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The Fallen Child

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Possessed Frisk Alone: starryoak.deviantart.com/art/P…
Ghost Chara Alone: starryoak.deviantart.com/art/S…
Chara Alone: starryoak.deviantart.com/art/C…
Chara and Frisk Height Comparison: starryoak.deviantart.com/art/C…
"A long time ago, a human fell into the RUINS. Injured by its fall, the human cried out for help. Asriel, the king's son, heard the human's call. He brought the human back to the castle. Over time, Asriel and the human became like siblings. The King and Queen treated the human child as their own. The Underground was full of hope. Then... One day... The human became very ill. The sick human had only one request. To see the flowers from their village. But there was nothing we could do. The next day. ... The human died. Asriel, wracked with grief, absorbed the human's SOUL. He transformed into a being with incredible power. With the human SOUL, Asriel crossed through the barrier. He carried the human's body into the sunset. Back to the village of humans. Asriel reached the center of the village. There, he found a bed of golden flowers. He carried the human onto it. Suddenly, screams rang out. The villagers saw Asriel holding the human's body. They thought that he had killed the child. The humans attacked him with everything they had. He was struck with blow after blow. Asriel had the power to destroy them all. But... Asriel did not fight back. Clutching the human... Asriel smiled, and walked away. Wounded, Asriel stumbled home. He entered the castle and collapsed. His dust spread across the garden. The kingdom fell into despair. The king and queen had lost two children in one night. The humans had once again taken everything from us."
...At least, that's the story most know.
Chara, the fallen child of whom the legend tells of, fell in the monster year of 2015. Yes, I said monster year. There's an important difference. The monsters count years from the year they were sealed underground, and their years do not correspond to ours. Year 2015 for the Monsters was approximately around the 1300's. Part of the reason I chose that time period is because, well, the timeline wouldn't make sense if it was our 2015 that they were referring to.
And not just in my headcanon. I mean that the story, even the real one, doesn't make sense in a modern setting. Villagers mobbing and attacking a monster out of fear that he had killed a child? While some of that makes sense in any time period, there's no getting around that in a modern world, people wouldn't pull out the pitchforks and torches first, they'd call the police.
Even then, the idea of villages is extremely outdated. Villages really aren't a thing anymore, small towns and such are, but the idea of a village at the top of the mountain is very... not modern. As well as the fact that most people in this time would have a more shocked reaction to monsters than to immediately accept their existence and pick up the weapons.
It has to be from a time period where the idea of monsters would be well believed in, where legends would be believed, where they would be prepared and willing to attack a monster without a second thought and where villages were common. Now that that's all over and done with... Chara fell into the mountain in their year of the 1300's, but that's not really where their story begins.
Chara was a... well, never really normal child. Of course, that isn't a bad thing... or, at least, had they had the fortune of being born in a different time, their abnormal behavior might have turned out better. As a child, they never really behaved like a child was 'supposed' to behave, quiet and very stilted in their emotions, disinterested in interacting with the other children of the village.... and of course, disrespecting the authority of the Almighty and what He decided they would be. They were disrespecting Him by refusing to behave as their God given gender as female. '
She' was a young girl who would not respect 'her' station as a female, and of course, there were repercussions. But they refused to behave properly or femininely, and they refused to explain why they behaved against the norm, not even behaving as the boys of the village did, even if they were allowed to, which of course they weren't.. Which of course, in today's society would be explained by identifying as not female, but not male, but back then, it was a disrespectful little girl who refused to behave and do 'her' God given duties as a female, nor even attempt the responsibilities of the men in the village, she just didn't belong.
Not only that, but 'her' behavior was abnormal in other ways. 'She' wouldn't play with the other children in the village, nor would 'she' react like was expected from a child. 'She' didn't show emotions and 'she' spoke in a stilted manner.
Over time, the villagers treatment of Chara grew more and more 'disciplinary', and when they neither properly respected the adults nor changed their behavior after the years of attempts to keep them on the path of God, it was assumed that... well, they were not a human. They were assumed to be a Changeling. Now, to be clear, the Changelings of ancient beliefs are not like the creatures seen in MLP.
