Corny on Main

Since I've been working on Metropolis since 2023, I'll yap about it! ( i have it locked from AI scrapers so here's a screenshot. )

The story's basic premise is your average Roxanne and Megamind hooking up in secret because fun!

Both have private and professional reasons for keeping their hookups a secret; Megamind, because Doom Syndicate is stupidly bureaucratic and relationships between villains and damsels/kidnappees, are strictly prohibited (really channeling Venture Bros. Guild of Calamitous Intent vibes here), and Roxanne because in this, she and Metro Man really ARE dating and, through a series of compromises in her life, she is very much woven into his family's dynamics.

While this connection to the most powerful in Metro has been beyond advantageous for her professionally, and in her personal life, she finds it incredibly stifling.

Something that I think is important to realize in this fic is that... well... it's like "brainwashing." Being brainwashed is not so much hypnosis and chemicals in the water, but it is a series of small concessions over a period of time.

Since Megamind and Roxanne have been hooking up, Roxanne slowly starts to realize that not everything is as it had once been. Clothes that were bought for her, and provided for her by others don't fit quite right. Conversations with her friends rub her the wrong way. Nothing is as it was and she no longer "fits" in this box of expectations that everyone in the city puts her in.

Slowly but surely, she learns to be herself around Megamind, cause it's not like he can tell anyone either right? So through their time together, she can relax and open up a little and Megamind finds he adores this side of her. So much so, that he finds ways to coax it out, and the more she be her true self, the more he falls in love with her.

Without getting too much deeper into the heart of the story, and risk spoiling it, I want to segway that there is a historical fiction element to it.

The main part of the story takes place in Present Day Metro City, but there are certain elements that have fallen into place since it's founding in the last 1800s. We see Metro go from a little trading post near a natural spring that the local tribes had called "Warriors Wound' which is rich in iron. (the surrounding stones are stained red, check out Blood Falls in Antarctica, it's \,,/METAL!\,,/) there are studies that mineral springs have health benefits when you soak in them (thus local legend that "Warriors Wound" helps heal the the local natives that soak in it's waters.)

(for the record, I'm both spiritual and a geology nut. xD)

This discovery lead to an industrial revolution in Metro. The trading post became Iron Town, and as the years passed, through a series of backroom negotiations, greed, etc. became the sprawling metropolis it is now. ("Metropolis" is Greek for town/city, hence the name which ties into each chapter opening being something to do with Greek mythology/astrological themes.)

Fanfiction is free therapy, right? I suppose this story is somewhat autobiographical; Roxanne is channeling a lot of my own upbringing.

In exhausting myself to meet others' expectations, burning myself out in trying to achieve long-term career goals, and grappling with my struggle to find my own identity and putting away the mask that I've kept up in my life.

During my youth, family, friends, and work associates had always "assigned" me all these roles and expectations. But over time, you "outgrow" these roles and you suffer because you're not living Your Life but you're living other people's version of their lives. They are living vicariously through you.

I remember being young, like, I don't know, 6? 7? 8? And hearing and seeing these kinds of tactics made me so, so, so angry. and back then, I didn't have the vocabulary to explain why. "I don't want to!" "I hate this!" "Leave me alone!" was largely ignored when you have two emotionally immature parents who thought "Boundaries = Rejection" and "Rejection = your kid hates you" When they felt that way, they were very withholding and rejecting.

So as a kid, I just grinned and bore because I had abandonment trauma (my parents were in the Gulf War and left me with an aunt for months during that whole time. Then another time, my dad got shipped to Bosnia and my mom was shipped to Florida and I was left with a postpartum babysitter who... may or may not have kidnapped me during this period. Not really sure but that's a whole different story.) So, while I hated being assigned unrealistic expectations, I accepted it because, in my child's mind, "Being Mad = Being Abandoned." and that's not at all a fun time.

There's a whole lot of other baggage to unpack, but that's the bare minimun of that whole time.

But, anyway, why did I go off on this tangent? Well...

Story time,

I was in my early twenties, and depressed but didn't really know why I was depressed. I was just a general level of unhappiness that was at the very core of my being......

UNTIL

I was flipping channels on tv to have in the background while I played World of Warcraft. My dog had just died so that was contributing a lot to my overall sense of SAD and at least gave it a face at the time.

"The SUN needs to WARM UP?!" which, hearing without paying attention to the context made me bust a gut laughing. So I rewound it to get a better sense of the context... and rewound it... and decided, "Wait... this is actually.. REALLY funny!" and left my WoW friend to die in the dungeon while I started the movie from the beginning ("The VERY beginning!!") and watched it... probably eight times on repeat that night!

That night I was so hooked, that I scoured the internet for more googling about sequels and fanfictions and what not. This lead me to Live Journal which is how I found the Megamind fandom!

The reason I bring all this up, is that it was through the Fandom that I was able to take off my mask and be myself. It was through the fandom that I had learned what Gaslighting was and meant, and recognized that others felt the same as I did in my life!

I also began to see that my friends and boyfriend in real life... weren't... actually good people. I started to recognize that they had behaviors that I found repugnant. They would say things that once, i found uncomfortable but could not put a word as to why, now I would stare at them like, "why are you like this???"

But back then, I couldn't just "drop" them. we'd be friends for years. A lot of time and memories invested in the relationships. But the more invested I became in the MM fandom, the less and less I enjoyed being around them. I had noticed that they were becoming possessive of me and my time. When I started writing my first MM fanfiction, and looking at fanart, they would ignore me, even going so far as to say, "This is a kids movie... don't you think it's a little weird for adults to be... this *into* it?"

I didn't really have anything to say to that, but I just stopped talking about it.

Quickly, things began to degrade between all of us. I was spending more and more time chatting with the fandom on LJ and AIM chat, and less and less time hanging out with them, and when I did, I was withdrawn, less social and chatty and sneaking in plot points on my phone whenever I got a chance.

The more I changed, the worse they became. This was also occuring at home with my parents as well. They didn't recognize who I was becoming, and I felt claustrophobic in this box they kept trying to shove me in. The more I grew into my own person, the less everyone was liking. When I was a child, I was easy going and chill, and now, after years of self help and therapy, I recognized that this had been a coping mechanism. I had to let so much go and swallow so much disapointment and resentment because if I hadn't then I would have been abandoned again, neglected and ignored.

But with the MM fandom, I was finding people that liked who I was and accepted me and listened to me and who helped me become the person I am today.

Eventually, those friendships erupted in a big and painful way. I finally called it quits on trying to be their friend. My boyfriend followed maybe a year or so later, shortly after meeting the fandom at Dash Con. I realized I hated being in a relationship with him, and that I was holding onto him because he was my last thread of attachment to my friends.

But you outgrow people and situations. You outgrow your old life. I was like a snake shedding its old skin, growing and changing.

Today I am married to my best friend and happier than I've ever been! I've made lifelong friends here in the fandom and we've met up periodically. I talk to them every day and I don't feel like I am walking on eggshells around them. I can share my interests without bracing myself for eyerolls or mockery.

Megamind changed my life for the better and... yeah. That's... essentially what is happening to Roxanne Ritchi here in Metropolis. She was "stuck" for years without realizing it and through her exposure to Megamind, she is growing and changing into the person she is meant to be.