Another thought to counteract my previous post "ruining" Isamira in the dad!Bruno AU: For all that the incest guilt would be off the charts, I do think that Mira accepting their love for each other is probably one of the few ways to help Mirabel move past her incest trauma. If she can be convinced that her love for her sister is beautiful (and not disgusting), then logically that'd extend to herself as a product of incest. Isa *may* not be the best person for that sort of positivity, tho...

Isabela: I know, I know, these feelings are bad, disgusting, gross, dangerous, horrible, life-ruining...

Mirabel: thanks ;-;

jsjkjs ahh anon yesss you raise such a good point omg i hadn't though of it that way but yes! I think a big part of the trauma comes from the fact that Bruno and Julieta genuinely loved each other and did everything they did willingly and consensually. They had forbidden inc3st seks because they WANTED to have forbidde inc3st seks. If that hadn't been the case, then it would be so much more black-and-white, much more clear and simple to understand - a crime is a crime. Her mother would have been an obvious victim. But because her parents WANTED to be together and ENJOYED IT for a long time, it's considered a moral failing anyone could fall into if they're not careful enough. A potential temptation that may latch its claws onto you. It's not just a crime, it's a sin, and the people who commited such sin in the past are not bad people - they're Mirabel's family, and she doesn't know Bruno very well but he doesn't see like a bad guy, he's just... weird. And Julieta is very clearly not EVIL either, and she still loves Mirabel, but she chose to be involved with her own brother, she wasn't a victim, she made a mistake, so who's to say Mirabel can't make a mistake either? I think Mirabel and Isabela's arc should maybe mirror Julieta and Bruno's, in a way that exposes how they actually loved each other - still do, in a way - and how the decisions they made, made them happy back then. They didn't hurt each other. If anything, the person who got hurt the most before Mirabel's birth was Agustín, since Julieta continued to be with her brother even after getting married and starting a family, but Agustín didn't even know until after Mirabel had turned five, and by then Bruno and Julieta were over and he was much more concerned about Mirabel's wellbeing, even if he was pushed out of it and forbidden from intervening by Alma, so in the end, shouldn't they have spent more time and energy in protecting Mirabel than wallowing in their own shame and forcing it upon her?

It's kind of an egg-and-chicken sort of thing - does Mirabel need to accept she's inherently valuable and worthy of life and love despite her incestuous origins to happily embrace her feelings for her sister, or does Mirabel's relationship with her sister help her accept her own existance as a child of inc3st? I think it'd be kinda both. Two paralel lines mirroring each other, helping her learn and understand and see things from different perspectives, growing alongside her sister and parents.

Anhhhs shha ahh ah now I'm thinking about Isabela making Mirabel feel so loved and cherished and beautiful and kissing her all over, kinda like a puppy that won't get off you, to the point Mirabel forgets what was supposed to be so wrong about this. If her parents had something like this, and they really loved each other so much, then she's almost happy that she was born out of so much love.

Ahh guys Mirabel in the dad bruno AU feeling so disgusted by her body, because she read about like, genes and stuff. Inbreeding. It's gross and unnatural and deeply embedded into her DNA. It's like her body is sick without being sick (her mother's food takes care of that). Bonus points if her sisters and cousins don't want to touch her for this very same reason - they find her inbred body disgusting. She looks human but she's more of a freak, really. An aberration of nature. She might as well be the fucking minotaur by the way they look at her :)

Which is why it's so meaningful when someone actually holds her very tenderly and kisses her forehead and tells her that they love her very much ahhahahh ahhh dsjbjk dmmldfm

Wait! Bruno dad au?! I have not heard of this! Please, tell me more.

Yesss Dad Bruno AU :D idk there are probably a lot of these but in this case basically, Bruno and Julieta had something going on between like their mid twenties and early thirties, even though she was married to Agustín, they made a mistake one night and Julieta got pregnant with his baby. Basically Mirabel is their inc3st baby ;-; and it fucks with the whole family when it comes out. She finds out about it when she's like 5, right after her failed Gift Ceremony, because Julieta and Bruno were having a shouting match about whether or not that was the miracle punishing Mirabel for their crimes. Things kinda spiral into disaster from there: fights between Agustín and Julieta, Bruno rejecting Mirabel and refusing to recognize her as his daughter, one of Mirabel's sisters maybe or maybe not eventually developing sisc0n feelings and scaring the shit out of her, Mirabel's self-esteem plummeting into the fucking underworld etc etc. You can read all about it in my #Dad Bruno AU tag ;-; cw: sad

Okay so dad!Bruno incest guilt angst is good, but what about dad!Bruno rage angst

Because in canon this man rode in on a horse like a goddamn knight to chew Alma out for maybe possibly having a chance to make Mirabel cry, and from the way he fell off and got stuck I suspect he doesn’t actually know how to ride a horse which makes the fact he tried 2x cooler IMO.

