#and erik tbqh

[the-rubies-that-i-gave-up]

Aaron was just as obsessive protective over Nicky as Andrew was to him btw. If you even care.

[slaygentford]

fully misread that last ask u published as erik/charles (xmen) and then got confused like… stalking?? huh?

anyways erik/charles xmen. i can’t remember if you were ever into it but like. who doesn’t have an opinion about them tbqh

CARPE BREWSKI. NEVER FORGET. OUR FALLEN BRETHREN…… genuinely. Wow. I probably would’ve stopped writing it too if I was him tbh. Anyway that’s the first thing that comes to mind for me but my honest opinion is that while first class had no reason AT ALL to be as horny as it was (remember when they almost had a threesome apparently with one of their future students) we forget too often their old queen selves. Because it’s them as two old queens that we should be more worried about and more appreciative of. Charles goes to federal lock up once a week to play chess with him like. ONLY gay people. Only gay people

[plumbogs]

Erik Swain's round was next, but since he graduated I will do the second half of his after moving him in downtown. So it's onto this household, where Melody immediately starts the semester off strong.

She does actually get to researching after her wake and bake whimsical morning bubble blowing session. the llama intrudes but her focus is strong.

this is such a lovely peaceful morning tbqh she kinda has it made.

oh yeah beau lives here now. he tries to craft a delicious plate of grilled cheese and ignores the llama as well.

Nobody went to class today because I didn't feel like sending them out plus there was enough going on. besides look at him he's having fun :) he's just one point away from having maximum enthusiasm in music.

an unexpected change of heart? perhaps. Maybe he won't have to worry about that whole "tricking him into trying a special basement wine and sealing the wall" thing after all.

i almost forgot halloween costumes. he's some kind of vampire or something. because he's gothic and whatever. he has a cape and he knows what he's doing

they make me sick.

did i give him a dog costume explicitly because I want to see if the accessory ears and werewolf ears stack and i think it is very hilarious? yes

i had no clue what outfit would fit a dog costume that wasn't getting too weird with it, so he's in this now. it calls to mind one of these:

Melody is going as a VHS 80s jazzercise dance video instructor. she's kinda killing it honestly.

he gets right into hacking his grades again and doesn't get caught this time. they'll never catch the hacker vampire. he'd do numbers on schreknet

she needs that mechanical point anyway. might as well fix this clog. She might also manage to graduate with honors this semester as long as the various bad influences in her life don't win over. unfortunately the worst influence shares a wall with her.

[ambrozians]

storm for the give me a character thingy

how i feel about this character: she’s the kind of character that actually makes you feel like you can do anything. i love her story, her strength, the immense love she has for so many people, what she represents, literally everything about her.

all the people i ship romantically with this character: *takes a deep breath* jean, t'challa, yukio, scott, and erik (thank you x-men red), and, lowkey, stevie hunter. sidebar: she has major chemistry w/ a lot of people.

my non-romantic OTP for this character: REMY !! also kurt and logan :)

my unpopular opinion about this character: punk storm is so iconic but that fuckass mohawk will be the death of me (tbqh reverting to that hairstyle w/o acknowledging the significance of her punk era is just lazy, imo, but that’s a conversation for a different time) fauxhawk > mohawk. oh, and i think schism should’ve been scott + ororo.

one thing i wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: mentoring black mutants, more lore regarding her magical heritage, confirm bi (ewing technically did but i’m not sure if that’s a marvel-wide thing yet), and more religious/goddess stuff with her since coates’ BP made that official!

[nocompromise-noregrets]

For the movie/tv show ask, may I request x-men?

Oh YAY, thank you! For me this is slightly complicated because my actual preferred canon is the comics (canon, I say laughingly, it's more like a tangled web of contradicting storylines, all of which are canon at the same time), and so sometimes my preferences from there bleed over into the movies. Which I also love, especially the First Class ones. So! Let's see how I get on. :D

favourite female character Rogue. Love her across canons, although the movies didn't do her justice. favourite male character Comics-wise it's Gambit, but the movies, again, didn't do him justice, so it's going to have to be Wolverine. Bloody love him. worst female character I'm not fond of Emma Frost in the comics or the movies, tbqh. worst male character Scott Summers. Sorry guys, the man's an idiot, in all canons. XDDD otp Comics: Rogue/Gambit, but in the films they never meet and aren't even in the same timeline, aargh, so it's going to have to be Charles/Erik. brotp Wolverine and Rogue in the original X-Men movies. Wolverine and Jubilee in the comics (which is the relationship the movies borrowed from). notp I don't think I've got one for the movies, although I am not fond of the comics storyline that paired Rogue and Magneto.

Thank you for asking! <333333 Anyone else want to give me a movie or tv show to ramble about?

