It's Mirabel's Gift Ceremony and everyone is excited. For the first time, a gift is reused, her ability to see the future almost identical to that of her Tío Bruno's.
The Two Seers is an Encanto fanfic by Toaverse that can be read on Archive of Our Own here
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This fanfic provides examples of:
- Abandonment-Induced Animosity: Mirabel holds a pretty serious grudge against Alma and her birth parents for throwing her out when she got the same gift as Bruno, and for banning her and her papi (Bruno) from Casita, forcing them to live in the walls. Even after they are reintroduced to the family, Mirabel needs a lot of time and a few sincere apologies before she's ready to start forgiving her family.
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade:
- While Bruno's exile was self-inflicted in the movie, having left to protect Mirabel from the supposed consequences of his vision, here Alma kicked him out before her gift ceremony even happened because she thought he was bad luck.
- Being a Muggle Born of Mages in canon, Mirabel wasn't exactly free of angst herself. Here she actually did get a gift, but it led to her family's matriarch evicting her at a young age, separating her from her parents and sisters and being forced to live with her Black Sheep uncle. When their home become uninhabitable, they move into the walls of the family Casita where Mirabel grows from adolescents into her teen years with nothing but rats and each other for company.
- Consequentially, while the Family Madrigal were all Stepford Smilers due to the pressure of their duties to the communities slowly getting to them, here Abuela disowning Mirabel was The Last Straw for a lot of them, her parents and sisters taking months at a time for fruitless searches to find them.
- Adaptational Jerkass: While Abuela Alma was the antagonist of the movie, she was Obliviously Evil, not realizing the true impact her actions were having on her family, and wouldn't actively hurt members of her family if she didn't think it was a good thing. Here she is much more cruel, having actively evicted Bruno from the family for having a gift they had no use for and doing the same with Mirabel (who was five at the time) for inheriting his gift.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Isabela is portrayed in a more sympathetic light, vastly different from the Big Sister Bully who pushed Mirabel around and considered her useless. As a child, she is furious when she learns that Alma threw her younger sister out of the Casita, and later goes on a journey with her parents and remaining sister to find Mirabel. As an adult, she becomes a loving mother to her son Oscar and makes a point to Alma that she will not let him be exiled like Mirabel was.
- Affectionate Nickname:
- Bruno calls Mirabel "ratoncita" (little mouse).
- Dolores has two of those; her brother Camilo calls her "Dolly," while her nephew Oscar calls her "Tía Lola."
- A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read: After his gift ceremony, everyone in the family is constantly walking on eggshells now that little Oscar can read their minds; Dolores has to contain her worries, Isabela has to auto censure and Camilo is officially out of ever babysitting him again.
- Animals Hate Him: Downplayed — while Antonio is friendly with most animals because he can talk to them, the rats inside Casita's walls hate him. It's because they are Mirabel's pets and she is angry at the family for not protecting her from being exiled.
- Arranged Marriage: The marriage between Isabela and Mariano did go through, and they already have a child old enough to receive a gift. However, they are both aware that they don't actually love each other, to the extent that Isabela has encouraged Mariano to pursue a relationship with Dolores and their own child was only conceived after a very awkward first and only sexual encounter.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Madrigals are this behind closed doors thanks to Alma exiling Mirabel, which prompted the family growing depressed and their issues to never be addressed.
- Blessed with Suck: Dolores and Oscar's abilities are considered this by most of the family as they make privacy virtually impossible, to say nothing of the challenges for the Madrigals in question. It's when she sees how much the miracle makes Oscar suffer does Mirabel decide to end it all and snuff the candle out.
- Calling Parents by Their Name: Mirabel can no longer identify Alma as her grandmother after she kicked out and forced her and her "dad" to live as rats. She even goes as far as refer to her as "puta" (whore).
- Children Are Innocent: Oscar (Isabela and Mariano's son) who takes Antonio's mantle as the new youngest member of the family now that Antonio became the new "Mirabel". He knows he has a missing tía and he innocently asks if she would appear at his gift ceremony, oblivious of the taboo about her.
