#megamind 2 back at it again

[character-of-all-time]

ROUND 2: STICK (ground) VS MEGAMIND (megamind)

[blessedshortcake]

SPOILERS FOR MEGAMIND AND MEGAMIND "2" youve been warned

Hi chat im here to bitch and whine give my 2 cents on the new movie even tho im like. A little late. Obligatory read more

I havent seen anyone talk about this yet so im starting with it but... why did they rename Minion? I am not Too bothered by it, i mean a little but thats probably just me im just mostly confused? Is it because of the Minions stuff? So hes more uniqe? Augh my poor boy they did him so dirty

Point 2. Roxanne. What. Just what. Why did they make her like that? I loved how she had different clothes for (probably) every scene, that she wasnt just a generic cartoon character wearing the same outfit for the whole 90 something minutes and yet they just... put her in an (in my opinion) ugly dress and made her hate her job?

She seemed happy in the first movie for the most part. She wrote her own speech in the first scene of it!! I get that things are different now that Megamind is a hero but ITS BEEN 2 DAYS!! Unless her aspirations changed in the first movie and im just too tired to remember then its a huge change. Besides that she was.... okay i guess? Shrug i liked the original more

Oh right! Their relationship or lack there of with Megamind! I was never a huge shipper of them but i didnt mind. I find it sweet at most since they can be silly together but only if given more time and fleshed out more. Im more interested in seeing their progression, learning about each other, adressing past stuff (like how Megamind was hiding as Bernard for god knows how long i am so tired i cant remember this move killed my brain) and i dont care if theyre a couple or just friends or something in between for all of that

But...... seeing as (and i can only assume) the first movies last scene of him accepting the new museum that was rebuilt for his image happened months after the Titan thing and they literally Kissed and whatever id ASSUME there is something between them to kiss like that IN A PUBLIC EVENT IN FRONT OF THE CITY?

And yes i love my platonic kisses but lets be real. This was made by a Company and this is a het couple theres no way they would let them kiss as just friends. Like id be the happiest mf on earth if they did but from previous movie track records i dont think thats the case

If the movie was like set between the Titan thing and the reopen of the museum id understand. Then yeah, things are complicated between them. But we SEE the museum like at least once so??? Ugh i dont know why im so caught up on everything this movie was full of contradictions

Before i go to the main issue (the whole movie is the issue but i digress) i wanna talk about the world itself.

Where did the smart phone come from?????? Hello??? Movie 1 had flip phones at best + whatever Megamind made but hes like a genius so like that doesnt quite fall into public tech stuff. Why did they nerf the dehydration gun? That was instant or near instant before why did it take seconds now?? Megamind has a whole new lair AFTER 2 DAYS-

Why is everyone so stupid and disrespectful? The whole key ceremony was 100% unneeded if hes already an esteemed hero? Whatever.

Now the main bone i have to pick. MEGAMIND.

He could not be more OOC. I cant belive this was an actual movie not like some fan project. God

They already had a whole thing in the first movie how he needs Minion more and he needs to listen to him and how he appreciates him. Why did we go back to ground 0?

If they REALLY needed a conflict where Minion wanted to be a sidekick and Megamind didnt want that to happen (which... i dont even know why they needed that? Perhaps with Minion away from the lair when the DS showed up the issue dragged on much longer? Shrug) THEN THEY COULD HAVE DONE AAAANYTHING ELSE!!!

Might i remind the creators that in the highpoint of the first movie, when Minion used the disguise watch and helped Roxanne escape so Megamind can defeat Titan as a fake Metro Man he got (kinda) hurt? Like his tank shattered and he was drying out. Sure he was fine but THAT already couldve been a better motivator!!

Megamind being scared to let Minion be his sidekick because he has been with him for all of his life, his first and best friend in the whole galaxy, his caretaker since he was a baby, his last connection to his home planet even, got hurt and could have easily died. I mean they pretty much killed like 3 people if not more in this movie so its not far fetched but like-

The conflict being Megamind grapping with his concience (spelling??) of wanting to make Minion happy and letting him express himself more, and his terror of the possibility of losing him. Like if thats too heavy they can make it more lighthearted and jokey there are Definitely ways to do that but that already is a better conflict oh my GOD.

Also DS couldve been soloed with the dehydratuion gun if it wasnt nerfed. He just walks behind them and bam. Problem solved. What the hell

point 3? I lost count. WHY DID THEY DUMB HIM DOWNNNNNNN OMG

HES SUPPOSED TO BE A GENIUS!! Sure Minion takes care of him since he can get too in his head with his ideas as we see. Multiple times. But hes not an idiot. He would know how a toaster WORKS HES NOT XBDNSN MAIMS!!

Anyway

I finished the movie like an hour ago but i already forgot that little girls name oops. She was... weird. I wasnt too annoyed about her more so confused? Since shes the only person with a smart phone? And she had half a million followers for her Megamind blog? IN 2 DAYS? Right. Felt very forced to put her into any and all of the scenes

Back to our massacared blue hero. He would NEVER be like that. More specifically with the DS. One of the main parts of him is that he was lonely!! He never had friends!! He is sooo socially stunted he doesnt know many many basic concepts as an adult!! Like how phones work or views or i cant remember anything else what a disgrace but like!!

He would never go to evil school. Why would there be an evil school also?? But he never had anyone but Minion!! He was sooo lonely without Metroman he had to DIY a new dude!! He became a villian because people kept bullying him for being different and weird and so he decided to become what they make him out to be! If he had friends like how the DS makes it out to be, hell, like how the movie makes it out to be then he would never abandon them like that. He would NEVER

Also him the leader?? Are you kidding me?? Where was Minion during all that? And even then why didnt they just use the original DS material? I was hoping to see the fire lady where did she go :( (i cant remember any names tonight huh)

Everyone is so dumb in this movie it hurts. 0 spacial awareness, the conversations dont feel like they fit together, some scenes they literally repeat stuff that was either said already or just dont relate at all. I dont know why that is but it bothered me a lot

The DS looked and acted dumb, they were the most generic ass villains like... WHY DIDNT YOU USE THE ORIGINAL- whatever im. Sigh. But really it was so weird???? If Megamind was supposed to be their LEADER why were they so disrespectful to him? He feared them plenty and yeah sure its because he lied to them but leaders usually are respected. They treated him like shit and didnt listen to him once. Rushed him the whole time and kept making him do things like....... girl... thats your LEADER. Ex leader at worst. Maybe dont throw a party in his HOUSE without even asking or warning him and tell him to not be a party pooper when he demands you to stop it. I have a headache now

The ending was....... interesting. Roxanne becoming mayor feels unrealistic and rushed but alas it fits to the theme of the movie because of that (aka being rushed and unrealistic). The M signal is. Laughable. Silly at the very best. It got a laugh out of me but its just.... unneeded. I dont know i dont get why they had to add it you know. Also obligatory Minion out of the tank moment oh wow woo yippe Why

Overall? There were like 3 jokes at best that i liked + the dance off scene was nice. Funny and kinda in character even. The rest? I will be mad about it forever. 1.5/10

[hanniluvi]

LOVE NEWS ! — YJW SMAU

SYNOPSIS : BREAKING NEWS! valentine’s is right around the corner, yet you still had no partner. you didn’t think too much of it, you probably thought it was just another year where you’ll be single again. not a big issue at all. however, your favorite gossip account proves you wrong! what if you find out someone actually likes you? after gathering all the hints you’ve been given, you narrowed your list down to one person. that one person ended up being yang jungwon, one of your crushes. there’s no way, one of your crushes actually liking you back? will you believe it’s just fake or actual love news?

PAIRING : classmate!jungwon x fem!reader

GENRE : smau, fluff, crack, classmates to lovers

FEATURING : all enhypen members; hanni — new jeans; yunjin — le sserafim; rei — ive; soul — p1harmony; sunwoo — the boyz (more might be added later on)

WARNINGS : swearing, use of kys + kms jokes, some lovey dovey action (some warnings will be mentioned on top of the chapters if any)

NOTE : this is all FICTION! this has nothing to do with any idols irl! + reblogs/likes/comments are appreciated so i can improve later on 🤍

AUTHORS NOTE : another jungwon smau yay!! heres a smau i thought of while i was procrastinating my other smaus.. anyways im really excited for this one so i hope you guys are too as well <3

STATUS : completed ! (DEC 24 2022 - MAR 4 2023)

LOVED LOVE NEWS? CHECK OUT LOVE ERROR, THE SECOND SMAU !

PROFILES . . !

gossip baes [yn] | love news club [jungwon]

LATEST NEWS . . ! (chapters)

article one - whats new?

article two - what if i press this silly “tweet” button 🤣

article three - SOMEONE LIKES YN??

— bonus : kim sunwoo im keeping my eyes on you fr.

article four - the dm

article five - niki scamming time

— bonus : nikis scamming (gone wrong)

article six - who? crush #45?

article seven - eye contact (written + smau)

article eight - SOUL PSYCHIC

article nine - THE BATHROOM DOOR

article ten - why she kinda

article eleven - who tf is he 😧

article twelve - idk…piss on it 🤔

article thirteen - okay what if…

article fourteen - niki DUPE

article fifteen - WON VICE PRES???

— bonus (1) : prez datez (real?!)

— bonus (2) : MF PARK SUNGHOON??

article sixteen - dude hes flirting 😂

article seventeen - overthinking ..

article eighteen - LET ME IN

article nineteen - feeling evil (written + smau)

article twenty - getting on my nerves

— bonus : her love news era 😍‼️

article twenty-one - cackles evilly

article twenty-two - just a silly move

article twenty-three - megamind 😱

article twenty-four - yn 2.0??

article twenty-five - twirls hair

article twenty-six - be mine?

article twenty-seven - confirmed <3

ENHA PERM TAGLIST OPENED !

@son4taa @luvhooniez @yenavrse @shinsou-rii @luveuly @ilovewonyo @yenqa @dimplewonie @bubblytaetae @wtfhyuck

PERM TAGLIST . .

@ahnneyong @hanienie

WAITING FOR MORE UPDATES? JOIN NOW!

TAGLIST . . 💗 CLOSED 💗

bolded = can’t tag </3

@invusblog @wonvnz @xiaoderrrr @flowers4thalia @nyuukei @curly-fr13s @itsactuallylina @risseei @0310lvr @viagumi @luvdokja @sickvision @wanna-live-yn-life @rionah @dreamenvi @rinnqx @0i8ma @ksnu @sunoksunny @aki1e @adajoemaya @naddii @yourfavjwstan @meeznoi @neozon3nha @wonyoungsvirus @rionah @nokacchan @luvkait @kyanmeai @sserafimez @wonieleles @beomsbeanie @yabukkura @shynypeacekitten @en-minniesode @seungily @captivq @georgi-salva @nayuzaa @jjulliette

[lettherebemonsters]

For Adam! What is one thing that you love about him in canon and one thing you dislike about him in canon?

