Gabe Nuñez - Blog Posts

It took longer then expected but I finally finished writing this fanfiction! It's about Victor and Carla’s time spent in the palace dungeon and the experiences they had there. (Which includes making new animal friends, getting interrogated, and reflections on emotions!)

Hello!! If you're still taking requests and don't mind drawing it, may I ask for Gabe wearing the Royal Guard uniform under Shuriki's reign? 👀

Of course! Have to say, I think this is an interesting look for him.

mateo and gabe for the character ask please :D

Mateo

Favorite thing about them: His dorky adorableness. He's always just so excited about learning new nerdy things about magic, it's so sweet.

Least favorite thing about them: That he didn't have more magic training scenes with Olivia.

Random headcanon: Not only does he not eat chocolate, but he also just doesn't like sweet foods very much in general. In social situations he'll sometimes eat them to be polite but he just prefers vegetables to fruit and bread cookies. Rafa didn't mind this and tried to only make him food that he would really enjoy, but it did become a bit of a problem once he moved into the palace and started getting Palace food. But they eventually sorted it out.

Unpopular opinion: Has anyone ever noticed that he sounds a lot like intern Carl from Phineas and Ferb?

Song I associate with them: It Has Begun by Starset and Karma by OR3O

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Gabe

Favorite thing about them: His caring and compassionate leadership skills. He's in the military but he doesn't give in to apathy or toxic coolness, he cares about the people he's protecting and the people who serve under him.

Least favorite thing about them: The fact that he rarely gets a chance to use his tactical knowledge to create the plans to help save the day. Oftentimes his okay plans end up falling through and his good plans end up getting ignored.

Random headcanon: Gabe and Migs often work together in joint training exercises for the Guards and the Guardians. They have created plenty of attack patterns and battle strategies so humans and jaquins can fight together as a team in case either of their kingdoms were attacked again.

Unpopular opinion: Even though "The Gecko's Tale" was a fairly forgettable episode (because it had no song), I do wish that his fear of geckos had come up again at some point in the series. As well as his love adventuring and exploring. (It's sort of implied by the fact that he is a royal guard always protecting the kingdom and searching for bad guys, but it would have been interesting to see that pop up again in a more specific way, I mean I guess there was the time where he wanted to go to Norberg because he's never been there before...).

Song I associate with them: The Royal Guard by Sabaton

(Decided it would be easier to just do both of them at once so) Favorite pictures of them:

↑ The three different moods they have when they're with each other.

The Secret Of Magic Addressed

It's just a regular magical training session for the royal guards until a certain someone explains the "true secret" to being powerful at magic.

[I’m still working some long fics but I just wanted to get this short one off my chest. I hope you enjoy it!]

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“Remember, you have to concentrate when you're casting Ximocu, or else the shield will instantly break, and then you'll get hit in the face.” Explained Mateo for probably the third time that day as he paced back and forth in front of the five guards.

“I am! But the shield keeps breaking no matter what I try to do.” Rico exclaimed as he picked pieces of fruit out of his hair.

“We want to learn it sir, but it just isn't working!” Felipe added.

“What do you think we should do Mateo?” Asked Gabe as he wiped some juice off his face.

“Well at this point the best thing to do is-”

He was cut off by a sudden flash of pink in front of his vision, then the high pitched and very excited voice which exclaimed “Hi guys, whatcha you doing!?”

Mateo waved at her “Hello Flo, we're just having a magic lesson.”

“And trying not to get hit with fruit.” added Rico.

“What's magical about getting hit with fruit?” she asked.

“Nothing, but we're supposed to block projectiles with magic. So we take turns throwing them at each other and then we either block them or get hit. But we mostly get hit.”

Her ears perked up “Oh oh that sounds super duper fun can I watch?!”

Mateo nodded “Sure you can, as long as you stay on the side out of the way, we wouldn't want you getting splattered.”

“YAY!” she shouted as she happily hopped to a safe distance away.

