Author Notes - So, I watched Encanto a while back, and... holy crap, I think it's one of my favourite Disney movies EVER. It feels so different from the rest of the library, thanks to its focus on mental health and taking place almost entirely in the one house, and those songs are awesome as hell. Seriously, I must've played 'Surface Pressure' and 'We Don't Talk About Bruno' about fifty times each by now. And it reminded a bit of another big family with the 'average' one, and... well.

For the most part, the Loud sisters have the same gifts as the Madrigals from the movie. Lynn and Lisa required their own original gifts, since I had run out, but the others (Lynn Sr included) borrow theirs from the movie. While some of them will be quite obvious - guess who got Antonio's gift of talking to animals? - others won't be. I'll certainly say this: unless you look at this story's cover page, you sure as hell won't be guessing who gets Luisa's gift of super strength.

Obviously, I don't wanna just copy-and-paste the script and do a 'find-and-replace' command with the names. This won't just be a 'replace Mirabel with Lincoln' thing. It will follow the plot of the movie, but dialogue will be quite different most of the time, and the little things will certainly be changed. For instance, Bruno's tower room will be replaced with a set piece that better suits our Bruno stand-in. Though OBVIOUS HEADS-UP, there will be spoilers for Encanto, since I am going by the movie's basic plot. If you haven't seen that movie yet, you probably should. It's a great movie. I mean, you probably HAVE already seen the movie, hence why you're reading this to begin with, but still.

CHAPTER ONE - THE GIFTLESS BOY

A young five-year-old Lincoln looked up at the full moon above him, trailing behind his mother with a big smile on his face. Most lights were off, with the only illumination coming from the sparkling candle that his mother, Rita, held in her hands. She guided him up the steps of their beautiful house, up onto the second story.

'Are you ready, Lincoln?' Rita asked.

He nodded. 'Yeah, I'm ready! I wanna get my gift!'

Rita chuckled. 'We're all excited to see what you get. With a boy as wonderful as you, you could get anything.'

Right at the top of the steps was a door, glowing with the same sparkly magic emanating from the candle, which glowed brighter as it got closer to the door. Right next to it was another door, labelled 'Lynn Jr', that depicted the titular girl running at the speed of light in a lovely wooden carving. Next to that one was Luan's door, and it continued as such, wrapping around the building, until it ended at 'Rita'.

As Lincoln approached this glowing door, he could see his sisters on both sides. Lori was only half paying attention, since she was busy on her phone. Leni paid full attention, with a massive smile on her face. Luna, who had already heard his footsteps, gave him an enthusiastic set of finger guns. Luan was holding in her laughter, while Lynn Jr could hardly stand still. Lucy was watching from the shoulders, and their father - Lynn Sr - managed to hold both of the toddler twins back.

'Is it time?!' Lincoln asked, shaking his fists about. 'Can I get my gift now?'

'Of course you can.' Rita said. 'That's why we're all here.'

Unable to contain his excitement anymore, Lincoln rushed forward and grabbed onto the glowing door's handle. His mind was rushing with all the possibilities he could get. Flight? Strength? Talking to animals? Speed? Weather manipulation? Being able to predict the future?!

The door began to glow. It was nearly time!

Lincoln stared out the window of the massive house's nursery, a rather boring room full of the little kids' memorabilia that you'd expect to see in such a room. Ever since that day, seven years ago, he had never left it despite being far too old for it now. It wasn't as if he had any other choice, though. At least, it had a good view of the humble town just down the hill, surrounded by lush mountains almost everywhere you looked. The house could overlook the entire town, quite appropriate for the role the house's residents fulfilled.

He took a deep breath. 'Okay, it's time. This day has to go perfectly.'

That was enough staring out the window for the day - he had a mission to do! More specifically, Operation 'Make Sure This Day Goes Perfectly For Lisa and Really Try to Make Sure My Operation Names Stop Getting So Long'! With a spring in his step, he spun around and whistled like he was calling his dog.

'Shoes!'

In a matter of moments, the wooden boards that made up the floor began to bounce and move like the waves at sea. The white sneakers in the corner of the room bounced around on these moving floor boards like a pair of dice, somehow travelling exactly where Lincoln wanted them to go. In just a few seconds, the shoes landed perfectly at his feet without even needing to be turned around. He slipped into the shoes and gave the floorboards a thumbs-up. In any other building, that would look strange. And it certainly sounds strange, but for this house, it was perfectly normal.

