Story Encanto: Mirabellious!

Mirabellious: Double Destiny?

An Encanto Fanfic

Written by: NehruAmidala

Author’s notes: After watching Encanto on Disney+, I was curious about many subjects raised by the film, especially Mirabel’s gift (or perceived lack thereof on her fifth birthday), Casita’s communication’s with her only(?), and what that would entail, I began to wonder what would happen if Casita somehow knew the events of the film would happen, and decided to intervene somewhat and give Mirabel a gift, a mundane, but useful gift but also…what if Bruno’s plaque shattered and that got absorbed into the door, revealing a double destiny. Would Alma hold her to the same impossible standard of perfection like Isabella or a drudge like Luisa? So, the power I chose for Mirabel is…electricity!

Why electricity? Well, it can power lights, radios and the like (this is 1950’s Colombia after all), and it can be used as a weapon against anyone trying to attack the village. It also requires a good amount of STEM knowledge to control safely. Also, electricity is used for defibrillators for heart attack victims, tying Mirabel to her mother’s healing skills.


This story is my attempt at exploring what would happen in this case. Here are a few facts to keep in mind as you go into this story: Pedro’s soul has been reincarnated as Casita and speaks to everyone, but they take this for granted as Alma ignores it. Julieta sneaks Bruno food whenever she can via his rats, and that’s about it.

Mocosa means brat in Spanish, FYI.


Chapter 1: The Reveal


Bruno Madrigal had been in tears in his bedroom the morning his sobrina, Mirabel, turned five years old. His vision had shown her standing in front of Casita, the Madrigal family estate, and it was an eerie verde. Ugh, what was it with Casita cursing another child with a terrible gift, no gift at all? He could very well all the resentment and emotional abuse and neglect that would come with, his mother was a stern woman after all, and who could blame her? With trembling hands and bleary eyes in his lonely room, he and his rat friends had raged against this fate. “How could you? You are a terrible, terrible man, letting your granddaughter face this,” he had railed.


Casita had heard, the floors of the room shifting, a soft song playing on the hand carved ocarina, the worn furniture moving so he could sit down and allow himself to breathe, and an opening in the floor opened, followed by a nod. Bruno could only stare, “You…you want me to feed you the prophecy? Mama is not going to like that. She’ll turn Mirabel into a mini-Alma, she’s already turning Isa into a proper mocosa, I can see Isa is going along with it because she’s pretty like Julieta was at that age…oh well…” He sighed, and Casita tapped at his feet comfortingly. The rats turned to him, should they check on Mirabel? He nodded, so off they scampered, silently.

Upstairs on the second floor, it had been a different story altogether. Whenever a child in the madrigal family turned 5 years old, Abuela Alma would bring the candle and recite the story of how a miracle had been granted to their family and friends when the civil war of the mid 1800’s had brought violence to their doorstep. Since then, the Madrigals used their gifts to help the community to grow and thrive. Alma gave birth to triplets, Julieta, Pepa and Bruno. Julieta healed people through her food, which she gave away for free. Pepa could control the weather, and she used this to help the farmers grow crops and refill the waterways that crisscrossed the areas should the border river outside their boundaries faced a drought, and Bruno had visions.


Pepa had married Felix, and Julieta had married Agustin, and they each had three children. Pepa and Felix’s eldest was Delores, who could hear everything and anything. Julieta’s eldest two were the twins, Isabella and Luisa, and their powers were making flowers grow and super strength respectively. They were 10 years old, and the two youngest were Mirabel and Camillo. Camillo’s was Delores’s younger brother, and Mirabel was the twin’s younger sister. Camillo was born in January, and his power was shapeshifting into different people, and today was Mirabel’s birthday!


She was sitting on a stool in the nursery as Luisa lovingly brushed her hair, “Oy, you are so cute Mira!” One more yank through the unruly curls, and it was on with the white cotton and lace dress, Mirabel beamed proudly at her gathered family members. Isa stuck her head in the door and asked, “Are you ready?” Mirabel nodded, “Si! I am ready.” Giggling, she clutched at her sister’s hands and beamed at the older girl’s beauty, and Luisa rolled her eyes. Ugh!