Mateo turned back to his class and continued: “As I was saying, the best thing I can recommend for all of you is to practice more. Right now you are all at a beginner's level, but your magic will become stronger as you practice. That's why we're here today isn't it?

Gabe sighed “Yes you're right, it's still annoying though.”

“OH OH OH I know how you can get really strong really fast at magic! I know all the secrets about magic! Ask me! Please, please, please pretty pleeease?” Flo was rolling around on the ground in her excitement.

The royal wizard smiled and decided to humour her “All right Flo, what's the secret of magic?”

Flo squealed in delight as she jumped up on top of a bush and straightened up, ready to speak to the crowd. “There are three important things to being super strong at magic. Number one is you need to have some kind of magical sparkly stick or potion to make the magic effects happen!”

“I see, well we do have tamboritas so that one's checked off.” said Antonia.

“Next you have to know how to say the magic words and do the magical movements! All the words sound like nonsense and the movements that look like a really funny dance, but when you do them the right way cool stuff happens!”

“Oh he's made sure we’ve rehearsed the flap and clap until we can do it in our sleep, so that won't be the issue.” laughed Rico.

“Now you guys have all that stuff, but you're missing the most important thing of all!”

“And what could that be?” asked Mateo.

“The thing that makes a magic person truly powerful is...wearing a pretty dress!”

“Wait what!?” they all exclaimed.

“I can't believe I'm the only one who's figured this out! Look at how Mateo always wears his pretty red dress whenever he's doing wizard stuff!”

The wizard looked shocked “But i-it's not a-”

“And Elena has the most beautiful dress covered in sparkly sparkles, so she doesn't even need to say magic words all the time anymore because it's soooo amazing!”

Gabe put his hand on his chin “She did get a lot stronger after the dress got bejeweled....”

“Well I should know I wouldn't exist without it! And Olivia has her snuggly red dress on whenever she's here for classes. And Victor was complaining the other day about how his magic doesn't seem to be as strong as it was when he was a malvago, but that's because he's wearing his suit all the time now instead of that pretty purple dress with the bugs on it! Carla always wears nice dresses and she hasn't been complaining about her magic!

Miguel shrugged “Actually I think scorpions are arachnids, but you do have a point…”

“But my outfit is not a dress, it's a robe!” exclaimed Mateo, finally catching his breath.

Flo tilted her head to the side “What's the difference?”

“Well it's... it's... they're different because... actually I don't know….” he admitted. “But the point is I don't think that has anything to do with-”

Rico pumped his fist in the air “It's settled then, we all need to go and find some pretty dresses to wear!”

“Yeah!” Felipe exclaimed.

“That sounds great!” agreed Miguel.

“There's some extra dresses in the tailoring room in the palace.” Said Antonia with excitement “If none of them work I know this really cute dress store in town!” she paused and turned towards Gabe. “As long as it's okay with you, General.”

Gabe shrugged “Sounds a lot more fun than getting another fruit in the face.” He turned to Mateo “I think that's enough of a lesson for today. I certainly learned a lot.” He said with a smile “We’ll pick up where we left off next week?”

Mateo was speechless, he just nodded

Gabe grinned “All right then, let’s go.”

Mateo and Flo watched as the guards left towards the palace.

The alpacamundi hopped down from the bush “I wonder what they'll choose! I hope they get sparkly ones! What do you think?”

Mateo furrowed his brow “Flo, I….I don't think that anyone's outfit actually has an effect on their magic except for MAYBE in rare cases like Elena's. But even then it’s unlikely. I mean correlation and causation are two different things.”

Flo looked up at him “But it's at least worth a shot, right?”

Mateo was quiet for a moment but then a grin slowly appeared on his face. “Well now that you mention it, it's definitely something that we can adDRESS later!” Then he burst into laughter.

Some mother son baking! I was inspired to draw this by @lieutenant-amuel‘s great fanfiction “Was Born To Lead.” 

