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
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. ]
no subject
[ 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. ]
no subject
[ 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? ]
no subject
[ A pause, looking curiously at the camera with narrowed eyes, unsure what answer to expect to a hesitant question. ]
...Did you?
no subject
And if her actions aren't telling enough, her soft words certainly are. ]
...never...seriously.
[ The implication is pretty clear: Never seriously...but she has thought about it.
And she knows how it sounds, so she struggles to explain. ] I just...sometimes when I was doing chores at home, and they were [ simple. menial. literally something anyone else could have done ] less strenuous, my mind would...wander a bit. I'd make up things or...fantasize. Just to keep myself occupied. Sometimes they were just stories I would think about, but sometimes...sometimes I would think about what...the rest of the world is like. What it might be like to travel, and see what's out there.
[ It still...sounds really terrible, now that she's saying it all out loud. ]
I'd never...would have actually done it though. If given the choice...I wouldn't have left.
[ She feels terrible that she has to even say that. But she doesn't want anyone - her family - to think that she'd ever abandon them. ]
no subject
I think I understand, I just— ...don't know who I'd be, if I were anywhere else. Without Mamí, Papí, Toñito — all of you. We all work so hard to help everyone, and... I guess I just assumed that's what made our Encanto so special. That the rest of the world isn't like that— it's like this... Scary, and strange, and dangerous— a place where all of a sudden, you're alone... Where anything can happen. Where everything can change in a moment. Where people lose their homes for no reason... Unpredictable. But— I guess, just considering that any of us ended up here at all... our Encanto wasn't as safe as I thought, either.
[ Camilo's tone grows a little more distant, a little sadder, as he starts connecting dots, processing his present situation, all still so fresh to him, his clothes still damp from his horrible labyrinth. It's a more genuine admission of fear, an unusual philosophical musing, anything short of deflective humor and lighthearted snark that's usually expected of him, that shows perhaps Camilo absorbed more of their grandmother's rhetoric than he outwardly lets on. He feels just as obligated and indentured as the rest of their family, but in a different way. His real gift, magic or not, has been based in connectivity, on some deeper level. Even without his Gift, his role would still be the same — make other people smile, to put himself in other people's shoes quite literally, prioritize other people's feelings and comfort and laughter above all, to defuse tension at the first sniff of it. It seems like it'd be a hard job anywhere short of a private paradise.
If these past few hours are any indicator of what the outside world is like, which he certainly hopes isn't true, then he's got his work cut out for him... and that's terrifying. Because his job has never felt like work. His heavy lift, unlike Luisa's, is not to lift a church, or redirect a river, but to lift his little brother's spirits, or redirect his mother's errant thoughts, to chase away clouds and create rainbows even though he doesn't have the actual power to do so. His Gift was just an accessory in helping others be more than themselves — and he never questioned if it was at the expense of being his own self. But outside the Encanto? Now he'll have to ask these hard questions... And that's bit by bit going to become clearer and clearer to him, with every moment that passes in this strange place, for better or worse. So far? Seems for the worse, by far. ]
no subject
...no, that isn't fair, is it? She may not be used to seeing him so serious, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't take things seriously. Maybe, just as she had been so unaware of the hardships her sisters had been going through, she just didn't know or fully understand the kinds of burdens that Camilo himself had to face.
Maybe, at the end of the day, she just really didn't know her family as well as she thought she did.
But it can be different now, with the way things are starting to change and shift, the first steps taken to improve their family back home. So she listens - really listens - and pays attention to what he says, both in and between his words. And she can feel some of his uncertainty, not unlike her own. Their gifts, their talents may have been different, but ultimately it was for the same purpose of protecting their family - her, by protecting their physical wellbeing, and him by encouraging their emotional state of mind.
And she's silent in the moment that follows his words, as she tries to think of what to say. Because it's all too easy to offer reassurances, to insist that everything would be all right. But hadn't that been the problem back home? Saying that everything was fine when it ultimately wasn't? They couldn't just pretend that things weren't difficult anymore. ]
...I guess...I guess the truth is, the Encanto isn't entirely different from other places in the world after all? Because even back home, people can still feel a little alone, and things can still happen unexpectedly...things weren't necessarily always safe. [ Because even with the mountains surrounding their town, new people still found their way into the Encanto. They had been fortunately that the people in town were so nice, but Luisa - maybe more than her sisters and cousins - knew that there could be dangers that found their way into their home. That her gift was meant to defend and protect her family and community.
