OUT OF CHARACTER:
Name/Handle: Kazu
Contact: mackens @ plurk
Reference: Frames
Other characters: n/a.

IN-CHARACTER:
Character name: Chara Dreemurr
Character journal: namethefallen
Series name: UNDERTALE
Canon notes: AU, ending in soulless/false pacifist based on Genocide/No Mercy.

An important thing to note with UNDERTALE is that there are canonly multiple timelines and routes, and resetting and starting again on a new or the same route is an actual in-universe mechanic! So Chara’s pull-point is near the end of a Soulless Pacifist Run, but they’ve gone through multiple Neutral runs of different kill/spare configurations (including attempted Genocide runs that were aborted last minute and became Neutral), with most characterization coming from Genocide/No Mercy, and ending in a Soulless Pacifist as a formality to finish their goal.

To explain: Soulless Pacifist run is still Genocide/No Mercy-version of Chara. Simply a follow up with Chara pretending to be Frisk and doing a Pacifist run to reach the surface so they can get to humans.

Information about those endings and what they entail can be found here.

ALSO the player themselves is treated as an actual entity by UNDERTALE, and so they will be mentioned a lot in terms of pushing the characters to do things. The game is bizarrely meta.

Species: Human.

History:

Chara’s history is not something fully detailed in game, but something that Player is given small bits of through the dialogue and memories presented to them by others. Much of it is left open for Player interpretation and any assumptions made within are simply my interpretation of events (such as the buttercup poisoning incident being an accident rather than on purpose), going with the theory that Chara is the narrator in all runs! This is backed up by narration slipping into first person (“I unlocked the chain.”/”In my way.”) in the Genocide route, where Chara has taken over and Frisk is presumed to have been suppressed (and thus needs no narration).

Little is known about Chara’s life before they came to the mountain, even less than what is known about after. Whatever is was, it was enough to cause them to hate humanity, something Asriel (their adopted sibling) tells us they “felt very strongly” about. There are implications in the narration that suggests Chara may have been a victim of abuse. Whatever the reason was, and whatever their reason was for climbing the mountain (said, again by Asriel, to have been an “unhappy” one), their story begins the same way: with a tumble into the RUINS.

A group of monsters recounts this part of their story for us in another run. Chara fell through the hole in the mountain and, while they survived, were injured in the landing. They called out for help, for anyone to come save them. They were heard by Asriel, the son of the monster king Asgore. Asriel helped Chara back to the kingdom, where they recuperated and allowed their injuries to heal.

At some point during this, the Dreermur’s adopted Chara as their own child, and they became “like siblings” with Asriel. They shared a room and even clothes, wearing near-matching striped shirts. There’s evidence that their time this way was spent somewhat happily. Chara has a drawing of a flower on the wall near their bed, and a photo of the family turned toward. There’s a sweater in King Asgore’s drawer that is implied to have been knit by Chara, reading “Mr. Dad Guy”. They make videos with Asriel, agree to do their “creepy face” when he asks. All in all, Chara seemed to have fit in well in their new home. They were considered by all of the monsters to be the "hope for humans and monsters", the one who could bridge the gap between the two and bring peace.

And then the buttercup incident occurred.

One day, Asriel and Chara get together to bake a butterscotch pie for Asgore like Toriel often does. However, being two young kids and, either believing it to be harmless or genuinely not knowing the difference, they put buttercups into the mix rather than cups of butter. Asgore became sick, as buttercups are poisonous, especially if ingested.

Chara is said to have laughed this off where Asriel felt badly, but this may be the turning point in their life with the Dreemur’s. It’s the point when a plan began to form, a way to gather six souls to free the monsters from the Underground. What they need to do, they confide in Asriel, is have Chara eat the buttercups to become deathly ill without their ‘parents’ realizing that it is purposeful. Then, they will state that their dying wish is to see the flowers in their village once more. When they pass away, Asriel will absorb their soul to pass through the barrier, take their empty body back to the village, and kill 6 humans to take their souls and destroy the barrier.

They worked to this diligently, suffering an incredibly painful and slow death. Asriel became unsure, and they convinced him over and over again, at times resorting to manipulative tactics. Was Asriel doubting them? Did Asriel not trust them? They were suffering, giving their life for this, Asriel couldn’t back out now. Whatever they had to say to keep him with the plan, to keep from making everything Chara had worked for worthless.

