Player Name: TF Contact:teeff Invited by: Yuff! Other Characters: N/A
Character Name: Bruno Madrigal Canon: Encanto Canon Point: End of the movie History:We don't talk about Bruno
Personality:
It's a heavy lift with a gift so humbling Always left Abuela and the family fumbling Grappling with prophecies they couldn't understand
Like all members of the Madrigal family, Bruno's life has been shaped by the traumas of the family matriarch, Alma. The loss of her husband, Bruno's father, made her hold a vice-like grip on her children (and their children after them) lest they were "lost" too. This manifested in a drive for perfection, to be "worthy" of the magic they had been given, to earn it by helping the family and the town the encanto protected. Making Alma proud, being a perfect pillar of the community, using their gifts for good mattered far more than personal desires. Needless to say, growing up in a household where putting one foot wrong was not only unacceptable but seen as a threat to the very lives of hundreds of people was not a healthy environment to grow up in.
Enter Bruno. The last born of Alma's triplets, his gift of prophecy was one that has caused him very little comfort. His social skills were always lacking compared to his more outgoing sisters. Bruno liked to keep to himself, and lacked the social graces to really help him connect with others outside his family- he very clearly shows that he struggles to pick up on social cues from his conversations with others. This led to him coming across as a little blunt - more prone to just blurting out what was on his mind rather than ease his way into a delicate matter. Already being on the socially awkward side is not ideal for a figurehead of the community, even less so when that figurehead is expected to tell people what their future holds.
His blunt way of delivering futures (even bad futures) meant that people started to see his gift as malicious. A classic case of shooting the messenger, they began to blame him for the bad futures he saw- believing (wrongly) that he controlled them, that he willed them into being. And so people began to avoid him, or worse- actively treat him like some sort of villain in their midst. Already not the best with people, Bruno drew further into himself. He felt like his gift was a burden to those around him- the message of having to help the community to be worthy weighing more and more with each passing year. As his sister, Julieta pointed out: he "lost his way in this family". In trying and failing to reach Alma's impossibly high expectations, in not being the person she expected him to be, he felt like he didn't belong.
The way he deals with his prophecies really does show how heavy that weight has gotten over the years. What likely started as a simple means to access the future slowly turned into a more and more complicated ritual. Bruno shows some pretty strong obsessive-compulsive tendencies around superstition (wild for someone who can literally see what's coming ahead) knocking on wood, not stepping on cracks, crossing his fingers and holding his breath and the like. These compulsions rode into his visions too. It was a means to ease the anxiety that having them caused, knowing how people tended to react to them and blame them for him. Like most obsessive-compulsive behaviours, it was a means to find control where he had none- no matter what people believed otherwise.
And yet Bruno loves his family, as much pain as being part of them caused, he loves them deeply and fiercely. When Mirabel's door never appeared, and he saw a future that looked like it would be her that destroyed the magic of the family, he realised if he revealed this to Alma, Mirabel would face the same persecution that he, himself had lived through for decades. Wanting to protect his youngest niece, he decided to vanish away, to take the secret of the prophecy with him. His magical room (fittingly already separate from the rest of the house in a tower) fell to ruin, becoming more and more inhospitable as his family assumed he has left the home completely- refusing to speak even his name for the disgrace of abandoning them.
Of course, Bruno never left. He loved his family too much- the thought of completely abandoning them was unbearable. So he lived in the walls- where he could still watch them through the last decade, even if he could never speak to them. Heartbreakingly, even drawing his own plate on his table, so he could at least pretend he was still a part of family meals, even if a wall divided them. His social quirks only grew with time, relying on them as a crutch to deal with the crushing loneliness he felt with only his rats for company.
He made up little rat telenovelas or pretended he was different people (his real gift was "acting!" don't you know!) always patching up the cracks that appeared in their home as his family fractured further and further. He definitely had a habit of deflecting his pain with wry humour - like saying living in the walls was better than the tower because instead of having a lot of stairs he was not kitchen-adjacent and the like.
Despite his people skills taking a severe nosedive (and REALLY not wanting to have any more visions, which he saw as the root cause of all the pain in his life) he was still willing to help Mirabel. To face another vision, to try and nudge her in the correct direction to save the encanto. When the house itself collapsed and the magic died, Bruno threw all his fears and cautions to the wind, immediately racing after her and Alma to defend Mirabel. He was desperate she was not blamed for it - finally facing up to his mother after ten years of hiding from her. The wind was...pretty much taken out of his sails thanks to Mirabel resolving the issue like the Big Damn Hero she is, but the fact he was ready to argue with the woman who'd had a stranglehold of his existence since he was born said a lot.
