Camilo Madrigal (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
camaleonico) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
kaisou2022-02-14 03:37 pm
camaleonico) wrote in kaisou2022-02-14 03:37 pm
Entry tags:
intro log + video;
WHO: Camilo Madrigal and you!
WHERE: Labyrinth and network post
WHEN: 14 February
WHAT: INCREASE MADRIGALS...! ever-changing labyrinth for an ever-changing teenager
WARNINGS: none
A. labyrinth
[ Oof… Camilo has a feeling he’s not in the Encanto anymore. It took him a second to process it, at first finding himself in the depths of a wild jungle… Maybe outside the Encanto, which he’s never really seen so he wouldn’t know, truthfully. That, or, uh, got really lost in his little brother’s bedroom… But it seemed too— navigable? It clearly wasn’t a natural jungle, almost like there were clear paths. But the instant Camilo took one definite turn over another direction…
He suddenly found himself in a tundra. He’s gaping in abject awe at the snowscape around him, but just like the jungle, there seems to be some navigable path about it, noticing several types of tracks in the snow that veer off… But after following one, he finds himself in an unusual city, a futuristic Metropolis, flying cars, all of it, but a marked lack of pedestrians — it’s just him on these bizarre empty streets… And when he turns down another street, just like before, the scene shifts once more, and he finds himself inside a volcano, which is, uh, alarming…?! He just turns right back around at that, meaning to go back to the crazy city, but even when retracing his own steps, every other turn he makes lands him somewhere new, dissimilar, overwhelming… all of these places alien to him, seemingly alone in every one. Each environment just gets more and more chaotic and unfamiliar, more unnerving, like a maze that has no actual path to follow. It’s a never-ending cycle.
After (what feels like)a couple a few several hours of playing this incomprehensible mind game with himself, Camilo finally stops running around aimlessly, because there’s absolutely no way he’s picking up on any cohesive clues on how to get out… With every scene change, he grows more and more frazzled and finally… disheartened. At this most recent turn, his surroundings melt into a thick, dark, muggy bayou, as he lands in the swampy waters full-force, soaked head to toe, wet curly hair clinging to the skin on his cheek.
A frog jumps on his head. And for whatever reason, that’s the last straw.
He lets out a loud, exasperated growl, shakes the creature off, and theatrically clambers out of the water and through the tall grass along the shore, bare toes and sandals wet with mud now. He leaves a large puddle in his wake with every step ashore, before finding a mossy log nearby. He plops down, scowling all the while, and tries at first to wring out his sopping wet ruana, but it seems so futile it’s almost funny…? One of those “if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry” kind of moments.
He’s just gonna… sit here a while. After all, when you’re lost, if you keep running around, you won’t be found — especially in dozens of different unpredictable environments. So, feeling somewhat like a lost little kid staying put to wait for his parents to find him, inwardly just as scared, if Camilo’s family does happen to find him in this wild swamp, they’ll find him just like this — chilling out on a log, slumped over melodramatically, looking like a drowned, harassed rat… Another frog (or the same frog? who can say; maybe Antonio, but not him) appears on the log beside him and croaks loudly at the deflated Camilo… And, sounding just as defeated as he looks, Camilo talks back to the frog with a wide, grimacing smile, his voice carried loud and clear through the otherwise empty swamp... only to deliver a bad joke. ]
This place must be pretty hoppin’, huh…
[ That's met with a somehow more disgruntled croak... Like even the frog hated that joke, Camilo. ]
Well, uh, I'd like to hear you do better! Psssh... Didn’t expect I’d feel so relieved to be talking to a frog today, ay. But I guess if I'm trapped in this crazy-kaleidoscope-nightmare-world, at least I’ll have you as a frie— Nope, you left. Like, immediately. Great. Bye...
