Transcript: I'd love love LOVE to see more "alternate timelines" or AUs for Underverse and Xtale instead of the same "Truce, Ink found and inspired XGaster, and things spiraled out of control leading to the XEvent" and "Cross is in the Nightmare Gang now and either finds a place to belong or is in for a hellish, awful time and runs away into Dream's arms" tales. I know those settings are good for sadboi Cross angst hours but if I wanted to read the same kind of origin stories for Cross and Xtale over and over again I'd just rewatch Underverse. It really feels like there isn't much variation done with Xtale and Cross. Why not make an AU where Dream or Core Frisk meets XGaster first and it still goes horribly wrong in a new way? Maybe Core Frisk tries to directly steer XGaster away from whatever bad path they see for him and they go to meet him before Ink could but it goes even worse for everyone even though Ink isn't involved. And Dream's positive aura is addicting, right? How would that affect XGaster, his motives, and his creations? Or how about an AU where Ink finds out what XGaster's been doing to his kids, reflects how his own dads could have mistreated/manipulated/weaponized him, and he gets the kids out of there with XGaster chasing them across the Multiverse? Maybe a No Truce AU where Error finds Xtale before Ink can and XFrisk or XChara is the sole survivor that Ink manages to save from Error. Or an AU where Xtale is at peace and Cross is restless and inspired to become a Star Sans along with Dream, Ink, and Swap so they travel and defend the Multiverse together. Or an AU where no one finds Xtale and the Multiverse is not involved at all but XChara and XFrisk somehow survive XGaster's death so they have to live in their isolated world alone for a while and, Idk, Cross is an imaginary friend of theirs that becomes real or something. Anything different than Xtale and Cross's canon backgrounds and Nightmare's Gang Cross. Dream and Nightmare have a bunch of different AU selves that go into what-if territory, why not Cross and Xtale? Be creative! (Feel free to use any of these ideas, by the way.)
I have an AU--very canon divergent, fair warning--but it has similar story beats to XTALE/XTALE is important.
This is the unfinished reference sheet-- the AU is called Rad-End/Butterfly Effect. There's going to be more characters, and some OCs (as shown in the image, the human is an OC.)
Synopsis(?): Cross finds himself leading a rebellion against Fresh and his team, unaware of what's really going on behind the scenes. He can't help but feel like everything is so familiar...
If anyone has any questions about it, feel free to come in my inbox. :-]