Encantober Day 10: Help
Julieta had everything under control. Really. She’d had her gift for…how many years now? It was second nature to her. Besides, she enjoyed helping people. And cooking. What could be better than a gift that allowed her to do both?
So maybe it had been more challenging lately. With a toddler and a baby, Julieta found it took her more time and effort to accomplish the same tasks she did with ease before. But that was no excuse. If anything, it was all the more reason to try harder. After all, she had more people relying on her now. Everyone was relying on her. She couldn’t let them down. They were counting on her.
All she had to do was replenish her reserves of magical healing food, take care of her two little ones, and cook dinner. Her family had graciously helped out by rotating cooking meals instead of having her cook every day. Luisa slept most of the time, and Isabela was such a sweet child, people were bending over backwards to spend time with her. Really, if you took all that into consideration, it left relatively little for her to do. She’d finished restocking the magical food. Now all she had to do was cook dinner.
Easy. She could do it in her sleep.
“Julieta.”
She awoke with a start to Pepa shaking her shoulder. “Eh?” She rubbed her bleary eyes.
“Julieta, wake up.”
“Did I fall asleep?” Julieta mumbled sleepily. She raised her hand to cover a yawn and noticed that it was covered in the sauce she had been preparing. It left a trail leading to the bowl, which had sauce smeared down the side. Horrified, she yelped and wiped everything down frantically with the nearest towel.
Pepa scrutinized her. “Juli, when was the last time you slept?”
Julieta tilted her head, thinking. Last night had been hard. Luisa had been colicky and the day before Julieta had been busy taking care of injuries around town. “Uh…”
“It’s taking you way too long to answer,” Pepa noted.
Julieta shrugged, deflated. “I’m not sure,” she admitted.
“That’s concerning.”
Julieta ignored her.
Pepa took a seat beside her. “Julieta, what is going on?”
Julieta took a steadying breath. “Nothing. It’s my turn to make dinner. So I’m making dinner.” She yawned widely. “I’m just… a bit tired, that’s all.”
“So you decided the empanada filling would make a good pillow?”
Julieta gave her a confused look.
“You have some, on your cheek.” Pepa gestured to her own cheek.
“Ayyy.” Julieta dabbed at her face furiously.
“Julieta…” Pepa reached out, taking her hand between her own. “You don’t have to do everything on your own. Asking for help is allowed, you know.”
Julieta shot her an uncharacteristically scathing glare. “I don’t need help. I have everything under control.”
“Right…” Pepa said sarcastically. “That’s why I found you with your face planted in the bowl. Because you’ve so clearly got everything under control.”
Julieta’s lip wobbled. This was so embarrassing. Not only was she letting everyone down, but it was so noticeable Pepa was calling her out on it. Tears stung her eyes, and she swallowed hard to keep them at bay. “It’s my turn to make dinner,” she repeated stubbornly, trying to keep her hands from shaking.
“Yes, and you clearly are not feeling up to it,” Pepa explained patiently, as if to a small child.
Great. Now Pepa was being patronizing. Could this get any worse? Julieta gulped, her breathing uneven. “Everyone has been so kind, taking most of the cooking off my plate. I only cook dinner once a week now. It’s the least I can do.” If she couldn’t even do that…what was she good for?
“Yeah, Julieta, other people are stepping up. You want to know why? Because you are busy taking care of a small child and a baby. They don’t have to deal with those responsibilities. Despite that, you’re still keeping up with your gift duty. Somehow you’re still cranking out buñuelos like nobody’s business.”
Julieta chuckled faintly. “No one else can do it. I have to keep going with it.”
Pepa cocked her head as if conceding the point. “Well, other people can cook. So let us help you.”
Julieta stared at her. The words weren’t really registering. All she could do was latch onto- “You’re gonna help with cooking?”
Pepa shrugged. “Yes? Is that such a crazy idea?”
Julieta tapped her chin thoughtfully. “The last time I let you cook, you almost set the kitchen on fire trying to boil water.”