'Thanks, Ruidosa!' He said, before he rushed out the door.

Once on the other side of the nursery door, he arrived at a balcony that wrapped all the way around this plaza in the house. It gave a wonderful view of the plaza itself, lined with square tiles in a gorgeous circular pattern that appeared to glow and sparkle under the sun's light.

'EVERYONE!' He yelled, as though he was everyone's father instead of brother.

He proceeded to vault over the railing of the balcony, which would be an absolutely terrible move if he didn't know that the tiles on the floor below would suddenly rise up to different levels. Once each tile hit its desired height, Lincoln could simply walk down them as though they were just a staircase. Because taking the actual staircase would be too boring.

The doors of all his sisters opened up at once, and in a matter of moments they all made their way down to the first floor. Most of them simply used the staircase, but both Lynn and Luna chose to do the same 'vault down onto the magical tiles' stunt that their little bro performed. And yes, they do have a lot of trust in Ruidosa. It's a magic house. Why are you questioning this? Lana, however, had her own way of getting down: she rode on the back of a wolf who carried her all the way down the steps faster than the rest of them, being beaten only by Lynn.

They all gathered in a group, ready to hear how their brother was going to organise things. That may sound a bit silly, but he did the same thing for the twins' special day and that ended surprisingly well. Lincoln just had to figure out who was there… Lola was gone, perhaps a little too busy making herself look nice (and good for her). Lily was likely with her parents, and Lisa wasn't anywhere to be found for obvious reasons. And there were… two Lynns?

Lincoln rolled his eyes. 'Luan, now isn't the time.'

Suddenly, one of those two Lynns emitted a groan and shifted quite abruptly back into being a Luan, who had a pouty look on her face to boot.

'Aw, Lincoln!' She said. 'You always get in the way of my Lynn-sanity!'

Lynn gave her a look. 'Luan, just listen to him. It's kinda important that we don't screw this up.'

Lincoln couldn't help grinning, just a bit. Despite only being about twelve years old, he felt like he had so much power during times like this. It almost helped him forget the whole… never mind. Now wasn't the time to think about that.

'As I hope we all know,' Lincoln said, flashing a quick look at Leni and Lynn for a moment. 'We-'

'Lincoln, we know.' Lori said, with a roll of her eyes. 'It's literally the most important event in Lisa's life. It's the most important day for all of us!'

Leni frowned. 'I just hope it's good. Yours was totes a bummer.'

She realised she said something wrong when everyone gave her the 'you are an idiot' look, one she was oddly familiar with. When she realised just what she had said, she gasped and shot her hands over her mouth.

'So sorry Lincoln!' She said. 'I keep forgetting that I shouldn't mention that you didn't-'

'ANYWAY!' Lincoln yelled, trying to diverge the topic. 'We gotta make sure Lisa's gift ceremony goes perfectly. While our parents are out buying some supplies, we have to take matters into our own hands and get everything ready. Lori!' He pointed at the titular sister. 'It's not a gift ceremony without some nice piano music. Fetch it from the spare room.'

Lori nodded. 'Right!'

The eldest sister obeyed his order and rushed out of the plaza, off to the spare room on the bottom floor to go fetch the piano. It may seem strange for a 19-year-old to listen to and be ordered around by a 12-year-old, and indeed she'd normally object to this, but it was a very important day for Lisa, and no one wanted it to go wrong.

'Now, Leni!' Lincoln said, bringing his attention to her. 'We're gonna need some pretty decorations for the ceremony, and there's nothing prettier than flowers. So if you could-?'

Leni smiled. 'Did someone say… flowers?'

Moving as gracefully as a swan in flight, Leni skipped around the entire plaza with her arms out. She spun around and let nature itself move her along like a wave, as though the very breeze itself was purposely making her hair and dress look as light and free as possible. And - of course - bushes and bushes of flowers of all colours and shapes sprouted from the walls and floor wherever she walked, and each little plant gravitated towards her just slightly.

Words could hardly sum up how graceful she was as she covered every possible square inch with loads and loads of pretty flowers. Just about every other sister - and Lincoln - rolled their eyes and groaned.