[Image ID: A pencil crayon and ink drawing of Gabe as a child and his mother Blanca, happily making cookies. Gabe is using a cookie cutter to cut the cookie dough, while Blanca watches him with her hand gently resting on his shoulder. End ID]

In “Team Isa” we are shown that Gabe's family has a dog, and it is a very good dog.

[Image ID: A pencil crayon and ink drawing of Gabe from Elena of Avalor, holding his family’s dog. End ID]

A Monstrous Encounter

I had this crazy Elena of Avalor dream on August 28th, so I decided to turn it into a fanfiction. This is 70% what happened in the dream and 30% dialogue I added for context and jokes for levity.

Note: I have the trigger warnings in the tags, this Fanfic does have a bit of violence and blood in it so I would give this a PG-13 / T rating. Reader discretion is advised.

Note 2: For some reason when I had the dream the entire landscape was in various sunset colours, the trees were purple, the sky was red & yellow and the grass was orange & pink.  So if you want, you can imagine it like that.

Note 3: In the dream I wasn't exactly sure when it was set, so I just decided to set it after the final. 

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  A few months after she became Queen, Elena was touring the kingdom. She was making stops in all the different towns so the citizens could see their new Queen and she could make sure the towns were running smoothly. Elena had brought along Naomi, Gabe and Mateo, as well as a few of her Royal Guards and servants. So far, the tour had gone on without a hitch, but that was all about to change.

  In a small country village, Elena and her friends were about to go to Village Hall for a meeting with the Town Council, when a horse ran up to them at full speed and stopped. On it were Lieutenant Felipe and a young Private. Felipe looked exhausted and the Private was crying, and they both looked very bruised up.

  Gabe ran up to meet him. “Felipe, what happened!?”

  The Lieutenant tried to give as coherent a report as he could. “General, I have to report there's a monster at the edge of town. It was huge and round and slimy. Last time I saw it it was on the north corner of the pig farm owned by the Estrada family. It's been eating the livestock of the townspeople. When Private Fuentes and I went to evaluate the situation, it attacked us. I tried to use some spells to stop it but it seems to be immune to magic. Then it attacked Fuentes and… I was able to pull him out of the way in time but the monster killed and swallowed his horse.”

  The private looked at the General, his eyes filled with tears. “I'm sorry General, if I had been faster, Peanut would still be…”

  “It's alright private you did all you could do. All you need to do now is get your injuries checked.” Gabe assured him.

  “Yes Sir.” Fuentes replied, his voice still shaking

  Then Gabe continued on in a slightly more military tone, but you could still hear the intense concern he had.  “Lieutenant Felipe, take Private Fuentes to have his injuries taken care of, have your own injuries checked, and then call for backup.”

  “Yes sir.” He saluted then rode off towards the medical facility

  The other three who had watched this scene unfold were shocked, they knew something had to be done.

  “By the time backup gets here someone else could be attacked!” Exclaimed Mateo.

  “He's right, we should deal with this monster right now!” agreed Elena.

  “I second that.” Added Naomi with a nod. “We must avenge Peanut!”

  Gabe looked at how the three of them were just raring to go, he hesitated for a moment and then sighed. “I guess it's yet another mission for just the four of us.”

  “Maybe we need a name like Team Ava-four.” said Mateo trying to lighten the mood.

  Gabe just sighed and continued, “We know that this creature is immune to magic, so we will all need to equip some physical weapons before we go find it.”

  They went to their supply carriage and each got equipped with a sword, a dagger and a crossbow. Then they got on their horses and rode to the farm. Once they arrived at the south corner of the farm, they didn't tie the horse's reins to a pole. Instead they  just told their horses to wait for them to come back, they did this just in case the monster tried to attack them, the horses would be able to get away unhindered.

  Then they carefully made their way to the north corner, making sure to keep watch as they approached it. Then they saw an odd shape in the distance. They carefully stepped behind a large boulder and looked out at it. There was no mistaking it, this was the monster.

  It was sitting on the ground, its eerie black eyes open and ever staring forward.  It was at least 3 meters tall while at rest. It had a round body with a huge mouth, bigger than the mouth of any creature should be. It was bright purple and yellow and covered in clear oozing slime. It was blob shaped and looked like some kind of hideous melted frog.

