#what characters would fit in the world of shrek who is shrek-able And actually almost everything can fit in shrek

[hiort]

me and my nonsense medieval fantasy fantasies against the world

[mermaidsirennikita]

ARC REVIEW: This Will Be Fun by E.B. Asher

4.25/5. Releases 9/10/24.

vibes: Shrek (but with some angst and lots of romance), Dungeons & Dragons, second chances all around, "we were doing so good and then reality happened'

Heat level: 5/10

The basics:

The heroic Four--Galwell the Great, his sister Elowen, their childhood friend Beatrice, and mercenary-turned-friend Clare Grandhart--are on the brink of saving the kingdom. And then they do... at the cost of Galwell's life. Ten years later, Elowen, Beatrice, and Clare haven't spoken since the funeral. But now, they're all obligated to attend the queen's wedding. Clare and Beatrice, whose tension-filled bickering turned to loathing after Galwell died, are begrudgingly on the same path. And Elowen is roped into going when the queen hires Vandra, an assassin she had a thing with on the last quest, into bringing her to the wedding. When all four crash into each other--compelled to save the day one more time--they have to deal with allllll the unresolved feelings. Romance! Adventure! Friendship! Pet eagles! YES.

The review:

Dude! This was so fun!

I was a little skeptical about whether or not this would actually be a romance. Short answer: yes it is, and you get two for the price of one. Two second chance romances for the price of one at that, which is always great for someone like me.

I didn't shelve this as a book with a secondary romance because for all intents and purposes, Clare and Beatrice's romance and Vandra and Elowen's romance really get almost equal time. They both have issues, they both have heat, they both have grand love confessions. The only thing that makes Clare and Beatrice a little more prominent is that there are three POVs in this book--Clare, Beatrice, and Elowen. Vandra doesn't have a POV, and while I get that she wasn't a part of the original Four... I would've liked it! She's on the page as much as the other three, and I loved her and her relationship with Elowen.

That quick critique aside: point is, as a romance reader you get a lot of different things, and it's great. You get Vandra cheerfully offering to consensually kidnap the introverted, awkward Elowen, and Elowen being unable to resist because like... Yeah dude. Vandra is just hot like that. You get Clare and Beatrice's unresolved "one night stand turned questmates falling in love turned people who aren't over each other but haven't been able to deal with their feelings ever since the big bad thing happened". Unresolved horniness! Intense feeling! It's all the type of shit a romance reader will gobble up.

However, the world is also a really great part of everything. It's very much fantasy by way of Shrek. Some of our characters speak to "heart healers", who can help them analyze their feelings. One watches "shadow plays", and boy is she into fandom. A heroine who once helped saved the world is kind of a messy bitch fresh off a divorce nowadays.

It's all very tongue in cheek and snarky, but in a very WHOLE FEELINGS way. You can tell these authors fully love this kind of setting, things like The Princess Bride and Dungeons & Dragons. Fondness and emotion is a huge part of the story. So yeah, while there are antics, you never lost that sense of like... cuddly softness. I mean, Clare literally has extended inner monologues about how much he loves his pet eagle. It's the cutest thing.

Often, cuteness is used to dodge a need for plot and character development in recently published romance novels. Here, that's not the case at all. You can tell that a lot of love was put into differentiating these characters, sending up archetypes while also subverting them. These aren't perfect people. They fuck up sometimes. It's actually quite refreshing to me that Beatrice and Elowen in particular are kind of... poorly adjusted ladies in their early thirties who need to work on their shit. Appreciate that representation. But beyond that, survivor's guilt and PTSD somehow fit so nicely into what is ultimately a really funny and really sweet fantasy romance novel? My God, we really can have it all.

I feel like there was a great balance between like... quest plot, relationship plot (both romantic and platonic, no bond is neglected) and funny little sidebars and quotes that had me bookmarking pages for later. Balancing between saving the world, kissing, and a character saving the day by autographing swords kind of creates a great palate-cleansing blend.

The Sex:

You only get two sex scenes in this book, one for each couple, and while they're explicit they're still a light touch in that sense. However, I found both of them sexy, and there's a ton of chemistry and tension in both romances. You get "questmates with benefits" on one side, and "man doggedly pursuing woman who pretends she doesn't give a shit" on the other. We all win.

I loved settling into this world for a romp. You get a strong voice here, great characters, romcom antics, and yeah, a lot of heart. I'd love to read another book in the same world--and hell, I'd love to see a miniseries made out of this one. It's just a really good time without being stakes-less, and that's not always easy to find. Go on the quest, I'd say.

Thanks to NetGalley and Avon for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[super-famicom-star-inactive]

Friday Special #9

January 30th, 2021

So I was digging through my bag of DS and GBA titles, and noted that one of them was a Game Boy Advance VIDEO cartridge that contained the first two episodes of Sonic X. Popped it into my DS to relive some nostalgia and it occurred to me that there isn’t anything like this anymore besides those PSP UMD VIDEO disks that had whole movies on them. 

