[Encanto] C: 1 - Meet the Family

Greetings! My name is Salem Madrigal, and I am a part of the Family Madrigal, a blessed family with many gifts and a Miracle.

At the head of the family was our Abuela, Alma, who has led our family ever since it was blessed by the Miracle.

You see, long ago, our Abuela along with our Abuelo, our grandfather, lived in a small village, and due to some conflict, fled the village along with others to find a new place in which they could make their new home.

However, the conflict still followed, and Abuelo sacrificed himself to stop it.

In our Abuela's grief, our Miracle awoke inside a small candle that refused to ever extinguish and our Casita formed before her eyes as she held her three babies.

Witnessing the miracle before their eyes that built an entire building, those along with Abula decided to build their new home here, their Encanto.

And when Tia(Aunt) Julieta, Tio(Uncle) Bruno, and Madre(Mother) Pepa reached five years old, our Casita, our Miracle blessed them with gifts.

When they turned five, blank shimmering gold doors appeared in the Casita, and when my Aunt, Uncle, and Mother inserted a door knob into the blank doors, a golden light washed out from the door knob and over the shimmering door, forming a portrait of glowing gold that depicted them as full-grown adults.

When they inserted the knobs into these doors, and their rooms were generated once they stepped in, they unlocked their powers.

Each generated room was seemingly designed to suit the person the most.

As for their gifts, my Mother got a gift where her mood and emotions could affect the weather, when she is happy and excited, it's a nice clear and sunny day, but when she's mad or sad, it could be a thunderstorm or rainstorm.

My Aunt Julieta got the gift of healing anyone who eats her food, her food completely heals any sickness, pain, or broken bone, and in one case, has even regrown a man's arm.

And my Uncle Bruno...well, he got the gift of Prophecy, giving him the ability to see in the future and see possible outcomes.

But, due to his gift and the general bad things he saw, he was an outcast within the family and eventually left on the night of my cousin Mirabel's ceremony night and his door faded in time.

My Aunt Julieta and her husband Agustin had three children, Mirabel, Isabela, and Luisa.

Mirabel is a year older than me and should have gotten her gift last year, but her door faded away during her ceremony, leaving Mirabel with no gift, Isabela got a gift that involves plants and flowers and calls herself 'Perfect,' and Luisa's gift made her very strong and tough.

Meanwhile, my Mother Pepa and my Father Felix gave birth to me and my two siblings, Dolores, who can hear a pin drop from miles away, and my brother Camilo who got his Shapeshifting gift a few months prior from when Mirabel should have gotten one.

Then there's me, my gift ceremony was tonight and because of Mirabel's strange gift ceremony last year, there seemed to be a big pressure on me from the family.

While my family saw me as a relatively normal kid, I was far from normal.

You see, I happened to be a Reincarnator, and this whole world was a Movie in my old world.

So while I may be physically five years old, mentally, I was 25 years old.

And I had another problem that made me different from the others, that I still haven't told my family about.

You see, they assume I am a girl, and...they are partially correct.

You see, for some reason unknown to me, I can freely, with just a thought, switch between genders.

I can go from having my breasts and my vagina to a dick and pecks, which is a strange sensation.

I can even combine them, having a dick and vagina at the same time, though in that situation I don't have the balls a guy would have, that's not all, I can also manipulate the size of my breasts, dick, and balls.

I think my family and parents would freak out if they knew that I could switch my gender whenever I wished when I haven't even gotten my gift 'yet'.

As for why I am excited about my gifting ceremony? It's because this place is awfully boring.

It's in the late 1940s, so not even video games or computers exist yet, which, as a person born in the 21st century, 2004 to be exact, is awfully boring.

The village doesn't even have books!

So, yeah. Whatever power I get, I just hope it will be interesting enough to help pass the time or just be generally interesting enough to entertain me.

Currently, I was staying with Mirabel in the Nursery and have been sharing it with her for the last year.

I could remember a bit of the plot of the movie but have forgotten a lot of it in these five years, what little I did remember, I only managed to remember by writing it down when I gained enough control over my motor functions when I was a baby.

As for Castila, I had no doubt it knew about my situation, or at least my Gender swapping and possibly even what I remember because of what I wrote down.

You see, Castila seems to have a consciousness, being capable of manipulating and moving the entire house and interacting with all of the family daily everywhere, I talked with it daily, and it always showed that it was always listening, and even gave some replies by moving doors, tiles, and more, but it couldn't exactly speak or write.

Mirabel has been taking it pretty hard since she wasn't given a gift, and that was hitting her the most today.

So, when I stepped into the Nursery that acted as our room until we get one Castila along with our gift and saw no signs of Mirabel, I smirked and while holding my skirt down, bent over and peeked under the bed, to see Mirabel with a frown and in tears.