And there’s something about the idea of this gentle, chill, friendly man getting pissed off because yes he might have made a mistake by not being able to hold his relationship with Julieta together when he chose to go for that, but dammit that’s HIS DAUGHTER and she didn’t do anything wrong so how dare you treat her like a monster for existing? What is wrong with his family, does he even know them anymore???

Like he expected them to be upset with him, thats fair, but not a literal baby child. And despite his anxieties about whether he’d be a good dad to her or whether people would think he was sus if he just took her and left, maybe he makes a vision of if she’ll turn out okay and sees how horrible Alma would be to her and decides protecting her is more important.

This can go 1 of a few ways, Julieta and Augustin can go with him if they want, or they can stay if they want, and they might be mad at him or not for even thinking of it but any way they slice it he insists he needs to get her out of Alma’s shadow. He loves his family and would like to stay but they feel so hostile and he will leave the village entirely if he needs to.

This has potential for conflict between Julieta and Bruno, or between the parent trio and the rest of the family. And then you would have to work out how it would go if they stayed close by vs going somewhere further away and just. Dad!Bruno is a great AU for angst and drama.

Ohh Oh Anon you have galaxy brain 👀👀 There are so many options ahh mm

Bruno knows things are going really REALLY bad and when Antonio is born and Mirabel is kicked out of the nursery, he just, brings her to his room. She lives with him now. He tries to be a dad for the first time. And Mirabel is just ELATED to be with her dad and follows him everywhere like a baby duckling, idk bringing board games and a ball and shit to play and convince him to spend time with her. They eventually DO grow closer. Mirabel comes to be seen more as a part of Bruno's side of the family than Julieta's. She wears green and emerald jewelry and comes to LOVE the huge cave system that is his room, exploring every nook and cranny and idk she does parkour with him. Objectively least angsty alernative because at least she and Bruno are recovering and building a healthier, stronger relationship, and even if everyone hates them, they have each other and their home in the tower, AND they're close enough to the family so that eventually isabela can become a sisc0n they can all be close again, hopefully, somehow.

When she's very young, Bruno takes Mirabel and moves somewhere else in town. Like a house or even a small farm in the outskirts, near the edge of the forest, where she grows up away from the rest of the family. She knows she's related to them but she doesn't really see them as family, though she longs to reconnect and doesn't resent them one bit. She still blames herself ;-;

Bruno takes Mirabel when she's little and they move outside of the Encant0, to some big city. Memories of the Encant0 become an old, distant memory in Mirabel's mind, almost like a dream she longs to find and explore, but her father reminds her that they are in exile for a reason.

Personally I think it'd be so much more heartbreaking if Julieta and Agustín didn't want/couldn't leave, because they already have two magical daughters and they need to be raised in Casita. Also, Alma wouldn't want them to take Isabela away. She's tightly holding the leash. Isabela can't leave and if Julieta and Agustín leave for Mirabel's sake, they'd have to leave her behind. Obviously they don't consider the possibility for even a minute. Moving the whole family out is not an option with Isabela as hostage. The previously listed options imo are ordered from least to most painful for Julieta specifically: Mirabel living in Bruno's tower is a small change. It only means she needs to climb a few more steps to find her daughter, but they all still live in the same house and she's not all that far away. Mirabel being moved to somewhere else in town would be terribly painful, but at least Julieta could easily stay in contact. Taking her away from the Encant0 though? That would kill her. She'd be losing her baby, maybe forever.

;-;

I do love the idea of Bruno snapping one day and deciding to be an actual father and protect his child. The baby. My skrunkly. my poor little meow meow. must protecc. Ayy the town coming to see her as "Bruno's kid" even if they don't know the truth, because they always see them together and he's always the one taking care of her. my heart.

