Boy-kinks....

[fajrdrako]

I was about to do something useful (like eat breakfast) but thamiris' question caught my eye: Oh, here's another question for anyone out there: what do you like best in your fictional boys, the ones you most like to read and to write? Your top boy-kink, the one most likely to send your brain interstellar? Innocence? Decadence? Irony? Rage? Passion? Humor? Vulnerability? Another one I can't think of?

I love questions like this. Endless pondering on a subject dear to my heart.

And I think there is no real answer for me, except maybe, "All of the above, and more."

Not that I don't have favourite things. Physically, for example, lean, dark-haired guys with large noses. Think Methos. So then why my fascination with Lex's looks? The way I love his mouth, which isn't usually a kink of mine, and I usually prefer a quite different kind of look?

Okay, the physical doesn't really matter. I have boy-kink BSOs in instances where I don't even particularly like the actor's looks - Ioan Gruffudd, for example. Yeah, I know, everyone says he's gorgeous and he probably is, but I don't particuarly like his looks. It doesnt' stop me from being mad over Horatio Hornblower.

But Tham wasn't asking about looks, she was asking about types. I'm digressing because I don't know how to answer and I want to try.

Yes, I like innocence especially when it is contrasted to the other character's jaded experience. You can see why I love the Clex scenario: Clark is so innocent, so desperately learning about life, so eager to be good. Lex is so worn out and used up emotionally, so hyperintelligent, so ambitious, so angry and conflicted. Perfect.

I also like twisting innocence - not in terms of corruption but in changing expectations of how the innocent would act. One of my beta-readers recently remarked how she's noticed I like to take the young, virginal character and make him aggressive, put him on top, have him dictating to his much more experienced partner. Yup, I love doing that.

With Clark, I love the innocence. With Lex, I love the decadence.

I like writing and reading good banter. Don't get it much.

I like passion: scenes where the guys just can't keep their hands off each other, regardless of risk or circumstances. Conversely, I don't like stories where they can control their passions and willingly postpone sex till a more convenient time or place.

This goes double when one of them is inexperienced and the other isn't.

But I know what my favourite thing of all is, and it's difficult to describe. The scenario I love above all else is when it's heroic - when one does something self-sacrificing, particularly in a psychological or ego-oriented sense, for the good of the other. koimistress did it in "A Friendly Little Game", which is why I love that story so much. Im trying to think of another example in Smallville fic, but can't. They may exist. I'll have to think about my other favourite SV stories and see if any fit the paradigm.

A classic case is the ending of the Professionals slash novel "Heat Trace", and I forgave that novel for a hundred flaws because of that magnificent ending.