This guy just found out his once-best friend murdered him for fame, and the next minute gets his former friend’s grandson dropped in front of him with no witnesses. A more vindictive person could’ve had a lot of fun getting their own back just about any way they wanted.
What does Héctor Rivera do? He hugs the kid.
He obviously wasn’t expecting the scared-child cannonball-hug prior to this, but he’s not blaming Miguel for Ernesto’s crimes. (He wasn’t even mean to “Ernesto’s grandson” really the entire evening, despite him already knowing that Ernesto stole and profited from his songs. Once Poco Loco came around he was even happy. Getting upset over finding out Miguel’s family was looking for him was pretty mild, all things considered. This person is a very kind man.)
The look on his face right before this hug. The moments of disbelief that Miguel is even here, followed by the stunned, worried stare: Ernesto has this sweet, wonderful, talented grandson who adored him without ever even meeting him, and he threw him away.
This is… Héctor can hardly even process this. Just…why?
Callous. Wasteful. Cruel. Ernesto has tossed this amazing child into a pit and left him to die and someone like Héctor can hardly understand how anyone would do such a thing.
“It’s okay. It’s okay.” (you didn’t deserve this. it’s not your fault.)
Of course he will hug and comfort the distraught and abandoned child. It’s who he is. If Ernesto doesn’t want this blessing he’s been handed so freely, then Héctor will take care of it. He found the Chamaco first, anyway.
Phew! This was a beast to do but made all the more fun by being a collaboration with @slusheeduck. Thanks everyone who joined in on the streams for the making of this!
Protip! Opening the image in a new tab will help with reading it!
Someone please buy this bouncer a drink. Or several. X)
To be fair, the mustachioed trash can disguise really should have worked??
– The Land of the Dead is undergoing a violent turf war between two opposing gangs: the Cruzitos Crew and the Rivera Stilettoes.
– The Crizitos’ boss is Ernesto De la Cruz himself, a shady musical celebrity in life who’s become even shadier in death, bribing and mugging his way to power with the help of his devoted crew. He is easily flattered but even more easily offended, getting rid of people for reasons understandable only to his own ego.
– The Rivera Stilettoes are run by Mamá Imelda, a no-nonsense ice queen who is as efficient as she is terrifying. She’ll give anyone her protection as long as they follow her rules to the letter. Few people cross her once, even fewer have the opportunity to cross her twice.
– Imelda fights to keep Ernesto from corrupting the entire land of the dead, but also holds a personal grudge against him. She believes that in life Cruz convinced her husband to leave her for a life of crime, resulting in his early and shameful death. She doesn’t realize that her husband never was a criminal, that Cruz killed him as a stepping stone to fame, and has refused to ever see her husband even after death, thinking he betrayed her in life and is still in league with Cruz.
– Miguel is dropped into the middle of a battle zone when he steals Ernesto’s guitar but is quickly picked up by a kindly drifter, one of the timid citizens who belong to neither gang. The drifter, a ragged but energetic man named Hector, reluctantly agrees to help Miguel find a way home by contacting Cruz, who is an old friend of his that he has little to no contact with (not knowing Cruz was the cause of his death).
– This task is made more difficult when Imelda, who is desperate to get her great-great-grandson back to the land of the living before he’s discovered by her arch-enemy, puts a heavy bounty on Miguel’s head to be taken alive after the boy runs away from her, misguidedly wanting Ernesto’s blessing instead.
– Hector is on bad terms with Imelda and on neutral terms with Ernesto, meaning that he’s all too eager to help Miguel avoid his estranged wife, (a task he’s had to become very good at) never guessing that Miguel is their descendant. Or that Ernesto will use the Miguel as a bargaining chip if he realizes who the boy really is.
Stop talking and start doing: My Fallout Shelter for my Tumblr blog 