#usedtobeguest123

[sketchupnfries]

The way you draw Grace's eyebrows 100% captures the character of book Ryland Grace for me. I dont know how else to say it, but five stars, it brings me so much joy ❤️❤️❤️

Thank you so much! :D Expressions are my favorite thing to draw, and I'm glad how I draw Grace's eyebrows capture Book Grace's essence. I slightly prefer Book Grace over Movie Grace since Book Grace is such a lil chaos gremlin, and he fits one of my favorite character types haha

[mythicalbismuth]

Art for “Consuelitos” on Ao3 by @usedtobeguest123

Love their works! Definitely go check them out!

I unfortunately struggled a lot with making Mirabel look younger (from her movie reference), so unfortunately she doesn’t look like the toddler she is in the story, but wanted to post anyway cause I already said I would lol!

(Tips on improving my art are always welcome, I am new and have no clue what I’m doing 😂)

[usedtobeguest123]

Some one word Encanto prompt ideas for your perusal :)

candle, jaguar, forgiveness, hugs, rats, arepa, vision, embroidery

I feel ya on feeling like you've forgotten the 'how' and 'what do they even sound like' of writing. I only recently got myself to write something after 4 months of NOTHING so like it's possible for it to come back. You've got this! (Also I love La Traes and I may have grinned like an idiot when I saw your post about the Encanto writing bug coming back)

You are wonderful!!! Oh man, it is always so encouraging to know someone is still reading my poor dusty old thing. I worked a bit on a chapter today, so it's coming along!

I love these prompts. Let's start with....embroidery.

***

“What are you doing?”

Bruno’s eyes shot up, his head lifting slightly from where it had been bent, inches from the green fabric in his hands. He blinked in surprise at the small round face before him. 

Mirabel stood with her hands tucked sweetly behind her back, her head tilted to the side inquisitively. Her little blue dress was creased with wrinkles and her curls splayed wildly out of the ribbon that was trying and failing to hold them back from her face. 

A face, he noted, that was smudged with dirt across one cheek. Huh. All evidence of a child who has escaped containment and was loving every minute of it. 

Bruno exhaled his held breath and relaxed his shoulders. If Mira was a fellow escapee, la familia was likely still in town. The house was still empty…for now. 

“What are you doing?” he volleyed back, voice quiet nonetheless. When she stared at him blankly, he bounced his eyebrows playfully at her. He watched the realization spark in her expression, and she narrowed her eyes at him haughtily, even as a smile spread across her face. 

“No, I asked you first, Tío!” 

He grinned, despite himself, then considered his response.

What was he doing? Well. That was a loaded question. What he was doing, was hiding behind a chair in lesser-used corner of la sala with a stolen sewing kit and torn ruana. What he was doing was trying to mend the tear’s rough and fraying edges before either of his hermanas saw the damage and descended on him with questions that he didn’t want to answer. What he was doing, was catching his metaphorical breath after another terrible, bungled vision, one that sent him skulking into town to try to patch a holed fence before the chickens within escaped and scratched up the newly sprouted seedlings in the nearby field. Big surprise!... it hadn’t worked. Why did he think it would work? All he’d managed to do was get caught by the farmer just as the chickens made a break for it, likely solidifying in el Señor Cabrera’s mind that he was in fact cursing the chickens and his land—aaaand probably bringing down a famine upon the Encanto, just as an added bonus.

Cabrera had shouted ¡Oye! ¿Que estas haciendo?! and begun to stride toward toward the coop, and Bruno had stumbled backwards in alarm, snagging his ruana on the bent wire. Ooooof course.

Sweating, stumbling, feathers flying everywhere, he’d managed to flee without having to face the farmer…but only barely. He’d limped home, kicking mud from his sandals as he went and berating himself under his breath for even thinking he could somehow solve this. Had he not learned his lesson by now? Tonto. Certainly the rumor mill was already packaging up the story for Ma. Caray, why did he even leave his tower? 

He’d managed to sneak into Julieta’ s room and grab Gus’ sewing kit before hunkering down in the shadows of a place where he would least likely be found these days—which was pretty much anywhere except his room. 