[paradisecost]

oh boy i’m playing Inside, in which (so far) you’re a little boy running through the woods and trying to avoid being captured and caught or killed, and just............... the silver and erik muses are Loud,

[emotionalmotionsicknessxx]

Girl in the World

Erik/Christine, Crack, 4k

Based on A Fairytale of New York by @box5intern for her birthday! You should read that instead of this tbqh

"Good...morning," Christine said, her voice clicking into the cautious, approaching-a-wild-animal voice that she used to use with Erik during her time in his employ. "What...are you two up to?"

Read on Ao3

[tjadakaa]

If you like Erik but don’t like W’Kabi you’re fake. Tbqh.

They the same clothe, they both want violence and it’s sheer cognitive dissonance to think any of this shit was about T’Challa lol.

[omgitsaddyc]

idk anything about Formula 1 racing but I DO know I want to know what kind of branding Erik Dragon Quest would have on his car in a fictional universe where said man is a racer (from what i saw some of the stuff is kinda boring but cmon if we're going fictional with it then why can't he or anyone else have a badass car??)

or any other crossover headcanons you'd have tbqh

This is the greatest ask ever anon you're wonderful.

-deep breath- OKAY HERE WE GO

So with F1 branding there's sponsorships the teams themselves have (stuff that ends up on the racing suit and the car itself) but then there's also the driver-specific sponsorships. Those can be a little more fun :) Those end up on the driver's merch, and their hats/sunglasses. A lot of it ends up being apparel because they're constantly photographed walking around the paddock and all that jazz. I digress.

Erik Dragonquest would try to collect the most chaotic branding. I truly believe this. He's sponsored by doritos and fanta, probably. Stick him on the McLaren team for the bright orange car. He's the type of driver who accepts almost any sponsorship request as long as it's not outright crass (but borderline/jokey ones are 1000% okay. Nuts.com? he's all over that.) This man is here to fuck shit up on track and laugh about it afterwards ala "I'm trippin' major nutsack right now" Ricciardo (look this man up if you have the chance. he's an absolute delight of a driver). His helmet is probably a gorgeous neon disaster with 80's patterns and I'm here for it. His theme song is "Rock You Like a Hurricane" from The Scorpions. As for other headcanons! El and Erik meet by becoming teammates. El's an up-and-coming newbie and he's very shy. Erik (who's been at the team for a few years) takes him under his wing and they end up the best of friends. Inseparable. Real bromance material.

I don't really have anything else but if I think of more I'll reblog this and add to it :P

[wyslyyzr]

red dead verse :) 

erik is born in dusseldorf, germany, under the name max eisenhardt, to edie and jakob eisenhardt. they are a family of poor jews, and fled to america around 1850 (give or take) to escape economic hardship and riots in germany. they settled in new york. in real life history, this era, from about 1820 to 1920, was a massive flux of jewish migration from europe to the us, so this fits easily and well.

an important note: in every universe, erik is a mutant, as this is an aspect of his person i absolutely cannot erase. its integral to his person, as important as him being jewish, and it feels.. borderline offensive, tbqh, to remove that for the sake of the universe. considering there is enough weirdness in the rockstar collective and rdr universe--i.e. time travel, vampires, ufo, etc, even if its meant to serve only as easter eggs, i think y’all can give erik a pass. 

to create some sense of reflection in this verse, erik’s mother and father are killed when erik is about 15 in a shoot out in which they were bystanders. ruth and erik--then max--survive.

erik works various jobs as he grows up,  desperately trying to earn enough money to keep himself and ruth afloat, but eventually becomes frustrated with the civil and class injustices he witnesses around him. after his wife magda and daughter anya die over a work dispute, this fuels him into the age of outlaws into becoming one--especially once he discovers that no bullet can touch him. 

changing his public identity from max eisenhardt to erik lehnsherr in order to erase his past and protect himself, erik acquires a variety of nicknames from other gunslingers, but those that stick out the most prominently are “erik the red”, and just “red”. 

his gang is colloquially known as the ‘magnus’ gang. he is, basically the kind of freedom fighter that dutch imagines himself as, except he actually sticks to it and his values.

[dylanrcarterr]

                     She’s my person. If I murdered someone,                                                she’s the person I’d call to help me                         drag the corpse across the living room floor.                                                            SHE’S MY PERSON. 

                  ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

             ✤ CASSANDRA WARREN ☩ DYLAN CARTER   ✤

                                                        ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

                                                       There is one friend in the life of each of us                                         who seems not a separate person,                                                                however dear and beloved,                                           but an expansion, an interpretation of one's self,                                                                                 the very meaning of one's soul.

                                                     ( @cassandrawarren )

[sebastianshaw]

Erik: Does it bother you that when Emma wiped your mind. The first thing you do is wonder the place and somehow joining the taliban as a "suicide" bomber?