'While she's doing that,' Lincoln said. 'Lynn! We're all out of peanut butter, which is bad because Lisa loves her PB&Js. And what kind of gift ceremony would it be for Lisa if Dad couldn't make her her favourite meal? Our parents don't know this and are already out, so you gotta go down to the market and pick up another jar.'

Lynn gave him a salute. 'Oh it, Stinkoln!'

And then, in the blink of an eye, she dashed away out of the house so quickly that she appeared as nothing more than a white-and-red blur. Everyone's hair fluttered in the wind she created as she sped along out the door so fast that she could practically outrun a bullet if she wanted to.

'YOU NEED MONEY TO PAY FOR IT!' Lincoln yelled, using his hands as a megaphone.

Just as quickly as she went, Lynn returned and ran up the stairs like a cheetah. She was gone for only a couple of seconds before she zipped back down the stairs and disappeared out the door once again, this time with money in hand.

'Lana,' Lincoln said. 'All I need you to do is keep the animals away from the show. They can certainly watch, but Lisa has a habit of getting attacked by animals sometimes. Which might be because she wants to perform experiments on them. I'm sure you can do that.'

Lana nodded, and stroked the head of the wolf she rode upon. 'I can do that easily!'

The wolf growled. 'Yip yip yip!' (Yes, the wolf yipped.)

'I know, Wendy. It sucks, but Lisa doesn't do so well with animals that aren't ready to be dissected. I'll stay with you, okay?'

Wendy, begrudgingly mind you, accepted this offer and decided to save her 'Lincoln slaughter' for another day.

'Alright, does anyone know where Lola is?' Lincoln asked.

'Looking for Lisa.' Luna replied. 'I heard her grumbling about it just five minutes ago. Sounded really peeved about it too.' She went silent for a second. 'And here she comes right now.'

Right as Luna said she would, Lola arrived on scene through a door on the first floor. The other siblings didn't even have to look at her to know that she was there - they heard the thunder and lightning going off. To the surprise of none of them, they were being approached by a very angry looking Lola, one with a small thunder cloud above her head that was flashing and booming every few seconds at that very moment.

Everyone instinctively stepped back.

'Lola…' Lincoln said. 'There's no need to-'

'I've been looking for that girl for AN HOUR NOW!' She shouted, the lightning going off just as she got really loud. 'WHAT ELSE DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!'

She unleashed a scream of frustration, which sent a wayward lightning bolt directly into her twin sister's behind.

'YOWCH!' Lana yelled, jumping so hard that she fell off Wendy. 'LOLA!'

'FIND THAT STUPID SMART GIRL AND MAYBE YOU WON'T GET STRUCK BY LIGHTNING!'

While the other sisters were - understandably - quite unsettled by the incoming lightning strikes, Lincoln remained smiling like nothing was going wrong. Why? Because he knew exactly how to deal with this situation. You had to learn a thing or two when incidents almost exactly like this happened every other day.

'Well, this is easy.' He said, before turning to the sister in purple. 'Luna, where is she?'

Luna crossed her arms and simply listened to the world around her. It was quite a lot to take in, but fortunately she could filter stuff out whenever she wanted. There was that giant river a couple miles away, a brother and a sister having a petty fight over a toy several blocks down, the creepy mumbling from 'the one who shall not be named'... There was plenty to shift through, until she heard the sound she wanted.

'She's in the nursery.' She said, pausing to listen more closely. 'Hardly moving around, tapping her fingers together… I think she's under the spare bed.'

Lola's mouth went open. 'If you're so good at finding people… WHY DON'T YOU GO LOOKING FOR HER INSTEAD?!'

'It's fine, girls.' Lincoln said. 'I know where Lisa is now. You guys wait here while I get her.'

He left his other sisters waiting for him - a decision he wasn't completely sure about - as he rushed back up to the nursery. It made him wonder how he didn't notice her in that room before, but Luna was the one with super hearing. Not him. When he reached the room again, he opened the door slowly.

'Hello?' He said, stepping into the room. 'Lisa, are you in here?'

There was no doubt that Luna was right, but Lisa was quite the clever girl. She could've easily ducked out the window by the time he showed up. And even if she hadn't, a comforting voice would be sure to calm her nerves. Looking around the room, he couldn't see her anywhere out in the open. So, he knelt down on the floor and peeped under the second bed. To his lack of surprise, he saw the little sweater-clad five-year-old hundled under the bed, tapping her fingers together nervously just as Luna had said.