“That wasn’t my fault,” Pepa fumed. “The stupid pot wasn’t boiling, and I got mad, and I didn’t realize a lightning bolt would zap the fire!”
Seeing Pepa get worked up over the memory was what broke her. To her sleep-deprived brain, it was the funniest thing ever. She broke down into a fit of laughter, struggling for breath, as she laughed so hard, she cried.
“Oh sure, laugh at my pain,” Pepa quipped, but there was no edge to her words. Her lips curved into a small smile. “I’ll remember that the next time you make a mistake.”
“I don’t make mistakes, Pepa.” Julieta tossed her hair behind her shoulders, sending up a plume of flour.
“Ah yes, you totally meant to soak your hand in the sauce.” Pepa grinned.
“Ay, enough about the stupid sauce!” Julieta flicked her with flour.
Pepa flicked her back. Before the scene could devolve into a flour fight, she placed her hand between them in a truce. “Okay. So what still needs to be done?”
Julieta took stock of the situation. “The dough and filling are done, so I just need to roll and stuff the empanadas before cooking them.”
“You mean we,” Pepa corrected. “Because I’m helping you, whether you like it or not, so you might as well like it.”
Julieta sighed. “Fine. But you’re staying away from the stove. I don’t want a repeat of the ligh- the incident,” she amended upon seeing the stormy look in Pepa’s eyes. “Here.” She thrusted a spoon at Pepa. “You can fill the dough once I’ve shaped it.”
“So little faith,” Pepa shook her head goodnaturedly, but accepted the proffered spoon.
They began working quietly.
“Not so much, Pepa.” Julieta placed her hand on Pepa’s wrist, stilling her hand with the spoon hovering over the dough circle. “If you overstuff the empanadas they’ll explode.”
“And if you understuff them, you’ll get empanada scented bread,” Pepa muttered, but scooped out a bit of filling before crimping the empanada shut. “Better?”
Julieta nodded her approval. “That’s one down…” she looked at the almost completely full bowl of filling, “several dozen more to go.”
“Good thing you have me to help out, eh, hermana?” Pepa elbowed her gently in the side.
Julieta had to admit she was right.
“I don’t know how you thought you could do it alone,” Pepa continued, getting into a rhythm with the empanadas.
“Don’t push it.”
Soon, the tray between them grew full. Much faster than if Julieta had been left to do it alone, especially since she was still struggling to stay awake.
As much as she hated to admit it, Pepa was right. Maybe it was okay to ask for help sometimes.
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my encanto analysis/headcanon that no one asked for
so, i was just looking through some encanto fanart and headcanons and came across this piece (artist: https://mobile.twitter.com/ye_enc):
abuela had triplets - julieta, pepa, and bruno. both julieta and pepa had three kids - isabella, luisa, and mirabel for julieta, and dolores, camilo, and antonio for pepa.
what i noticed is that for each batch of three, each individual falls under a certain category, and it seems to follow by age.
julieta was, as this lovely fanart shows, likely depended on quite frequently for her ability to heal via her cooking. her gift would have been the most useful and therefore she likely would have been praised the most as “the perfect one”.
this, of course, next falls to isabella, who we see this with the most frequently. abuela very clearly is living the life she wished she could have lived through isabella, and is viewed as the perfect golden child by everyone around her.
dolores is a little different, but i believe she still fits the trope. she is basically the physical embodiment of “seen but not heard.” she keeps quiet on the things she knows would upset her family and doesn’t make herself heard, even when she is in pain, whether physical or emotional. she doesn’t tell anyone that she knows bruno has been living in the walls for the ten years he’s been missing; she doesn’t tell anyone about her feelings for mariano, because she knows that will upset abuela and her cousin’s “perfect for the encanto” arrangement; and one can only imagine how loud certain things are to her, that are endurable for us (fireworks, for example).
next are the middle children: pepa, luisa, and camilo. all of them have some kind of pressure on their shoulders. (and - just a fun thing i noticed - while luisa’s literal pressure is the many things she carries, pepa’s pressure is atmospheric pressure, because she controls the weather. but anyway, lol).
