#confuzing

[chaos-monkeyy]

🏜️?

🏜️ ⇢ what's your favourite type of comment to receive on your work?

oohh that's a tough one.... I'm gonna go with the "Well I didn't THINK I was into ship / trope / kink, but--" 😂 I adore knowing I helped someone find a new Thing.

..but, maybe, tied with the "!!! in character AND hot!!!!", because being told I nailed their personalities while they nailed each other is just. 😍😭😍 mission friggen accomplished

-

Writers Truth & dare ask game

[voidsaber]

swanto - downfall (nightclub)??? ;👀👀👀

ALRIGHT SO. (i’m grinning just thinking about this stupid au). This all started like nearly 2 years ago when my coworker invited me to go to a club with them. I’d never been to a club before (not my scene and with experience still isn’t). So I go home at a reasonable morning hour but I can’t get to sleep cause on the way back my brain is full of Eli/Cygni brainrot with the silliest idea that basically. what if Eli was undercover in a nightclub (because fanfic plot reasons). And Cygni was there. and then they flirt and hook up. and that was meant to be it. that was the plot. i just wanted random cute one-shot swantos.

and then my brain made angst happen by giving thrawn a bigger role and slapping in some one-sided thranto. so then the fic kept going and we have thrawn meeting eli in the hotel the next morning and being Concerned but also jealous and hurt. and so thrawn confesses he’s got feelings for Eli but eli basically has none of it cause he’s kinda fed up with the manipulation schtick. in this au Pryce and Thrawn never meet and thus never help one another and so eli is stuck as an ensign and we get a lot of thranto angst and possibly some very vindictive space cowboy. it was initally titled “nightclub au” for ages before I gave it the temp. name of “downfall”. I have a playlist for this au also. i just checked and there are 18k words i don’t remember writing all of :’) it’s really fun writing eli/cygni interactions with cygni being a lil snarky and eli getting riled up but also getting snarky right back at him. and also being soft n cute. and also thrawn just pining really hard. and also eli’s frustration at a stagnated career path.

uhhh select snippets under the cut?

- - -

Cygni shrugged. "Spice, Dust, people... not my modus operandi."

"And I'm to believe you?"

"I told you - I'm in no position to lie. Besides, why would I? Is it that difficult to believe I'm not keen on those who profit off of the stuff? I've seen what it does to people. And I'm just me tonight."

"Just 'you'?" A flat statement more than a question. He didn't understand Cygni's words.

"Yes." The damn smirk was equal parts infuriating and attractive and infuriatingly attractive. Clearly there was a punchline he wasn't getting. Whatever. Eli pushed it aside, not caring for games. He cleared his throat.

"So," Eli ventured. "Whatever you're doing, it's not some kind of play. Or trap."

"Of course not. How would I even know you were to be here tonight?" Cygni smiled wryly. "You think if I knew I would show up, considering our previous encounter?"

"No. I don't think you'd be that bold. Or that stupid."

Cygni snorted from across the table. "Well, I'm glad you think so, at least. I'd say we're getting along just fine, wouldn't you?"

-

(at the hotel)

He watched as Cygni shuffled backwards to sit cross-legged on the wide bed. He followed suit and made himself comfortable facing him. The way he leant back and propped himself on his hands was very appealing. Eli let his gaze wander, down along the scrunched creases of his shirt at the shoulder, his arms, a little more muscular than he'd first thought, pale scars catching on his dark skin that gave Eli a twinge of cold uneasy recognition, of remembrance, and to those solid hands that had felt so good on his scalp. He dropped lower down to the drape of his shirt - really if he'd wanted to blend in at the venue he could have worn something a little more... exciting - past the strained fabric of his trousers, nicely fitting, quite tight, actually, and a strange blue-green colour that Eli wasn't sure blended well whatsoever with the pale shirt or dark skin but really he was just focussed on the want for their absence; and then with rising heat down elsewhere, to Cygni's feet. Eli suddenly felt very strange for wearing his shoes whilst on the bed. He gulped, getting back to the matter at hand - that being the growing desire inside of him for the man before him. He raked his eyes back up to Cygni's wry grin, though not entirely free of tension.

He must've had a strange expression on his face because Cygni spoke up in a jovial tone. "Not going to try and weasel some information out of me are you, Vanto?"

Eli huffed quietly, tension lifting. "As if you'd fall for that. And it's Eli," he said, and leant forward to kiss him again. "You can call me Eli."

