A story that shall go unnamed (unless I'm PMed for it on the CHYOA website, I suppose) has a branch that entails two 18-year-old women whose father gave them puberty inhibitors, leaving them physically prepubescent. He then proceeds to have his male adult characters sexually ravage the child-bodies. Is this a violation of the rules, or is this (along with every anime example of the 5,000-year-old loli) an acceptable circumvention of the ban on any and all pre-18 sexual participants?
This question does deserve some clarity. However if I were to put myself in a mod's shoes, I probably wouldn't want that clarity to be out in the open if the answer is technically 'yes it's acceptable' (and I can't think of a technical reason it wouldn't be), since what you're talking about would go against the spirit of the rule, if not the letter.
I´d say to that "don´t ask don´t tell". We´re not robots who get turned on by pure numbers, so there´s no need to keep banging on about how old someone is or isn´t. If you leave out the ages, you can still communicate the type of character and the atmosphere of the story without coming across as a creep (or as someone desperately trying not to come across as a creep). i.e. you can communicate the essence of "mature, caring woman", "innocent young waif" or "seductive vamp", regardless of how old the characters actually are. I think it´s not really specific ages, clothes or body types that make up a fetish, but rather what those symbols represent, so if you can get that across you´re good as gravy, no need to rock the boat. In the end, "teens" or "5000-year old loli" stories skate off an icky taboo, regardless of how old the characters are stated to be, so best just maintain plausible deniability...
Yes, but the example I will continue to not point out is strictly about premature bodies occupied by mature minds, which may or may not fail the Harkness Test cited by the guide. That's not merely icky; it's a violation of taboos that might run deeper than any modern reading of "Lolita". In any case I was hoping to tempt a mod to answer, but you're both probably right: it might seem better to not put an answer to this, despite my desire to have one.
