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Dolores was once the most vocal out of all the madrigal grandchildren. she would talk and laugh about anything and everything, would tell all kinds of stories to cheer her mama up whenever she looked sad and most importantly, she would yell and scream happily as she and Isabela ran around and played in Casita, giggling quietly whenever Abuela would fondly tell them to settle down.
But that loud and rambunctious little girl soon became incredibly quiet after she got her gift. She would no longer run around and play, growing more and more comfortable staying in her room because everything was just so loud and she hadn't grown used to it, nor had she figured out how to control it, so she could hear anything and everything around the Encanto the moment she stepped out of her room.
When she did eventually learn to control her gift, her Mama y papa were quick to notice that she no longer talked like she used to, but whispered, only just loud enough to hear her if they were paying attention. That took a lot longer for the family to grow used to, but they knew if there were an emergency that Dolores would raise her voice, as much as it hurt her to do so.
With the whispering, came clapping with only two fingers and covering her ears merely seconds before fireworks or cheering erupted. Eventually, Dolores started doing a soft peeping sound that startled her mama when she first did it, but made both her and her papa smile any time they heard it, because their little girl had found something to help her whenever she grew nervous and Dolores found that she quite liked the way it sounded.
By the time her hermanito, Camilo, was born, Dolores had got almost full control of her gift, but that didn't stop her from listening to her little brothers heart beat when he finally entered the world in the middle of what seemed to be a pretty bad storm. She, tio Bruno and Isabela ended up in her room due to how much noise was happening. Now she was able to seperate all the noises she could hear, she zeroed in on her hermanito's and subsequently, her mama's heartbeats.
It took awhile and her Mama was near exhaustion by the time Camilo finally let out his first cry, but it made her smile none the less "he's here" she whispers in excitement to her tio, who was the only one awake at this point and she sees the way his eyes light up in excitement and slight anxiety as he realises that she's been listening this entire time "I was listening to his heart beat, so I can always recognise it wherever he is in the Encanto" she whispers, feeling slightly shy now as she's never told anyone that she listens to her familia's heart beats in order to calm down and so that she knows where they are at any given time.
By the time Camilo and Mirabel are 15, Dolores has forgotten what her natural voice sounds like. At this point she only uses it on very rare occasions and even then she goes back to whispering, because talking normally hurts and she can't cover her ears to stop that.
When Casita falls and she looses her gift, Dolores doesn't know what to do. She ends up panicking so bad she ends up crying in her mama's arms, it's only when she calms down that she realises it's the first time in years that she's been able to do this without her mama hurting her ears with thunder and she can't help but whimper quietly as she has no idea how to go about any of this, she doesn't know how to speak above a whisper for longer than a few seconds and that hurts more than anything else.
It takes almost 3 days after Casita has fallen for her to be brave enough to raise her voice just a little louder, she can't help but smile when all that happens is tio Bruno and her papa turning to look at her with matching grins "is that my querida niña I just heard?" Felix says, sounding slightly excited as he hasn't heard Dolores's voice above it's quiet whisper yell in years "sí papi" she says, daring to speak a little louder and giggling when he picks her up and spins her in his excitement.
Slowly but surely, she begins to find her voice again, until eventually she is singing and dancing with her hermanito's y primas and telling stories with tio Bruno to make her mama laugh. She gets to playfully bicker with isa again, which is what makes her even happier as she had missed her prima who had almost been like a sister to her all those years ago. She finally gets to admit her feelings to Mariano, with a little bit of help from Mirabel and to her suprise, Isa.
Even when her gift returns, Dolores doesn't let it steal her voice away again, instead she finds away to block out her own voice from everything else she hears, which takes awhile to figure out how to hear her self without it hurting, but not once does she go back to whispering.