As she walked towards her expectant family, the colored tiles lining the walls seemed brighter, the whole day was happier. Finally, standing at blank part at the back of the house where all the bedrooms were, Alma approached her granddaughter, “Mi hija, today you are five years old. You are Mirabel Esperanza Madrigal, today is the day you will receive Casita’s blessing. Close your eyes and pray for what you want.” Excitedly, Mirabel clasped her hands, her eyes crinkling behind her glasses, curls bouncing up and down with her Mary Janes.


All the adults watched as a door formed on the wall, a slimy verde but then a brilliant yellow! Flashes of lighting surrounded Mirabel and she laughed joyously at the feeling around her, phantom radios and lightbulbs floating like lanterns in the air, and perhaps most strangely of all, the candle (the family candle) appeared on Mirabel’s door, with a lightning bolt etched on it, a smiling Mirabel gently holding it!


Just as suddenly at the glowing began, it stopped, and the door remained. It opened and revealed a room that seemed to be part science lab, part bedroom. Mirabel opened her eyes, “Oh wow!” Oh wow was the right phrase to say, nobody knew how to react to this. Nobody had been given such a power before, when Alma had been a young woman, electricity was only beginning to be studied in the far away cities of Chicago and New York, not in Colombia certainly. On the one hand, electricity was deadly and was dangerous. On the other hand, it could be used for useful and wonderful things to make lives better. It would a balancing act Mirabel would have to learn, but she was a bright little girl, she could easily rise to the task. The other gift they had not been expecting. Alma was not going to live forever, every good Roman Catholic knew that what they were not expecting was the announcement of a new caretaker for Casita, to make long term decisions for the community of 7,000 people and animals living in their immediate area. Why had Casita chosen Mirabel? Was electricity not enough?


As they parents began to discuss this amongst themselves, Alma decided to end the chatter. She gently knelt and smiled gently at Mirabel, “Mirabel, your electricity is a wonderful gift. You will help the villagers in many ways, and when you are older, I will teach you how to care properly for Casita.” She wiped away a tear of pride, and Casita seemed to let out a sigh of relief, so far so good.


Following a new door, the child’s powers were announced at the church and a grand festival was held in the child’s honor. The people cheered Mirabel’s new powers and she showed off, although Pepa did have to wrangle a few lightning strikes that went awry. Bruno hung around the edges, and Julieta offered him some of the ropas Viejas she and Pepa had cooked last night. “I..I shouldn’t be here,” he confessed quietly as the guests began to edge away. Julieta smiled kindly at him, as the only family member who ever took up for him (as did Agustin), she was about to let him take some food when Alma rushed over in a huff, clearly distressed.


“Bruno, why are you here?”


“I came to see Mira, heard she got her door today!”


“What did you see?”


“See? What…what do you mean?”


Alma grabbed him by the ear and whispered something to his hear, Bruno turned his back to her defiantly and left, taking the food with him. Julieta caught the smug look in her mother’s eyes and got in her mother’s face, “I don’t know what you said to Bruno, but let me make something very clear. Mira will not turn into a mocosa like Isa. You did that yourself.” She turned around and walked away to spend time with her husbands and daughters, who were already mugging for the cameras for the newspapers tomorrow.


Alma could only shake her head in dismay at her daughter’s behavior, how could Julieta not see what she did was for the best for everyone? Did they not know what sacrifices she had made?


The only problem with Alma’s argument was yes, everyone could see, and while they were grateful for what the Madrigals did for them, they were resentful of Alma wanting to have everything go in her favor. They knew her heartache, they were sympathetic, but she asked too much from her family, and gave very little in return, at least that’s what the locals thought. All they could do was be supportive in what ever way they could.

 

Love it. Honestly I love what you did for Mirable. I look forward to knowing what else will happen.

 

Thank you so much for the review, I really appreciate that. I watched the film and I had a lot of questions about what would have happened if she did get a gift, and Bruno's prophecy was not seen for what it was, or that Mirabel *was* the gift, and nobody bothered to connect the dots. Chapter two coming up!
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Mirabellious: Double Destiny?

