Most of you -- or perhaps all of you -- will understand why I am currently fixated on the last three lines of the Sonya Taaffe poem "The House Snakes: For Nyani Martin":

...our earth will always shake,

our restless scales unfurling to enfold

your arms of wine-dark honey as you come home.


The full poem appears in issue 44 of "Uncanny: A Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy".

The protocol for entering the palace changes from time to time, so I can only offer a general outline. If your business is with the court or council, you should present yourself and your credentials to the guards at the southern gate of the outer wall of the palace. It is best to arrange beforehand for your visit. If this not possible, or if you cannot provide an exact time for your arrival, expect to wait as your credentials are sent into the palace to be checked.

Normally, you will be provided with an escort into the palace. If you arrive at a time before the palace begins its day, you will be expected to make your own way to the eastern gate of the inner wall. There your credentials will be inspected again, along with any document that the palace has sent out, permitting your entrance. You will then be allowed to enter the inner wall and make your approach to the palace itself.

The palace being located atop a high hill, you will find yourself faced with the steepest and longest set of stairs in the world. Pace yourself. You may wish to bring refreshments to partake of at the halfway mark.

At the top of the stairs, once you have recovered your breath, you should show your credentials and palace document to the guards at the gate, holding them up for inspection. The guards may not appear to look at you or even notice you. Do not be deceived. Those are real spears they are holding across the doorway.

If the guards grant you entrance, they will lift the spears. If they do not, you must retreat to the palace's inner wall and determine there what the problem is.

Assuming you manage to pass all these barriers, you will find yourself in the entryway to the palace. You will be guided at this point through the remaining stages of reception, which vary according to your rank and status. At some point, however, you will be let loose from Emor's protocol and permitted to take your own path. Let us start with a general introduction to the Chara's palace.

[Translator's note: This breathtakingly long procedure can be cut short if you possess the right credentials, as can be seen in Breached Boundaries.]

Via a post from goss: tragic, shocking news about minoanmiss AKA Rubynye on AO3.

My icon says "sad" but this is way beyond that. I am utterly shocked and crushed. minoanmiss and I met once at a con and I hoped to meet up again...and now never will. We communicated regularly on DW and often sent each other postal mail...and now never will again.

May her memory be a blessing...and an inspiration.

Once again, time just drifts on by. Sometimes I feel a little numb over it, but perhaps that is better than feeling anxious?

Blair finally found something that worked for her: it's a very cool procedure called battlefield acupuncture. Five tiny needles into five specific points in each ear. For almost a week, no migraines. Unfortunately, they had to come out after four days, and after just one migraine-free day following their removal, she's back to suffering. We're hoping that her doctor will authorize botox. Don't know if it'll work either, but it's a very common solution.

Personally, I have very little to report. I've been either working or taking care of our dog and our apartment. All the chaotic holidays are done with; nothing to decorate for, no holidays or anything left to prepare for. We're going to a con in early May but beyond that, it's just business as usual.

I did feel inspired to write, but I don't feel like I have the creative mental energy for it. Maybe I'm just struggling to get into the writing headspace, and should look for a small challenge/exchange to join to see if I can boot myself up.

I should do my taxes. Ugh.

youtuberecs is a community where you can rec YouTube videos

marchmetamatterschallenge, a challenge that involves locating and copying over meta you've created to a second site in order to ensure its preservation and also including some prompts for creating new meta, is running again this year.

allbingo is running a National Crafting Month Bingo Fest through March. There are pre-made cards or you can create your own using the available prompts.

sufficiently_advanced_ex, a fanworks exchange for science fiction, fantasy, and horror literature canons, is open for nominations until March 7th.

worldbuildex, a fic exchange based on world building in canon, is accepting nominations until March 8th, 9PM EDT.

unsent_letters_exchange, an epistolary fic exchange, is open for sign-ups until March 9th, 11:59PM UTC (posts says the 7th, but it was extended due to AO3 outages)

monstersmashexchange, a gift exchange that features monsters, is accepting nominations until March 11th, 8PM Eastern.

bethefirst, a challenge where you write the first fic in a fandom that previously had none, is open for sign-ups. The deadline to submit a fic is April 20th, 11:59PM GMT.

Multifandom Shelter for Abandoned Fics is an event where you can submit your abandoned WIPs if you want someone else to complete them or claim others

fancake's theme of the month is: siblings. Click on the banner below to learn more!

it's been too long :(

While I didn't have any song titles in all lowercase, I do have some in all uppercase! All by the same band! So I picked the one with a music video.

a song title that is in all uppercase
Illumishade - ELEGY


These guys are more on the symphonic rock end. Very light and soothing.

