#for the anon who wanted to learn more about romani culture

[magnetothemagnificent]

For the person who asked about Roma bloggers... I wish I felt comfortable being open about it online but I don't. I just want to share from my perspective as a Roma person online, most of the loudest Roma voices online are saying a lot of things that are really not representative of what being Roma is, but they drown out those of us who try to talk about it from an authentic place... I mean I personally have even been spoken over by Hindu Indians who want to "claim" all Roma as Hindus without our consent - at least not mine. I have deep love and appreciation for Hindus but Roma have been silenced and spoken for enough. We can speak for ourselves.

Also, like any other community, Roma are not a monolith. Much of the presentation online doesn't acknowledge our complexity and nuance and diversity... much of this because large portions of Roma are not from English speaking communities... so many voices that people could learn the most from will never get heard. Particularly from Roma in the Balkans, Turkey, and other Muslim Roma. As a people, there is so far to go in terms of justice and equality internally and externally both.

But anyways I'm sorry it's a little bit of a downer message... I often feel really sad about it myself. Sorry this turned out to be a bit of a ramble. I guess I just want to say with deep admiration for the Jewish people, maybe you understand the feeling of wishing goyim understood all the nuances and complexities of your community so that perhaps they would stop being antisemitic, and learn to see how beautiful your people and culture are.

I also wish the same for gadzo... but I wouldn't even know where to start. Online is not the best place :(

^

#not gonna add anything #this is articulated beautifully and I completely understand what you mean #romani people #for the anon who wanted to learn more about romani culture

[thewritingwrath]

romani anon - no, your race doesn't exclude you from writing characters of colour at all, and it's great that you want to do so. my concern is not about race, but about culture - genetics mean very little to roma, and if you aren't raised in the culture you aren't considered romani at all. because romani cultures and communities are generally very closed to outsiders, if you aren't romani yourself it's unlikely you'll be able to accurately write a romani main character in a novel about romani trauma.

which subgroup and clan is your character from? which romani language do they speak, and which dialect? how do customs that shape romani daily life, such as marhime laws, feature in the story? what is their religion? those are just the basics, and you should be able to answer all of them; if you can't, your cultural depictions will be wildly inaccurate as there's so much variety between subgroups.

do you feel confident writing in such depth about the historical trauma of a group you're not a part of? i don't think i would. what do you know about romani slavery? what do you know about romani culture in general? will your research consist of asking random roma online, who may or may not be untruthful about their backgrounds and cultural involvement?

i appreciate your time. thanks

I appreciate your answer, and I understand your concerns, and I sadly can’t answer your questions, yet. I’m just barely started my first draft, so I haven’t done a lot of research yet, as I usually do it as a write. But if I end up writing more in depth with this character and novel I would hope to figure more of that.

Addressing your concerns, I would say I know more about the Roma culture and the slavery that they were forced to do much more than the average person.

The only reason I wanted to address Roma on here was to gather their perspective on things, I wanted to learn about their subgroups, and traditions.

My research would be comprised of all responses I can find, from people online, articles, videos.

(I sadly can’t talk to my nana about this because she passed away around a year ago.)

I wouldn’t say I feel entirely confident as of right now, but I definitely feel as I learn more I can become more confident.

I just really wanted to write this novel because of my grandmother, the sadly forgotten history of the Roma, I just think there culture was beautiful and I genuinely find it fascinating how much history there is behind them.

(I really hope that didn’t come off fetishized, I do genuinely think Romani culture is beautiful and learning more about has made me saddened not being connected to it earlier.)

#my writing stuff

[mymistakewriting]

About (new post)

It's been a while and almost a hundred new followers since I've done an "about me" post. I figured it was probably time to fix that.

Hi, I'm Kieran. I'm 27, I go by they/them pronouns, and I have a wonderful partner (their blog is linked here if you want to go see the stuff she posts).

I write fanfiction and post headcanons and meta / observations / rants to the void about my fandoms and hyperfixations in my spare time (I work full-time as a server, but don't feel comfortable sharing what company I work at). I do accept requests for writing and headcanons, my inbox is always open for those and to just chat!

I have a discord account that I'm far more active on because I sometimes forget that tumblr exists (ameenjouee is my handle there if anyone wants to add me).

