#like a modern au from 10 years ago is soooo different to what we would write now as a modern au

[no-light-left-on]

being part of the dishonored fandom for years is so interesting, seeing the shifts in preferences in ships, takes on characters and plotpoints, the way characters and pairings are depicted and the way stories and aus adapt with times and trends

[mimzy-writing-online]

Writing Toph Beifong, Advice from a Blind Writer

I’m Mimzy, an actual visually impaired writer and blogger who talks a lot about writing blind characters accurately and sensitively. A while back someone sent me an anon asking how to write Toph more accurately and sensitively.

Anonymous asked: Hi there! Your blog has been super-helpful already - I thought I knew a bit about writing with blind characters, but it turns out there was a lot to learn - but this is more specific. I'm writing a The Last Airbender fanfiction, and one of the characters is Toph. I think the fandom has done a fairly good job of respecting her blindness, but what are some things you'd like to see when people write her? I want to represent the character as best as possible; thanks in advance!

It’s taken a while for me to answer because I have a lot of thoughts about it as both a blind writer and someone who has read a lot of atla fanfiction. So here we go:

Before we get started, I want to mention some things: 

One: I have an entire series for writing blind characters that continues to grow with time and the most up-to-date version can be found pinned as the top post on my blog. There will be a time-stamp for when the post was last edited and a long series of links to all relevant posts on the subject.

Here’s a quick link to that post, but again, all you have to do is click my blog url and you’ll find it immediately.

Two: I’ve noticed something amazing about the atla fandom and I would like to thank you for it. I’ve noticed a lot of bloggers have taken to writing image descriptions for both the fanart and memes you post in the fandom, whether it’s OP including the description or another blogger adding it themselves. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a fandom so consistently doing this and that’s incredible. Realizing how many different blogs were picking up this habit has warmed my heart.

I’d like to see writers use her other senses. There’s soooo so much more to her O&M (Orientation and Mobility) than earth sense. 

Beyond sight and earth bending, there’s hearing, touch, smell, taste, sense of direction, hot vs cold, sense of pain, sense of where your body parts are in relation to the rest of you, sense of internal well-being, etc. Before Toph had mastery of her earth bending, she had to have mastery of those too.

Toph also must have very strong opinions about certain smells, sounds, tastes, and textures. Toph is opinionated about everything, and when so much of your understanding of the world depends on senses that most people are ignoring in favor of some other sense you don’t have, it gets frustrating. I’m sure that tree looks pretty but the smell is terrible. Who cares if this fabric looks pretty, it’s scratchy, do. not. like. at. all.

But also in positive ways too. Oh, that flower arrangement looks bland and monochromatic? Who cares, it smells sweet and honey-like. Weird dark cavern with high ceiling and no light? The harmonics are awesome.

Every character probably has a certain sight or image they’re particularly fond of: Katara watching snow fall, or Aang enjoying how small the world looks from up on Appa, or Zuko enjoying the sunrise every morning during meditation. In that line, Toph must have some things personal to her that she enjoys.

I imagine she likes the taste of foods familiar to her childhood, the smell of whatever flowers grew around her home, and the texture of certain kinds of dirt Example: loose dirt probably isn’t the best for seeing, but I think she would enjoy how it feels to run her fingers through it or maybe enjoy the way it softens her perception of the world the same way sighted people like to see colorful, bright lights reflecting off puddles in the middle of rain.

If you struggle with this, that’s okay. I recommend taking some time to think about it for yourself, to find what tastes and smells and textures and sounds you enjoy the most, what makes you feel safe and at home, what brings you comfort, and relate that back to Toph.

In a Modern AU, I want to see Toph have a cane. Even in a Modern AU with bending included in the world building, I think Toph would benefit from having a cane.

The cane has a lot more function than bumping into things. A big part is that it signals to others that you are very obviously blind. Which is a big deal because sighted people are really, really bad at spotting the blind person.

(psst, please stop saying ‘the blank look in her eyes’ because I swear to god it’s been killing me inside for years.)

Also, even in an AU with bending, I think Toph would like the advantage of tapping her cane to create a stronger, more distinct vibration than a small shifting of her weight on her feet. It would have more control.

You could give Toph a guide animal, buuuuuuut, um, Toph is not a guide dog person. Like, there are some people who definitely prefer a guide dog, and some people who definitely prefer a cane, and some who definitely prefer no mobility device at all. Toph does not have the vibes of someone who wants to be both responsible and reliant on an animal when she’s so insistent that she can take care of herself on her own. Toph likes animals, but not that much.

Although, yeah, only 10% of the blind community use mobility devices, so cane and guide dog users are the minority of the blind community, but I stand by the vibe that Toph would love the independence of a cane. Also, it’s almost never ever done. Modern AUs never seem to touch much on Toph’s O&M skills with canes or guide dogs.

I wrote a whole post on everything you need to know about canes, what orientation and mobility is, how you learn O&M, what kind of canes exist, how to use them, how to describe the sensory input a cane gives you, and everything I know about guide dogs from past research.

