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The audio on https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/care and https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/character sound like the same initial sound to me. I've never heard anyone pronounce them differently.

I pronounce the first "a" in "character" the same as in "cat", and that's how it's pronounced in the audio here: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/character

???

An American could say 'care-acter', while an English person might say 'caract-er'.