A Few Fic Reccs and A Question about Larsa, Penelo and Shouta
Just a few quick fic-recs for things people have written for me in the past days weeks month, probably.
aorin107 cracked me up with a hilarious look into the cat-fight of the century between Ashe and Penelo. With none other than poor Basch stuck in the middle. (Scroll down for the ficlet!)
artemischan was excellent enough to pen me the second chapter of mistakes. I really need to get started on that Ashe-and-Larsa-lock-heads fic for our fic exchange!
hello_scorpling lifted my spirits with a bit of Neji-and-Sasuke Byakugan-vs.-Sharingan silliness. Excellent good fun.
mithrigil was kind enough to write me some scorching hot word-play between Larsa and Penelo as well as a quick sketch of Penelo and Vaan‘s later life in her Swansong series. Definitely worth a read.
sheffiesharpe swore she’d only write one sentence. Instead, she wrote a hilarious drabble involving Vossler, steamy embraces and a match-making sky pirate. You know you want it.
wodhaund wrote a subtly seductive and very political drabble about Larsa‘s dealing with the women-folk. Such prettiness, I say.
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And a quick question about Larsa, Penelo and shouta, if you don’t mind me asking…
Looking it up online, shouta is a term largely used for a sexual complex where an adult, usually male, is attracted to an under-aged, pubescent or pre-pubescent boy. Now, if you’ve spent any time whatsoever in the FFXII fandom, you probably already known Larsa is prime-time shouta bait, seeing as how there’s plenty of sexually explicit fics and pics out there that pair the twelve year old version of him with Vayne, Noah, Basch, Al-Cid and probably many, many others.
(And I want to clarify that I don’t mean to point that out in a negative way at all! I’m not at all attracted to that sort of work, but seeing as how all the characters involved are fictional anyway, I don’t see what’s objectionable about it either. Fandom‘s meant for fun and whatever makes you happy makes you happy. ;)
Anyway, my question is this. Would you consider pairing him up with Penelo in-game to be an example of shouta? On the one hand… he’d still be twelve. At most, he’d be thirteen if you set it during the later half or immediately after the game. But on the other hand, she’s only sixteen or seventeen herself, often looks even younger (in-game, she’s certainly got enough childish mannerisms and is ridiculously petite), and doesn’t seem to have much experience with sex or relationships herself (at least if all her nervous giggling around the Manly Flamboyance of Al-Cid Margrace is any clue.) In fact, in many ways, you could say the power dynamic is directly tilted towards Larsa’s end. He seems more mature and worldly, he’s got far more power and knowledge and he’s likely adept at manipulating people in a way she’ll probably never achieve.
But she’s still 4 years older than him and, unlike him, seems to have had the magic of puberty work of her some, even if she hasn’t finished growing. So… would you consider an in-game romantic relationship between them (albeit a rather reluctant one on Penelo’s part, as in Knots, Ties and Tides) to be part of the shouta genre? Would it squick you out to see them have any sort of physical contact beyond their canon bouts of hand-holding? If not, where would you draw the line between non-squicky and squicky?
aorin107 cracked me up with a hilarious look into the cat-fight of the century between Ashe and Penelo. With none other than poor Basch stuck in the middle. (Scroll down for the ficlet!)
artemischan was excellent enough to pen me the second chapter of mistakes. I really need to get started on that Ashe-and-Larsa-lock-heads fic for our fic exchange!
hello_scorpling lifted my spirits with a bit of Neji-and-Sasuke Byakugan-vs.-Sharingan silliness. Excellent good fun.
mithrigil was kind enough to write me some scorching hot word-play between Larsa and Penelo as well as a quick sketch of Penelo and Vaan‘s later life in her Swansong series. Definitely worth a read.
sheffiesharpe swore she’d only write one sentence. Instead, she wrote a hilarious drabble involving Vossler, steamy embraces and a match-making sky pirate. You know you want it.
wodhaund wrote a subtly seductive and very political drabble about Larsa‘s dealing with the women-folk. Such prettiness, I say.
---
And a quick question about Larsa, Penelo and shouta, if you don’t mind me asking…
Looking it up online, shouta is a term largely used for a sexual complex where an adult, usually male, is attracted to an under-aged, pubescent or pre-pubescent boy. Now, if you’ve spent any time whatsoever in the FFXII fandom, you probably already known Larsa is prime-time shouta bait, seeing as how there’s plenty of sexually explicit fics and pics out there that pair the twelve year old version of him with Vayne, Noah, Basch, Al-Cid and probably many, many others.
(And I want to clarify that I don’t mean to point that out in a negative way at all! I’m not at all attracted to that sort of work, but seeing as how all the characters involved are fictional anyway, I don’t see what’s objectionable about it either. Fandom‘s meant for fun and whatever makes you happy makes you happy. ;)
Anyway, my question is this. Would you consider pairing him up with Penelo in-game to be an example of shouta? On the one hand… he’d still be twelve. At most, he’d be thirteen if you set it during the later half or immediately after the game. But on the other hand, she’s only sixteen or seventeen herself, often looks even younger (in-game, she’s certainly got enough childish mannerisms and is ridiculously petite), and doesn’t seem to have much experience with sex or relationships herself (at least if all her nervous giggling around the Manly Flamboyance of Al-Cid Margrace is any clue.) In fact, in many ways, you could say the power dynamic is directly tilted towards Larsa’s end. He seems more mature and worldly, he’s got far more power and knowledge and he’s likely adept at manipulating people in a way she’ll probably never achieve.
But she’s still 4 years older than him and, unlike him, seems to have had the magic of puberty work of her some, even if she hasn’t finished growing. So… would you consider an in-game romantic relationship between them (albeit a rather reluctant one on Penelo’s part, as in Knots, Ties and Tides) to be part of the shouta genre? Would it squick you out to see them have any sort of physical contact beyond their canon bouts of hand-holding? If not, where would you draw the line between non-squicky and squicky?