So where did they come from and how did they come to be?

For this week’s Friday Special, we’re gonna find out. 

For a little backstory, the Game Boy Advance handheld console was released back in 2001 and it was marketed as the successor of the Game Boy Color. With its resolution of 240 x 160 pixels (which was a lot at the time), 15-bit RGB Color Support (it was capable of producing 512 colors in character mode and 32,768 simultaneous colors in bitmap mode), and Dual 8-bit DAC for stereo sound, it was a fascinating machine and a work of technical art. It was super successful world-wide and garnered millions in sales. 

So what exactly were the Game Boy Advance Video titles?

The Game Boy Advance Video cartridges were a special class of cartridges where based on the amount of memory, it featured one to four episodes of popular shows of the time like those from Cartoon Network and Nicktoons. 

Here is the complete list of games:

GBA Video Movie Pak vol. 1

Shrek

GBA Video Movie Pak vol. 2

Shrek 2

GBA Video Movie Pak vol. 3

Shark Tale

GBA Video Movie Pak 2-Movies-In-1!

Shrek

Shark Tale

GBA Video Movie Pak 2-Movies-In-1! Vol. 2

Shrek

Shrek 2

The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron vol. 1

"Brobot"

"The Big Pinch"

"Granny Baby"

"Time is Money"

All Grown Up! vol. 1

"Susie Sings the Blues"

"Coup de Ville"

Cartoon Network Collection vol. 1

Ed, Edd 'n Eddy: "Stop, Look and Ed"

Courage the Cowardly Dog: "Magic Tree of Nowhere"

Johnny Bravo: "The Perfect Gift"

The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: "Crawling Niceness"

Cartoon Network Collection vol. 2

Codename: Kids Next Door: "Operation T.U.R.N.I.P."

Courage the Cowardly Dog: "Courage the Fly"

Johnny Bravo: "Balloon Platoon"

The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: "Mandy the Merciless"

Cartoon Network Collection Limited Edition

Ed, Edd 'n Eddy: "Key to My Ed"

Courage the Cowardly Dog: "The Queen of the Black Puddle"

Codename: Kids Next Door: "Operation M.I.N.I.G.O.L.F."

Dexter's Laboratory: "Big Sister"

Cartoon Network Collection Platinum Edition

Codename: Kids Next Door: "Operation T.O.M.M.Y."

The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: "A Grim Surprise"

Courage the Cowardly Dog: "Cowboy Courage"

Ed, Edd 'n Eddy: "The Luck of the Ed"

Cartoon Network Collection Premium Edition

Dexter's Laboratory: "Double Trouble"

Courage the Cowardly Dog: "The Shadow of Courage"

Johnny Bravo: "Cookie Crisis"

Ed, Edd 'n Eddy: "A Glass of Warm Ed"

Cartoon Network Collection Special Edition

Ed, Edd 'n Eddy: "Oath to an Ed"

Johnny Bravo: "Beach Blanket Bravo"

The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: "Billy and the Bully"

Dexter's Laboratory: "Dexter's Rival"

Codename: Kids Next Door vol. 1

"Operation R.E.P.O.R.T."

"Operation N.O.-P.O.W.U.H."

"Operation B.R.I.E.F."

"Operation D.O.G.F.I.G.H.T."

Disney Channel Collection vol. 1

Lilo & Stitch: "Slushy"

Kim Possible: "Ron the Man"

Disney Channel Collection vol. 2

Lilo & Stitch: "Poxy"

Kim Possible: "Rufus in Show"

Brandy & Mr. Whiskers: "To The Moon Mr. Whiskers"

Dora the Explorer vol. 1

"3 Little Piggies"

"The Big River"

Dragon Ball GT vol. 1

"A Grand Problem"

"Pan's Gambit"

The Fairly OddParents vol. 1

"Foul Balled"

"The Boy Who Would Be Queen"

"The Information Stupor Highway"

The Fairly OddParents vol. 2

"Father Time"

"Apartnership"

"Ruled Out"

"That's Life"

Nicktoons Collection vol. 1

SpongeBob SquarePants: "Pizza Delivery"

The Fairly OddParents: "The Big Problem"

All Grown Up!: "Chuckie's In Love"

Nicktoons Collection vol. 2

SpongeBob SquarePants: "Nature Pants"

SpongeBob SquarePants: "Opposite Day"

Rocket Power: "The Big Air Dare"

The Fairly OddParents: "Odd Ball"

Nicktoons Collection vol. 3

SpongeBob SquarePants: "Squeaky Boots"

The Fairly OddParents: "Tim Visible"

Danny Phantom: "Attack of the Killer Garage Sale"

Pokémon vol. 1

"For Ho Oh The Bells Toll"

"A Hot Water Battle"

Pokémon vol. 2

"Playing with Fire"

"Johto Photo Finish"

Pokémon vol. 3

"Pokémon, I Choose You!"