And even more than that, hadn't they suddenly lost their home, when the magic broke, even if it was only temporary? Hadn't Mirabel felt so alone, being without a gift in a magical family? ]
I think what really made the Encanto special was just that...it is our home. That's why we worked so hard for everyone...because that's just what people would do for their community, and their home. [ She gestures vaguely in the space around her. ] The people here...Those that live here help each other too. And it can feel a little lonely, and so much bigger than where we're from...but people still get to know each other, and help each other, and learn from each other. That doesn't make our home any less special, or mean any less to us. It's just...what people do.
[ And maybe that means that they weren't really so different from other people...but maybe, that was okay too. ]
And... [ Here she pauses, not entirely sure how to really continue. She feels more like she's rambling now than making any kind of point, but...this still feels important enough to be said. ] I think...who we are has already started changing. It started back home, right, when everything happened? [ At least that's what she'd thought, as they had been rebuilding Casita.
But being in a new place like this, being away from everything so familiar, really did force them to have to question things even more than they might have back home. ] I'm...still not entirely sure who I can be right now, either. I'm still learning things about myself along the way. And it does help, having some of the family here. But there is still a lot that I have to figure out for myself.
no subject
Far more so now, granted; he's never had such a scary day in his life, apart from the day their house collapsed. But this? This was way scarier. His maze was insane. He would never have figured it out—
...if not for Bruno... Huh.
Things are changing. He's been scared and stressed and alone all day, until suddenly— he wasn't alone, at least. Suddenly he found himself saved by someone who was way more experienced with being stressed and alone than he's ever been, and his uncle comforted him way more than he'd ever have expected. Which was also strange. And now this surprisingly deep, unexpected conversation with Luisa on this strange technology — even though the distance between them is weird, that they can talk and see each other from afar at all, somehow... it's not so impersonal. In fact, maybe if they were together beside each other, they wouldn't be having this conversation, because they'd fall back into their usual dynamic. But after a day like today, Camilo's mind is reeling, his head swimming and spinning, and... just talking out loud helps, for once. Listening to her honest thoughts, helps. Her words are comforting and not disingenuous because objectively this isn't okay, but... Maybe it won't be so bad. Already his family has helped him through this. Just like always, but even more than usual. It's a lot to process, this transparency they've all been trained to hide, but... indeed, maybe it's time to practice getting to know each other — for real now, though.
Her words give him pause, but he forces a weak, lopsided twitch of a smile, though his conflicted thoughts are still seen in the way the corners of his eyes crease. But it's Camilo — even with all this on his mind... what else can he do but try and smile anyway? He doesn't just look on the bright side, he lives on the bright side. He's never had another option; but even now that he does... it's an easy choice, and not a bad habit, after all. ]
...Heh. Yeah. You're right. I guess— it's human nature to wanna help each other. Everyone in town was happy to help us after everything — maybe it helped them feel useful, too, after all those years of us helping them, I dunno. Without our Gifts, they could finally pay it forward. I mean— we always did our best to pay our Miracle forward, too. It's kinda the same. Sooo... if— if we're really stuck here... ...we'll just keep doing what Madrigals do best, huh. Help each other.
[ Some things, though... are just ingrained. The traditional Madrigal deep-rooted sense of obligation isn't so easy to shake, as shaken up as he is. That's not likely to ever change. ]
no subject
And she was still trying to find that balance between helping the family and doing her own thing. It was more challenging than perhaps it should have been, but she was taking it a step at a time. And it was easier to do with her family supporting her too. ]
Right. No matter what happens here, we've still got each other.
[ That would absolutely never change. ]
wrap?
Heh... That much can't be so different from home, I guess, hah.
[ A slight pause, letting this conversation sink in a bit as he waits to be picked up and taken home. Well... "home." But not home. But still home. Their home's new home. ]
...Thanks, Luisa.
Sounds good!
[ Even with their ever-shifting roles, that wasn't about to change either. ]
I'll see you when you get here.
[ Because she's also got a hug ready just for him. ]