I have a large range of fandoms that I write for, but tend to cycle through and only focus on a handful at a time. I usually post when these fandoms change, but haven't done so yet recently (I'll do so in a new post after this)

This post will also act as a "Before You Follow" post, and an invitation to unfollow me to any newbies around here that don't feel comfortable sticking around with the following information out there:

As a writing blog, I have a few rules:

I do not condone ship bashing. I'm also a multi-shipper within most of my fandoms rather than have one ship that I focus in on. I like some variety in my writing. Any harassment that stems from me writing a ship that isn't majority in a fandom or that "gets in the way" of a popular ship will be answered by a block. I'm not the person to try that shit with.

I don't condone white-washing - be it via fancasts or culturally in portrayal. As someone with Romani heritage who grew up removed from a culture that I have to learn now that I have access to the side of my family that it comes from, I will always go to bat for people and cultures that aren't being represented or heard.

I'm very conscious of tagging triggering topics when I post my writing. If you like seeing my content but need something specific tagged as a trigger, please reach out (anon or not, I want anyone who takes up with my content to be safe reading it), and I'll make sure the topic is tagged both pre-content in post and in the tags from now on.

I will not write reader-insert.

As a person, I also have the following heads up to give:

I'm neurodivergent, that's about all you need on that one.

I'm non-binary, panromantic, demisexual (to be read as: homophobic and transphobic comments ain't gonna fly with me)

I don't have posting schedules, it's very much a "when I have time" or "when I finish it" kind of mess of a blog.

I'm very vocal when it comes to politics, ecological welfare, and human rights - these posts will be mostly contained to my personal blog, not my writing. The only real reason I include it is because the first time someone steps to my blog with some "blue lives matter" bullshit due to my writing for the 911 & Lone Star fandoms, I'll be reporting and blocking you, thanks.

But if all that seems fine by you, welcome to my blog. Feel free to stay a while and chat.

#kieran talks #about me #not writing #not rp #just personal talk #I haven't done an intro in years i'm so sorry

[thera-daydreams]

This is wishful thinking, but I kind of hope we get to see Wanda! Y/N’s explaining her Romani/Jewish background, culture, and traditions to the gang and house husbands, especially her wimple.

As a Romani woman who loves Marvel, i was extremely disappointed that Marvel didn’t cast a Romani/Jewish woman to play Wanda Maximoff.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Elizabeth Olsen, she owns my heart, but I still think it was a missed opportunity to cast someone of Wanda Maximoffs ethnicity and cultural background to play her since her culture plays a huge role as the Scarlet Witch.

Ah, yes! Although Wanda!Y/N in my fic basically represents the reader physically (in appearance; I try to make my physical descriptions vague for the reader), the Y/N in my fic has the Marvel Wanda's powers, background, and history. And yes, her background does indeed play a huge role in her being the Scarlet Witch. ☺️

I'm still researching more about Romani/Jewish culture since I'm part of another culture (I'm 🇵🇭) and I also don't want to misrepresent your culture since I'm not yet very knowledgeable about it. 😅

I also understand how important it is that characters accurately represent the people of its culture. It truly was a missed opportunity to cast someone who had the right heritage (as much as I love sweet Lizzie and her works, it should've been someone that you guys felt would've represented your culture fully). I'd honestly feel hurt if Marvel had a Filipino female superhero and the actress cast wasn't Filipino at all (or didn't know our culture). Representation matters especially for individuals like us. 🥲

But don't worry! In the future chapters, I also hope I can incorporate Wanda!Y/N sharing her Romani customs to the JJK boys. I'm trying to educate myself about it first and when I do publish something related to it, I hope I won't disappoint and that I will be able to accurately write it into the fic. 🙏

Thank you so much for this ask! I'm very open to learn from you, too, anon! Feel free to keep interacting in my asks. 🥰

#thera.answers #jjk.works

[simonalkenmayer]

(Scalemail System) [heavy sigh] Here we are again, with silly anons saying silly things. Our body is pale. We are assumed systemically white quite often, and by looking at us, unless one has quite a good study in the differences of bone structure between races, one would never guess we are, genetically, a quarter Native. Nor would they guess we also have Gaelic, Germanic, French, or (distantly) Romani bloodlines - two of those have also faced persecution not too dissimilar from Natives. We are more minority than we are white. Beyond all that, culture and race do not have to be hand-in-hand. Race you are born into, but culture can be shared. We, for instance, own a handful of sari's. They were freely given to us, and in turn we give them the best care we can and wear with with both respect and pride. We also own a molcajete, a mortar-and-pestle like device of Mexican/Latino origin which is made of volcanic rock (and is much more effective than the pitifully smooth porcelain things you'll find at Bed Bath & Beyond). This molcajete, we asked permission to get from someone we knew of that culture, and they told us no worries, and that we didn't need permission to buy and use a kitchen tool. Even still, we did our research, went through the effort to cure and season it ourselves properly, and will always treasure it and be proud of it. Sharing culture, or objects related to that culture, when you are invited or welcomed into it is not appropriation - it is APPRECIATION. And if humanity continues to draw these ridiculous lines between each other, then this world will never grow nor learn peace, because you all will have willingly segregated yourselves again.

