A Guide to Summer Salt Stories

2.3 A "minor" concern, part 2 - my own headcanon & rules

Regardless of any inconsistencies this creates in my stories the following rules should be understood to apply.

Summer (&friends) are in the 14-18 gap.
Mouse is generally places in the 10-14 gap.

Additionally it should be understood in the case of the former that:
- Characters in the 14-18 gap are treated as "grown-ups" for all purposes, ie. they have the ability to give consent, and to experience torture without permanent psychological scars.
- This is done to preserve certain elements in the setting and not as a goal to itself.
There shouldn't be anything in the text that suggests that the "nonlegal" status of characters is especially desirable.
These grown-up traits of characters represent fictional concepts and not "real" people; "adventure" element, ie. dangers understood to be never real (same as risk of violence or death are only illusionary and to provide a thrill in a nonfetish adventure story).
These elements are not applicable to real life. (obviously)

- Characters under 14 are counted as "children" and should never appear in a scenario that can be deemed "exploitative". I will explain what that means below.

The bottom line is that:
there can't be any scenarios between two characters in a certain context, where only one of those characters is fully aware of the context.

- scene involving characters in the same age group, and similar understanding of the world -> OK
- scene between characters in different age groups where anything that happens never exceeds the younger character's understanding of what really happens -> OK
- scene between characters in different age groups where one party is "naive" to the (possibly sexual) thrillthat is created: -> NO NO NO

Any of the following can be suspected of having fetishistic, probably sexual undertones:
- overly elaborate bondage
- sadism (ie. tickling that lapses into torture)
- strong emphasis on character ages
- aggressor clearly presented as a sympathetic POV character in an enviable position (ie. more than a cartoonish villain)

For example, this is true for many of Kuddles' entries in the original:

- aggressor is an older male, who is the POV character
- strong emphasis on victim's VERY low age
- elaborate bondage and sadism (nonconsentual torture)

In my stories this will not fly. Either the action (severity, character POV, character's understanding) must be toned down until it is significantly "safe" or the whole scenario must be omitted.

Characters under 14 are still okay if:
- the scenario is "safe, sane and consentual". "Safe" and "consentual" in this case can come from the "adventure" nature of the setting (ie. it is understood by the reader that there is no real danger). But severity must never exceed the level of consent that in principle could be given (even if it is directly not given - such scenarios should be understood as a /m fantasy and not applicable or encouraged irl).