What do you wish to see of him in the newest season? What develops do you wish to happen for him?

LOL I've been saving this one all day because it's gonna be fairly long. XD

What I love about Adam is that he's a dick but so lovable at the same time? I think it's a mix of his design is very round, Alex Brightman bringing that fun goofy quality to him and just Adam being....Adam, I guess.

Like, compared to Valentino, he's never outwardly abusive and never goes out of his way to physically hurt someone UNLESS pushed to it. Plus Lute with him are instant squad goals.

What I don't like about him in canon is how limited he is. I get that the show was crunched by Amazon to have barely enough episodes to do....anything really. And Vivz wanted to get a story out ASAP before she knew there was another season approved. But you can feel it with Adam. We're told ' oh he's so bad OMG so evil' but outside of the Exterminations.....how is he worse than Sir Pentious, who was BRAGGING about murdering people and wanting to enslave half of Pentagram City in the pilot.

Like Adam being an enemy is fine, I get it. But him ONLY being an enemy, since he's literally part of Genesis and a huge part of the overall structure of the Hazbin story just doesn't sit right with me.

What I wish for Adam in season 2 is definitely, well....more Adam. BUT I want him to be treated as not just yet another baddy. Unlike the Vees, Adam actually means something to the backbone of the lore. What the Hell are the vees compared to him? A bunch of punks who are trying to bully kids off the playground when big brother isn't there to stop it.

It's hilarious to think that we're supposed to think the vees are somehow BETTER than Adam even though they're literally just a bunch of whiny abusive pricks that enslave people and even rape them.

Bring Adam back and have him SUFFER. Have him be forced to eat so much crow that he's coughing up feathers by the time he ends up at the hotel. Don't make season 2 all about him but put him in the background and tease him being alive.

Have him shift from an arrogant prick to someone broken, desperate to go home, and Charlie having to swallow her anger at him to help him. Have Adam earn his way home by being forced to heal from the trauma he endured in Eden.

And have Lute and Adam find each other again. And have Lute find redemption in being forced to confront the fact that Adam is a sinner now, and that she can't hurt him. Have her become the Vaggie in her situation....because she fell in love with a sinner.

Hopefully by season 3 Adam would be established as a protagonist or even just an antihero. Kind of like Megamind. Just a guy who does the right thing but makes a big spectacle of it since he is the Dickmaster.

Have Adam get the attention he desperately needs from people who CARE about him. For HIM. Not for WHAT he is....but WHO he is. Have Adam find himself and not be part of an equation anymore.

If this sounds like Vegeta....yeah, basically lean him towards being Vegeta with the chaotic gremlin energy of Loki and Stitch.

[gavi4me]

Halloween

Warnings - cursing, pedri smut, drinking, publicish sex, (lmk if there are more)

It was Halloween night, in your opinion the best holiday because you could dress pedri in the stupidest looking outfit you wanted. Previous years you two went as Roxanne and megamind, a chicken and the kfc guy, the white chicks (best costume in my opinion), and this year you decided to go in the opposite direction.

“Are you ready? I want to see if I got the right suit size.” You said in your costume, still finishing hair. Pedri came out in a black suit with a white shirt under. He looked even hotter than you had imagined in your head. You stood up and walked towards him.

“You really outdid yourself this year.” Pedri said grabbing your hand, twirling you.

“Oh you don’t need to tell me, I know” you said with a big grin, fixing his collar. This year you decided to dress as mr and mrs smith. You were invited to a Halloween party hosted by Xavi. (Haunted things went in that house iykyk)

“Ey mami. Tu culo se ve delicioso con ese vestido. How about we skip the stupid party and have one of our own?” Pedri said starring at your ass.

“We are already late, plus it’d be rude to skip out on this party that we promised to attend.” You flicked his nose and went back to my desk to brush your curls out.

~ at the party bc I’m to lazy to write the parts in between 😘 ~

When you arrived at the party (Club) you met with Ansu and Fermin. The two boys went together and dressed as mr. worldwide. They had the bald caps and everything. Ansu looked to be already drunk, walking weirdly and not standing straight.

“How many drinks has Ansu had?” You asked concerned as it had only been 20 minutes since the party started.

“2 drinks, or 3 or 4” Ansu replied wobbling a bit.

“Yeah that’s enough for you bud.” Fermin said putting Ansu’s arm around his neck, guiding him to a place where he could sit.

“Oh well there they go” you said turning to pedri.

“Let’s go gets some drinks and dance Bebé.” Pedri said wrapping arm around your waist, walking you to the bar.

“Hey I’ll get two long islands please.” Pedri told to the busy bartender.

(For those who don’t know what a Long Island drink is, it’s a mixture of vodka, rum, gin, tequila, triple sec, and a bit of cola. It’s one of if not the strongest drinks you can get)

“Don’t you think that’s kind of heavy?” You asked with a worried expression.

“It’s Halloween night. Let me enjoy myself this once.” Pedri said kissing your nose. You smiled at him, making that his sign of approval.

The bartender came out 10 minutes later with 2 long islands.

“Cheers!” Pedri said, clinking glasses with you.

You went to find a seat at the bar in the vip section that Xavi had bought everyone passes to, but even that was busy. Many Barca players, wags, and few older family members were there too. At last, you found 2 seats in the corner. You went over quick so no one could take it, pedri following and sitting next to you.

We both clinked glasses again and talked about whatever came to mind. God he was perfect. At one point Ana, lewandowski’s wife came over to talk to you. She and lewandowski were Batman and batwoman, looking sexier than ever. (Lowkey though Ana is such a milf like if I was a man she’d be on my celeb crush list - if men even do that)

You made conversation talking about the party and what not, the conversation moving quite nicely. Suddenly you felt Pedri’s hand go to your upper thigh, moving higher slowly. You took a short gasp of air, his hand moving to your inner thigh. Had pedri forgotten Ana was still there, right in front of you two? He wasn’t slick even. They weren’t at a table so it was in view of everyone. Pedri was something else.

You removed his hand giving him a “not here” look. He nuzzled his face into your neck, kissing it roughly as well.

“I’m gonna leave you to be!” Ana said giggling at pedri being a horny kid with his girlfriend.

“What do you say we go dance you big baby?” You said getting up, fixing your skirt. You held your hand out and he accepted it with a big smile on his face. They were playing ‘smack that’ on the speakers, one of his favorite songs to dance to.

(I was actually listening to ‘smack that’ while writing this. ITS SOO GOOD)

When the lyrics started you began to sing along while dirty dancing with pedri, his hands touching your hips, slowly moving to your ass. You were turned around, seeing Ana and Mikky in the VIP section watching you and pedri, giggling. You gave them a little smile and they went back to talking. He started to kiss your neck, likely making marks. As the chorus started, you made a move to grind on pedri, making his already semi hard member even harder. When the lyrics said “smack that” he’d smack your ass.

“Mmmm mami.” Pedri said while grabbing a hold of your hips, basically dry humping you at this point. You felt your underwear dampened at his remarks, wanting him now.

The song suddenly switched to gasolina, your personal favorite sing to dance to. You wrapped your arms around his neck, his arms falling back to your waist and gripping your ass. He slowly started to kiss your neck, earning a few soft moans from you. He moved from your neck, making his way to your jaw then up to your lips. Kissing them in a rough and hungry, but passionate manner.

Pedri moved his hand from your ass to even lower to behind your thighs, hands creeping their way up your skirt.

“Mmm pedri….let’s go home.” You yelled into his ear, music still blasting louder than ever.

He took your hand leading you to the exit, practically running to his car. You jumped onto the cars hood, opening your thighs so pedri could stand in between them. He started to kiss your lips hungrily, biting your bottom lip, his tongue entering slowly. Your tongues danced together in harmony, no one wanting to disconnect their lips from the other.

He picked you up, your legs wrapped around his waist as he brought you to the back seat of his car. He sat down, making you straddle him. You went back to kissing him, grinding against him a little.

“God how do I get this goddamn corset off of you” pedri asked trying to find a way to undo it.

You laughed a little at his comment and started to unbutton it.

When it was finally off Pedri almost immediately grabbed one of your breasts and started to leave little bites on your nipple.

“Ahahaah pe-pedi” you moaned, always loving when he became grabby.

You started to take off his jacket before unbuttoning his shirt. You got off his lap and onto the seat next to him.

“What are you doing bebé?” Pedri asked out of breath from the make out you had just had.

You had a devious look on your face, touching his bare chest then moving my your hand down to his pants, feeling his hard member through it,

“Take them off” you said licking your lips. He took them off as fast as light. You didn’t even know he could go that fast.

You took his dick into your hand and stroked it a few times before putting his tip in your mouth. You took him out for second, putting your thumb against his tip, spreading the precum before spitting on his dick. You went back down, moving your head fast and keeping eye contact.

“Ah-ah-ah s-so g-goo-d for me” pedri said tilting his head back in pleasure, grabbing your hair into a little ponytail before practically fucking your face.

He suddenly took your lips off even though he had just been groaning the second before.

“I want to be inside of you. Fuck, scratch that. I need to be inside you.”

You took your skirt off leaving you only in a black, lace thong and the lace garter that went with your costume.

You went back to straddling him, grabbing his dick in your hand again, giving it a few tugs before moving your underwear to the side and sinking it.

“Ah-ah-ah pa-papi” you moaned out at the sudden feeling of him being inside of you. You stayed like that for a few seconds before pedri go inpatient and bucked his hips up.

“IYEE” you said, finally starting to move. You rolled your hips, hearing pedri let out a short gasp. You went back to bouncing, going in and out as fast as you could, desperate to make him and yourself cum fast.

“Im c-close bebé” pedri said holding onto your shoulders and sucking on your neck for dear life.

A few moments later pedri came and bucked his hips up again for you to finish, hitting your g-spot.

“PEDRI I-I C-CANT HOLD IT IN ANYMORE” you said on the edge, feeling his tip grazing your cervix.

“Dont hold it in” pedri said making you finally cum.

You got off of him, laying down on the black, leather seat that was next to him.

You both got changed after a few minutes of catching your breaths and admiring each other in the post-sex state you two were in. He helped you change, kissing your nose every few seconds in the process.