Honestly, you could give Toph (or any blind character) a cane in any AU, because I fully stand by the theory that canes are a piece of technology that has been invented, lost, and reinvented again and again.

I wrote “I found a piece of lost blindness history” a few months ago after a visit to see my grandparents. My grandmother told me how her blind aunt found a way to write letters by hand to send to my grandmother when she was a child. I speculated on how the long cane has probably been invented and then lost and then reinvented over and over again in history, as well as giving a little history on the growing popularity of guide dogs in the 20th century following World War 1.

About the “blank look in her eyes,” I have a theory to the exact cause and nature of Toph’s blindness.

I know it’s common to think that the milky green color of her eyes is why she’s blind, though I’m not sure how many realize that milky green color is caused by severe cataracts. At least, cataracts is what I assume to be the reason for the color of her eyes. However, people with cataracts still have some remaining sense of light and shadow perception.

Only 9% of the blind community is completely blind, seeing absolutely nothing. The rest have some remaining vision, even if that’s only light and shadow perception or the perception of vague movement.

The percentage of people born completely blind is even smaller.

Toph says that she’s never been able to see, which would lead me to guess that the initial cause of her blindness was a defect with the visual processing part of her brain. I also theorize that the cataracts developed slowly over her very formative years and that she likely wasn’t born with them. For that reason, I think it would have taken a few weeks or months for her parents to realize there was something wrong with her eyes.

Here is a post about the developmental years of blind children and how their life would differ from both sighted children and from someone who went blind as an adult.

What is it like to see nothing?

It’s a concept that sighted people struggle with and I completely understand. I myself didn’t understand the concept of “nothing” until someone explained it as this:

“Imagine trying to see out the back of your head.”

Which, genuinely, imagine that. Try that. Because here’s what I found. There’s no part of my body that can help perceive that. I don’t have eyes there, nor do I have a part of my brain that can process that. Because of this, there is no sense of light or dark, no shape or shadow or movement or depth that I can perceive. There is nothing.

And honestly, it gives me a headache trying to think too much about it.

Toph doesn’t see black, doesn’t have a mental image of it. When people talk about light and dark, Toph has nothing to base the concept on. The closest relation she has to that is silence versus sound, or her earth sense when she’s in the air on Appa versus when she’s on solid ground. But it’s not the same.

I would like to examine the way the show tried to describe Toph’s earth sense, that black void with ripples of white stretching from her feet and outwards. Television is a visual medium so of course their explanation of Toph’s earth sense would be visual, but that’s not what it’s actually like in her head. More accurately, it’s like touching the back of your head to something and feeling what’s solid behind it and what has more give. A wall versus a pillow for example. Slamming your hand on a flimsy table and feeling it rattle under your palm. And for someone so adept at using that sense, she feels not just the table surface under her palm, but the individual rattles down the four legs, how uneven those rattles are because the legs are carved decoratively instead of solid planks, and how the foot of each leg bumps against the ground, and how the floor vibrates in response to the impact, which she feels in both her feet and hand. 

About Toph’s Relationship with Her Parents

It’s not something I see touched on much. There’s been a lot of focus on Zuko and Azula’s relationship with their parents and the abuse, as well as exploration of Sokka and Katara’s trauma with losing their mother, and Sokka looking up to his warrior father while Katara struggles with her abandonment issues.

Please don’t take this as a critique, because there are a few valid reasons for this and I would like to give you some insight on how to explore Toph’s relationship with her parents.

For starters, the show had a lot more reason to focus on Zuko and Azula’s parents, with Fire Lord Ozai being the primary villain and Zuko’s greatest abuser, and Azula’s dependent worship of her father in response to Ursa’s neglect and favoritism of Zuko, which was likely Ursa’s response to Ozai’s favoritism of Azula. Their parents are huge driving motivators for why Zuko and Azula make the decisions and mistakes they do, why they are at one point in the show the villains themselves. (And why I think Azula should get a redemption arc and some healing.)

Katara’s trauma of losing her mother and blaming herself is a huge factor in both her response to the war, her relationship with her bending, and her motherly nature with her friends. The show has to explore that. Just as it has to explore Sokka’s problems with toxic masculinity in response to being the man of his village, and his desire to be a great warrior and leader like the father he idolizes. 

The show needs to explore that to make the plot move forward, and it benefits from these being two sibling sets with different responses to their upbringing and different sibling dynamics, setting them up as foils for each other.

The show also wouldn’t benefit by giving Lao and Poppy Beifong more screen time. Their established character were two nobles who kept as far out of the war as possible and prospered monetarily for it. Poppy was polite and demure and Lao liked to lead the conversation. Unless the gAang decided to return to Toph’s home, those characters had no reason to pop up anywhere in the show. And if they did, they would be a hinder to Toph and her part in the plot as both Aang’s earth bending teacher and as the greatest earth bender in the world, tossing Fire Nation soldiers eight ways to Sunday. 

