FicSnips Day 31: Antiphony
Seemed fitting to close this FicSnips month with Antiphony, an Aladdin fic I wrote ~15 years ago. It's still on Fanfiction.net along with all my pre-SxF work.
Premise: Mozenrath (an evil sorcerer from the Aladdin TV series) challenges Jasmine to figure out his latest scheme before he can enact it. She gets in way over her head in discovering the source of his power and encountering new threats.
I was young when I wrote this, and didn't have a strong grasp on the craft of storytelling. In the excerpt below, it's obvious I could have cut out a lot of words (all the secondhand observations of "she could see," etc.). And yet this fic is very special to me because it was the first time I finished a long fic (180K words), and because of the many friends I made in this small fandom, some of whom drew amazing art for this fic: @darkelf19, @scaragh and @apetronart for example (the latter began drawing a breathtaking Antiphony light novel). I even met another author in person and collaborated on a fic at their dining table.
I have tried to write the sequel to Antiphony many times, but could never sustain the momentum. Now I'm wrapped up in SxF. Still, I hope that one day with the writing experience I've gained since then, I can take another shot.
This excerpt is from a key moment in Mozenrath's past where he overthrows his master and claims his most powerful weapon for himself. (In canon, he gave up all the flesh on his right arm for the power of the gauntlet.)
Shortly before this scene, Mozenrath speaks with the ghost of his mother for the first time since childhood, and she shows him what his life could have been like if he hadn't willingly become a necromancer's apprentice. This is his reaction, so beautifully illustrated by @apetronart:
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