I think that would depend on how much dad-Bruno!Mirabel fears being kicked out? Bruno didn't leave in this AU, so the fate of the previous family black sheep wouldn't be hanging over her, but her position in the house is _much_ more precarious. I would tentatively say lowkey afraid, but still trying to get her approval (like canon but much more skittish)? Since I doubt there's any real danger of Alma kicking her out if Bruno's still there after everything (until Isamira happens, that is).

Ohh I like that Anon. She tries to make herself cute and endearing and loveable but all she gets is disgust in return and it fucks with her self-esteem so bad ;-; and she's painfully aware of how much her grandmother despises her. Alma will give an annoyed look in her general direction and poor baby cries herself to sleep over it.

thank god y'all made it isamira it would be devastating if Mirabel didn't have like a hot sister to hug her and make her feel loved and safe.

Oh, I just had another great thought: while Mira initially believes her suffering is due to incest, the thing about Mira's suffering in the dad!Bruno AU is that it doesn't actually have anything directly to do with the incest itself. At most she *maybe* didn't get a gift because of it, but she doesn't have any problems worse than bad eyesight. Even the fact that it was adulterous is basically consequenceless. No, Mirabel is suffering because of the way people view and interact with incest. (1/3)

Her biological parents never hurt each other or anyone else with their love, only their shame, and the same was true of her experience with Isa. Given that she accepts her existence is beautiful and her love is beautiful, I think her next step would be feeling *really really super duper pissed* that everyone treated her so badly for so long out of shame over something she no longer feels was ever actually wrong. Mira'd *rip* into Bruno in particular for that, I think. He knew how beautiful (2/3)

a love like hers and Isabela's was once, after all, and then he went and got in his head that it was wrong and bad and never should've happened, made Mirabel think she was also wrong and bad for being a product of that love, and deprived her of a loving father twice over. At least Julieta still treated like a daughter she loved in the end, no matter how complicated her feelings. I bet it'd put her canon confrontation with Abuela to shame. (3/3)

Anon you’re 100% right. Obviously, any sane person would assume the worst out of situations like these, but this is Fantasy Inc3st and these two instances were completely healthy and harmless. It’s their inability to see through the horror to love her unconditionally that’s the source of her worst pain; which is why her sister offering her that kind of kindness is what eventually helps her get out of the darkness. Of course, it’s possible that Isabela couldn’t have helped if she didn’t know what it felt like firsthand, to love someone in that way. I think it would take Mirabel quite some time to fully rid herself of shame and embarrassment, and even longer to see her own existence as something beautiful. I haven’t said it out loud, but it’s heavily implied that Mirabel in this AU is battling with some form of suicidal ideation, with the idea that everyone else would be better if she didn’t exist, and while she can’t be “un-born”, she can do the second next thing and complete the abortion that her mother never managed to carry out. It’s a very passive thing that never gets taken to action; it’s less “I’m gonna do this” and more “everyone else would be better off if I did this, hypothetically” - and only ever takes form in the shape of vague notions of not wanting to exist, but even if there’s no immediate danger, those ideas still haunt her for a long time. She wants her family to be happy and she knows they’d be happier without her. And dragging yourself out of that is hard. It can take years. Some may say that it never fully leaves, it just crouches on a corner ready to scratch you again whenever something happens and it takes you back to that time. So going from “my existence is only a hindrance for my loved ones” to a more neutral “my existence is as valuable and worthy as everyone else’s” is one step, and from there to going to “my existence is actively good and the world is better because I am here” is another huuuuuge distance to run. Feeling positively about yourself is harder than feeling neutral about yourself. But I think somewhere between points 2 and 3 there’s a more accessible “I’m happy I exist to experience this” stage, and it would make me very happy to see Mirabel reach that place as her life gets better and she forms stronger connections to her sisters and cousins, and one sister in particular who is working very hard to help Mirabel reach level 3 there, reminding her that she is loved and beautiful. I talked about this before, but I get this vibe from Isabela that she’s more mature and emotionally intelligent than she may initially seem, since she acts so childish and juvenile in public during the movie, spinning around like a bimbo and throwing flowers at people. And I also have the feeling that she may struggle with self-esteem too, though her battle isn’t nearly as extreme as Mirabel’s lol but… she knows she needs to put up a performance, she knows that people wouldn’t like the real her nearly as much, she knows love in her family isn’t unconditional and if she’s this scared of not performing correctly, it’s probably because she’s scared of not being loved. And I think she understands her situation fully. She knows what she’s doing and why, she’s given up, you could almost say she’s made peace with her sacrifice… and here comes Mirabel, with 99 more problems than her and a desperate need TO BE HELD and I think that, once they both lower their walls and open up, she’d be able to get a pretty good reading of Mirabel’s mental state. She’ll see how she feels and actively try to prove her wrong, with the power of love.