So truly, I understand that there’s not a whole lot of canon material (comparatively) to go off of when developing this, but I will offer some insight on what is there in canon.

Toph’s relationship with her parents is explored in that it maps out why Toph doesn’t want to be mothered by Katara, why she wants to prove how independent she is, but there’s very little on screen interaction between Toph and her parents.

Toph deeply loves her parents. I think that plays into why she doesn’t want Katara mothering her, because she has a wonderful mother at home who she loves and wants to better understand her, but she had no friends growing up and no older sister, which are the roles she needs and wants Katara to fill. If Toph wanted a mother figure, she would have latched onto Katara. Look at how Zuko never sought out another mother figure but did find a father figure in Iroh as he began to heal from his childhood trauma and separate his self image from his father’s acceptance.

Toph is in a complicated situation, she loves her parents but the way they’re raising her is hurting her in the long run. But Toph can see that their actions are because of their immense love for her. She can see how they would do anything for her. While she never had any examples of how other noble children were treated by their parents, who might have been distant or disinterested or always away for their social and work lives, she was remarkably loved by her parents. Her father put careful thought into her tutors and checked in on her progress. Her mother feared for Toph’s emotional state when she was kidnapped (even if she was incorrect about how Toph would respond), showing genuine empathy for her daughter.

I think their over protective nature became the love language Toph best understood them by, and part of her reasoning for not revealing how capable she was, was because she wanted to keep experiencing that love and care for as long as she could. But it’s not a love language she would put up with from anyone else.

I would like to point out Toph’s genuine excitement to see her mom again in the season finale of Book Two, how badly Toph wants her mom to understand and accept her for who she is.

My thoughts on what Toph can’t do: read, swim, see in the sand, fight things mid-air.

For how incredibly powerful the show makes Toph with her earth bending and the O&M she taught herself through it, they do touch on some of her weaknesses when they come up and find a useful way to showcase them.

The Serpent’s Pass was an excellent example of Toph’s vulnerability in water. From her fear of not being able to see on Katara’s ice bridge to not being able to swim and needing Suki to save her, Toph’s weaknesses putting her in danger added to the excitement and “sitting on the edge of your seat” feeling while watching the episode without turning her into someone who was helpless. She was just in a position where her normal defenses were useless.

Just like the earth benders in the metal prison in the ocean, or Katara having little water in the middle of a desert where her friends needed that water to survive more than she needed it to fight, making her vulnerable later in the show when the insect-wasp things attacked. Just like fire benders being weaker at night, or powerless during a solar eclipse, or a sighted person being lost in the dark. Those were just situations in which the tools you were accustomed to relying on could no longer help you or were taken away.

The show was clever in that it didn’t make her inability to read a direct threat to her safety, but rather as a clever plot device for her to be alone when the sand banders attacked and have to choose between fighting them to save Appa, or holding back an entire fricking building by the tiniest spire on its very top from falling into a void leading to the spirit world. It also showed her weakness to not being able to see or fight as well in sand. Which the show later made an effort to show how she’d improved on that problem in Book Three when she was surrounded by nothing but sand at Ember Island.

Like improving her ability to see in the sand, I would like to see a character teach Toph to swim, or at least float, so that she never feels helpless again. If she took the initiative to improve her sand bending so much, I’m sure she would have learn to swim eventually.

And on the note of reading, I’ve seen some speculation on how Toph could learn to read, whether it’s through using ink that has some percentage of earth mixed in, or developing the sensitivity to feel out the different weight, consistency, and texture of ink on paper. 

I would like to bring your attention to Louis Braille, the blind Frenchman who invented Braille while studying at  the Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles, the world’s very first school for the blind in Paris France (established 1785). Previously Louis was learning to read through a method in which each letter was pressed into the paper to leave an imprint that someone could feel out with just their fingers.

Louis Braille concluded that raised lettering was impractical because-

1.       It is difficult to read, the letters had to be printed in huge font to be fully felt out and printed on thick paper.

2.       Thick paper means higher quality, more expensive. Larger font means more paper is needed for a single text.

3.       This made it inaccessible due to expense and the sheer volume of a text.

4.       If today’s Braille books are hard to access and giant compared to traditional books, I can’t imagine how inaccessible those raised letter books really were.

The subject of Braille, the start and controversial near downfall to  Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles were discussed in a post about writing a blind character during the Victorian Era.

I’ve heard others complain in the past about fantasy universes in which a sighted person invents a solution to allow the blind to read, when the most effective and longest lived method was invented by a blindman over two hundred years ago and is the standard taught in schools today.

And while I couldn’t easily explain it or how it works because I can neither read Braille nor speak Chinese, I can tell you that Chinese Braille exists and works only slightly differently from the Braille western languages use. So, again, modern AUs especially would benefit from enabling Toph to read Braille and use a computer and phone with screen reader.