And it worked, for a while.

Chara told the Dreemur's their "final wish" just as they planned. This gave Asriel an excuse to take their soul into himself, though this came with an unexpected surprise: Instead of Asriel being fully in control, Chara has half of the control. They pick up their own corpse and carry it to their village, in the guise of a mourning Asriel attempting to fulfill their last wish. When they place it among the flowers, they are spotted by humans. Assuming the creature had killed the child, the humans attacked. Using their half of control, Chara attempt to fight back so they could kill the humans and take their souls.

But this is where Asriel finally backed out, and the plan fell apart.

Where Chara wanted to use their "full power" against the humans, Asriel did not. Asriel wrestled control back from Chara and, under an unending sea of blows from the humans, took Chara's corpse and returned to the mountain. Once they reached the King's garden, Asriel died from the damage the humans had inflicted and his dust spread through the garden, and it's not known what happened to Chara's soul after this.

The Dreemur's were grieved, having lost both of their children in a single night, the monsters tell us. King Asgore, mourning and furious, swore to take the souls of any humans that fell into the Underground and use them to break the barrier. Toriel was horrified by this and left the castle, taking Chara's body with her. She returned to the RUINS and buried Chara in the spot where they initially fell. There golden flowers bloomed under the sunlight, and Toriel returned to the home they had lived in in the RUINS at the time Chara had arrived. She stayed there to watch for any humans, like Chara, who fell into the Underground and protect them from Asgore.

This is where Chara's story initially ended and, truly, they thought it would stay that way. It did, for a number of years, possibly even a century. In that time, five more children fell into the mountain and had their souls taken by Asgore after they insisted Toriel allow them to try and leave the Underground.

And then one day, a new child falls.

This is where the aspect of multiple types of play-through comes in. A general rundown of each playthrough/ending: Neutral Run, True Pacifist run, and Genocide/No Mercy run.

It it the Genocide/No Mercy run that is most relevant to Chara's history.

Perhaps transferred to Frisk by their landing on the flower bed above where they are buried, Chara awakens with Frisk. Unable to exert any will or force over them for the time being, Chara is left to sit back and wonder about the purpose for their reincarnation.

And then the Player begins to abuse their power over Frisk, influencing them into not only attacking every monster they meet in a random encounter, but to relentlessly pursue every last possible monster in an area. The death count grows, and as time goes on, Frisk's personality all but disappears. Chara takes the center stage instead, shown "the purpose for [their] reincarnation" by the Player. And that, they recount, is to erase "this pointless world".

Erase everything Chara does. Toriel is struck down. The game diverts from it's normal path. There's no chance to make friends, not when all the residents but random encounters have fled to safety. Instead of taking part in Papyrus's attempts to 'capture' them, Chara walks straight through all of his puzzles, emotionless. Instead of becoming a friend, making trips to Grillby's and tricking 'Frisk' into looking through a telescope with a painted eye, San's gives an ominous warning about his brother wanting to fight them and disappears for most of the game.

Chara encounters Papyrus as informed, and kills him in one hit, after the skeleton tries to spare them.

They cross through Waterfall, encountering the Monster Kid. Unaware of their true nature, Monster Kid tags along a little, excited about possibly meeting Undyne, a member of the Royal Guard who is currently hunting Chara down. There are a few run-ins with Undyne, interrupted by Monster Kid jumping out only to be dragged away. They are encountered once more, confronting Chara over Undyne's assertions that they've hurt people. Seeing them now as nothing more than "free EXP", Chara attempts to attack Monster Kid, a guaranteed one-hit kill.

Undyne interrupts, taking the hit instead and allowing Monster Kid to flee. Instead of dying, her DETERMINATION allows her to become Undyne the Undying, the second most difficult boss fight Chara faces.

Inevitably, however, Undyne falls as well and Chara moves onto Hotland.

Hotland is as empty as Snowdin, save for the random encounters, Metaton, and BurgerPants. Metatom greets Chara in Alphys's lab, informing them that Alphys has already evacuated everyone to somewhere Chara will never find them. Shortly later, he attempts to confront them in an attempt to stop their rampage. Even in their strongest form, a lesser one of which served as a serious challenge in other runs, Metaton is killed in one hit. Metaton is the last possible character to spare and avery the Genocide Run. It is after this fight that Chara's control over Frisk's body is completely cemented.