There he sat, poking and prodding at the fabric with the vain hope that he might somehow mend the morning’s tonteria along with the ruana. Unlikely.

So…so… what was he doing? 

“I’m…sewing,” he said. 

Mirabel’s eyes widened with interest, and she proceeded to crawl without hesitation into his lap. Bruno quickly sat up straight and pulled the fabric up and out of her way, huffing out a puff of breath to chase her springy curls away from his mouth as she settled in expectantly. Once she had somewhat stilled, he lowered the ruana back down, splayed across their legs. 

Mirabel spread her small hands over the rough fabric, her fingers wandering curiously across the woven landscape until they reached the place where the ends frayed in an ugly cut. Her chubby finger poked at the couple messy stitches he’d managed to accomplish thus far. 

“Can I watch?” she asked, her now voice quieted in imitation of his. A chuckle escaped him at the belated request. 

“Sure, kid,” he whispered warmly. And he began again. 

It was a little harder, with her in his lap. Half the time, he couldn’t even see past her head, as she leaned as close to the fabric as she could manage to watch with crossed eyes as the needle weaved in and out, in and out. After a few passes, he let her take turns holding the needle and pulling the thread through, stretching her short arm as high as it would go to tighten the stitch. He kept having to jostle her with his knees to make her lean back so he wouldn’t accidentally prick either of them with the needle—an act that made her giggle with delight. 

She was loud. Someone would probably hear her and discover his makeshift hiding place—-but, but somehow, suddenly, he really didn’t seem to care. 

“There!” he pronounced, lifting the finished product into the air before them. “Good as new.” 

The stitching careened down the crooked tear like a dropped pile of sticks rolling down a hill, graceless and stumbling. He winced. At least it wasn’t torn anymore.

“Wow!” Mirabel exclaimed, clapping her hands together. “You fixed it, Tío!”

“Yeah,” he smiled. Huh. It felt good, to fix something, as haphazard as it was. Fixing wasn’t really in his wheelhouse, after all. Breaking was more his thing. Messing. Ruining. Eh...the change was nice. 

Or–or maybe it just felt good to have someone else to share in the mending with. Could be.

“Will you teach me?” she asked, breaking him from his thoughts. She twisted in his lap to look up at him, through round rims and sweet brown eyes. 

He opened his mouth to respond, but at that moment, he heard Casita creak open the front door from across the patio. Casita’s doors didn’t normally creak. A warning. 

“Uh,” he stammered, suddenly rising to his knees, clumsily lifting Mirabel back to her feet as he went. He kept his hands around her small shoulders, pathetically half-hiding behind her as he looked desperately around for his next hiding spot. “Uh, yeah, kid. Yeah. I’d love to. Not right now, though. S-soon…”

“Soon?” she prompted, spinning in place to follow him as he inched his way toward the shadows of the stairwell. 

“Y-yeah. Soon. Maybe after your birthday, huh? After your…your ceremony.” 

“Okay,” she replied politely, but the disappointment was evident in her voice. He paused, escape cut short, and looked down at her. She was still staring at the fresh stitches in his ruana. 

You fixed it, she’d said. 

You fixed it, he thought.

In hindsight, perhaps it was not the best decision, to give an almost-five-year-old a sharp sewing implement. Maybe she was too young to wield the needle and thread, maybe she’d prick her finger, or poke her eye, or hurt herself in any number of (un)foreseeable ways…all things that occasionally haunted him in the weeks that came, when he no longer had the choice to take it back, or to make good on his promise to teach her to sew, for that matter. 

But…as time passed along, within and without the walls of Casita, his worries about the issue gradually faded, almost without his notice. If she did prick her finger, it didn’t seem to deter her. If her padres took issue with the sudden appearance of messy stitches on her neat little dresses, they didn’t voice them. 

On occasion, in years to come, he’d hear a chair scrape out from the table in the kitchen beyond. Eye to the crack in the wall, he’d see her sitting there, feet propped up on a yellow chair, tongue out the side of her mouth, as she embroidered this or mended that. 

“Good as new,” she sometimes muttered, as she finished.

Spanish translations:

Tonto - dummy

tonteria - idiocy

Caray - sheez! An exclamation

¡Oye! ¿Que estas haciendo?! - Hey! What are you doing?!

