Encanto: Wherein Isabela Discovers That Sneezing is Fun, and other tales.

[webmeistro]

Author's Note: This story was commissioned by our very own Katzoo12, who is therefore awesome! Let's all give her a hand!!

 

"And these? Where do these go?"

“Down over there!”

Luisa set the stack of parcels against the stucco wall. “And the pitchers?”

“The what?”

“These pitchers the Andrezes gaze us. Where should we…"

Luisa’s voice trailed off, a sudden thought drifting through her head; namely the word that her cousin Dolores just said, ‘what’. Dolores never said ‘what’. At least not as a question. She said “What’s for breakfast?” quite often, and “What should I wear today?” even more often, but the one thing Dolores never said was ‘what?’ with a question mark after it, like she had right now.

Dolores Madrigal was blessed with super hearing, just like her cousin Luisa was gifted with super strength. Dolores could hear people talking from across the village square, just like Luisa could lift the village square and move it a few feet to the left. Just as Luisa never asked anyone for help, Dolores never asked people to repeat themselves.

“Dolores, are you…”

“ISSSSH-y! Ish!”

“You-”

“Ish! Ish!”

“Got that cold too.”

“Yep.”

Luisa leaned against the rough white wall and looked around. Casita look pretty much like it had before; three terraced floors surrounding a tiled stone courtyard, two curved stairways, a mission style eaveway containing the Magic Candle which sustained the world they lived in. The past two weeks had been spent rebuilding Casita from the ground up, with the help of Encanto’s townsfolk; they had feared the magic was lost, but when Mirabel put the final piece into place, the familiar golden light appeared, doors opened, windows smiled, and in a flash everything was back as it was.

https://imgur.com/a/Pqxo6JP

Well… almost. For some reason, Pepa had not been happy with how the new kitchen angled into the new dining room? or something? Anyway, a sudden rain shower quickly informed la Famila Madrigal that Pepa was unhappy, leading to a discussion between Pepa, Felix and Abuela, and also to, it appeared, a cold.

“ishy ish!”, Dolores sneezed into her hanky. “Ish ishy ish!”

Luisa sighed. “Maybe go in where it’s warmer?”

“Hmmm?”

“Warm. There. Go.” Luisa took Dolores’s hand and maneuvered her down the covered pathway, toward the section where her gold-glowing door stood.

“ish! Ish! Ishy ish!”

“TSSSSSSH-eww!”

Both girls paused. The last sneeze hadn’t come from Dolores, but rather from the other gold-sparkled doorway; the one that led to their other sister Isabela’s room. Except that.. Isabela didn’t sneeze.

“eh eh EH TSSSSSH-ewwww!”

“Isie?”

“Girls! Hi!” The door swung open the rest of the way. “Come in!”

Gingerly, Luisa and Dolores poked their heads through the doorframe, into the extra-dimensional space that Casita had created for each of the Madrigal children. Isabela’s room was… you guessed it… flowers. The ground was flowers, red and pink bulbs with an odd green bush in the center. The walls were mostly flowers, waves of white and pink. Wooden walls ringed the top.

https://imgur.com/a/F49nXcj

“So…”

“Hi!” Isabela had an odd sort of energy to her.

“How are…”

“eh! Hold on!”

“…”

“eh… heh… it’s coming…”

“…”

“it-TSSSSSH!” Isabela unleashed a spray which resembled the mist from a spray can, or at least it would have if there were spray cans within the enclave of Encanto, hidden away from the rest of the world. “het-TSSSSH! ESSSSSSH-ew!” If that had, in fact, been a spray can, the ozone layer above the mountains surrounding Encanto would have diminished greatly.

“Um… bless you?”

“Thanks!” Isabela was grinning ear to ear, eyes beaming, which was a marked contrast from the way she usually smiled, which was a thin, close-lipped smile designed to let everyone nearby know how perfect and graceful she was, and that they were, by comparison, not. “Isn’t it fun?”

“What?” asked Isabela and Luisa simultaneously. Dolores hadn’t heard the last bit, while Luisa suspected she had heard incorrectly.

“Sneezing! Isn’t it fun?”

“Uh…” Now Dolores was sure she had heard wrong, a sensation she hadn’t experienced since she was five.

“I mean!” Isabela effused, “Isn’t it fun to just cut loose and sneeze however you want? Without worrying about what the people around you think? Or how you look while sneezing? Or if you sound right? Or… uh… hang on.” She sniffled. “I… I think I have another sneeze coming!”

“All right…” Luisa wasn’t sure where this was going. Her own nose had begun itching faintly. Maybe it was the cold, or the pollen from the countless thousands of red and orange blooms which-

“Eh…” Isy sighed. “It’s not coming.”