He drove you both home (don’t ask how he wasn’t literally drunk and didn’t get a DUI. My stories aren’t for logic)

During the car ride you had managed to fall asleep, breathing softly as the only other noise in the background besides breathing was the quiet car engine.

He picked you up from your seat when you arrived home and carried you to the bed. He changed your costume into a short, black, satin night gown before changing himself, leaving him in only grey sweats. He took you both under the covers of your bed, cuddling you a deeper slumber.

Best Halloween ever.

[hunterxreaderoneshots]

Starving - Hunter  Shy! Fem! Human! Reader

T/w: Mildly suggestive?? Idunno they kinda french kiss… for a bit... They cuddle on a bed. He leaves love bites. I’m sorry

Request By: WinterBlue_Angel22

Prompt:  Hi! ✨️ Can I request a fluffy long oneshot with prompts: "Um, H-hunter, d-do you w-want to m-makeout with m-me?", "W-what? A-are y-you s-sure, Y/n?", [French kisses where they trace every tooth with their tongues as though trying to memorize them.], [Tucking his hands beneath his shy!female!human!reader's shirt, just to watch she breaks the kiss and gasp in surprise at the sensation of his warm hands on her skin.] and "W-wow, that is so a-amazing, H-hunter." about Hunter and his shy!female!human!reader are having our first makeout session together on bed in guest room at Luz's house on Human Realm when everyone was gone for movie night? What kind of reaction Hunter has when she shyly asked him to want our first makeout session with her? 🤭 I bet he will be shy blushing mess to it, haha. 😂 Hint#1: suggestive moments ⚠️: french kisses and hickey. Hint#2: She gets makeout idea from Luz and Amity. 🤣 At end, Hunter angrily chases to catch Luz and Amity around Luz's house for corrupting his shy human girlfriend's innocence. 🤣 I really live for flustered Hunter! 💗 Please??

Hunter and his girlfriend had stayed home at Camila’s while everyone else had gone out to watch a movie. Hunter, however, preferred to stay home to watch a movie. This way he wouldn’t be bothering anyone with his reactions of sudden excitement, fear, or random theories and predictions. (Y/N) didn’t mind any of this though; she loved hearing him.

The two decided to watch a movie together on the couch instead. They picked one out called the Megamind. The couple cuddled together on the couch as the movie played on.

Hunter and his friends had been in the Human Realm for several months. He enjoyed it there. At first, he was scared about what would happen next. Everything had happened to suddenly. He was horrified of the thought that his friend would find out if he was a Grimwalker. Things had gotten better, however, when he met (Y/N). He found her on one of the group’s outings to discover more about the human realm.

He looked down at her curled up form and pulled her closer. He remembered how time stopped when he saw her at the park. And then he saw her again at a store, then almost a dozen times everywhere, and then at the park again where Luz finally convinced him to talk to her; that was when it all started. Hunter had always been slightly awkward around others, especially since he never interacted with witches his age until he met Luz and her friends. Now, he had a human girlfriend! He never thought much about it, but sometimes he wondered what would happen once they found a way back into the Demon Realm.

After being about halfway through the movie, he noticed (Y/N) was getting a bit cuddlier. Hunter smiled to himself and he pulled her closer. After a few moments, (Y/N) broke the silence, “Um, H-hunter?” He turned to look down at her again. Her face had gained a deep blush and he smiled, “Yeah?” he asked sweetly. She hid her face in his arm. “D-do you w-want to m-make out with m-me?” she stammered shyly. Hunter blushed madly, “W-what?!” He squeaked, feeling the red burning in his ears. He had never kissed (Y/N) before. He already found that cuddling was a big jump- he hadn’t ever thought that she’d ask to make out!

Hunter’s face was a deep crimson, and he shuffled around shyly on the couch; she wanted to kiss him! He turned away nervously, feeling his heart race: he could hear it throbbing in his ears. He exhaled shyly and danced his fingers over his leg.

He finally stirred up the courage to speak again and looked at her, “A-are y-you s-sure, (Y/N)?” He asked shyly. He felt a knot in his throat: he had never had an intimate relationship with anyone. What was he going to do?

“Mhm,” she hummed. Hunter felt his heart skip a few dozen beats. His ears bent backwards and he bit his lip, Oh my Titan, what do I do?!

“Oh,”  He murmured gently, feeling her nuzzle his arm. His mind was racing and so was his heart. Hunter looked away shyly and shifted around on the couch. He pulled his legs up and curled them around (Y/N). He had no idea where to start.

He shifted again, making (Y/N) sit up while he did so. He locked eyes with her for a split moment, but he hastily looked away again. After another few moments, he curled his hands into fists as if he was ready to face a fight, and let out a breath.

“O-ok!” Hunter said, smiling. He was excited, but more so nervous. He didn’t think he even understood the concept of a romantic relationship yet. “Really?!” (Y/N) exclaimed, jumping up with delight. Hunter nodded shyly, his ears bending back and turning red.

(Y/N) giggled happily and embraced Hunter, pecking his cheek as she did so. Hunter’s eyes widened and he blushed madly, his light skin darkening into a deep red. He wrapped his arms around (Y/N) slowly, nervously, pulling her closer to him.

She pulled away from the peck and smiled at him. Hunter felt his heart melt and his entire body relax. His gaze softened as he stared at (Y/N)’s deep pools of (e/c).

Hunter leaned down and pecked her lips lightly, feeling a sudden wave of nervousness and excitement wash over him. A blush ran ablaze across his face from ear to ear. He pulled back hastily and looked away shyly, and (Y/N) did the same.   

“I-I’m sorry, (Y/N),” he squeaked bashfully, “um… I’m- I’m just nervous…” he hugged his arms nervously. 

“It’s OK,” (Y/N) reassured him softly, “We don’t have to if you don’t want to, Hunter.”

He froze for a moment, feeling his heart sink as he realized. No one had ever offered him to not do something. He had always been demanded and expected to do as told. Hunter sighed; he wanted to. He wanted to do so much with (Y/N) but he was too nervous. He was surprised he had even been able to ask her to be his girlfriend.

“No, it’s-” He stammered nervously, “It’s n-not that I don’t want too…” He blushed madly, visible nervousness on his face. “I…” Hunter hesitated, then sighed, “I just… I don’t know how!” He finally confessed, locking eyes with her. His eyes were sad and full of worry. His ears had bent back in shame.

“Oh, Hunter,” (Y/N) soothed gently and placed her hand over his. “Don’t worry,” she said gently. “I… I-I can… show you…” She offered, blushing deeply. Hunter looked away for a moment, but looked back and nodded shyly. He almost looked like a sad puppy!

She smiled at him, “OK…” She exhaled, “Ready?” He smiled and nodded sheepishly. “OK, let’s try again.”

She pressed her lips against Hunter’s, closing her eyes. Hunter flinched slightly, and his pointed ears bent back again. He froze, feeling the warmth of (Y/N)’s lips against his. Slowly, he closed his eyes and melted into the kiss.

(Y/N) pulled away smiling at him; the two were a blushing mess. They began pecking each other randomly, shyly kissing each other’s faces and lips. Every time Hunter pecked (Y/N), she blushed a bit more, feeling a thousand butterflies fluttering throughout her body.

Hunter then sat again, and shifted himself towards (Y/N). He sat down, crossing his legs on the couch. Slowly he leaned towards her again and pecked her lightly. Hunter didn’t fully pull away, he stayed close enough to keep kissing her gently.

Finally, Hunter’s hands slowly went up to her, and he cupped each of her cheeks. He pulled her towards him, and he kissed her for a long time

Hunter pressed his lips against hers, almost as if he wanted to taste her. This was everything he never knew he wanted. He had never felt the warmth of someone else, he had never felt loved or wanted. All he had ever been was useful to Belos. Not anymore though; he didn’t care if he was useful anymore. Now he felt loved and he knew what he wanted: Hunter wanted to be with (Y/N).

He pulled her closer, deepening the kiss as he did so. Hunter began to feel the starvation take control of him, it was in every bit of his body. He didn’t understand what it was but he knew how to satisfy the intense hunger his heart felt: every time he pulled her closer a bit of the starvation lessened.

Hunter pulled her even closer to him. He kissed her amorously and (Y/N) kissed back. Suddenly, he felt (Y/N)’s hands curling around his wrists. Her gentle fingers wrapped around him and pulled him closer to her. Hunter melted again. His face was hot, his mind was racing, and his heart was both racing and melting.

(Y/N) then pressed her lips against his even more. She tilted her head and deepened the kiss. She wanted to get a taste of Hunter. She then bit his lip lightly and he froze for a moment in surprise. He had… liked it. It was like she wanted him close too.

Although they had kissed for a while, Hunter was still nervous about how to continue. Suddenly, he felt (Y/N) part her lip slightly. The warmth of her tongue surprised him yet also soothed him in way. Her tongue began to trace every bit of his mouth, and he followed. They kissed each other passionately as if desperately trying to remember one another.

The two finally pulled apart and were a blushing mess. Hunter looked over to see the credits playing on the TV screen, then he looked over to the front door. He swung his feet over the couch and stood up. He blushed lightly at the idea but continued anyway.

“C’mon,” He said, picking up (Y/N) bridal-style, “Let’s go somewhere more private.”

(Y/N) blushed madly but giggled, “H-Hunter!” She said smiling. (Y/N) hid her face in his chest as he carried her up the stairs and into the guest bedroom. Hunter laid her next to him on the bed and began pecking her face and kissing her softly again. Between the kisses Hunter would nuzzle her lightly making (Y/N) smile. She wrapped her arms around Hunter and kept him close to her.

Hunter kissed her passionately again and again. He slipped his hands under her shirt, feeling (Y/N)’s back as he did so; her skin was soft and warm. (Y/N) gasped suddenly, breaking the kiss and pulling away.

“H-Hunter!!” She squeaked, pulling her shoulders in slightly as if she was trying to hide. He laughed lightly to himself, looking at (Y/N) and pecking her cheeks. Hunter smiled, he had no idea how wonderful loving and being loved could feel.

Hunter started to cuddle her. He didn’t even know what he was doing. All he knew was that he wanted to feel close to her. He began to kiss her jawline and slowly make his way down her neck. Hunter nuzzled her lightly, wanting to hide away in her soft skin.

(Y/N) smiled shyly as Hunter went on. She gasped suddenly when she felt a little nip on her neck, and then another, and another…

“H… Hunter…” She stammered softly, “Sweetheart, what are you up to?” Hunter smiled for a moment, but stopped hastily.

