#but i also didn't want to extrapolate it any further right now in case i messed it up

[ad1thi]

Your writing request: 27 with buckytony pleasee?

#27: meeting at a support group au // from this list 

/

insp by this episode of new girl // i was gonna make this angsty but then i decided against it

//

“You did it!” Steve says, throwing his hands out to pull Sam in for a hug, “you really did it Sam you graduated from the police academy”

“Yeah I did,” Sam says, and then looks at the bouquet of flowers that Bucky’s holding, “Those for me?”

“Yep,” Bucky says, thrusting him towards Sam, “congrats on finally being able to legally get yourself killed for money. You know if it was thrill seeking you were after there’s easier ways to -”

Steve clamps a hand over Bucky’s mouth, “What he means is, we’re proud of you. Though it wouldn’t hurt to meet your new partner, just so that we know you’re safe”

“Well I don’t want you meeting her for those reasons,”Sam says with a glare, “but I was planning on introducing you anyway so -” he waves over to someone, “Steve, Bucky I would like you to meet the person who’s going to be by my side as I brave the mean streets of New York, Officer -”

“She’s so small,” Bucky wrenches Steve’s hand off his mouth, “she’s so small”

The redhead that Sam waved over arches a singular eyebrow, before turning to look at Sam with contempt, “excuse me?”

Sam opens his mouth to reply but Bucky beats him to the punch, “you’re so small. How can you protect Sammy if you’re this small?”. He turns to Steve beseechingly, “Stevie she’s so small”

“Yes Buck you made that clear,” Steve looks at the redhead with an apologetic face, “what my friend meant to say was that, we were expecting someone..” he trails off, shrinking under her glare. 

“Someone not small,” she finishes, “yes I gathered that. I’m Officer Natasha Romanoff and I’ll be training Cadet Wilson over the next couple of weeks. Now if you’ll excuse me,” she spins on her heels and walks away.

“Thank you for absolutely nothing,” Sam says, shoving the bouquet back into Bucky’s hands, “not even my first day on the job and I’ve managed to insult the one person who I have to spend every single shift with - thanks to you bozos”

He walks away with another word, even though Steve tries to say something.

“But she’s so small,” Bucky says again, and Steve pats his shoulder consoling, “I know buddy”

/ 

If Sam’s new partner wasn’t going to be able to protect him on the streets, then it fell to Bucky and Steve to do it instead - which is why they were currently tailing Sam and Nat; making sure that they were only a couple cars behind so they could react quickly. 

It was the perfect plan, until they lose them and Bucky goes mental.

“What’s wrong with you?!” he yells at Steve, who yells, “It’s not like I lost them on purpose back!”

They drive up and down the street with little avail, and it also serves to make Bucky more anxious.

“And now we’re getting pulled over by a cop,” he growls when he notices the sirens in the rear-view mirror, “nice going Stevie. How’re we supposed to keep Sammy safe from behind bars?”

“We’re not going to jail Buck,” Steve says patiently, pulling over on the side of the road, “lets just find out what the Officer wants and we can go back to looking for Sam”

Except, they don’t need to start looking for Sam, because the officer is Sam, so its sort of a two birds, one stone situation.

“Sammy!” Bucky exclaims, naked relief on his face, “you’re not dead!”

Sam’s glare loosens into one of confusion, “why would I be dead?”

“We lost sight of you on the road so we thought you’d been jumped,” Steve helpfully chimes in, but shrinks back in his seat when Sam glares at him.

“Look,” Sam pinches the bridge of his nose, “you guys can’t keep following me around like this. But I spoke to Nata - Officer Romanoff and she says she knows what to do to ease your worries. Meet me at the church on the corner of 6th and Lincoln after my shift okay?”

Steve and Bucky say nothing.

“Okay?” Sam says more forcefully, grinning slightly when they nod, “good”

/

As promised, Steve and Bucky show up to the church, after Sam’s shift - where Officer Romanoff waiting for them instead. 

“Its not uncommon you know,” she says as she leads them inside the church, “it’s really normal for the family of new recruits to get anxious when they join up to the Force,” she stops in front of a door, “That’s why I think this will really help you”

She pushes it open with a flourish, and Steve and Bucky cautiously walk inside. The room is almost abandoned, save for the circle of chairs in the centre of the room.