Another Side of You by Illumishade came out in Feb 2024.

prompts under the cut

a song you discovered this month
a song that makes you smile
a song that makes you cry
a song that you know all the lyrics of
a song that proves that you have good taste
a song title that is in all lowercase newest release
a song title that is in all uppercase
an underrated song
a song that has three words
a song from your childhood
a song that reminds you of summertime
a song that you feel nostalgic to
the first song that plays on shuffle
a song that someone showed you
a song from a movie soundtrack
a song from a television soundtrack
a song about being 17
a song that reminds you of somebody
a song to drive to
a song with a number in the title
a song that you listen to at 3am in the morning
a song with a long title
a song with a color in the title
a song that gets stuck in your head
a song in a different language
a song that helps you fall asleep at night
a song that describes how you feel right now
a song that you used to hate but love today
a song that you downloaded
a song that you want to share

AO3 has been down for almost 20 hours. I would suspect a DDoS attack, but when the 2023 one happened, they were pretty open about it. Who knows.

It's been done! conradveidt community is up and running! There a Movie Tournament Poll happening, and the film that wins will be highlighted for a whole month!

And under the cut, Lancelot stained glass, but made with coloured pencils.

( Read more... )

My February Ballet Experience was watching the Dance Theater of Harlem when they came to Paris earlier this week. (For the first time in 40 years!) The black girls turned out in force, and thus I was slightly less overdressed than usual. Also the Parisians did actually dress up for the Saturday evening, though uh very elevated basics, heavy on teh basic.

General notes:
The dancers looked to have a bit more muscle definition than usual; I think this is because the American ballet style (Balanchine) is aggressively BOING BOING, meaning that the ideal dancer has more fast-twitch muscle fibers, and is thus more inclined to put on visible muscle definition.

Both shows were ~2:30 long. Neither was one ballet through, but more of a idk variety show, with three half-times, all of which contained a different set of choreographies. More "look what we can do" than telling a story, y'know? (Except for their Firebird; thoughts on which below.)

This was mostly less pure ballet and more of an old and new together thing, with there being some pure ballet stuff, but also a straight-up jazz dance number, and an extended modern-ballet blend set to Motown/Stevie Wonder afrobeats. This one was cool, with the blend including incredibly specific ballet #moments, like Giselle's transformation sequence, seamlessly blended in. There was also a pure ballet section, where the lead danseur performed the Bluebird variation.

The current artistic director and lead choreographer is I think incredibly talented in this blend of classical ballet and other styles, as well as choreographing for things done in canon (in the round). The formations (lines of overlapping dancers etc) were well executed, too.

The star of their show/grand finale was the Balanchine choreography of the Firebird. Which. Um. The dancing was great! The costumes were pretty! The problem was George Balanchine going "The Americans cannot sit still for 45 min; I will make this 20 min". And the Firebird is a ballet that has zero fluff!

So, what were the changes?

• Firebird variation #1: heavily abridged, in a way that takes away from her birdlike nature imo


• Firebird & prince pas de deux: heavily abridged and rearranged in a way that makes the narrative progression make zero sense


• Prince & princess: this one was mostly preserved, I think? The golden apples dance of princess and the other women (handmaidens, in this production) was very much shortened, tho


• Koschei confrontation: heavily altered so that instead of the prince struggling against this powerful evil sorcerer whom he has no hope of defeating, they wrestle a bit, I don't think he was even losing, and then he summoned the Firebird for idk shits and giggles


• Infernal Dance: COMPLETELY DELETED


• like seriously, the Firebird just poofs up and everyone falls over? no making people dance until they drop? no THE ENTIRE POINT OF THE BALLET?


• Firebird variation #2 (keeping Koschei's minions asleep): here she just waved her hands at them and made them roll away (so that the dancers could do a quick costume change), KOSCHEI INCLUDED, then she just danced in place a bit as FILLER


• Koschei's death: did not happen. He simply exited stage left, not even pursued by a bear. prince was AWOL and did not retrieve any glowy soul eggs


• Wedding tableau: This one was cool! The floaty afrofuturist Caribbean fish costumes of the women made the walking around of this bit look nice, and the Firebird appeared and was suspended in the air

So uh. The company is great, and you should definitely see them if you can, but the American Firebird sucks ass, regardless of performance. Really wish they'd do the original 45-min Firebird with those costumes tho.