“Oh uh…” His ears pulled back suddenly as fear took over his heart. Had he done something wrong? “I-I,” He blushed in shame, “I... I’m s-sorry (Y/N)...” He began to lift himself onto his side. “Did… did you… like that?” He felt his heart race unsteadily. Maybe Belos wasn’t the only one who didn’t want him anymore…

“Mhm,” She hummed gently. She pulled him back in even closer and Hunter felt himself melt. He melted anytime (Y/N) had made him feel wanted.

He smiled, kissing her passionately this time. “Well, I guess I’ll continue then.”

(Y/N) laughed, “Hunter! You’re so sweet!” Hunter smiled at her. He nuzzled her again and continued leaving little love bites all over her neck.

The two cuddled for a while. Suddenly, a thought broke Hunter out of the moment.

“Hey, uh, (Y/N),” he asked, his focus intently on nothing.

“Yeah?” She hummed.

“Ummm…” Hunter frowned slightly in thought, trying to think of a way he could ask. He knew (Y/N) well enough to know she was quite innocent and sweet. “How… uh… why, I guess, did you think of… making out?” He squeaked the last few words.

(Y/N) blushed, her eyes opened and she hid into Hunter. “Um… I accidentally… maybe… walked into Luz and Amity??” She replied nervously.

“Huh.” He said, pulling (Y/N) closer. “Good to know…”

He hid into her chest, “(Y/N)?” he nervously called her name.

She smiled. His voice and been soft and full of nervousness. She knew he needed comfort and spoke gently, “Yes, Dear?” He melted in her arms. Hunter bit his lip for a moment.

“I-I… I love you…” 

She kissed his forehead gently, “I love you, Hunter.” He felt ease in his heart, and a sudden completion of his soul. This was what he had been starved from: (Y/N)’s love.

                                      ─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

After a while of cuddling, the two finally heard everyone coming back. They made their way downstairs and towards the front door to greet them. Hunter, however, had something else in mind. He was quite flustered and ready to face it.

As everyone made their way into the house, Hunter looked for Luz and Amity. Everyone was talking about the movie they had watched and how great it was. Guz and Willow were visibly excited to have experienced a ‘Human Movie’.

Hunter finally spotted them. “LUZ! AMITY!” He called out to them sternly. The two girls froze and stared at him in silence.

“Um…” Luz broke the silence, “What is it?” She stared at him and (Y/N).

“(Y/N) told me she got a little idea from you too…” He glared at them with arms crossed. “She said you two were ‘making out’ in front of her… Care to explain?”  

They both blushed madly, and Luz was the first to speak. “How much did you see?!” (Y/N) blushed again, looking away.

“Um… a… a bit…?” She murmured, unsure of what to say.

Hunter ran at the girls, “YOU TWO CORRUPTED HER!”

“AGH!” The two shouted in unison. Luz grabbed Amity’s hand and dragged her with her. They ran around the couch, into the kitchen, all over the first floor trying to escape Hunter.

“Niños! Calmense, por favor!" Camila begged them to stop and calm down. It was utterly useless. Hunter was determined to get them.

Everyone else laughed at them. (Y/N) watched Hunter and smiled to herself. If he was willing to protect her innocence, he was willing to protect her from any harm. She blushed lightly and laughed. This is gonna be a long night.

                                      ─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

This was surprisingly difficult to get through. It took me a whole week to finish it. Huh. Well, thank you all for reading and thank you WinterBlue_Angel22 (Wattpad) for requesting! It means a lot that my one-shots have caught your attention enough for you to request! Requests remain open but please keep in mind I they may take a while! Thank you again! 

GIF from Tenor 

Page Divider

P.S No matter how fluffy your prompt is I will always find a way to make Hunter emotionally starved and traumatized <3🤞💖💗❤️ 💞 😍😍

-Deathlight Gato (I’m gonna pass out dammit)

Un-edited

Who is your favorite. Fearless. Hero.

Who is your favorite. Fearless. He-e-roooo.

                                       ─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

[deemee-ed]

Wow, I'm so normal about this movie! *develops a DreamWorks conspiracy theory on why Me and My Shadow got cancelled*

DreamWorks and franchises: a "conspiracy theory" on why "Me and My Shadow" got cancelled

On December 10th 2010 the project for an animated movie called "Me and My Shadow" was announced by DreamWorks. The story is about a timid and boring man called Daniel Grubb and his shadow "Shadow Dan" trying to convince him to live a more exciting life. The animation style follows an idea similar to "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", except that instead of blending 2D animation and live-action it would have worked with both 2D and 3D animation, with 2D for the shadow characters and their world and 3D for the real people. Despite being half-way done, the release date of this project kept being pushed back, first from 2013 to 2014, until it entered a state of limbo and eventually got cancelled. This decision was taken mostly due to the failure in 2014 of "Mr. Peabody and Sherman", which brought to the cancellation of other projects as well.

Personally, I have been upset about this cancellation ever since I found out about this movie, mostly because I just know that if it had come out this would have been one of my favorite movies ever. A few days ago DreamWorks released a trailer for their next movie, "Megamind 2", a very cheap-looking sequel to "Megamind" set to release on March 1st 2024 on Peacock. While I was washing the dishes (lol), I thought about this trailer for a moment and had a sudden "conspiracy theory" coming up on why "Me and My Shadow" was one of the movies got cancelled after 2014: In the same trailer of "Megamind 2" they announce a new serie which will come out based on it, meaning that this movie is basically an advertisement or a pilot for the show. This is reinforced by the cheap animation commonly used in these spin-off shows.

This serie announcement made me realize something: DreamWorks has made A LOT of shows, shorts and sequels based on their movies. In other words, this studio loves creating franchises. And even though this is a common marketing choice for many studios, I feel like DreamWorks does this VERY often. Some examples are: -"Shrek", with 3 sequels (might become 4), 8 shorts, 3 TV specials, and 2 spin-off movies and 1 serie based on Puss in Boots -"Kung Fu Panda", with 2 (soon 3) sequels, 3 series and 5 shorts -"How to train your Dragon", with 2 sequels, 3 series and 6 shorts -"Madagascar", with 3 sequels, 3 series, 3 shorts and a spin-off movie based on The Penguins of Madagascar -"Trolls", with 2 sequels, 2 series, 6 shorts and 2 TV specials -"The Croods", with 1 sequel and 2 series -"Monsters vs Aliens", with 1 serie, 2 shorts and 1 TV special -"Captain Underpants", with 1 serie and a possible spin-off movie -"Mr. Peabody and Sherman", with 1 serie As you can see, both known and less known movies ended up having at least 1 serie, turning them into franchises. It's actually rarer to find movies by DreamWorks that were not turned into franchises. So I'd say it's clear that DreamWorks has quite some interest in this marketing choice.

Even their newer movie "Orion and the Dark", released on Netflix on February 2nd 2024, can work as a DreamWorks franchise. You can understand this by the presence of a TEAM of secondary characters: they can't be fully developed in a movie, but they are an interesting team that can be developed in a show. It's the same concept as the Furious Five from "Kung Fu Panda", or as the Penguins of Madagascar and King Julien from "Madagascar": a team of secondary characters the movie can't focus on, but that you wouldn't mind seeing again. And now, with the release of a show based on "Megamind 2", a new team of villains is introduced in the sequel. Villains that are very likely going to be secondary characters that could be developed more in a show. See the pattern? I believe that DreamWorks follows this as their standard for a franchise: the movie must have a team of secondary characters.

Now, let's look back at "Me and My Shadow" and let's focus on the characters. From what we know, there were going to be 4 relevant characters: -Daniel Grubb (who some of you might also know as Stanley) -Shadow Dan (also known as Shadow Stan) -Heidi (Daniel's love interest) -The Shadow Villain (the bad guy, obviously) Every other character that was seen in small Behind-The-Scenes works doesn't seem to have much relevance. There are secondary characters, but they don't seem to be connected as a team, unlike many other secondary characters from Dreamworks.

Now, here's the "conspiracy theory": I believe one of the reasons "Me and My Shadow" was cancelled is that it could not be adapted as a DreamWorks franchise. The story would have been concluded in the movie, the characters didn't need to be developed more, and none of the secondary cast could work as a team. Could they have made some shorts based on it? Probably yes, but a short is not a serie. DreamWorks seems to have more interest in shows than shorts (remember: most franchises have at least a SHOW, not a short!).

With that being said, I'd like to end this post by doing some advertisement for this movie, even if it never got a chance to be finished. Everytime I find a new clip I am filled with pure joy. "Me and My Shadow" deserves to be made. -Shout-out to SQUIDWORD15 on YouTube for finding mANY unfinished clips. Bless this fella

[shaunamilfman]

More Random HC’s cause I’m waiting to go into work :)

Nat:

- Unironically LOVES shirts that are/have the same energy as “women love me, fish fear me”/“Big dick is back in town” etc. she wears them more often than you’d like

- She lives off of Mountain Dew, Red Bull and hot Cheetos, that’s all she packs for lunch everyday and you have to drop off water and a snack for her at practice so she doesn’t pass out since she barely takes care of herself

Misty:

- was one of those girls that had a thing for the Onceler from the Lorax

- She was def apart of the 2012 tumblr culture, (superwholock or whatever it was) one of those girls that would get a tattoo off of one of the YA books they read, hunger games, Harry Potter, stuff like that

Jackie:

- Either really knows how to play American football and is super invested in the NFL, or does not know anything at all “What is a down?”

- Is SO CLINGY (Derogatory) sure you thought it was cute at first until she gets up at 5 am for her morning practice and wakes you up too so you can “brush your teeth together”. It gets even worse when she’s sick, shes the hugest baby when she’s sick and you know if she gets sick you’re bound to get sick a week later because she’s plastered to your side

Van:

- Legit loves anything you get her, even if it’s kind of a joke. Stupid $2 tourist T shirt? You got it for her so she loves it, childish Spider-Man socks, thinks they’re cool as fuck. Just overall very appreciative and excited to recieve anything from you

Lottie:

- I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; She’s absolutely good at all the fine arts; she can draw well, she definitely can play the piano and violin, bc her rich parents paid for her to have lessons, etc

- She definitely also did some nerdy shit like take taekwondo until she was 14. Idk why I can just imagine this girl in like that white martial arts gi, doing like punching exercises.