But just as easily you could choose not to have her learn to read but rather have sighted people read things aloud to her. Whether it’s in a professional setting as an adult having an assistant who reads and writes for her, or as a cute, fluffy little moment between Toph and another character. Both are just as genuine to the blindness experience.

Blind Jokes

If you ever get around to reading my post about blind jokes, I’d like you to remember that it’s primarily written for people writing original characters and that Toph canonically makes blind jokes, so to take away from that would not be true to her character.

Does Toph’s Earth Sense Negate her Blindness?

It’s a question I’ve seen raised before and discussed by both abled, disabled, and blind people. There are multiple perspectives on it, but my own take on it is that Toph’s earth bending does not negate her blindness, but rather functions very much like the process of learning to use a cane.

She had a tool, a teacher, and she learned to use that tool. Instead of a cane, it was seismic perception and her teacher were blind badger-moles. She spent years learning to earth bend as they do and then continued to take it to new heights as she explored fighting with it on her terms against sighted fighters.

Come to think about it, I would love to see Toph teach another visually impaired or blind earth bender who to see and bend as she does.

Is Toph Good Blindness Representation?

This question was posed to me in the comments of my master post, and my answer was something like this: “Toph is good representation, but she can't be the only type of representation we get. She's the best we had 15 years ago, but there are a million ways to nuance the blindness experiences. Toph's experience being born blind, having very over protective parents, being a small girl in a patriarical and wealth influenced society, having no friends growing up. Those are all great aspects of blindness to show, but there is so much more to explore. As for her blindness and whether or not that's negated, that's also nuanced. She has limits, she's not all-powerful, but she is the best earth bender hands down. More or less, I love Toph, she's a great character, give me like a million more blind characters who are completely different from her.”

I want to see accurate and well-written blind characters become much more common in modern media, and that’s why I started this blog. So if you decide you want to write your own blind character from scratch, feel free to come back and look at some of my other stuff.

End Notes:

I want to thank the anon who sent the original question because it never occurred to me how much the atla fandom would benefit from a post like this. 

You should follow my blog. Along with advice about writing blind characters, I write general writing advice and answer questions about writing, college, plot development, character analysis, and living with blindness. I curate writing advice from fellow writeblrs, write my own image descriptions for writing memes, post about mental health and working/living with ADHD, disabilities outside of blindness, and LGBTQA+ topics. 

[invaderzia1]

Summertime Sadness (Reiner Braun x Female!Reader) (Modern Au)

Not associated with that one song :) yo this was supposed to come out beginning of summer but look where we are now huh

Everything hurt. There was a distinct pain in the back of your throat and your nose was very clogged. As you began to awaken more, it became ever clear that this was your allergies again. The past couple days have been quite painful for you, but something about today felt different. Sitting up in bed, rubbing away the sleep from your eyes, you saw your boyfriend laying next to you, quietly scrolling through his phone. The burly male turned towards you, smiling up at you.

“Morning, sunshine.” He said.

You opened your mouth to speak, but only a faint croak of words came out. Your eyes widened as the truth of what was wrong set in. Reiner stared back at you, a dorky grin forming on his face. There was still a dull pain in your throat and a noticeable scratchieness.

“Babe, can you get me some water?” You croaked out, cringing at how your voice sounded.

Reiner held in his laugh, not wanting to land on your bad side, and simply nodded, quickly makin his way out of the room. From your bedroom you could still hear Reiner laughing as he made his way to the kitchen. A pout proudly made its way onto your lips, crossing your arms as you waited for him to return.

Reiner reentered the room after a few minutes, finding his girlfriend pouting at him. While he didn’t like to see her upset, she sure looked cute with that pout. He handed her the water she wanted and returned to his place in bed.

“Come on, babe. You’ve gotta admit you sound pretty funny right now.”

“Doesn’t mean you can be mean about it.” She mumbled, Reiner barely catching what she said.

Reiner roller his eyes and wrapped an arm around you. “How about I make you the best chicken soup you’ll ever eat and you turn on a movie and relax? Would that make you feel better?”

Not wanting to strain your voice, you nodded and made yourself comfortable in the bed. Reiner just sent a soft smile towards you as he got back up and left the room. You immediately missed the warmth of his body, but knew soup would be better than just cuddling today.

The pain in your throat was still ever present and making everything ten tones worse for you. The water was helping but not as much as you wanted. Hopefully Reiner would be able to find some for you when he came back. Reaching for you phone, you noticed several messages from one of your close friends.

Porcky Boi 🐽🐽: yo you still wanna get lunch later???

Porcky Boi 🐽🐽: wake up I need an answer soon

Porcky Boi 🐽🐽: I stg I will burst into your house and get the answer myself if you don’t respond soon

Rolling your eyes at his brash nature, you began to type your response, hoping he wouldn’t be rushing into the apartment any time soon.