Changelings in folklore were fairies or demons that replaced normal children with their own fairy or demon offspring, and it is commonly believed now that the real origin of Changelings were simply children who were born with mental or physical deformities; autism, sociopathy, Down's syndrome, or simply children who didn't develop in the expected way or developed at a different rate, and they were often abused in hopes of driving the fairy away from the village.
In this case, Chara was banished from the village and abandoned when they were 9, to return to the demons they came from, or die. Either way, no one particularly cared for what happened to the demon creature that had replaced their normal daughter. In whole, the story of the village really comes down to medieval mental health care sucking horribly, as well as the medieval world's vision of Christianity and God and shit being way more screwed up than most of even the worst guys we have nowadays. Chara, if they were in today's society, would in fact be recognized as, well, a psychopathic child who does not identify as either gender. Well, technically it would be classified as a conduct disorder before they developed into an adult... but as we know, that never occurred.
After being thrown out of the village, Chara had no place to go, and ran up the mountain in hopes of finding... well, to be honest, a cliff face to jump off of. They weren't interested in living in this world anymore. It was corrupt and the villagers had hurt them for being themselves. Festering hatred was the only emotion they felt about their banishment. They didn't care about any of the villagers, not even their parents. Their parents had been the ones to declare them a demon, to attempt to drive it out of them. They didn't particularly care for the supposed God who condemned them either. But anywhere would be better than the world they had been born in.
Of course, in their thoughts, they didn't notice the roots that caught their foot, nor the hole they tumbled down into. When they awoke, they found themselves staring up into the eyes of what they could only assume was one of the demons they were told that they came from, or dead. He was a horned beast with clawed paws and bright fiery eyes, no matter how fluffy and small he was. Dazed from their fall, they didn't particularly care when the 'demon' accosted them (or, well, helped them to their feet) and brought them to what, again, Chara could only assume was the devil and his mistress.
Chara ignored what the demon child had said to them, simply accepting their fate. But, staring up at the icy blue and fiery orange eyes of the devil towering above them.. they felt fear. He had huge horns, just as described by their parents when they were told of what awaited children who didn't obey the word of God, he clutched a trident in massive claws, his lion tail whipping back and forth, his mistress approaching them, blood red eyes (never mind the shared trait), horned as her husband was and reaching for them. They screamed. But nobody came.
Toriel and Asriel recoiled in fright as the hurt child screamed bloody murder when she had reached out to touch them, scrambling away weakly, too paralyzed with fear to do anything but weakly hold up their fists, prepared to fight. Asgore's happiness at seeing such a small child, which had sent his tail wagging, stilled, dropping his trident and quietly asking the child to be calm.
Chara was terrified to hear the deep voice of the devil, his mouth opening to reveal terrifying fangs, but they were confused at his words. "Be calm, child... We do not want you to get hurt.". They stopped running, relaxing their fists not out of lack of will to fight, but confusion. This massive, armored devil was asking them to be calm, was concerned about their health... They had no idea what to do. That was when his mistress spoke, assuring them that she simply wished to heal their wounds. They protested, fearful, but the small demon child spoke as well, assuring them that his mother meant no harm. Chara had no will to fight back, too exhausted by their fall to protest any further. They refused to accept Toriel's insistence on healing them, but they were willing to speak.
The King and Queen were relieved to see the child less afraid, Asgore kneeling and removing his helmet and  crown so as to lessen his regal appearance, Toriel smiling softly and Asriel grinning wildly at the child. Chara asked why demons wanted them, what they were going to do to them, why they were so kind... The family was confused and hurt by the idea of what this child had been through, but answered  them anyway. Though Chara did not believe them when they said they weren't going to hurt them... But they were clearly offering food and a home. They had already lived with people who had hated them. They didn't particularly fear it.
Eventually, Chara was healed, and found themselves in the castle of monsters, and eventually... well, they did accept that the monsters wanted to be their family, and accepted when Asriel asked if they could be siblings.... But they never really felt... quite.... right. They didn't hate their monster family, but they didn't quite like them. It wasn't a matter of dislike, rather, something missing about how they felt. They didn't object to the love they were given, but they didn't seem to notice that they didn't reciprocate quite the same way.
