The Secret of Victoria (The Gathering – Part Five)
(The Realm of Frozen)
(The Realm of Frozen)
(Biographical Note: This tale introduces "Victoria," based on and inspired by the talented English actress, model, and singer-songwriter Victoria Summer, who Livingston had met over Twitter while promoting Saving Mr. Banks, the 2013 Disney biopic in which she portrays Julie Andrews. Summer's other notable films include the 2014 summer blockbuster Transformers: Age of Extinction.)
Thirteen
years I have lived in this little mountain cottage near the kingdom of
Arendelle. Every night, in those thirteen years, I sleep and dream. But the
dreams have not exactly been dreams anymore – not in the way that
they should be. The dreams have turned into memories…memories
of another life. Each dream is a new memory. Piecing them together, I have
discovered in this other life I have a wife by the name of Christina, a very
gorgeous woman with dark blond/brown hair, fair skin, and eyes that are as blue
as mine. We have a daughter named Brandy, who grows into a woman just as
gorgeous as her mother with the same eye and skin color but hair as black as
mine. I have seen their faces before in the antique locket that I’ve
kept around my neck all my life, but only at the start of these dreams have I
realized who they are.
(Narrative Note: This locket is the very same one that Genevieve had given to Russell in Tale #12.)
But
the strangest detail in this alternate life that I live in my dreams is the
fact that I’m a six-foot, five-inch African American man. It goes in complete contrast with my real identity as a Caucasian
Englishwoman, who is barely near five feet, nine inches! The dreams have come
so frequently now that I can hardly recognize myself when I look in the mirror.
I see his face –
his features. His short, curly black
hair replacing my short, straight black hair. His dark brown eyes replacing my
bright blue eyes. His dark skin replacing my light skin. His reflection replacing
my reflection.
(Character Note: Victoria's experience counted in this tale almost mimics that of Chrissy Ryder, who had recurring dreams of Sean Thomas's life that were in actuality his memories.)
Even
his name replaces mine in my head: Sean.
Who are you, Sean? Why do you keep haunting me with your life when I sleep?
Whenever
I feel like I’m losing myself in this other persona, I simply look in the
mirror and repeat enough times to engrave it to my memory, “Your
name is Victoria. You are a woman true and true. You live in the mountains near
the kingdom of Arendelle. You are alone, but you are happy.”
And
I find that it works every time. I finally see that familiar young Englishwoman
staring back at me, smiling.
But
it gets harder and harder each time that I wake up from another memory. This
life of his is nearly a nightmare in every sense of the word. He works
tirelessly at this decrepit theater in a land called “Hollywood”
with these creatures called “Muppets.” Some of them are horrifying, some are baffling, and some
are even cute in a way. I don’t know exactly why he has chosen this profession for
himself, but – from the way I feel what he feels in these dreams –
it seems to be stressful yet enjoyable to him. These Muppet creatures are my
very best friends, but my closest one goes by the name “Genevieve,”
a young woman with bright blond hair and stunning blue eyes. That is another
name that continues to ring in my head as of late.
(Narrative Note: This not only sets up the events to come in this miniseries, but it foreshadows those to follow after in Marvel Mayhem, in which Genevieve and Victoria establish normal lives while working alongside Sean Thomas in the Muppet Theater.)
My
life – my real life, that is – could practically
be superior to Sean’s in every way. Where I live, I am free from stress and
work, only surrounded by the comforts of nature and solitude. My little cottage
has the most magnificent view of Arendelle’s entire kingdom one
can imagine. Many times I have been tempted in going to Arendelle and meeting
the famed princesses Anna and Elsa; but there is this insufferable need for me
to stay home. It’s where I’m really happy.
Take today, for instance – it’s the day of Elsa’s coronation, and
here I am enjoying my copy of The Ugly
Duckling on a beautiful warm evening.
(Disney Note: The Ugly Duckling was a fairy tale written by Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen, who also wrote The Snow Queen, which inspired its own adaptation in Frozen. Andersen's literary work has been adapted more than once by Disney, with a 1939 cartoon based on his Ugly Duckling story, the 1989 animated classic The Little Mermaid, and the 2000 animated film The Emperor's New Groove, which was inspired only by the title of his short tale, The Emperor's New Clothes.)
At
least it was warm, until the cold
snap hit.
Before
I know it, a bizarre (and sudden) winter storm shot through Arendelle. A
massive blizzard comes through the mountains, and I am suddenly trapped in my
own home by the snow that has engulfed it. As much as I want to keep inside of
my home, this isn’t what I had in mind. In a matter of seconds, summer
transformed to winter for no reason whatsoever. There was no warning that came
with it – no time for me to prepare for the worst that has already
come. There is no wood that I can start a fire with, except for my relatively
small collection of wood carvings, which unfortunately isn’t
enough. Very soon I begin to freeze, my body practically quivering in my short-sleeved summer dress. The very
best I can do is sit on my bed, bundling myself in my quilt, and hope that the
blizzard passes soon.