Finally, everyone possible monster up to that point eliminated, Chara moves on to NEW HOME.

In NEW HOME, Flowey recounts their own story for Chara, how they died as Asriel and awoke as Flowey the Flower. As he does so, Chara looks around their old home, and it's here it is most prominent that it is them. They observe the drawing on the wall, calling it "my drawing". The clothes in the wardrobe are "our clothes". The bed on the left side of the room, with the family photo pointing to it is "my bed".

Flowey continues with his story, and then attempts to appeal to Chara. Says it wouldn't be so bad to live on the surface, if it was with Chara. Maybe they should call off the plan? Chara, he says, won't show him any "useless pity". That people like the two of them wouldn't hesitate to kill each other if they got in each other's way.

Something about this changes something in Chara, brings a "creepy expression" to their face, enough to scare Flowey off.

But before Chara can finally reach the King, they have one more enemy to deal with.

San's confronts Chara in the Judgement Hall/Last Corridor, as he does in all runs. This time, a fight breaks out.

What follows is the single-most difficult fight in the game. Chara fights and dies and fights and dies. San's reveals that "they" knew all along time was being reset over and over, but they could never discover the cause of it, the "anomaly". He keeps count of Chara's deaths up to 12. He offers false mercy, killing Chara suddenly if the player takes it.

Eventually, he tires. With meta knowledge of the battle mechanics, Sans halts the fight by refusing to do anything, not taking his "turn". He falls asleep, and the Player is able to have Chara drag the hitbox over the "FIGHT" button, attempting to attack San's while he sleeps.

The hit misses, but in the middle of his speech another attack goes out, with no influence of the Player. Chara themselves deals San's the killing blow of their own volition.

At last, Chara moves on to King Asgore. In the garden with Asgore is Flowey, attempting to warn the King about Chara before they arrive. The King doesn't recognize Chara as human anymore, so mixed between themselves, Frisk, and the Player as they are. He attempts to avoid a fight, offering to talk with them over tea instead.

It doesn't work, and Chara strikes the King down in one blow.

But the finishing blow, the destruction of the King's soul, is done by Flowey in a desperate attempt to appeal to Chara, to show that he can be helpful. Unfortunately, Chara doesn't see it that way and once again takes control independent of the Player, massacring Flowey in eight slices.

Finally, Chara reveals themselves, speaking directly to a player.

They inform just how they came to be the way they are. They thank the Player, asserting them it was their power, their DETERMINATION, that awakened Chara from their death. Though they were confused as to why the were alive again, they say, they finally understood with the Player's guidance. The Player's decision to do the Genocide Run taught Chara that the reason for their reincarnation was the destruction of the world, the erasure of it so they can move on to the next.

When the Player takes the choice of erasing the world, Chara informs them they are a good partner, and seems to attack them.

The world is erased, nothing left but a dark void of howling wind.

And still, the Player returns. So Chara offers them a deal. They will restore the world, in return for the Player's, and so Frisk's, SOUL.

The world restored, the Player attempts to fix their mistakes, to perform a True Pacifist run and bring everyone peace.

Everything goes as it should, nothing seeming amiss.

Until, when everyone has finally reached the surface, Chara reveals themselves in place of Frisk, prepared to unleash their hatred on the world.

Personality:

A general distinction must be made when it comes to Chara, a separation between who they were by the time of their death and who they become under the player's influence.

Chara pre-canon is given to us in vague, bite-size pieces or left for us to interpret through other's dialogue or surroundings. They certainty weren't a happy child before they fell down into the RUINS. Whatever they're experience was, it led to them despising humanity. It also seemed to have left them somewhat sullen. At the very least, it can be assumed that if not sullen they were at least a somber child, given how Asriel goes out of his way to trick them into thinking he's videotaping them simply to get them smiling "for no reason".

Somber or not, it's clear Chara was happy living with the Dreemur's. They have a drawing on display on the wall, an awkwardly worded "Mr. Dad Guy" sweater they are implied to have made, a shared bedroom. They bake pie together with Asriel, whom the other monsters knew them to be "like siblings" with. They even humored him with their request to make their 'creepy face'. They loved their new family, even if they felt that they didn't deserve that love because of being a human. (And humans, of course, are terrible things. Why should Chara feel any differently about themselves?)