"Here Comes the Squirtle Squad"

Pokémon vol. 4

"Beach Blank-Out Blastoise"

"Go West Young Meowth"

The Proud Family vol. 1

"Twins to Teens"

"Tween Town"

Sonic X vol. 1

"Chaos Control Freaks"

"Sonic to the Rescue"

SpongeBob SquarePants vol. 1

"Bubblestand"

"Ripped Pants"

"Jellyfishing"

"Plankton"

SpongeBob SquarePants vol. 2

"Mermaidman & Barnacleboy"

"Pickles"

"Hall Monitor"

"Jellyfish Jam"

SpongeBob SquarePants vol. 3

"Walking Small"

"Texas"

"Hooky"

"Mermaidman & Barnacleboy II"

Strawberry Shortcake vol. 1

"Meet Strawberry Shortcake"

"Spring for Strawberry Shortcake"

Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! vol. 1

"Depths of Fear"

"Planetoid Q"

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles vol. 1

"Things Change"

"A Better Mousetrap"

Yu-Gi-Oh! vol. 1

"Friends Until the End Part 3"

"Friends Until the End Part 4"

Although the first of the GamePaks (the other name that they went by) started to appear in 2004, the original name was GBA-TV a year earlier. The first cartridges to be released in May of 2004 were when Majesco was able to acquire rights for 4Kids properties such as Sonic X and Yu-Gi-Oh! for the earliest released titles. Later in June, select shows from Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Nick Jr., and Funimation were added to the line-up when Majesco acquired the rights. The Disney Channel soon was added as well late in November of that year, creating even more cartridges for the roster. That next November in 2005 was the time for when Majesco was able to acquire the rights for Shrek, Shrek 2, and Shark Tale from Dreamworks, where for the first time, the Game Boy Advance Video series would now feature full-length movies, which was a marvel at the time due to the Game Boy Advance’s limited memory. 

In total, 36 cartridges were made in the entire line-up with more slated for released but were cancelled for various reasons, whether they be because of low sales of previous cartridges or copyright issues.

Here is the complete list of cancelled games:

Drake & Josh vol. 1

"Pilot"

"Dune Buggy"

Even Stevens vol. 1

"Swap.com"

"Stevens Genes"

Kirby: Right Back at Ya!

Ugly Betty vol. 1

"Pilot

"The Box and the Bunny

Sonic X vol. 2

"Missile Wrist Rampage"

"Chaos Emerald Chaos"

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles vol. 2

Yu-Gi-Oh! vol. 2

Speaking of copyright, there is a reason that the GamePaks were only viewable on Game Boy Advance systems as well as the first two DS systems but not the GameCube's Game Boy Player accessory. It was because the owners asked Majesco to make it so that making the games incompatible with the GameCube’s GBA Player would protect their properties from getting ripped onto VHS tapes and DVDs, which was what the Player was capable of doing. It would not have mattered however, because the low quality would have shown on the TV, making the ripping process useless. 

The low quality of the cartridges were due to the heavy compression of files in order for them to fit on a GBA cartridge, causing noticeable artifacts on the screen, even more visibly on a later system like a DS console. The low quality was the biggest disadvantage for the Game Boy Video cartridges as they eventually became obsolete by the late 2000s/ early 2010s when the DSi was released with no backward capabilities.

Despite them being obsolete by today’s standards, they can still be found online on shopping sites like eBay and depending on the condition can go for a pretty penny. The rarest one in the entire roster is the cartridge for Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! vol. 1 as only a limited number of copies were made and are now so rare that they can fetch almost $200 on eBay, where that is the only shopping site to even have them for listings. 

It should be mentioned that around the same time, Sony was releasing PSP UMD (Universal Media Disc) Video disks for their PSP systems that were capable of playing whole movies, but that’s an article for another time. 

Thoughts From the Head

As stated above, I actually do have one of the Game Boy Advance Video cartridges in the form of Sonic X Vol. 1 that I had bought years ago at a local video game store. It still works, and although you can definitely see the age on a DS screen, it’s still super impressive how much they had to compress in order for the data to fit. 

It’s still a really neat piece of history and it’s something that would’ve never happened in today’s age of gaming with everyone being as tight-lipped about copyright to the point of it being detrimental to creativity. That being said, if you have a GBA, its succeeding systems or the first two DS systems, I’d say to track them down while you can, especially if your favorite show is on the list (unfortunately, I have no hope of getting the Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! vol. 1 cartridge as that is like trying to find an ant in a haystack but I have the Sonic X one and that’s good enough for me). 

Here’s some photos of mine!

So do y’all think about all of this? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Thank you for reading!