'Hi, Lisa.' He said in a gentle voice. 'Mind if I join?'

Lisa's eyes darted around for a bit, before she replied, 'I shall respond in the affirmative.'

With permission granted, Lincoln got onto his elbows and knees and crawled his way under the bed. It was a much tighter squeeze for him than it was for his little sister, but he still managed to get himself into that dusty little cave. Somehow, his mere presence was enough to calm Lisa's nerves down. If only just a little.

'You seem nervous.' Lincoln said, trying to ease into the conversation.

'That observation is… correct, elder brother.' Lisa said, rubbing her elbow a bit.

'It's because of the gift ceremony tonight, isn't it?'

'That assumption is also correct.'

Sensing his little sister's distress, Lincoln rolled over just a bit and got a little closer to her. He made sure to give her at least an inch of space, since she wasn't usually one for human contact, but would absolutely give her a hug if she so requested one.

'What's there to be nervous about?' Lincoln asked, genuinely wanting an answer. 'You touch the glowing doorknob, and Ruidosa does all the rest. With someone as brilliant as you, I'm sure your gift will be wonderful.'

'That's the problem, elder brother.' Lisa said. 'What if…?' She shuddered. 'What if I don't get my gift?'

Lisa specifically avoided mentioning why this would even be a possibility, but Lincoln understood it perfectly. There wasn't much else that it could've possibly been. Paying no mind to his own reality, he simply gave Lisa a smile.

'Now why would that happen?' He said. 'You were kinda young when Lana and Lola got their gifts on the same day, so I'm not sure if you remember their ceremony, but it went well for them. Lana can talk to animals, and Lola can - kinda - control the weather. You can't tell me those aren't gifts.'

'But I've double-checked the odds of the ceremony failing.' Lisa said, her pupils shrinking. 'The odds are eight-to-one! Well, nine-to-one, but…'

'I get it. But there's nothing to worry about. I don't see why someone like you won't get her gift. You're awesome! I mean, everyone in this house is awesome, but that's beyond the point. For someone like you, the gift possibilities are limitless! And even if the impossible happens and you don't get a gift, then we'll just stick together.'

Lisa chuckled, and inched a little closer to him. She was just a little worried that, at any moment, Ruidosa would have a laugh (if magical buildings could have a laugh) and push her even closer to her brother. Any further bonding the two may have had came to a stop when there was a knock at the door.

'LINCOLN!' It was Lori's voice. 'I need to ask you something, but Ruidosa isn't letting me in!'

Lincoln sighed. 'I gotta handle this. Just stay in your room until the ceremony if you want.'

'I can't really go anywhere else.' Lisa remarked. 'Without Luna knowing about it. She can hear my every step…'

The only Loud son squeezed himself out from under the bed, and approached the room's door. The floorboards moved up and down slightly, in a manner that looked oddly like laughter.

'Alright, Ruidosa,' He said. 'You can open the door.'

The door opened entirely on its own, revealing a slightly exasperated Lori on the other side. In her arms was the wooden upright piano, which she had lifted up into the air as though it was no heavier than a handbag. Her arms did not falter under such an impressive weight either, and she wasn't even sweating a drop. And, for those paying attention, she had indeed carried it all the way up the stairs too.

'I got the piano.' She said, talking quite casually. 'Where should it go?'

'I've got the perfect place in mind.' Lincoln replied, before he turned back to Lisa. 'Sorry Lis, but I've gotta keep this whole thing organised!'

Lisa stuck her head out of her hidey hole. 'That's fine by me!'

Leaving his little sister behind, for hopefully not too long, Lincoln brought Lori back down the stairs again. And yes, she was still carrying that piano, as though it was merely filled with air. I'm sure by now you understand what her gift was.

'So,' Lincoln said, once they arrived at the first floor again. 'I think the piano would be best to put over-'

'We're home!'

The front doors to the beautiful plaza - and house by extension - swung open, and everyone who wasn't already pre-occupied turned their heads to the newest arrivals. It was none other than Rita and Lynn Sr, coming back from a little supply run. Rita placed a box full of fireworks aside on the floor, while Lynn Sr held a giggling Lily in his arms.

'Sorry we were late.' Rita said. 'Your dad got a little caught up.'