I
wait for ages for things to settle down outside, but there is just no sign of
this blizzard stopping.
The
temperature drops low in my freezing cottage – down to well below
zero. I can see my own breath every time I exhale. It gets harder and harder to
breathe with the air being so dense and frigid. My god! This is how it ends for
me, eh? Trapped in my home, with no one by my side, dying from hypothermia. I
can feel it setting in as I speak. With all of Arendelle frozen, they might as
well change the name of the kingdom to “Hypothermia.”
Welcome to the kingdom of Hypothermia!
(Authorial Note: Livingston had chosen this tale to be told in the first-person perspective to "introduce a brand new character with a simplistic view of her world before it turned completely upside down." He mostly enjoyed conveying the emotions of the character through her narrative, which happens completely in her thoughts, "letting her take control of the story for once and tell the audience what she's seeing right now.")
Here
it comes – the killing blow. I almost wish there was someone here with me as I spend my final moments. As much pride
and comfort I take in being alone, I suddenly find myself hating the idea of dying alone. Tears stream down from my
face, not doing my skin much favor as they dry out before they could reach
midway down my cheeks.
And
then, as I dangerously edge ever so close to death, I hear an elderly yet
powerful voice tell me: “Your first cycle – and you choose to
end it this way?”
He speaks from right in front of me, but between the darkness and the loss of
focus in my vision, I cannot see who or what is speaking to me. Then a
shimmering blue form appears before my unfocused eyes. Blinking and wiping
them, after they were soaked with my tears and ruined from exhaustion, I see a
slender, elderly, half bald man with a long gray beard, small eyes with tiny
pupils, and both gray hair and thick eyebrows, wearing a blue robe standing there
in front of me. No doubt he’s a hallucination, brought on by the fact that I’m
dying. Although I can’t figure on why I’m hallucinating this guy. Is he what God really looks
like? I dread to think he’s that other guy!
“Go
away, hallucination.” I tell him, even though I doubt it’d
help.
“I’m
no hallucination.” He tells me. “I really am here
with you now.”
He
then does something that takes me completely by surprise: with a snap from his
fingers, he causes the climate of the cottage to slowly warm up, saving me from
my hypothermia and impending death. This man, whoever he is, has the very power
that I wish I could’ve had minutes ago. “How did you do that?”
(Narrative Note: The events of this tale happen simultaneously with those in the story of Marla's death and Theresa's rebirth in Tales of the Guardians. In that tale, Marla inadvertently gets caught in Elsa's winter spell, causing her literally freeze to death - her form overtaken by ice and snow. Theresa emerges thereafter as the new reincarnation of Sean Thomas's Guardian.)
“It’s
the same type of magic that created Arendelle’s sudden winter
storm.”
“It’s
you who made it winter outside?”
“Not
I, but Elsa, the newly-christened queen of Arendelle. She has powers far beyond
this world – but yours go even further.”
A
giggle escapes from my mouth as I hear this. “Me? I’m capable of sorcery? I’ve never used it my
whole life!”
“You
have, but you cannot remember it. You are the most important piece to a large,
complex puzzle. Your skills are needed now more than ever.”
“I
have no ‘skills’ of any kind, good sir. And I’m certainly no one
important. Just a lonely woman who lives in the mountains.”
The
old man grins at me and says, “Your life should’ve ended by now
after days of freezing in this
cottage.”
The
shock of this hits me like a ton of boulders. I was certain up until that
moment that only hours had passed in my time of freezing my butt off. But days? Dear lord! “How
did I survive days without food, water, or warmth?”
“Your
power had kept you alive long enough for me to reach you. I’ve
searched throughout many lands to find you.”
“Who
are you?”
“My
name is Yen Sid. And I am the answers to the memories that have driven you mad,
Sean.”
I
cringe a bit as he calls me by that name. “My name is Victoria!”
It soon dawned on me that he knows about my “dreams.”
Before
I even have a chance to ask how he
knows, he tells me, “You have gone by many names with many faces, but there will
always be the one that reflects the soul of a man who is still desperate to
regain his original identity as he lives within a new body. The Disneyverse is
in danger, and he knows you and his other
lives must gather to save it.”
(Character Note: Victoria is what has been known as the "surprise reincarnation" since her introduction in this tale. Whereas most of the incarnations of Sean Thomas introduced so far have come after Sheryl, who was up until this point the first reincarnation, Victoria's presence retooled the mythology, establishing her as the "official" first reincarnation.)
Paying
close attention to that one term that stuck out from everything he told me, I
ask this old man, “What’s the ‘Disneyverse’?”
“It’s
better to show than tell,”
he says, offering his right hand out to me.
At
first, I’m apprehensive in touching his hand. I still don’t
know who this strange old man is with his sorcery, but something within me begs
for me to trust him. So, removing the quilt from my thawed-out body, I get up
from my bed and walk up to the old man, reaching out and touching that hand of
his. An incredible surge goes through my body while I’m
engulfed in a bright light.
(UP NEXT: Donald Duck and Goofy play detectives!)
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