I’ve heard some recent conversation about this on tiktok, and the way I understand it is:

if a practice has been freely shared with you, and its importance, significance, proper handling and rules are given to you, then you have fairly acquired it. If you do not gain from exploiting it, and practice it in a true and pure way, because you believe in it, or share the understanding of its true importance to the originating community, then you fairly hold it. If you step back and let the originating culture decide who may hold it, and defer to their judgement as to how it is acquired by the next group, you fairly pass it on.

An example would be certain religious rites. Let’s say some section of your family, through marriage, is indigenous. They might share their practices with you. They will teach you the appropriate way, how to respect it, how to keep that practice. You now have that practice and it is open to you. You do not use it to show off being part of that culture. You do not use it to gain wealth. You observe it with a kind of understanding that it comes to you through a struggle you may not have known for yourself. Perhaps one day, your friend sees you do it and asks about it. You can explain it to them, but also explain it is a closed practice, unless it is given the proper way. You can invite them to a family gathering, and defer to the people in your family, and tell them “my friend wants to understand this, can you teach them.” And they will decide if this practice should remain closed to that person, or if they are someone who will give it the proper treatment.

There may be practices that can be made understandable to outsiders, but will never be acceptable for them to hold. And people who care about those practices ought to understand that and defer to that wisdom.

I could be wrong in this, but that is what I’ve come to understand. I defer to anyone who has closed practices, to discuss them here.

[scarlet--wiccan]

hi! I hope this isn’t a dumb question or something you get a lot (i tried searching your blog to see if you’d answered it before so sorry if it is) but I’ve often wondered how billy (and tommy) are Romani when I’ve always thought it was believed that Rebecca and Jeff Kaplan were Billy’s biological parents? So wouldn’t he be the same race as them? And that the twin’s “souls” were just from Wanda’s and Visions kids, any explanation if you can would be super appreciated thank you!!!

I'm going to break this down in two parts-- first, what happened in canon, and what the text indicates about Billy and Tommy's nature; second, what this means for the characters in a meta sense, and I how I think readers and writers alike should approach the twins' relationship with Wanda and each other.

Wanda conceived twin boys with her then husband, the Vision, through a feat of magic which is, I believe, the earliest example of her apparent "reality warping" abilities. Much like her other instances of reality warping, however, this was an exceptional circumstance in which Wanda had become a vessel for magic powers greater than those she ordinarily possesses-- in this case, the combined power of six hundred and sixty-six witches. She only held that power for a moment, but it was long enough for her to make a a wish-- that she might start a family with her otherwise infertile partner. Wanda discovered that she was pregnant not long after, and the next nine months went off more or less without a hitch, ending with the birth of two healthy, seemingly ordinary baby boys-- Thomas and William. Although the Vision is considered to be their father, the children were, biologically, born of Wanda and Wanda alone, and take after her in every respect.

The children died tragically only a few years later, when they were still very young, destroyed by the demon Mephisto and his servant, Pandemonium. In her grief and desperation, Wanda sought out Doctor Doom, who helped her perform a ritual which would make her a conduit for something he called the "Life Force", so that she may use it to restore her children. This overwhelming power, combined with manipulation and gaslighting at the hands of her so-called allies, led to the catastrophic breakdown that we see in Avengers Disassembled and House of M. Once again, the reality warping that Wanda performs is the product of outside forces, and the results are unpredictable at best. Although she didn't realize it at the time, Wanda did succeed in resurrecting her twins, but rather than reconstituting their original forms, she caused them to be retroactively reincarnated, essentially making it so that they'd already been born instead of having to reform them. This is why Billy and Tommy are way older than they should be-- their current lives actually overlap with their originals. Billy, as a teenager, even met Wanda shortly before the Life Force incident.