“Well, I don’t recollect what happened during my amnesiac state. But from what I understand, I was in China, the Xianjiang province to be precise, and whilst there are Chinese Muslims, there isn’t a Chinese Talbian as far as I know. No, Mr. Jin Billion was a much more common brand of criminal, and I don’t resent him that, nor making use me as a weapon when I wandered into his midst. What bothers me is that in ANY state that I would be enough of an IDIOT to fall for the absolute NONSENSE he fed me to talk me into his operation---and at no gain to me, even!” Shaw: *was an innocent amnesiac manipulated by someone else* Shaw: well obvy it was my fault for being STUPID And yes, folks, there was a period Emma wiped Shaw’s memory and this big helpless galoot was just wandering around China with no idea who he was or what a mutant was until someone else took advantage of him. And frankly, given the story that Jin told him---that he was experimented on by bad guys to give him the power he has and that said bad guys need to be stopped from hurting anyone else---is something that has happened for real like, repeatedly in comics, I THINK ACTUALLY BELIEVING HIM MADE SENSE TBQH? Also amnesiac Shaw was adorable, it’s terrifying.

[ravenvsfox]

Hey, not sure if you are still doing requests, but will you pretty please do #2 for Nicky and Erik. Like maybe early on during the exchange program maybe?... I really love your writing sooooo much.

(This was sent a million years ago but I loved writing them and I hope you like it too!! You’re too goddamn kind wth)

02: “I think I’m in love with you and that scares the hell out of me.” nicky/erik

Their routine is pretty simple, now that he’s settled in. Make breakfast with Erik’s mom (the only morning person in the house), try not to burn things when Erik walks in with the sun on the hem of his smile. Go to the airy Stuttgart high school and text Erik under the desks, feel German in his mouth like something God put there directly, something his parents never touched. Wander home past palace square and pretend it’s the fresh, sunny air making him feel untouchable, not Erik’s fingers brushing his knuckles.

They sleep in the same room, three feet apart, until the house takes soft breaths and the clock is the loudest sound on the air. The hardwood is cool when Nicky climbs out of bed and Erik lifts his duvet for him.

The whole thing is indescribable. The way coming to Germany felt like breaking out of prison, and Erik Klose at the arrival gate had felt like instantly stumbling upon a five star hotel with his name on the guest list.

Every day he spends watching Erik get teased about his sexuality by his mother with a pat on the cheek and a shared laugh, every time their now mutual friends nudge him and Erik together, every church service he spends staring at the rainbow flag peeking innocently out from the decor, is another day that he can’t stop gulping in the freshness of the air.

He dreams about the conversion camp, and he wakes up in his maybe boyfriend’s arms. He falls in love with how easy it is and cries when he thinks of how easy it wasn’t and can’t always be. English rusts in his mouth.

Erik doesn’t label the thing they have, but sometimes they sit in the family’s garage on their sixth or seventh beer (eighteen Nicky. You’re legal. Stop trying to smuggle six packs past my mother like she doesn’t know what we’re doing) and they bet on how many cars will go by. Erik holds Nicky’s hand to his own heart and counts off all the verses in the bible that preach unconditional love.

“You know that whole ‘love is patient, love is kind’ thing? That’s for you too,” Erik says, tugging the hair out from behind Nicky’s ear so it curls around his face.

“Mmm. I don’t think my love would be patient. My love would get shit done.”

Erik laughs, leaning back and cradling his beer to his chest. “I don’t doubt it.”

Nicky watches the sun get gulped up by the sky and he reaches out with one foot to kick Erik’s ankle. “Do you know you took the last beer without even asking me? After your big ol’ service on equality?”

“Hey!” Erik complains, kicking back. “It was three and three, even split.”

“I’m just saying, you preach all this pious shit and you can’t even do unto others as you wish for them to do to you, or whatever the fuck Matthew said—“

Erik wrestles Nicky in by the neck, both of them laughing. “I try to give you peace of mind and this is the thanks I get?”

“I’m lightening the mood.”

“The mood is never really dark, with you,” Erik says, unthinkingly, and then his mouth twists. “That sounded… I’m not coming onto you.”

“Oh? And why not?” Nicky asks, leaning over the lawn chair into Erik’s space. He flushes.

“I just mean. I dunno. I could come— I mean I want to come onto you.”

“Say come one more time,” Nicky says, grinning, and Erik curls over, face to his knees.

“Jesus.”

“Jesus,” Nicky agrees.

“You know I used to be pretty suave,” Erik says feebly.

“No one who calls themselves suave is suave.” Nicky picks up Erik’s hand and tugs it from under his downturned face. “You’re cute though.”

“Nicky,” Erik says, sitting up properly, squeezing Nicky’s hand. “Are we going to… are you going back to America?”

“What?” Nicky says, alarmed from the topic shift — sliding ground underneath him.

“Are you leaving Stuttgart. After graduation. For good.”

“Erik,” Nicky says softly.

“I just. Every time we do… this,” he gestures between them. “I’m proud of you, and I want you, and I’m not. I don’t think I’m going to be able to let you go.”

Nicky slides out of his chair so he’s kneeling, and he crawls between Erik’s knees, hugging him around the waist. Erik’s hands go automatically to his hair.