“All right, so…”

“So! Look!” Isabela hadn’t been this full of energy since… well, forever. “Let’s try this!”

Isabela stared at a spot on the flower-covered earth. Within seconds, a stalk shot up, unfurling dozens of tiny yellow buds. Isy scooped it up and held it by her nose.

“This… I think it’s called goldenrod. I haven’t… eh... I haven’t grown it since I was little, cuz it makes me… eh… sneeze!” She took a sniff. “Yes! That… mmm… yes! I think I’m going to sneeze again!”

Luisa peered at her quizzically. “You seem to be… enjoying this. A lot.”

“I know!”, Isy gushed. “The thing is… eh.” She sniffled. “All this time, being perfect was my thing. Abuela taught me that it’s rude to sneeze around guests. I learned… to… eh… hold on, here it cah-TSSSSSH!” Again, the sneeze resembled the spray from a bottle of Windex or something, except not blue, and it probably wouldn’t have cleaned windows. “hah-TSSSSH! ETSSSSHH! And… eh… I’ve always stifled my sneezes. Always. I didn’t even stop to think about it. Eh… heh ih… ah-TSSSSH! Ahhh-TSSSH!”

“Okay…” Luisa looked around the extra-dimensional space. The walls were flowers; the floor was loose earth, through which countless blooms poked. The few times she had been in here before, it had been, well, perfect, all the flowers in perfect rows in the colors of the rainbow, each individual blossom… wait for it… perfect. Today, a bit of chaos had crept in through the crack under the glowing door. A petal drifting in the wind, a bulb out of place. As Luisa watched, half a dozen more of the long yellow stalks poked out of the earth around them.

“But now!” Isabela snuffled loudly, something she would never have done a month ago, even in private. “Thanks to… you know,” she smiled, “I’ve discovered something! It’s okay not to be perfect! And ih.. heh… ih ih… it can be kinda of… fun! Eh-TSSSSSCH!!”

“I gotcha.” Luisa nodded. “I’ve always had to be the same way. I mean, not perfect like you, but… everyone depended on me to carry stuff, and build stuff, and… stuff.”

“What?” Dolores craned her head.

“You know.”

“Stuff,” Isabela added.

“But when we were rebuilding the house, and I wasn’t as strong as I used to be, it didn’t matter! I could still pitch in, and help build the-”

“ESSSSSH! Heh-TSSSH!”

“And… I guess the point is, I don’t have to do everything. People can get along without me. Mostly. Usually. And… umm…”

“Weez?”

“Now I think I’m going to… eh…”

“ESSSSH!”

“…sneeze!”

The two watched as Luisa closed her eyes, inhaled, paused half a second, inhaled again, then lurched forward, chest wobbling. “HACHOOO!! CHOOO! HEYY-YACHOOO!” One might have expected the super-strong Luisa to unleash a hurricane sneeze, tearing thousands of flowers from the earth and sending them swirling into the tall space like a technicolor tornado. Nope- they were normal sneezes, just very large normal sneezes. Luisa wiped her nose on the sleeve of the rough cotton blouse she wore.

“Nice!” Isabela chirped.

“What?”

“Is your hearing still off?”

“Yeah. A bit. Think we should go down to the kitchen and get a healing snack?”

“Can Julieta cure this sort of thing?”

“A cold? Sure. Well… pretty sure. I think.”

“You think?”

“Yeah! Probably.”

The trio exited Isabela’s pollen-filled realm and walked slowly down the covered walkway ringing the new Casita’s tiled courtyard. Isy leaned in towards Dolores. “You knew about you-know-who living in the walls, didn’t you?”

“We don’t have to call him ‘you-know-who’ anymore,” said Luisa.

“Right. So. You knew about…”

“Bruno. Yeah.” Dolores sighed. “He wasn’t doing any harm. In fact, I’m pretty sure that Julieta knew food was vanishing. Camilo sneaking seconds couldn’t account for all that.”

“Huuuuh.” Isabela felt yet another sneeze coming on. With people milling around, her old instincts kicked in, causing her to scrunch her perfect nose. The sneeze retreated back inside.

“I mean, it wasn’t his fault, right? He didn’t actually make those things happen. They just did.”

“Are you sure?”

“Maybe Osvaldo got his gut because she said he would.”

“How would that work.”

“I dunno.” Luisa sniffled. “Maybe… he knew he was going to get fat, so… he ate a lot?”

“That…” Dolores scratched her chin. “Now my head hurts.”

“Good timing.” The trio had just arrived at the kitchen, the warm smell of arroz con leche drifting through the swinging doors.

They left the kitchen half an hour later, moving significantly slower than they had been, even fuller than before with Julieta’s delicious treats, and as a corollary, purged of cold germs, or at least they hoped. Bruno had been there, chatting with Pepa and Julieta. Isabela began to suspect that Dolores wasn’t the only one who knew that Bruno hadn’t really been gone.