An Encanto Fanfic

Written by: FossilQueen1984

Chapter 2: Growing up in La Familia Madrigal

From the get go, it was obvious that Casita’s gifts caused a variety of problems in the classroom, for bot the pupil and students. Of course, Alma only allowed them to use their powers during the lunch hour, and on the weekends after chores had been finished because playing with powers helped them learn the best way to use and focus said gifts as they got older. At least, that was the case for Pepa, Bruno and Julieta. When they were teenagers, science courses could be taught around their powers, especially biology, chemistry, physics and earth sciences. Their peers had certainly enjoyed being outdoors…just not when the temperatures had been too extreme.

The grandchildren and their gifts had given rise to a whole new set of problems. Luisa and Isabella had no trouble at school, the grounds looked their best and furniture being moved always got done in a snap with those two, but the others were a mixed bag. Mirabel was a walking battery who would accidentally zap people if she wasn’t up and constantly walking about, letting herself “discharge” into the very building at selected times of the day, dictated by her abuela. There was also the fact Mira was to be taught everything there was to know about electricity, so this required a constant study of math and science courses well above a girl her age. Mirabel was a quick study, so the teachers had no problem with her walking around her classroom reading the selected readings from the literature or history textbooks in the morning, jolts of lightning rising from her curls, and after lunch attending classed with her sisters and Delores.


Camillo of course, was decent at school, but could not resist the chance to go around shifting to look like his teachers and get out of doing as much homework as possible. Mirabel thought he was hilarious, and so did his friends. After all, what good was shapeshifting if you didn’t enjoy it? His teachers and parents weren’t thrilled with his antics, and neither was his grandmother. But then again, if he didn’t practice, how was he going to be able to infiltrate the enemy if they ever invaded the valley? With the Cold War going on (news curtesy of the radio towers Mirabel powered), they needed to be ready at a moment’s notice. It wasn’t his fault he wanted to have a good time, school was boring, except for history class and the cute girls. He loved history class, and Alma wanted him to take over as history teacher when he came of age because of that.


Lastly, there was Delores. She was in the same grade at the twins, but her academic record wasn’t nearly as shiny as her siblings, and that filled her with shame and dread. When she was six years old, she did not learn long division, fractions and decimals like Mirabel did, she fiddled with her abacus, brown eyes focusing on the colored wooden beads in the ones places on the abacus in her hands as her classmates laughed and whispered, distracting her from the tasks at hand. Beyond them, she could hear the professoras congratulate the older students completing equations or doing well on an exam. Her teacher’s chilly voice reached her, “Are you listening to me, nina?” Haltingly, she nodded and winged the correct answer. When she was nine years old, she could not tell jokes or make her friends roar with laughter the way Camilo did. She would crane to listen when a teacher was coming back and whisper for her friends to sit down, only to be the last one standing. Her teachers would stand sternly with hands to hips and ask, “Well, Delores? What did you hear? Tell us, por favor.” She would be forced to tell what had happened, and that day, she had gone to Abuela in a flood of tears.


Alma had settled things quietly, but from then on, Delores felt compelled to know what everyone was saying, and not just about her. For the first year or so, this was done to spite everyone who said bad things about her, and also her family. There was just so much noise, noise, noise! She could hardly stand it! Thankfully, she was able to focus what she heard by cupping her hand over her ear and leaning in one direction. This had taken a lot of practice, and with some difficulty. Even with mastery, school life was hard.


At school, Isabella would steal her lunch and notebooks and toss them around in the air, playing keep away and mock her poor handwriting. Luisa would try to intervene, but Alma would have none of this. She publicly humiliated Luisa on school grounds, and Delores allowed the bullying to continue. Delores kept her school supplies closer to her body after that. She funneled her broken heart into becoming the town gossip, knowing what everyone said and accepting Isabella’s superiority in the school’s social hierarchy.


By the time Camilo and Mirabel were eleven years old, Pepa gave birth to another boy, Antonio. Camilo was thrilled to no end, finally- another boy! Tonino was a sweet, easygoing baby who liked everyone, except for Isabella, who was prickly and standoffish around small children. Alma was bothered by this, how was Isa going to be a good mother if she was this was around children? Isa, instead of arguing and saying she felt uncomfortable, swallowed and put on a show for everyone. Julieta could see the conflict in her daughter’s eyes and shook her head. Such a waste.