Chara even seems to have picked up on some of the Dreemurs traits, as shown through the flavor text. They share an enjoyment of making puns, and at the end of the No Mercy run, of speaking formally. However, Chara seems to have a more snarky and morbid sense of humor than their adoptive mother. King Asgore's fondness for golden flower tea rubbed off as well, informing through narration that it is "the blatantly correct choice". They remained in striped sweaters, matching with Asriel.

While there's certainly room for interpretation of Chara as a cruel, manipulative person single-mindedly focused on destruction from the very beginning, there's also plenty of support outside of what you can observe in NEW HOME. There's more to them, if one only looks at their narration. This quiet child loved dogs, may have been a little of a nerd, and had "hope in their eyes". It's hard to believe that Flowey, who knows Chara better than anyone (being a reborn Asriel), would think Frisk is Chara even when they do things like let Sans balance hotdogs on their head if there wasn't a more childlike, playful element to Chara.

But even a child has flaws. Chara can be quite cunning and even cruel. Whether it was well-meaning or not, they still devised a plan that would involve faking their own death (and thus putting their family through grief) and taking six human lives. They undeniably manipulate Asriel, using their love and trust for them as leverage to keep him quiet and doing what is asked of him. As if to use guilt as well to keep him with the plan, they ask Asriel to be the one to retrieve the buttercups, making him implicit in what they do.

However, this plans also shows how strong their DETERMINATION is. Buttercup poisoning is a slow, painful death from start to finish. From consuming the buttercups to the actual symptoms, every step of the way involves overwhelming amounts of suffering. To continue to put themselves through the pain, the blisters, the vomiting...it shows that Chara is nothing if not a person who works for what they want, whatever the cost.

By all means, before their rebirth, Chara seems to have been a quiet but relatively happy child who had a couple issues, a few of them pretty severe ones, stemming from whatever they experienced in the past.

If that is Chara up to their death, the Genocide run took Chara and completely corrupted them.

Chara initially sits back and observes. attempting to figure out why they've been brought back to life when their plan failed. The Player, by way of Frisk, gives them their answer. By committing genocide, mercilessly hunting down every last monster possible to kill them, the Player impresses upon Chara that they were reborn to gain power, to become stronger and stronger through the slaughter of the monsters around them. Those darker parts of Chara come to the forefront.

Instead of simply being quiet and somber, Chara becomes menacing, calculating.

Murder becomes a more enjoyable act, eventually bring a "creepy expression" to their face when they consider it around others, most likely that ever present smile they wear. It's suggested through shared dialogue with others that they begin to taunt the people around them, throw out barbs and threats for their own amusement. They strike down Papyrus without hesitation when he shows them mercy, insisting they can do better even to the very end. The thought of two lover's love ending in Hell makes them laugh. Other's suffering and fear is now amusement, something they become less and less hidden about as they gain more and more control.

Fighting becomes a thrill too. While they show annoyance at Sans ability to always dodge their attacks and kill them over and over, if they reload to fight him again after a win, Sans observes that they have a certain expression on their face. One that prompts him to call them a "freak".

They show an apparent dislike for wasting time, walking straight through Papyrus's puzzles, ready to get on with everything. Puzzles are simply an annoying diversion, so it's to their luck that Flowey has taken to do them for them. Everyone is simply "in their way", and they have no second thoughts about cutting through them to keep going. Monster Kid, who has been acting under the belief they were friends the entire time, is nothing more than "in [their] way" and free EXP".

Chara also shows an immense hatred for betrayal, or what they perceive to be so. They're attitude towards Flowey changes when he mentions "getting in each other's way", a reminder of how it was Flowey as Asriel who ruined their entire plan. When they take the mercy option Sans offers, perhaps through Frisk making a last ditch attempt to exert some of their own will, they come back enraged. So much so that Sans takes the time to comment on just how pissed off they look.

In a genocide run, Chara becomes something wholly unlike the Chara the Dreemur's new. They are violent, spiteful, and those traces of mischievousness have become malicious. Fun is only important if it's fun for them. And they've certainly gained somewhat of an arrogance/cockiness to themselves, after everything they've managed to achieve. All in all, they've become closer to the demon they claim themselves to be rather than the simply messed-up kid they were, twisted by the Player's decisions and overcome with their own hatred.

However, their tricking the Player into making a a false True Pacifist run in order to fulfill their plan, did alter and temper their personality in some ways.

