Fic: Her Summer Blouse

[fanbeatsman]

Title: Her Summer Blouse
Characters/Pairing: Franziska/Ema
Rating/Warnings: explicit sex; some very strong language
Word count: c. 3000
Summary: Ema Skye has ways of making that glimmerous fop's parties bearable.
A/N: Written for this nicely unspecific, if vaguely annoying, kink meme prompt, for no better reason than that at the exact time I saw it

Comments

[fanbeatsman]

No no, that's not embarrassing! I'd be seriously tempted to back-button at Phoenix/Maya, so I do sympathise. I didn't know Apollo/Vera was a rage button for you - I'm fairly indifferent to it myself (it was sort of a lazy inclusion on my part), but would definitely be up for hearing your rage on it if you want to vent :D

ANYWAY. I can't tell you how made up I am that you gave it another chance, and I'm so glad it, er, did its job for you ;D TMI in return, summer weather, heat, stickiness, sweatiness, etc. etc. = major kink for me, and I'm glad I managed to get across its appeal :D

As for the second point, first of all, thank you so much! That's a huge compliment <3 Second of all, I'm actually especially glad that came across because, ngl, one of the things that pushed me over the edge into filling a prompt that tbh left kind of an awkward taste in my mouth was thinking, well, if whoever it is wants some lesbian porn, then I kind of want them to have something that's genuinely about lesbians. And maybe that's a double standard I'm guilty of, but it's what I felt :3

Thank you so much for this, m'dear :)

[sarahofcroydon]

It's because I'm terribly monogamous in my pairings (irrationally so), because I don't like Vera and also because it's too damn heterosexual. ;3 I think it's because I prefer to think of Apollo as passionate and I've always seen him as awkward and blushy in a Vera pairing situation. Not that that in itself is a bad thing, but it makes him very awkward around her as she's somewhat delicate to begin with... I also can't bring myself to sexualise her as she's very passive and also very young... pretty much the Phoenix/Iris scenario again.
I can pretty much only stick him with Klavier or Daryan as they're both strong enough to resist the flames of his burning passion. 8D
Oh dear.

Anyway. :D I definitely share that kink... I don't know why, but the description of humid heat feels like a very feminine thing. The sweat between the thighs and under the breasts, sweating off makeup, long hair sticking to the back of the neck... I'm sure there's a masculine correlate, but it's one of the reason it struck me as a women's story for women because it's something I'm sure most of us can relate to. I also think that the more we challenge or take up prompts that are slightly off, the better... not only to challenge them and to provide an alternative for those of us wanting something different, but also to make them appealing! It'd be so great for the OP used to porny 'lesbians' to do a double take, maybe feel a little uncomfortable and then realise how much better the story is with real women & characterisation.

You've caught me before bed time- I've got to stop doing the internet first/last thing of the day. :D
I think I'll read it again to inspire some nice dreams. ;3

[fanbeatsman]

Thinking about it, I'm very monogamous in the pairings I'm willing to write, but I'm more of a polyshipper when it comes to reading - liking a pairing or finding it vaguely interesting is enough to make me willing to read something, but not enough for me to be able to write it; I have to be able to work it into my headcanon for the entire source text if I want to write it. Hm.

I can definitely see how Apollo/Vera involves a particular kind of Apollo characterisation that's not exactly appealing, yeah. Tbh, I doubt much thought was given to the slight hints of it in the game beyond, he's shy, she's shy, look at them being shy together and get a quick laugh/aww moment out of it - and I don't really know how well it would stand up beyond that. Although Vera would respond well to Apollo's honesty and kindness, I think, I'd say she also needs someone (probably not a romantic someone, at first) to explicitly help her and look after her, almost in a caregiving role - and while I can see Apollo supporting people, I don't think he'd be the best candidate to look after someone, idk. The Phoenix/Iris comparison is interesting and I think spot-on, too, because both P/I and Apollo/Vera are points where the game moves a little away from the non-traditional gender and sexual politics that are so appealing, and towards something a bit more tired, well-worn, and tiresome, in some respects.

Cards on the table, though, I reckon one of the reasons I'm only indifferent to Apollo/Vera, rather than averse to it in the way I'm averse to Phoenix/Maya or Phoenix/Iris, is because I don't have a pairing for Apollo that I'm invested in as much as I'm invested in P/E ;3 I realised when I was reading this, actually, that I've never really given that much thought to Apollo-shipping until now...I can see (mostly thanks to you, actually :D) how Apollo/Klavier would work, although as I'm sure will come as no surprise to you I prefer other pairings for Klavier ;D; I definitely see the rationale behind Apollo/Daryan - shame the timeline kind of fucks it over, really :/, and I don't mind a straight Apollo, although you'd be scrabbling for women to put him with in AJ, sigh.