  “I've never seen a creature like that in any of my books before,” Whispered Mateo, “At least not that I can remember.”  

  “What do you think we should do?” Asked Elena.

  “I say we try shooting it with our crossbows. If we get a little closer the bolts would probably do some major damage.” Suggested Naomi.

  “That sounds good, we will move to that area over there behind those trees where we will get a much clearer shot.” Said Gabe readying his crossbow “We should approach it with caution.” They moved closer to the monster until they were as close as they could get, while still being behind cover. “All right,” ready your crossbows and...NOW!”

  Four bolts shot straight into the monster's head and lodged deep, although it didn't seem very disturbed by it.  The monster looked at them with it's bulging eyes for a moment before it suddenly hopped up in a burst of speed and began to chase them. They were just barely able to start running away from it when it jumped at them.

  The monster chased them down the hill towards a pond, quickly gaining momentum on them. “Let's split up around the pond and regroup behind those trees!” Yelled Naomi, pointing across the water at the other side.  

  The group split to run around to the two sides, Naomi and Elena going to one side, Gabe and Mateo on the other. But the monster continued its chase, now with a target in its focus.

  Mateo was a slower runner than the others and they all realized it too late. He dropped his crossbow and grabbed his tamborita ready to cast a speed spell on himself. But before he could he tripped on a wet clump of grass at the edge of the pond, dropping his tamborita as he fell to the ground. The monster leapt behind him and with one fast movement gulped him completely into its mouth.

  “MATEO!” They screamed as their friend disappeared from view.