Shauna:

- I don’t know if this makes sense but the kind of gf that when you guys go out to eat, you’ll both be quiet/not talk so you can eavesdrop onto people’s conversations and talk about it in the car on the way home

ugh no nat is such a loser she so would. she shows up at your house wearing this

asking her when the last time she drank water was and she's really got to think about it. she gets so shy if you like cook her something though omg

Misty would have crushes on the weirdest fucking cartoon characters and shit I swear. she pulls you a picture of megamind and you're like "... okay"

superwholockian misty i know that's right. misty has like collectors editions of the Sherlock books. she has like an original printing displayed in her living room fr

Misty def had one of those shirts like "heading off to the shire to become a jedi because my hogwarts letter never came."

i take that and I raise you Jackie being super super invested in the NFL but still does not know how football works. she's into the vibes she's just competitive as fuck. you look over and she's googling what a halfback does.

also Jackie totally follows a soccer team obsessively. she has like 5 jerseys and so so much merch. she even buys you some so she can make you wear it. she's so excited whenever there's a game on. she's def screaming at the ref for making a bad call

jackie's dramatic ass makes you sit in the bathroom with her as she showers. your just sitting on the sink with your head against the mirror barely able to keep your eyes open and she's excitedly rambling on like she's on fucking crack.

also i feel like jackie is such a morning person. you're half an energy drink in and barely awake and she's bouncing off the walls at 6 AM

she definitely gets you sick whenever she gets sick for sure. she's expecting princess treatment squared when she's sick. omg you thought she was needy normally?? your ass is not ready.

Van is so fucking sentimental bro she has a whole box dedicated to little things you gave her, even if it was just something you randomly handed to her lmao

artist lottie has such a hold on me tbh I love it.

martial arts lottie def got a participation trophy and a pat on the back i can not see her being good at it lmao

oh no fr shauna is such a hater she loves doing hater activities with you. jackie's talking about jeff or something and yall are like 😒🙄. she always looks straight for you when stupid shit happens.

[heartsopenminds]

preshow hangout q+a! london 28 sept

I was at the show again tonight (I got to go on friday too!) and it was sooo good! I also got to go to the pre show hangout, so here’s some highlights from the q+a - putting under the cut as it’s v long and maybe a little spoilerish so....

- dan had lots of people he knows coming to the show tonight and was trying not to think about how how much ‘adult content’ there is and how they might react

- he had to remove some grandma jokes from the cardiff show because of the queen's funeral

- what disney prince would he bang? Immediate answer was the beast, then he clarified he meant in human form, then switched to aladdin

- people have mocked him for the fact that all he has in his rider is red bull, water and a banana (he reassured us this was not for sexual purposes)

- his feet smell like soap, but apparently americans have told him that's weird because everyone uses shower gel these days and soap is for medievel peasants

- he used to know how to do the dance to lucifer by shinee, and they're his number one all time group

- he thanked the person who wrote 'piss' on their piece of paper for bringing that over from instagram q+a’s

- the box where people post questions which is labelled ‘dan’s hole’ is now being referred to as ‘dan's slit’ because it’s a slot not a round hole

- the crew named the box dan's hole without consulting him and he's worried about getting it through customs to america

- the vip bags are meant to be an end of the world survival kit and you can use the bracelet as a weapon to fire at people's eyes and blind them

- there's lots of journalists coming to review the show tonight and Dan is worried they are all going to be bald white old heterosexual men and will think he’s just a woke child, but apparently if he wears nail varnish they'll suddenly realise he's gay and then whatever he says will be fine

- he said several times that we all have to make sure we cheer and look like we're enjoying the show so that the journalists will give him a good review

- his least favourite one direction solo music is liam payne’s

- the same person who asked that also asked for 'thoughts on’ daddy marx aka karl' and dan’s response was icon, legend, slay

- if phil were turned into a houseplant, dan wouldn't water him as he wouldn't deserve it because of how many plants he's killed

- dan thinks phil will live in filth for two months while he tours america and then do a panic clean 2 days before he gets back

- the person who asked them for a threesome was.....your mum

- corgi might win over shibe in the 'get a dog' discussion because shibes are apparently not very emotionally available

- someone said get one of each and Dan said he doesn't want to come home from tour and find two dog skeletons, so maybe that's a 2023 thing (!!)

- he emotionally vibes with the idea of becoming a cottagecore cat lady with 9 black cats

- his dream place to do a show would be in his house so he doesn't have to get dressed, so probably a livestream of him sleeping

- if he had to be a biscuit he'd be a hobnob - messy, large, circular and full of too much sugar

- fuck marry kill with mariokart characters - he'd marry then fuck then kill luigi

- he’s clueless about wine and never knows what to say when people ask him what his favourite red wine is

- phil only likes alcohol that tastes like ribena, and likes a nice gay rosé

- fave alcoholic drink - he said he's a gin girl because gin makes you cry and he's crying all the time on the inside so he's drawn to it on an emotional level

- someone asked how it felt to have turned an entire generation queer, and he laughed and apologised

- 'would you rather turn into sonic, godzilla or megamind every time you’re aroused?' dan’s response was sonic because whatever you're going to do, you can do it fast ‘time is money - spin on that, bitch!’

- he stopped posting the preshow selfies on his main account because phil said people were seeing it and not realising it was the preshow, so it made it look like only about 50 people were turning up to the show each night

[teahermitcomics]

Right, it's MCM London Comic Con this weekend. And I have a bunch of new shit ready for it, I've been working my butt off. Let's take a look at what's new on the table! Which you can find with this handy map.

Cup 9! £10

It's finally in print, it's gorgeous, thanks again ComicPrintingUK for another excellent job. Look at those deep cover colours, gonna look great next to vols 1-8. Speaking of, new deals!

Cups 7-9 are £27 (Saving £3)

[The Teaset] Cups 1-9 is £69 (saving £8). Nice.

Wooden Waiter Chick Pins: New batch! £6

I've hatched a bunch more of these chick pins (pegs unrelated, that's just how I dry them before I tie their ribbons on 😂), they're more yellow than the last batch so I hope you like these bright little birds!

Koala Pride pins! £4

Let Robert the Koala from Cafe Suada help you show your pride. There's also pronouns and customisation available.

Right let's get into the prints 👀 Excuse me for the length of this post but I have whipped up a BUNCH and there are some surprises...

Cafe Suada prints of any size will now be FREE with purchases of The Teaset book deal, btw. And maybe smaller book deals too. As a treat 💝

A4 Prints £8 💦Sweat & Soap Screentone Edition! 💦 😇Good Omens: I'M NOT NICE!! 👿 ⚓️Cobymeppo!!! (and Garp)⚓️ 🌸SKIP & LOAFERRRR🌸

~New triptychs~ £8 💙Megamind Blue Edition💙 💚Persona 3 Dark Hour Edition💚 🔫Metal Gear Solid🐍 🗡️Knives Out x Glass Onion🧅

By popular demand, I also have some new A5 pirates for you. £5 👑Elizabeth Swann 👑 🍏Hector Barbossa🍏

and...

🏴‍☠️ Izzy Hands 🏴‍☠️

People have been asking me to draw him for ages but it wasn't until Season 2 that I felt COMPELLED 🥺

I've also whipped up a cute rainbow concertina print to celebrate Sense8 with all the cluster portraits I did. £8

The final new print, as you may have all expected, is the stupid (lovely) hypocrite (Icanfixhim) pale gremlin leaving us all bloodless (horny)

🩸Astarion🩸

............................

...

Surprise!!

✨Teapot Shaker Charms! ✨£10

These wooden teapots feature a tiny Geraldine you can shake around inside with various sequin bubbles, hearts, stars and beads, backed by eye catching gold and bronze foils. The spout also has a tea coloured gem "pouring" out of it!

I only had time to make 4 so if you want one make a beeline for Artist Alley, Row H, table 20!

Okay that's it for real now, thanks for not scrolling away! All of these are just the new products, so my table will of course have all my other comics (Cafe Suada 1-8, For the Love of God, Marie!, Ambrosia, Nether Realms, Feels like Noodles and The Weight of Expectation), prints and other merch from before.

I haven't tabled at MCM since last year so I'm really looking forward to seeing you all there! COME TO MY TABLE AND SPEAK TO ME OF YOUR BG3 PLAYTHROUGHS--

[minijenn]

Jen Tortures Herself With Every Dreamworks Animated Movie Ever: Kung Fu Panda 2

Full disclosure, I haven't seen this movie or Kung Fu Panda 3 in years so I was excited to revisit the entire franchise again! And with good reason, because Kung Fu Panda 2 is fantastic! But... is it as legendary as the first movie? Well... let's get into it.

We pick up with Po, now fully settled into his role as the Dragon Warrior, when he and the Furious Five set off to Gongmen City to stop the evil Lord Shen from using a deadly new weapon to take over all of China. Along the way, Po discovers the secrets of his forgotten past and must find inner peace despite the pain that past may bring.

The story here is even more simple than the first, very much carrying the vibe of an adventure movie more than establishing this world and characters like the first film did. And I do like that about it, I like that we get Po and the Furious Five being together as a team for most of the movie, getting to see how they all play off each other now that they're an established team. But... I think this movie is a touch more... spectacle than its predecessor was. More fight scenes, more slapstick, more... things happening instead of getting to know, say any of the other Five (besides Tigress, who is still the most in focus among them) better. It's all done very well, but it still feels like the movie is padding itsself out with that just a touch.

The characters are all still great though. We get some really great development for Po here, along with his genuinely tragic backstory and how he learns to overcome the anguish losing his family at such a young age may bring. The Furious Five are also all still very fun, with some really great friendship moments between Po and Tigress in particular. As for our new characters, we have the Soothsayer, who is a really well-done wise elder type character who also lays the sass down on our villain. Speaking of which...

I'm just gonna say it. I think Lord Shen may be one of the greatest Dreamworks villains ever. Holy shit ya'll, this goddamn peacock is just... insane. He has a tragic backstory too, but it's of his own damn doing, he's utter unhinged and bloodthirsty, hilarious in his own haughty way, and his design is so fucking great, like how Dreamworks made a peacock of all things so sinster, I'll never know, but they sure as hell did.

Once again, the animation here is top notch, with even more beautiful stylization than the first. The colors pop so vibrantly and the kung fu scenes are an absolute feast to the eyes, as are the set pieces. The score is also utterly beautiful, a returning trend in this franchise, I've noticed, with both strong, punchy action tunes and stirring emotional melodies alike.

The humor here is still pretty strong, but I think it takes something of a back seat to the emotions. And golly, this story does have them, it's probably one of the heaviest movies Dreamworks has made yet (it opens on recounting a literal panda genocide, I mean). But it's message, about not dwelling in the past and that what matters is who you choose to be now is absolutely on par with the simple, beautiful wisdom of the first. And at the end of the day, it's a message I think Po and the audience learn in a perfectly poetic way.