[aforrestofstuff]

What do you think the OPM characters' guilty pleasures would be? I feel like Tatsu loves soap operas and Atomic Samurai secretly loves a really popular boy band, like SMAP

Thanks for your request, anon! Sorry this took me so long to get to, you were buried in my inbox lol. But I hope this was worth the wait because oh boy this required all 3 of my brain cells.

Tornado of Terror: As you said, soap operas. She also loves candy apples in canon. But...she also is a HUGE fan of those really cheesy Cosmopolitan magazines that have all of the personality quizzes and the “which hot male celeb would date you” scenarios. She doesn’t fall for it one bit. In fact, she hate reads those fuckers in the same way that people pay to go see bad movies. It’s fun.

Silverfang: Yoga and following along to some cheesy-ass 80s workout videos. I’ve said he likes yoga in a previous headcanon, but he also likes to exercise along to some obnoxious 80s pop while some dude in a leotard instructs him on what to do from a TV screen. He wears sweatbands and legwarmers, too. The whole shebang. He only does it when he’s alone, though. Sometimes he’ll try to teach yoga to his disciples as a way to help them decompress after a long training session, but his workout tapes are his best-kept secret.

Atomic Samurai: I don’t know what a SMAP is, but he’s definitely got some questionable music choices going on considering he’s... well, the way that he is. I’d say he likes to listen to old country, like Marty Robbins and Glen Campbell. It’s really funny because you’ve got this intimidating man from Japan (or a fictional universe basically set in Japan) with a badass katana and shit but inside that empty head of his, there’s just a faint “out in the west Texas town of El Paso....”

Child Emperor: Picking at scabs. He’s often on his knees fixing shit in his lab, and he probably gets burned all the damn time from playing around with lasers so he’s undoubtedly always has a wound healing somewhere. Whenever he’s working on something, he’ll just absentmindedly pick at his scabs. It’s a bad habit and he knows it, but nothing beats the feeling of peeling off an entire patch of that shit. So satisfying.

Metal Knight: Buying books. He doesn’t even read them. He just buys bigass novels with smart-sounding names to fill up his library because he thinks it’ll make his dick grow another three inches or some shit. One of the few things he likes in this world (besides homicide) is the smell of a new book. If he’s feeling particularly pissy, he’ll go into his library and just ssssssnnnnnnnnnniififfffffffffff. He spends an outrageous amount of money on it. If he has anyone over (which is unlikely, but hypothetically speaking) and they mention his library by asking something like “have you read all of these?” It’ll be one of the few times in his life that he’ll feel shame.

King: Reading and writing fanfiction based on his favorite video game/anime series. Nobody knows he does this except his small following online, of course. And even more so, nobody online knows he’s an ultra-popular S-Class hero who’s friends with the most powerful man on earth. He’s actually a pretty decent writer, he just doesn’t take himself too seriously so the plotline to his stories tend to get a little haywire and overly self-indulgent. Let him have his fun. He just wants to be a Sailor Scout.

Zombieman: Singing. He actually used to be a good singer (he sounded like a discount Steve Perry back in the day), but constant smoking really fucked up his voice. He might as well have lungs the size of grapes because he can’t carry a note for more than 2 seconds without wheezing like an accordion with asthma. He’s never sang in front of anyone before because he thinks it’s silly thing that isn’t worth showing off. Play anything from The Eagles though, and he’ll have a hard time resisting.

Drive Knight: He likes to open up panels in his arms and legs to play with the wires (basically a robot’s version of nerve endings, I’m assuming) just so he can feel something. It’s kind of sad because he doesn’t experience pain or the cold or being tickled... (I know what y’all are thinking and you’d better STOP). So he sometimes takes it upon himself to dick around with his insides and dip his toe into what it feels like to be human, even if it’s just for a little bit. He’s super secretive about it (he’s just secretive about everything, really) because he doesn’t want anyone to know that he desires something outside of being a weapon of mass destruction justice.

Pig God: His whole schtick is basically indulging in a guilty pleasure — pigging out on delicious food with no regard whatsoever for one’s overall health. Other than that, however, he does like to collect body pillows. There, I said it. All he fucking does is eat and he’s too much of a big boi to be going out 24/7, so he’s gotta be on the internet/watching anime/playing video games/reading manga during all of that downtime between his stints of doing hero work. His bed is fucking ginormous to handle all of that big boy-ness and on it, he has his body pillow nest. He rests on a throne made for kings. A true icon.

Superalloy Darkshine: Also working out along to some cheesy 80s exercise videos. His hero outfit was inspired from what those ravishing instructors would wear on the television. Well, it was supposed to be a full leotard but it ripped every time he flexed just a tiny bit so the speedo is the only thing that’s left. He’s gotta hella rhythm and keeps up with the music using little to no effort. Although, he can’t go too hard because he’s also a big boi and he’ll literally shake the entire building if he gets too turnt up. Dance muscle boy, dance.