  “LEVALUQ!” yelled Gabe aiming his tamborita at the monster's mouth, but it was no use, Mateo was completely inside it and there was nothing that the spell could grab onto. It just seemed to be absorbed into the monster's slime. So without a second thought Gabe ran at the creature and started slashing at it with his sword. Naomi and Elena joined him, desperate to save their friend.

~~~   Mateo was surrounded by oozing darkness. He tried to breathe but got a nose full of noxious smelling slime instead, so he held his breath. The monster's mouth was closed in all around him and he barely had any room to move. He started to struggle but it didn't feel like it made any difference to the compressing walls around him.

  Then he remembered the dagger. He grabbed it with one hand and plunged it into the monster's tongue. The walls kept moving around him but they didn't feel any less constricting, and he was running out of air. He continued to stab but he could feel his strength draining away from him. His thoughts became a flurry of panic “I need to get out of here, I can't die like this, please!!!”  He continued to stab until he didn't have the strength to hold on to the dagger any longer. ~~~

 The three of them continued to slash their blades into the monster’s flesh. It still held its mouth shut even as blood splattered out from its wounds. It tried to jump into the nearby pond, and that's when Gabe leaped up into the air and plunged his sword deep into its back, determined to save the wizard before it was too late. That was the mortal blow. Finally the monster stopped moving and fell To the ground, finally defeated.

 Naomi and Gabe each grabbed one side of the fallen monster’s mouth and yanked it open. Elena lifted Mateo out. He wasn't moving. She started hastily brushing the slime off his face while using her other hand to push on his chest trying to resuscitate him.

  “MATEO WAKE UP, PLEASE!” She cried.

 Suddenly he began to cough and blink his eyes open. Tears continued to stream down the young queen's face but now in relief rather than despair. “I thought I lost you.”

  “Thank goodness you're alive.” Said Gabe who is now kneeling beside them.

  “We need to make sure all the liquid is out of the throat, if he's able to talk that means he can breathe properly.”  Naomi then she turned to Mateo and asked “Do you think you can talk?”

  He nodded, then he breathed and said “Well that became a pretty slimy situation!”

  There was a moment of silence, and then they all laughed (in spite of the pun being terrible). They were all just so happy that Mateo was alive. They moved into a big group hug.

  Suddenly Naomi broke out of the hug and jumped up. “The meeting!”  Shouted Naomi, “We never told them that we were going to be late!”

  Elena sprang to her feet “Oh no you're right! Quick, if we move fast we might be able to still make it in time!”

  “But Elena, you-” Gabe started saying but was interrupted.

  “Don’t worry Gabe, I trust that you will be able to take Mateo back to town and report to the townspeople that the monster has been defeated.” Then she whistled for the horses. All four of them came running and Elena's horse, Canela stopped right in front of her.

  “Elena I think he meant-” Started Mateo.

  “You can tell me later Mateo, just go get some rest, you need it!” And with that, she jumped on her horse and she and Naomi rode off at a thundering pace.

  “So,” said Mateo turning to Gabe “Do you think they'll notice that they're covered in monster blood before they get to the meeting, or after someone screams and faints at them?”

  “I'd say the latter.” Said Gabe, as he watched them ride off into the distance.

  “Probably, wait a minute we're ALL covered in... blood…”

  Gabe caught Mateo right as he fainted.

  He checked that Mateo was okay and then smiled “Well Elena did say you needed a rest.”

  Mateo blinked open his eyes and groaned a little in disgust as he looked at his clothing. It would take some major spells to get these stains out.

  He found his tamborita lying near him, brushed the dirt off it and put it back in its holder. Then Gabe carefully helped Mateo on to his horse, then the two of them both rode back to town.

A while ago me and @lieutenant-amuel Talked about how since Gabe and some of the other guards know magic now, maybe they should get more ‘wizard robe-like’ uniforms. I started designing it but then I realized “I could add a whole bunch of other things to this is well!” And I ended up with this.

Here's an explanation of some of my redesign choices: -Rank insignia.  I'm using a system of Pips because I am a Star Trek nerd. But instead of circles or diamonds, they are five petaled flowers, since that symbol is on the emblem for the show as well as a few banners in Avalor.

-Royal guard badge. So that everyone can tell he's a royal guard of Avalor.

-Tamborita badge. Above his left pocket you can see a small golden tamborita. Gabe and any other guards trained in magic would have this to signify that they have been specially trained in magic.

-Pockets. Because pockets are amazingly useful and every modern military uniform has them, so I just decided to throw them in as well.

-Longer coat. To make the outfit look a little bit more wizard like.

-More gold. Well, it's not actual gold, but gold colours look really good with red and blue, so I just had to add it.

Little Black Dress