[wdtajn]

YOU GUYS thank you for organizing this! It has brought me so much joy. SO MUCH JOY.

Meme week in particular was 👌

WAAAH THANK U SO MUCH!!!!! IT REALLY MEANS A LOT!! ;;O;;

we're just two sillies that love bruno so so much and are so happy that other silly bruno lovers joined us in this fun month long challenge!!

IT SEEMED LONG AT THE START AND NOW WE CANT BELIEVE ITS ALMOST OVER!! 😭😭

[usedtobeguest123]

Can you believe I could not find a gif of the kids playing with sparklers in Encanto? Ah well. I can't believe I finished a chapter. To whomever may read it, enjoy!

----

“Were you going to eat Chico?” Andrés asked.

“W-what?”

Bruno choked on air, his spiral of guilt coming to a screeching halt. Andrés stared up at him curiously. 

“It's just…I’ve heard that you feast on the dreams of children who don’t listen to their parents, and you feed the leftovers to your rats. But Chico’s pretty good, for a baby, except when he wanders off. But I thought, maybe if you got really hungry…”

He shrugged, and his words trailed off as he gave Bruno another appraising look. Bruno gaped at him.

“You didn’t look like you were going to eat him.”

“I-I wasn’t!”

“Oh. Okay, that’s good.” 

Bruno nodded, trying to school the incredulity from his face. Ay, how bad had the rumors gotten? The bringer of bad luck? Yeah, he’d been that. A harbinger of evil? Sure, occasionally. Disappointing failure? His greatest role. But an eater of children? 

Well. That was a new one. 

“You seem nice, actually,” Andrés continued, apparently sufficiently assured by Bruno’s answer that he was not about to be consumed. “And Pa says el idiota se lo cree, or something like that. Plus, Chico likes you.”  [the fool believes it]

Bruno looked down at the baby, who’d sat down at his feet to again play with the tassels of his ruana. Despite it all, he huffed a small laugh. 

“I like him, too,” Bruno muttered.

“Do you have magic, too? Like the other Madrigals?” Andrés asked.

“Oh. Um, yes.”

“Can you show me?”

“I..uh, I don’t think that’s a good idea, kid.”

“Why?”

“I..uh…I don't…”

“Does your magic eat people?”

“No.”

“Oh. Okay.”

An uneasy silence fell between them. Bruno glanced at the boy, who watched his brother with a disappointed expression on his face. 

“I do have rats, though,” Bruno offered quietly. 

Andrés looked up, his face now bright and eager. “You do?”

“Yeah. Here, uh,” he reached through the collar of his ruana and found the soft, round body in his shirt pocket. “This is Manolo. S-say hi, Manolo.”

Andrés squealed with delight and drew closer to Bruno’s lowered hand, while Chico pulled insistently at the edge of his ruana, demanding wordlessly to be included. Bruno looked around, considering for a moment what the adults in the square to their left might think. Then he looked again at Andrés, who was grinning ear to ear at the small rat squeaking in his hand. 

Bruno smiled. He let himself fall into a seat on the ground beside them. 

https://archiveofourown.org/works/38318872/chapters/167737096

[usedtobeguest123]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Bruno’s hands wouldn't stop shaking. 

As he sank down into the sand, he kept his eyes locked on the small flame at the end of his match. It flickered and staggered with alarm, stuttering at the mercy of his quivering fingertips. He reached past his stiffly crossed legs toward the pile of leaves and herbs, watching as the flame fell to the kindling and the fire crackled to life. The heavy smell of sage filled the air. 

At the moment, the smell was making him feel a little sick. 

Okay, okay, cálmate. Oíme, sí?  You've gotta calm down, Bruno. P-p-pull it together. Going into it like this…nah you-you can't go into it like this. Now. Relax. Caaaalmate. [Calm yourself. Listen to me, okay? Caaaaalm down.]

He took a deep, steadying breath, but he couldn't make it reach the bottom of his lungs. He closed his eyes and rested his palms as loosely as he could against his knees, but they continued to quiver in the still night air. The inaudible whispers that had lingered after his vision-dream now seemed to move tangibly through the air around him, swirling in whisps like smoke from his fire. 

