Chapter Eleven: Realm
Zone – 1991 (After Temporal Displacement)
Rain as cold as ice began to fall as Joanie, Sean, Rizzo,
and Robin exited the forest and came upon the front gate of the castle. Sean
could practically feel the drops hitting sections of his face and chilling him
to the bone. He was not so much as worried for Robin and Rizzo as he was for
Joanie, who was walking across the ground with one bare foot. Between the
chilly winds and frozen rain, there was a strong possibility that she would
suffer from pneumonia in such weather conditions.
Before the group reached the gate, Sean stopped and stood
on one foot, while placing the other over his knee, balancing himself as he
started untying one of his hiking boots. Joanie took notice of his action and
stopped in her tracks, right before Robin and Rizzo had done the same. Raising
a confused eyebrow, she asked him, “What’re you doing?”
“Your foot is going to freeze itself off, if you don’t
get a shoe over it right now,” he said, and as soon as his right shoe came off,
he handed it over to her. “Mine are pretty big, so it should be plenty warm.”
She took the shoe into her hands and marveled over its
incredible size with a grin. “Pretty big, eh?”
(Biographical Note: Sean Livingston's actual shoe size is "15")
“Lookin’ at da size of dat thing, dat’s quite da
understatement, pal.” Rizzo complimented, which got him a real dirty look from
Sean.
“Well, something’s better than nothing.” Robin indicated.
Joanie nodded with that sentiment from the little frog.
“True. Very true.” She then placed the oversized shoe over her cold, bare right
foot, making sure to double-knot it to keep it securely fastened to her foot.
In just two seconds of wearing it, she already felt her foot becoming a lot
warmer. However, when she looked to Sean’s right foot, she felt bad to see him
wearing nothing more than a black sock over it. “Are you sure that you’re not
uncomfortable without one?”
Sean waved her concern off with a smile. “Nah! It’s only
temporary.” He gestured to the castle ahead of them and added, “Once we get
inside there, we can both walk around
barefoot.”
Joanie chuckled. “It’ll be like Woodstock
Rizzo did a double-take on her words. “Whoa, whoa! Hold
da phone! You were at Woodstock
“Just before I started eighth grade I did. Of course, my
mother wasn’t aware that I was even there. To this very day, she still
doesn’t.”
(Pop Culture Note: The Woodstock Music & Art Fair was a music festival held on a 600-acre dairy farm in New York from August 15th to August 18th of 1969. Thirty-two acts were performed outdoors during a sometimes rainy weekend before the audience of 400,000 youths.)
Shaking his head in amusement, Sean smiled over her
story. It was a highly intriguing fact that he had never known about his mother
until that very moment. He never knew she was so independent at that age,
considering how much she became the overprotective parent in her latter years.
As much as he wanted to know more of the “Woodstock
“C’mon, everybody. Let’s stay focused on…”
He stopped and heard what could only be the sound of a
jet passing by. But that seemed too impossible, considering there were no jet
planes in Beauty and the Beast.
Joanie, Robin, and Rizzo heard it as well and looked up along with Sean to see
where it was coming from. Finally, Robin noticed a figure rocketing across the
dark cloudy sky and pointed to it. “Look! Up in the sky!”
Joanie spotted it as well. “Is that a bird?”
“It’s a plane!” Rizzo guessed.
“No,” uttered Sean, “it’s…” He squinted hard to make out
what it was that was headed in their direction, and when he could finally see a
few details, his eyes went from squinting to widening in surprise. “…Buzz
Lightyear?!”
(Authorial Note: After finishing Chapter Nine with a Superman reference, this chapter follows suit with another that was intentional by Livingston.)
It was even surprising to hear Joanie sound so relieved
when she saw him and said, “Thank goodness! I was starting to think he was gone
for good!” She waved her arms in the air to get Buzz’s attention, which seemed
to have worked as soon as the rocketing space ranger started descending their
way.
The closer he got, the better they could see who else was
accompanying the space ranger, clinging frantically onto his wings. Even Robin
noticed one familiar passenger whom he excitedly indicated. “Hey, Uncle
Kermit’s with him!”
“And is that Pepe?” Rizzo inquired.
“And Ciciley?!” Sean indicated, also spotting a familiar
(and yet petrified) face. “She has a fear of heights, there’s no way she
could…” Of course it was quickly verified that she was in fact one of Buzz’s
passengers, as she was screaming hysterically, even upon landing.
(Biographical Note: There's no legitimate fact that Ciciley Valdez-Moore has a fear of heights in real life; although Sean Livingston himself does, which is why it was integrated with a character who is biologically related to his.)