On April Fool's Day of 2020, I posted this Fanfiction onto the EOA Discord server under the gauze that it was a summary of an upcoming episode. We were all very anxious for any news about future episodes, and I was able to fool some people with this. I wrote this before “Crash Course” came out so all the “main plot things” that happened in this were just me guessing and making jokes about what could possibly happen. Originally I thought of just doing a little description, but pretty soon it turned into an entire plot summary. I just thought of all the things that would be cool to see in the show, as well as some things in my personal life, and wrote it all on April Fool's Day itself.

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[Here's the introduction I did for it, straight from the server itself:] Hey guys I just found this full on plot summary of the Elena of Avalor episode that comes after Crash Course! So don't read this Unless you are ready to get spoiled big time!

Ready for spoilers? Okay, here we go! The episode is titled “Little Black Dress” Mini description is: “Elena and Naomi have to find a way to stop Elena’s new dress colour and power, Meanwhile Gabe, and Mateo try to stop Ash, with help from an unlikely ally.”

That description makes it sound really good but wait, I have the whole plot summary so here you go: [Synopsis under the cut]

It starts off at the castle, we see Elena, reading a book in her room. Naomi comes in and asks what book she is reading while also making the bed, since now Naomi's technically out of an official job so she's been trying a lot of stuff around the palace to see what job sticks. We even get a little montage of this. It turns out Elena is reading a book that Naomi recommended to her and is almost finished,  Naomi is happy to hear that, and decides to leave Elena in peace until she's finished reading.

But just as she's about to leave the room she hears Elena's scream and she runs back into the room to find that Elena's dress has turned black!  All of the light seems like it's being sucked out of the room while a feeling  of the deepest despair comes over them, but Naomi is able to make it across the room and sing a bit of love always to Elena, which gets her back to normal. Then Naomi asks Elena what happened, why did the dress change colour like that?

Elena takes a deep breath and explains to Naomi that the book ended on a cliffhanger, why had she not told her that this book ended on such a big cliffhanger! Naomi tells her that she'd read the book so long ago, she had sort of forgotten the weight of the cliffhanger at the end. Naomi tells her that she had once checked before if there was a sequel to this book, and there wasn't, but she's pretty sure that the author is planning one. Elena retains her composure, but you can tell she is still deeply disturbed. But it's time for the Grand Council meeting now, so she goes to the Grand Council room. Cut to the Grand council meeting, Doña Paloma and Julio are already there, arguing over kingdom finances, when Elena comes in and apologizes for being late. Her grandparents start to fill her in on what has been happening in the meeting when Doña interrupts them. She tells Elena how they've been arguing over whether to spend tax money on relief to chocolate farmers who are having trouble with a fungus that's been growing on the chocolate trees making them less productive. She believes the farmers should spend their own money on anti-fungus measures for the trees but Julio disagrees, so what does she think they should do?

But Elena's dress turns black,  almost all the light gets sucked out of the room and strong winds begin to blow, everyone gets under the table. Her grandparents are able to calm her down and ask her what happened. She explains about the new dress colour and that the mention of fungus reminded her of how that book ended with half the characters getting possessed by an evil mushroom that was bent on taking over the world, and not knowing would happen next was filling her with suspense and dread. Julio recommends that she go find the author of the book and ask them how it ends. Elena thinks that's a great idea and decides to do that with Naomi.

Just as she's leaving the grand Council room she bumps into Mateo and Gabe, they tell her that they have some important security matters they need to share with the Grand Council, so they can get the green light to go ahead with their defeating-evil plans. “Just do whatever you must!” She tells Mateo and Gabe before leaving with Naomi to go find the author. They take this to mean they can do ANYTHING they feel they need too.

We follow Gabe and Mateo down to the dungeon where they go to Carla’s cell. She's petting the dog and looking out the window when she hears them come in. She turns and is quite surprised to see them. They tell her that they are planning an important mission that will stop Ash, and her gang, but they need her help to pull it off. She tells them that she will only help them if they de-stone Victor. They agree that they will do that once the mission is completed, as long as she doesn't double-cross them. Carla says they have a deal, and asks them what the plan is.

Gabe explains to her that the guards have sightings of Ash’s gang on the coast of Avalor in a certain village, which means that there is only one place they could be going… “Los Diamante!” finished Carla. It was one of the most famous card game playing houses and music lounges in the entire Everealm. It was run by a gang of criminals and Malvagos led by El Destello. They are so powerful that during Shuriki’s rain they were still able to operate, because they could destroy any Royal Guards or other threats to the place.