So yeah, Kung Fu Panda 2 is absolutely wonderful. I still think I like the first Kung Fu Panda just a little more, mostly because I think its message (beliving something is special is what makes it special) strikes a cord with me just a little bit more. Even so, this was a great second step in what's one of Dreamworks' best franchises. I'm very excited to see what the third (and the upcoming fourth) have to offer.

Overall Rating: 9/10

Verdict: Killed by a gay peacock and his big boom boom canon

Previous Review (Megamind)

Next Review (Puss in Boots)

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Animation Face-Offs

I find it amusing that the first real major animated movie box office show-off is occurring some 35 years after the one that arguably started it all...

November 18, 1988... Walt Disney Feature Animation's celebrity-loaded modern musical OLIVER & COMPANY from first-time director George Scribner, and Universal's release of the Steven Spielberg/George Lucas-produced ex-Disney director Don Bluth adventure THE LAND BEFORE TIME...

This wasn't the first time two animated pictures opened next to each other.

In fall 1982, Hanna-Barbera's HEIDI'S SONG opened opposite a Looney Tunes clipshow anthology movie called 1001 RABBIT TALES. Combined, they made $5m at the domestic box office... Not great times to open an animated feature that wasn't Disney, and not that their distributors probably even cared at the time anyways.

Sometimes, there are around two animated features a month. It's not uncommon for two studios to share. Off the top of my head, you had - in November 2010 - MEGAMIND at the beginning of the month, and TANGLED before Thanksgiving. In the early summer of 2013, MONSTERS UNIVERSITY only opened about a few weeks before DESPICABLE ME 2. TROLLS and MOANA shared November 2016. Again, just random examples off the top of my head.

But usually, they're spaced out... TROLLS BAND TOGETHER and WISH are five days apart...

TROLLS 3 is projected to take in around $20-25m this weekend, which is significantly less than what TROLLS took in back in 2016, but still alright for this kind of movie. WISH is set to out-open it, with over $50m for the 5-day Thanksgiving weekend stretch. For a $200m-costing movie, it's going to need all the legs in the world to get by. TROLLS 3 will need to pull some good weight too to more than double its much more modest $95m budget. (Wild to think that $95m seems *low*... There was a time when a DreamWorks/PDI movie cost $75m... And for a good while, roughly $135m!)

I'm curious to see how each film affects one another. Families aren't made of money, and there's gotta be a kind of adult pull to really make big bucks, and I'm not sure if either of these films have that. Plus you have stuff like WONKA right around the corner... Thankfully no Marvel, Star Wars, or Avatar movie to counter with. Although, PUSS IN BOOTS Dos last year, woooooow. That cat held his own against the blue cat aliens.

But yeah, if you think about it... This is a rare head-to-head race.

One could argue we saw this in late winter of 2021 when Warner Bros. released their live-action TOM & JERRY, and then Disney Animation had RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON out a week later. But that was before vaccines got out for all age groups (they were distributed to the elderly first, I - who was 28 at the time - couldn't get my first shot until April.), and the films had simultaneous streaming debuts, so I don't really count that. Plus, Cinemark theaters refused to show RAYA over a disagreement on who got most of the earnings. (That would've been my return trip to the movies after a year-long hiatus, my return ended up being A QUIET PLACE: PART II two months later.)

It's funny how TROLLS 3 is Universal and WISH is Disney... Just like how LAND BEFORE TIME was Universal, and OLIVER was Disney.

The Disney-Universal race was successful for both. OLIVER took home $53m domestically (the $71m figure you often see comes from the film's 1996 re-release), LAND BEFORE TIME took home $48m. Worldwide is up the air, because Disney never released OLIVER's numbers, Universal reported that LAND made around $84m. Winner is unknown, but it was always assumed to be LAND. Maybe because dinosaurs are more Universal than a modern-day New York comedy? Who knows!

Perhaps greatly inspired by that double-whammy of animated hits, MGM/United Artists wanted to try that for themselves. Don Bluth split with Spielberg and Lucas due to creative disagreements during production of both LAND BEFORE TIME and his other Spielberg collab AN AMERICAN TAIL, and set up ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN with the lion. MGM/UA released ALL DOGS the same day as THE LITTLE MERMAID...

Bluth's movie got left to sink by the Ron Clements and John Musker-directed musical sleeper hit... It wasn't even close. $27m domestic vs. $84m domestic, and in addition that, MERMAID's worldwide figures put it at roughly $183m. (Again, in 1989-90, without the 1997 re-release counted.) ALL DOG's worldwide total is unknown.

This didn't entirely scare distributors away from trying again.

The fall of 1990 was originally set to see another Bluth vs. Disney face-off. If plans had held, MGM-Pathe would've released Bluth's ROCK-A-DOODLE on the same day as Disney's sequel THE RESCUERS DOWN UNDER. MGM-Pathe ran into financial and legal problems, putting Bluth's film in limbo for a bit...

Instead, Warner Bros. went toe to toe with Disney, releasing an animated feature that wasn't a Looney Tunes clipshow: THE NUTCRACKER PRINCE... Suffice to say, it barely scrounged up $1m domestically, and Disney's sequel had troubles of its own, stalling at $29m domestically, $47m worldwide.

Two films fled from the autumn of 1991, as BEAUTY AND THE BEAST looked to not be a repeat of RESCUERS DOWN UNDER, but a repeat of LITTLE MERMAID and OLIVER's successes... 20th Century Fox - who had FERNGULLY: THE LAST RAINFOREST - and The Samuel Goldwyn Company - who picked up ROCK-A-DOODLE - chickened, literally in the latter's case...

Only Universal had the guts to take on the beast... By releasing AN AMERICAN TAIL: FIEVEL GOES WEST the same day. The Don Bluth-less sequel made only $22m domestically, while BEAUTY AND THE BEAST made... $145m in North America alone, and blew up with $331m around the world...

After FERNGULLY and ROCK-A-DOODLE wisely fled from BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, they duked it out in April 1992. DOODLE opened the first weekend of the month, with FERNGULLY following. FERNGULLY won with $24m domestically, DOODLE struggled with $11m. (It's worth noting that DOODLE first came out in the UK in August of 1991.)

Universal initially thought they'd have WE'RE BACK! A DINOSAUR'S STORY ready to compete with ALADDIN, but they likely realized that that was not a great idea... WE'RE BACK! opened over a full year after ALADDIN and still flopped hard. It opened nearby BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM, which also made a paltry amount.

From there on out, things were typically spaced out. Sometimes the smaller efforts opened close to each other.

And now here we are, Thanksgiving week of 2023... We have trolls vs. wishing stars. Universal vs. Disney. It'll be fun to watch, but I hope the two film crews of both get to put food on their tables once more.

[ylojgtr]

(this eventually gets to a star wars rant if youre interested)

i feel like a large part of me enjoying the media i do is rooted in a treasure hunter sort of urge, like yeah i genuinely want 80% of the franchises i love to be literal shit. it makes the gems so much more enjoyable

like i love dreamworks because of shit like puss in boots 2, megamind, httyd, etc., but it wouldn't be the same without shark tale

same with scooby doo, i fucking love mystery inc, zombie island, the fucking lego special was delightful, like who would think that such random pieces of excellent media could exist between the just utter failures that franchise has produced

and the best ones are things like the live action scooby doo movies, or all hail king julien, or revenge of the sith, which balance being goofy as fuck with having genuinely incredible narratives and character work (just to clarify, i mean this in VERY different ways for each of the examples mentioned, but fuck off this is my blog ❤️)

but there's a line here, too. the bad shit? it has to be fun. like the bee movie is an abysmal attempt at storytelling, but it's still fun to laugh at because of how absurd it is.

star wars used to be the same way, but i feel it's getting less and less fun with each disney product (except andor my beloved ❤️)

the shitty mandalorian episodes, bobf, obi-wan...they're all so stale and plain that i find no joy in watching them beyond the initial "oh my god, it's [insert actor/character i like] again!"

like give us more batshit insane stuff like the battle for endor, or the new jedi order, or shit that, yeah might be terrible, but is at least fun to sift through while you're looking for the true incredible mind-meltingly good gems (ie, andor)

(although i can't help thinking, who knows, maybe one day i, or future generations, will look back on the disney shows and laugh at how bad they are...like that leia chase scene certainly has some great potential)

[monkey-network]

Good Stuff: Megamind 2

I remember many moons ago that I reviewed Dreamworks's Megamind in all its brilliance. I remember around that same time spitballing about a sequel. Cut to 2 years ago where they announced one and my optimism was in it. I wasn't expecting much, I had simple expectations of this since Dreamworks never slacked when it came to their sequels, you know? Now we're here... and it's like how am I meant to feel? Should I feel grateful for this sudden monkey's paw, this baboon's dishwater soaked digits for giving us this take on Megamind? [sigh] I don't want to be too sour about this though.

Still better than what Wreck-it Ralph fans got, I guess

Now I'm not bothered by them making a film that's essentially a backdoor pilot to the TV series, nor that the original cast's been replaced, introducing new characters, and that the series itself isn't theatrical tier animation wise. That has always been an acceptable given with Dreamworks shows vs movies. What bothers me is that the new "film" couldn't have the same quality as before. Like this is unprecedented, where a sequel doesn't get the same stellar animation as before but is basically just episode 0 of the TV show. This never happened before, The Croods, Trolls, and Boss Baby never got downgraded to direct-to-DVD status with their sequels's animation looking worse than the fucking Paw Patrol movies. We JUST got Puss in Boots: The Last Wish couple years ago, so can you imagine how this kinda bothers me? I'm cool with it not having the same great writing and worldbuilding as the OG film, but this felt like the biggest disservice to any Megamind fan, heck any animation fan in general.

Presentation was the ONE thing this should have had

But I've been sour enough, is the film/show actually worth it story and character wise? Dear lord, it's corny. It makes 60s Batman feel like a Christopher Nolan production. The characters you know are basically the only reason to watch this as none of the new ideas given are compelling enough that makes this feel justified. It's nice getting a series about heroes and villains, and Megamind himself is the most enjoyable part about all this, but it's like even I can't sift out the hidden gem this could have with what I've seen. It's like kids will enjoy this as is like the other Dreamworks shows, but it's hard imagining any older fan of the original movie being ecstatic enough to even bother past the film. I'm sorry, it's overall serviceable but I can't offer any silver lining that can prove this was worth it.