[I wrote this with about 0 brain something like 2 months ago. But I was feeling like posting one of my drafts and I just realised belatedly that Chris Bidmead had died in August. Or possibly just found out and was shocked for a second time, who knows, it's terrible how much I forget. But I do love his DW era very much and while he lived to a good age, I am still sorry to hear it - he brought so much to the show & was a rare DW script editor who was genuinely interested in SFF* as a genre, which showed in a whole bunch of scripts commissioned by him, which are like any of the other eras - even if a whole set of them then had the misfortunate to be made by the next script editor who Did Not Get Them at all. This serial is actually one he wrote later for his successor's rather more action/dark orientated era (and said successor, Eric Saward, Did Not Get this one either), but - I had prepared it earlier! And also: I love Frontios!]


I haven't much brain so I thought for this edition of the Unofficial Fandom 50 I would once again burble about a favourite classic Who serial, this time...

Frontios

tumblr gifset for pictures

What is it?

It is a four part Fifth Doctor serial (4x 25 mins; c. 1hr 25 minutes in total) from Season 21 (1984). Yes, it has Giant Woodlice.

The Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison), Tegan (Janet Fielding) and Turlough (Mark Strickson) accidentally stray into the far future - so far that the Time Lords are forbidden to go there. They arrive at a tiny, struggling colony of survivors from Earth, who are under bombardment from an unknown enemy from space - except there's also something beneath them: the earth on Frontios is hungry...


Sometimes, as a DW fan, you love the unloved serial; sometimes you adore the fan favourite - and sometimes you just love a decent one more than you can properly justify or exactly explain, but we've all been there. I have a few of these, and Frontios is one, although honestly I think it belongs in the circle just outside of the all time greats personally, which is why I'm going to babble about it. (I mean, I realise, like everything, it does depend on a) taste and b) how people feel about lumbering giant woodlice).

(It's also the only DW serial where a member of the main guest cast had to be replaced at the last minute because the original actor, Peter Arne, had been murdered. This has no bearing on anything, other than the replacement being the excellent William Lucas, but I felt the need to mention it anyway). (All my DW classic faves do not involve someone dying or nearly dying irl, I promise).




What do I love about it?

It's about confronting buried/unspoken terrors & what you can do with gravity in SFF if you have some giant woodlice to hand, plus it's one of those forsaken, almost Shakespearean colonies classic Who loves to do (the youthful leader with his fragile hold on it is even called Plantagenet) and I am a sucker for such things. The guest cast is great - William Lucas, Lesley Dunlop, Peter Gilmore & Jeff Rawle, pre-Drop the Dead Donkey.

Penned by Five's original script editor, Chris Bidmead, Peter Davison shines here, and gets to pull out his brainy specs for the first time since Bidmead left; Tegan and Turlough are both really well used, with Turlough's buried race trauma demonstrating that having alien companions as well as earthlings on the TARDIS can lead to interesting options for storytelling.

It's dark and weird, fascinating and quotable, with excellent team!TARDIS banter. The hatstand gets a moment of glory. The TARDIS is disintegrated. The Doctor saves Tegan's life by being really insulting to her. "Frontios buries its own dead."

Basically, I love weird colonies, I love strange ideas, I love this TARDIS team, I love the hatstand, I'm not at all put off by giant woodlice and: "Just tell them I came and went like a summer cloud." (Oh, Five. <3)


* Classic Who script editors (and producers) were assigned to the show by the BBC and did not always have a huge amount of choice about being offered the post and then being removed from it - it was just how the BBC worked at the time.

The world keeps getting shittier, but I finished a couple more cute needlepoint projects so I'm sharing to both brighten the day and show off. 🙂

A couple of weeks ago I finished and posed a key fob with was a black cat on a lavendar back ground. This week I finished the same pattern, but made the cats pink and set them on a darker pink background.

Photos with comparison under the cut:

( compare the kitties )

Looking at them (as well as at the photos) I do like the black cats on the lavender background better, but the pink are cute too.

I also finished a different key fob, with a different design. Large photo under cut.

