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This wasn’t the first time Roxanne had noticed his habits. He tended to gnaw on the back end of a pen during the lulls before Wayne showed up. If Wayne were taking a particularly long time, he would lose interest in the pen and continue to chew on things near him until the superhero finally showed up. Those were behaviors that Roxanne was used to. Today, however, she had noticed the scars on his fingers. He had clearly been working on his latest invention just minutes before he pulled the bag from her head, his gloves were off. He had fallen into an entirely too long monologue about his newest plot to destroy Metro Man and rule over the city as usual. Roxanne had quickly lost all focus on the villain’s speech, her eyes dropping to his hands. She hadn’t realized she was staring, and she wasn’t able to catch herself before she interrupted him.
“What happened to your hands?”
“Wha- my hands? Miss Ritchi, were you even paying attention to my monologue?”
“You’ve got scars around your fingernails. What happened,” she asked.
“I do,” he asked quietly. His eyes flew open, before he jumped from his chair to find his gloves. “It’s really nothing! Did you happen to see where my gloves went? I seem to have misplaced them.”
“I haven’t seen them,” she said, shaking her head. “Do you bite your nails?”
“Well, yes, I do tend to bite my nails.”
“And you bite the skin around them too?”
“Yes, Miss Ritchi, I do. Why are you asking me all of these questions,” he asked, turning to her and stalking towards her. “Such a nosy reporter, trying to get me to reveal my weaknesses!”
“No, I’m just curious! You know, Megamind, I do it too. Especially when I get really nervous or stressed.”
“You do?”
“Yeah,” she nods. “Although its really not good for you. You can seriously damage your fingers. But I use these toys I got online, and they’ve actually really helped me.”
“What kind of toys, Miss Ritchi?”
“Well, they’re stim toys. When I feel like I need to chew on something I grab one, so I don’t damage my fingers anymore. I can get you a few if you’d like!”
“Oh, well Miss Ritchi, I appreciate your concern, but you don’t have to buy me anything.”
“But I wa-,” he cuts her off.
“Miss Ritchi, you really shouldn’t buy gifts for the villain,” he sighed. “And we’ve strayed away from the topic of Metrocity’s destruction for far too long. So, if you’ll please pay attention to my monologue this time, we can call your boyfriend in tights.”
She sighed and did her best to focus on his, still entirely too long, monologue. Today, Wayne was quick. It seemed like he crashed through the ceiling of the Lair just moments after Megamind shut off the cameras. Wayne made quick work of the villain’s plot today as well, because before she knew it, Roxanne was back in her apartment.
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He glared at the new blueprints in front of him, gnawing on his fingers as he was deep in thought. He pulled his hand from his mouth and scowled harder. Roxanne pointing out his habit had made him much more aware of himself when he did it. She was right, of course. She was always right. His left hand was covered in bandages from the new wounds he’d left himself after a particularly hard brainstorming session. He slumped back in his chair, feeling utterly defeated. This new scheme was a waste of time, it would never work. He sighed and returned his hand to his mouth, hoping to find some relief by chewing at his fingers again.
“Sir,” Minion exclaimed as he walked over to Megamind. “You’ve got something in the mail!”
“Thank you, Minion,” he grabbed the package from the henchfish. “Probably another part for this useless device.”
“I’m sure it’s not useless sir,” Minion said, patting Megamind on the back. He tears through the box with ease, pulling back the flaps of the carboard box to revel a small white bag with the word “StimTastic” written across the front. He pulled the bag from the box and stared at it. After opening the bag, he found a small note inside, along with an array of silicone chew toys.
Villains should get a few little gifts. Please try to use these, for me?