He's now settling back into family life, awkwardly and clumsily and he lands in Kaisou just after the final big family picture. Finally understanding that he's allowed to be imperfect and that his general personality or gift isn't soothing to be ashamed of. He'll definitely need more time to put that into practice- he's taken the first steps towards it- but he's on the right track for it.
Time of Arrival to Kaisou: Pretty much an immediate arrival! Items: The clothes he's wearing at his canonpoint: sandals, trousers, shirt and his dog-eared ruana. Retained Ability:Precognition - His canon is a confusing mess with powers so I'm gonna go into a bit here. Thanks to the miracle placed upon his family Bruno was given a magical gift at the age of five. This is connected to the magical candle which exists in his home and his door which is the epicentre of his abilities. It's SUPER unclear if a Madrigal needs to remain in the protective encanto to be able to connect to their powers. The only thing we know for certain is if the candle goes out, the Castia collapses and the Madrigals are rendered powerless. So who the heck knows really!
Bruno has the power of prophecy- he can look into the future. These can come as involuntary visions, or he can properly focus them where he actively aims to look at a certain aspect of someone's future. To do the latter, he needs a wide, open space and access to sand. He has a little ritual he goes through in order to start a prophecy up (namely throwing salt over his shoulder and setting fire to some tinder in an X symbol) this has become a ritual he's invented himself for peace of mind and focus over the years. Another little compulsion to add to the list.
Regardless, when he activates his gift, the wind around him whips into a cyclone, creating a dome around him to view his vision. In a focused vision, the sand forms a jade glass plate, which shows a picture of the prophecy. This can be broken easily. But hey, people can have a super fun souvenir of the vision! He can bring other people into a vision with him, and they will witness the same thing as he does. He can focus on certain points in the vision, though sometimes they can be out of order. Others can nudge his focus onto certain parts of the vision if they notice something he didn't when they're along for the ride.
In Kaisou, to start with this will all be at a VERY low level- sometimes not even working at all, and when it does work, he will not be able to focus on anything for long enough to give a very helpful prediction beyond some vague nonsense like "something bad might happen if you wear that hat".
Bruno Madrigal | Encanto | OU
Contact:
Invited by: Yuff!
Other Characters: N/A
Character Name: Bruno Madrigal
Canon: Encanto
Canon Point: End of the movie
History: We don't talk about Bruno
Personality:
Always left Abuela and the family fumbling
Grappling with prophecies they couldn't understand
Like all members of the Madrigal family, Bruno's life has been shaped by the traumas of the family matriarch, Alma. The loss of her husband, Bruno's father, made her hold a vice-like grip on her children (and their children after them) lest they were "lost" too. This manifested in a drive for perfection, to be "worthy" of the magic they had been given, to earn it by helping the family and the town the encanto protected. Making Alma proud, being a perfect pillar of the community, using their gifts for good mattered far more than personal desires. Needless to say, growing up in a household where putting one foot wrong was not only unacceptable but seen as a threat to the very lives of hundreds of people was not a healthy environment to grow up in.
Enter Bruno. The last born of Alma's triplets, his gift of prophecy was one that has caused him very little comfort. His social skills were always lacking compared to his more outgoing sisters. Bruno liked to keep to himself, and lacked the social graces to really help him connect with others outside his family- he very clearly shows that he struggles to pick up on social cues from his conversations with others. This led to him coming across as a little blunt - more prone to just blurting out what was on his mind rather than ease his way into a delicate matter. Already being on the socially awkward side is not ideal for a figurehead of the community, even less so when that figurehead is expected to tell people what their future holds.
His blunt way of delivering futures (even bad futures) meant that people started to see his gift as malicious. A classic case of shooting the messenger, they began to blame him for the bad futures he saw- believing (wrongly) that he controlled them, that he willed them into being. And so people began to avoid him, or worse- actively treat him like some sort of villain in their midst. Already not the best with people, Bruno drew further into himself. He felt like his gift was a burden to those around him- the message of having to help the community to be worthy weighing more and more with each passing year. As his sister, Julieta pointed out: he "lost his way in this family". In trying and failing to reach Alma's impossibly high expectations, in not being the person she expected him to be, he felt like he didn't belong.
