what would you have me do?

THIS THIS! Chef's kiss

The night of Mirabel’s gift ceremony

Her older cousins and siblings have been hyping her up for the past few days, awaiting the new gift to be blessed on to Mirabel.

Camilo and Luisa have been bouncing ideas back and forth about what the littlest Madrigal’s gift will be.

The whole family, aside from Abuela, stands with Mirabel behind the curtain before the ceremony begins. Luisa lifts her baby sister into a big hug. Tía Pepa tears up at her little niece growing up. Dolores signals the family and plants a small kiss on Mirabel’s forehead. Julieta and Agustín give their beloved daughter final hugs and kisses, telling her they will be waiting at her door.

Bruno remains, Mirabel’s tiny hand grabbing on to his ruana tightly. He looks down and sees his niece’s eyes suddenly filled with unease. She quietly voices her fear of her gift not being helpful, of not making her family proud.

Though he understands her fears, his own gift becoming more of a curse in the past few years, but kneels down to her level, gently taking her little hands into his.

Bruno reassures her, that no matter what, she will make her family proud, even if he doesn’t believe it about himself. He realizes that Mirabel must have noticed her tío spending less time about in the village, distancing himself from his gift. He doesn’t believe that the miracle would bestow another gift like his upon sweet Mirabel.

Mirabel makes her way through casita with the townspeople watching in awe. Up the stairs, she sees her parents, holding each others’ hands, watching lovingly upon their baby daughter. And there’s Abuela, with the proudest smile, and Mirabel’s heart swells in pride and nervousness, wanting nothing more than to live up to the miracle.

And…

The door disappears. The golden light fades away when Mirabel puts her hand on the doorknob.

What had she done wrong? She looks to her Abuela, confused and hurt, wondering what happened? Why didn’t she get a gift.

Realizing what has happened, Agustín scoops up his little girl before anyone can see her tear flooded eyes.

There’s a commotion, Mirabel can tell, but the sound of her own heartbreak drowns out everything. Her parents are hugging her close, assuring her that everything will be okay, and that it is alright for her to cry.

It will be okay. It will be okay. Something must be wrong. We can fix it. It will be okay.

The whole family is heartbroken for their Mirabel, and a gentle rainstorm covers the entire town.

Her sisters and cousins try to cheer her up, only to miserably backfire when Camilo tries shifting into his favorite cousin and Isabela blooms a crown of flowers in Mirabel’s hair, and Mirabel bursts into tears.

After a few hours, her parents leave her to sleep, her tears having subsided a little bit ago. They each plant a kiss on her head, promising her a better day tomorrow.

It’s dark out now. The soft pitter-patter of rain and the distant calls of the rainforest wildlife filling in the night.

Mirabel lies wide awake, staring at the opposite side of the room. The room she had shared with cousin Camilo only a few months ago. Camilo who now had a gift, and his own room to match, something she was not worthy of having.

There’s a gentle knock on her door, and after a pause, she hears an ever familiar ‘Mirabel?’

The door to the nursery opens with a quiet creak, and her tío Bruno walks in. She sits up in her bed, and he makes his way over, kneeling down in front of her.

Mirabel leans forward with a choked sound, her tears returning. She asks him what she did wrong. Bruno can feel his own tears coming back, and smooths his niece’s hair down as he hugs her.

You did nothing wrong, he whispers. It is okay.

It’s all he can say.

He can’t tell her about his now shattered vision.

He can’t tell her just how scared his mother is.

He can’t tell her she will never see him again.

After a while, she has fallen asleep, and Bruno tucks her back under her blankets. He plants a kiss on her forehead, removing his hand from her’s.

She won’t remember this. She won’t remember the comfort of her family. But she will remember how broken this night made her feel.

But there’s nothing else he can do, and Bruno closes the nursery door for the last time.

When she wakes, her tío is gone and nowhere to be found.

Bruno was probably caught sneaking around the house/into the kitchen multiple times but thanks to his impeccable acting skills he always managed to pass himself off as Camilo playing a prank, running away before whoever caught him demands he change back

Camilo, meanwhile, is confused why he keeps getting scolded for “creeping around the house as Bruno” while Dolores just sits and watches

Every Madrigal has a sort of, side effect, to their gifts.

Camilo has to eat twice as much as normal and sleeps a ton because of all the energy shapeshifting needs. He also has to carry around a picture of himself, since he forgets what he looks like.

Isabela doesn't do well in the dark. She's slow and tired, and while she doesn't need to eat much she does drink a lot more than anyone else.

Dolores gets overstimulated super easy, that much is obvious. After being overstimulated, however, everything goes completely silent. She can't hear anything. Even years after it started happening she still panics.

Julieta can't feel pain. She'll be cooking for hours and come out of it with burns on her hands and wrists, unable to feel it. Her own cooking also doesn't work on her as well as it would someone else. While another person's cut will dissapear completely with her food, if she had the same cut it would simply scab over.

Bruno gets mini visions throughout the day, just small flashes of a possible future or action. He's physically incapable of telling the difference between these mini visions and real life. He'll be going to ask Abuela a question only to see a mini flash or her getting upset and he gets upset in turn, only for it to turn out he still had yet to ask his question. He also has frequent migraines

Pepa is physically incapable of feeling anything mildly. For her emotions it's either all or nothing. She can't feel just a little upset that her favourite dress has a new tear, she's devastated to the point that everything's flooding. She can't be just a bit happy with the gift a family member has painstakingly made her, she's overjoyed to the point the encanto experiences a mini drought.

Luisa doesn't feel tired. Whether it's the fatigue from working/exercising or even just generally feeling tired at the end of a long day, she doesn't feel it. It's resulted in multiple pulled muscles and passing out from lack of sleep.

Antonio has long periods of time where he can't understand anyone but his animals, like the people around him are all speaking in a completely different language.

I love the idea of Isabela's part of We Don't Talk About Bruno not being a vision at all. Like, I just imagine Bruno tucking in his niece after her gift ceremony, and he notices she's kinda freaking out after everything in the day, and like:

"He told me that the life of my dreams Would be promised and someday be mine He told me that my power would grow Like the grapes that thrive on the vine"

Only, when he told her it'd probably be worded more like this:

"Kid, you're gonna have the life of your dreams one day, I promise. Your power is gonna grow like... uh... like grapes! Grapes on a vine! Because you're sweet like a fruit, and your power is- okay that one kinda didn't work as well out loud, but, y'know what I mean."

And then little Isabela asks if he saw it in a vision, and he chuckles and says yeah, because it'd be nice to predict something nice for once, and he hopes that this particular prediction will come true.

Broke: Encanto isn't really set in a narrow time range but it must after the invention of telenovelas because Bruno references them

Woke: It's not recent at all and Bruno literally watches Telenovelas from the future.

Streams that shit like HBO Max. Frickin eyes glowing green and shit, in his room back there in the walls, meanwhile no one else knows what a TV is.