“What’re we doing here?” Steve asks, turning to Officer Romanoff with a quizzical look, “is this meant to be some sort of physical demonstration? Because I’ve got to tell you Miss I’m not comfortable with hitting a woman”

“You wouldn’t be able to get a single hit in,” she says with an arched eyebrow, “but no - this is not a physical demonstration. This,” she gestures to the chairs, “is where a support group for friends and family of Officers on the Force meet weekly. My friend Tony set it up a couple of years ago after his bestfriend got discharged from the Air Force and signed up to be an Officer. Sound familiar? I think it’ll do you boys some good”

She pats them on the shoulder, “There’s still a couple of minutes till the meeting starts, think it over,” and then leaves them alone - walking towards a man who’s just gotten out of the supply closet.

“This is ridiculous,” Steve says, “cmon Buck lets go”

But Bucky’s not listening, he’s looking at the brunet standing next to Officer Romanoff, head thrown back in laughter, and he feels something inside him flutter. 

“Stevie,” he hears himself saying, “i think I wanna stay”

tbc

[cruximpetus]

Mind if I ask for this supposed 'evidence' in the canon about Chara being a trans female? Because Toby was very careful and quite particular about writing both Frisk and Chara as fairly gender neutral, not really giving hints as to what gender either of them are, so that people could form their own ideas on their gender. So I'm just curious as to what leads your interpretation leads to Chara being a trans female when Toby didn't give any real canon clues.

Well, of course, you can ask, Nonnie!  Feel free to ask, and I will do my best to answer!Now, I will say that this is based purely on my interpretation of the character and what I see in the story proper, and I will be getting into some of my other headcanon on Chara’s previous life (based on what little we know in canon).  All in all, please understand that this post comes with the following trigger warnings: abuse, major depressive disorder, suicide/suicidal ideation, and transphobia.  If any of these will bother you, I would suggest skimming over the first part.

I’m also going to be splitting this explanation up into two parts: 1) why I consider Chara to be trans / how I came to that decision (based on what little we know in canon) and 2) why I specifically consider Chara to be transfemale (based on what little we know in canon).  I feel there is more evidence to support the latter than the former, but the former is an extrapolation on what we are given.That said, let’s begin – under a read more both for comfort (due to the triggering topics) and because this might get a little long.