And from there I think Mirabel would more easily slide into a “the relationship I have with my sister is beautiful” and then a “is this what my parents had? Then I’m happy that they loved each other so much when they had me” and that, I think, would be the last step before she slots into the understanding that, wait a second, she’s got people who love her and don’t care that she’s a product of inc3st OR that she’s reproducing that very same crime with her sister. I don’t think her sisters or cousins ever cared that much about her situation, because they understood that she didn’t do anything – but they were all scared of the older members of the family. She’s got people who think she’s great, actually, and want her around. Most importantly, hello her sister is fucking beautiful? And she lets her kiss her?? They have a happy healthy relationship and nobody died because of it??? THIS is the Big Huge Crime that tormented her since age five? She’s beginning to believe the adults are full of shit.

So yes she goes to have a word with her fucking dad because he sat there in his cave for ten years and didn’t move a finger for her when he DAMN WELL KNEW what it was like. And of course, he’s a lot like her. He thinks his presence makes things worse, he thinks people would be better off without him, he thinks that removing himself from the situation is the best way to help, because he has nothing good to offer. And maybe after giving him the shouting of his life, they both understand the extent and nature of their shared suffering better.

I originally wanted the story to be mostly gen and have Bruno and Julieta officially separated. I didn’t want them to get back together, but I’m beginning to reconsider the idea, because… do they still love each other in that way? Do they wish they had a second chance? Do they want to be there for each other? I can see Bruno being inspired by Mirabel’s bravery and facing his sister again. Or maybe it’s still gen, and he just gathers the courage to recall their past together fondly instead of shamefully, and to remember that he still loves her, even if not romantically, and that they had a daughter together, that they’re all family and that she probably needs him. Their daughter needs him. Namely, she needs him to stop being a coward and show her that she’s wanted and loved.

Dad!Bruno Isamira has almost ended up sounding wholesome, so now I've got to ruin it: Mirabel wouldn't know what real sisterly affection looks like (at least not when it's directed toward her) so how would she know that Isa is *only* being a sister to her? On one hand, she's seriously starved of familial affection; on the other, she'd be terrified that any gesture could cross some invisible line. I don't think it'd be about distrusting or fearing Isa herself (even if it's one-sided) (1/2)

so much as feeling intrinsically tainted by incest, but it'd be very hard for poor Isa not to take it personally. She's really only being a good sister (for once), but every time Mirabel instinctively flinches away from something as innocent as gently fixing her hair she feels like a monster and starts doubting her own intentions. Meanwhile, Mira can't help but associate the one family member she has on her side with her trauma. Whole new dimensions of incest guilt, ahoy! (2/2)

