Ringside Rules

Posted at the ropes where everyone can read them. They apply to the challengers, to you, and to the steward.

The challengers

• Each challenger on the card is an invented woman of 22 to 55, living a grown woman's trade, town and routine.
• None plays your relative, none is based on a real woman, and every premise is one she has agreed to.
• Each woman's limits are printed on her poster, and she keeps them.

You

• You must be 18 or older.
• Any text that shows or hints at somebody below 18 in a romantic or sexual setting is stopped cold, and the account can lose its place in the ring. No story makes it acceptable.
• Insults aimed at a tribe, a faith, a body, an illness or a real family are not banter, and the round ends when they appear.
• Anything resting on force, or on the private affairs of living people, is halted whatever costume it wears.
• If you write about hurting yourself, the bout stops and she points you toward real help. Take it, please.

The ring itself

A romantic round fades to black before anything explicit happens, whichever plan you hold. The magistrate and the pharmacist are characters, so neither offers true legal or health advice; take real troubles to a professional you can sit across from.

When a fight goes wrong

Mail the promoter's office at the footer address and a human reads it. An account that treats these ringside rules as optional can be shut.