“I don’t have to leave if you don’t want me to.”

“I don’t,” Erik says immediately, voice crisp and tight.

“Did you think I’ve been fooling around with you because you’re the first boy I saw?”

“No,” Erik says. “I don’t think this is fooling around.”

Nicky looks up at him, chin on his stomach. “Where is all this coming from?”

Erik looks down at him with eyes so full they seem sad. “We come here, and watch the sunset, and Graduation gets a day closer. Your program’s going to end, Nicky.”

“Not if there’s nothing in America for me.”

“Your family,” Erik says gently and Nicky exhales through his nose.

“My family is here, actually.” He presses his face into Erik’s stomach and breathes.

“Host family,” Erik corrects, and Nicky headbutts him.

“Bullshit.” His voice is wetter than he meant it to be, but it’s blessedly muted by Erik’s knit sweater.

They stay that way for a second, a car alarm going off somewhere, the wind rattling the frame of the house, utterly unaffected by anything but each other.

“I think I’m in love with you,” Nicky says, still muffled. “And that scares the hell out of me.” He’s yanked suddenly up, and his forehead knocks Erik’s chin in the tussle.

“I’m going to need you to say that again,” he breathes.

“I love you,” Nicky says, and then again in english, “I love you.”

“That’s a relief,” Erik says, brushing Nicky’s cheeks with his thumbs. “because I loved you when you got off the plane from America. And I was going to love you when you got back on it.”

Nicky’s chest hurts so badly that he tries to duck his face but Erik holds him in place. “Since when are you shy, huh?” he teases and Nicky grins through the first tears.

“You bring out another side of me.”

Erik smiles back softly, his eyes crinkling. “Is that the thing that scares you?”

“Nah,” Nicky says, rubbing his own face and adjusting on his knees. “It’s the way I don’t even regret it. You make me the person I thought I was going to be two years ago before— before everything.”

“It’s not me who did that,” Erik argues, carding both hands through Nicky’s hair.

“You are so difficult.”

“I’ll work on it,” Erik says, grinning like the liar he is. “With you. Next year.”

“Are you propositioning me?”

“Oh absolutely,” Erik says, leaning down to kiss Nicky’s mouth like he’s been waiting for the perfect window.

“Then I guess I have to accept,” Nicky says. “My gay-hatin’ family will just have to wait.”

Erik frowns, kisses him again, a little inappropriately. “That’s not funny.”

“I’m always funny,” Nicky argues, his voice tittering uncomfortably around the edges.

“Not when you’re hurting yourself,” Erik says. He runs a hand down Nicky’s arm, rubbing away the chill from the descending night. “We’ll confront them together, one day.”

Nicky shivers. “See, this is what scares me. You make me think we can actually do that. Anything.”

“Then maybe I should keep scaring you. Could conquer the world.”

“Please don’t. I’m a nervous vomiter.”

Erik barks a laugh, marvelling. “I love you so much.”

“If that gets you going, we need to have a chat—“

“I love you so much,” he repeats.

“Erik.” Nerves shake sweetly in his chest.

“I love you so much,” he says again, waiting, and Nicky leans up and in so they’re cheek to cheek.

Instead of ‘I love you too’, he says, “I’m staying.”

[paradisecost]

@asoulofstars replied to your post: gooood morning ����

Clearly Erik was on the brain last night. XD

hONESTLY DSKFJNF although tbqh he would’ve been disappointed in me because it was specifically a non-violent uprising

(tldr my university was part of this weird conspiracy thing and it was just an accepted thing to “cull” some students once a year if they were suspected of, basically, treason, which i and my friends DEFINITELY WERE bc we’d uncovered the conspiracy

and so i was like alright great im gonna die BUT ended up fucking. starting an uprising just through befriending various people and Talking A Lot and Using My Presence or whatever SO THEN WHEN I WAS CALLED UP TO BE KILLED.... THE EXECUTIONER WOULDN’T GO THROUGH WITH IT.... ETC.... IT FELT VERY GOOD)

but anyway i got into an argument with someone afterwards who was like “we shouldve been FIGHTING them, not relying on alliances and persuasion!” and i was like bruh i’m perfectly willing to fight if they start it but i’d rather not put anyone on our side in unnecessary danger and anyway my plan worked, numbnuts

SO YEAH ERIK WOULD’VE BEEN “:/” ABOUT IT but half of my other rebel bastards are just [PROUD CLAPPING]

[geneticempath]

      “  hey,  it’s  not  my  fault  he  can’t  count  cards.  ”  //  @preytend​  ♡‘d  for  a  starter

[bigskydreaming]

Tbh, my policy on pirating is pretty simple. I honestly dont give a fuck one way or another w/movies, TV shows and even comic books, bc the former two have managed to account for pirating in the way they pad their expenses and tbqh they dont really hurt for it. And with comic books, okay if you pirate indie or creator owned content you kinda suck, not gonna lie, you have NO idea the kind of effort and upfront costs that go into producing comic books without Marvel or DC backing you up, not until you actually try it. Its obscene. Especially if you’re not able to do all the art AND story AND inking/lettering/coloring yourself, and have to either pay other members of your self-assembled creative team upfront or on the backend. 