Crawling under the bed, I bumped against her shoulders, and asked with worry, "Are you doing okay?"

"What...What if you don't get a gift either? Will it be because of me?" Mirabel asked, sad.

"Shush, it wasn't your fault, and it will not be your fault if I don't get a gift, you are just as special as the rest of us, and I wish you could have one, besides, if I don't get a power, there's no way you're going to get rid of me, ha!" I joked which made her smile.

Grabbing her hand, I pulled her with me out from under the bed and stood up, pulling her up with me.

Holding her hand, I motioned toward the bed and we both sat down.

"You don't have to be so worried, okay?" I told her.

"But-," I interrupted her, "No buts, I need you...I want you to walk with me tonight..." I told with seriousness and a pleading tone.

From what little I remember of the movie, my cousin Mirabel needed some serious confidence boosting and support, due to everyone in the family but her having powers in the movie, she was having an incredibly difficult time in Encanto, her village, I even remember some of the side characters constantly mentioning her lack of powers and that she 'only got in the way,' probably making her feel even worse and useless.

It doesn't help that in the movie only her mother and father seemed to actually care about her feelings.

Hearing a small bit of noise and looking over to the corner, I could see Casita moving some tiles to show a clock.

"Come on, the ceremony starts in a few minutes, let's go," I told her, getting up and pulling her with me.

Walking over to the door to the nursery, I pushed it open and looked upon the courtyard sitting at the center of the building while on the second-floor walkway.

The activity was abuzz as the members of our family and some townspeople put up decorations, lit candles made food, and so much more.

It was a beautiful scene, but, underneath it all, we both could see that everyone was nervous, nervous that I may not get a gift.

Giving Mirabel a smile, I pulled her closer and we began walking side by side down the stairs to the courtyard and into the waiting room that was by the front doors. Blocking anyone from coming in, was a curtain made entirely of flowers. Waiting inside the room, was my Mother Pepa, my father Felix, my sister Dolores, and my brother Camilo.

"Mom, Dad, Dolores, Camilo," I greeted them.

"There you are! How are you feeling our precious flower?" Mother asked, as a rain cloud momentarily formed above her head before being dispersed by Father's hands.

"Nervous, but ready," I tell them, letting go of Mirabel's hand and stepping toward my family.

Suddenly Camilo shapeshifts into me and hugs me, "Don't worry sis, you got this!"

I laugh and hug him back, before smacking him in the head, "What did I tell you about shapeshifting into me?"

"Uh..."

He shapeshifts back into himself and gives me an apologetic smile.

"Abula says it's almost time," Dolores suddenly says, catching everyone's attention. My family quickly leaves, leaving just me and Mirabel in the room.

"You ready? This is going to be uncomfortable," I warn Mirabel, who only stepped forward and grabbed my hand, showing her determination to walk me down the aisle.

Once we heard it quiet down, we stepped through, and a light flipped on and shined on Mirabel and me, causing us to wince from the sudden blindness.

The townspeople lined up on both sides of the carpet with lit candles in hand.

Just before the courtyard stairs that led to the second floor of our Casita, our family lined up on both sides with candles of their own.

And standing at the top of the stairs with our Casita's special candle in hand, was our Abuela.

Casita moved the stairs in the courtyard to be directly across from the front doors of our home up to Abuela's room.

[A/N: Here's a drawn map of Encanto's Casita I found online, the first floor is the top picture, and the second is the bottom picture]

Taking a deep breath and feeling the stares of all the townspeople and my own family, I gripped Mirabel's hand tighter and stepped forward.

We walked slowly towards the stairs, under the eyes of everyone, where I had to let go of Mirabel and walk up the stairs by myself.

I was wearing a very colorful dress and holding a doorknob in my hands as I slowly stepped up the stairs to Abuela, who held out a hand for me to grab.

Grabbing her hand, Casita flipped tiles and lead us to where my new room would be. Turning left from the stairs, I watched with fascination as a new door appeared between my Mother's(Peppa, controls the weather)Room and the not-yet-visible door that would lead to my not yet born sibling, Antonio's room.

When we reached the door, Abuela stood by my side, and asked, "Will you use your gift to honor our miracle? Will you serve this community, and strengthen our home?"

"I swear I will strengthen our home and people to the best of my abilities," I swore.

Taking a deep breath, and after getting a nod from Abuela, I step forward, and insert the door knob into the blank shimmering door, and twist.

Brighter gold flowed from the handle over the door, and from it, a depiction of me as a 14-year-old girl surrounded by books and scrolls floating in the air.

I felt a strange feeling flood my body and everything was...different.

I felt the very 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 around me.

With a deep breath, a pressure barred down on me and everyone else.

A pressure that made it feel as if the weight of the world was bearing down on me.

Then I realized what exactly that pressure was...𝘎𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘺.