Undertale: Child of Dirt

[mattecat]

Summary: Humans don't matter, and Chara is a human. Seven human souls to break the barrier, and Chara is the first. Scenes from Chara's childhood in the underground.

Warnings: canon character death

Notes: this oneshot was first published on archive of our own on April 12th, 2020.

Child of Dirt

They still don't call Toriel "Mom." Asriel says they can, but Chara won't do it. The word catches in their throat and they choke on memories and they call her "Miss Toriel" or just "Miss." They don't call Asgore "Dad," either. They're a human, after all, and the Dreemurrs are monsters. Chara has ordinary skin with no white fur to cover their scrapes and bruises, and they're never gonna grow horns like Asgore has, and they can't do magic, and on the surface, they had to worry about getting a sunburn if they stayed outside too long. At least underground, they could play outside for as long as they wanted.

But there's no question that Asriel is their brother.

Toriel has baked a butterscotch-cinnamon pie. Asriel and Chara peek into the kitchen, where it sits on the counter. "Mom says we'll get a slice after dinner," Asriel says. "If we clean our plates."

Asriel has always been a picky eater, for as long as Chara's known him. He picks at his food and doesn't finish, and Chara thinks that if he doesn't finish, Toriel won't give them a slice, either.

So they send Asriel to distract Toriel and Chara climbs on the counter and eats the pie with their bare hands.

Toriel is furious when she finds out, but Chara just laughs and laughs. She won't hurt them, after all. Chara's been hurt, Chara's been punished, but Toriel doesn't do any of that. She'll send them to bed early and tell them they need to do chores, but it doesn't matter. None of it really matters.

Asriel matters, though.

"Sorry," they whisper, when they're both getting ready for bed. "I should've saved some for you."

Asriel looks over at them, huddled in their blankets. "It's alright," he says. "I'm not mad. Mom says she'll make more, once she gets the ingredients."

Chara pulls the blanket over their head.

They don't fight when Asriel pulls the blankets open and smiles at them. "Next time," he says, "we can eat it together."

--

Maybe not having fur is good, because it's bad enough when Chara gets mats in their hair. They watch Asriel sit and grimace in pain while Toriel combs out the mats in their fur. "Why can't you just cut them out?" Chara asks, thinking about the cats they knew on the surface.

"Then I'll be bald!" Asriel wails. Chara imagines him shaved and giggles.

Toriel gives them a stern look. "None of that," she says. "Both of you are going to be helping Asgore in the garden after school from now on. You need to learn to respect it."

"It's just plants," Chara says.

"Plants are very important to the underground," Asgore says. "They may have been just plants to you on the surface, Chara, but here, we need to take good care of the ones we have. You're going to have to do a lot of work to repair the damage."

Chara shrinks back in their seat. The surface world brings up memories of humans, cruel and evil and terrible creatures, and Chara doesn't like thinking they're one of them. They don't laugh anymore.

Once Toriel finishes with Asriel's mats, she moves on to Chara's hair. Chara sits in silence and doesn't cry out when Toriel accidentally pulls too hard, because Chara knows this is their punishment. They don't complain about being punished, because they deserve it. They aren't a good kid. Good kids don't need to be punished.

After school, Asgore takes them to the garden. Chara sits quietly and follows instructions, pressing their hands into the dirt as they move plants from pots into the ground. There are cracks in the stone above, light shining down through them, and Chara used to think it was sunlight from the surface until Asgore explained what it really was. Fake sunlight to help the plants grow. That's all.

When they played in the mud with Asriel, it felt like nothing mattered but Asriel and the moment. Chara is starting to think that some things do matter, like flowers and sunlight and monsters, and Chara goes up to the barrier where they're not supposed to go and puts their hand against it. Seven human souls to break it. They only have one.

Chara and Asriel try to make a pie for Asgore, to apologize for playing in the garden. It doesn't go well.

--

Humans don't matter. Humans were the ones who killed so many monsters because they were afraid of the power they could have if they killed a human. But no humans died in the war, no monster took a human's soul, and now monsters were trapped underground.

Chara is a human. Chara has a human soul. They explain the plan to Asriel, clutching fistfuls of buttercups, and Asriel just cries and cries. "This is important," Chara whispers. "This is bigger than just us. We're going to set everyone free."

"But you'll die!" Asriel sobs. "I don't want you to die, Chara! You're my best friend!"

They've tried to explain before that they don't matter, but Asriel never listened. So instead, they say, "You're my best friend, too. You'll have my soul, Asriel. We'll be together forever, okay?"

Finally, finally, Asriel wipes his tears and says, "Okay."

Seven human souls to break the barrier. Chara is the first. With one human soul, Asriel can pass through the barrier, and then he can take six more. Then monsters will be free.

So even if it's hard,

even when their body is destroying itself from the inside out,

Chara holds on to that hope.

The hope of all of monsterkind.

--

"Once there was a kid who ate a pie with their bare hands," Chara says in their head, and giggles. Frisk doesn't see what's so funny, but they repeat it to Woshua, who recoils at the thought.

"Once there were two kids who played in a muddy flower garden," Chara says, and Frisk repeats it to the horrified Woshua.

"Once there was a kid who slept in the soil," Chara says, "forever and ever. Isn't it funny, Frisk?"

They laugh, and laugh, and laugh, and Frisk can hardly hear their own thoughts. They don't think it's funny. Woshua doesn't, either. Frisk changes tactics and lets Woshua clean them off. Their clothes get soaked.

"You'll never wash the blood off your hands," Chara taunts. "You'll always be a human, Frisk! Humans don't matter, Frisk! Why does anything matter? I thought Asriel mattered, but he was too wimpy to kill just six humans! Now he's dead, and monsters are trapped down here forever! Why should we care, Frisk? Everyone should die, just like I did!"

"That's not funny," Frisk says. "You shouldn't have died."

Chara can't think of anything to say to that.