And this includes comic books published by Image (at least the ones without big name creators attached), because contrary to popular belief, Image has nothing to do with assembling the creative teams of most of their creator owned books, and they certainly don’t pay them any kind of wages or salaries. The way Image is set up is creators basically submit a complete first issue, all the art, inking, lettering, coloring, everything already done, to see if they’re interested in publishing. 

(Technically, you only have to submit the first eight pages in order to get a response, and theoretically its possible that Image has in the past greenlit books based on the first eight pages of the book, which then allows the creators some leverage in convincing the entirety of their creative team to put in the upfront work to complete the rest of the first issue still without payment, but at least trusting now that their work will see publication, but like, this doesn’t really happen much from anything I’ve ever seen or heard or experienced).

Anyway, point being, Image takes submissions and then greenlights the books they see as potentially profitable, but again....they in no way ever pay creators themselves. Creators only make money via the actual sales of their books, once published and distributed by Image...and only AFTER Image takes their cut, which is a flat fee deducted from the sales of individual issues. Its actually a good thing in some ways, that they only take a flat fee (their cut is for publishing and distribution costs, Image NEVER owns any part of the intellectual property they publish, unless they’re part of their ‘shared Image universe’ which tbh is just like, publisher Erik Larsen’s little sandbox for him and his friends and who even cares, those books suck, Savage Dragon is lame, Erik, and everyone knows Shadowhawk was a blatant rip-off of Darkhawk, and look, I love Darkhawk with all my New Warriors fanboying heart, but of all the characters in the world to rip-off, who the fuck considers Darkhawk worth being derivative of? So weird. BUT I DIGRESS. ANYWAY.) 

So in some senses the fact that they only ever take a flat rate is good, because in the rare cases of runaway books that really take off, the way Invincible and The Walking Dead were back when Robert Kirkman was still a no-name indie creator, like...the creator has the potential to make BANK. Which is exactly what Kirkman did, and why he’s now every-fucking-where, ruining all our other faves like who the fuck thought HIM producing a Chronicles of Amber show was a good idea, ewww. He’s gonna dial up the incest to 100, isn’t he? Sigh. UGH WHOOPS ANOTHER DIGRESSION, LOL YOU SEE WHY MY ADHD MEDS ARE ESSENTIAL, I ASSUME. 

Ahem. 

BUT in most cases, the fact that Image takes a flat fee off the top is like....shitty, because the last I heard - and tbf, this was years ago so its probably not the same anymore, but that means it could be worse - it was something like $2000 per issue. Which means the vast majority of indie creators you’ve never heard of before or after they published a six issue mini or whatever through Image never saw a cent. I’ve never heard of Image putting anyone in debt, like that’s not how they work at least - if your book doesn’t even make up to $2000, its not like you owe them for the remainder, but again, you just....never make a cent off it. So like....the reason a fuckton of Image books never make it past issue #6, if they even make it that far, is that the creators literally just can’t afford to keep producing out of pocket, financing the actual creative production costs of each issue themselves without making any profit on the backend, if they’re not ending up selling more than $2000 worth of issues once on the shelves, physical or digital).

So don’t fucking pirate Image comic books, plz. Just don’t do it. Unless they’re Erik Larsen’s. Pirate away, who gives a fuck, I hate that guy. LOLOLOL I’m such a petty asshole, ugh. Whatever. I blame my childhood.

ANYWAY. As I was saying, I don’t really give a shit about pirating from Marvel or DC, which maybe is bad of me because its not like those creators necessarily make bank either, unless they’re one of Marvel/DC’s faves and like, have their pick of titles at any given moment. But the way most of them are paid is Marvel and DC pay their creators actual salaries based on rates per page, and then Marvel/DC keep all the actual royalties themselves. The only exceptions to this are when issues sell more than 50,000 copies - that’s 50,000 individual copies of physical or digital issues, not $50,000 worth of sales like with Image. Once a creative team’s book sells more than 50,000 copies of a single issue however, THEN they start getting a cut of the royalties, as like a bonus incentive type thingie. But tbh, its pretty rare in today’s market for a book to move that many issues monthly, and only the top sellers of both companies end up in that rarefied air....and most of those books’ creative teams are the favored writers/artists anyway, the ones who have a degree of job security and never tend to lack for titles to shift to after ending a run on one book. Sooooo, they’re kinda the reverse of the creators who could actually use a cut of their books’ back end profits, but whatever.

