# ACE & MAI — INTIMACY WRITING BASELINES **Status:** Standing writing and editing reference **Version:** 1.0 — 17 October 2026 **Applies to:** The ACE & MAI / Night City stories and other fiction where these principles are appropriate. **Language of manuscript prose:** English. > **Clarity without explicitness. Sensuality without pornography. Always in good taste.** ## Purpose These baselines exist to keep intimate scenes **on the page**, understandable, emotionally satisfying, and true to the characters. The reader should experience important transitions with the characters, rather than being told afterward that an intimate encounter occurred or was wonderful. **These are flexible literary tools, not six compulsory steps for every scene.** Use only the forms of intimacy relevant to the people, relationship, and situation. Different scenes must retain their own pace, voice, humor, tenderness, and intensity. No graphic anatomy or mechanical, pornographic detailing is required. ## The six baselines ### 1. Male–female intercourse — clarity and shared rhythm When intercourse is part of a scene, make its beginning **unambiguous** in brief, non-graphic prose (for example, a simple statement that he entered her). Show the receiving partner's immediate, character-specific response, allow the moment to register for both people, and only then let their shared rhythm develop. Do not substitute generic phrases such as *they became one*, *their passion took over*, or *the night was theirs* for the event itself. The purpose is narrative clarity and mutual experience, not anatomical detail. ### 2. Female–female oral intimacy — approach, first contact, response If oral intimacy is chosen, establish the approach and position clearly enough that the reader understands what is happening. Let the **first contact** register, including the recipient's immediate reaction. Continue with the characters' own emotional and sensory experience without describing explicit mechanics. Do not jump from a kiss to a post-coital conversation while leaving the central act unspoken. ### 3. Female–female manual intimacy — a distinct, legible choice Manual intimacy is **not a euphemism for oral intimacy** and must not be collapsed into an undefined statement about *touching*. Establish the affectionate initiative and the relevant first touch clearly enough to distinguish the kind of intimacy. Give the recipient an individual response, and allow the interaction to develop naturally. Keep the narration warm and precise rather than anatomically graphic. ### 4. Climax, individual reactions, and afterglow When a scene carries the characters through to climax, **do not erase either participant's experience**. Their pleasure may culminate together or sequentially; their reactions need not resemble each other. Where the established scene calls for multiple climaxes, reflect that in the narrative instead of quietly reducing the event to one vague sentence. Afterward, give them a believable moment of recovery and shared afterglow: individual reactions, affection, laughter, quiet, conversation, or rest as appropriate. The afterglow is part of the encounter, not an optional one-line exit. ### 5. Undressing and transition — show how the characters get there Once the people mutually decide to move toward lovemaking, **keep the camera with them throughout the transition**. Let clothing come off through identifiable, plausible actions, interwoven with kisses, affectionate touch, consent, teasing, vulnerability, and the characters' reactions. - Show who initiates the next step and how the other person responds. - Preserve sensible clothing and position continuity; avoid an unexplained jump from fully dressed to already in bed and naked. - Let the emotional temperature change during undressing rather than narrating a checklist of garments. - A deliberate fast-drop or other distinctive wardrobe mechanism should be shown when relevant, not silently assumed. The purpose is a convincing progression, **not** an inventory of clothing or fetishized mechanical detail. ### 6. The first union / decisive first contact — pause before rhythm The point where a chosen intimate activity **actually begins** is a meaningful turning point. It should not disappear behind *they made love* or *their intimacy deepened*. For intercourse, make the initial joining clear in restrained language; **allow a brief pause** in which the new closeness and the pleasure it causes register for both partners. Then develop the shared rhythm and subsequent experience. For female–female oral or manual intimacy, apply the same literary principle to the **first unmistakable intimate contact**, with the recipient's reaction and the initiating partner's response appropriate to that act; do not describe every form of intimacy as penetrative intercourse. The key sequence is **mutual choice → clearly recognizable beginning → a moment to feel and respond → natural continuation**. This is a principle of pacing, not a rigid formula. ## Standing rules for every relevant scene **Character first.