bakerstreet | A/B/O

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A/B/O

THE ALPHA/BETA/OMEGA MEME

In our world, sexual roles are commonly defined by genders -- male or female or other, by sexualities -- gay or straight, bi or asexual or in-between. But what if they were defined by something else entirely?

Alpha/Beta/Omegaverse is a fusion of fanfiction tropes and animalistic behavior. In this world, sexual roles are divided into three categories: the Alphas (the dominant, the protective and the aggressive), the Betas (ordinary humans) and the Omegas (submissive, fertile and able to carry children).

RESOURCES:
Fanlore on the Alpha/Beta/Omegaverse
Alphas, Betas and Omegas: A primer.

CONTENT WARNING: Below the cut contains descriptions of animalistic sexual behavior as applied to humans, situations of dubious consent, explicit situations, mpreg, and scenarios of societal oppression. Click with caution!

ROLES:
1 - The Alpha.
* Stereotypically type A personalities.
* Anatomically: Males have a penis; females may have a penis in addition to a vagina.
* Alphas knot their mates, meaning that the base of the penis swells and locks them inside their mate while they produce copious amounts of semen in an effort to breed.
* Strong sense of smell.
* Near an Omega in heat, they experience a compulsion to mate that is almost impossible to overcome.
* Alphas may go into rut, which is their equivalent of Omega heat, and drives them to mate.

2 - The Beta.
* Ordinary human being.
* Males have penises; females have vaginas.
* Can mate to anyone.
* Might be able to smell hormones of Omegas and Alphas, but will not be overwhelmingly affected by them.

3 - The Omega.
* Stereotypically submissive, quiet, intelligent and less physically able.
* Female anatomy is similar to Betas; males are self-lubricating and may have either an external or internal vaginal setup.
* Regularly go into heat, which involves being overcome by the urge to mate. They are unable to consent while in heat.
* May be made compliant by a bite to the neck. However, that may also induce a mating bond.
* Often regarded as second-class citizens or prizes to be won.

SITUATIONS:
1 - Bonding - Love at first sight. You've spotted your soulmate. You can smell them, you can feel them, you know that they'll be with you until the end of your days. Unless there's something between the two of you. It could be age - maybe one of you has to wait until the other has reached maturity. It could be that the bond is one-sided, and the other has yet to fall in love. It could be an unwanted bond, or society could have divided you into different places. Is your love strong enough to conquer?

2 - Heat/Rut - The need is coming on you strong. Everyone for a half-mile around can smell it. Better find someone to ride it out with, or hole yourself up in a room with a few bottles of water and a durable sex toy. And you'd better hope that there isn't someone out there who will take advantage of your pliable state. Best case scenario, there might be a Beta who can take care of you, or fend off anyone too predatory.

3 - Pregnancy - Whether through a heat or not, you're pregnant. Congratulations - or condolences. Is it time to start a family, or time to start panicking?

4 - Suppressants - You're using suppressants to keep yourself on an even hormone cycle, skipping heats, or maybe pretending to pass as a different class of society. After all, Omegas might want to be in the military, where they're not usually allowed - or an Alpha might want to take a job in a university or as a nurse. Shouldn't they be allowed to, if their hormones are suppressed? Just hope that you don't miss a dose.

5 - Mistaken Identity - That friend that you always thought was an Alpha, or an Omega, or a neutral Beta, turns out to be something entirely different, and your world is turned absolutely upside down. Does it challenge your preconceptions? Or does it just ruin the balance between you two?

6 - Unlikely Pairs - After all, there's no actual reason that Alphas have to mate with Omegas. Maybe two Omegas can satisfy each other. Or two Alphas. Or your intended mate could easily be a Beta. Maybe this is just about breaking out of your pre-established role and becoming something new.

7 - Manifestation - In some cases, an individual may not know they are Omega, Beta or Alpha until their first heat/rut/manifestation, usually happening in early teen years. It may take you by surprise; it may be a blessing, or may be a deep disappointment.

8 - Other - Adventures in getting jobs, making families, fighting bad guys, and anything else you can come up with!

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"Good thinking. I'm, ah... sorry. About how I'm reacting to you. It's not... I'm not mad. I guess I just wasn't expecting to respond so much to you. Just... let me know, okay? If anything's over the line." He could stand drilling a hole in the wall to fuck. He couldn't stand having her hate him over something neither of them could control past a certain point.