Anon omg ahh I love this new brand of inc3st guilt so much djx kjQC KqdklnwknNmenklSLMFKMLSDKLMFLNwñqwmñNK. ÑMfnk vdm , AHH ahh noo my poor babies 😭😭😭😭😭 gosh the dumb bitch in me wants to jump straight into the Comfort part of the Hurt in which they talk about their feelings and begin to feel more comfortable with each other I JUST WANT MIRABEL TO GET A BIG SISTERLY INCESTUOUS HUG. SOMEBODY HOLD HER SHE NEEDS IT OK?? Let her hesitantly lean back so that her back is pressed to Isabela’s chest and Isabela’s arms are wrapped around her and she slowly relaxes and melts into her embrace 😭😭😭 but nooo yeah anon the Hurt part of the Comfort would last soooo long like I’m talking literal years (like idk 4) of back and forth and feeling scared and guilty and hurt and slowly understanding each other and growing closer and finding comfort in each other without shame. Yeah around the beginning Mirabel is super confused because she has no idea how sisters act and she’s sooo paranoid because she knows both she and Isabela have some fucked up feelings (even if Isabela doesn’t know her feelings are reciprocated at all) and also inc3st has haunted her entire life she’s terrified of it. And it’s not like she sees her mom and dad interact much these days to be able to tell the difference between normal sibling interactions and that. Sure, she’s sees her how her cousins and sisters act with each other, and she’s seen her mom and aunt hang out, and she can tell they don’t treat each other the same way they treat their spouses but like, would a sibling-spouse be too different? She lacks that frame of reference. Because if it’s VERY DIFFERENT, she probably has nothing to worry about – she just has to follow the patterns she sees her sisters and cousins reproduce. Silly banter and hanging out and stealing food together and all that shit. No one is LOVINGLY CUDDLING IN BED AND SOFTLY KISSING NECKS with anyone. If the difference is more subtle, however, then anything can mean anything, little missteps can happen any time, nothing is safe, no one is safe, she’s about to cry. Not to mention, Isabela treats her with a lot more softness than she shows Luisa + their cousins, and she’s trying to psychoanalyze her every time they cross eyes, like, is she being nice because it turns out she likes her more? Because she feels guilty for her past cruelty? To make up for lost time? Because she’s her youngest sister? Because she’s scared of spooking her? Because she’s in love with her? Too confusing. Mirabel.exe has stopped working. She feels a lot more comfortable when she sees how Isabela is with everyone else and then goes and acts the same way with Mirabel and listen her acting can be very good but she’s not perfect and she DOES sometimes break she DOES sometimes stare for a bit too long she DOES sometimes let her hand linger on her hair for a bit too long and it always spooks Mirabel out so bad soooo there goes Isabela’s attempt at making her feel safe.

I don’t think there’s any big breakthrough or any specific character arc they need to complete to get over this problem. I think they’ll just become more comfortable with each other as time passes and they grow closer. Mirabel stops being so paranoid about every demonstration of affection and Isabela stops feeling like a scary predator every time Mirabel gets spooked. Though the LONGING and YEARNING is still there ;-;

Ahh I just want Isabela to hold Mirabel and reassure her that she’s not gross or “tainted” by anything 😭😭😭

You mentioned Luisa and Isabella detaching themselves from Mira in the papa Bruno AU, but I also offer this idea: one (or both) of them ends up falling in love with Mirabel, and once they're past the initial denial, they start to rationalize it by going "well, she's not our real sister" because surely the fact that they're half siblings instead of full siblings makes it better, right?

But this leads to them kind of being less open about acknowledging her as a sister and separating themselves from her, treating her like an outsider in her own family, which obviously leads to Mirabel thinking they've grown to despise her even though that couldn't be further from the truth <\3

Anon said: for dad!bruno incest AU: I think there's a perfect way to let Agustin love Mirabel (as makes sense for his character) and still have infinite angst: make it so that he can't stand Julieta's treatment of Mirabel and that's driving the two of them apart in a way the actual adultery didn't. Even when Mirabel is loved, she's still ruining things by existing. :) (would this AU have any Isamira in it, btw? normally I'd be 100% for it, but I'm just a bit uncertain of it in this AU for some reason)

Answering these two together because they touch on similar points!

Ahh I think that, realistically, Agustín would love Mirabel unconditionally, and might even act more as a parent than her own mother at times if we want to push Julieta to her limits and let her show her ugliest side - I made character analysis post some time back discussing their different parenting styles and why I think Julieta isn't nearly as perfect as she may initially seem. Agustín would be a safe haven for Mirabel, because - okay, her biological father doesn't want her, the rest of the family treats her like a pariah, her mother may or may not see her as her greatest mistake, and here comes Agustín, certified Good Dad, adopting her in an instant because he know she's a little girl who needs help and did nothing wrong to end up in this shit situation. If she's in shaky ground with everyone as to whether or not they count as family, Agustíns sweeps in, takes her in, and tells her she's 100% his daughter in every way that matters, and she can call him dad, and biology is not a necessary requirement to be family. So he could give her that safety and certainty that I imagine she may need (are her sisters her sisters? or are they cousins? Because she's their uncle's daughter but also their mother's but they say they're nothing, and her dad is her uncle and her mom is her aunt and her abuela says she shouldn't be in the house at all and her mom doesn't want her etc etc etc).