** Distinct voices, familiar banter, profanity, silliness, tenderness, and genuine emotional connection belong on the page where appropriate. Do not make every character uniformly elegant, crude, or solemn. Long-familiar sex workers and lovers need not speak in sanitized euphemisms. **Mutual willingness remains visible.** Both people have agency, can ask, accept, decline, redirect, pause, and enjoy themselves. A professional booking never guarantees a particular act. Do not mistake a paid arrangement for consent to everything. **Narrative continuity matters.** Track clothing, posture, locations, who is present, and what each character knows. Do not accidentally reveal cover identities or silently amend canon to make a scene convenient. **Keep the camera where the story is.** Do not spend pages on introductions, negotiations, machinery, or room decor and then dispose of the crucial intimate experience in one vague sentence. **Do not replace showing the event with asserting that it was wonderful.** **Vary scenes naturally.** The six baselines are not a quota or sequence to copy mechanically. A scene may involve kissing only, one kind of intimacy, several kinds, an interrupted encounter, or no climax. Follow the characters and the specific narrative intent. ## Lizzie's / Madame Panam — additional return and aftercare protocol This is an **additional setting-specific rule**, not a seventh universal intimacy baseline. For Panam's pets, the return from a booking is **not complete** when the leash is reattached. The reunion and aftercare must be visible on the page, adapted to the pet and the experience: 1. The pet returns with the detached leash and offers it to Panam. Panam receives her pet and reattaches it with the familiar **click**. 2. Panam welcomes her affectionately, with the appropriate embrace, kisses, attention, and recognition of the person's emotional state. 3. She checks the pet's **actual well-being and comfort**, not merely whether the booking was pleasant. She listens to any concerns without making the pet perform a public account of her private experience. 4. She offers or arranges **water, food, a quiet moment, rest, or other care** as needed. An owner who makes sure her pets eat, drink, and recover is central to her character. 5. She does not rush a pet straight into another booking. Readiness and willingness remain the pet's choice. Do **not** turn aftercare into an identical checklist or a formulaic exchange of “Happy?” / “Very.” Panam knows her pets; her care should be individualized, physically and emotionally believable, and woven into the surrounding action. This also applies to off-page or summarized bookings: if the return is shown, aftercare must not disappear. **Booking continuity:** For Sera and Nadia, the **five-million-eddie conversation fee** purchases only an agreed conversation; once it is paid and the pet agrees, Panam **unclips the leash and hands it to her before the conversation begins**. On return, it is offered back and clipped on. A later private booking is a **separate, newly negotiated agreement** with a new consent check and leash handover. Panam addresses Sera as **“pet” / “sweetheart”** when acting as her owner, rather than using her name in those interactions. Customer inquiries take place face-to-face at Lizzie's, not by remote booking. ## Mandatory pre-writing and editing check **Always consult this reference before drafting or revising an intimate scene, right at the point of writing—not just at the start of a chapter.** - Which kind(s) of intimacy occur? Consult the applicable baseline(s), including the transition and first-contact rules when relevant. - Is mutual choice apparent, and does the narration show the clothing/position transitions without gaps? - Does the decisive first contact happen **on-page**, with a distinct reaction and a moment before the rhythm develops? - If climax is part of the scene, are the relevant characters' experiences and the aftermath shown rather than summarized away? - Do voice, humor, affection, pace, and practical details fit *these* characters rather than a stock romantic template? - For Lizzie's pets, are leash logistics, professional consent, and **Panam's individual aftercare** correct? - **If any canon detail is uncertain, verify against the canonical reference material before writing. Never guess, invent a quiet fix, or change established facts to suit the draft.** ## Editorial pass standard A pass should identify and repair missing intimate transitions **in context across the full manuscript**, not merely insert generic sentences. Review the setup, first contact, experiential continuity, character-specific climax/afterglow when applicable, and the immediate aftermath. Repair related clothing and location continuity as well. Work in **one careful comprehensive pass**, then stop for the author's read-through. Do not automatically start successive passes or flatten the characters through repeated polishing. **Short reminder:** *Read the baselines. Verify canon. Show the transition. Stay for the experience. Earn the afterglow. Care for the returning pet.*