Friday, January 9, 2015

World of Disney - Chapter Eight (w/ Commentary Notes)


Chapter Eight: Realm Zone – 1937 (After Temporal Displacement)

(Authorial Note: For transitional purposes, Livingston wrote this chapter to show readers what happened to Diana to prevent any worry over her demise, as well as to reveal the twist in the Magic Mirror's premonition.)

            “Where are you taking me?”

            “Please…don’t talk.”

            “But I just want to know…”

            Please!”

            Diana obeyed the man’s wishes – the same man who was the Evil Queen’s guard, hired to kill Snow White far in the forest…in a secluded glade…where she would be picking wildflowers…just as Diana remembered it. Only it was not happening the way she remembered it. Apparently, in whatever version she stumbled upon through Bunsen and Beaker’s machine, nothing was happening the same way as before. Nothing can ever happen the same way as before when we interfere, she concluded in her thoughts. Whatever her presence there in that particular Disney World had caused, it was clearly alternating events.
 
(Editorial Note: "Nothing can ever happen the same way as before when we interfere" was the made-up tagline for World of Disney prior to its usage on the Facebook page for the series.)

            The Evil Queen’s guard was escorting her directly to the castle she dwelled in, her wrists shackled as if she were a prisoner. Whatever crimes she committed were unclear to her, seeing that she was not supposed to have even existed in that realm. However, possibilities still ran through her mind as if she did. But, after some time, she eventually began to wonder what became of Joanie. Her screams obviously were loud enough for her to hear from a great distance; so why had she not come to her aid?

            When Diana and the Queen’s guard arrived at the castle, she was taken directly through the front entrance, coming across the foyer that was decorated in the Queen’s royal colors (purple, black, and gold), and downstairs to a dark, dreary, and damp area that could only be the dungeon. Before going down, the guard had taken one of the torches situated on opposite sides of the wooden door leading to the dungeon and lit it through a nearby cauldron. He used it to guide their way down the spiral staircase and straight into the heart of the dungeon, where three holding cells stood on the left and right sides of the room. As Diana gazed around this never-before-seen room, she caught a horrifying sight: Snow White lying on the floor of one particular cell. She wasn’t certain whether she was alive or dead, but she certainly hoped on the former.

            The guard placed her in a holding cell across the one Snow White was placed in. He kept the shackles on her wrists and added a couple more that were chained to the wall on her ankles. She certainly was not going anywhere with that much security over her. But it was not like she had anywhere to go if she had chosen to escape. As far as she was concerned, she was already trapped long before she was placed inside that cell.

            After locking her in, the guard went to the other torches hanging in the room, using the lit one he carried to light every single one of them up to illuminate in the pitch-black area. Once he had gotten to the last one, he told Diana, “I shall return shortly with Her Majesty. I would advise not to contemplate any type of escape while I’m gone.”
 
(Character Note: The Evil Queen's Guard is the Huntsman from the original Snow White tale. In some publicity materials, his real name is Humbert. His title was changed from huntsman to guard due to the alteration of his role in this story, assigned to capture the "fairer one" rather than kill her.)

            “Don’t worry. I doubt I’m going anywhere.” Diana assured, jingling her chains to make her point.

            The guard then departed from the dungeon momentarily, leaving Diana with an unconscious Snow White as her only company. She glanced over to the young Disney princess and wondered what the Evil Queen might have done to her. There was a strong possibility that the poisoned apple could have been given to her much sooner than in the Dwarfs’ cottage in the woods. If so, then that would make the Queen the fairest in the land…wouldn’t it?

            After a short time, the guard returned to the dungeon with the Queen herself in tow. Her presence nearly took Diana aback, being that she was just as menacing up close as she was from a movie screen. She carried quite a chilling aura, giving any who bore witness to her a true definition of the word “nightmare.” Regardless, she was a very beautiful woman in her own way – a living contradiction of her own self.

            Diana was so fascinated with meeting her in person that she almost did not realize that she was addressing her there and then. “So you are the fairest of them all?!” Queen Grimhilde did not seem very impressed. “Impossible! You are not much older than I!”

            “I’ll take that as a compliment.” Diana snickered.

            “SILENCE, WENCH!!!” The Queen bellowed, causing Diana’s chains to jingle again from her quivering body. Grimhilde turned her attention to her guard and asked, “Are you certain this was the only one you found in the forest?”

            The guard nodded and confirmed, “Yes, Your Majesty. There was no one else there but her.”

            “Um, Your Highness? If I may have your permission to speak?” Diana requested, prompting Queen Grimhilde to glance back at her in a very cold manner. “I was not actually in the forest by myself per say. I was actually there with my daughter…who appears to have left me behind for reasons unbeknownst to me.”

            The Queen’s eyes suddenly flared with immense rage, as she turned to the guard and yelled, “You imbecile!!” She then followed her insult with a fierce slap to the guard’s face, sending him tumbling back slightly.