Watchdog Man: Eating too many dog treats lol. Sometimes while he’s stationed on his little podium thing, visitors will leave him little offerings like dog treats and other miscellaneous food items/toys. He never takes them or eats them in front of people, but he often brings everything home with him after a long day just to gobble that shit up. He’s gained a little weight since he started doing it but you can’t even notice it because his suit is hella bulky. Some of it is due in part to stress-eating because being a dog and dude at the same time is hectic, but it’s honest work.

Flashy Flash: Racing shit. Whenever he’s on his travels during, say, assassination missions or hero work, he gets hella bored really quickly. So, to help with this, he’ll often race birds or planes flying in the sky on his way to his destination to see who’s quicker (it’s always him). Sometimes he’ll even play catch with himself by throwing a pine cone or something and running to the place he guesses it’ll land before it even touches the ground. He just does a ton of weird speedster shit whenever he’s bored and he’ll deny it if anyone asks.

Genos: Purposefully putting a little bit too much oil on his joints after each upgrade so he’ll be as slick as a salamander. It’s a really funny feeling to be able to move your limbs with little to no resistance without having to worry about popping or breaking anything. It just makes him feel so agile despite being like, a hunk of actual metal. If he wasn’t so uptight, he would loosen the screws in his fingers to he can bend them almost all the way back (he’s actually thought about it a few times), but both Dr. Kuseno and his 3 remaining braincells attested to that. He just likes to tinker around with his body and see what weird shit he can do. It’s a bad habit because it’s led to a few things being broken on multiple occasions.

Metal Bat: Zenko’s shitty pop music. Whenever he drops her off at school or piano practice, he’ll immediately go home and blast that shit on full volume (because he’s practically deaf from always jumping out of falling buildings and continuously blasting music in his earbuds) while doing chores and the like. He’s one of those people that HAVE to have something going on in the background as they’re getting shit done. He’d rather be caught dead than listening to the OPM equivalent of Taylor Swift because he knows Zenko would never let him live it down.

Tanktop Master: Wearing suits around the house when he’s not even going anywhere. He’s got to wear his tanktop 24/7 whenever he’s in public to keep up The Image (which he has no problem with, he genuinely loves the tanktop ideology) but he also needs to feel fancy every once and a while. So, if he happens to have the time while in between appearances, he’ll prance around in a suit tailored just for him. Because he’s so fucking huge that he had to pay someone a large sum to custom make an outfit that actually fits. He is 7-motherfucking-feet tall. 7.

Puri-Puri Prisoner: Making Valentine’s Day cards all times of the year. Listen, it gets boring as hell in prison. Sometimes the guards will let all of the inmates have a little glitter and glue to keep themselves busy because no harm can come of a little arts and crafts, right? He likes to make cards on the daily just to let all of his lovers know how much he appreciates them. If they express even the slightest amount of disdain for his creations, he’ll spent the next week crying in the darkest corner of his cell block. He also likes origami. Origami is huge in prison because it’s hella time-consuming and guaranteed to calm a busy mind. His favorite things to make are little unicorns.

Amai Mask: Bath bombs. There have been several mishaps in which he’s used a poorly-made bath bomb and came out of the tub looking like Shrek but he’s grown and lot since then, okay? After a long day or a particularly stressful concert, he’ll sink into some hot water and drop a ball of lavender-scented goodness in there. It’s become a bit of an addiction because he’s got multiple cabinets dedicated solely to his collection, but at least he always smells divine.

Iaian: Shakespearean dramas. Kama got him hooked on theater shit and he’s since ripped through all of the most well-known plays. He thinks in iambic pentameter. It wasn’t always noticeable since he’s a quiet, well-reserved guy but his fellow disciples and Kami have recently noticed that he’s developed a bit of a dramatic flair. Even worse, he’s started calling himself a knight whenever he puts on his armor. Everyone prays it’s just a phase but seeing as how stubborn Iaian is, that seeks highly unlikely. Kami is dying inside because he can’t handle another drama nerd.

Okamaitachi: Soap operas, like Tatsumaki. Kama is the most dramatic out of all of the disciples so it’s only natural that she’d like the most dramatic genre of any show out there. She doesn’t exactly watch them religiously though. She’s the type of viewer to drop off the face of the earth for three seasons and come back without knowing what the fuck is going on (because the disciples have limited access to cable due to Kami’s dumbassery and ignorance to anything technology-related), but still cry during the finale anyway because oh no these people are so hot and one of them is deaaaaaad and the other one is that person’s long-lost sister....

Bushidrill: Taking alcohol from Atomic Samurai’s stash every so often. Bushidrill knows what the good shit is and he could buy it himself if he wanted to, but why would he when there’s a perfectly good alcoholic to steal from living right down the hall? He only takes in small doses because, believe it or not—he’s smart, but Kami isn’t gonna notice regardless of whether or not Bushi takes 1 or 5 bottles at a time because the old shit couldn’t spot a purple raccoon if it was 3 feet in front of him. There have been times where Bushi has opened bottles of Kami’s alcohol right in front of him just to play God and he always, without missing a beat, says “Oh, we have the same taste. How neat.”