(Y/n): sorry, don’t think I can make it. Super sick rn :(

(Y/n): we can reschedule for later this week, hopefully I don’t die by then

Porcky Boi 🐽🐽: boo hoo

Porcky Boi 🐽🐽: what’s wrong? Fuckface give you the flu or something?

(Y/n): haha v funny

(Y/n): but no, my allergies are trying to close my throat currently. Can barely breath rn

Porcky Boi 🐽🐽: sucks to be you

You sighed at his comment, used to the rough attitude.

Porcky Boi 🐽🐽: do you need me to come over or something? Rather you don’t die tbh

(Y/n): nah, reiners here and making me some soup

There wasn’t a response immediately, probably due to Porco gagging at your boyfriends name. The two really didn’t get along, though it was more like Porco had some sort of vendetta against him. He was the one to introduce you and Reiner, but it wasn’t like he was trying to get you together, that was on both of you. The thought was quite amusing, remembering how much Porco scolded you when you first told him you were interested in the blonde male.

The phone buzzed in your hand, bringing you out of your thoughts.

Porcky Boi 🐽🐽: ew

Porcky Boi 🐽🐽: you’ll need to decontaminate your apartment after he leaves 😷😷

(Y/n): don’t be rude just cuz your jealous

Porcky Boi 🐽🐽: Not jealous, just warning you . Tho you should clean it to get the pollen out I guess.

Porcky Boi 🐽🐽: well, I’ll let you be. Stay well and sleep a lot.

(Y/n): peace, see you later

Closing out of your messages, you began to pull up the YouTube app and catch up on some of your videos. Half way through the video, you heard the unmistakable foot steps of your boyfriend approaching. As he entered the room you noticed him looking as adorable as ever. His hair was slightly messy and he was in a bright pink apron your grandmother had given you a few years ago. He smiled softly at you before spreading, leaning against the door frame.

“You okay back here? Want me to get you anything?” Reiner asked.

“Actually,” you started, the scratchy feeling making it harder to speak as your voice continued to disappear, “if you could grab some throat lozenges that’d be great.”

Reiner just nodded and ducked out of the room, leaving you back to your videos. You could hear him down the hall, tearing up your bathroom trying to find those lozenges. After a few minutes of Reiner tearing everything apart, he returned. He had a sheepish look on his face as he walked towards you.

“Soooo, I could only find one lozenge.” He said, drawing out the first part of the sentence. “But, I’ll go out and grab you a full pack of them!! And some candy!” God, he was like a cute puppy, just trying to make you happy.

“That’s fine, I just need some lozenges, I don’t need you blowing your entire paycheck on me.” You held out your hand for the lozenge as Reiner handed it to you. Quickly popping it into your mouth, you felt the relief almost instantly.

“I just want you to feel better, so if you need anything, and I mean anything, I will go get it for you, babe-“ Reiner was cut off by the sound an alarm going off, somewhere further into the apartment. “Shit, one minute!!” He yelled out, running out of the room and down the hall.

You couldn’t help but laugh at his antics, it was quite the sight as not too long ago he was teasing you and now here he was acting all cute and shit for you. You truly felt lucky to have him. You wanted to yell out to him and ask if everything was okay, but current circumstances stopped that from happening. Instead, you just stayed in bed and hoped everything was okay. Hopefully if the apartment caught fire Reiner would come in and save you, cuz there was no way you would be able to run far like this.

After waiting for what felt like an eternity, which was more like 10 minutes, Reiner returned with a bowl in one hand and a mug in another. As he placed it down onto the side table next to you, the smell of the soup he made wafted towards you. Dear god, it smelt heavenly!! You nearly melted right there, but Reiner quickly dipped the spoon in and brought it towards your lips. It tasted better than it smelt, taking you to a higher plane of existence.

“Mmmm, who knew you were such a good cook.” You mumbled in a state of bliss.

“Not many people, I try to keep it a secret.” He replied, taking a seat on the other side of the bed.

“What for? Such a talent shouldn’t be hidden.”

Reiner chuckled to himself, wrapping an arm around you. “I don’t need the guys to make fun of me for this, if Porco found out I don’t think I’d live it down.”

“Oh hush, it’s not that bad.” You jokingly scolded him, lightly nudging him with your elbow. Taking another spoonful of soup, you leaned into Reiner’s broad chest.

“So you feeling any better?”

“I can kind of get a sentence out now, so that’s something, but other than that still feeling pretty shitty.”

You grabbed the remote from the bed side table and turned on your television, switching to Netflix and scrolling down to the movie section. There were a few movies which caught your eye, but after a bit more searching a small squeal came from you as you stumbled on your favorite movie. Reiner rolled his eyes, yet kept his mouth closed.

“Babe, oh my god, we have to!!” You gushed, your voice cutting out here and there from the high pitch glee.

“It’s your choice, babe. Though, you have seen it like twenty times already.”

Ignoring his comment, you pressed play on the movie and snuggled against Reiner in a more comfortable position, continuing to sip on your soup as Reiner did the same.