'But Rita!' Lynn Sr said. 'Didn't you see all those hurt little kids? There's no way I was going to let a little campfire incident ruin their days!'

'Yes, but did you have to cook a 'lynn-sagna' specifically? You could've just made some sandwiches, and it would've healed them all the same.'

'Yeah, but where's the fun in that?'

Lincoln was about to greet his parents, until he noticed a group of kids following behind them. A quintet, all looking mostly the same, one girl and four boys… must've been the Fox Quintuplets. When everyone saw them rushing into the house, Luna could hear at least half a dozen muttered 'oh god's in the house.

'Uh, what are they doing here?' Lincoln asked.

'We're sorry.' Rita said. 'But they heard about the gift ceremony, and now, well…'

The five little kids rushed over to Lincoln so fast they made Lynn look just a little slower. He jumped away and walked backwards towards the stairs, but the quintuplets stayed on him like burs, and all he could do was point Lori over to the corner.

'Uh, on it.' She said, carrying the piano over to that corner.

Surprisingly for the Quintuplets, they didn't try to mangle or kill Lincoln on the spot. Instead, they just stared up at him with wide and excited eyes. Pam, the only girl among them, stepped forward and got right in his face.

Lincoln waved at them, awkwardly. 'Hi there? What do you want?'

'Tell us everything!' Pam cried, her fists shaking in excitement.

'What are your powers?' One of the boys asked.

'WE NEED TO KNOW WHAT YOU DO!' Another boy yelled.

The only Loud boy gulped. So that's what they wanted from him. He glanced back at his remaining sisters, who clearly had no idea what to do. In fact, Lola's little thunder cloud was hailing now, scattering tiny droplets of ice all over the floor. She was so used to it hailing upon her head that she hardly reacted to it.

'Well…' Lincoln replied, trying to avoid the obvious answer. 'My dad can heal you right up just by cooking something for you! Isn't that cool? Lori's really strong, and Leni can grow flowers, and Luna can hear everything you say so be careful, and Luan-'

'We know all that!' Pam said, whining just a little. 'But what's your power?'

'As I was saying, Luan can shapeshift. Lynn can run really fast, and Lana-'

One of the boys frowned. 'Hey, you missed someone!'

Lincoln's eyes widened. Even without the gift of predicting the future, he knew exactly what was to follow, practically word for word.

'You forgot Lucy!' Another boy said.

'Yeah!' A third boy said. 'We hear the others talking about her a lot, and-'

And then, all at one, the rest of Lincoln's present family chanted:

'WE DON'T TALK ABOUT LUCY!'

The five kids went silent, staring at the Loud sisters, until they completely ignored the question and pretended that it never happened. As though the question was never asked, all five kids looked back at Lincoln with those starry-eyed looks. It made the Loud boy feel kinda bad for them - this was just setting them up for disappointment.

'What's your gift?!' All five demanded at once.

'Well, t-the thing is-' Lincoln said, scratching the back of his neck.

Rita, thoroughly fed up, groaned. 'Okay, this has gone on long enough. Lincoln doesn't have a gift!'

The quintuplets went silent, their mouths agape. They looked back to Lincoln, their expressions alone asking if it was for real. It had been a while since Lincoln had seen someone so disappointed.

With a sigh, he spoke. 'It's true. I'm the only one here who had a gift ceremony, but didn't get a gift.'

Author Notes - So lemme make one thing perfectly clear: we ain't doing musical numbers in this story. Why? Because they're kinda awkward to put into text. Lyrics from the songs will be referenced in dialogue, but no one's going to be singing. It's a shame, cos the songs are so good, but it's simply what's best for the medium.

When one is doing a 'throw characters from work A into the plot of work B' plot like this, you know you're doing something right if you don't need to change the characters that much to make it work. Really the only change that has to be made is that Lu- I MEAN, the-one-who-cannot-be-named will be Lincoln's older sister instead of younger.

So here's the obvious question: why did Lori receive Luisa's gift, and not, say, Lynn? Well, I originally planned for Lynn to get super strength myself, but as I thought more about Luisa as a character, I realised... it suits Lori a lot more. If you need more of an explanation, you'll have to wait until I get to it in the actual story. (Also 'Lisa' and 'Luisa' are literally one letter apart, so this will get annoying quickly)