So, it is true that the Kaplans and Shepherds are Billy and Tommy's biological parents, respectively, which is to say that Rebecca Kaplan and Mary Shepherd physically carried and gave birth to them. There's no indication that anything strange or supernatural happened during those pregnancies, but it is confirmed in Children's Crusade that the babies in question were reincarnations of the Scarlet Witch's lost sons. While there is a lot of talk about the "transmigration of souls" in Children's Crusade, there are also numerous indications that the twins are genetic duplicates of the original William and Thomas. We know that they are physically identical to each other, coloring aside, and other characters observe, on separate occasions, that they resemble both Wanda and Erik. Billy and Tommy sharing Wanda and Pietro's powers is frequently brought up as evidence of their relationship, and, at the time, the Maximoffs were canonically mutants, which means that their powers were genetic. If their powers are evidence of anything, they're evidence of a genetic connection. All of this is to say that, while the Shepherds and Kaplans are their birth families, Wanda is also their birth mother--the two incarnations are genetically, biologically continuous, not just spiritually continuous.

The cool thing about comics is that we can accept both of these things as true, even if that doesn't make any scientific sense. The manner in which Billy and Tommy were reincarnated was unconventional, even by fantasy standards, and it's basically a retcon of a retcon, written by somebody who might not have had a solid grasp on the Marvel timeline. It's messy, but anyone who reads cape comics needs to be good at suspending disbelief.

—

So, I usually look at Billy and Tommy's heritage and identity in one of two ways-- taken very literally, they each have three biological parents, and we should view them in a way which reflects all parts of that parentage; taken as a more of a metaphor, their origin is basically an adoption story. Wanda lost her kids as a young mother, and they were adopted by different families and reached out to her as young adults.

The neat thing is that Wanda, through Erik, is also Ashkenazi, so you don't have to lose or change any part of who the kids are to embrace their relationship with her. I'm not erasing any part of Billy's heritage by making Wanda his birth mother-- he is Jewish, and was raised in America by a Jewish family, but he also has Central European Roma ancestry.

It shouldn't require very much imagination to envision somebody with more than one ethnic background, especially since these communities do intersect and have shared history. Mutants and magic and reincarnation don't exist, at least not like this, but Romani people exist. Mixed kids exists. Adopted kids exist. This is a fantasy story, but those fantasy elements don't have to preclude any of the things I just described from existing, or from being visible, not unless we willfully interpret it as such. Remember, this is fiction. Fiction doesn't have to erase real groups of people who inhabit real parts of the world and were part of real history-- that is a choice that we make as real people who create or consume media.

There's a lot which could be said about the parameters of Romani identity, and what it means to have gadje parents, or be generationally removed from one's culture and community of origin, the way that Billy and Tommy are. I'm not the right person to explain that stuff, and I don't think it's necessary information for outsider consumption, at least not in this context. What I will say is that many members of displaced and diasporic communities can attest to having gaps in their family trees and disruptions in their cultural lineage, especially in the generations following events such as the Shoah or the Porajmos. For me, that's what Billy and Tommy represent, because that's who I am. I deserve to have space here, but more than that, I want people who care about these characters to care about the history they represent and be motivated to learn more and do better as allies, even if it is only within the sphere of pop culture. And part of that is looking at questions like these ^ and challenging the patterns of misrepresentation and erasure that many, many people in this fandom uphold. I'm extremely grateful to you, Anon, for approaching me so politely, doing your own research, and challenging your own conceptions. That's literally the only reason I was motivated to write all of this. I hope it's legible and that y'all get something out of it.

#billy kaplan #Tommy Shepherd #Young Avengers #wanda maximoff #bee text #cw shoah #robintext

[marveldc-imagines-hub]

hello! just wanted to drop by and say THANK YOU for deciding to change some stuff for your WandaVision fic, especially regarding Wanda’s character and the racist stuff the writers have put in (not just towards Wanda’s character but that’s another conversation). it means a lot to see writers like you stick to what’s truly accurate to a character, especially when it comes to, you know, not whitewashing them lmao. idk where i was going with this haha but i hope the message came through. thank you again!! and i can’t wait to see what you’ve come up with for the rest of the story. it’s amazing, and you are quite literally the sole reason i’ve been inspired to write my own version of WandaVision!! thank you again, i hope you have a fantastic day ✨

This ask really means a lot to me!!