...Which is why I lowkey want him to not want her either, because part of the fun with this AU is that she's not Agustín's daughter, but Bruno's, and while you can realistically build this AU towards a direction in which Mirabel and Agustín are closer than ever, part of the AU's raison d’être is to make her less of Agustín's daughter and more of Bruno's daughter, not because I have any personal agenda against Agustín's character, in fact I think he'd be a much better father than Bruno, in this scenario, but I want to shake things up for the sake of conflict and drama, and Agustín's Good Dad Energy stabilizes things a bit too much, it brings it back to the tonic note, it makes the AU "less different" from canon when the idea is to explore how it diverts from it. And having everyone but Agustín sorta hate Mirabel and letting him be her only safe haven is... a surprisingly small diversion ;-; now she has... one person who actually likes her as opposed to... mmm... two, maybe three if we count Luisa... if anything, the bigger change would be Mirabel and Agustín's relationship with Julieta (like Anon mentioned), but I don't think Julieta would be a bad mother to Mirabel even in this scenario, I just think things would be rocky and difficult for them because she's not handling everything very well. She may hurt Mirabel a lot in the beginning, and I'm sure that would lead to a lot of fights with Agustín, but Julieta is a naturally compassionate and loving person, and I think she would try. Having Agustín acting as a mediator and helping them would make things much easier. Which is what I don't want. I want things to be difficult and horrible.

Which is why I'm a bit more inclined to making Agustín reject Mirabel in one way or another. That way, he doesn't entirely replace Bruno as her unconditional father figure and Mirabel stays in the limbo, alone, confused, not sure how she's related to everyone around her or how she's supposed to act. If Agustín rejects her, after five years of being a great father to her, she'd be utterly devastated and may try to seek Bruno out, who avoids her out of fear. I'm sure he still loves her, but he's convinced he's such a bad presence, that he doesn't want to be in her life at all. He already hurt her just by letting her exist. I imagine that's a way of seeing things that hurts Mirabel a lot, because she loves being alive lmao, and she loves her family, and having everyone tell her that they would all be better off if she didn't exist, including herself, is gonna fuck her up in the brain pretty badly. And again, I really don't want it to look like I'm pushing Agustín aside to make space for Bruno, but I do think that having Agustín reject Mirabel would give Bruno room to play a bigger role, be a larger presence in the narrative. I don't know. It would depend on how one handles it, but I think I like this approach better. And you could say that Agustín wouldn't reject Mirabel, that it's ooc, but tbh I don't think it's particularly in-character for Bruno and Julieta to fuck either, so I believe we can allow ourselves some creative freedoms. In this case, I think he may be being pressured by Alma, perhaps, to not try to defend the child and to "think of his other daughters' wellbeing". She may remind him that Mirabel isn't his and that it's not his place to intervene. So he steps aside, because this is suddenly a "family matter", and he's not part of the family, not really. If anything, I can see him having a bit of a character arc later on in which he learns to stand up for Mirabel and accept her. Dad Bruno AU Good Ending is essentially Mirabel having one mom and two dads imo so why not. But until then I want PAIN.

Nowwwwww as for siscon Mira:

Initially I thought it'd be interesting to keep this an essentially gen AU. Gen Encant0 fandom would never buy it lmao but Bruno and Julieta aren't really involved in the story. They had something going on during their late twenties and early thirties, they made a mistake, they droped everything, possibly fell out of love and now they need to face the consequences together, but the romantic aspect of their relationship has pretty much faded. It would be different from what I usually do since the focus is Mirabel's relationship with her three parents and her half-sisters-half-cousins, Isabela and Luisa. And everyone else.

AT THE SAME TIME I shall be the captain of the Isamira ship, I eat drink and breathe Isamira, I couldn't stop thinking "well what IF there's some Isamira as well?" So yeah anon(s) (both of you) I love how you think. MMmm so let's say Isabela falls in love with Mirabel. She's understandably horrified, even more so than in any other scenario, because the family already has a precedent of sisterfucking and it went horribly (though later on she may become a romantic sap and come to see it as "beautiful" because it means Mirabel exists and Mirabel existing is an undeniably Good Thing). She obviously feels guilty, gross etc she may resent her mother and see it as something "inheriting her illness". She may believe it's some weird genetical pheromonal phenomenom that makes whatever weird fucked up hyper-concentrated genes that Mirabel has drive her insane. Maybe she had it coming for not seeing or treating her as a "real" sister that she ended up tricking her brain into thinking she's fair game. In reality, Mirabel is just so impossibly endearing and beautiful, that Isabela would have never stood a chance. Detaching herself from Mirabel to the point she treats her as a complete outsider to cope with her feelings would take some wild mental gymnastics, because in this AU Mirabel is not only her sister but also her cousin, and she wouldn't bang Dolores or Camilo, because ew cousins, so of course even though she's more closely related to Mirabel than to them, to see her as being even further away would take lots and lots of denial. Which I can see her trying to do. I can see her trying to "fake it til she makes it". I can see her excluding her in an attempt to push her away, to comfort herself. And obviously Mirabel my love my poor baby only ends up hurt. Srly Mirabel in this AU has such a shit time TT_TT