[ And off it hops, yup. Gone. Camilo lets out a wry half-chuckle, half-groan, in spite of himself, dragging his hands down his face exaggeratedly. Yeah, definitely a “if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry” situation. ]
B. video; un: undecided
[ The video opens with a disgruntled, curly-haired teenaged boy, but he doesn't stay that way for long... ]
Uhhh— Holaaa... I'm looking for people who look like this...—
[ And in a flash, the boy magically transforms into another person entirely: first, a thin, harried-looking, redheaded woman, and then just as effortlessly, into a stouter, muscular man, taking the forms of his own parents one after the other, speaking their names in his own voice, despite the impressive shapeshifting. ]
Pepa and Félix Madrigal. Or, if you've seen Dolores or Anto—niooo...?!
[ He tries to transform once more, this time into a young, pretty, wide-eyed girl, but his efforts to transform again seem to go haywire, and he comes up with some conglomeration of her and a cute five-year-old boy with some pretty unsettling proportional problems... His brow knots in confusion, wearing Anotnio's baby-face pouting with Dolores' bright red lipstick, and he shakes it off, transforming back to his own self once again. ]
...Ahem. Um. Perdón. A-Aaanyway...~ Hah... Just, uh, let me know if you've seen them, or any other Madriga–a—aaal...s—?
[ An obviously involuntary shift this time, to a pallid, unkempt man wearing large, round, lime green glasses and a colorful butterfly blouse that probably doesn't belong to him...? S-Something's obviously going wrong, here. It's clear even to strangers of the family that this kid must be mixing people up. He shakes offBruno's Mirabel cosplay the mashed up forms, as he successfully regains his own face... Well, more or less successfully. Something feels off still, so with an exasperated little grumble, glowering at his phone with his eyes still unfocused, Camilo places his hand over the camera until he figures out how to turn the thing off. He doesn't even know what the hell an Internet is, but he's pretty certain he just embarrassed himself on it. But that's the least of his concerns right now, really. ]
WHERE: Labyrinth and network post
WHEN: 14 February
WHAT: INCREASE MADRIGALS...! ever-changing labyrinth for an ever-changing teenager
WARNINGS: none
A. labyrinth
[ Oof… Camilo has a feeling he’s not in the Encanto anymore. It took him a second to process it, at first finding himself in the depths of a wild jungle… Maybe outside the Encanto, which he’s never really seen so he wouldn’t know, truthfully. That, or, uh, got really lost in his little brother’s bedroom… But it seemed too— navigable? It clearly wasn’t a natural jungle, almost like there were clear paths. But the instant Camilo took one definite turn over another direction…
He suddenly found himself in a tundra. He’s gaping in abject awe at the snowscape around him, but just like the jungle, there seems to be some navigable path about it, noticing several types of tracks in the snow that veer off… But after following one, he finds himself in an unusual city, a futuristic Metropolis, flying cars, all of it, but a marked lack of pedestrians — it’s just him on these bizarre empty streets… And when he turns down another street, just like before, the scene shifts once more, and he finds himself inside a volcano, which is, uh, alarming…?! He just turns right back around at that, meaning to go back to the crazy city, but even when retracing his own steps, every other turn he makes lands him somewhere new, dissimilar, overwhelming… all of these places alien to him, seemingly alone in every one. Each environment just gets more and more chaotic and unfamiliar, more unnerving, like a maze that has no actual path to follow. It’s a never-ending cycle.
After (what feels like)
A frog jumps on his head. And for whatever reason, that’s the last straw.
He lets out a loud, exasperated growl, shakes the creature off, and theatrically clambers out of the water and through the tall grass along the shore, bare toes and sandals wet with mud now. He leaves a large puddle in his wake with every step ashore, before finding a mossy log nearby. He plops down, scowling all the while, and tries at first to wring out his sopping wet ruana, but it seems so futile it’s almost funny…? One of those “if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry” kind of moments.