I’ve mentioned before that Wanda (and Pietro, by association) and Vision are the characters in the MCU that I was never as familiar with as I am about most of the color characters, so writing this series have given me a lot of opportunity to do so. I also don’t know a whole lot about Jewish or Romani culture and while I’ve learned some, I’m definitely not perfect. I didn’t get why a lot of people disliked the show until I read some posts in the anti tag and I learned quite a lot of valid reasons to do so, such as, aside from the general whitewashing, offensive stereotypes (Wanda’s Halloween costume being a Sokovian fortune teller; I changed it to an Aphrodite costume, which I don’t think is offensive but if it is, I’m happy to change it before posting) and the fact that Wanda’s actress, Elizabeth Olsen, has said many questionable things even recently (repetitive use of a slur to Romani people, many other things but this is a long ask to answer at 6am). :’D

I personally don’t hate the show myself (obviously); I’m happy to see previously minor characters, including one of my faves, get more screen time and development, and I’m a sucker for decade fashion, so the show sucked me in via vague concept alone. I was also one of those people who grew up on the cartoons and movies vs started out reading the comic books, so when I was introduced to Wanda, the first Wanda I met was MCU Wanda, which I now know is so drastically different from the original character. Obviously, I think it would have been better to see a better representation of comic Wanda Maximoff instead of rewriting her into an almost completely different character with the same name.

There were and are some things in the show that I’m not personally a fan of (I, like several people in the anti tags, was a little grossed out when That Scene in “We Interrupt This Program” happened and thought Wanda just had babies with a reanimated Vision corpse until I realized that was not in fact the case; I was also mildly confused about how Tommy and Billy came to actually be (hoonum + robo = babey?) until it got better explained in later episodes; I personally hate Wanda’s punishment for Agatha at the end of the show; again, offensive shit) so, yeah, I’m going to change stuff I don’t like and think should be fixed to the best of my ability. That’s why I write fanfiction, lol.

I,,, also don’t know where this is going. It’s super late and I accidentally kept forgetting to answer this ask, so I’m trying to do so now with the couple other asks I need to answer. But anyway, thanks again, I spend so much time on research for almost every little detail of this series and like I said before, I’m far from perfect, but hopefully I do a decent job, lol.

Also, hey, anon, drop that WandaVision fic link,,

#Anonymous #anon #answers #asks #subtitles

[collectivefandomstuff]

mum... im being bullied on this site for writing and posting a story that apparently makes me into a racist even though i tried really hard to write it so its clear that the POV character is a shitty person and not me??? halp, i need advice pleaze

Hi there :) this is a sensitive subject, but I’ll give it a try.

When writing, what we’re essentially trying to do is communicate what’s in our heads to someone else’s using words. And, contrary to what some believe, using art/writing/whatever as a medium to convey those thoughts are hard and we all end up miscommunicating eventually. Now, in my experiece there are several types of literary miscommunication so I’ll try to cover them all:

1. Miscommunication due to differing perspectives. This happens when you and your audience comes at a text from different viewpoints. Sometimes it’s that you write from the metaphorical north and you can’t see that from the south this story looks way different. For example, look at 13 reasons why. They had a very graphic suicide scene that was meant to “start a discussion” but had other, much less positive consequences. In these situations, I usually ask myself: 1) am I willing to let the southern perspective stand? (as in, am I okay with what it implies?) and 2) is anyone getting hurt? If so, it’s not generally worth it.

The second incarnation of this miscommunication has to do with ethics. For example, if I were to write a story where the main character has an abortion, I would count on this making the character more sympathetic, not less, since I grew up in a culture without any real “pro-life” movement. I would be wary of the portayal because the protagonist would go through intense emotional turmoil, but I would never give the politics a second thought. Thus, if my audience tells me that the main character is a bad person (or that I am) I can stand firm on my ethics (or change them) and act accordingly.

2. Miscommunication through language. This is a big one. Sometimes when we speak to someone we just express ourselves poorly, and the same thing happens when we write. This one is hard to take as a writer, because there’s a prevailing idea that if you can’t convey your point you’re a bad writer, but that’s not the case. When writing, you usually start off writing cliches that have been written a hundred times before, and as you work at it you eventually start incorporating more of your own creativity into the work. When you do that, you can’t rely on people knowing the formula anymore and that’s when we start making mistakes. Let’s say I base a character on one of my friends, and someone criticizes that character for being a sexist trope since she dresses slutty and is pretty sexual. I’m over here like “no?? that’s Claire!” But in reality I failed to make the text reflect what I know: that Claire is multifaceted and interesting. These miscommunications help us become better writers and they never go away either. You know that one tumblr post about the Literature PhDs who has a whole seminar about whether Edgar Allan Poe was racist? Yeah.