It would be a disaster if Ash got them as allies, so Gabe and Mateo decided they would try to convince El Destello to join the good guy side (or at least not join Ash). But they knew they wouldn't last five minutes in that place without a criminal who could help guide them through it, and that's why they needed Carla.

Carla told them that  her father had told her all about this place before, and that the place had a strict dress code they would need to follow before they got there (“They don’t let Guards or nerds in there” she said). The dress code was formal suits and dresses. So they got changed and then rode some Jaquins to Los Diamante, and went inside.

The place was very ritzy, and it still had that Avaloran style architecture to it. There were guys playing Go Fish at the tables, people ordering drinks from the counter, and a big stage where an Avaloran-style jazz band is playing. Everyone had a Churro in their mouth. Mateo went to the drink counter and ordered an apple juice, but the guy behind the counter said they didn't have any, but they did have tomato juice, and chocolate milk. Mateo realized they were in the deep end now.

Suddenly Ash, Esteban, and Chatana walk in, all of them dressed up in super fancy outfits. Ash walked up to one of the burly looking criminals standing by the door and asked to see El Destello, so she could give him an offer he couldn't refuse.  He said that she would have to wait half an hour for him to finish with his  accountant upstairs before he could see anyone. 

Carla, Gabe, and Mateo (who had hidden under a table when those three came in), heard all of this and knew they needed to come up with a plan to stop this.

Meanwhile, Elena and Naomi were in the middle of town looking through the town records, to see if they could find the author's name and address. One of the clerks at the building asked them what they were doing and they explained to her their situation. She said she knew where the author lived (whose name was Q.W. Southland)  and gave them her address, but told them that the author was planning on leaving Avalor for Norberg today, so they better hurry.

They both ran to the author's house, but they saw that they were too late, a carriage was already leaving the house with Southland inside! Elena refused to give up, so she and Naomi hopped into an empty cart, and attached a large sheet to it like a sail.  Elena mustered up her feelings and the strong winds blew,  blowing their cart towards the carriage.  The carriage sped up in reaction to this, and now they were in a full-on chase scene,  zooming through the streets of the city towards the port. Finally, the carriage stopped right before it fell into the water but Elena's cart fell into the water and she and Naomi had to swim back to shore. They were just in time to reach Southland before she got on the ship. 

Elena begged to know the rest of the story, but Southland explained to her that she wasn't going to tell any of her readers anything about the next book until it was published, even if they were a princess. Elena would have to wait another eight months like everyone else.

Elena and Naomi were deeply saddened. Elena said that she wished there was at least something she could have to keep her occupied until the next book came out.  Naomi looks like she has a moment of inspiration, and tells Elena that she needs to get home and that she should go back to the palace and wait for her there. Elena is confused by this, but sees her friend’s enthusiasm and agrees.

Meanwhile in Los Diamante, El Destello had finally finished with his upstairs business and had come down to the lounge. Ash walked over to him and began to tell him about who she was and about her plans for the most powerful group of dark wizards ever. Suddenly Carla jumped out and interrupted her, she told El Destello that she heard he liked music (why else would you keep a music lounge open during Shiriki’s rain?) and that she was a great singer and dancer.

Carla said that she and her team (Mateo and Gabe) would challenge Ash and her team to a music contest, and that whoever lost wouldn't be able to get help from El Destello or his gang. El Destello thought that sounded like a great idea and agreed. Ash, still surprised by this turn of events, wasn't going to back down from a challenge and also agreed.

So the music contest began. Ash and Chatana sang a Peggy Lee-style song called  “Touch of a Feather'' with Esteban playing guitar to back them up. It's lyrics show that it's a really good villain song, referencing Ash’s ambition and Chatana’s yearning for a world she can control. It went off without a hitch, except for when Chatana did a spin and her wings knocked Ash, and Esteban off the stage at the end of it.

Carla sang a Nancy Sinatra-style song called “These Violet Times” with Mateo and Gabe singing backup (Gabe also had a trumpet solo at one point). The lyrics reflect Carla’s feelings about her past and hopes for her future (They also make some not-so-passive-aggressive jabs at Ash).

El Destello said both songs were good, but there was only one winner. He beckoned Ash and her team over to him. Ash smiled, said she was glad to have won, and asked if this meant that he would accept their deal of a partnership?