Posing as Frisk didn't make them less violent or malicious, but it made them more subtle. They certainly make a good actor, successfully fooling everyone who met them into believing they were the kind, mercy-loving Frisk with ease. They can make friends, go on silly dates, put up with a stupid robot trying to kill them on a cooking show. For lack of a better way to put it, it made them able to actually function around people in a somewhat normal manner once more.

It also taught them patience, as opposed to brute-forcing their way through meaningless fooling around. They learned to hold in their temper a little more, to play at child-like and innocent in order to avoid suspicion. A little bit of their true personality may leak through, but they can take the time to work on that too.

After all, they're already safely on their way to the destruction of humanity they wanted, thanks to the Player.

Abilities:

→ As a human, Chara possesses DETERMINATION, a quality that allows human SOULs to linger on after they die. It has given them ability, possibly through being in Frisks's body, to SAVE and RESET. SAVE allows Chara to return to their last SAVE point, essentially a spot created by their determination, before they continue on and take damage or some such event. RESET allows them to completely start over, erase events and begin again.

As this would be somewhat difficult to make work in-game and there is already a Chara present that may be able to do so (canonly, only one person at a time is able to SAVE and RESET, determined by whoever has the strongest DETERMINATION, I'd like to completely cap these abilities for now!

→ Due to their repeated runs/fights/death/etc, Chara is faster and stronger than your average kid. Especially because of their experience with Sans, they're very good at dodging and anticipating attacks. This makes them pretty much a godmod against monsters. However, surrounded by mostly older humans, Chara will have far more difficulty working this in their favor.

→ Fourth Wall Knowledge, if that counts as an ability. They remember all the timelines they've gone through, and are aware of the Player/that someone else (initially) controlled them.

Augment Skillset: Lab Support

Sample:


Holed up in some random spot of the Bloodsport, Chara reminds themselves that they can be patient.

Of course they can be. How many runs did they go through, before that final one? How long did they wait, fighting for control over Frisk, over that presence, to get what they wanted? They even managed to play along with those stupid games the idiots had put on, pretending to be Frisk. The stupid skeleton's puzzles, the even more ridiculous date. The annoying robots game show. It had slowed them down immeasurably, taken every ounce of DETERMINATION they had to not cut straight through all of them over again and reap the EXP once more.

But they did it.

And if Chara could make it through that, they could make it through some stupid show in outer space. At the very least, it wasn't boring. Even the humans, while detestable as all humans, were amusing diversions at times. As fun as it might be, it's not as if they can go picking fights right now. A monster is easy to take out, made of love and compassion and a desire to avoid conflict. Humans, on the other hand, aren't nearly so easy. Chara would know. Only Sans, the lazy fool, had been able to make any true stand against them, and even he went down eventually.

Chara was as rotten as any other human (of course they are, they're the "demon that comes" now and what is a human at heart if not a demon?), so why wouldn't they know how despicable humanity could be, especially when attempting to fight?

A human child may be able to eliminate the monster race, but against human adults...Chara isn't stupid enough to think they could do that.

Oh, well. With the money the show got them, they could buy chocolate, though acting cute had already netted them some for free. It was easy to do now. A little of what they knew of Frisk here, a way Asriel once behaved there... The motherly types were the best for it, thought they reminded them of Toriel almost uncomfortably. Largely because it shouldn't remind them. Chara had cast away that sentimentality long ago, ready to leave it behind with the other "worthless memories" they would destroy.

And anyway, it was laughable, how easily people could be fooled by a smile and some big eyes. It was a struggle not to fall over laughing at times, tears in their eyes, so amused at how stupid the person was. Chara wanted to laugh and laugh and laugh and then maybe carve out their eyeballs when they were done. They clearly weren't using them properly, so why have them at all? It was a waste, and Chara'd be doing the world a service. One less waste in the world, and one less idiot.

There's a distinct clang of metal as a knife attempts to embed itself into the wall with excessive force, the child's hand white around the handle, as if trying to act out that very thing. It had been wheedled away with a sweet face and assurances that they'd be careful and only needed it for a minute. But the grin Chara wore now was nothing like that deceptive smile those in the fleet had come to know. Surely Asriel would call it creepy and giggle, if he were here? Or Floewy would join in, and toss in a suggestion about sharpening the knife too maybe, just in case.

And, they wondered idly, how many knives could they manage to collect before someone realized?

It'd be interesting to see if anyone would come looking for this one, or even notice it was permanently missing.