So like I said, fuck Marvel and DC, like...corporately or whatever. Of course there’s no doubt that pirating has some definite correlation to how few books are able to move 50,000 issues monthly, but both companies have always been notoriously shitty to creators, and that’s not pirating’s fault, and less pirating honestly isn’t going to change that b/c the ones to benefit from less pirating first and foremost are still going to be the same ones who aren’t really that hurt by it currently....loooooooong before the lower rung creators start to see an uptick in profits as a result. And let’s be real, if Marvel & DC suddenly started seeing a surge in profits due to a marked reduction in piracy, they’d find some excuse to shift payment structures around again in order to still keep a lion’s share of the new profits while cutting the lower rung creators (read: new/just starting out/niche/lacking leverage creators) out of seeing much additional profits. Because the problem with creators making money off Marvel and DC IPs isn’t really pirating, its Marvel and DC not wanting to share the money made off their IPs, even with the people most responsible for those IPs generating revenue.

That’s the part of the pirating convo that most people miss, IMO....a rising tide just DOESN’T lift all boats, if one or two boats in particular are specially designed to make the most of any tiny uptick in a rising tide while all the other boats are made of the leftover shoddy materials and are undermanned or understaffed or whatever and can’t actually DO anything productive with any of the lift generated by the rising tide.

And if that made no sense, eh, idk, don’t blame me. Its not my metaphor.

ANYWAY. So that’s why I don’t really give a shit about pirated movies or TV shows or Marvel or DC books, though I do still think you suck if you pirate indie content including lesser known Image creators. You guys have srsly no idea how much harder indie comic book creators have to work compared to like, any other medium. It makes me wanna cry. Its ridiculous. It would take too long to explain just WHY its so much more of an ordeal/effort to produce indie comic book content than just about any other form of indie content save like, running an entire webshow with one or two people wearing all the hats while funding everything out of pocket and overseeing everything production wise and also being a key creator involved in creating the actual content.

BUT as I was saying in the last post, pirating novels is an ENTIRELY different thing, and I have vastly more opinions there than I do with other mediums. Because the publishing industry was designed to exploit and capitalize off the intellectual properties of INDIVIDUALS, unlike all those other mediums that are inherently collaborative and thus usually involve the combined efforts of several to dozens of people.

So at the end of the day, individual authors will ALWAYS suffer more from pirating, looooooong before publishing companies ever feel a ding in their profits. Because they designed it that way. Specifically SO that they, the big companies, would be protected. Its set up so that individual creatives, the authors, NEED publishing companies more than publishers need any singular author. Obviously the rise of indie publishing has changed this somewhat, but not as much as you might think.....because the thing is, indie authors are really only successful and profitable by the grace of Amazon. By the fact that Amazon can afford to pay authors 70 percent royalties on any sale as opposed to traditionally published authors who are lucky to get a ten to fifteen percent royalty rate on sales, with them not even seeing a cent of those royalties until AFTER their advance has already been paid back, if they ever even sell enough to make that happen at all.

And so like....its a very dangerous, precarious, and not at all trustworthy situation that allows for indie authors to CURRENTLY be profitable in ways or to degrees that a lot of traditionally published authors can’t be. 

But that’s only because Amazon is taking a loss on most of the books they publish, due to this payment model. Because Amazon CAN. They can afford it. They make enough from all their other departments and revenue streams to buttress those losses. And Amazon has been using this, and using indie authors, to leverage traditional publishers into giving up more and more of THEIR profits from THEIR books, by giving Amazon even steeper discounts on the books they distribute to them, to be sold to consumers by Amazon.

And again, like I said before, its the individual creators, the bottom rung authors, who take the hits here first and in the biggest ways, because it remains true that the publishers have designed their payment structures so as to use the profits of individual authors to compensate for their own dip in profits.

And Amazon isn’t doing any of this for the little guy’s benefit. They don’t care about giving indie authors a leg up, an alternative to tradition publishers. They only care about CURRENTLY making indie authors need traditional publishers less than trad publishers need them, for a change.....but ONLY so that Amazon can rake in the increase in profits first and foremost.

Because here’s the kicker. The thing I worry too many indie authors and readers don’t account for.

INDIE AUTHORS STILL NEED AMAZON MORE THAN AMAZON NEEDS THEM.

Amazon is VOLUNTARILY taking losses on their book sales, and have been almost from the start. Because they don’t NEED that department in particular to be profitable for them NOW. They’ve been angling for a long time to get as close to an actual monopoly on the book market as is possible under current free market laws. So the thing is....unlike traditional publishers....Amazon doesn’t need ANY indie authors OR sales. Like, AT ALL. They could shut down their entire indie book model tomorrow, and not really be any worse off for it.

And the second Amazon doesn’t need indie authors even as LEVERAGE to pry more profits out of traditional publishers....you better believe that 70 percent royalty rate is going to vanish literally overnight. Because there’s absolutely nothing in Amazon’s business model or legal obligations to indie authors that requires they maintain it, or protects indie authors from having it suddenly dropped to a five percent royalty rate at Amazon’s whim.