Half way through the movie, Reiner began kissing down your neck, slightly pulling your attention away from the screen. His little kisses were sweet at first, but slowly you could feel his teeth scrape against the skin. It wasn’t long before he started biting down and sucking on the skin.

Letting a shaky moan escape your lips, you lightly pushed him off, wanting to focus on the movie. However, Reiner tightened his grip around you waist and left another mark on your neck.

“Reiner, stop!” You whined out.

Reiner just hummed out his response, not stopping his actions. His nose rubbed against the soft skin of your neck, placing a soft kiss on the dark mark he left.

Your breathing started to become heavy, due in part mostly to how swollen your throat was feeling, but your boyfriends nips weren’t helping either. Obviously, you weren’t in the mood for this, but you weren’t gonna just let him stop either.

Reiner wasn’t dumb either, he wasn’t going in for the kill, he just wanted to distract you from how shit you felt. But, he wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to mark you as his either. Turning to look at you, Reiner chuckled at your flushed face, finding it adorable at how embarrassed you seemed to get at his actions.

“Aw, babe, you look so cute,” Reiner cooed, resting his head on your shoulder.

“Not funny, ya big bear.” You squeaked out, crossing your arms. A cute pout made its way to your face, turning away from his face.

Reiner rubbed his face against the side of your neck, his eyes closed as he did. The scruffiness of his beard made you cringe, but the softness of the rest of his face was nice. He hummed out a response, enjoying how close you are.

“Stop,” You stuttered out, “It tickles!”

You tried to squirm from his grasp, but his grip was strong around your waist, effectively holding you in place. A few more failed attempts at escaping and pleading with him only made him rub his beard against you more, an evil smirk on his lips.

“If you want it to stop, then you’ll have to kiss me!” Reiner proclaimed, as if he was a Disney villain.

“Fine, I’ll do it. Just stop with the beard, you monster!”

Reiner loosened his grip and, as promised, removed his beard from your neck. He readied his lips for the kiss, as if he was a lovesick school girl waiting for her crush to man up and kiss her. Instead, he felt her lips press against his cheek, before pulling away. Reiner opened his eyes, pouting as he saw her nervously scratch her neck.

“Baaaaaabe.”

“Yeah?”

“You can do better than that, give me a real kiss this time.”

You purses your lips together, using your secret weapon on him. Puppy eyes. You knew that Reiner wouldn’t be able to handle the cuteness when you unleashed them.

“But.... babe, you said only one kiss.”

Reiner’s cheeks dusted with pink, already falling victim to your trick. Just looking at you, he felt his heart beat faster, finding you cuter than ever. He stared down at you, causing you both go engage in a silent battle to see who would win. Thought, Reiner didn’t stand a chance against you. He threw his hands up in defeat, covering his face as you cheered in victory.

Over exciting yourself, it felt harder than before to breath, causing you to let out several choked coughs. Reiner chuckled at your struggle, moving a hand away from his face as he did, making sure you were okay.

After that, you both returned to the movie. You cuddled into Reiners broad chest as you began to feel yourself grow tired, clearly your shitty allergies we’re making you feel weaker than usual. It wasn’t long until you feel asleep, cuddled up ti your loving boyfriend, who played with your hair until you passed out.

While your summer allergies may get you down, there’s always someone near to cheer you back up.

[i-just-love-writing-crap]

Catching Murphy, Part 2

Warnings: Swearing, possible nsfw content Word Count: About 2219 Summary: You, Miss (y/n) (y/l/n), had a crush on Connor Murphy for years, from a distance of course. You had always been too shy to approach him, and the fact around school that he was an aggressive stoner caused you to become even more shy. One day, in history class, your teacher decided to assign a project and assigned everyone a partner—you and Connor were partnered together. Could you two grow close during the project and remain close? Or will Connor go back to ignoring you after the project comes to a close? A/N: I apologize if Connor is a biiiiit OOC… ;-; Obviously takes place in an AU where Connor is alive Masterlist Part 1 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11

When you arrived at the Murphy residence, your breath immediately left your lungs. You had never thought you could have ever gotten this far. And never had you thought that your love of Ancient Egyptian history would get the guy you had crushed on for years to notice you. Just this whole situation was incredibly weird—first Mr. Boulden partnered you and Connor up, then you are being brought over to Connor’s house. Not to mention Connor had, before you apparently interested him, told you he wouldn’t let you go to his house. You were lost in thought and you didn’t hear Connor calling your name from next to you.

“…ello!? FUCKING HELLO!!” Connor screamed into your ear.

Immediately, you covered your ears and answered, “Ouch! My fucking ears! WHAT, Connor?! WHAT IS IT!!?”

“Get the fuck out of my car, we’re at my house.”

“Fine. You had to scream in my ear, why?” you asked as you got out of his truck.

Crossing his arms, he answered, “Because you didn’t fucking answer me when I said it the first ten damn times.”

You huffed and retorted, “You could’ve done anything that wasn’t screaming in my ear, Connor.”