From what you told me, you decided to take on writing an unsympathetic protagonist. That’s real tricky, and also a great way to practice characterisation and writing in general. It’s great that you’re doing it, but it also means that making these sorts of mistakes is more likely.

*this one is extra difficult if you’re writing in a second/third etc. language.

3. Miscommunication due to subconcious bias. We’re all products of our enviroments, upbringings, and experiences. Like with varying ethics due to cultural differences, we can’t ignore that sometimes we have preconceptions we’re not necessarily aware of and those can sneak into our writing. For example: I grew up in Europe, where there’s a strong anti-romani sentiment. The first time I learned about romani it was through the sentence “you can’t trust gypsies, they’re all thieves” (this is a slur and should not be used by non-romani. I’m using it here because this is a direct quote that underlines the severity of the jargon). I’m aware of this, and I conciously try to fight the cultural upbringing I had, but these things run deep. If I wrote a text and someone told me that it was offensive towards romani I would take that seriously, because sometimes bias shows up even when we don’t mean for it to. It doesn’t make us bad people, but it is something we have to be aware of as a possibility when we write.

Finally, there’s one more explanation that has nothing to do with miscommunication. Sometimes, tumblr does that because while tumblr is a safe space it’s also a bubble. A bubble with many, many people that tend to see the world through the good ol’ fashioned black/white goggles. Sometimes the audience is just wrong.

To you, anon, I would like to say this: from what you wrote it seems you’re going through a tough time. It’s hard being the target of an anonymous mass that are accusing you of being a bad person, especially in regards to a work you put a lot of effort into and conciously tried to make non-offensive. It’s okay to feel like you can’t handle it and simply change your account/take down the story/whatever makes you feel safe. Writing a story online shouldn’t become a source of bad feelings and thoughts.

If you want tips on the story itself, I would say try to re-read it and attempt to see it through the eyes of those who critizise you. Do they have a point? You can also ask someone else to read it, to get feedback. It can be really hard to see your own work from another perspective. If the discourse isn’t too toxic, you could also engage with your audience and ask them what parts of your story are making them feel that way, since this isn’t what you intended.

No author is perfect, least of all people writing for fun on the internet and it’s not always apparent to the audience how much their comments can hurt, in the end you wrote this story to communicate something and you’ve become a better writer for it. Likewise, you’ve learned something from the response and you’re under no obligation to leave it up or take it down or fix it or whatever. Don’t let it scare you away from writing more things.

I hope this helped. Take care of yourself anon❤️

Edit: I wanted to add that if people are genuinely drawing a direct link between your views and that of a purposefully flawed character then that’s on them and you should do whatever you feel is best for you and your well being.

#lovely anons #asked and answered #tw slurs #discourse #tw suicide mention #as in I mention 13 reasons why #long post

[hazel-k-proserpine]

When The Student Surpasses The Master

Thanks for the awesome prompt anon! I hope you enjoy it! -K

J. Daniel Atlas could be called many things. Controlling, precise, intelligent, stubborn as hell, but a quitter wasn’t one of them. He wanted to be the best he could at everything he did, to have the most control over the situation. And one thing he wasn’t very good at, at the beginning of the 4 Horsemen adventure, was pickpocketing. Now that they had been accepted into the Eye, they didn’t have any more missions, it was a great time for him to get better at it. So, he asked Jack, the master of pickpocketing, to teach him. 

Jack, of course accepted, thrilled to be able to teach his idol something. They started lessons the very next day, giving Jack time to gather the materials he needed. Jack hadn’t every properly trained, but, he was going to make sure that Danny did, so he did the most research he could on teaching someone to be stealthy, because you couldn’t exactly research how to pickpocket someone. The thing he thought would work best was the Seven Bells Ritual from Romani culture. A dummy would be dressed in clothes covered in different bells, and if the person trying to pickpocket them wasn’t stealthy enough, they would bump one of the bells and it would ring, signaling that they would have been caught by the person. So, that’s how Jack decided to start. He hauled up a dummy from storage, and found some old clothes in one of the magic trunks that he could sew some bells on. 

The next morning, Danny woke up to Jack practically shaking him out of his bed. 

“C’mon control freak! Up and at ‘em! I’m all set for you in the living room.” Danny groaned, but rolled over and out of bed. 

“Alright. Give me 10 minutes to get dressed and get my teeth brushed. Then I’ll be out.” 