The monsters quickly came to know the child as a beacon of hope, along with their brother Asriel, proof that humans and monsters could be friends, that they could be family, that there was still hope out there for the day the rest of the humans came to the monsters... Not all agreed on exactly what they believed that Chara represented, besides hope. The knowledge that the humans were capable of caring about monsters was enough to hope that they might one day be free. If nothing else, the happiness of the two children seemed apparent, and monsters felt content.
Chara's relationship with Asriel was.... complex. Asriel considered Chara his best friend in the world, the best sibling ever, the most fun playmate, the light of his life, but... Chara?... Chara definitely felt more comfortable around Asriel than any other being that they had ever met, they knew Asriel accepted them and everything they did... but they still had trouble feeling particularly good feelings towards anything. Asriel was probably the most important thing in Chara's life... but that wasn't saying much, considering how little they tended to feel about the people around them. Still, if they did enjoy anything, it was definitely playing with Asriel.
While Chara had mixed feelings on everyone around them, they weren't joyless, they just had a different way of expressing themselves. They enjoyed playing with the toys they shared with Asriel very much.
"Chara, what are you doing to my dollies?"
"I'm stabbing Mrs. Pepper for being an unfaithful wife."
"Chara! Mrs. Pepper is... What? No! Don't stab Mrs. Pepper!"
They really enjoyed playing pretend... just not exactly in the way most children did. They used them to tell stories of their village, usually the things they weren't meant to see, and the things that they wished had happened to them... which mostly turned out to involve violence towards the various villagers. Asriel, being the pure, most precious child alive... well, he didn't exactly understand the implications of Chara's actions, and eventually came to the conclusion that they needed to start playing games about stuff that involves stabbing bad guys and not his dollies, since, quote; "Chara likes stabbing my dolls. I guess they want to play games like the guards instead of teatime."... Bless Asriel's little innocent SOUL.
Chara behaved much better around their parents, since they had the wherewithal to know that not every monster was quite as kind and, well, slightly gullible as Asriel. They behaved properly, if still stilted and expression dull, trying to be exactly what Asgore and Toriel would want from them. And Asriel was definitely their favorite, at least because they didn't have someone judging them. But, one day, Chara and Asriel decided to bake a cake for their dad on their own... and... Chara was a bit of a mischievous child (to put it in a kind light) and, when Asriel asked about the ingredients... decided to play a little joke, replacing the cups of butter with buttercups. Though Chara didn't know that they were poisonous, they figured that the flower was nasty tasting (like most flowers), and they knew that Asriel would buy it. Asriel knew the buttercups were their father's favorite flower, and genuinely thought it was the right thing.
As we all know, Asgore got rather sick from it, buttercups being incredibly poisonous flowers, but as a powerful monster, he survived being bedridden. Asriel was absolutely devastated, but Chara? Their prank went perfectly... actually, far better than they were expecting. And honestly, something about seeing the powerful king brought to his knees for a week or two from flowers, someone they originally thought of as the devil, then an infallible king, being so weak and vulnerable... it was funny. They laughed it off. Assuming you even had they idea they were upset at all.
One day, Asriel was telling Chara about the story of the barrier and how they were trapped under the mountain by 7 human wizards who used their SOUL power to seal them in. And how everyone was hoping one day that the humans would free them. And since Chara came down, and was their family, clearly the humans were more accepting of monsters now and it would be soon. Chara laughed at this, and Asriel was horrified to hear Chara tell him that not only did humans hate monsters... they hated their own kind enough to banish them because they thought they might be a demon... And Chara was that person. Asriel reassured them that the same would never happen underground... but the revelation that even beyond that hatred, humans no longer had magic... There was no chance they could ever escape.
Chara felt something stir in them at that. Something about humanity felt so inherently... awful, it always had to them... but the idea of being trapped, and every single monster being trapped as well... while as little as Chara felt towards most monsters, they still were far better than any human they had met. And they had heard from their father that human SOULS persisted after death, that a monster SOUL and human SOUL could absorb one another to become powerful beyond belief... That sounded... powerful. And enough to get through the barrier.