"It's okay," she says, and it's... not quite true because he did scare her for a little while there. But she understands. Instincts are... Well. Even on your best day, they're hard to navigate. And this hasn't been the best day. "I get it." And then, when they get to the stairwell, "Door - I have it."

The quiet little answers weren't doing much towards making him feel better about his behavior, and he gave her a tight-lipped smile as he stepped through the door. Nose up in the air, he picked up the scents of everyone nearby. Mostly alphas and a few betas smattered through it, a sigh leaving him as he realized that he was going to continue to have an issue with her being out in public until her heat was stilled, or her scent blockers could work again. Fortunately, all drivers for car services were betas, so the driver wouldn't react to either of them, and he wouldn't feel threatened or upset about the driver's presence. "I think the car's around the front."

"Okay. We'll find it in a minute."

She announces the steps as they reach them. There aren't that many flights to go, and as she suspected, no one else is actually using the steps at the moment. She's not sure if it would be better to take him through the stairs exit on the bottom floor and walk around the building to the front or go through a more populated area of the building, but she decides to give the exit a try.

More people around, but more space for scents to get diluted. To be on the safe side, she presses in to him closer than usual before they go outside, in the hopes that it will make him feel a little less inclined to start growling at other people again.

The scents would never be diluted enough for him, not with his range, but her pressing in against him helped. It kept him from outright snarling at anyone they passed, and he heard the car up ahead, slowly steering her towards it while trying not to seem like he was. One spoiled secret at a time. That's all they could handle right now. "I think we have less time than you thought, Foggy. Your... scent is a lot stronger now than it was before."

He was hoping that would make her steps quicken, knowing that she had been hiding her status for a reason, and she probably wouldn't want it spilled now.

"Shit," she mutters, and it does make her steps quicken. He's probably right; that prickling in her skin she felt earlier is getting more noticeable, which means things are progressing faster than she thought they would. Which means the stress definitely triggered her heat early. And stress heats can kinda suck. They're harder to predict and they take longer to recover from because the body doesn't get the full time it needs to start storing up nutrients and preparing.

Of course - she's not going into this one alone this time. And she should probably talk to him about that a bit more, but after they get somewhere more private. "I think I see our car," she announces, steering them towards the correct vehicle.

"Good." Good. Into a confined space with her while she was starting to smell like something he wanted to drape himself over, roll in, cover with his own scent. That was a great idea.

Sigh.

But the sooner they got to the hotel, the better, and he just had to keep up with her and keep control of himself until they got there. Then they could talk. Or... not talk.

Or they could chat on the way, because if Foggy's going into heat way faster than she thought, then there's only so much time she's going to be, uh, lucid and coherent enough to ask the responsible questions.

Happily, there's a little window between them and the driver, so they have... semi-privacy. "So, um - have you done this before?"

He was surprised by the question, looking over in her direction with both brows raised. "Ah... define 'this'. I'm pretty sure you're aware that I'm not a virgin, so..." He was trying to get back into that joking, teasing manner they were used to, but she was sitting there, close, but not close enough, and he found himself twisting parts of his cane in his hands, back to fidgeting again.

Oh, good, they can both fidget nervously. She flexes her fingers against her leg, trying to ignore the urge to drift closer to him or the beginnings of extra-sensitivity that accompanies the prickling in her skin. "I meant, um, being with an omega during their heat."

"Ah. No, no. I..." Well, embarrassment was going to have to be tucked away for now. He might want to keep some things to himself, but she'd had her secret outed unintentionally. The least he could do was share a little with her. Make her feel less awkward. "I've only ever had an... well, an active rut with a beta once. Any other time I've missed my meds, I've holed up alone. I'll admit, I'm not really sure what to expect with an omega." And he was a little nervous about it, both because it was new territory and because it was her.

He'd heard stories about alpha and omega pairings, and they'd been both terrifying and excitingly enticing.

"Okay." She's quiet for a moment, trying to decide what she needs to tell him and how. "It's mostly instinct after a certain point. Just don't... bite my neck or anything," she says, which she figures is kind of obvious unless he wants to end up bonded to her, but it still kind of needs to be said. "I'm on contraceptive but we'll probably want to use condoms, if - " Her skin heats up, and for now it's more awkward embarrassment than the heat. "Um, if we remember. I can get kind of out of it, and I might need help remembering to drink enough to not get dehydrated." Especially since her body hasn't really had enough time to store liquids like it's supposed to.

