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
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