“Are you going to sit in my truck in the heat or do you wanna come the fuck inside?”

“Do you have food?”

“Oh my fucking God, yes, we have food for your fat-ass,” he grumbled.

“I’m not fat, Connor. I have some flab, but I’m not a fat-ass. Also, I thought you brought me to your house so you could help with the history project, not insult me and ridicule me when I want food,” you said.

Connor walked into his house, demanding you follow him, “Just come the fuck inside.”

“Fine,” you snapped and followed him inside. Oh God, I’m snapping at Connor fucking Murphy… I’m a deadman, you thought to yourself. “Now, can I have some food?”

Zoe walked through the den and said, “You can make yourself some food, (y/n), because Connor won’t make you shit. If you know how to cook with a stove, we have some noddles you can cook. Pans are under the sink.”

You smiled at Zoe and thanked her, “Thank you, Zoe… is it really okay?”

She looked at you, then to her brother, then back at you. “Yeah, it’s fine. Like I said, Connor won’t make you anything, so you might as well make yourself something.”

“Zoe, go fucking do something that’s not talking to (y/n). She’s here to work on a project,” Connor sneered at his sister.

You looked at Connor and crossed your arms. “That’s no way to talk to your sister, Connor,” you told him.

“And what do you know? You barely even know me or my family? All your here for is a fucking project,” he snapped.

That kind of hurt you. He had seemed so interested earlier at school, what had caused him to do a complete 180? You bit your lip and turned away from him. Speaking of what happened, what happened to you? Not even 24 hours ago you never would have even thought about talking to Connor Murphy, let alone the way you were talking to him now. “You know what, Connor Murphy—you are so confusing! You seemed soooo fucking interested in what I was saying at school and then the moment we are out of school, you act like we didn’t have a rather interesting interaction. Are you actually interested in helping me out with this fucking project or am I just going to have to do the whole damn thing by myself?! Because if you’re going to act like this, I would much rather you take my fat-ass home so I can do this myself!!”

Zoe rolled her eyes and left with a, “Keep your girlfriend calm, Connor.” Did she completely tune out what you had just said?

“I-I’m not his g-girlfriend, Zoe!!” you yelled, voice breaking in embarrassment.

“Yeah, okay. Sure, (y/n). He never brings a girl home and here you are, a girl, and he brought you home,” she said with a grin.

You blushed and stammered, “N-n-no! That’s crap! I’m just fucking here for a stupid project that I might as well do myself!”

As soon as Zoe left the room, Connor seemed immediately relieved. He even sighed, adding to the fact that he was relieved. “Geez, I thought she would never leave,” he said.

“Why does it matter?” you asked. “Anyways, are you going to fix me food or not?”

Connor sighed, “I can fix your dumbass some food.”

You bowed ironically as you said, “Thank you, Sir Connor.”

Connor had fixed you some simple mac and cheese, not that you were complaining, his mac & cheese was surprisingly delicious. You were half-way through your bowl of food when Connor asked you, “So, continue from where you fucking left off today.”

“Right now?” you asked with food in your mouth. You were completely taken by surprise by his words.

He looked at you for a moment, with a spoon hanging in your mouth and eyes looking up from your bowl, and gave you a small smile. “Yeah, right now. What do you have planned for our project.”

THERE HE GOES BEING INTERESTED AGAIN, WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!

You swallowed the food in your mouth and cleared your throat. “I, umm, well, I was thinking more of Akhenaten. The more I was thinking of him, the more I decided we could cover his family’s heresy,” you said.

“Who and what?”

“Pharaoh Akhenaten, born Ahmenhotep IV, was the head of religious upheaval that turned Ancient Egypt on its head. He went from worshipping the plethora of Ancient Egyptian gods and goddesses to just one god—Aten, the solar deity. Akhenaten’s whole family were a bunch of raging weirdos, though, so it wasn’t just him who was the special one of the bunch! Thutmose III, the bastard that tried to erase Hatshepsut from history, was the Heretic King’s great-great-grandfather—so yeah, great family already. Now, I’m not saying all of Akhenaten’s family was as fucked up as Thutmose III, but his great-grandfather, Amenhotep II began some religious shit. The same religious shit that spiraled out of control and ended with Akhenaten’s Amarna Period. Amenhotep II decided to build a fucking temple to the Sphinx of Giza and be crowned ruler of Heliopolis instead of Thebes, which started everything! And when I say everything, Connor, I mean everything! So, after this slight deviation, for the next three pharaohs, the religious deviation continued until Akhenaten decided to flip EVERYTHING!!”

There you went again, you got so animated when you talked about Ancient Egyptian history. And Connor noticed it and it caused him to smile a tad bit. He tried to focus on what you were saying, and he half did, but he was more focused on the way your eyes lit up as you shared your knowledge. He noticed how you abandoned the mac & cheese as you fidgeted with the spoon, like you were tying not to leave a single detail out. “Mhmm… cool, what happened?” he asked, waiting to see how animated you could get.

