AN: It would appear Encanto takes place circa 1950 (making Bruno and Héctor born the same year because Jared Bush likes to hurt us, but I digress). I have no intention of bringing La Violencia into the story at any point, even though they're currently in Bogotá, so we'll just call it an alternate timeline in which La Violencia either never happened, or happened at a different time.
Anyway, allow me to introduce you to ornithology student Bubo Marquez!
The three sisters stared wide eyed at the young man across the street until he started to squirm. He got up from his table and crossed the street. As he approached, he held out a hand.
"H-Hello. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to stare." He took each girl's hand in turn and gave it a friendly shake, lingering longer on Isabela. "I do apologize if I made you uncomfortable at all. I-it's just that...well, you see..." He shuffled awkwardly in place.
Isa couldn't help but smirk a bit at the boy's discomfort, but was also keenly aware that she and her sisters had arguably been just as rude. "Oh, I understand," she said. "You're not used to seeing people like me."
"Ah...well, yes and no," the boy replied. "I actually do see someone like you every day, but she's the only person I've ever known to have it until today...erm...I'm not explaining myself well." He rubbed a hand across his face, adjusted his glasses, straightened up and took a deep breath. "My name is Alfonso Marquez, though my friends all call me Bubo."
"How do you get Bubo from Alfonso?" Mirabel asked.
"You don't," Bubo explained. "I got the nickname from my study of the Colombian great horned owl. Scientific name, Bubo virginianus nacurutu."
"Ah, got it," Mirabel said, giving him a thumbs up. She turned to Luisa and silently mouthed, "No idea what that means."
"Anyway," Bubo continued, turning back to Isa, "I know someone with your condition."
Isa's eyebrows shot up. "Really? Who? How are they treating it? Do they even want to treat it?"
Bubo smiled and held a hand up. "Hold on. I can introduce you. She's my sister, Rosa. She works at my university. You'll have to ask her how she treats it, because I couldn't tell you. I can tell you that she's brilliant. A true genius. When those white patches started showing up on her face and hands, she put aside all her physics work and dove head first into researching her condition."
"A physicist?" Mirabel said, surprised.
"A female physicist!" Luisa said. "You don't see many of those. That's pretty amazing."
Just then, Agustín returned. "Girls, it's all arranged, and we can put our things in the guest rooms upstairs...oh. Who's this?" He pointed at Bubo.
"Papi, this is Bubo Marquez," Isa said. "He says he has a sister who's a physicist and who also has vitiligo. They can help us."
Agustín extended a hand to the young man. "Oh, well, pleasure to meet you, Bubo Marquez. I'm Agustín Rojas de Madrigal. And obviously you've met my girls."
"Sorry, but I actually didn't catch your name," Bubo said to Isa as he shook her father's hand. "Er, names." He glanced at the other two.
"Oh, of course!" Isa said. "I'm Isabela, and these two are my little sisters, Luisa and Mirabel."
Bubo craned his neck up to look at Luisa, processing the word "little," and ultimately choosing not to comment on it. Luisa seemed to read his thought process and gave him an amused smirk.
"Alright, mijas, let's get unpacked," Agustín said. "Let me introduce you to our relatives, and once we're settled, we can arrange to meet with Sr. Marquez and his sister."
"Please, señor, call me Bubo," Bubo said. "Can I help with the bags?"
"Nope, I've got it," Luisa said.
Bubo gaped at her. She did, indeed, have all of the bags. And they weren't small.
"Her luggage balancing game is on point," Mirabel said. "You should see how well she stacks donkeys."
"You can help with Princess Dawn Glow," Luisa said, tilting her head in the direction of her mule. "Know anything about taking care of mules?"
Bubo shook himself out of his stupor and tried not to wonder if Mirabel was exaggerating or not. He looked at the mule. "I'm afraid I don't know anything about caring for equines."
"Oh. Well, um...keep her company until I get back, I guess. She's not used to this environment."
"I'll stay and start unhitching her," Isa volunteered.
Agustín looked uncertain. Mirabel put a hand on his shoulder. "If it helps, Pa, I can babysit them," she teased.
Isa put a hand to her chest and feigned a dramatic gasp of shock. "Mirabel Valentina Rojas Madrigal! How could you think so lowly of my virtue?"
Mirabel chuckled, while Agustín looked annoyed. "That's not I'm worried about," he said to his youngest. "While Bubo here seems like a nice young man, we've only just met him."
"And you know I can deal with him if he turns out to not be so nice, Pa," Isa said.
