Hat Writes Stuff

Title: To Be Free, Part One: Lucky Bird, Inside a Gilded Cage
Author: Almighty Hat
Fandom: Aladdin (film, series, & sequels)
Characters: Jasmine, Mozenrath, Jafar, Sultan, Rajah, Xerxes, Destane
Word Count: 14,041
Rating: PG (read fanfiction with your kids, folks)
Pairing(s): None, but with discarded consideration of Jasmine/Mozenrath (thus tagged 'het technically')
Warnings: Implications of child abuse and abandonment, discussion of child marriage, age difference just wide enough to feel not-okay, and I'm gonna say 'Jafar' counts as a warning, even though he doesn't appear frequently in this part.

Author's Notes: This one has been in my head for a LONG time. The title is taken from a deleted song from the movie ultimately used in the Aladdin Musical Spectacular stage show in California Adventure; the subtitles for each part are snipped from the lyrics. This first part is packed full of adolescence, foreshadowing, Chekov's Guns, and occasional flashes of deep, deep irony.

PLEASE NOTE the presence of a NEW TAG, '!check warnings before reading!' Usually if you can handle the canon I'm writing for, the fic should have nothing terribly upsetting. To Be Free, however, includes some heavy stuff. The first part is the lightest.

May 2020 Update: To Be Free was written before Disney's 2020 terms-of-service update (to which I did not agree, though only time and contract disputes will tell if "Yeah but I didn't sign your TOS" will hold up in court) and is only remaining posted online because I do not believe Disney would be particularly interested in appropriating a canon-divergence AU using material from an animated series they've been pretending doesn't exist since about, oh, late 2001.

Summary: It was a lovely day in young Princess Jasmine's garden, and then the boy sorcerer fell out of the air.

Act one of a three-act canon divergence story where Mozenrath and Jasmine meet at seventeen and thirteen, respectively, and strike up a clandestine friendship because they're both bored and lonely. Covers almost three years.

( It was a nice enough day to be out in the gardens; Jasmine had managed to excuse herself from her lessons by saying that Rajah had seemed restless that morning, as though he needed exercise or something to chase. )

Title: To Be Free, Part Three: Free to Throw Away a Treasure
Author: Almighty Hat
Fandom: Aladdin
Characters: Aladdin, Jasmine, Mozenrath, Genie, Jafar, Sultan, Destane, Abu, Xerxes, Carpet, Iago, Rajah
Word Count: 13,608
Rating: Harder PG than the last part.
Pairing(s): Technically, Aladdin/Jasmine and Jasmine/Mozenrath.
Warnings: CHARACTER DEATH. Also, again with the age disparities (Jasmine is just barely sixteen, Al is eighteen, Mozenrath is twenty; not too bad but not legal in my state), implications of consent issues, violence and the aftermath of violence, abusive parental relationship, a touch of body horror, and again I am warning for Jafar, Destane, and CHARACTER DEATH.

May 2020 Update: To Be Free was written before Disney's 2020 terms-of-service update (to which I did not agree, though only time and contract disputes will tell if "Yeah but I didn't sign your TOS" will hold up in court) and is only remaining posted online because I do not believe Disney would be particularly interested in appropriating a canon-divergence AU using material from an animated series they've been pretending doesn't exist since about, oh, late 2001.

Author's Notes: The final part! This part is not light reading, but you'll notice I didn't warn for an unhappy ending. Further Author's Notes and the full lyrics of To Be Free will be included at the end of the work (not included in the word count), for all your curiosity-satisfying needs.

Summary: Jasmine's sixteenth birthday starts off with a reasonable plan and an engagement announcement, and then Jafar gets the lamp and everybody's plans go right out the window.

Act three of a three-act canon divergence story where Mozenrath an Jasmine met three years before the events of "Aladdin." Contains selected scenes of unchanged or nearly-unchanged dialogue where plot relevant as well as veering off into brand new territory. Covers about twelve hours of one day.

( It was Jasmine’s sixteenth birthday, the last day for her to marry and still be within the limits of the law. She and Mozenrath had kept Aladdin up late last night, outlining their plan. )

Further Author's Notes: Now that you've made it this far, I can tell you the English Class theme of this story. The film Aladdin was about disguises, truth versus lies, and being yourself. To Be Free is partly about truth and lies, but mostly about captivity versus freedom, only a secondary theme in the movie. Everyone in this story, whether or not I want you to root for them or not, is a prisoner somehow-- to social status, to a job, to obligation or duty, to a magic lamp. Some of them are satisfied with their cages and prisons. Some of them would gnaw off a limb to get out of their traps. Some of them would be willing to bear up for the rest of their lives, if they could free someone else.

This story has been in my head for at least five years, and spilled out into the keyboard over nine days. Emily kept me going with encouragement and amazing feedback like "I've never even seen a Mozenrath episode, how are you making me ship them so hard?" which, really, is a super-awesome compliment to get. The total word count over all three parts is 41,826. To Be Free is almost eighty pages. I have a few terribly vague ideas for continuations (it'd almost be unfair not to introduce Sadira to this universe), but I make no promises as to what or when.