Five years after her gift ceremony ends without getting her room or a gift, Mirabel Madrigal is woken up one night and brought to a cave. There, a mysterious light bestows her with a gift all her own: the ability to become a mermaid!
Just Add Water is an Encanto fanfic by Akela_Victoire
and can be read on Archive of Our Own here.
This fanfic provides examples of:
- Making a Splash: One of Mirabel's abilities is hydrokinesis, even being able to freeze it on command.
- Power Incontinence: Mirabel's mermaid tail appears whenever she touches water whether she likes it or not, so sometimes it makes keeping it a secret really difficult. Considering her aunt could make it rain instantly doesn't help things.
- Our Mermaids Are Different: Mirabel's main ability is that she turns into a mermaid when she touches water, including a tail and the ability to breath underwater.
- Secret-Keeper: Camilo is the first person to find out about Mirabel's gift and agrees to keep it a secret.
- Shout-Out: When Mirabel finds the flame in the cave, she thinks to herself "Follow the flame, I said. What could go wrong? I said," a reference to the "It Will Be Fun, They Said" meme.
- Whole-Plot Reference: As hinted by the title (
and directly from the author), elements foreign to Encanto were taken from H₂O: Just Add Water without being a Fusion Fic. - Wrong Context Magic: Subverted. Mirabel's powers actually are a gift, having been blessed with them by the candle five years after her gift ceremony. Thing is, all she knows is that she was granted them by a mysterious wisp in a cave, unaware that the flame was a product of the Candle.