"I give you my word, Sr. Rojas, I would never dream of harming a lady," Bubo said, his right hand raised in a promissory motion.
"Okay," Agustín said, "but if you try anything, I'll let Isabela and Luisa do whatever they want to you."
Bubo stood frozen a moment, glancing back and forth between the sisters. "That-that actually sounds like a legitimate and perfectly fair threat," he said.
The girls giggled at that, and Luisa and Mirabel followed their father back inside.
Isa immediately set to work on the mule's harness. "Now, undoing a mule is pretty easy compared to hitching it up. Just make sure you never step behind her without letting her know you're there."
Bubo put a hesitant hand on the equine's nose. "Hey, pretty girl," he murmured. Princess Dawn Glow huffed in response and sniffed the young man over for treats. Finding none, she leaned her head into his chest.
"She wants scratches on the ears and cheeks," Isa informed him.
Bubo smiled and complied. "Well, I'm a wildlife biologist myself, but I suppose I'd better make nice with the domesticated critters too." He began to reach up to take the mule's bridle off.
"Save that piece for last," Isa instructed. "So...you're a wildlife biologist?"
"Specifically an ornithologist. Or I will be. I'm almost done with my degree, then it's off to look for the endangered Andean condor. I've always wanted to see one."
"You'd get along really well with my youngest cousin. He has a gift for communicating with animals."
"Like literally, or he's just very good at reading them? Because with your sister having...well, a Herculean amount of strength..."
Isa grinned. She turned to face Bubo. "Wanna know why Papi said he'd leave you to me if you got out of line?" She summoned several cacti and vines.
Bubo yelped and jumped back, his glasses falling from his nose and leaving him fumbling for them. Once they were in place on his nose, he said, "Incredible! Absolutely incredible! Where is your family from?"
"A very special and wondrous place," Isa said vaguely. "It's sheltered to protect us from the recurring conflicts our country suffers."
Bubo nodded in understanding. "An encanto? My mamá used to tell us stories about those. My sister was always the real skeptic in the family, but I always wished such places could be real. And you're saying they are?"
"The point is it keeps us safe, and we have these gifts to defend ourselves and provide for our community," Isa said flatly.
"I understand. You want to protect your home, so I won't press."
"Thank you," Isa said with a smile.
Just then, the other three returned, with a woman in tow who looked to be a good decade or so older than Agustín.
"And this is the lovely Isabela?" the woman said, running straight up to the girl in question. She pressed her hands to Isa's cheeks and scrutinized her. "Oh, you poor thing, look at that skin! Vamos! Let's get you out of the sun before people start to comment! Agustín, you've just been letting her go about like this? In a big city?"
"'M'm pfnnn!" Isa muttered through her squished lips.
"She's a grown woman, Tía," Agustín defended. "How she travels is her choice. We've only been reminding her to keep the white patches out of the sun." He looked to Isa. "Sorry, mija, this is your Tía Anabel. She can get very...protective of her family. She's not unlike your abuela in some ways."
Isa internally sighed in frustration. Sure, Abuela had come a long way, but she could still be difficult. If this tía was anything like her, without the experiences the Madrigals shared, she would be hard to get along with if Isa wasn't careful.
"Hey, Tía, where can we keep Princess and the wagon?" Luisa said.
Tía Anabel turned to see Luisa hefting the entire wagon in the air and shrieked. "Luisa, darling, put that down! Anyone could see you, and folks around here are not tolerant of magical strength! Besides, it's very un-ladylike!"
Luisa looked hurt, but set the wagon down.
"Pardon my intrusion, señora," Bubo said, pushing his glasses up his nose, "but it seems to me that it would be more un-ladylike for a young woman in a strange place to not utilize the miraculous gifts given to her to protect herself."
"Oh, I like him," Luisa said, jabbing a thumb at Bubo.
"Yeah," Mirabel agreed. "For an awkward nerd, he sure does know how to charm his way into a girl's good graces."
"Says the awkward nerd," Isa teased back. Mirabel shrugged in response.
Tía Anabel did not look impressed. She muttered a small, "Hmph! Riffraff uni boy!" then turned on her heel. "Dinner will be promptly at five. Agustín, dear, please see to it that the girls are...presentable. Family or otherwise, you are guests, and it's only proper that we all behave accordingly. I wish to be a good hostess, and I expect my guests to reciprocate. And please put the mule in the stable around back so Luisa doesn't have to!"
"Sí, Tía," Agustín said. "Girls, follow your tía so she can show you where you're sleeping. Bubo, can we meet you out here in ten minutes and travel to your university together?"
Bubo nodded. "Of course, Sr. Rojas.."