Tangent: maybe I've just been glossing over it, but it seems to me like Apollo doesn't really get as much attention as he could in fandom, as a character - I mean, there's an awful lot of not just interesting pairing work but dedicated character work out there for Phoenix, whereas there doesn't seem to be that for Apollo. Might just be a function of him only having been in one game, I suppose, but still, even just in AJ there's a lot of meat to his character that could be explored...I may be overlooking a lot of Apollo-fic, though, thanks to not having a favourite pairing for him that I look out for.

Some of my favourite fics in this fandom have actually come from people taking prompts that they found uncomfortable, or ill-thought-out, or offensive, and saying in fic form look, this is the problem I have with what you said and this is what I'd like to do to be able to fix it. I definitely agree that it's a really important thing for a fandom to do, because it stops fandom from getting too abstracted, & losing sight of real people and real feelings, but it does it in a productively confrontational way, rather than just baiting or mocking. My initial reaction to that prompt was, oh look, another supporter of "lesbians" who doesn't like m/m, *eyeroll*, but it gave way to thinking, you know what, I fully support your right to have lesbian porn if you want it, but damn I'm going to do my best to make it as not-offensive and not-exploitative as possible.

Cheers for coming back to this :) I always enjoy reading your thoughts on stuff like this.

[sarahofcroydon]

You know, that tangent about Apollo gave me a lot of food for thought. :3 I think you're absolutely right; the takes on Phoenix in fandom go on forever... Edgeworth too, they've both acquired a sort of 'legendary character' status. Part of that, like you say has got to do with the number of games, but I feel sometimes like some of the negative fan reaction has rubbed off on people's will to adopt characters from AJ to explore.

Comparing Phoenix and Apollo is something I could do for hours, and possibly where you could find another reason there's little character work for Apollo. Thinking on it now, often I automatically find myself thinking of Apollo as a more negative/prudish kind of person, and I wonder where I get it from. Looking at his narratives in-game I think you could substitute them for Phoenix's and vice-versa (and Phoenix can be remarkably negative sometimes) and nobody would notice.
For some reason though, this impression remains with me and I think in part it has to do with Apollo's portrayal in fic, particularly when contrasted/paired with Klavier and that's something I'd like to change. (I suppose part of that comes from his vocal dislike of Klavier's music/showman's personality yet throughout the game he comes to admire him, and a lot of it is bravado too (there's a couple of those '...I want to be cool!' monologues).

I reckon a lot of it has to do with design, too, as well as my favourite topic-masculinity. For starters- Phoenix wears a dark suit, Apollo a boyish vest with his sleeves rolled up. Phoenix can nagivate a variety of roles easily- the boyish rookie in a cheap suit to a consummate professional looking dashing with his finger thrust out. Apollo's clothes and also stature don't allow him to navigate those roles as easily- no matter how defiantly he points that finger, visually he's still young, boyish and all of those traits aren't understood as professional or adult. In that regard he's not read as terribly masculine, which is part of it, if you ask me... Phoenix has 'got' it and it's far easier to work back from there... Apollo hasn't 'got' it and it's harder to built it up for him. No matter how much stubble I put on him, he's still short. :D
Phoenix Wright fans have been blessed with original characters that are bright and vibrant, wacky and also very 'normal' (insofar as Oldbag is 'normal'...)
...the AJ design is a little more 'yaoi', if you get me. Kristoph and Klavier could have stepped right out of any series targeted at young women (and indeed, AJ was advertised in various yaoi related magazines). In terms of yaoi/slash fandoms, you can do just about anything with Phoenix and Edgeworth- they're so malleable you can fit them to any 'role' you prefer, and what's more, can do it in character too (that's a whole 'nother conversation). Looking at Japanese yaoi sites, the ratio of sites for P/E to E/P (talking explicit sexual roles) is just about equal. In Japanese fandom, from my experience, that's pretty rare considering yaoi as a genre requires the explicit delineating of sexual roles.
Apollo and Klavier (as arguably the two main characters) can't navigate these roles as easily- Japanese sites have them at about 80% K/A and 20% A/K. If anything, fandom is predictable sometimes and despite those of us who want to move past stereotypes, those stereotypes will still exist in the media fandom produces. They've rubbed off on me, to a certain extent (Apollo as a grumpy, prudish uke for example) and probably because they're harder to challenge, there's less media because other pairings might fill someone's kink or desires in an easier way.

I'll save Klavier for another day because he goes on forever... my sister essentially gave up on him because he looked so yaoi, blase and stereotyped. Maybe I give him far more credit because I've made him up a complex personality, but then again, that's all we've ever been doing anyway. ;3

Man, I hope that made any sense at all!