-

(thrawn confronting eli the morning after. which is very rude of him)

"You are well aware it is against protocol--"

"I know, sir," Eli muttered, pained.

"--and more so it was unwise. There is conduct to follow, Ensign."

Eli flinched. He knew better than to try answering that.

"However, I do not expect any individual to solely rid themselves of any desires they have. As you said, the path of duty can oft impede or interrupt chances at proper rest or indeed.. indulgence. What I wish to understand is that it seems there are those on the Thunder Wasp who would respond positively from such an advance from yourself, and despite regulations I see no reason why you could not engage in sexual activity with those you wish to, whoever they may be,//such colleagues albeit within appropriate timeframes, provided it does not impact your work. Yet you have chosen to ignore this in favour of a different party. I do, of course, notice these things."

Gods what the fucking weirdest thing Thrawn was saying.

"Oh yeah," Eli replied sarcastically, unable to help it now. "I'm sure the Empire’s finest are dying to get a shot at screwing a Wild Space hick who barely made the cut at the Royal Academy and is getting such special treatment – all for being bilingual. Care to name a few?”

"I myself, am one such example."

"What."

-

(after thrawn and eli’s fallout)

Oh right - Thrawn was talking to him. Of course he was. And didn't seem to care that Eli wasn't listening. It's not like he wouldn't notice. He just expected Eli to pay attention to him. Like usual, he expected Eli to give him every waking moment. No time to think for himself, about himself, lest it lead to foolishness.

"Sir?" Eli said bitterly. All of this clamouring in his head was driving him mad. He felt sick. He couldn't remember half of what he'd been driving round and round in his skull, and from the rest of it he couldn't tell if it was his own spiteful hyperbole or if it was truthful. He didn't know which was worse.

A small flicker of something crossed Thrawn's impeccable features. Eli didn't know and didn't care what. He supposed he should. He paid attention. "I was suggesting, Ensign, that you be taken as ill. I have noticed your demeanour becoming--" he paused. muttered something, or maybe just mouthed it. Eli was frowning at him, hardly trying to stop himself, and could see the word was Sy Bisti. Still on translation duty after all these years. Only useful because it wasn't worth the hour programming a droid. Eli's existence could be quantified in a measly number of credits in that regard. And yet he hadn't even bothered to say the word, to ask Eli for that translation. Was he trying to be nice, or polite? What a first. Or maybe he wasn't even worth that anymore.

-

tldr: what if... we hooked up in a nightclub while i was undercover on a mission... and the encounter really gets to some hidden emotional part of me for reasons unknown... and then it turned out my commanding officer has been madly in love with me the whole time but my head’s too busy with whatever spell you put on me when we had sex that one time to even look his way... haha jk.... unless..?

[chaos-monkeyy]

⛰ 👽👀

(ahaha I didn't actually look at these before picking ones to send to you 😂)

⛰ Hardest fic to write?

Honestly, I think Use me (the Thranto consensual somnophilia one from Thrawn's POV) was one of the fics that was the hardest to write ever. The second chapter specifically. I still don't know what it was exactly, I knew what I wanted to write and everything, but damn I struggled to get that one down for some reason.

👽 Strangest fic you ever written?

Like you don't know it's the Thranto insect porn poetry butterfly!AU, aka Restless 🤣🦋 (I'm still incredibly proud of that one)

👀 What’s an idea you had for a fic that you never did anything with?

*digs through ancient Ideas Lists*

ahh well there was that in-universe arranged marriage AU idea I had where Eli is sent to marry a Chiss for Politics, and discovers he actually has to marry the Chiss and his brother. And then they eventually go from him sleeping with either of them at a time, to both of them together 😏

I still like the concept, but the marriage part itself just wasn't my Thing to write about, and really I just wanted to think about Thrawn/Eli/Thrass filth. Which I wound up channeling into Black Leather Jacket universe anyway 😇

[chaos-monkeyy]

Now that you've seen Venom this may be relevant to your interests

👀👀👀👀👀👀👀 indeed it is

Oh my 😳 that is some interesting wording right there askdkfjfhsgs 😏😏 thank you for this gift Zs

[chaos-monkeyy]

11, 15, 16?