( cherries! )

The photo came out crooked, lol. The cherries are a very pretty design though, so I put that on the bag I carry around. The cat fobs are on my key ring. 🙂

Films Watched

• Ladri di biciclette (1948)


• Stromboli (1950)


• Cold Storage (2026)


• 8½ (1963)


• Sleeping Car (1933)


• Downhill (1927)


• 1917 (2019)

Books being read (for leisure)

• Anno Dracula by Kim Newman


• Heavenly Bodies by Richard Dyer

Finished Books

• The Speed of Sound by Scott Eyman

Arts

• 1 finished piece (Lancelot stained glass)


• Some dumb doodles -_-

Words Written

• Barbara's Great Wine Search: 0 words, ugh, will someone give her a drink at this point


• Pre-canon AadA fic: 0 words (total 762 words), ugh


• Else & Paul bonding moment: 9 words (total 833 words) - revising it


• Three Sentence Ficathon: 3 fics (241 words)


• Small Fandoms Drabblethon: 11 fics (total 1100 words)

Total: 1350 words

And before I forget, via muccamukk, The Importance of Being Earnest livestream on the 12th of March!

On Friday night, I went with a group of friends to see a production of Carmina Burana at the Royal Festival Hall. The music was amazing and it was a highly enjoyable evening - though apparently not nearly as spectacular as the last time I saw it (see entry from 18 Jan 2009)...


Playing With Fire by RJ Blain is one of the most ridiculous books I've ever tried to read - but I can't say I wasn't warned, since the blurb starts with the following:
Warning: This novel contains excessive humor, a fire-breathing unicorn on a mission of destruction, magic, romance, and bodies. Proceed with caution.
Unfortunately, there was another issue with it that wasn't covered by the above - it was incredibly repetitive. Bailey gets called to deal with a magical goo incident, Baily drools over Chief Quinn, Bailey gets contaminated by magical goo, Bailey drools Chief Quinn - repeat ad nauseam.
If the genders had been reversed and a male protagonist had been objectifying a female character to the degree that Bailey objectifies Quinn, I would have given up in disgust much earlier on - which perhaps says more about me than about the book.
I made it to the 40% mark and then found myself actively avoiding switching on the audiobook when I would normally be listening, so decided to call it a day.

Placeholder for my prompts. I'll have a proper social post up soon too if you see this before then.

 Thanks for reading my letter! Please don't be put off if I have more ideas for one ship/character than another - I can promise I am equally enthusiastic about all the ideas I've put down here! Also, my account is open for treats! My AO3 is platinum_firebird.high school AU
main character death
 


Attack On Titan

Moblit Berner/Hange Zoë

• I love their madcap scientist/exasperated realist dynamic, but I can’t help but think that under his sensible exterior, Moblit matches her freak in a way that makes him a perfect partner. I would love to see either Hange discovering this, or Outsider POV where someone else realises Moblit isn’t as straight-laced as he appears to be.
• I would LOVE anything that digs deeper into their titan research! I would love to see a Moblit who’s also very enthusiastic about discovering titan secrets, he just has more respect for operational safety and knows how to play it cool in front of people who think it’s ‘weird.’
• I would love to see either an AU where they both survive or where they reunite in the afterlife!
• Or the Make Me Cry prompt: Hange searching the battlefield to see if she can find anything remaining of Moblit to take home to bury. 

Onyankopon/Hange Zoë

• I just love anything about Hange’s endless curiosity meeting the boundless things to learn in the outside world, and Onyankopon having fun as her guide!
• There’s one fanart I saw of them ages ago riding a Vespa, which gave me the idea of them exploring a city together! 
• In the quiet moments, what bits of Paradis culture and society does Hange show him? What insights/stories/information about his own culture does Onyankopon give back? 
• In an AU where Hange survives, how do they work out their relationship post the end of the world?
• I would love Onyankopon taking Hange to his country and showing her the sights, too!

Reiner Braun/Jean Kirstein

• Bring me pain and focus on how the betrayal/reveal of Reiner’s true motivation hurts for Jean
• I live for these two tentatively figuring their relationship out post-canon, after everything they’ve been through. I love them both being oblivious to the fact that the whole thing was romantic until post-Rumbling! Then wondering how on earth they could’ve missed it. 
• I feel like these two are the type to make absolutely everyone around them miserable by awkwardly dancing around each other xD
• They weren’t nominated but I am always down for more Reiner & Gabi relationship and her take on his love life!  

