#alt_timeline

[komododad1]

For now, however, the Ta-383s seemed to be doing just what Hall though they would. For a few perilous seconds, they careened towards the border in direct collision with Hall and his wingman. Their collision course then gradually turned into a long, graceful right-hand turn, with all four fighters maintaining the irregular wedge formation the Germans called a 'schwarm' as their coursed morphed into one flying northward, directly parallel with Hall's CAP on the German side of the border. And then there they were; two American fighters and four German ones flying within eyesight of one another on either side of an international border in the middle of a Cold War crisis.

- Finally getting around to doing some actual stories in my Black Sun universe (working my way up to some bigger projects in the works). You can go read the story, "Sunset Showdown", over on AO3 or on FA.

[ut-divergence]

Divergence Starting Synopsis

Hope.

Such a simple word to encompass such a powerful force. Without it, existence itself begins to lose its meaning and vibrance, but with it one might come to feel that they can do anything, no matter the obstacles before them.

After the Great War, monsterkind had little of this precious substance to go around, trapped behind the Barrier through the cruel will of humanity. Thus they retreated deep into the bowels of the earth, and after a time those on the Surface above relegated their existence to mere myth and legend.

Eventually they adjusted to their new life beneath the earth, thanks in large part to the efforts of the seven Noble Houses and the Crown’s chief Royal Scientist. This ultimately led to the expansion of monsterkind out of Home into the rest of what became known as the Underground, in time leaving only a scant few behind in what was once a bustling metropolis.

Then it happened: their first encounter with another human in countless years.

For a moment it seemed as though the whole of monsterkind held its collective breath, the fears from that long ago war resurfacing in those soulbeats before the young Dreemurr heir demonstrated his inherit kindness to the fallen child, befriending her. It wouldn’t be long before the Dreemurr family adopted Chara as their very own, and seeing the possibility of peace with humanity in this new era, hope once again blossomed in the hearts of monsterkind.

Tragically, in a single night a mere few years later, the hope that had blossomed in the Underground was slain as the Dreemurr House lost – not one – but both its children to the cruelty of humankind. All of monsterkind grieved, but none moreso than the King and Queen who had just lost both their children in a single day. It would ultimately tear that once adoring couple apart, the Queen abdicating her duty in favor of self-imposed, self-righteous exile, leaving the King alone with the burden of a war he had declared out of grief and anger.

Thus hope slowly returned to the Underground as the majority of monsterkind supported their King’s proclamation, the few who dissented gradually silenced by the vocal portion who were out for blood as payment for those lives lost and the freedom they had been so long denied.

It was not the only thing to blossom in the caverns below, as the seeds of those beloved golden flowers from above had taken root in the castle’s gardens where Asriel’s dust had scattered, eventually culminating in a gilt carpet that had been Chara’s dying wish to see. It was perhaps a cruel reminder for the King of what he had lost, and yet, unable to let go, they were tended and allowed to flourish. One blossom in particular seemed to flourish with unusual abundance, larger than all the rest, and became a prized fixture in those gardens daily walked by the King.

Then one day, it woke up it was gone.

Awoken by an unknown power for an unknown purpose, the former heir of the Dreemurr House found himself resurrected in the form of one of the golden flowers that his best friend had yearned for on her deathbed. It was perhaps an apropos application of karma, for it was his betrayal that had led to their mutual death, but such existence proved hollow without a soul to know true love. This emptiness pushed the reborn Asriel to the very brink of death once again, as he did not wish to live in a world without love, but the fear of what came after would lead to the discovery of the greatest gift and curse anyone could ever have:

The power to Reset.

Thus began the manipulations of the entity that would become known as the “Anomaly” to those who studied its effects on the timeline over centuries and generations of monsterkind. It was perhaps not the only being with such power – for with time more humans fell into the Underground, their souls gradually collected at the King’s behest with their greater levels of Determination to be studied by the Crown’s scientists, including the renowned Doctor Gaster – but it was certainly the most persistent as it always eluded any attempts to put an end to it.

Having held the entirety of a people he was onced destined to serve at his mercy for generations, Asriel – or Flowey as he now called himself – had gradually grown tired of these manipulations, finding monsterkind to have become predictable and no longer able to provide the same amusement that it once had.

But just as he was growing tired of the game, something new happened: he discovered monsters who were Aware of these changes he was making in time. No mere deja vu, these few beings he gradually determined retained some level of real memories for the previous timelines he had destroyed, thus giving him something entirely new to toy with as they would always try something different due to this foreknowledge.

It was the most fun Flowey had had in centuries.

Attempting to Reset in the aftermath of his latest game with one of these Aware entities, something very different happened, however. Instead of returning him to his last “save” as expected, they were sent back several months instead, reverting the Underground to a significantly earlier state. The cause of this unusual Reset was unknown, but what quickly caught Flowey’s attention was how various monsters across the Underground began acting in new and different ways to how they had in all previous timelines the former heir had seen, setting into motion an entirely new chain of events unlike any other. They still retained their core identities, but their new actions in this timeline rendered them anomalies themselves, much to Flowey’s fascination.

With so many new things to entertain him, the Underground was finally interesting again, leading to the former heir taking a more observational role in the shadows once again to see what these anomalies would do with their newfound freedom, though not without some subtle prodding from its petaled deity to try and nudge events in his favor.

But with so many cogs now turning in original and unusual ways, things in the Underground are no longer as content as they might have once seemed, with figures in the shadows also manipulating monsterkind in surreptitious ways that have the potential to reshape the entirety of society as we know it. But where there are those who would seek to tear down the kingdom, there can arise heroes who seek to save it, and thus faces familiar and foreign will take this newly set stage to determine the fate of an entire nation.

If you’d like to know more or to follow the development of this Undertale alternate timeline I am developing, feel free to join us on Discord: Divergence Discord Server