Fubuki: I’ve said this before in a previous headcanon, but she has a mild obsession with Victorian aesthetic. She’s got a small collection of semi-authentic ballgowns that cost upwards of a-fuckton-of-money each, but anything’s worth it to be able to play dress-up with Lily. Fubuki’s favorite thing is making Lily feel beautiful because everyone has been an insecure teenager at one point and she knows how it feels to not be comfortable in one’s own skin. This isn’t exactly a guilty pleasure because she’s not guilty about it, but it’s almost gotten to a point where an intervention is needed. She’s got so many damn dresses and sooooo much fine china....

Saitama: Retail therapy, lol. Saitama is only good at budgeting because he has no choice given how fucking poor he is, but give this boy even a little bit of leeway and he’ll buy the ugliest clothes (to which he thinks look poppin’) and the best meats without even batting an eye. His entire manga collection is the product of him having little to no self control the moment he realizes he’s got a bit of money to spend on himself. This is also the only time he’ll experiment with cooking because now he can actually afford to fuck up, literally.

Mumen Rider: Sweets! I’ve said this in a previous hc but he has a major sweet tooth. You can substitute salt for sugar in any given recipe and he’ll see it as a major improvement because he just goes absolutely buckwild for anything sweet. His pancreas is suffering, but he believes nothing feels better than curling up under the covers on a rainy day with a heaping helping of milk chocolate. The only thing that makes him feel better after getting beat to shit is a kiss on the cheek and box of his favorite cookies (and some bananas, lol).

Sonic: Like Flash, he also likes racing things. But, in addition to that, his guilty pleasure is doing his own hair in elaborate hairstyles (when it was longer). He’s pretty much homeless so he’s got a lot of time to himself in between murders. This is when you can find him sitting in the woods somewhere braiding flowers into his hair and tying it off with a moss ribbon. He’d never admit he does this because he’s a big macho man and he’d probably cry.

Garou: Spicy chips. I’ve said this before in a previous hc, but he absolutely inhales his food without even tasting it half the time so it’s not even like he gets to enjoy the flavor that much. He just likes the burn because he’s a shithead. He also doesn’t fear death or a torn-up asshole, so he’ll eat an entire family-sized bag of the OPM-universe equivalent to Takis without even batting an eye. He’s been beat to shit so many times that the agony that comes with downing so much spice is lost on him. He doesn’t even need water. It’s insane. Someone stop this madman at once.

[felix-eternal-sunshine-fanfic]

You can be my Fiona, I’ll be your Shrek - A Changbin/Shrek Fanfiction

Previous part: -here-

-No smut, no romance

In the real world:

Felix moaned.

How could Chan ask him to carry the groceries? They were just way to heavy. ₁₅ ‘Why can’t you just carry them yourself?’ Felix was a bit upset at Chan. ‘Sorry, I’m busy at the moment.’ Felix managed to carry the heavy bags into the kitchen. He placed them in front of the three fridges. ‘You’ll be able to put them away by yourself, won’t you, mate?’ ‘Yeah… just leave them there in front of the fridges.’ Felix went to his room. ‘I feel so tired’, he thought. His bed was nice and neat. ‘Chan is such a mom. I left the bed in a state of utter chaos today and voila: Chan changed the sheets and made the bed.’ Felix laid down on his bed. He fell asleep almost immediately.

Felix’s dream:

‘Hey. Hey! Can you hear me?’ Felix heard a familiar voice. ‘Changbin? Is that you again?’ ‘I need you to listen to me and I need you to believe me.’ ‘You’ve been away for two days now. Are you alright?’ ‘Here me out: I’ve mentioned before that I am in a different dimension. That is the truth. I don’t know how I got here, but I need to get back home. I just don’t know how. I can communicate with you via your dreams, luckily.’ ‘Why me?’ ‘I don’t know and that’s not important. You need to find clues. You need to find a way to get me out of here!’ ‘But Changbin…’