Jean Kirstein/Hange Zoe 
Levi Ackerman/Jean Kirstein

• Pre the timeskip, I find the idea of Jean grappling with a devastating one-sided crush on one (or both) of his COs absolutely hilarious! They’re older, hotter, amazingly competent, so cool… Starry-eyed Jean is very funny to me xD I would prefer neither Hange or Levi reciprocate when Jean is underage, but feel free to have them notice and either tactfully ignore it or let him down gently (does Hange even notice? Have either of them had to deal with this before?)
• Post-canon, I love the idea of older, wiser Jean being either Hange or Levi’s scandalously young boyfriend xD (I think both of them are supposed to be mid-to-late 30s post timeskip, but feel free to make them 40+ if you want xD) This could go with the teenage crush, or it could be a new thing. What brings them together? I love relationships where the characters think “we shouldn’t” but can’t resist anyway. I also love a dynamic where the older character has a mild-to-bad complex about being “old and tired and undesirable now” (especially Levi after he got so beat up in the final season!) that meets the younger character’s “I am uncontrollably horny for you.” xD  

Erwin Smith/Hange Zoë
Levi Ackerman/Erwin Smith/Hange Zoë
Levi Ackerman/Hange Zoë
Levi Ackerman/Erwin Smith 

• Exploring how they come together and learn how to work together: hell yes
• Exploring how they go from colleagues to lovers: also hell yes
• I will gladly take PWP/nothing but porn if you want to go that direction!
• I’m obsessed with people looking at him from afar thinking Erwin is Mr Dashing Handsome Prince Charming etc. and getting closer only to discover no, He Is Insane (affectionate). 
• For LeviHan specifically: pegging, or bondage with Levi being the one tied up…. hell yeah
• For Eruri specifically: I love exploration of how far Levi is willing to go for Erwin and where Erwin’s lines are for what he’ll ask from Levi - I imagine he has some flexible ones and some that are ironclad, and it would be interesting to see where they differ on those. Alternately, what makes these two have a serious disagreement, and how do they smooth things out again? 
• Erwin strikes me as a person who is Always On, always playing 5D chess in his head, even asleep. Let either Hange or Levi or both distract him from All Of That for a little while (give this poor man a break). 

 
Eren Yeager & Hange Zoë 

• The shift in their relationship from her yapping about titans all night and Eren humouring her, to their titan tests together, to that moment in the cell in the final season where he grabs her - it all makes me oh so happy and then so sad. I would love anything that explores their changing relationship over the years.
• How does he feel about her in the end? Is he torn up at her death, or did he legitimately grow to resent her? (I am up for either interpretation! Make me cry!)
• Did he speak to her in the Paths at some point like he did to Armin?

Hitch Dreyse/Annie Leonhart

• I love their dynamic and I would love to see how it progresses post-canon after All That. It's going to be a hell of a reunion after Annie left like that and she got mixed up in Saving The World, and I am so here for all the complicated feelings and the lack of trust warring with the fact that this might finally be an opportunity to be somewhat somewhere sort of on the same side? Or at least a similar agenda? Or maybe Hitch has gone full on New Eldian Empire as a method of self preservation and they're cruelly on different sides yet again?
• If Hitch had been there when Armin and the others arrived, would she have gone with them and Annie? What if she did? 

Star Wars: Visions Vol 2 

I absolutely loved these characters and their stories! What I would really love is to see where they go next. 


Daal - Absolutely fascinated by the possibilities of who Daal could become as a Sith. I'm really into Sith who don't turn into one-note moustache twirling villains, and nuanced takes on the Dark Side. What does she learn from the Sith, and how does she put it into practice? What kind of Sith does she become? Does she ever go back for her friends? If so, does she find them, or have they moved on - or has tragedy struck? I think it would be fascinating to see Daal the full-fledged Sith reunite with her old friends, or to see her faced with the choice of whether or not to recruit her own apprentice. As I said above, I'm totally up for weird Force stuff or digging deeper into the magical side of the Force!

Aau - I loved Aau oh so much and I would love to see her become a Jedi! I would love to see anything from her training or her as a full Jedi. Or maybe something about her exploring the galaxy? Would love to see how she grows in confidence and confronts the challenges of the wider galaxy. Always up for more odd or fun Force goings on! 





Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind  
Nausicaä, Worldbuilding

- I would love some worldbuilding for the people and groups in this world - how does the world work? The valley where Nausicaä lives? What are the other countries/human settlements, how do they interact with each other? 

- I absolutely love the way the history of this world is remembered and immortalised in the tapestry that we're shown in the opening credits. I would love something that digs into the meaning behind any of those images, what people remember and/or are taught about them, or about the ancient world in general. What knowledge has survived, been passed down, or been rediscovered?