Again, I can't even be mad. I'm used to this pain.

I don't know what else to say. Do I just lie to you all and say this wasn't a massive disappointment? This hasn't soured my feelings for Dreamworks, I'm still a believer given they aren't exactly the studio I go to for long running streaks of quality compared to others. It's not like Megamind was the biggest thing in my life, that goes to Shrek and Bluey, but I kinda wanted... more from this? This just barely does anything for me. I'm gonna watch a couple more episodes and honestly not look back when this weekend's over. What sucks the most is that this isn't the first time a sequel animation has made me feel this way, but this is a newfound low for me.

I give Arzette: Jewel of Faramore a 9 out of 10. Just a fantastic blast from the past.

Megamind 2 gets a 2 out of 5. Fucking fiasco.

[damienthepious]

so ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ummmmmmmm ahhhhh. megamind fic that hasn’t been updated since 2019. sdfsdffsdlfjadslfkaskdfjdfalksf

Die Clean and Pretty (chapter 3)

[ch 1] [ch 2] [ao3]

Fandom: Megamind (2010)

Characters: Megamind, Metro Man, Roxanne Ritchi, Minion, Brainbots

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Fake Character Death, Not Really Character Death, Angst, Eventual Happy Ending, (this will… have a happy ending SOMEHOW. even if i don’t currently know. where the fuck it’s going), Megamind Makes Bad Decisions, (also i tagged this as gen because i have NO CLUE what relationships are gonna happen here if any.), (roxanne is likely low key in love with megamind), (and megamind is p much canonically and perpetually in love with roxanne), (but i don't know if the romance will actually feature heavily), (so i'll just change the category if anything changes), Suicidal Thoughts, very indirect descriptions of a body

Summary: What if Megamind had the bright idea to fake his own death before Metro Man did? Turns out, the author who struck upon the idea would cry a lot and then inflict it on others.

Chapter Summary: Roxanne is not coping. Because Roxanne does not need to cope. Because Roxanne is fine, actually. She's just busy.

Chapter Notes: okay look okay look okay look okay. look. we don't need to talk about it. we don't. it's. fine. i'm posting megafic on lizard kissin' tuesday and it's SAD SHIT. it's. FINE.

~

Roxanne can’t stop thinking about the explosion.

That’s perfectly normal, a part of her mind murmurs. It’s the part that sounds like the grief counselor the station insisted she talk to when she came back to the office this morning, and that thought makes her scowl.

It’s not a trauma thing. She glares at the footage, grainy and a little too distant, and she watches for what must be the thirtieth time as the fire curls out of the center of the suit, as Wayne disappears into super-speed, as he rockets back in alarm and collides with the pavement, as the suit itself detonates completely. It all happens in less than two seconds, and Roxanne could play-by-play those seconds down to the pixel by now.

There is nothing at all in the footage to indicate anything amiss, to indicate that anything else happened besides exactly what Roxanne already saw.

There is nothing at all to suggest that Megamind could have survived.

Still, though.

Roxanne rewinds the footage again. She plays it at half speed, for all that it helps. She gets a better picture of Metro Man’s trajectory, but little else. She plays it again. She scowls, and leans closer, and plays the footage again.

(Hiding in a meeting room with her laptop and footage no one wanted to give her, because everyone keeps looking at her like she's fragile, like she-)

Something just feels wrong about all this.

Obviously, that same part of her mind murmurs again. He’s dead. Of course it feels wrong.

She grits her teeth, and plays the footage again. It’s not that. It ’s not just the idea of him- it’s not just that. There ’s something about the whole damn situation that doesn’t sit right with her. Something that pings on her radar as an investigator. It’s not personal-

… Okay, so that’s too much a lie to excuse. She can’t pretend that her reactions aren’t personal. This- losing- the game altering so dramatically- of course it’s personal. It’s basically her entire life, and every part of it is going to change, now. She can’t pretend that isn’t a factor.

It’s personal. But that isn’t why something feels wrong.

She rewinds the footage. She plays it again.

She watches Megamind die, again, and she looks for any sort of crack, the smallest seam that she can pry her nails into.

~

Maybe Roxanne isn’t sleeping. Maybe. Honestly, she doesn’t know how anyone could expect her to sleep. Metro Man is still missing in action; he’s back in the atmosphere somewhere, but no one has seen him since he careened back down to earth. Roxanne suspects that he’s gone home, but she doesn’t know Lady Scott well enough to justify calling her. She doesn’t know what the Lady thinks- thought of Megamind, she can’t imagine what she would say, how she would approach asking-

Is your son there? Is he coping alright? Is he coping at all? Does he blame himself? Would he let me see him? Is he okay?

(Wayne is her friend, he's her best friend, and he hadn't even let her touch him, he'd slipped out of the timestream to stop her from comforting him, he'd left the planet, and he hasn't come to see her and he-)

(Where is he?)

She isn’t sleeping. She can’t sleep. She closes her eyes and-

She isn’t sleeping. She doesn’t bother pretending after the first hour or so. She rises from her bed again and pulls on slippers and a robe and goes to sit in her kitchen, wide and cool and empty, and she plays out the clip in her mind again, plays out the moment as she saw it from near the press line, plays it out frame by grisly frame in her head.

She gets up after a few minutes, restless, and starts pacing the apartment. Nothing for it, really. Nothing for it. She goes to fetch her laptop, setting it on the island and half-leaning on one of the barstools as she starts searching through the local news outlets, the police response, social media chatter.

(She ignores her own report from the immediate aftermath. She knows what she said. She knows how blank and flat she looked with her ash-dusted dress and her heat-singed hair, her voice running on autopilot in its Professional Reporter tone as she ran through the facts of the situation. She knows the way her face twitched when Leah back in the studio said something limp about Roxanne not needing to worry about being kidnapped anymore, the way Leah had immediately tried to backpedal when Roxanne hadn't managed to say anything at all in response, leaving an uncomfortable chunk of dead air between them.)

(Nothing useful for her in there.)

Much of the immediate response, beyond surprise, seems to be a sort of shrugging well-it-was-bound-to-happen-eventually sentiment, which- Roxanne's jaw hurts a bit, from clenching her teeth. Because.

Failsafe after failsafe after failsafe and no, actually, this was not fucking bound to happen. Supervillain is a dangerous position, sure, fine, but Megamind is-

Megamind was. Megamind was always so careful.

... not to say that Megamind didn't make mistakes. His battlesuits frequently had glaring weak points that Metro Man could exploit (which Roxanne privately thought may have been intentional- an extra safety precaution, even. Safer if Megamind knew how the suits would be dismantled, allowed for easier exits if need be, but- that's a hunch. A theory. She doesn't have any proof of that). He often thought too quickly, too, and failed to remember crucial logistics when it came to the timing of death rays and traps for the hero, but-

Once, only one time, Roxanne had been hurt during a plot. Fairly early on, Metro Man had misjudged a sweep with his laser-vision, slicing right through a weird swarm of mechanical flying fish and accidentally carving though the ceiling above Roxanne's kidnapping chair, too.

She had managed to tip herself sideways before the bulk of the debris could hit her, and Minion had moved faster than she'd ever seen him move to help shield her from the worst of it, but a laser-sharp shard of a beam had still caught her in the thigh. Not so bad as it could have been, but-

She remembers that Megamind had been terrified. He had shouted, a wordless exclamation with his eyes so wide on her, and then he pressed a button on his communicator watch that had (she learned later) made a noise at a pitch that stopped Metro Man short, just long enough for the villain to point out what happened and scream at him to get Roxanne to a hospital.

At the time, Roxanne hadn't exactly been in the best state of mind, what with the adrenaline and the pain. She vaguely remembers trying to say something about being okay, she was okay, it wasn't that bad, but she'd been too busy putting pressure on the wound to really protest as Minion carefully lifted her into Metro Man's arms before he shifted them into superspeed and then- the hospital.

Megamind had been quiet, for a while, after that. Roxanne had been back on her feet in less than a week, completely fine in two, but- Megamind hadn't kidnapped her again for nearly a month. And when he did, she remembers noticing-

(Roxanne isn't as smart as Megamind, of course. No one on the planet is. But Roxanne is observant, and she pays attention to Megamind's inventions. She's gotten enough monologues on their functionality over the years, of course, and honestly they really are brilliant, even if the applications border on insanity. She's done plenty of her own research, too, and she knew-)

There had been new failsafes, after that. Subtle, yes, but not subtle enough to escape Roxanne's notice. There had been more brainbots in the vicinity, perched and watchful and quiet, and new mechanical sea-urchin-looking mechanisms arranged carefully on the ceiling, on the support struts, on the columns holding up the ceiling of the abandoned warehouse Megamind chose for this particular plot, and Roxanne-

Roxanne knows Megamind's technology. She knows that spikes mean a situational force-field, and considering the number of spikes per urchin, and the number of urchins-

He hadn't been taking any chances with something like that happening again.

Roxanne scrolls, and scrolls, and scrolls. Something in her stomach does a weird lurching pulse when she notices a few genuinely mournful sounding social media posts.

So. Yes.

Megamind was careless in the ways that really didn't matter, careful in the ways that did.

Which is why none of this makes sense. Even if there had been some sort of mechanical failure so as to allow the very predictable turn of Metro Man using his laser vision to cause a real fire, there should have been at least three failsafes in place to eject, to douse the flames, to auto-dehydrate Megamind into one of those near-impenetrable cubes. There should have been something. There should have been. There should have been.

Articles from later in the day discuss the reactions, not only of the populace (Roxanne skims; she does not want to read people gloating, celebrating- supervillain finally defeated-), but also- the brainbots.

The brainbots are clever things. Roxanne has paid a lot of attention to them over the years, too. Of course she has; Megamind is- Megamind was clearly more proud of them than almost anything he's ever made. From the different reports around the city, they must have all gotten the news at the same moment, falling into confusion and dropping whatever their current jobs had been to chatter their little mechanical chatter and then fly off in a way that, now, almost seems... coordinated?

Maybe that was the protocol, if anything ever happened to Megamind. Drop what you're doing and go...

Go home?

Roxanne frowns, tugging out a pen and a notebook from her laptop bag.