Felix awoke. ‘How am I supposed to help him out? Clues? My head’s spinning.’ Han entered the room with his laptop. ‘Oh… I thought you were away or something.’ Felix sat up on bed and asked, ‘Did you want to watch Anime on my bed again?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘I’ll go play League of Legends now anyway, so you can use my bed.’ ‘Thanks man.’ Felix got up and left the room. Han made himself at home on Felix’s bed. But Felix did not actually go and play League of Legends. Instead he looked for Chan. He found him in the kitchen. He was still trying to fit some of the groceries into the fridges. ‘I think I bought too much. It won’t fit in the fridge; can you help me?’ Felix sighed and said, ‘Alright.’ ‘Why did you buy so much ice cream? You know that we don’t have that much room in the freezer.’ ‘I thought you liked ice cream, so I bought it for you.’ ‘I do like ice cream, but how am I supposed to eat four litres of it?’ ‘Uhm… yeah, I might have overdone it a bit.’ They managed to fit the groceries into the fridges. The ice cream was a problem though, only three litres (three one litre packages) fitted into the freezer. ‘Alright, it’s ice cream time’, Felix was happy. ‘I’ll see who’s still awake and who wants ice cream.’ Chan went away. Felix took out some spoons. ‘No one did the dishes... That’s definitely an unwanted side effect of Changbin being away.’ Felix was forced to wash a few spoons. The rest of the dishes were still dirty and would probably stay that way until Changbin (aka The Dishwasher™) returned. Han, Lee Know and I.N entered the kitchen. ‘Hyunjin was sleeping and Seungmin told me to “piss off” when I wanted to ask him if he wanted ice cream.’ Chan sighed. ‘And Minho, can I ask why there were a bunch of wet tissues next to Hyunjin?’ ‘You know the story, don’t you?’ Felix just wanted ice cream, ‘Guys, let’s eat the ice cream first.’ He gave a spoon to everyone. Chan thought, ‘What am I supposed to do with these kids?’ They ate the ice cream; it was vanilla flavoured. ‘Should I tell them about the thing with Changbin? Would they believe me?’ Felix didn’t know what to do. He decided against it since he thought that he wouldn’t believe him anyway. ‘Clues. I need to find clues. But where and how?’ Felix was at a loss. ‘Where would you look for clues for a different dimension?’ He decided to search the internet first. He really didn’t expect to find anything reliable. A bunch of people discussed otherworldly experiences, but Felix couldn’t find any hints on how to help Changbin. ‘I have another idea, even though I don’t want to do that. I dread it.’

₁₅Author’s note: Did I bamboozle you with the first sentence? Hehehe

 In Shrek’s world:

Changbin woke up. ‘I hope he’ll believe me’, Changbin was unsure. Alice wasn’t there. ‘Where is she?’ Changbin was tired. ‘Communicating via dreams while sleeping is way more exhausting than expected.’ ‘Sorry that it took so long, but I’ve found a place to stay.’ ‘Finally. I talked with Felix, but I’m not sure he’ll actually believe me.’ ‘We have to hope that he does. But let’s get out of here.’ She took Changbin’s hand and whispered a spell. They appeared in a cave of some sort. ‘Here we are. It doesn’t look that nice, but I’m sure we’ll be alright.’ ‘Let’s just hope we won’t need to stay here too long’, Changbin hoped that Felix would find a way to save him soon.

It was getting dark. ‘It’s gonna be cold, so I’ll make a fire’, Alice didn’t need to collect sticks or something. She just clapped once, and a nice campfire appeared. ‘Man... Your power seems way cooler than mine’, Changbin exclaimed and sighed. ‘That’s not true. You can communicate with the other side. That’s crucial in getting us out of here!’ ‘I guess you’re right.’ Changbin laid down. The stone was cold and hard. ‘Can you make like a blanket or a mattress or something?’ ‘Say the magic word.’ ‘Please?’ ‘See? Being polite isn’t that hard. Here you go.’ She pulled a blanket out of thin air and handed it to Changbin. ‘Is she my mom or something? Wow…’ Changbin was thankful anyways.

‘New day, new chance!’ Alice said. Changbin yawned. ‘We’ll have to try and find someone who could help us in this world. We shouldn’t just rely on Felix. Don’t get me wrong- I do trust in him and his abilities, but we should put in effort too’, Alice explained. ‘Yeah…’ Changbin was tired out of his mind and probably didn’t even listen. Alice didn’t want to listen to his opinion anyways, so she just dragged him along. They left the cave. It wasn’t situated in the mountains, but in a bigger hill in a forest. ‘Do you even have any idea who we could ask for help?’ ‘Changbin, think for a moment. Whose world is this? Who in this world could be powerful enough to help us out?’ He hesitated for a moment and then answered, ’Shrek?’ ‘Exactly. He is the main character in this world. If he won’t be able to help us, then no one in this world will be.’ Changbin wasn’t that sure about it. It did make sense to him though, kind of at least. ‘Why don’t you just teleport us right into the swamp?’ ‘Well… it's too far to be honest. I can’t teleport us that far.’ ‘So, we have to walk?’ ‘Not all the way of course. We just need to get a little closer so that teleportation will work.’