all three of these characters are told in one way or another to bottle up their emotions and keep them buried inside. with pepa, we see this very directly as she is constantly told by the other characters (especially abuela) to, as the fanart above shows, calm down and essentially turn off her emotions because of the damage she can cause with her weather powers. this kind of reminds me of the “conceal, don’t feel” thing that elsa had with her gloves. both pepa and elsa demonstrate the same growth throughout their movies, too - learning to accept themselves and their abilities and thus being able to control them instead of being controlled by them - but, i digress.
luisa, by contrast, is indirectly told to keep her emotions at bay. she is treated as something of a useful tool, both by the town and by abuela, and seen in a very masculine light despite her relatively feminine personality. because of this treatment and the expectation that she will always be strong that comes with it, she falls into the same category as pepa.
camilo, like dolores, is a little different, but still fits. we don’t see much of him in the movie, but i imagine he is depended on as being the funny one. if anyone reading this is into k-pop or bts, think of camilo as like the j-hope or the jin of the group. he’s always expected to be funny and smiling, lifting everyone else’s spirits - but who lifts his spirits?
and lastly, we have the youngest siblings - bruno, mirabel, and antonio. they fit into the roll, of course, of the scapegoat, of family disappointments.
bruno was rejected by the town and by his family, seen as a harbinger of chaos and horror, a bad omen - all because he can see the future, something that he obviously cannot control. but, of course, it’s easier to simply blame someone else than accept the truth or take responsibility for your own actions.
mirabel, of course, is treated in much the same way. she is seen as a bad omen, as well, and is quite literally feared to be the one who will destroy the family and the encanto, because of bruno’s vision.
antonio does not quite fit into this category, but i think if he had not gotten a gift, he would have been shunned in much the same way as bruno or mirabel. it can also be argued that his gift isn’t really very useful, and we can see abuela struggle for a moment to think of how they could put his gift to use at the breakfast at the beginning of the movie (”i told them to warm up your seat”).
anyway - this is all to say that each of the siblings in each of the batches of three appears to fill (or almost fill) the same rolls. i’m sure someone else has already noticed this and i’m just late to the party - but i thought it was cool.
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Encanto Masterlist
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Camilo Madrigal - [Request Open]
Headcanons :
Camilo x Reader Headcanons
Camilo proposing to you
Camilo taking care of you while you're sick
Yandere!Camilo x Reader
Camilo x Reader with Shadow Magic
Camilo simping over Reader
Camilo x insecure!reader
Camilo meeting your ex-boyfriend would include
Having a secret relationship with Camilo would include
Jealous!Camilo x Reader
Camilo being the only one capable of making you laugh
Stealing Camilo's ruana would include
Camilo comforting you when you're crying
Camilo simping over Magical!Reader
Camilo saying "I love you" for the first time
Camilo reacting to Jealous!Reader
Camilo accidentally confessing his feeling to you
Dancing with Camilo Madrigal
Imagine :
None
*-*-*-*-*
Dolores Madrigal - [Request Open]
Headcanons :
How the Familly Madrigal react to Dolores's noise sensitivity
Imagine :
None
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Pepa Madrigal - [Request Open]
Headcanons :
Pepa x Reader Headcanons
Imagine :
None
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Bruno Madrigal - [Request Open]
Headcanons :
Bruno Madrigal having a heavy crush on Reader Headcanons
Bruno comforting his nieces and nephews
Imagine :
None
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Mirabel Madrigal - [Request Open]
Headcanons :
Having a picnic date with Mirabel Madrigal would include
Imagine :
None
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Luisa Madrigal - [Request Open]
Headcanons :
None
Imagine :
Helping Luisa Madrigal through her anxiety
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Isabela Madrigal - [Request Open]
Headcanons :
Isabela dating a botanist
Imagine :
None
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Julieta Madrigal - [Request Open]
Headcanons :
Julieta Madrigal x Reader Headcanons
Imagine :
None
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The Family Madrigal - [Request Open]
Headcanons :
Family Madrigal helping a self-harming!Reader
Imagine :
None
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