Once Buzz got near land, his body switched from
horizontal to vertical position, while the boosters from his wings simmered
down. As soon as his feet hit the ground, Ciciley, Kermit, and Pepe each slowly
and carefully climbed off Buzz’s wings, which folded back into its “backpack”
form. Noticing Joanie right in front of him, Buzz saluted and said, “It is a
pleasure regrouping with you again, young humanoid. I thought surely you were
gone for good when that wormhole sucked us all up.”
“I’m fine, Buzz. Everything’s groovy now.” Joanie
assured.
Sean’s bewilderment appeared to have increased upon
asking Joanie, “You two know each
other?”
Joanie grinned and answered, “I…guess you can say that.”
Staring at the space ranger, Rizzo shook his head in
disbelief. “Please tell me I’m not da only one actually seeing this!”
A shaken Pepe walked right up to the rat and stated,
“Believe it, mi amigo. He is definitely de real deals, okay.”
Sean approached his sister, Ciciley, who looked just as
visibly shaken as Pepe had, kneeling down on the ground and taking deep
breaths. He calmly asked her, “You okay?”
“I’ll let you know when my heart gets out of my throat,”
she answered with a very hoarse voice. “We’ve gotta get outta here. There’s a
mob coming this way!”
Kermit, who was sharing a warm embrace with his nephew –
reuniting with him again after being so harshly separated, added on Ciciley’s
news, “They’re coming to kill the beast that lives in this castle!”
Joanie’s ears perked on one word out of Kermit’s
information. “Beast? What beast?” She turned and looked to the castle, gazing
upon every inch of it. “Unless you’re talking about the Evil Queen from Snow White, ‘beast’ is too nice of a
description for her.”
(Authorial Note: It is sometimes a task for Livingston to keep up with the certain characters who are unaware of particular details of events happening around them. When writing groups of characters, he pays careful attention to which ones are out of the loop and the ones who are more informed.)
Pepe glanced over at Sean and Rizzo in total shock. “Jou
mean dat jou haven’t told dem?!”
“Wait! You knew
about this!” Joanie exclaimed to Sean, seeming both surprised and angry that he
had been keeping secrets about the castle from her.
Buzz shook his head at the young man. “Bad move
classifying important details like that from personnel, my friend.”
“Okay, first off – you
aren’t even supposed to be here,
Mister Lightyear.” Sean remarked, before turning to Joanie and adding, “I was
going to let you know, but I didn’t want you giving up hope at the same time
that your mother might be in there. How was I supposed to know she is in a
totally different cartoon?!” Just hearing himself talk about such details made
it all sound crazier than he deemed it to be. But it was all happening just the
way his mother (the older version of
her) described it.
(Narrative Note: This is the first moment of the story we see Joanie finding out that she's been lied to by her future son. Sean is prone to keeping secrets from Joanie, not only in World of Disney but also in The Marvelous World: World of Disney 2 when he - in his reincarnated form "Sheryl" - keeps the secret of his reincarnation from "Gigi" - Joanie's reincarnated form.)
Joanie glared at him and was about to give a retort to
his statement, until she and the others heard a crowd of people chanting from
afar. Everyone turned and looked past the woods to see a mob of villagers led
by Gaston heading through an alternate route into the castle via a bridge that
led straight to another entrance. Seeing them arrive, disbelief registered on
Ciciley’s face. “How is that possible? They didn’t even know where to find the
castle in the first place!”
“Maybe dey followed da flyin’ space ranger?” Rizzo
sarcastically reputed.
“Are you implying that I was responsible for this blunder, rodent?” Buzz hastily asked
Rizzo.
“If da rocket pack fits!!”
“Knock it off, you two!” Joanie brashly told them. “It’s
because of all of us that they’re
here. Our presence in this world has changed things – possibly for the worse!
We have to get out of here while we still can!”
“Wait a sec!” Sean spoke up in an urgent manner. “There
might be a ferocious beast in that castle, but there are a lot of innocent
people in there also, and they might fall victim to this mob’s attack, unless
we help them.”
None of the others were accepting this idea of his. “Oh, muchacho! Dey are just fictional
characters, okay.”
“I’m with him, Sean. It’s not like it’ll be the end of
the world if something happens to them.” Joanie said.
“What if it is? What if it’s not the end of their world, but ours?” Sean inquired.
“I don’t know about you all, but I’m not gonna take that risk.” With that being
established, he moved away from the group and headed to the gate, walking
through it and heading straight for the front door of the castle.
(Narrative Theme: The protection of the Disneyverse and its worlds is an overarching theme within the World of Disney series. This story establishes why the order must be maintained among the Disney realms and what is at risk if it's not. The dialogue in this scene foreshadows the events that occur later in the tale.)
Joanie and the others watched and were flabbergasted over
his sudden actions. She sighed in frustration and turned to Ciciley, asking
her, “Is he always this determined?”