“So. Everyone all better?”

“I’m good.” Luisa flexed her arms. “I feel like I can lift a church again. Not that I want to. Isy?”

Isabella glanced at the wooden armrail winding around the courtyard. A moment later, roses and daisies and other assorted blossoms poked up. “Fine here. Dolores?”

Dolores cocked her head. "I think I’m back to normal. I can hear- yep, Antonio’s coming back from school, and Mirabel is… ahhhhh!”

“Huh?”

“We have to stick more hay around the outhouse! Soundproofing.”

“Gotcha.” Luisa added that to her mental to-do list, next to ‘divert river’ and ‘see how big I can sneeze now that my strength is back’.

“Hey! I…” Isabel was staring at nothing. “I think I’m… eh… going to sneeze. Again.”

“I thought…”

“Maybe it’s not that cold, maybe it’s-”

“et-CHSSSS!” Isabel stifled it about half way.

“-allergies? Or something?”

“hat-CHSSSS! Maybe.” Isabel bent down and plucked a stalk of goldenrod, which had been growing against the rough white stucco wall. “Did I grow this? Or was it here before?”

Dolores blinked, her eyes watering for some reason. “I’m not sure.”

“Either way, it’s… eh… making me… het-CHSSSS! Et-TSSSH! Making me sneeze!” Isabela held the back of her hand in front of her nose, but still some spray escaped.

“ishy ish!” Dolores sneezed. “Me too.”

“Hey Weezie,” Isabela’s eyes had a mischievous grin. “Let’s all go back up to my room. I want to see how big you can sneeze now that you’re feeling better.”

Luisa smiled. “Let’s go.”

                

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https://www.sneezefetishforum.com/topic/81661-donate-to-keep-the-forum-running-get-an-awesome-story/#comment-957961

 

Edited December 15, 2022 by webmeistro

[Katzoo12]

Not bad! Thank you. But honestly….it wasn’t what I expected. And I noticed a few things off. I definitely understand though, since you only saw the movie once before writing. But to name a few:

1. A bit of a review on the Madrigal family tree. Abuela Alma had triplets. The oldest being Julieta, then Pepa, then Bruno. Julieta married Agustín, and together they had three girls. Isabela,  (21 years old) Luisa, (19) and Mirabel (15 and the hero of the movie.) Pepa married Félix, and they had three more children: Dolores (also 21, but a few weeks younger than Isabela) Camilo (also 15 but a few months older than Mirabel) and Antonio (5 at the time of the movie.) But yeah, Isabela is Luisa’s older sister, and they’re both cousins to Dolores. Meaning Julieta is Dolores’ aunt, or Tía, and mom to Isabela and Luisa. 

2. Casita actually does have an indoor bathroom, at least according to Jared Bush, one of the directors. 

3. I did notice a few typos, like how Dolores and Luisa should be the ones poking their heads into Isabela’s room. You put Luisa and Isabela. 
 

4. Honestly…it does seem like you deviated from my original plan a bit. I definitely noticed some parts from it, but you put your own spin on the rest of it. It also doesn’t seem likely that they would get used to the new normal post movie THAT quickly. Each of them has had unrealistic expectations and heavy pressure put upon them since they were five. Healing from multigenerational trauma involves stuff like slowly introducing new habits, like Luisa learning to say no and take some time for herself.

 

Again, I’m not blaming you since you only saw the movie once, and you DID say you were more comfortable with stuff like the MCU. I just figured I’d let you know. I’m sorry if I came across too harsh while criticizing you though. I was trying to do it constructively. 

[webmeistro]

Yeah, I rented the movie from Amazon Prime, and they only give you 48 hours. I watched the whole thing once and then the musical bits a few times over, cuz those were the best bits. But by the time I had really sat down to write it had expired.

And when I was writing this I figured they probably did have an indoor bathroom. Except that, if Casita is sentient, then using the toilet within it would be... uh... uncomfortable.

EDIT: also, what does everyone think of the AI art? I tried to get it close to the movie, but it had no clue about "mission style" architecture.

Edited December 15, 2022 by webmeistro

[RipleyToo]

Luisa sneezes were my favorite part ❤️ 

[Mr Snz]

Isabella's sneezes was my favourite

I really like the fanfic

Is there going to be different one fanfic or a continuation of this fanfic

 

[Katzoo12]

On 1/30/2023 at 9:25 PM, Mr Snz said:

Isabella's sneezes was my favourite

I really like the fanfic

Is there going to be different one fanfic or a continuation of this fanfic

 

Honestly it depends on whether or not people will commission more. I think I was the first one.

[a-and-b-snz]

This was so good!

[Mr Snz]

Amazing