I think my modern AU for the Homestuck characters is one where the kids play SBURB and successfully recreate a merged version of their two universes, with Alternia and Earth both existing in the same universe. From a non-player perspective, life continued as normal from 2011-2016, but in actuality those years never happened. Now that the events causing the Dirk and Roxy's future have been avoided, major events continued approximately as they did in our universe until the present day. The kids and trolls are all currently 26 (in Earth years).
Canon happened slightly differently in that the retcon happened differently. Vriska was removed from harm an instant before she died--and so was Karkat and everyone else who died in GAME OVER, KID--but miraculously returned to the timeline just after John went back. They all band together to have the final battle and save the universe.
The universe that comes out is the alpha kids' universe, not the beta kids'. As far as the universe is concerned, John and Jade already lived and Rose and Dave lived their lives and one day disappeared. The beta kids don't exist as "people" as far as society is concerned, at least at first. (John has proper documentation and everything now, a passport, a social security number, all matched up as if Jane Crocker always had a brother. Dave Strider and Rose Lalonde always had heirs also named Dave (and Dirk) Strider and Rose (and Roxy) Lalonde, they were known eccentrics. It's just faked, with incredible skill by the machinations of people with reality bending magic powers). Dad and Jane were seen at his job and in school, but starting on 11/11/11, they were like ghosts of their former selves, just going through the motions - until they suddenly "came back to life" on April 13th, 2016, with a new "brother" and then a bunch of new "internet friends" moving in. There's so many official records to back up the lives of all these "internet friends"... Just no actual eye witness accounts. There's a lot of whispers of it on subreddits about unsolved mysteries.
On Alternia, the surviving trolls were just considered another dead wriggler. Karkat and Feferi were the only ones anyone noticed, both with great sadness by any group hoping to rebel. Her Imperial Condescension ruled as usual, completely unopposed--until one day, she was found dead. Troll society was in an uproar. And at the same moment she died, The Sufferer's Descendant came back to life.
This pubescent child was the Messiah.
Karkat got swept up in a movement he hadn't even known existed, from a scorned and despised mutant hiding and scrabbling to live with every ounce of willpower that he had to the worshipped head of a Holy Resistance. He became the most famous troll in all of Her Great Empire. Karkat Vantas, the Sufferer Reborn.
(Except he'd met the Sufferer, or at least an alternate kid version of him, and he had been a total prick. And now he had to live up to his teachings and more. And he really just wanted to find his friends and get over the trauma of what had just happened to him somewhere quiet and tucked away, so he could open up Trollian and message John, to make sure he and Dave and the others were okay.)
There was a great and violent rebellion. Many were killed. Vriska, Terezi and Kanaya were at the heart of it. Everyone knew who their ancestors were now. Vriska was finally special, and together, she and Terezi were better than everyone else at war. She wasn't just known, she was a hero.
It was horrible. She hated it. It didn't fix anything. She was a stupid girl would have died in that game if John Egbert had not been brave enough to save her, and the woman fighting beside her hadn't guided him to. Just because they loved her. She was horrible. She was vicious. She was hated and feared and she was loved.
She didn't know who she was anymore. So she fought. She was a legend. She fought with incredible powers no troll should ever have, that psionics didn't account for. And they won the war.
And then they got a spaceship to Earth as quickly as they could, because they needed to find their fucking friends.
(The only beings in the universe would ever understand, maybe not all of it, but some of it. Of course they'd been in contact all this time. Even when they were busy, they kept everyone updated.)
With advanced alien technology, the trolls can disguise themselves as humans easily. They make a grand escape from troll society. It feels cowardly to leave when there's still so much work to do, when there's still so much to change, but... They're just kids. They were always just kids, and they don't want to fight anymore.
So they sneak away. they stay with their human friends and crash at their places, and Karkat never actually moves out from Dave and Jade's place. John was already living alone. They all live in the same city. (I guess I have to decide a place? I'm gonna make it in the American desert. I'm moving there so, so soon to be with my girlfriend, and it will be fun to write from John's POV how it's different from my home town, which very similar in its Midwestern suburban-ness to John's.)
God tiers like John and Vriska are aging normally, still unable to die any death but a just or heroic one. They all have their powers still, god tier or not. It's basically NG+ now for them, and they still have access to their game features (but the world is locked and they cannot edit it. Everything is exactly as it was the moment Jane entered the medium). They're pretty set up for life and what they want to do with it.
I hope I will get to write them lots!!!!