He shouldn't be blushing about this -- he was an adult, after all, but hearing her talk about condoms and needing to drink and biting her neck... well, now he was just thinking about it. About the smooth skin and how it would feel with the divots left by his teeth there along it, an impression instead of the pop-up of braille he was used to.

He shifted a little in his seat, feeling himself react to that more intensely than he'd expected. "Drinking. Right. I, ah, yeah. Kind of the same on our end... alphas, with the rut and all. But I think... well, I would expect that I'm going to be wanting to make sure you're okay. That would include healthwise, right? Have you-- I mean, with an alpha? Before?"

"Once. Yeah," she says, careful because, well, it's not really great etiquette to be talking about past heat partners with your current one, and it's not necessarily a great idea in general to start talking about other alphas you've been with to the alpha you're currently with. Especially when he's been growling at other alphas. "But everyone's different."

"Mm." Smart, Foggy. But now, of course, he was picturing this other alpha. This person that had known Foggy was what she was, and who'd gotten to hole himself up with her. Take care of her. "Any reason why it was only once?" No, that wasn't jealousy sparking in his gut at all. Nope.

"It was just a one-time thing." She bites her lip, considering whether she should give him any more information or not. It might settle him down a little to know that it's done and over with. "We didn't really work that well as a couple."

It was on the tip of his tongue to ask about them, to ask what would happen after this between them, but he was almost afraid of the answer. He didn't want to hear her tell him that after this, they couldn't be friends. If that were the case, he wanted to have the illusion of the opposite while he was with her.

He nodded instead, hand patting out a rhythm on his leg as the car drove the most direct route to the hotel. Most taxis would take longer ways, detours, try to get that extra buck. This particular car service knew better, and it was less risky to get a pair to where they were going than to have to renovate the interior of their car because it got torn to shreds in a mating frenzy. "And you're... okay? With this?"

"Um." She tilts her head and then nudges him gently with her foot. "Being a little vague there, Matty. Define 'this'."

Because she suspects if she tries to answer without getting it clarified, they're going to have some kind of horrible miscommunication.

"This. Us. In the hotel. Unless you'd prefer to, ah, ride it out on your own?" Which he very much didn't want her to do, and that showed in how still he suddenly got.

"Yes!"

Okay, that may have come out too fast and enthusiastic. She attempts to tone it down slightly when she starts talking again. "I want you with me. Unless... unless you were having second thoughts."

"No," he bit out, almost as quickly as her yes, chewing his lip to give himself time to actually use his words and not just jump to showing her what he meant. Actions spoke so much louder than words...

"No, Foggy. Not about wanting to help you. Or be there. Knowing the truth now, I... well. Call me a jerk, but I don't think I'd trust anyone else with you."

Well.

That's one way to make a girl feel wanted, and that tiny bit of her that had started to tense when she mentioned him having second thoughts relaxes. "Okay. Good." Really good. Fantastic. Her alpha definitely wants her and isn't having any second thoughts, and apparently her body thinks that's the go-ahead for officially sliding into pre-heat and wow, okay, this is seriously progressing a lot faster than she expected.

It's starting to feel a little too warm in the car.

Her scent spiked and his hand gripped his leg harder, shifting in his seat again as blood started to flow in a southerly direction. "I think we should talk about something else. I'm... god, you smell good."

Okay, he was admitting he was close to losing control, but he hoped it helped her realize it was so he didn't do something that would embarrass her later.

"Yeah. Um."

She's not the only one who smells distracting in this car right now. She swallows. "I can't really think of anything right now." They're almost to the hotel, right? God, she hopes they are.

Close enough, and yet not nearly close enough for Matt, having to grip his knee tighter as he started to feel his pulse in other places. "Is the weather nice?"

Smooth, Murdock.

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lol it was totally Marci. sorry, Matt.

ROOD, FOGGY

listen, Marci is awesome. you can't blame Foggy for wanting to hit that.

Matt prefers to bang members of his own species. >|

vampires used to be human!!

>|

god I suddenly really need Marci Stahl at Wolfram & Hart.

Yeah, her and Harmony can fight it out for head bitch.

god now I'm just picturing Daredevil -> Angel Investigations AU. Foggy totally gets to be Cordelia!!

omg no