Of course, you did not disappoint. “Oh my Osiris!! Everything happened!! Akhenaten’s family slowly deviated from the Theben religion and shit! Ooh! I can’t even get into it! It wasn’t like Aten was some god that Akhenaten decided to make up just to fuck with the polytheistic religion of Egypt, no! He can’t take that credit! Aten had his own little cult back then,” you laughed. You noticed Connor’s eyes on you harden as you said cult. “N-no! Cults back then weren’t negative in the slightest, so don’t take it like that, C-Connor. Cults in the ancient past were kinda like the different secs of modern religions, like Baptists and Catholics of Christianity. So, yeah, Aten was a lesser god who had his own cult. The priesthood of Amun, the de-facto chief of gods, had grown large and almost out of control. They literally owned more land than even the fucking pharaoh did! Like, what the fuck? How the hell could they get that much fucking land without the pharaohs before Akhenaten noticing. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back and it was one of the reasons that moron tried converting the whole of Ancient Egypt from polytheism to monotheism.” The spark in your eyes was enough to start a fire and you spoke with so much passion that it was almost suffocating. You took a spoonful of mac & cheese and stuffed it in your mouth, saying, “It was better when we were all fucking pagans.”

The way Connor was looking at you had you thrown for a loop. It was like you were the center of the world for a small amount of time. Taking a few moments to absorb what you had said, he spoke, “Oh really? And why were things better when we were all pagans, (y/n)?”

Scoffing, you answered, “Because when we were all pagans, we focused on fucking peace and harmony! None of this oh let’s go conquer this land in the name of God/Allah/our own selfish bullshit reasons! NO! When we were pagans, we only fought when we wanted to expand our land or settle something with another kingdom.”

“Ah,” he answered. Connor honestly didn’t know nearly half of what you were telling him. Everything you said was new information to him and it honestly made him lowkey smile about it. He had never really met anyone who could speak to him as freely as you did, or snap at him like you did for that matter, and it made him feel like he wasn’t just some druggie who people avoided. Connor Murphy actually felt grateful to that “old man” that was Mr. Boulden for partnering him up with such an interesting person. Never once had he thought that he could have been paired up with someone as interesting as you. “What makes you think that pagans didn’t go to war for stupid reasons, (y/n/n)?” he asked, his eyes never leaving yours.

“Boy,” you deadpanned, “you’re kidding me? A core idea in any monotheistic belief system is the encouragement of the belief that, in order for it to be right, other systems must necessarily be wrong. It is because of that stupid insistence on being the sole administrator of ultimate truth leads to intolerance of other beliefs and their suppression. That is why pagans are seen to be unholy and blasphemous, because of that damn central idea of monotheistic belief systems! Ugh!! It’s infuriating that a religion that promotes peace and harmony is considered unholy because some moron created a serious monotheistic religion.”

Connor chuckled in amusement, “You don’t seem to like monotheism, do ya, (y/n)?”

You laughed at his comment, “What gave you that idea? Now, don’t peg me as an atheist, because I’m not, I’m more agnostic than anything. And I don’t dismiss anyone’s religious views because umm, no, that’s fucking rude.”

“That’s good to know, I guess. Miss Agnostic,” Connor quipped.

“Oh, aren’t you just too funny, Mister Loner,” you quipped back.

“Ahaha… you’re hilarious, my spleen may burst.”

“Aww, thanks, Con.” Connor blinked at that name. You noticed what you had said and stammered, trying to fix your mistake, “C-Connor! I meant to say Connor, but it came out too soon! M-my brain… my mouth… my something wasn’t keeping up with everything else! I-I’m sorry!”

He chuckled softly at your cute stammering and said with a shrug, “You can call me that, (y/n). I can call you (y/n/n), you can call me Con. Anyways, we should probably get to work on the project. I like whatever your doing with the whole Heretic King thing, so let’s do that. But, you seem to know fucking everything there is to know about that shit, so you probably don’t need my help.”

You looked at him and smiled. “I might not need any help with research and shit, Con, but having some company while I do the project would be nice. If you can handle being around me for two to three weeks,” you answered.

“I can’t see that fucking killing me, (y/n/n),” he said, a smile could be heard in his tone.

Smiling, you continued to eat. “Okay, coo. We can get started once I’m done with my food. Sound good to you, Con?” you asked with a smile.

“Yeah, sure. I did make you the food, I fucking expect you to eat all of it, dammit!”

“I’m working on it,” you laughed.

TAGS: @saturdayschilddrivesmewild you told me to tag you and here you go bby ;)

Also, I’ll be gone for the next few days on a vacay with my family, so you won’t really hear from me from today, the 23rd, until Wednesday the 26th! I’ll be working on some stuff while I’m gone and I may upload some stuff, but not as frequent as I upload usually! I just wanted to get this out since the thought is fresh~! Hopefully I’ll have something cutesy with Michael to upload at some point in the next few days!