Let's get you to your door. Let the way be open. A new perspective. Let the way be open. Let the way be open. Let the way be open…

He could feel his magic rising in his chest, could feel it pushing at his mind, antsy and impatient, refusing to be held back any longer. 

He still wasn't ready. But that didn't matter anymore. 

[usedtobeguest123]

Hello :)

I'm usedtobeguest123 (...because I ghosted around as guest123 on A03 before creating an account for myself 😁).

I sometimes go on long hiatuses, but I'm still around. Sometimes I also post for Malevolent.

A probably maybe [not] updated masterlist of my stuff below the cut. My tag system is chaotic and unorganized, but you can try searching #my art and #my writing too.

Writing

Current fic: La Traes - This is the sequel to my first fic, Bruno from Before, but you could probably read it on its own. La Traes is the spanish name for the childhood game of tag, but it literally means "You carry it." This fic follows the (fluffy) relationship between Bruno, Mirabel, and Antonio, and is an experiment where I work through how trauma can rob us of childhood, and how we might possibly heal and get a little bit of it back.

Bruno from Before - My first fic! It takes place about 7 months after the movie. An exploration of Mirabel and Bruno's relationship post movie. Mirabel begins to learn more about Bruno from before the walls and is determined to help him find his way back.

Alma, After - I love Alma's character. This is a little dabble I wrote about her grief, and it ended up being a bit of a epilogue to Bruno from Before. Chronologically, it hits somewhere in the middle of La Traes.

Quiet - A collection of Encanto one-shots. They started out having the theme of "quiet," but it's really just a place for me to put my little snippets of writing :)

A Little Wasted Time - A one-shot where Mirabel and Camilo talk it out. It's a bit of a deleted scene from Bruno from Before.

How Are You Feeling, Hermano? - A one-shot I wrote after seeing this AMAZING art by @junosaccount. Bruno is sick and Julieta is there to do what she does best.

The Time You Give Me - Bruno - A super fun collab I did with the lovely @breannasfluff 💚 The pairing is a fun look into the mind of an introvert (Bruno) and an extrovert (Mirabel) who care about each other. This is the introvert side. Make sure to read Breanna's, too!

El Milagro de la Bebé - My fic for the @encantobigbang! Dolores is worried about her Mamá, and to help her she seeks out the most okayest man for the job - Tío Bruno. Pranks and family fluff ensue. Check out @lunaencantada's AMAZING art that goes with it!

You can find more of my little tumblr only one-shots under Encantober below.

Art

Current Project: A Bruno-centric animatic that I started for @wdtajn. I swear I will finish it eventually! You can see my progress here, and here, and here, and here, too. EDIT: It's done!

Julieta, Bruno, and Pepa as kids having a slumber party

My first Encanto fanart ever, a DTIYS from @glitternightingale

You can find more of my artsy things under Encantober below.

💚💚Fanart by Others💚💚 - These have my WHOLE heart, for reals.

Bruno and young Mirabel from Chapter 4 of Quiet by @junosaccount

The trio at a picnic from Chapter 1 of La Traes by @junosaccount (and the lineart version, which shows the amazing detail on Bruno's ruana from Bruno from Before 😍)

The trio in a tree from Chapter 2 of La Traes by @junosaccount

Mirabel and Abuela from Chapter 6 of La Traes by @junosaccount

Encantober 2022 - @encantober-official

Writing:

Transformation (An Encanto Music Analysis)

Healing

Butterfly

Change

Milk

Strength

Cacti

Head Pats

Animals

Caterpillar

Tragedy

Gift

Pranks

Generational Trauma

Otter

Art:

Rats

Love (Peanuts Style)

Parents

Hugs

Casita

Bees

Tired

Prophecy

Present

Kiss

Book

Thanks for visiting :)

[usedtobeguest123]

So the Encanto writing bug is digging its little claws into my heart again...but I'm rusty?

I need to relearn to write their voices! Opening up my inbox to one- or two- word encanto writing prompts, to get things cooking again! Got an interesting or random word? Idea for a scene? Let me know!

...is anyone still out there in the Encanto-verse? 😅