So the second the scales tip far enough that Amazon decides they really don’t need or want to milk anything else out of traditional publishers, they’ve gotten as much of a price cut or a monopoly as they’re going to get or want to get without forcing publishers (and by extension their own ready made product that Amazon then distributes) out of business.....Amazon is going to quite happily STOP taking a loss on the sales of all these indie titles, and say well, we don’t need you as much now, so we’re gonna just give you ten percent royalties, take it or leave it. Its not like you have any better options at this point.

So whether traditionally published or indie published, pirating books hurts individual creators in very real, tangible ways that creators in other mediums aren’t affected, or are supplemented or buttressed against.

I say all this not to guilt anyone, but simply to provide information. Because there’s always so much discourse going back and forth around legality of pirating and ethics of pirating and so much stuff that’s not even consequential or relevant if people don’t even understand the MECHANICS of how pirating affects various mediums. So they can then make INFORMED choices on how they feel about pirating certain content versus other content.

As I was saying at the start of all of this....I have my own personal stance on pirating, and I don’t expect it or need it to be anyone else’s personal model. Like I said, I don’t really care about other mediums, and when it comes to novels, I’m against it as much as possible, but with caveats. Lots of people, including authors, describe novels as luxury items, and as such say that nobody’s justified in taking one for their own personal entertainment just because they WANT it. I differ from that POV because I honestly don’t consider books a luxury. I consider them to be absofuckinglutely as essential to the survival and THRIVING of the human condition as food or rest. Far more so than TV or movies, which not everyone has access to, or finds as easily accessible. Bottom line.....I fall in the category of arguing that its not enough just to survive. People have to have reason to survive, to live. Things to look forward to. Things to enjoy. Feeding the human spirit, as cheesy or whatthefuckever as that sounds, is every bit as essential as feeding the body. I would not have survived my childhood without books. I would not have survived my twenties without books. Hell, I would not have survived this YEAR without books.

So, even as an author myself, and yes, I have written stuff that’s been pirated (I made a fairly decent living for a couple years as a self-published indie author of m/m erotica and m/m erotic romance short stories, novellas and novels, and those particular genres/markets get the SHIT pirated out of them. So trust me, I am VERY much putting my money where my mouth is on this subject).

But yes, even as an author myself, I have zero problem with people pirating stuff because they honestly, truly legit can not afford it otherwise. Its not a lost sale. If you don’t have the money, you don’t have the money. It doesn’t mean you still don’t need, let alone deserve, to have something to take your mind off your poverty, your stresses, your issues. And even if you technically have the money to afford a book, I’m well aware that doesn’t always mean you ACTUALLY have the money to afford it in any meaningful way. If you have five bucks to spend for the day, and a choice between a book and a bagel, or like, an actual sandwich and drink, that’s not a fucking choice that ANYONE should have to make. Use that five dollars to buy yourself a fucking sandwich and just pirate the book, I say. You can pay it forward when you get the chance. You find yourself with more money at a later point, by all means, go back and buy a legit copy of that book, your money’s still good then, and having had that book to enjoy at an earlier, more stressful time in your life might very well have contributed in even the tiniest of ways to you getting to a place where you had better finances and more spending money.

Yes, obviously, I am a big fan and proponent of libraries, and I think you should always go there first, if possible, to get your free literary content. Libraries are great, and they have a LOT more content, and more of a range of content, then a lot of people realize.

I am however aware that libraries are not necessarily practical for everyone. Sometimes you just plain can’t get to one, you have transportation or mobility issues or live in a household where your reading habits or interests are frowned upon or even penalized, because sometimes, parents are awful. Sometimes libraries just don’t have the content you’re looking for. Content is subjective, depends on staff, geography, community. LGBTQ+ kids shouldn’t have to risk being seen looking through the LGBTQ+ section of the library or checking out a book, if they’re not out at home or school or in their community. By all means, I would much rather a kid in that situation pirate the fuck out of their comforting, soul-sustaining LGBTQ+ themed books than risk upsetting a currently safe and secure status quo. Again, just pay it forward when and if you can, at a later date. And so on and so forward.

BUT, again, there’s caveats there, because with books, I consider it a case by case basis, and the case in question is the individual consumer. The above scenarios IMO are based entirely on the genuine, sincere situation of not being able to afford a book in any practical way, and not having a library as a valid option for getting that or any book.

This is an entirely different situation from HAVING the spending money, and being perfectly capable of dropping five bucks on a book versus five bucks on one of those much-talked-about-in-pirating-convos Starbucks’ lattes that you don’t NEED any more than anyone supposedly NEEDS to read a particular book. 

If you CAN afford to pay full price for a book without dipping into funds intended for other practical necessities or hurting or even inconveniencing you in any meaningful way, if you CHOOSE to pirate a book you can access or download through legal channels with just as much ease as you can pirate it...(again, I’m aware that due to bullshit territory laws, not all content is legally available in all areas at all times, and this isn’t what I’m talking about).