11. What would you do if you inherited 1 million dollars tomorrow?

Get an electric or hybrid Toyota pickup sensible vehicle

Buy a cat scratching post for every single room of my house so the fuzzy little bastards will leave my mattress alone

Very responsibly find out what exactly I need to do with the rest that will let me retire comfortably in like 10 years or something

...okay and I'd absolutely buy a bunch more D&D minis from heroforge, who am I kidding 😆🤩

15. Where would you rather live – a big house in the suburbs or a tiny apartment in a great location in the city?

I really don't like true suburbs, so unless I can change that to a big house in the country, I'll take the city apartment. A great location would be up to my opinion, and in my opinion the greatest location in a city is near the edges of it 😂 (My partner can live in the one next door to me though, fuck sharing tiny apartments 💀 I'll install a cat passway through the wall somewhere)

16. If you could have any job in the world, what would it be?

I'd actually want be A Writer-- and for the record, it is literally the first time in my life that I've ever had an answer that question. all because of fic writing and AO3 and fandom 😭 *embarrasses self again today after all*

[chaos-monkeyy]

#6

Thrass, Krennic, and... ...Chewbacca.

6. go clothes shopping with, go to ikea with, go grocery shopping with

...................just fyi you are a monster in the best possible way 🤣 sjdfkjhd

okay

UM

...fuck 😂😂😂

alright alright I CAN DO THIS.

Clothes shopping with...

Chewie, because he'd probably have about the same opinion of the importance of fashion that I do, and I bet he'd know all the coolest belts-and-accessories places 💼

Ikea with...

Thrass, at the very least I reckon we'd have fun arguing about style (or more accurately, my lack thereof) the entire way through the showroom. (tangent: now I'm thinking about rev's Ikea AU and I can't remember what Thrass's role was in that but I remember the whole thing was just wild 😆)

Which leaves..

Grocery shopping with Krennic. I expect him of all people to also be a picky eater, so we can essentially each do our own shopping. Separately. In separate carts. ..and go to separate cashes, and look fuck Krennic alright, he can find his own bloody ride home if he's going to cause that much of a fuss in the deli section OKAY

[chaos-monkeyy]

🌹

“I’m— I’m gonna—” Rodney managed, his grip tightening involuntarily in John’s hair, tugging his head back— John was looking up at him expectantly, mouth open and tongue stuck out— Sheppard was pumping him harder and mouthing at his neck hard enough to leave a mark—

...this is not even your fandom I am sorry 🙈

[chaos-monkeyy]

#9 Inflection Point?

9: Were there any alternate versions of this fic?

There kind of was yeah! I mean for one thing, Eli and Nevil weren't really supposed to.. y'know, like, actually fall in love and stuff, but then they did and I wasn't gonna argue.

The biggest alt version though was the other version of the escape plan that I took some aspects from but scrapped the main idea. Instead of waiting to blow the charges while riding up in the elevator, they were going to blow up the smelting station and collapse the tunnels leading to it after taking out Angel & co. and the guards, impersonating the stormtroopers, and calling in the staged prisoner uprising. As though they were still suppressing it, right.

So the idea was the explosions would be meant to look like a failed prisoner revolt, with Asshole, I mean Angel, and his buddies having accidentally gotten caught in their own sabotage; the mines would have been evacuated; and stormtroopers!Thrawn & Nevil would have snagged Eli from the crowd on the way out and then gone forward with trying to get to the shuttle bay in all the confusion. With the added bonus that if they were discovered missing in the aftermath, they would probably have some wiggle room of a few days or more due to being assumed dead in the explosion or tunnels collapse.

I liked it for the action and excitement of it all, but it just... wasn't as good of a plan. Too many things could go wrong. They'd risk destabilizing the tunnels too much and killing more of the other prisoners, there would be no guarantee the Imps wouldn't just shut down the lifts and get them trapped down there during full on prisoner interrogations, I couldn't get myself believing they'd be able to just wander up to a shuttle and take off unnoticed and unchallenged if the entire complex was on emergency lockdown, etc. etc.

What I did get out of it though, was - it inspired my thoughts for Nevil's inadequate escape plan to use as a starting point for Thrawn to make a plan that may have been less exciting, but was more... elegant, not to mention a little less dangerous and more likely to succeed (as well as a perfect point of conflict between their characters and values). And it also helped me pick which of a few different mining accidents/disasters I wanted to throw into the mix to ramp up the tension and the sense of urgency to escape. (I think I'd thought of cave-ins as well as flooding... maybe a gas leak or something, not sure what they all were now, but the collapse worked really well to tie in with the Imperials not caring about the prisoners' welfare, the hints of reduced support and funding and personnel, all those little details that I thought helped tie it into the greater SW universe at the time with resources being funneled into long-term secret projects, and the Empire's increasing military focus and cracking down throughout the galaxy...)