- Cover Innocent Eyes and Ears: As Isabela is rambling in a stressed fashion before Oscar's gift ceremony, Mariano covers their son's ears in case she says a bad word.
- Death Glare:
- After Oscar's gift ceremony, Isabela shoots her grandmother one as a non-verbal warning that she won't let Alma do to her child what was done to Bruno and Mirabel.
- Mirabel's reaction to seeing her father again for the first time in 17 years.
- Decoy Protagonist: Mirabel and Bruno were the protagonists for the first eleven chapters. Antonio becomes the new protagonist once the fic starts to cover the events of the movie, seven years after his gift ceremony.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Isabela notices a conspicuous crack in Mirabel's door before realizing that the candle is missing. This leads to a domino effect that leads to a mass Psychosomatic Superpower Outage, the entire family Calling the Old Woman Out to Alma and Casita's collapse.
- Get Out!: Mirabel's reaction when she finds her father and cousin in her and Bruno's secret hideaway, complete with a Death Glare.
- Good Parents: Isabela and Mariano are very caring parents to their son Oscar and reassure him that they will love him no matter what gift he gets, or even if he doesn't get a gift. When Oscar's gift turns out to be telepathy and it looks like Alma doesn't approve, Isabela creates a shield of vines and forcefully says that she will not allow her son to be thrown out of the Casita.
- Grew a Spine: Agustín has grown sick of Alma's dictatorial control over the family and has started to talk back to her.
- Grey Rain of Depression: After Mirabel's exile, Pepa's sadness and guilt over not standing up for her niece causes rain for several days.
- Hates Their Parent: As a young adult, Mirabel harbors deep feelings of resentment toward her parents for not stopping Abuela from throwing her out of the Casita. When she sees her father Agustín for the first time in many years, her reaction is "Get Out!"
- I Have No Son!: Alma disowns 5-year-old Mirabel the second it turns out her gift is a repeat of Bruno's.
- The Last Straw: When Mirabel steals the candle and extinguishes it, everyone suffers from a Psychosomatic Superpower Outage. It's when Alma pays no one else's feelings any mind and starts accusing the family of stealing it does her family have enough of her shit, each of them taking turns throwing her abuse back at her. This results in Casita's collapse.
- Mama Bear: Isabela snaps at her grandmother when Oscar receives his gift and it looked like Alma was disapproving. She creates a shield of vines and loudly says she will not allow her to throw him out.
- My Greatest Failure: Julieta and Agustín deeply regret not standing up to Alma in defense of their youngest.
- Not Helping Your Case: When Isabela snaps that she won't let Alma throw her son out of the house, Alma tries to calm her down by saying she won't do that again. The "again" doesn't reassure Isabela or Mariano, rather reminding them that she's done it twice before, and the second time she did, it was to Isa's sister who was Oscar's age when she was exiled.
- Obnoxious In-Laws: Alma never approved of Agustín as a husband for her oldest daughter and even tried to convince Julieta to marry another man. In turn, he resents her for hurting all three of his daughters — trying to live vicariously through Isabela, ignoring Luisa's needs, and kicking Mirabel out of the Casita.
- Oh, Crap!: When Oscar receives the gift of telepathy, Alma seemingly has a horrified reaction, and then Isabela internally goes Oh, Crap! herself when she thinks Alma's reaction means she will throw Oscar out like she did to Mirabel.
- Original Character: Oscar, the first-born son of Isabela and Mariano who receives the gift of Telepathy.
- Parental Substitute: Heartbroken that her parents gave her up so easily and her developing bond with her Tío, Mirabel is quick to refer to Bruno as her dad.
- Polyamory: Since Isabela didn't want to marry Mariano and Dolores was in love with him, the three of them had reached an understanding that Mariano and Dolores can be together if they keep it descreet. Mariano and Isabela only have Oscar out of pressure from Alma.
- Power Incontinence: While Bruno and Mirabel can activate visions at will, it usually happens at random times, their eyes glowing green and freezing up whenever it happens. They also have trouble discerning visions from regular dreams and nightmares when they have nighttime visions.
- Power Perversion Potential: Invoked and Played for Laughs.