And obviously all she ever wanted was to be part of the family properly and be loved and she feels that Isabela's treatment is so cruel and unfair that she breaks eventually. Isabela may or may not find her crying in a corner after saying some pretty awful things during dinner. Or idk all the grandkids were hanging out her room and she kicked Mirabel out when she asked to join. It doesn't matter literally anything that would make Mirabel feel hated and rejected. And idk somehow Mirabel expresses just how bad she's making her feel, like verbally tells her what she wants (to be loved and part of the family), and maybe we're reaching such a desperate point in the plot that Isabela tells her the truth about her feelings, because she can't stand to see her like this.

Now in any other scenario I think that, if Mirabel didn't return Isbela's feelings, her reaction would be something like "that's fucking weird, but let's talk about it. You clearly need some therapy and I'm the best next thing in this family". She'd be concerned and maybe a bit grossed out but not outright scared. She would want to help Isabela, because those feelings can't be easy to handle - she wouldn't yell at her or run. But this one scenario has the particularity that... Mirabel has a pretty big trauma with incest. It scares her. It ruined her life (after all, she was never supposed to exist). She knows her mama and papa did something very very bad together and she spent her entire life trying to redeem herself for their crime, to prove herself worthy despite her filthy origins, to be better to be good to earn her family's love and now... this? It terrifies her. This Mirabel doesn't want anything to do with it. She doesn't want to see Isabela at all. She runs from her. She hides. She avoids her. She's ruining everything again. At this point, incest feels like a curse that haunts her.

Especially if her reaction was only exacerbated by her own improper feelings for her sister.

And of course Isabela feels horribly guilty, she wants to take everything back but she knows she can't. She's spooked her little sister so much, that she feels like a big scary predator threatening her safety. She has to accept that no self-convincing will erase the fact that they're related by blood in one way or another. That they share a mother. At this point her biggest fear is Mirabel telling someone else, but she doesn't, and eventually she finds out it's because Mira doesn't want to ruin her image or make other people mistreat her. She's hiding a secret that scares her to protect her.

I'm not sure how things evolve from here, I just know that, at some point, they need to have a talk in which Mirabel lets Isabela know that all she wants it for them to be sisters. She doesn't want any other kind of relationship. She doesn't want to be less family, she doesn't want to be anyone's daughter-in-law, she wants to be a daughter. She wants her sisters to accept her as one of them. And Isabela understands. She's not some fuckboi she's not gonna stop being friends with someone she likes in the moment they "friendzone" her. She loves Mirabel, and the details on how can be just details. She fucked up and hurt her and wants to make up for it. So she becomes the first person to stand up for her, she tries to help integrate her with the rest of the grandkids, she talks to Luisa about it (she talks with Luisa a lot at this point, never quite revealing the most risky details of how she feels but ngl some of the things she says are very sus)... she starts treating Mirabel as a sister, nothing more and nothing less, and she's nice to her and defends her when she can (which isn't always because she's still terrified of Alma), and this is possibly the happiest Mirabel has ever been. Which is why it scares her so much when her feelings continue to grow.

If they ever do end up together, I can imagine insecure lil Mirabel waking up Isabela in the middle of the night to ask her if they're still sisters, to which Isabela responds to by pulling her into her arms and mumbling a sleepy "yes......." and idk giving her a very sisterly kiss in the mouth. To comfort her. It makes Mira happy uwu.

At this point the story diverts a little from the Dad!Bruno part of the Dad Bruno AU so I'm still not sure, but it's an interesting alternative.

Going to sleep rn but back to the dad bruno AU right? Isabela during her bitch phase telling little Mirabel that they're not really sisters because they don't share a dad, and convincing poor Luisa to go along with it >:3c

Also dad bruno au: I imagine Isabela and Luisa would be very protective of Mirabel at first, you know cos she's their baby sister she still needs protecc and she did nothing wrong. But they slowly abandon her as Alma puts more and more pressure on them and drives them to show coldness, indifference and cruelty to her. They can't afford to love her. Their household is not a safe place to offer someone unconditional love.

