Hey this has been a thought bouncing round my head. Thought I’d crack it open and ask so;
What are your thoughts on a modern version of TETS and TEDAD (The Embers Dim and Die sorry lmao)
Would that ruin the outline of the story or would it just be a particular challenge on doing more research.
Because say it’s modern and they still have their gifts. Would that change a lot of the story and how it’s supposed to be?
Anyways just a thought— love your writing 😁.
This is a great question! I've actually got a number of different modern AU plots floating around, so I've definitely got some thoughts on how something like that would play out!
Usually in these modern AUs they're still set in the town of the Encanto and the Madrigals still have their powers, everything's just been modernized to fit into a 21st century time period: phones, cars, internet, all that. The Madrigals still use their Gifts in helpful ways, though many of them have jobs or hustles on the side - Julieta volunteers in the nearby hospital, the dads have proper jobs, some of the grandkids have internet followings, etc.
Modern!Mateo, meanwhile, is kind of considered a different entity from canon!Mateo, as his motivations aren't as... "profound" as they are in the stories, though there's still an element of obsession and believing Camilo to be his perfect match. In a present-day setting it wouldn't be nearly so easy as for Mateo to do what he does without being noticed - so he's forced to handle things in a more modern way.
There are officially 4 variations of a modern TEtS/AtEDaD storyline that have been drafted within the discord server, with 4.0 more or less being declared the "official" one. They share a lot of the same story beats so there's a lot of repeated elements. Note that these outlines may contain upsetting contents, please read with caution. I've put the descriptions under a readmore for this reason:
1.0 is more or less the very first TEtS AU to exist so it's not as polished, but the gist is that Mateo is a college student Camilo meets while crashing a college party. After a period of befriending, manipulation, and isolation, Mateo tricks Camilo into traveling with him to a motel in the middle of nowhere. However, Dolores was able to hear him leave, and follows them in her own vehicle to thwart the worst from happening. She is able to rescue him and have Mateo arrested, with them returning home battered but safe.
2.0 also sees Mateo as a college-aged friend, though Mateo's approach this time is much more sinister and violent. He uses party drugs to render Camilo unconscious, and films himself doing inappropriate things while he's incapacitated. This goes on until Camilo finds the recordings, horrified by their contents, leading Mateo to outright abduct Camilo to a derelict house off the highway. This AU is the first in which Tomás is an important player; this time he's the one to spot Mateo in a bar as an alert of the kidnapping is broadcast to his phone, so he's able to follow him and help free Camilo while his family catches up. This is the one time Mateo's actually taken out by one of Pepa's lightning strikes!
3.0 was born from an offhand comparison to a character from Life is Strange, and as such is the first depiction of Mateo being Camilo's high school photography teacher, living on his own in a small apartment in a nearby city. He gains Camilo's trust by being the "cool teacher," letting him skip class and hang out in his room, taking him out to do fun things, and eventually asking him to be his private model. This route also involves the use of drugs, primarily for Mateo to pose Camilo in certain ways, but the "sleeping spells" cause Camilo trouble at home when his parents have him tested and it's discovered he's got drugs in his system. Unfortunately they assume he's been partying and the rift between them only pushes Camilo further towards Mateo. This one doesn't actually have an ending, but it ended off with Camilo again discovering Mateo's been the one drugging him and trying to escape, allowing Dolores to hear him and try to help.
4.0 also sees Mateo as Camilo's teacher, but it harkens back to the first variant where Mateo takes Camilo to a motel after gaining his trust and isolating him from his friends and family. Unfortunately things go terribly wrong for Camilo here, and when he's returned home he's withdrawn, irritable, and even more divided from his family who aren't too happy with him going on a roadtrip without permission. We've played with a few different resolutions to this one, with Camilo finally opening up to a number of candidates, but the first and favorite scenario was having him open up to Agustín in the middle of the night as a parallel to TEtS Chapter 4. Mateo is again arrested and Camilo's able to sleep a little easier at night.