Changbin’s legs were tired. ‘Are we there yet?’ ‘If you say that one more time, I will turn you into a pile of ash. Without hesitation.’ ‘Sorry, no need to go that extreme.’ ‘I was actually worried that she hadn’t threatened me yet’, Changbin thought and let out a short laugh. ‘What’s there to laugh about?’ Alice was pissed. ‘Nothing, Nothing.’ They walked through the forest for a while. ‘Be honest with me Alice… Do you even know which way we need to go?’ ‘Of course I do.’ ‘Really?’ ‘No.’ ‘Can’t you like let a map or a compass appear or something? How close to the swamp do we need to be to teleport there?’ ‘I don’t know. I can try and see if we’re close enough though.’ Alice held Changbin’s arm and whispered a spell. ‘Nope. We’re too far away.’ ‘Are you sure that we’ve been walking in the right direction?’ ‘I don’t know. Give me a second’, Alice said and sat down. She looked like she was meditating. Changbin decided to just lay down in the meantime. Bad idea. Really bad idea. He fell asleep and ended up in someone’s dreams again. It wasn’t Felix this time since Felix wasn’t sleeping. It was Lee Know who had taken a nap.

Lee Know’s dream:

‘Uh… Hi Lee Know?’ ‘Changbin. What are you doing here? I wanted to take a nap and dream about my cats.’ ‘Sorry about that. I don’t know why I am here myself.’ ‘What a weird dream. ₁₆ Please stop haunting my dreams Changbin. I enjoyed that you weren’t here for a few days. Only problem: the dishes started to pile up.’ ‘Is no one else washing them?’ ‘No. So how do I get you out of my dream? I wanna rest.’ ‘One of us has to wake up.’ ‘Seriously? You can wake up. I don’t know what you’re doing or where you are, but I deserve this nap.’ ‘Chill. I am currently... away. And I think I’ll be gone for a bit longer.’ ‘What are you even doing? Wait, wait; Should I even ask? Don’t want to know about you getting all lovey dovey with someone. Gross!’ ‘It’s not that. I promise.’

‘We can go now’, Alice said after Changbin had just woken up. ‘Have you figured out where we need to go?’ ‘Yeah, kind of at least’, Alice said and smiled awkwardly. Turns out they had been walking into the wrong direction. Who would have thought…

Changbin’s little nap didn’t help with his drowsiness. His legs felt numb and were about to give in. ‘Uh… Alice, can you like, carry me or something?’ ‘I didn’t think you were that weak. You’re a wuss, you know that?’ Alice sighed. She decided to give him a piggyback right anyway. Alice was a lot stronger than she looked, so she could carry Changbin without any issues. Well, almost without issues. ‘Your pink fur is horrendous. It feels weird and my hands can’t grip into it. They slip away. ₁₇’ ‘It’s not that bad’, Changbin was very sleepy and didn’t even have energy to be offended. Alice had a solution for the problem, ‘I’ll just use magic. Okay?’ ‘Sure.’ I’m not sure if this would even count as consent, since Changbin was almost sleeping and he might as well be sleep talking. Either way, Alice took that mumbled away answer as a clear ‘yes’ and placed Changbin on the ground. She then whispered a complicated sounding spell and Changbin turned very small (even smaller than normally lol). He was maybe as small as a squirrel. Alice had to pay attention to not accidentally step on the small Dwaekki. She picked him up. He was sleeping. She held him gently and continued on their way.

 ₁₆ I am aware that this applies that Lee Know is lucid dreaming lol. But I like that thought 😊

₁₇You know those weird synthetic furs? Those that feel very synthetic and are weirdly smooth? That’s what I imagine Dwaekki’s fur feels like lol

In the real world:

Felix knew he had to do it. He couldn’t do anymore research on his own. He didn’t know much about this stuff.

He was standing in front of a weird looking building. It was tall, but thin and the windows were covered. Felix gulped and walked towards the door. There was no doorbell, so he knocked three times. ‘I might get murdered or something. Or maybe this place is haunted, how did I even get here?’ He had looked for a psychic on the internet and this was an address he found. Apparently, this psychic’s speciality were different dimensions and otherworldly experiences. No one had opened the door. So he knocked again. ‘Yes, Yes… I’m already on my way’, a voice from the other side of the door said. The door opened and a man looked at Felix. ‘My, my. What do you want? We were in the middle of an astral projection₁₈!’ ‘I-I’m sorry, I just didn’t see a phone number or an e-mail address to get an appointment or something…’ ‘I see my child… You shall enter.’ ‘Child? Do I look that young?’ Felix went into the scary looking building. It wasn’t that scary on the inside. There were paintings on the wall and bundles of herbs hanging from the ceiling. It smelled like incense. He followed the psychic and they walked into a room. A woman was laying in the middle of the room. She had her eyes closed. ‘Astral projection…’ Felix thought. ‘As you can see, we were busy. So, tell me, why are you here? How can I help you?’ ‘It’s kinda complicated. My friend seems to be stuck in another world or dimension or something. He has been communicating with me via my dreams.’ The psychic was surprised. He had never heard of someone being trapped in a different dimension.

  ₁₈I really want to say this: I don’t intend to make fun of people who believe in things like this, not at all! I respect that as much as respect other religions and believes! I might use some things in a humorous way and if I offend you, then please tell me. I do intend to make fun of psychics that give false promises and false hopes just to milk money out of desperate people 😊