Crossing the Rift
(Editorial Note: Tales of the Disneyverse was first published on FanFiction.net on January 6, 2013 - just a few weeks before the completion of The Marvelous World: World of Disney 2. Tales was World of Disney's first "miniseries," a chain of short, independent stories that told an overarching plot. During his run with his Disney Ghostbusters series, Livingston developed miniseries to bridge gaps between installments. Tales bridges one between the end of World of Disney and the beginning of The Marvelous World.)
You could’ve been
seen by one of those barbarians…by one of those…humans!
Daddy,
they’re not barbarians!
They’re
dangerous! Do you think I want to see my youngest daughter snared by some
fish-eater’s hook?
I’m
sixteen years old – I’m not a child!
Don’t
you take that tone of voice with me, young lady! As long as you live
under my ocean, you will obey by my rules!
But
if you would just listen…
NOT
another word! And am I never, NEVER to hear of you going to the surface again,
is that clear?
(Grammatical Note: This exchange, taken straight out of the scene from The Little Mermaid, was italicized to represent a mental flashback in the perspective of Ariel.)
Ariel tearfully swam as fast as she could away from the
palace. The argument between her and her father felt worse than past others,
and she couldn’t figure out why. It was like he could not trust her with
knowledge of a world – albeit different from theirs – that was capable of
greater things that the “Mer-World” could benefit from. Yet her father felt
that it was right to shield their world from the one outside it, despite
Ariel’s beliefs that it was harmless and free from the “barbarians” that he
believed the humans were.
(Authorial Note: Tales of the Disneyverse marks the second time Little Mermaid has been used for a major plot in a World of Disney installment. Livingston felt the film's message - about two opposite worlds, land and sea - went perfectly with the central theme of the series.)
The little mermaid was so upset that she almost didn’t
hear her best friend Flounder swim up behind her. “Ariel! Wait for me!” His
voice was just as soothing as his presence to Ariel; she needed a friend to be
with her and not someone associated with her father – like Sebastian. As soon
as Flounder managed to keep up with her, he slowed down and caught his breath.
“Where…Where are you…going…Ariel?”
“I’m going to the grotto to think for a while, Flounder.”
“Well…can I come with you?”
Ariel looked to him and smiled. “Of course you can.
You’re my best friend. I’ll always
want you with me.” She gave him a big hug before continuing to swim through the
outskirts of Atlantica.
The two friends swam for minutes across the seabed but
they soon realized that the distance to the grotto had become abnormally
lengthy. The usual route also didn’t look the same to either of them. Something
had changed in the atmosphere and Ariel and Flounder stopped long enough to
regain their bearings and realize where they were. “Are we lost?” Flounder
asked her, even though he already knew the answer to that question. Ariel swam
through that way for years; for her to get lost one day sounded ridiculous to
Flounder.
“No, we’re not.” Ariel answered whilst looking around
them at the changed area. “But none of this seems familiar. It’s like…”
“First day of school! First day of school!”
The voice sounded small and very young, and it came very
close from where Ariel and Flounder were floating. Looking down, they spotted a
tiny, funny-looking fish in a sea anemone with a slightly bigger fish that
looked just as funny as him. The smaller fish bounced on the bigger one that
had been asleep and cheerily shouted “First day of school” on repeat until the
bigger fish was finally awake.
(Authorial Note: Before Tales of the Disneyverse, Livingston had intentions to write a crossover story between Little Mermaid and Finding Nemo, after realizing how similar the two Disney films are in their respective universes. The idea became the scapegoat for this miniseries, which sees the "crossing over" a many Disney Animated properties - some that share many similarities, and others that have none whatsoever.)
Upon seeing the two odd-looking fish in the sea anemone,
Flounder grew a little cautious. “What…What are
they?”
Ariel didn’t seem quite as cautious, even smiling from the
way the two fish interacted with each other like a father and a son, which she
soon discovered that they were in her observation of them. “I don’t know. But
the little one looks cute.”
“Cute?” Flounder found her view of the new species of
fish peculiar. “They look like…freaks. Look at the fin on the little one – it’s
all short and flappy.”
Ariel sighed disappointingly over Flounder’s comments.
“Are you going to start judging new
others before knowing them, too? Gosh, Flounder. You’re beginning to sound just
like my father.”
“And what is wrong with that?”
The surprised Ariel and Flounder looked directly behind
them to see a familiar crab swimming their way. “Sebastian!”
“What are you doin’ here?” Flounder asked.
“I’m here on behalf of King Triton.” Sebastian notified.
“His Majesty wishes for me to keep an eye on you, Ariel. Constant supervision
is what your father has suggested for you.”
Ariel shook her head in disgust. “He really doesn’t trust me, does he? Well, if it pleases you or my
father, I just happened to have discovered another new world this very moment –
one that isn’t human.”
She pointed to the sea anemone below for Sebastian to
see, and the crab got a glimpse of the two strange fish swimming there.
“Hmm…interesting,” he casually said.
Sebastian’s reaction to the strange fish again surprised
Flounder. “Am I the only one who
finds the new fish weird?”
“As long as dey isn’t human, mon, I could care less.”
Sebastian declared.
“Well, in that case, I’m going to talk to them.” Ariel
said before swimming down closer to the ocean floor and towards the sea
anemone. She heard Flounder try to call her back, but when she was close enough
to the sea anemone to get a clearer glimpse at the two new fish, it was too
late to turn back. “Hi,” she began to say. “My name is Ariel. What is…?”
Before the mermaid could have finished, the “father fish”
screamed in terror upon seeing her and swam out of the sea anemone with his
son. “Swim away, Nemo! Swim away!”
(Narrative Note: The true differences between the worlds of Little Mermaid and Finding Nemo are expressed in the observation and exchange of these characters and their disturbed - or, in Ariel's case, fascinated - reactions. Not very many clown fish are found around Atlantica and certainly not very many mermaids swim through the Great Barrier Reef.)
Watching the father and son fish swim rapidly away from
her, Ariel was surprised to see them so afraid of her. Sebastian and Flounder
swam in beside her and she looked to them, having come to a curious conclusion
for Flounder particularly: “I think they
are just as afraid of me as you are of them,
Flounder.”
“Where did they come from?” Flounder asked.
“I think a better question to ask, Flounder, is how did we come in?” She saw the confusion on her best friend’s puffy yellow face
and provided clarification. “I think we’ve stumbled upon a new world – and I don’t think it’s ours.”
(UP NEXT: Assessing the situation!)
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