Noticing the young brunette for the first time since her
arrival, Ciciley smiled upon the realization of who she was. Jokingly, she
responded to her inquiry, “Guess he gets it from you.”
Joanie shot her a confused glance. “Me?” She chuckled
over her comment and added, “I’ve only met him just a few or so minutes ago.”
Her response confused Ciciley, who thought by that moment
her brother would have alerted the personal connection between them and the
young brunette. As much as she wanted to tell her about it herself, she was
quickly reminded of their current situation when Kermit brought their attention
back to it. “We have to go in there and get him out, before things really get out of hand.”
Joanie nodded in agreement before leading everyone
through the opened gate and straight into the castle. They followed Sean into a
large room that they could only guess was the foyer of the castle. While inside
of the enormous, perfectly-decorated room, Sean called out the names of a few
particular characters that lived there. “Lumière! Cogsworth! Mrs. Potts!”
“Shh, man! Do you want
the beast to hear us?!” Joanie whispered to him.
“What difference does it make with da mob comin’ anyway?”
Rizzo asked.
Sean attempted to call out the names again, but then he
and everyone else heard a slight clinking noise, followed by clumping and
clomping ones. They then heard the voice a Frenchman say to them, “Bonjour,
invités!” At first, they did not see anyone in the room
addressing them – not a single soul was there except for them. It was not until
they looked down at the floor and noticed three lively household objects moving and talking entirely on their own.
One was a candelabra, another was a pendulum clock, and the third one was a
teapot.
Joanie,
Kermit, and Robin blinked repeatedly to ensure that they were not just seeing
things. But they were in fact seeing three household objects actually talking to them. Kermit shook
his head and looked as if he was on the verge of fainting. “I-I’m gonna need
some serious therapy after this,” the frog uttered.
(Authorial Note: There is a sense of irony that Livingston featured in this scene with Kermit's overwhelmed reaction to the enchanted Beauty and the Beast characters. Coming from a world where there are talking objects in Muppet form, one would think he would be used to those in cartoon form.)
“What
in the world…?” Joanie tried to question about the reason behind the existence
of these enchanted items, but Sean was quick to interrupt her before she could
have finished.
Skipping
the introductions, Sean went straight to alerting these objects of their oncoming
dilemma. “Listen, you all have got to ready yourself for an attack that’s
coming to this castle. There is a mob on their way here, and they are going to
try and kill your master…the Beast!”
“Oh,
dear! We are all doomed!!” The talking clock known as Cogsworth exclaimed.
“But
our master isn’t here in the castle,
I’m afraid.” Mrs. Potts, the talking teapot, informed.
That
information befuddled Sean and the others. “What?!”
“We
cannot find him anywhere.” Lumière, the talking candelabra, stated. “He has
vanished!”
“Maybe
he knew da mob was comin’ and high-tailed it outta here.” Rizzo assumed, but no
one seemed to have taken his assumption seriously.
“It’s
probably for the best that he isn’t
here, right?” Ciciley inquired.
“That
may be so, but that mob will be expecting to annihilate a beast one way or
another.” Sean remarked. “If they don’t find him, then they’ll just burn this
whole place to the ground.”
Lumière
lifted one of his candled hands high, presumably to mimic a fist raised in
defiance. “They will have to fight us first before they do!”
“Absolutely,
Lumière!” Cogsworth bravely acknowledged. “Gather whatever brave souls within
the castle you can to evict these encroachers once they’ve breached! If it’s a
fight they want, we’ll be ready for them!”
Buzz
was immediately enlightened by Cogsworth’s gung-ho attitude. “That’s the
spirit, sentient clock being! I shall assist you in your preparation for
battle!”
“Hold
up, Buzz.” Sean told the enthusiastic space ranger. “I’ve actually got
something better you could do.”
Seeing
the scheming expression on Sean’s face, Joanie curiously asked, “What’s on your
mind, dude?”
“If
Gaston’s expecting to take on a beast, then we’ll give him one to face.”
Belle
rushed back home as fast as she could, once Gaston and his mob departed from
the village. The once pleasant and sunny day quickly turned into a dreary one,
especially with the approach of a rainstorm. Before she could get caught in it,
she was already well within her home, looking all over for her father, Maurice.
However, just as she had arrived, her father – a short, mustached inventor with
white hair that was balding at the top – was already greeting her at the door.
(Narrative Note: By this point in the altered timeline, Maurice should have reached Beast's castle and had interacted with the enchanted characters. As such, he has avoided imprisonment by the Beast.)
“Belle,
I’m so happy you’re back early!” Maurice exclaimed.