“Great!” Jack ran out of his bedroom and back into the living room. He made sure all the dust was off the clothes while Danny got ready. He waited for a few minutes, and then Danny came out in a pair of jeans, some sneakers, and a plain t-shirt. 

“Alright, that’s great! You look like a normal tourist. Now let’s teach you how to pickpocket.” Jack started showing Danny the basics of pickpocketing. 

“Start by watching, you want to make sure you don’t do any more reaching or touching than you have to. Watch to see if you can see their wallet in any of their pockets.” Danny nodded and started to look over the dummy, seeing that the wallet was in the left side pocket. 

“Do you see it?” Danny nodded and motioned to the left pocket. 

“Good. Now, what I want you to do is just pretend that they’re walking, and walk alongside them so they won’t get suspicious.” Danny nodded and sidled up to the dummy. 

“Alright. Step 3, go for it. If they’re distracted, it’s even easier, so watch for that.” Danny nodded and slowly reached his hand into the pocket, and before his fingers even reached the wallet, the tinkling of bells sounded throughout the room. He pulled his hand out and sighed. 

“It’s alright. Try it again. It’ll take a little time to get.��� Danny nodded, and tried again. He managed to reach the wallet this time, but as he was trying to pull it out, a few bells rang out. 

“God damn it!” Jack put a hand on Danny’s shoulder. 

“It’s alright Danny. It takes time. I wasn’t good at it right away either. We’ll keep working at it. You’ll get it eventually.” Danny sighed, but then nodded. They kept working at it for the rest of the day, until they both got hungry and decided it was dinnertime. 

Through the next couple days, it was clear that Danny was making improvements. He had even stolen things from Merritt and Henley, and he had tried Dylan once, but after the thorough tickling he got afterwards, he decided to never do that again. 

Everyone in the Four Horsemen knew that he was ticklish, and they used it to their advantage when they needed to. If he was being too controlling, or just acting in a way that they didn’t particularly enjoy. But Danny just couldn’t help himself. If he was good at something, he was going to show off with it, which was exactly what led him to make the decision to try and pickpocket Jack’s wallet. He had taken some very, very small items, like a pin from one of his jackets, and the little container of mints from his back pants pocket. This was something big, and boy was he going to regret it, even if he didn’t know it yet. 

His opportunity came when Jack came out of his bedroom to get breakfast the next morning. He was listening to music on his phone, which equaled a distraction. 

1. Find the target. Jack’s wallet was in the same place as always, his back left pocket. 

2. Get close to them so they don’t get suspicious. Danny walked up next to Jack at the counter, and started to make himself a bowl of cereal, so that Jack would think his hands were busy with something else. Jack saw him and waved. Danny waved back, and waited for Jack to turn back to his music before he made his move. When he did, Danny started to walk away with his cereal bowl, and then slipped his hand into Jack’s pocket and grabbed his wallet before Jack even knew what happened, and then he slipped it into his own pocket before heading into the living room to eat his cereal. When he was sure he was out of sight from Jack, he threw his fist up in the air and internally celebrated his victory. The day passed pretty uneventfully, until Jack was getting ready to go out. He walked out into the living room, patting his pockets.

“Has anyone see my wallet? I swear I had it in my pock- Danny?” Danny stiffened slightly.

“You looking for your wallet Jack?”

“What did you do with it Danny? Give me my wallet.” Danny stood up and turned to Jack. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Now if you don’t mind, I’m gonna head to my room and do some reading. See ya later everyone.” Surprisingly enough to Danny, Jack let him go. He quickly shut the door to his room, but he didn’t lock it, which was the mistake that led to his regret. Jack came through the door and shut it behind him. 

“Danny, I know you stole my wallet. I also know you stole my mints and the pin off my jacket. Quit stealing my stuff! I taught you to pickpocket to make our lives easier when we have missions, not for you to be able to pickpocket me!” Jack said, laughing. Of course he couldn’t be too mad, he was the one that taught Danny, and maybe the student had surpassed the master, but it didn’t mean that he wasn’t planning on some revenge. 

“What are you gonna do about it?” Jack smirked at him, and Danny gulped. 

“I think...I’m gonna,” Jack was creeping closer and closer to Danny with every word. 