Chara had little interest in breaking the barrier, but... the idea of getting revenge appealed. That's what they did with their toys... Remembering what others had done to them... filled them with DETERMINATION. And Asriel was convinced that they could take the SOULS and free everyone... completely unaware of how getting the SOULS would be carried out, he believed in the idea of breaking the barrier with Chara's SOUL. All Chara had to do was let Asriel absorb their SOUL and they could go through.
All Chara had to do was let Asriel absorb their SOUL, and they could take revenge on their village with the power Asriel would wield.
They managed to convince Asriel that it was the only way, that Chara would die, but then they'd be together forever, which, while it might not appeal to Chara, made a perfect incentive to Asriel. To be with his best friend forever, free on the surface to live with their family together forever... it was a dream for Asriel.
Getting the idea from Asgore's sickness, they ate the buttercups in their father's garden... and began the excruciatingly painful process of dying from buttercup poisoning. It's slow, and involves kidney failure, vomiting, extreme pain, bloody diarrhea, abdominal cramps, ulcers, swelling, blistering, convulsions, and death by asphyxiation and circulatory failure.... in all accounts, it's one of the most painful ways to die. It was unbearable and horrific, and only gave Chara time to reflect on their hatred. The agony and constant attention from the monsters overwhelmed them, especially the constant encouragement of Asgore... the constant words of "You have to stay determined! You can't give up... You are the future of humans and monsters..."
They were the future of humans and monsters? Hearing that they're the hope of humanity? All monsters? All humans? They hate humans. The humans have done nothing but sin and punish and hurt... there's nothing to humans that deserves less than death. That was when Chara decided that their plan for the death of the village wasn't enough. As little as they cared for the monsters, they clearly were better fit to rule the world of humans, and they wanted to see humanity die. Driven by the pain of their slow death and the hatred of this idea of being the hope of everything they hated, when they asked to be taken to the field of Golden Flowers in their village, they wanted the world to burn. Asriel begged Chara to change their mind on their plan, but it was too late.
When they died, true to his word, Asriel took their SOUL, though he had hated the plan, he still wished to fulfill his sibling's plan, convinced that if they did it together, they could free their family. When he absorbed his sibling's SOUL, he realized the hatred that was festering in Chara. the will and desire that they truly had... it was... unpleasant.
When the humans attacked the two, Chara holding their own corpse along with Asriel, it took all of Asriel's will to keep Chara from killing every human there, to fight back the urges that his sibling had, the pure hatred of every human there, the urge to tell them what they thought of them now that they were truly powerful. In the end, his will overpowered their sibling's, and they managed to stumble back to the castle, dying on the bed of flowers, just as the story went.
And so, Chara's soul was released. And bound back to their body, they experienced the mummification and wrapping, in the cold coffin they were placed in before their mother, Toriel, took them.... and buried them deep in the ruins, planting a flowerbed over their burial place. There they lay for hundreds of years, holding their hatred in as their body decayed, refusing to let go. Asriel's betrayal had convinced them that they couldn't trust anything in this world. Nothing was worth living, neither monsters nor humans. Monsters couldn't be trusted. They let you down... And so their hatred continued to fester, until one day... another human fell onto their bed.
Something in that human reminded Chara of themself.... though, they didn't exactly feel any good feelings, they felt a power.. a desire, DETERMINATION... And they offered to the human to 'guide' them through the Ruins, and back up to the surface, all under the guise of a helpful ghost, they claimed that they knew the way home... They could help. Sometimes, the human did not hear their offer. Sometimes, the human refused.  But other times, the human was scared... They wanted to trust someone... And they let Chara guide them.... and we all know how that ended up
Please click on the other pieces in the links to hear of how the design process went, as well as a bit more in depth on them in their various stages. Or not, because I'm tired and they're short.
The name refers to both Frisk and Chara, because they both are the Fallen Child. One is simply the first.
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Mrpoof13's avatar
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