okay hi im back with more carter headcanon questions for you: what are his most ‘justified’ pet peeves, and his pettiest ones? and what foods does he like the most? why?
It’s probably going to seem cliche’, but he detests negligence. We see time and time again how angry and protective Carter becomes on behalf of children and the elderly, in particular — not just because he cares for them as people, but because he genuinely sees a part of himself in how they’re treated. Some children are meant to be “seen and not heard,” while the elderly are oftentimes considered a burden or nuisance (or both). As someone who experienced all of the above as a child, he subconsciously internalizes all of that, and thus, becomes overprotective (sometimes to a fault) of those patients. Carter always goes above and beyond for these patients, because nobody ever bothered going to bat for him.
As for pettiness, he’s typically at his most nasty when it comes to relationships. Carter grew up in a sanitized bubble, so it can be difficult for him to accept that every friendship and romance doesn’t necessarily have a caveat, so he often becomes very immature and manipulative when he doesn’t get the outcome he desires. His initial instinct is to simultaneously push people away and hold them close, and both extremes are borderline manic in how strongly he digs in his proverbial heels. Anytime his relationships don’t turn out the way he planned, he uses this as justification to show that yes, he was right: that he can keep fostering the belief that he’s unlovable and not meant to be happy; he fails to realize that he sabotages the good in his life before he can ever be rewarded, because a part of him will always feel like he doesn’t quite deserve it, and he’s even a little afraid of what a true connection might look like.
