👫 ( you know i have to, our muses are interesting together <3 @skiesclouded )
Send 👫 for four headcanons about our muses!
1) Bruno started calling Pepa "Pepita" when they were teenagers, to tease her contrarily for always lording it over him that she is seven or eight minutes older than he, and pretending he's her "baby" brother. Eventually the habit of calling her this diminutive stuck. Now it's a term of deep affection.
2) Bruno and Pepa are both autistic, though they present differently. Both find it easy to become overwhelmed by scenarios involving a lot of sensory stimuli (loud, noisy spaces full of people, for instance) and unfortunately, during the early 1960s, little is known (or tolerated) about being neurodivergent. Alma didn't take kindly to the way that Pepa became easily flustered--and the weather with her, to sometimes dangerous results--and Bruno became nonverbal and withdrawn. Lectures about their perceived "weakness" or "selfishness," the ways their behavior "embarrassed" her, were plentiful. They sought comfort in each other's company, particularly after Julieta was separated from them and vaunted as the Golden Child, with incontrovertibly positive "gifts."
3) One of the reasons Bruno initially started play-acting, with voices and impersonations and funny skits, was to help Pepa cheer up, calm down, and laugh when her emotions became overwhelming. He didn't do this out of fear of what her powers could conjure; he did it to care for her. In fact, the "clear skies" mantra came from Bruno, but Pepa, fearing further disappointing their mami, turned it into a way to repress her earnest emotions. Watching this happen caused Bruno great pain: he felt as if, just like with his visions, his effort to help backfired and exacerbated the problem. "Bad-luck Bruno" hit his peak with this unfortunate miscommunication at Pepa and Félix's wedding.
Bruno does not feel that he has the right to be near Pepa. What he did, he did for Mirabel and for the Madrigal family, but Pepa clearly considers it a form of abandonment, and Bruno doesn't know how to make amends other than simply being present.
4) Antonio reminds Pepa a great deal of Bruno as a child: sweet, shy, earnestly intent on making his family happy, comfortable with animals, and creative.