            Diana watched the unnecessary cruelty and shouted in the guard’s defense, “Hey! Leave him out of this! It’s not his…”

            You are in no position to speak!” Grimhilde snapped. “I shall deal with you in due time.” She then refocused on her guard and added, “Both of you!” With that said, she stormed out of the dungeon.
 
(Pop Culture Note: In the original Snow White tale, it was the cruelty of the Evil Queen and the purity of Snow White herself that influenced the Huntsman's decision not to murder the princess. For the sequence in which the Huntsman fails to do away with Snow White and tells her to flee, he was first conceived as a ruthless killer who looked forward to his job so much that his face would light up when the Queen gave him new instructions.)

            Shaking her head at the Evil Queen, Diana let out an exhausted sigh. “Geez! Fifteen minutes into the story, and she hasn’t even become the ugly witch yet! Doesn’t even need that potion, if you ask me!”

            The guard, rubbing the left side of his face, looked up at her curiously. “You…You have a daughter?”

            “I’m sorry I didn’t say anything, but you didn’t give me a chance to speak.” Diana told him. “I don’t know where she is right now, but I’m starting to see what she meant about all of this. It’s very different from how I’d first seen it all when I was a little girl.”

            The guard looked very confused. “Seen what? What do you mean? Who are you? Where have you come from?”

            So many questions the guard was throwing out to her – Diana could not find a proper way to explain it all to him. All she could really tell him was, “You wouldn’t believe if I told ya.”

            “I would believe that the Queen would do anything to be fairest in the land…even have me kill her own stepdaughter.”

            Diana’s eyes widened on the word “kill,” having been reminded of what villainous act Queen Grimhilde had this guard attempt in the original telling of the story. She glanced at Snow White’s unconscious form and wondered aloud, “You…killed her?”

            “No!” The guard quickly exclaimed. “I could never kill the little princess!”

            “Then why is she laying there like she’s dead?”

            The guard gazed upon Snow White’s inert form and explained, “As soon as the Magic Mirror revealed there was someone fairer than both Her Majesty and Snow White, the Queen had her brought back to the castle and cursed her with a harmless sleeping spell. It was only to keep her hidden here in the dungeon until it was discovered who was the fairest of all.”

            Listening to the guard’s explanation, Diana immediately discovered that her earlier assumption of the “poisoned apple” scenario had been confirmed. “Oh, no! She did give her the apple already!”

            The guard looked to her in confusion. “How did you know it was an apple the Queen had given her?”

            “Because it was in the story – only a lot later than now! The spell that she put her on wasn’t ‘harmless’! It’s called the ‘sleeping death’! Snow White is dead!”
 
(Authorial Note: The decision to "kill" Snow White early on in the altered storyline of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was to convey a sense of legitimate danger in the Disney realms and its inhabitants with the real world characters interfering. The danger gets more real during the progression of the story with more intensified acts of nature.)

            Shock registered on the guard’s face as he realized what had truly become of the princess that was in the same room as them. He could no longer bear the sight of her body lying in the nearby cell any more and left as soon as possible. Diana, however, wanted him to stay long enough to tell him that she wasn’t completely dead and only in a long slumber that she could only be awakened from by the kiss of her true love – that being Prince Charming. But he was already gone before Diana could have even said a word. And she was left all to herself to stare at the lifeless form of Snow White, feeling completely helpless in saving her.

            As Diana stood there in the holding cell, shackled at her wrists and ankles, she wondered what became of her daughter. If she was still somehow there in that Disney World, she hoped that the Evil Queen would never find her. Even though it was a little humorous to imagine either her or Joanie being the new “fairest one” in the land, their presence in the realm had caused quite an unexpected turn of events. She could not help but to continue thinking how right Joanie was in interfering with the Disney Worlds. The trouble she was in at that point in time was clearly punishment for her meddling.
 
(Authorial Note: The occasional switch in referring the Disney realms as "Disney Worlds" was intentional by Livingston, who wanted to create the allusion of the real world characters visiting a theme park when they crossed over to a literal "Disney World.")

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            “Magic Mirror on the wall, hear now this most important inquiry of all!” Queen Grimhilde consulted. “I wish to know of the woman I have locked away in the dungeon! Is she the fairest one you speak of?”

            The face of the Magic Mirror was expressionless as he revealed the information that the Queen wanted. “The prisoner you contain…is not the fairest one…the one you seek shalt still remain.”

            Although the Queen was beyond furious, she still remained her physical composure long enough to make a request to the Magic Mirror. “Show her to me! Show the one that I must seek to become fairest one of all!”

            “Though she no longer dwells in this land, there is another one similar in nature she resides. Fair warning I give to your hand, for what I shall show you now your approval confides.”

            “I must see! I must find out who she is!!”
 
            The Magic Mirror simply stared at the Queen – still remaining without expression – and stated, “Very well. Behold the world in which our fairest one shalt dwell…”

(UP NEXT: A tale as old as time - revisited!)

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