First - how I came to the conclusion that Chara is trans.Asriel gives us two key pieces of information at the end of the Pacifist Route - first, that Chara hated humanity, and second, that the reason Chara ended up in the underground was not a good one.  My focus is first and foremost on Chara’s hatred of humanity; it is important as a writer to understand why a character is motivated into what they are.  We know, as you have mentioned, that both Chara and Frisk are referred to with gender-neutral pronouns (which I believe is due to player immersion, but that’s an entire other conversation), which suggests that both of them are likely somewhere outside of the typical gender binary.  We also know, from Chara’s commentary in Asgore’s house in the Genocide Route and Frisk’s commentary on the same, that Chara fell into the underground sometime during 201X - so sometime within this decade.And what is one of the trigger topic conversations and battles of this decade (with the exception of race and religion)?  LGBTQIA+ RIGHTS.  We see plenty of people both on and offline getting up in arms over whether or not these rights are acceptable, and we do see hatred on both sides (or, at least, I have).  We have seen gains on the same sex marriage front, but we have also seen losses on the bathroom rights for trans people front.  Given that we can already assume that Frisk and Chara might identify as gender-neutral given the gender-neutral pronouns used for both of them and given the strong emotions associated with that particular battle, it is an easy leap to say that Chara might “hate” humanity based on the rights battles of which they are on the losing side.Now - from the perspective of someone who does identify as gender-neutral (or at least as a demi-girl because gender is a social construct, etc.) - being gender-neutral does not much impact my rights.  I can use the bathroom, etc., because the neutrality does not require me, personally, to need a change.  I’m apathetic to my gender.This cannot be true of Chara.They need a reason to hate humanity, here is one ready made that relies so much more on the circumstances of their humanity, where they live, the social implications - so many things that aren’t just hey, Chara likes to kill people and hates people as a whole and is just a sociopath for the lulz.  (For that matter, I think Chara was a lot different, personality-wise, before their death as opposed to how they are presented in the Genocide Route - which, again, I do believe is supported by canon.  Feel free to ask on that one as well, if you want!  I plan on elaborating on it later regardless.)Therefore, it seemed best to me to work under the assumption that Chara was not gender-neutral but, in fact, trans.  This was further reinforced with Chara’s suicidal ideation - we know of at least two times in canon where Chara might have attempted suicide - first, falling into Mt. Ebott, and second, taking the buttercups which they knew would likely kill them - and although we might argue that the first might not have been a suicide attempt, I strongly headcanon that Chara was abused by their family and bullied at school for their gender identity.  This leads to not just a general hatred of humanity (for rights related reasons) but also to a specific one as well (due to the refusal to understand of everyone around them).Now - I know that there are unfortunate implications in my decisions here.  I do not believe that all or most trans people hate humanity.  In fact, I think if Chara had been given the opportunity to grow up, their anger and bitterness (what was seen by Asriel as “hatred”) would have sharpened itself into a way to fight for social justice and rights without taking it personally, with support and love and people who understand - all of which will be in Chara’s modern verse but cannot be in their canon verse.  Also understand that Chara is a child, pre-early teenage at best, and their emotions are going to be much easier to turn to hate and personal agony.Second - why I specifically consider Chara to be transfemale, having come to the understanding that they are trans.This one I believe is a little bit more supported by canon, and I can think of at least three specific instances where I can see minor (or major) details that, to me, point to Chara being more feminine than masculine - (so, if trans, then transfemale, and two of these by their own choice, as will be seen below).  I do start with my weaker point and then will build to the more important points to me in this section.First, Chara loves chocolate.  Now, I know that guys love chocolate, too, but within the context of narrative and stereotypical gender pointing, women tend to be known as the gender that loves chocolate.  For Chara to explicitly point out in the Genocide Route that Asgore does not have chocolate seems to me to be a minor nudge in the direction that Chara is female.  This is a small detail, but one that is there nevertheless.Second, Chara’s name is a feminine name.  Chara actually comes from the Greek χαρά, which is Greek for joy (which is also why I headcanon that Chara knows a little bit of Greek and also that I prefer their name with a hard K sound at the beginning, but that’s just me).  Even if you go to the root of the name and use the English translation, you have a character named Joy, which is, again, a feminine name.  Out of the various gender-neutral names Toby could have chosen for this character (Alex, Sam, Jamie, Charlie, etc.), he chose this one.  Again, small detail, but one that is extremely relevant to me.  (I also headcanon that Chara chose that name when they fell into the underground, but that’s based on my interpretation and how I view their fall, etc. - stuff that I hope to put in future headcanon posts.)Third, and perhaps most important to me, at the end of the Genocide Route, when Chara appears, they have rosy cheeks, which is typically an indicator of femininity.  Either the rosy cheeks are natural or its makeup, and in both cases those are more seen in female characters as opposed to male ones.  Now, and this is more important, Chara can control their appearance at this point in the story.  We know this is so because within the same scene their eyes turn into black absences and they pull themselves into a jump scare to frighten the player.  Therefore, it must be understood that Chara appears to the player the way they want to appear, and they’ve chosen to appear with more feminine characteristics (especially in contrast with Frisk’s appearance, which is overall much more neutral).  Again, this is a minor detail, but one I think strengthens my position in relation to Chara’s gender.In this way, having come to the conclusion that Chara is trans (more interpretation but one that I believe can be backed up by canon) and that Chara is of the feminine gender (which I believe is more backed by canon than the former), I must come to the conclusion that Chara is transfemale.But, again, this is personal interpretation based on what I see in canon and the choices I make in writing the character.  You are quite correct in saying that Toby went to lengths to make sure that either character can appear as either gender and be left up to the interpretation of the player, but at the same time those minor details do, to me, point to Chara as transfemale.Thanks for asking!