kaisou | 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 off ~~Bruno'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. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Camilo throws Bruno the most incredulous look at that, absolutely reading that Bruno thinks they see eye-to-eye on the "broken time" thing, when they very much do not. The first drops of rain start to fall after another rumble and crack from above, and Camilo's eyes are drawn upwards as he feels a droplet fall on his cheek. Yeah, no, yeah, it's raining, and it's coming down faster with each drop. He groans dramatically, drawing his hands down his face in frustration, but in doing so realizes his hands are still pretty filthy, and he effectively just wiped a thin layer of schmutz all over himself. Which just... earns another dramatic groan, almost more like a growl. ]

Uuuuugh! How should I know?! It looks like a swamp! A swamp is a swamp is a swa—a—aa-aaaamp?! ¡Aaayyyy, dios mío!

[ Another low rumble comes from nearby, but this time from below, and Camilo's sass is derailed into shock when he notices that he is not the only one growling, as his eye catches quick movement just a couple paces ahead of them. A large black caiman just emerged from the waters they're walking alongside. Camilo stops in his tracks, eyes fixed forward, though he's scrambling backwards frantically. It's only when he notices the first caiman... that he notices all the others, who call back to it in weird, guttural bellows. There's probably half a dozen scattered about in the waters and along the shores up ahead.

Camilo casts wild eyes around, but without much of a clear path beyond "following the riverbanks" to this part of the maze, he doesn't really have any escape route in mind. But, thankfully, the labyrinth creates one for them, as Camilo forcefully grabs Bruno by the wrist and tugs him along to sharply turn right back around. But as they change directions, their surroundings blur suddenly, blending into itself, until they find themselves in... a desert? Rather, strange desert ruins, with crumbling stone arches behind them, as if they'd just come through a door from the swamp... But should they venture forward, they'll see they're very far from the swamp, and the caiman, and, uh— pretty much everything else, too. On a hostile plateau overlooking a vast expanse of unending mountainous nothingness, with no short or easy path down... but at least a much more path-like path, though it takes hairpin twists and turns, hard to tell clearly where it's supposed to lead, as the labyrinth cuts its way down the steep mountainside. Y'know, the kind of winding mountain path that's probably very easy to fall off of and die, that type of hike.

Camilo stands motionless once he registers their new surroundings, and while he's glad that Bruno's still with him, his face falls, overcome with exasperation. He releases his uncle's wrist just to flail his arms desperately, defeatedly, all around at this next challenge. When he yells out, loud and on his last nerve, his voice cracks and echoes vaguely across the desert mountainscape now surrounding them. ]

Are you kidding me...!?!

[Bruno is not on the same page at all. He's probably not even in the same book. He pulls up the hood of his ruana as the rain starts to come down, taking the dramatic teenager whining in his stride. ]

Well. Um. Have you seen that particular tree stump before? Because if you have, then you're definitely going around in circles.

[he is the MOST HELPFUL, Camilo is so blessed to have his uncle with him at this trying time. The caiman is a worry, without Antonio around, that thing can definitely kill them. He's about to (helpfully) point that out when Camilo grabs his wrist and drags him along away from the thing. He lets his nephew pull him along, watching the scenery change around them. Okay, so this. This is a thing.

He reaches over to put a hand on Camilo's shoulder in a desperate bid of comfort.]

Breathe, mi sobrino. Right. Okay. So this place keeps changing. There's got to be a way to make it stop changing and get us out of here. There's-there's gotta be a trick to it.

[ Bruno's desperate bid for comfort works better than expected. Camilo turns to Bruno with confused, pleading eyes, though the offered comfort draws a pause from him... He's at the end of his rope. He can't help but let out a huff of a laugh in spite of himself, more like a puff of breath than a laugh, really, but there's the barest twitch of a smirk in the corner of his lips. ]

...If you've got some trickety-trick up your sleeve, Tío, I'm listening.

[ Deflective humor is his own best trickety-trick, naturally. But feeling like he's somehow relinquishing control of the situation is not comfortable for him. He's not used to feeling this helpless. ]

[When Camilo lets out that weird laugh, Bruno hesitates. Did he go too far with the hand thing? He doesn't know. He doesn't really know the lines drawn between him and his family- he's been absent from them for so long, and Camilo probably bearly remembers him from...before the walls. He really doesn't know when he oversteps.]

I um-

[He pulls his hand back, putting it in his own to wring them together worriedly.]

Well. Is there anything you do to...stabilise yourself when you're shifting? Like. Do you picture anything or ...breathe a certain way? Maybe we have to trick this place into stablising the same way?

[ Camilo rubs at his own arm nervously, mindlessly, raising a brow at Bruno's suggestion. It's a really solid idea... but not one that really applies to him exactly, that he can fathom at first. ]

Uhh— I dunno, not really? I just— picture whoever I'm shapeshifting into. It's easy for me to transform. It's always been easy for me.

[ The difference in their Gifts is vast... Camilo's is fun and almost effortless. Bruno's is— involved. And not easy — not in effect. Their experiences in the family are so different. It's a good insight into his nephew's mindset, clearly speaking to more than just his Gift between the lines, unconsciously — "it's always been easy for him." People just expect Camilo to be funny and helpful, even if most of the time he has to be pretty creative in how to make his Gift helpful. Neither of those gifts, nor his actual Gift, seem to apply here, though, at least not at face value. He has no other laurels to rest on, he feels like. He's not used to this stress... he stresses for other people. Not for himself. He's never entertained the option of not being okay... It's a good thing to have a low stress tolerance, because it means you have low stress — ooor that you're in denial and don't admit even to yourself that you might be stressed. It's a toss-up. ]

Oh...right. I guess that makes sense.

[His Gift used to be...well, not easier. It was always a painful, frightening experience, but before people started actively lashing out at him about them, he didn't need a million little steps to get him into the right mindset to do it in the first place. That came after. Along with all the stress and self-worth issues.]

Hrmmmm. Just thought that might...help? Like- going through your process?

[ Camilo pauses, raising his brow at Bruno. His tone is tentative, skeptical, as he casts his glance across the mountainous fortress ruins they're in. It's so much different than anything he's ever seen. All of these places his labyrinth conjured have been. ]

Iii... guess that might work...? Like, I should try picturing another place...? Where should I think of?

[ He doesn't know all that many places, after all. Not like he can imagine a beach or a forest or library, places found to be calm like that. He's never seen a beach, or a forest, or a library. ]

[Bruno hums to himself as he considers this. Good mental health isn't exactly his forte, but he's been here long enough to realise it kinda...leans towards that. ]

Somewhere that makes you safe, maybe? Like...secure? Do-do you have a place like that?

intro log + video;

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sorry this took so long, i could've sworn i'd responded!

it's ok I've been super slow this month

wipes sweat from my brow after running so late

s'all good!

omg i thought i responded to this, do you want to continue or drop it? siojkfdx sorry

it's totes aok!