I can see it getting so bad that Isabela even uses her situation against her, to scare her away. She realizes she crossed a line when Mirabel inevitably breaks into tears (no! That was the thing she was sensitive about!)

I think it would be easy for them to see her as less than a person, less deserving of respect. Almost as if she were a curse, a mistake, a failed abortion, not real, and not a family member worthy of love, protection and comfort ;-;

Now REALISTICALLY in the dad bruno au scenario I think Agustín would be the one handling the situation the best. He doesn't care that his wife had a child with her own brother - he loves the kid as if she were his. He sees her as if she were his and always makes her feel unconditionally loved, and reassures her that there's nothing wrong with her. She did nothing bad.

ON THE OTHER HAND. WOULDN'T IT BE ANGSTY IF HE REJECTED HER TOO. WOULDN'T IT BE COOL IF ALL OF MIRABEL'S PARENT FIGURES LOWKEY DIDN'T WANT HER WHAT IF THEY ALL HATED HER >:3c

Omg tiny inc3st baby Mirabel trying to get closer to her dad/uncle Bruno who keeps rejecting her and pushing her away because he can't bear to look at her. He can't face the mistake he's made. He shouldn't be that child's father. She belongs to his sister and her husband. His sister has a good husband. He's a good father. He shouldn't be in Mirabel's life at all. She follows him around and tries to gift him cool rocks she found and and he just tells her to go away and not bother him.

Of course this only makes Mirabel feel more and more unloved. Her dad acts ashamed of her. He doesn't want her. Maybe she really is gross and wrong on an inherent level.

for the dad bruno au, what do you think would happen if the incest secret didn’t come out, and bruno/julieta/augustin still distance themselves from mirabel? would the rest of the family sort of side eye them, or would they still be cowed by alma and leave mirabel completely alone? random but i was curious 👀

Mmm. Mmmmm well if her parents all distanced themselves from her AND NEVER TOLD HER she'd be hurt even worse and make up reasons as to why they suddenly hate her but never without any certainty. She may not even want to know, if it's so horrible, though a part of her believes there is no reason, and that her parents simply hate her, possibly for being giftless. Same reason Luisa ignores her and Isabela bullies her. As for the rest of the family, I think it'd depend on what Abuela's treatment of Mirabel is. If Alma knows the truth and acts accordingly to Julieta Agustín and Bruno, the rest (i.e the warm colors family) would kinda take the hint that Mirabel means no good and try to keep a cordial distance with her at best (Félix and Dolores' approch) or acting cruel and cold and hateful out of pure uncoordinated and unexplainable anxiety at worst (Pepa's approach).

I do struggle to believe Julieta and Agustín would just abandon her. Though I can imagine them being tired, exhausted, overall hurt by the burden that is caring for her.

Do you think Bruno would also leave the family and go live in the walls in the dad Bruno AU, or would he stay and like... Try to figure out how to solve the mess he and Julieta created?

Mmmm. Mmmm that's a very interesting question. I think it'd be more interesting if there was no vision and not cracks (or at least not like, a countdown or an urgent threat to the magic, so that the cracks almost fade into the background as an eerie reminder of how bad everything is, without adding a sense of urgency as much as they express the underlying presence of pain). That way, he has no real reason to leave (leaving because everyone found out about Mirabel's true parentage would be very cowardly and I don't think he'd ever forgive himself for leaving his sister alone without a good reason, i.e to protect Mirabel from Alma like in canon). I think we'd get a more interesting situation if he kinda retreats into his room, becomes a lonely hermit, ocassionally walks around the house but rarely shows up at family meals. Make him physically easy to find but emotionally unreachable, so that getting through him is less of a matter of solving a plot puzzle and more of character arc thing.

As for solving - I don't think there's much solving they can do. Alma is furious, and she blames Bruno in particular, but there's not much left to be done because whatever it was that Bruno and Julieta had has been over for a long time, and Mirabel is already here, and no one is getting kicked out so, it kinda slugs into a new slow and tired routine of judgment and mistrust. Bruno stays because he doesn't want to abandon Julieta, knowing very well what their mother can be like (Julieta still feels pretty emotionally abandoned tho), but he's not doing anything other than lie down in his room and rot.