- With her gift, Mirabel wound up seeing both Antonio's conception and birth. Since she was nine at the time, she describes it as two adults "wrestling naked", leaving Bruno at a loss as to how to explain it to her.
- Oscar got to hear the townspeople' sex lives right after the day he got his gift. He asked Julieta what a quickie was, and said at dinner that a married woman thought her husband was a horse she wanted to ride.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: When Oscar's reaction to his gift initially reminds everyone of Dolores, the Madrigals wonder if they're dealing with another "doubled" gift, until they realise that Oscar's still having trouble even when they're all being quiet and he must be "hearing" something else.
- The Scottish Trope: Mirabel's name became just as taboo as Bruno's, but instead of out of fear of her gift it's more out of grief for her lost.
- Secret Secret-Keeper: Dolores figures out that her uncle and cousin were living in the walls and ends up becoming a secret provider for the both of them. When Camilo has a run in with Mirabel, Dolores refuses to say anything about it to him.
- Sensory Overload:
- When Abuela breaks the news to the children that Mirabel has been sent away from the Casita to live with her tío, Camilo and Luisa start crying so loudly that Dolores has to cover her ears, though internally she's as devastated as they are.
- Oscar gets the gift of telepathy and he's promptly overwhelmed by all the townspeople's thoughts.
- Shout-Out:
- One of Bruno's and Mirabel's pet rats is named Luca.
- Bruno's first bedtime story for Mirabel is about a princess named Elena.
- When Dolores asks to borrow one of Isabela's dresses for Oscar's gift ceremony and promises she'll bring it back, Isabela snaps, "Like the time you promised to bring back Tía Pepa’s good napkins?! Or Mamá’s empanadas made for Luisa’s 19th birthday?! Papá’s shoes?! The gramophone?! My sandals?! Where are my sandals?!"
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Mariano and Dolores always had feelings for each other, but never had the courage to confess and break the marriage arrangement Alma set between him and Isabela. The birth of Oscar only complicated things further despite them having a secret relationship with Isabela's blessing.
- Telepathy: Isabela and Mariano's son Oscar receives the gift of mind-reading. Being a five-year old, it is quickly established that he hears a lot of rather inappropriate things without context, as well as the reality that they have Secret Squatters in Casita's walls.
- Things That Go "Bump" in the Night: After Camilo has a run in with Mirabel for the first time in years in the family kitchen, he ends up creating an urban legend around the village based on her; "La Esmeralda", a witch with glowing green eyes that inflicts one's worst fear on them if she looks at them.
- Time Skip: Chapter 12 begins seven years after Antonio's gift ceremony.
- Trauma Button:
- The gift ceremony has become a time of great anxiety and fear for the family now that Mirabel proved that Alma is willing to exile a five year old child and break a family apart if they receive a gift she doesn't approve of.
- Mirabel has never opened her door before. Even if she could, she doesn't want to because it reminds her of the happiest night of her life that turned into the saddest, the night when her grandmother exiled her and none of the adults in her family protected her, not even her parents.
- Unwanted Assistance: No matter how much Mirabel and Bruno protest, Casita is really adamant to get the family to realize that they're there, ranging from making a ton of noise when they're sneaking around, to leading Oscar to the secret passage.
- Useless Bystander Parent: Julieta and Agustín are not able to stand up to Alma and prevent their five-year-old daughter from being exiled. This decision becomes the biggest regret of their lives.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: To an even greater extent than in the original film; Alma will kick her own five-year-old granddaughter out of the house to preserve the stability of the family and the town the second it turns out she received an undesirable gift.
- Wham Episode: Chapter 22. Mirabel steals the candle and blows it out, and its disappearance triggers an argument between Alma and Agustin that turns into the entire family’s Rage Breaking Point as they call out Alma for all the horrible things she has done in the name of preserving the miracle. Casita falls apart and almost everyone is able to get out, but Oscar is hiding with Mirabel at the time. The family thinks he’s been crushed to death in the collapse, and Isabela in her grief blames Alma for it.
- What You Are in the Dark: Dolores didn't have to help Bruno and Mirabel out. She does anyways because she can't stand hearing her cousin suffering due to sickness.