He told her no, she had not won. He just summoned them over to tell them that they had five minutes to leave before his gang would throw them out. Ash was shocked, Esteban then teleported them out of there before Ash had a chance to do something violent.

El Destello congratulated team Carla on the win. Mateo asked if this meant he would never colaberbate with Ash, and he said “Of course and that from now on whenever they came back to Los Diamante, drinks were on the house.”

Gabe and Mateo were happy that the mission had gone so successfully, and thanked Carla for her help. She asked if this meant that they would free Victor now, and they said yes. “What are we waiting for” yelled Carla as she grabbed them by the hands and dragged them out to the Jaquins, to get them back to the Palace as fast as they could.

Back at the Palace, Elena is sitting in her room tuning her guitar when Naomi walks in with a bundle of scrolls and papers in her hands. She tells Elena when she had finished that book a long time ago, she had been destroyed by the cliffhanger ending as well. So she had written a whole bunch of fanfiction about what could happen next. Then, with all the crazy stuff that's happened in the last few months she forgot about it. She said it's not as good as another book but at least they have it. Elena smiled and said that it's just as good as another book, but then she asked Naomi, “You did complete these right? They don't end on cliffhangers too, do they?”

“No,” Naomi said with a smile “I made sure of that.”

The episode ends with Gabe, Mateo and Carla in the palace garden. Mateo is holding a small vial which he then hands it to Carla, saying she should do the honour. She runs over to Victor and says:  “Finally you can be free, Papa!” She holds the potion above his head and pours it on him. And just as the potion touches his forehead- the credits cut in and you have to wait until next episode to see what happens next.

So that definitely sounds like an episode I would want to see, if only it were real… Happy April Fool's Day everyone!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[And now for a bit of a retrospective on that piece. Reading this again really takes me back. Back then I was so worried about Carla and Victor, sometimes I wondered if they'd even get a redemption arc at all. But as the moral of this episode goes “Fanfiction and other fans make you feel less bad about waiting for new content.” And writing this did make me feel a little bit better about everything.

Oh yes who can forget the “ what if black is an emotion colour” theory.  most people were taking that to really angsty places, but I decided to do something a little closer to home for me. There was a certain book series [Wings of Fire] that I had in mind writing the plot with Elena. Because I really did feel those emotions when it left off on a cliffhanger. And that was kind of the same with the show as well.

I always liked it and shows and movies where they have parodies of 1930s gangster movies, so I decided to do a kid-friendly parody version of that. I always love the fancy outfits the characters have in those. I realized that churros look like cigars from a distance, so that's why I mentioned that. I was also really hoping for another villain song, and for Carla to confront her mom. So I just fused the two together.

In my mind when I was writing this I imagined that Pili and Tziloco were in another section of Los Diamante, that was meant for Animal Companions, waiting for the rest of Team Ash to finish. And at one point they play some kind of card game against the Jaquins. But I didn't know where I could smoothly fit that into the summary, so I left it out.

Also I just want to explain the title, I decided on it because 1, Elena's dress turns black in this. And 2, a little black dress is a term that's often used for describing simple, yet fancy dresses that some women wear, and that would be fitting for the other plot of this story. So it's sort of a pun!]

Here it is, the Gabe Facepalm Moodboard.

I worked all morning on this.

The Elena of Avalor quarantine alignment chart!

Alignment chart template from: @burnonyou 

Victor Delgado Headcannon

(I originally posted this on the Elena of Avalor Discord but I wanted to share it here) 

In the episode “Sister of Invention” Gabe says this about Victor to Elena: “He says he'll talk but only to you.”

This Implies that Gabe and/or other guards tried to interview Victor but didn't get any useful information out of him. I like to headcanon that Victor trolled them massively when they tried to interview him.

Every interrogation would go something like this:

Gabe: All right Victor, it’s time that you start talking.

Rico: Tell us what Ash and Carla are planning!

Victor: Well.. I could tell you, but you might not understand… 

Gabe: Just explain it to us, we will be able to understand!

Victor: Well...It depends, how many Star Wars  movies have you seen?

Gabe: ...I've seen all 9 main movies...

Rico: I've only seen A New Hope, but I'm planning on watching The Empire Strikes Back this weekend.

Victor: Okay then can you understand it when I say…  that Darth Vader's actually Luke's father! 

Rico: WHAT, no way, that can't be true, you're just saying that! 

Victor: Am I just saying that Nunez?

Gabe: Well errr... this has nothing to do with anything, tell us about Ash and Carla!

Victor: Alright, I'll tell you...  that Princess Leia is Luke's sister!

Rico: What, NO!

Victor: And You'll never guess what happened in Avengers Endgame! Time's up! Here's what happened...

Gabe: THAT’S IT! THIS INTERVIEW IS OVER!