It took almost a full fifteen minutes to meet up with Bubo again, as Tía Anabel kept trying to get Isa to cover her skin with something while Agustín and Tío Roberto could only watch helplessly as the women argued. Isa tried to remain as polite as possible, but this woman was getting on her last nerve.
Finally Mirabel stepped in. "Hey, you know what, Tía, Isa did, in fact, bring makeup for those white patches, but it fell out of the wagon on the way here. We were going to buy some more in town." She placed herself behind Isa and began pushing her toward the door. "We should do that before dinner."
"Your youngest is quite the wingman," Tío Roberto whispered to Agustín. "Er...wingwoman."
Agustín chuckled. "Yeah, they weren't always this close. It's nice seeing them grow closer as they grow older."
Their tía placated for the moment by Mirabel's blatant lie, the Madrigals stepped out of the apartment and onto the street. Bubo waved as he headed their direction.
"A cab won't fit all of us," he said. "But the bus station's not too far. We'll walk there."
"I'd...kind of prefer that," Mirabel said. "It'll give me a chance to play tourist and gawk at everything."
"Long as you can put up with the strange looks we'll get," Luisa said.
Isa scoffed. "Let them look. I for one don't care one wit what they think."
"Tía Anabel gave her a hard time about her skin," Agustín explained to Bubo.
The young man nodded. "I get it. My sister goes through the same thing even when she does cover her patches. It's not exactly a dangerous condition, but it definitely gets tongues wagging, and never in a good way."
"That's other people's problem, not mine," Isa said firmly.
Mirabel beamed at her sister. Bubo just watched her in awe.
"That's...some confidence you've got. Where did you learn that? Because Rosa could sure use it."
"Mirabel taught me," Isa said simply, smiling at her youngest sister, who turned red and looked down in response.
A walk to the bus station later and the Madrigals found themselves cramped on the largest machine they'd yet seen. Their Encanto was a place almost frozen in time, and was still small enough that cars were completely unnecessary. The girls hadn't even known what a bus was before now. Luisa was visibly uncomfortable around so many people, who all stared awkwardly at her as she towered a full head above the tallest man on the bus, and had to squat slightly or tilt her head because there wasn't enough room to stand up straight or have a seat to herself. People just as readily stared at Isa, but glanced away when she returned their gaze with a challenging one of her own.
Mirabel, on the other hand, had her head out the window and was hollering joyously as the city zipped past. Agustín had to pull her inside when the bus passed along a more narrow street with buildings right up against it.
It didn't take long for them to arrive at the university. Bubo ushered them straight toward the lab his sister worked in, past students and faculty who whispered about the strangers. Isa didn't need Dolores' super hearing to roll her eyes at their comments about her skin.
Once inside the lab building, Bubo directed them to a room down the hall. As they entered, he closed the door behind him and directed their attention to a woman poring over books spread across a table. She had jet black hair pulled back in a bun and wore glasses very similar in style to Bubo's.
"Hey, sis," Bubo called. "There are some folks I want you to meet. These are the Madrigals. Madrigals, my genius sister, Rosa."
The woman turned and looked the newcomers over. Her eyes immediately landed on Isa, and she pulled her glasses down in astonishment. "Another one? Thank Madam Curie! I'm not alone!"
Isa had no time to react before Rosa had crossed the room and pulled her into a bone crushing hug that made Luisa chuckle in amusement. When Rosa pulled back, Isa coughed out, "It's...nice to meet you too? I'm Isabela. You...have vitiligo?"
Rosa released Isa and adjusted her glasses. "Oh, yes. I go through more makeup than anyone in Bogotá, trying to keep it covered. People stare, you know?"
"We were hoping you could help her," Bubo said. Or...maybe help each other with the research?"
Isa nodded eagerly. "I don't mind what I look like, but my mother and abuela are both worried. I suppose...I just want to reassure them that I'll be just fine."
Rosa sighed. "Well, then you're doing better than I am," she admitted. "The most I've discovered about this condition so far is...well, it's the most benign of a whole class of disorders. And they tend to come in pairs. Mine came with lupus." She rubbed her hands, which Isa noticed for the first time had sores all over them.
"I know some of them can become painful," Isa said. "I would like to prevent that."
"Oh, they're more than painful," Rosa said. "Autoimmune conditions are your own body betraying you. If they're not managed, they keep cropping up."
"Autoimmune conditions?" Agustín repeated. "Just how dangerous can they be?"
"Very." Rosa fixed the Madrigals with a hard look. "According to what I've researched so far, some of them could even kill you."