Alpha/Omega=WTF?
You know, I have gotten to learn a bunch of the other abbreviations and so forth, ie..DFP Sherlock, but what in the living hell is this Alpha Omega Universe stuff I keep coming across in the Sherlock fics on AO3? I assume it’s another fandom being mixed in, but I am just not familiar.
Oh honey. Where do I begin. There are wiki articles on it, but Alpha/omega is a type of AU. I can’t really explain it well, but does anyone want to explain to my friend here Omegaverse?
If you want to read one of the best omegaverse fics ever written, The Gilded Cage.
Hey @merindab – I know you’re familiar, and you prob have more recs too!
The article I tend to point people at is the fanlore one. And yeah, I have, well quite a few. Fics tagged omega verse that i’ve written or am involved with are here, here and here.
The short version of omega verse is that the universe includes a second gender, on top of the basic male/female one (yes I know gender is more than a binary). These are alphas and omegas. People without a second gender are called betas. Alphas of either gender can impregnate omegas of either gender. (i wrote this one with pregnant omega John/alpha Mary, but be warned Mary isn’t a nice person in it). Omegas generally have some sort of heat cycle, essentially a time when they go into ‘fuck or die’ mode, without the death part. Alphas generally have a knot, the way dogs do. There can be bonding, which is usually when an alpha bites an omega. Scent is usually important.
It sounds complicated, but once you read a few fics, you’ll get the hang of it. And there are variations even within omegaverse itself. Heat can come with some consent issues, but at least in mine I’m careful about it. (This fic of mine is omegaverse without any smut) I sometimes like using omegaverse to explore gender roles. For instance in my “Mycroft’s Choice,” Mycroft, as an omega, is facing some of the same prejudice and difficulty a woman might, given that he’s capable of breeding.
And then sometimes it’s just an excuse to write smutty, kinky porn.
I’m also going to tag @greencarnations cause I know she can add more recs and correct anything I messed up or missed.
Those are the biggies, really. (This is greencarnations, but over on the fic account because my omegaverse stuff is all over here.) If OP wants to read more, here’s some masterposts and meta:
- Masterposts of metas about the basics
- Another, BIGGER masterpost of metas, largely about more specific stuff
- An explanation of the appeal
- A history of omegaverse
- And my omegaverse tag
one of the things i adore about hamilton is that there isn’t a gender divide in the chorus.
in most shows i’ve been in, there’s a difference between what the men in the chorus get to do, and what the women get to do (and you’re always one or the other based on voice part, no ambiguities allowed). in pirates of penzance, there’s the pirates on one side, and the nice proper ladies on the other. in les mis, there’s the prisoners, and there’s the prostitutes. it defines which scenes you appear in, and sometimes it keeps you from some of the coolest parts of the show.
but hamilton uses the entire vocal range of the chorus in every scene, even in entirely “male” spaces like battle scenes. i never thought i’d see a broadway show–especially a historically-based show–where someone with my vocal range would get to shout “HERE COMES THE GENERAL” and make cannon sound effects. you know?
broadway has been a really strictly gendered space for so long, worse than almost any other media i can think of. hamilton gives me hope because it’s set a precedent of casting based entirely on ability. if you can spit the words, if you can hit the notes, if you can make the role come alive, it doesn’t matter what you look like or how you compare to the real historical figure. there are sopranos at the battle of yorktown. maybe somewhere out there, there’s a woman who could be the perfect alexander hamilton.
hamilton has already broken down racial restrictions in casting so beautifully, and i’m starting to see cracks in the gender side, too. i can’t wait to see what happens next.
This is for all the unsung fic writers; the ones who don’t make the must-read lists, the ones who don’t get recced, the ones who don’t get hundreds of kudos, the rarepair writers out on the peripheries of fandom, the ones who toil away quietly for the handful of people who read and love them. You matter – you’re a writer too, and don’t you ever forget it. 🙂
So
My mom is an First Generation TOS Trekkie. I really wanna ask her if she’s ever read any fanfic from ‘back in the day’ but then again I’m not sure I’m ready for that conversation. She’s 70.
Please ask her. She may have been waiting 50 years for someone to ask her.
Idk what your relationship with your mom is like, but my mother-in-law was super excited when we visited for christmas. See, she’d just found fanfic (I think Harry Potter and Supernatural are the specific fandoms she mentioned) and wanted to share it with us/know if we’d read any. Me, my hubby, and my brother-in-law all sat there awkwardly going ‘uh…yeah. I’ve read fanfic.’ and desperately trying to end the conversation before specifics got involved.
I explained omegaverse to my mom (and she’s in her 60s)