He’s just gonna… sit here a while. After all, when you’re lost, if you keep running around, you won’t be found — especially in dozens of different unpredictable environments. So, feeling somewhat like a lost little kid staying put to wait for his parents to find him, inwardly just as scared, if Camilo’s family does happen to find him in this wild swamp, they’ll find him just like this — chilling out on a log, slumped over melodramatically, looking like a drowned, harassed rat… Another frog (or the same frog? who can say; maybe Antonio, but not him) appears on the log beside him and croaks loudly at the deflated Camilo… And, sounding just as defeated as he looks, Camilo talks back to the frog with a wide, grimacing smile, his voice carried loud and clear through the otherwise empty swamp... only to deliver a bad joke. ]
This place must be pretty hoppin’, huh…
[ That's met with a somehow more disgruntled croak... Like even the frog hated that joke, Camilo. ]
Well, uh, I'd like to hear you do better! Psssh... Didn’t expect I’d feel so relieved to be talking to a frog today, ay. But I guess if I'm trapped in this crazy-kaleidoscope-nightmare-world, at least I’ll have you as a frie— Nope, you left. Like, immediately. Great. Bye...
[ And off it hops, yup. Gone. Camilo lets out a wry half-chuckle, half-groan, in spite of himself, dragging his hands down his face exaggeratedly. Yeah, definitely a “if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry” situation. ]
B. video; un: undecided
[ The video opens with a disgruntled, curly-haired teenaged boy, but he doesn't stay that way for long... ]
Uhhh— Holaaa... I'm looking for people who look like this...—
[ And in a flash, the boy magically transforms into another person entirely: first, a thin, harried-looking, redheaded woman, and then just as effortlessly, into a stouter, muscular man, taking the forms of his own parents one after the other, speaking their names in his own voice, despite the impressive shapeshifting. ]
Pepa and Félix Madrigal. Or, if you've seen Dolores or Anto—niooo...?!
[ He tries to transform once more, this time into a young, pretty, wide-eyed girl, but his efforts to transform again seem to go haywire, and he comes up with some conglomeration of her and a cute five-year-old boy with some pretty unsettling proportional problems... His brow knots in confusion, wearing Anotnio's baby-face pouting with Dolores' bright red lipstick, and he shakes it off, transforming back to his own self once again. ]
...Ahem. Um. Perdón. A-Aaanyway...~ Hah... Just, uh, let me know if you've seen them, or any other Madriga–a—aaal...s—?
[ An obviously involuntary shift this time, to a pallid, unkempt man wearing large, round, lime green glasses and a colorful butterfly blouse that probably doesn't belong to him...? S-Something's obviously going wrong, here. It's clear even to strangers of the family that this kid must be mixing people up. He shakes off
no subject
[ Is that even a question? A second thought occurs to him after a beat, though. ]
Wait, Tía still has her Gift? Her magic works?
no subject
Sort of? It works about as well as yours does right now.
[ So only somewhat. ]
Mamá's food does still heal, but it takes longer for it to take effect. All of our powers seem to have gotten weaker when we came to this place.
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[ Worry tugs his brow slightly, catching his words for a beat. ]
Is it because we're so far from the Encanto?
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[ And she's not entirely sure if Mirabel had meant just their family or others, but they couldn't be the only people with powers out there that this happened to, could they? ]
Besides, Casita is here too, and she's still magical. So it has to be something else, right?
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[ It's a good point. Camilo's still trying to wrap his head around this. He has so many questions, trying to make sense of all this. He's already spoken to Mirabel online, waiting for her now to show up and guide him home, but his thoughts are still going a mile a minute, pretty fresh out of his maze. Mirabel had dropped a relevant piece of information, though, which prompts the abrupt question— ]
Hey. Your weird maze-thing. Mira said it was in a coliseum. You think it meant something?
no subject
I...I don't know, to be honest. It might have something to do with my Gift, I guess. Being strong and everything.
[ Fighting, struggling, a steady stream of monsters like a drip, drip, drip ]
Yours was probably different, right? It sounds like we've all had different experiences with them.