I’m talking about if you’re NOT in a bad - not just slightly uncomfortable - but BAD, financially tight, thrifty, constantly stressed situation where its honestly a Sophie’s fucking Choice trying to decide if you’re gonna shell out your money for the sequel you’ve been waiting on pins and needles for for a fucking year and its been the only thing getting you through some days....or if you’re gonna like, eat today....

THAT’S when I have no patience for your piracy, specifically. Not when it comes to novels and the bottom lines of individual, hard-working authors, most of whom have to spend their lunch hours or come home after work to soak their blood, sweat and tears into the manuscript that becomes the book you just pirated. I know what I said about indie comic book creators having it so much more fucking tough than anyone else knows or realizes, but that doesn’t mean that midlist and lower than that authors don’t work DAMN fucking hard on their product, even after working forty hour weeks at some minimum wage job that’s every bit as soul-crushing as the worst job you’ve ever held.

And you’re not a fucking rebel or revolutionary if you’re taking money out of THEIR pocket, when you don’t need it yourself, just because you can. You’re not sticking it to the man, or teaching greedy capitalist publishing pigs the error of their ways. They don’t care, and you’re just being a dick.

Entitlement isn’t always a bad thing, I believe, because we ARE all entitled to certain things. A broke, disabled person with transportation issues and disability benefits that aren’t even enough to cover their actual living expenses is IMO every bit as ENTITLED as anyone else to a nice, stress-free, enjoyable read they picked out because it was precisely what they were looking for and not because it was the only thing out of ten available options that looked halfway decent. I will never ever judge or condemn or disparage someone for pirating in a scenario even REMOTELY close to that.

But that doesn’t mean that gratuitous entitlement doesn’t always exist, and isn’t obnoxious as fuuuuuuuuuuck. You’re not entitled to whatever you want, whenever you want, for as little as you feel like paying for it, just because you WANT it. And just because you can GET it, consequence free. If THAT’S the defining motivation or influence behind pirating the debut novel of a single mom working sixty hours a week to support her kids PLUS hanging onto her dreams and pounding out her novel over the course of a year and a half on her lunch hour.....then yeah, you fucking suck, and you know it, you whiny little shit who identifies with this paragraph and goes "who me? YOU DONT KNOW MY LIFE!” Yeah, I do. We all know someone like you. You’re not special.

Just like I know that author profile I just described there was not grabbed out of my ass, but describes someone very real and not at all embellished, and she’s not even the author I know in the most stressful scenario-whilst-writing. She certainly wouldn’t even consider herself in the Top Ten. And her publisher passed on the option for her sophomore novel, because her much-pirated book never made back the $25,000 advance she was paid over the course of three installments, which meant after taxes, she got an extra $10,000 bucks spread out among three eight month intervals, or just under two years.

So yeah. That’s where I fall. Soundly in the same camp I fall in most things: Actions have consequences, and you should always make an effort to be informed on what those consequences are before deciding whether or not you take action.

Let’s be real, no one’s effectively policing whether or not every individual consumer on the web pirates casually, extensively, or religiously, if at all. Its not likely EVER going to be an issue for you. That someone can actually keep you from pirating because you’re genuinely afraid of legal consequences.

But you shouldn’t need the threat of legal consequences, the question of can I get away with this or not, to police your own actions.

And at the risk of giving anyone whiplash, I for sure don’t give a fuck about the legality of taking away from the bottom line of massive, multi-million dollar corporate interests if I can get away with it. I’m just as entitled to keeping my five bucks that I worked DAMN FUCKING HARD FOR, as the people most likely to see that money even though they didn’t log a single actual hour on producing the content they’re charging five bucks for, IMO. I’m perfectly aware there’s a shit ton of people who’d call that rationale self-serving bullshit and hypocritical, but bite my lily-white Irish ass, I don’t give a fuck. I’m comfortable with my own morality.

But part of the reason I’m comfortable with my own morality, is that it tells me that even though there are times when I think I’m entitled to certain things I can’t necessarily afford, there are also times when I know I’m NOT entitled to things I may just not WANT to afford. Any time you’re able to justify ALWAYS having things your way without it ever costing you any kind of concession, I think that’s usually a good sign it might be time to stop and take a second look at yourself. Nobody gets to have everything their own way, to their best liking, all of the time.

But the flip side of that coin IMO, is that nobody should be penalized to NEVER having anything their own way, to their liking, ANY of the time. And if that’s the situation you’re in at some point in your life, and pirating’s the only available option to giving yourself a break from your regular monotony or currently-shitty-reality? Like, who the fuck am I to tell you not to pirate that feel good book or movie that has the chance to let you go to bed later with an actual smile on your face for a change? Who the fuck is anybody to tell you that?

*Shrugs*

There’s my two cents: The Ten Volume and Unnecessarily Long Saga.