“Do this!” He pounced on Danny and immediately started tickling up and down his sides, over his stomach, and digging into his ribs. Danny tried to hold his laughter in, but as soon as Jack dug into his ribs, he lost it. Danny tried to throw Jack off by bucking and thrashing, but if the kid was good at anything, other than pickpocketing and throwing cards, it was knowing how to throw his weight around. He grew up on the nasty side of New York, so he knew how to handle a fight. Danny’s giggles were one of the best things he had heard, but he needed some loud laughter. He needed Danny to give him back his wallet. Eventually, Danny’s face got super red, and he started to have a little trouble breathing. Jack let up after that, but kept trailing his fingers up and down Danny’s sides.

“Are you gonna give me my wallet?” Danny shook his head, which shocked Jack. 

“Danny, please just give me my wallet. I don’t want to have to do this to you bud.” Danny took the opportunity to take a big breath, which he was going to need. Jack took a big breath, lowered his head to Danny’s ribs, and let out the biggest raspberry that he could. Danny screamed in laughter, and then he tossed Jack’s wallet at his head. 

“TAHAHAKE IHIHIT!!!!! GOHOHOHO AWAHAHAHAY!” Jack slid off of Danny and smiled at him. 

“Good job Danny. But if you ever pickpocket me again, this will feel like nothing!” He walked out of the room and left to do what he was going to do before the interruption. 

Danny sat up on his bed and took a deep breath, and then figured out who he was going to mess with next. 

Danny never learns his lessons, even when they do it the hard way. 

I hope you love it anon!!! I really enjoyed writing some NYSM again! -K

#now you see me #ticklish!danny #fourhorsemen

[rose---child]

Most pagans are full of shit and bastardize PoC’s culture by using conflict-ridden crystals and thinking their Zodiac justifies their shit behavior

okay ..... i don't know if this is targeted at me or just trying to tell me this stuff exists i don't know what to say to that tbh.

okay also i want to say something. When anyone says pagans who are we talking about, like really pagan as a term is vague because i use the term very loosely and include non european and poc religions and magic into it and not to white wash it or to approreate it but just as a way to help me think of the religions and how they work together.     

wait ignore the above comment like do you mean general witchaft and witches because thats less what i mean by pagans and more what generally witches are or people doing magic for the hell of it. 

the whole healing crystals and zodiacs and wicca in general like the witchcraft revival i beleive from the late 1800s had to do with racists and alot of anti semetics so you are very right and how modern witchcraft and paganism blends many cultures without respecting or even understanding where certain things come from honestly pisses me off like the “gyp__” cards steal from well the romani people.

also there is a odd like gradient between alt medicine and witchcraft like auras,chakras,yoga,acupunture to like healing crystals,zodaics,the petagram necklaces like these ive seen by both witch/pagans and non people and like these indivsual things already come from many diffrent cultures and have been just become another commodity and like when i started into witchblr honestly it just felt like a bunch of bullshit and why overtime i became more hellenic pagan base then also looking into kemeticism  and like see since i grew up in a chrstian household i was used to structure but when i stopped i didnt have someone to teach me things so i had to learn my research and overall i feel more critical abbout the greek gods and how honestly the greeks and romans fucked up like the perstians, mioan,Jewish people,kemetic people/egyptian people groups all deserve better

also whole i think im still somewhat on the same topic fuck posdion and fuck zeus like they were exsploitave ass hats and raped people and tricked hades into kidnapping persphone.

also if i remember correctly followers of zeus attacked a synagogue and that pisses me off

oh yeah now another thing that pisses me off is how white suprimicists are more and more using pagan symbolism to dog whistle fascist messages

i feel like this question was about how egypt has been white washed or how houdou and voudou and rootworking have also been very much turned into a fun lil hobbys for funzies while ignoring the actual history and cultures and communities they are apart of               or how when poc rep in assciation with witchcraft diffrent poc are used but in a negitive light like the the book the crusible where tituba was a former slave from barbatos

or this could be how diffrent symbols from hinduism have been just dissitled into sellable objects like i said above yoga,insense,buddahism,and hindi symbolism and many other things have been rebranded as “spritiality”or “new age” whitch as a confused 7th grader i looked at for a bit for like a month and its the whitest shit around but thats not magic or pagan but i bring it up because it also steals the symbolism from other cultures

also with crystals i dont think thats a pagan or witch reason they are bad or used or are popular like why they are arround today i would say more has to do with things like the mining and diamond industries and they are just selling us products from countries that have delt with war and insation and bullshit but it is sad to see the pagan and witch community not adress this or any of these 

im sorry i am rushinf this but i hope i answered your question but honestly it wasent clear to me but i did try to answer what came to mind also please dm anon i wouldnt mind talking to you, this topic is interesting to me