- I would love to see more of Nausicaä's adventures and explorations of the forest and the world outside the valley, whether that's before or after canon. Seeing post-canon Nausicaä grow into a champion for responsibly exploring the legacy left by the ancient world would be amazing.

- I'm also so here for the amazing flora! Any exploration of that, and how the jungle works, would be awesome. Or Nausicaä somehow reconnecting with or learning more about the Ohm, later in life?

• Anything post-Rebels, either with Thrawn trying to deal with getting blasted off into unknown space and get back, or with Eli dealing with it. Does Eli go looking for him, or is something keeping him in the Ascendancy and he just has to try and accept the reality of Thrawn being gone? Anything with Eli reluctantly accepting Thrawn being gone and mourning him would be great, especially if Thrawn then reappears.
• Eli having to get into some kind of arranged politic marriage and Thrawn appearing at just the right moment to Crash The Wedding!
• Any kind of worldbuilding for the Ascendancy or Lysatra. Maybe they go visit Lysatra and Eli’s parents? Or they visit Thrawn’s homeworld/family? Or they have a day together on Csilla/Lysatra/some other Chiss world? 
• I also love plotty things, so anything with these two solving a case or mystery or going on a mission like they do in canon would be amazing. Murder mystery? The royal machinations of a particular planet? Imperial politics? Catching smugglers and/or rebels? Anything.
• I ship them a lot so would love to get shipfic of any kind, any of the above prompts + ship would be amazing. For specifically shipfic, I love pretty much anything, especially with Thrawn being the instigator. I love the trope of Chiss fraternization laws/social rules differing from humans, and how the two of them cope with that. Also marriage proposals/accidental marriage/arranged marriage would make my day, I love marriage tropes.
• Instead of joining an Imperial Academy, Eli ends up becoming a bounty hunter? Maybe something happens to his family/their business, which means he needs a quick way to make money? How does he meet Thrawn in this AU? Does Thrawn become a bounty hunter with him? Or maybe as an Imperial officer, Thrawn works with Eli the bounty hunter to track down rebels/other fugitives?
• On a similar note - space pirate Eli? Maybe Imperial!Thrawn trying to chase down Space Pirate!Eli?
• I would absolutely love anything with Eli being Force-sensitive. How does he hide it? Why did he still join the Empire if he knew? Does he know exactly what his strange abilities are? How do they get revealed to Thrawn? Maybe they get revealed, and Eli has to go on the run? 
• Alternately, Force-sensitive Eli was discovered by the Empire and recruited as an Inquisitor, and that’s how he ends up meeting Imperial officer Thrawn? Maybe they become partners like in canon, only Eli is on an equal or maybe even greater level rank-wise than Thrawn, since he’s an Inquisitor. Inquisitor!Eli helping Grand Admiral Thrawn hunt down the Ghost crew during Rebels would be amazing!
• Eli dealing with the fallout of what happened in the first season of the Ahsoka show - what does he think about Thrawn coming back? And at the head of a zombie stormtrooper army? And possibly aiming to become the ‘Heir to the Empire’? Has Thrawn given up on the Ascendancy - or has he heard through the Night Mothers’ connection to Morgan that something terrible happened to it because of the Grysk? 
• In Legends canon, Thrawn had a clone - if you wanted to do something with clone!Thrawn that fits the new canon timeline, go wild! How, when, and why did he get created? Where is he? Maybe Eli finds him while the original Thrawn is lost, and they develop a complicated relationship? Does the clone have Thrawn’s memories, or is he entirely his own person? Feel free to do Eli/clone!Thrawn, or Thrawn/Eli/clone!Thrawn if you’d like! (And I would not object to him being called Thraawn, if you so desire xD) 
• Somehow, these two and/or the Chimaera crew get drafted via Yularen into working with the ISB, in which they meet Dedra, Partagaz, and the whole ISB crew we meet in Andor. How does that go? 
• I adore horror stories in space, so I would love to see Eli and Thrawn dealing with something like that. Feel free to have it be a horror story occurring in the Star Wars universe, or make it an AU. (I was thinking of Alien-style creature horror when I wrote this (and I would LOVE any kind of Alien!AU) but feel free to go where your heart takes you for this!) Regarding my main character death DNW: this still applies for Eli and Thrawn, but for this horror request only, I am okay with other named/major characters (e.g. Faro, Yularen, etc.) dying.