That's where they would have gone, right? Home? She skims a few more articles, taking notes, trying to pay attention to-

Okay, yes. The ones near Midtown had all swept away to the east, a group by the river had all gone north... she pulls up a map of the city in another tab as she goes through another article. And the ones in the park at the edge of the bay- yeah, okay. Southeast, following the coast of the lake. She angles her pencil, tracing the general routes, and the hunch at the back of her mind resolves when every brainbot trajectory aims at least arguably towards the industrial area on the waterfront. Which-

Roxanne has suspected for years that Megamind's lair must be in one of the old warehouses down by the docks, so she isn't all that surprised. She's been in the lair a few times, but Megamind doesn't like to have Metro Man invading his space unless strictly necessary, unless the deathtrap was too big to build anywhere else, or unless he wasn't actually planning on confronting the hero directly. She knows, from those few times, very little, but- she knows that it's near the water, knows the architecture is old, knows that it's big, and very little else. The industrial waterfront just makes sense.

(Roxanne starts printing off a blown-up map of the area; it'll take quite a few pages and she'll need to clear some wall space, but-)

Next. The morning after the- the explosion. She had been pulled into a meeting with the grief counselor for the better part of the day, despite her best efforts, and so she couldn't really keep an eye on what was going on in the city until later. They'd insisted on keeping her from reporting on anything else to do with the "incident," citing it as a conflict of interest, despite the fact that no one at the station has ever had a problem with Roxanne reporting on Metro Man or Megamind before. What, it's too real now? Please.

Anyway. While Roxanne had been busy.

In the early hours of the morning, just around dawn, a small pack of brainbots and, maybe unsurprisingly, Minion himself had broken into the morgue and stolen the- stolen Megamind's body. Before the autopsy, before-

(There was supposed to be a sample of Megamind's DNA (equivalent) on file, but- it had been misplaced at some point within the last year. Missing.)

(Roxanne's instincts ping at her. Aggressively.)

They stole the body from the morgue, and disappeared again. Which-

Maybe there's some sort of cultural funerary traditions that a human morgue would have violated. As far as Roxanne is concerned, Minion has every right to take- to take Megamind home.

(Minion. Minion. She can't let herself think about Minion too hard, can't let herself acknowledge that part of things, she just- she can't. She can't.)

She swallows, forcing the lump in her throat back down into her stomach again. She's too busy to stop and address it, just now.

She takes a few minutes and a number of thumb tacks to put the map up on the wall adjacent to her wide window, arranging them and then plotting the loose trajectories of the brainbots to get a vague idea of which section of the industrial waterfront might be a good starting point, if nothing else. She returns to the laptop, then, systematically plotting out the buildings' owners and associated businesses. It takes a few hours, yeah, and a lot of flash cards and sticky notes, but it's not like Roxanne was sleeping, anyway. It's not like she can sleep.

Nothing stands out immediately, which isn't terribly surprising. This is Megamind, after all. His lair isn't going to have giant neon arrows pointing towards it, and just because Roxanne is familiar with a handful of the shell corporations Megamind owns or owns by proxy, she wasn't expecting to see any of those names involved in a way she could find in a search engine. No, he's smarter than that.

She crosses off the buildings she knows aren't right, the ones where there's no way he could hide his lair. Warehouses and factories that are still operational, mostly, as few of those as there are still in the area. She crosses off a few more, owned by Scott Enterprises (or its shell corporations). It would be funny if Megamind's lair were tucked away under Wayne's nose, but... it doesn't make much sense, to her. He'd want his lair to be free and clear, safely his own. She marks off buildings that are too dilapidated, as well, broken walls and caved-in ceilings, or buildings that are too small.

She steps back, rubbing an eye and looking at the whole of the map.

Half the buildings ruled out. A good start, at least, but... not enough to get her anywhere. It's still too many buildings to try to check individually, especially without attracting any attention. The brainbot trajectories had been too distant and too vague to pinpoint, too. At least-

From the news reports, they had.

Roxanne turns back to facebook, twitter, local message boards. Searches for mentions of the brainbots, searches for videos in particular. Tracks down three or four from closer to the waterfront, watches through and matches the landscapes in the videos to street views.

The brainbots all seem to move in very straight lines. Which is convenient.

She narrows her circle further, reducing the possibilities, and then she goes through the remaining buildings again. Ownership records. She knows when Megamind was officially designated a supervillain, she focuses on finding any buildings that changed hands in the five or so years around that date. Narrows further.

And one building sticks out.

(Not in any way a sane person would notice, Roxanne thinks. But-)

An old power plant, abandoned for a number of years before a startup development firm bought the place at just about the right time, and then proceeded to sit on the land. The same firm, she notices, also bought up three buildings directly surrounding the plant in the decade after, failing to develop or sell any of them.

It's big enough, there shouldn't be any thru-traffic from the other functional plants and warehouses that would make the are even passingly busy, it's close to the water, the timeline matches up...

She zooms in on her laptop, changing to satellite view to get a better look, noting the fairly recent date of the pictures, and...

There's nothing incriminating. No smoking gun, so to speak. No neon arrows.

Roxanne has gotten far, though, trusting her gut. And her gut tells her that she's right.

She checks the clock, checks the window and the grey pre-dawn light creeping across the city skyline and bleaching out the limited handful of stars that pierce the light pollution in Metro.

And then she turns to pull on her shoes, and her coat.

[fanfiction-artist-prototype]

20 questions for writers, tagged by @aobawilliams

how many works do you have on ao3? 76!! If i hadn't purged a few a couple years ago (and they truly were ones that needed to be gone forever and i feel no guilt bc they all had like 3 views and i think they were all mine tbh.) it'd probably be nearly 200 by now.

what's your total ao3 word count? 1,126,631... hm. Maybe i have a problem? nah. I'm sure it's fine.

What fandoms do you write for? My Hero Acadamia; Trash of the Count's Family; Person 5; Batman; Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild; Danny Phantom; Justice League; Miraculous Ladybug; Fire Emblem: Three Houses; SK8 the Infinity; Megamind; Kiss the Abyss; White Collar; Dio Field; Scum Villain Self-saving System

What are your top 5 fics by kudos? 1) The old bait and switch 2) Uncle John 3) #NewestWayne is trending 4) Blood Stains the skin red 5) Rooks and Bishops don't get to choose their moves

Do you respond to comments? why/why not? I do occasionally. I guess it depends on what kind of comment it is? If it's a 'More!' or 'Update?' comment i just ignore it. I also tend to leave like emoji comments on their own bc honestly like thank you for giving me an emoji but i am a bit lost as to what I'm exactly meant to respond with you know? Longer comments or compound sentence comments are the ones i tend to respond to purely because there tends to be something to respond to!

What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Oh god... uh. I had to have a quick glance and... i don't really know? There's a few options okay! You have 'Fine, I'll do it Myself' as a strong contender because of the whole 'the person you most love is trapped an entire universe away and you have to wait years to see him again' vibe going on. There's 'Blood Stains the Skin red' because it's literally about what if shit was even more fucked than canon and Midoriya had blood in his hands. Oh! Or "We Don't Remember a Boat in a Bottle" which damn... forget how angsty that one was ngl. I mean there's also 'Group hug' where the champions reunite post BOTW only for Link to die in their arms... (These are the especially angsty ones like the question asked bc honestly... most of my fics are angsty.. hehe.)

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Between 'well then...' and 'This is Love' both Trash of the count's family fics. Well Then is a strong contender because it's just a silly little 'identity reveal is so misconstrued everyone thinks there's *so* much angst and the protag is just vibing. like cale literally starts having a canon-typical spiral bc he thinks people are trying to intimidate him and it's kike a 17 year old being like 'im telling my adopted dad/adopted big brother about all the fun me and my younger siblings have had!' And 'This is Love' is still in progress but each chapter end is a comedy so ya know.

Do you get hate on fics? I used to. I don't really clean my fics up all that well since i tend to miss things so i just stopped and the only times i ever tried to get a beta i got blew off so.. Anyway. I used to get shit and told my work was so horrendous that I was lying about english being my first language. Even looking back at it now it's horseshit that it was 'that bad' bc it really wasn't. I also got this one guy who got really pressed because he didn't have the reading comp to see the tags 'canon divergence' and 'crack treated seriously' and then understand why the characters in the fic weren't acting canon compliant.

Do you write smut? if so, what kind? I do, kind of? Like I've written something that *I* would class as smut but it's not like *full on* explicit descriptions of stuff so it is smut but not in the way people would probably normally think? It's my fic 'pretty boy' and im not even going to lie it was my excuse to write a praise kink fic for Cloeph/Cale.

Do you write crossovers? what's the craziest one? OH DO I. I don't publish nearly as many crossovers as I used to. When I had a wattpad that bitch was almost nothing BUT crossovers. I've written: Ass Class/OHSHC, Ass Class/BNHA, DC/MLB. Those are my tame ones. I have 2 in the works and i think they fit the 'craziest crossovers you've written.' They are: Scum Villain/Trash of the Counts family (aka woke up as a scum villain show down) and Persona 5/BNHA (aka i make Akechi's life so much worse)

have you ever had a fic stolen? Yeah, I had one of my Miraculous Ladybug fics stolen, but i contacted AO3 and it got taken down.

have you ever had a fic translated? No, not with my permission at least. I've had a few people as permission that I've given but they haven't been uploaded so. I have a rule that if it's translated i'd like it to stay on ao3 and unfortunately not a lot of the people interested in translating my fics want to translate them on the archive so i've said no a bunch of times.

have you ever co-written a fic? Yep. A friend-insert fic from when i was 12 with my friend cookie on wattpad. Alas, it is lost to time.

what's your all-time fave ship? There is not a singular answer to this so imma pass-

what's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you will? All of them. But probably my Persona 5/BNHA crossover. Like I really want to write it but every time i open the document i just sit there like 'eugh.'

what are your writing strengths? According to my creative writing class leader, it's my descriptions and suspense build ups.

writing weaknesses? Again, according to my class leader, it's my inability to resist telling rather than showing. Also I sometimes make my sentences too long, when i could cut them shorter.

thoughts on writing dialogue in another language? It depends? For example if it's something that *absolutely* must be there - for example if I was to write a Percy Jackson fanfic and some exchange in the book was in broken greek/english then YES, but if its not something like that then no i just slap the text in italics and make sure it's obvious somewhere in text a non-english language is being spoken.

first fandom you wrote for? Batman. Self insert fan fic.

fave fic you've ever written?

Ooh..mm.

So. Proper hard question here because like how am i supposed to choose ya know?

It comes down to though, when im pushed to answer, probably 'the old bait and switch'.

I wrote that bitch in the car to high school and between revising for exams so it holds a special place in my heart.

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Tagging...........

@gremlin-bot , @grubus (hope its okay to tag you), @salaapaoo and @vveirdnobdy