“Papa,”
Belle worriedly said – her attitude being a stark contrast to her father’s, “I
found out something terr…”
Maurice
barely gave her enough of an opportunity in giving much of the details, being
so excited that he abruptly interrupted her. “We have the most wonderful guest
with us right now! She is a queen from another far away land!”
That
news sounded so intriguing to Belle that she nearly forgot the situation that
happened in the village earlier. “A q-queen?”
“Hello,
Belle.”
She
heard a voice that sounded very enthralling yet slightly daunting – possibly
due in part to its unexpectedness. Belle turned her attention to the next room
from which a woman dressed in royal dark purple robes and wearing a glittering
golden crown emerged. The expression on her face attempted to be welcoming but
– to Belle – it just seemed very awkward, lacking any sort of proper
expression. This woman was undoubtedly the queen whom her father was referring
to.
(Character Note: The Evil Queen is the first example of a powerful entity having the power to travel between worlds in the Disneyverse, as well as become aware of their existence. In the sequels, we see more adversaries capable of this feat, establishing themselves as worthy main antagonists like Queen Grimhilde.)
“I
am Queen Grimhilde. I have come very far to look for a maiden who is as fair as
you are to join me in my kingdom.”
Belle
went from intrigued to captivated in less than a second. “You…Y-You have?!”
“Most
certainly.” Grimhilde said.
“T-This
is quite an honor, Your Majesty.” Belle remarked. “But i-if you don’t mind me
asking, is t-there a special purpose behind my invitation?”
Half
of a smile emerged from the queen’s face. “My son…the prince of my kingdom…is
to find a bride, in order to accept his place as ruler. When he discovered your
existence, he was more than delighted in wanting to take you as his wife.” The
Queen approached Belle, taking Belle’s hands into hers. Her touch felt
extremely cold to Belle, who just figured it was because of the dropping
temperature outside. “Belle, it would be the highest esteem if you were to become
my successor as queen of my kingdom.”
It
was impossible for Belle to reject such a remarkable proposition. But her
thoughts continued to drift to her father, whose well-being mattered more to
her than anything else. Generously, she told Queen Grimhilde, “It’s very gracious of you to present such a
proposal, Your Highness. But…my father…”
Maurice
chuckled, waving off Belle’s concern with a huge smile. “Oh, don’t you worry
about me, Belle. As long as you are
happy, I’m happy myself.”
Belle
smiled, going right to her father and giving him a hug. “I promise that I’ll be
back, Papa.” Once she let him go, she looked at his face once more, remembering
every detail of it to keep within her memory for however long she would be away
from him.
(Narrative Note: Although not as extreme as her goodbye to her father when she exchanged his imprisonment for her own, this scene heavily mirrors that from the Beauty and the Beast film, and it is under the same circumstance - Belle is willingly giving up her freedom, albeit she does not realize it is for the Queen's imprisonment.)
(Narrative Note: Although not as extreme as her goodbye to her father when she exchanged his imprisonment for her own, this scene heavily mirrors that from the Beauty and the Beast film, and it is under the same circumstance - Belle is willingly giving up her freedom, albeit she does not realize it is for the Queen's imprisonment.)
As
soon as Belle’s attention was on the queen again, Grimhilde immediately went to
business. “We must not keep my kingdom waiting. They will be expecting us
soon.”
Belle’s
eyes suddenly went to the window, seeing the collective drops of rain tapping
and streaming down the glass. It was a reminder to her of the huge storm that
was approaching the area. “Your Majesty, t-the rainstorm…I completely forgot.”
“It
is of no bother, Belle. There is another means of reaching my kingdom that we
shall partake.” Grimhilde declared as she took Belle by the hand and led her to
a mirror that hung by the door. Letting go of Belle’s hand, she outstretched
both of hers while addressing the mirror itself. “Forces of the mystic beyond,
hear my command! Transport these two forms from where they stand!”
(Character Note: The Evil Queen's mode of transportation by mirror is exclusive to this story, taking inspiration from her most trusted source of information and power.)
(Character Note: The Evil Queen's mode of transportation by mirror is exclusive to this story, taking inspiration from her most trusted source of information and power.)
There
were flashes of light from all around, accompanied by a series of loud, fierce
thunderclaps. Maurice, who observed the scene in confusion, was forced to shut
his eyes tight from the flashes and cover his ears over the thunderclaps,
finding it all very overwhelming to his old senses. At the moment everything
had ceased, he opened his eyes and uncovered his ears, finding the atmosphere
calm just as it was before. Although the only difference was that Belle and
Queen Grimhilde were no longer inside the home. A huge cloud of multi-colored
smoke was left in their place, much to the shock of Maurice.
“Astounding!!”
(UP NEXT: Kill the Beast?)
(UP NEXT: Kill the Beast?)
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