The way he deals with his prophecies really does show how heavy that weight has gotten over the years. What likely started as a simple means to access the future slowly turned into a more and more complicated ritual. Bruno shows some pretty strong obsessive-compulsive tendencies around superstition (wild for someone who can literally see what's coming ahead) knocking on wood, not stepping on cracks, crossing his fingers and holding his breath and the like. These compulsions rode into his visions too. It was a means to ease the anxiety that having them caused, knowing how people tended to react to them and blame them for him. Like most obsessive-compulsive behaviours, it was a means to find control where he had none- no matter what people believed otherwise.
And yet Bruno loves his family, as much pain as being part of them caused, he loves them deeply and fiercely. When Mirabel's door never appeared, and he saw a future that looked like it would be her that destroyed the magic of the family, he realised if he revealed this to Alma, Mirabel would face the same persecution that he, himself had lived through for decades. Wanting to protect his youngest niece, he decided to vanish away, to take the secret of the prophecy with him. His magical room (fittingly already separate from the rest of the house in a tower) fell to ruin, becoming more and more inhospitable as his family assumed he has left the home completely- refusing to speak even his name for the disgrace of abandoning them.
Of course, Bruno never left. He loved his family too much- the thought of completely abandoning them was unbearable. So he lived in the walls- where he could still watch them through the last decade, even if he could never speak to them. Heartbreakingly, even drawing his own plate on his table, so he could at least pretend he was still a part of family meals, even if a wall divided them. His social quirks only grew with time, relying on them as a crutch to deal with the crushing loneliness he felt with only his rats for company.
He made up little rat telenovelas or pretended he was different people (his real gift was "acting!" don't you know!) always patching up the cracks that appeared in their home as his family fractured further and further. He definitely had a habit of deflecting his pain with wry humour - like saying living in the walls was better than the tower because instead of having a lot of stairs he was not kitchen-adjacent and the like.
Despite his people skills taking a severe nosedive (and REALLY not wanting to have any more visions, which he saw as the root cause of all the pain in his life) he was still willing to help Mirabel. To face another vision, to try and nudge her in the correct direction to save the encanto. When the house itself collapsed and the magic died, Bruno threw all his fears and cautions to the wind, immediately racing after her and Alma to defend Mirabel. He was desperate she was not blamed for it - finally facing up to his mother after ten years of hiding from her. The wind was...pretty much taken out of his sails thanks to Mirabel resolving the issue like the Big Damn Hero she is, but the fact he was ready to argue with the woman who'd had a stranglehold of his existence since he was born said a lot.
He's now settling back into family life, awkwardly and clumsily and he lands in Kaisou just after the final big family picture. Finally understanding that he's allowed to be imperfect and that his general personality or gift isn't soothing to be ashamed of. He'll definitely need more time to put that into practice- he's taken the first steps towards it- but he's on the right track for it.
Time of Arrival to Kaisou: Pretty much an immediate arrival!
Items: The clothes he's wearing at his canonpoint: sandals, trousers, shirt and his dog-eared ruana.
Retained Ability: Precognition - His canon is a confusing mess with powers so I'm gonna go into a bit here.
Thanks to the miracle placed upon his family Bruno was given a magical gift at the age of five. This is connected to the magical candle which exists in his home and his door which is the epicentre of his abilities. It's SUPER unclear if a Madrigal needs to remain in the protective encanto to be able to connect to their powers. The only thing we know for certain is if the candle goes out, the Castia collapses and the Madrigals are rendered powerless. So who the heck knows really!
Bruno has the power of prophecy- he can look into the future. These can come as involuntary visions, or he can properly focus them where he actively aims to look at a certain aspect of someone's future. To do the latter, he needs a wide, open space and access to sand. He has a little ritual he goes through in order to start a prophecy up (namely throwing salt over his shoulder and setting fire to some tinder in an X symbol) this has become a ritual he's invented himself for peace of mind and focus over the years. Another little compulsion to add to the list.
Regardless, when he activates his gift, the wind around him whips into a cyclone, creating a dome around him to view his vision. In a focused vision, the sand forms a jade glass plate, which shows a picture of the prophecy. This can be broken easily. But hey, people can have a super fun souvenir of the vision! He can bring other people into a vision with him, and they will witness the same thing as he does. He can focus on certain points in the vision, though sometimes they can be out of order. Others can nudge his focus onto certain parts of the vision if they notice something he didn't when they're along for the ride.
In Kaisou, to start with this will all be at a VERY low level- sometimes not even working at all, and when it does work, he will not be able to focus on anything for long enough to give a very helpful prediction beyond some vague nonsense like "something bad might happen if you wear that hat".