eyes anyway, Babs really looks up to her - so here’s a list of headcanons that have been spawning throughout tonight.
Babs doing her best to comfort Patsy while she’s grieving, as although her own father isn’t dead, she understands the feeling of familial separation better than anyone currently at Nonnatus
Babs finding it particularly hard to deal with difficult births, and although she rarely mentions it for fear of worrying anyone, Patsy can always tell, and makes sure to slip her an extra biscuit or something else subtle but meaningful to let her know she’s there
At the beginning of her Nonnatus career, Babs is nervous to go to any new areas, so Patsy goes out of her way to drop her to the door of her house calls to make her feel a bit less alone, even if she has to cycle twice as fast to get to her own on time
Babs making sure to write to Patsy about all the mundane things in Poplar, from updates on former patients to the vegetables Fred has in the garden, thinking that perhaps the boring bits are exactly what Patsy needs to know to feel connected sometimes
Patsy is the first person outside of those on the South Africa trip to find out about Babs’ engagement
Patsy using her travelling background to talk to Babs about the places her father’s been sent to, trying to remember everything she can about the missionary work there so that Babs feels a bit less distant from him
Patsy remembering Babs talking about how her father would refer to her as his assistant rather than his daughter, and always making sure to introduce her as her “good friend Barbara”
Patsy initially refusing to wear a leotard to Trixie’s Keep Fit class, but overhearing Babs feeling nervous to wear hers, and putting it on so that they can feel uncomfortable together
Babs being absolutely exhausted after a long day of difficult deliveries, so Patsy sits with her and brushes her hair while Babs tells her about her day
Patsy feels a pang every time Babs wears one of her headbands, as it reminds her of her biological sister
A mother at the clinic loses her temper with Babs and yells at her, Patsy is the first to rush to Babs’ side and check she isn’t too shaken up while getting one of the others to help with the mother
Patsy leaves notes of encouragement on Babs’ pillow every time she talks about doubting herself
Babs talking to Patsy about her nerves at moving out once she’s married, so Patsy takes her shopping to get everything she needs and teaches her how to do any household tasks she’s unsure of
Patsy makes sure she visits Babs at home at least once a week, despite seeing her all the time at work
Babs finding out about Patsy and Delia’s relationship, and although she’s initially torn due to her religious background, she eventually decides that it’s her turn to look out for Patsy the way Patsy’s always done for her
New head-canon Sister Monica Joan had a “gal pal” but she died and that’s when she joined the order, because it was the only way she could cope with the heartbreak.....and so she’s always known about Pats and Delia.
While she’d seem not to care if you asked her, Trixie would definitely be jealous when others paid you an excessive amount of attention.
She’d like to think she’s not a jealous person, and if it wasn’t for her insecurities, she wouldn’t be, but she has some seriously deep fears about not being good enough for you.
Dealing with her jealousy would be really hard for her, especially if she didn’t open up to you about it. If she got really in her head about it, she’d have to resist the temptation to drink.
She’d probably go to more meetings, and wind up seeing you less, almost talking herself out of seeing you ever again, if not for the other members in her meetings encouraging her to tell you how she was feeling.
When she did come clean, she’d be in tears, fearing you’d break up with her or dismiss her feelings, but when you soothed her and validated the feelings she was having, she’d know she had nothing to worry about.
She would still get a bit insecure now and then, but she’d learn to come to you before losing herself to the thoughts of being inadequate.