It was about this time Alma took it upon herself to teach Mirabel what it meant to be Casita’s caretaker. As it was, Casita spoke to everyone but this was taken for granted. A pipe was broken? Have Luisa bend and fix the pipes with her bare hands while the plumbers diverted the water elsewhere? The plants wilted in the front yard? Have Pepa create a storm and have Isabella grow new bushes and flowers. Power lines into town knocked down in a freak wind storm? Have Mirabel run the power through to town while the poles were rebuilt. Now, that the gifts were more or less under control, it was time for Mirabel Madrigal to step up to bat.


Considering her age, which was 11, and the fact she was still in school and Julieta was leary of her mother doing anything alone with the girl, Alma made sure her first lessons with Mirabel were out in public. Mirabel, who was always interested in the goings on of Encanto, followed her grandmother to the Town Council meeting. “Remember mija,” Alma told the child, “you must listen to everything the Town Elders say. Once they are finished, you will listen to me decide what laws and ordinances will be passed. There will be discussions, of course. They will argue against what I say because they don’t want what’s best for Encanto.”


Mirabel could feel her eyes tear up, “They…they want to hurt our home? That’s so mean!” Kneeling, the older woman kissed her granddaughter’s brow, “Oh, you have you such a bright soul, Mirabel! The Town Council, they mean well. But, they cannot truly know what is best for everyone because they are not a Madrigal. Do you understand?” Mirabel’s brow knit together in confusion, she did not understand at all. Wouldn’t they all want what was in the best interest of Encanto? What ever happened to compromising? That’s what Mami and Papi did with her and the twins all the time, and she said as much to her grandmother as they neared the yellow brick building that served at the town’s political hub.


Inside the upstairs chamber meant for meetings sat Father Vasquez, Senora Ruiz, Senor Pascal and Senora Bolivar (no relation to Simon Bolivar), and they rose and nodded to Alma and were a little shocked to see Mirabel there. “Mirabel is too young to attend this meeting, even if she is the next Caretaker,” Father Vasquez scolded. The others nodded in agreement; this was neither the time nor place for children. Mirabel would have spoken up if Alma had not placed a hand on her shoulder. At this, Mirabel felt cold for a second. Why was she not allowed to speak? Alma gave her granddaughter a small look, and Mirabel retracted her thought, best to let the adults speak first.


“I have brought Mirabel with me so she can observe what we discuss here,” Alma retorted plainly as churros and tea were brought in, and Mirabel was allowed to have. Bolivar and Ruiz made the argument that there was no need, the vote would go in Alma’s favor, every single time. Since when did Alma Madrigal decide what was best for everyone? Mirabel let out a small gasp, was there going to be a fight?


Father Vasquez jumped up, “We do not need to fight, we are adults and there is a child here. Ergo, let us conduct ourselves in the best manner possible. Tonight’s agenda includes moving the market days around for the next calendar year, taking El Nino into account, the wastrels sneaking in and siphoning off the communion wine and the budget for the remedial summer program for the school.” The others nodded and got to work, and the meeting began.


As far as Mirabel was concerned, it was really boring! Why was she even here? She knew it was a huge honor to stay up late on a school night and go with Abuela to one of her meetings, but they were talking about things that were boring, to her anyway. Is that why she was here, to get used to boring stuff? She began running calculations in her head as a way to focus?


As she focused, she could see something. Anytime anyone said something, Alma would counter and twist their words in such a way that it came as an attack. Why was that? Didn’t they want what was the best? She was confused, she would ask later. Alma could sense Mirabel’s confusion, that was good. It would make it easier to ensure Mirabel’s loyalty to her. The meeting drew to an end, and as the council members left in bad moods, Mirabel asked why they were always so grumpy.


As they walked along the road back to Casita, Alma told her, “You did well tonight, mija. Just remember, when you are at a meeting, you must be quiet and watch.” Mirabel nodded, and went off to bed. Alma also turned in.


Today had been a good day.

 

Interesting and fun story - now I wish to see the movie. It looks to have superb worldbuilding.

 

Thank you for the reviews! I want to go back and edit this at some point in the near future. So stay tuned!

 

I sure will keep an eye out because the film proved marvelously entertaining.