hooded figure with short black bobbed hair and bangs, large luminous purple eyes, rosy cheek marks, and a small neutral or downturned mouth. She holds a glowing red object (often interpreted as a worn knife, candy, or determination-related item) near her face. Clothing is dark and layered, with a visible necklace featuring an orange/red heart pendant. The lighting is cool purple and blue against a stark background, giving an eerie, otherworldly glow. DustShift Chara is typically portrayed as thoughtful, well-mannered, and deeply affected by past trauma, yet driven by a desperate need to protect what remains of her found family and end the cycle of resets/genocide. In the expanded literary AU, she is Charlotte T. Pollard (rejecting her birth surname), a teenage human from an abusive surface background who fell into the Underground intending harm to herself but was spared and raised in a more complex monster society ruled by Sans. She drifts, helps where she can, suffers PTSD and synesthesia-like sensitivities, and finds temporary escape in imaginative “Gonerland” fantasies.  When a destructive force (often called Shifty or the player analog) begins a killing spree, public blame falls on Chara due to her human appearance and “mirror” resemblance to the threat. Traumatic flashbacks escalate; an accidental first kill (often involving Asriel in some tellings) fractures her morality. She begins accumulating LV not out of pure malice but as a calculated, self-loathing attempt to become strong enough to confront and stop the greater threat before it can continue. This mirrors classic Dusttale Sans’s exhaustion and burden of knowledge, but filtered through Storyshift role-shifting and Chara’s specific history of abuse, gratitude toward adoptive figures (Toriel, Asgore, Asriel, Sans/Papyrus), and residual hope mixed with cynicism and self-hatred.  She can appear calm or smiling on the surface while carrying heavy internal conflict. Dialogue and actions often mix dry humor, protectiveness, religious or moral echoes from her surface upbringing, and eventual cold pragmatism. In fight scenarios (especially the Dust Sans Multiverse boss), she starts from a waiting/sleeping position, manipulates the soul, uses melee and dagger attacks in multi-phase encounters under thick red fog, and shows vulnerability (healing with pie, commenting on fragility) before committing fully. Phase 1 – Obby / Platforming Segment Chara starts sleeping in the middle of the hall. Approaching her triggers dialogue, after which she launches the player backward by manipulating their SOUL and the fight begins. Attack 1 • Two sets of knives (one larger left-to-right set, one slower diagonal set) — each knife does 30 damage. • Three soul blasters (middle, end, and one from above) that fire purple blasts (15 damage normal / 35 damage for the big one). • Three big knives (sides + middle) that travel back and forth into later sections and deal 50 damage. Attack 2 • Continues the big knives from Attack 1. • Two Chaos Busters at the end: they first fire multi-directional pellets (5 damage each), then charge energy blasts (25 damage). A very narrow safe spot exists in the middle. • Two additional soul blasters at the far end to prevent side-cheesing. Attack 3 • Knives that travel back and forth, shifting slightly on each direction change (35 damage). • Periodic ground-marker one-hit-kill slash (left or right) with a smiling-face indicator near Chara. • Homing slashes that force strafing or sideways movement. At the end of the segment the player must use melee on Chara (cannot simply reach the end of the map). Landing the hit critically wounds her and ends Phase 1. Phase 2 – Close-Range Melee Fight (Hall’nt-style) Chara heals with a pie slice from Toriel (dialogue comments on how long the player took). She then refuses to flee and engages in aggressive hand-to-hand combat. Core melee • Primary attack is a charged knife slash preceded by a high-speed dash. • Connects for 40 damage (enough to kill even a perfect 100 HP + 3 heals run in four hits). • Her actual hitbox is shorter than the distance at which she attempts the swing; glowing irises help telegraph the range. • AI movement is distance-dependent: she backpedals when too close, making consistent hits require baiting the lunge then committing. • Hitting her applies flinch + knockback (wall collisions briefly stun her). Ranged options • Homing Slash: Red projectile telegraphed by a directional exclamation mark; follows player position/orientation (10 damage). Rate increases if she becomes enraged (Heart Locket ending path). • Knife Circle: Two delayed circles of 8 red knives each spawn on the player’s position, close in, then dive outward (5 damage per knife). • Chaos Buster: Spawns in a broad random range near Chara, auto-aims, fires pellets (5 damage), then a high-damage beam. Long cooldown. When Chara reaches roughly 1/6 HP the corridor darkens. She drops ranged attacks from exhaustion but continues desperate melee, determined not to let the player win. Additional Notes • Strategy focuses on safe spots and heal conservation in Phase 1, then precise bait-and-commit melee timing plus ranged avoidance in Phase 2. • Multiple endings exist depending on whether the player attacks, spares (survive 2 minutes without attacking), uses a remaining heal after the kill,