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[ His maze experience really affected him, too. But he's struggling for many reasons to figure out what it meant. ]
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Yeah, it's... [ She tries to think of the right word, but breathes out in frustration instead. ] Are they supposed to mean something?
[ It's clear that their mazes were all personal to them. But it just felt so mean. ]
...how did you get out of yours?
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Uhh... So, Tío Bruno found me. In a swamp. But we figured out it was— I dunno, kinda like my mom and the weather. Like my feelings were affecting it. So— I tried that "clear skies" thing she does...
[ Which, really, speaks to how freaked out Camilo must have actually been to have tried that at all. There's a hint of sheepishness as he admits it. ]
...And it worked. The next turn we took, it was just a bunch of clouds, and an exit, straight ahead. So that's gotta mean something, right...?
no subject
I think so... [ But what it means, she's not sure. ] So you guys were able to find the exit when you...started calming down?
no subject
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These mazes seem to be pretty personal to each of us.
no subject
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But I mean...did you learn something from it?
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[ She'll have Mamá's food ready for him when he and Mirabel get here. ]
It is a lot to take in, huh? I'm still not sure I've really gotten my head around it.
no subject
At least... s'our first ever "vacation?"
[ He's not sure he wants to wrap his head around it, back and forth. Every new question just opens several more. He wants a bath, his aunt's food, and his bed, in that order. Like... now. Maaaybe a couple hugs in there, too, let's be real. ]
no subject
Even without her full strength, she still gives good hugs. ]
Heh...yeah, I guess so.
[ It is weird, though, and Luisa isn't sure how to feel about it. She may have been needing a break, but without as much to keep herself occupied, it was all too easy to overthink about things. And with being in such a strange place, what else was there to think about? ]
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Not quite as relaxing as you'd imagine, right? You missing hauling a dozen donkeys around or nah?
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Y'know, I kind of do? Not so much hauling them around, but I do kinda miss the donkeys themselves. They can be fun to talk to.
[ She may not have Antonio's gift with animals, or even the kind of connection that Bruno has with his rats. And it might sound a little sad, especially considering that she might have spent more time with the donkeys on some days than actual people, but she did feel a certain closeness with the animals. ]
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I haven't been here long, but so far, this place seems kiiinda thin on donkeys. And, uh, everything else, sorta? Are there even farms here? I just see about twenty shops for— I don't even know what...
[ He's in the thick of the city, so everything modern and metropolitan is making his head spin. This place is completely foreign to him in every way... He'll warm up to it eventually, but, it's hard to think about "eventually" when thrust into a cosmic quandary you've never even once considered in your life. Y'know, portals and wormholes and alternate dimensions in other worlds — or just other countries?! He can get curious later. ]
no subject
[ She's had heard a bit from some of the people in town who'd come from outside the Encanto, when helping to build their homes. But hearing about a city was much different than suddenly being in one. ]
There are so many shops here. There are some for clothes, and books, and flowers, and coffee...and even others I still haven't figured out yet.
[ She's been trying to look around and keep track of everything, since she worked much better by exploring and doing than trying to figure it out on a map. But this place was just so big, and it was easy to get lost in. ]
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[ It's hard to imagine living here... Their Encanto was so beautiful and perfect and cozy, and now, in this sprawling spread of tall buildings and black roads and shopping centers, this place makes their town seem... quaint. ]
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[ Quaint is definitely the way to put it. It's hard to not feel so out of place here.
But...she does have to be fair. ]
To be honest, though, it's not...entirely bad? There is a lot to get used to, but...it has been fun too? Just seeing how different things are, and what another place is like.
[ She absolutely misses the Encanto, but...she was starting to feel a little more...adventurous here too? ]
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[ A pause, looking curiously at the camera with narrowed eyes, unsure what answer to expect to a hesitant question. ]
...Did you?
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wrap?
Sounds good!