A very short rec set

[starlady]

Having spent way too much time this weekend trawling through the kink meme(s), it's fascinating to me how you can basically track the infiltration of the alpha/beta/omega trope (but usually in its "pure" alpha/omega form) into XMFC fandom via which prompts on the meme get filled over time. (Someone could totally do a fascinating longitudinal study on the infiltration/cross-pollination of phrases and motifs in XMFC fic over time, incidentally.)

I'd never heard of this trope before, but in light of it going around my various r-lists in various shades of raised eyebrows recently, I thought I'd share this rather consciously revisionist take on the whole idea:

The Omegaist Mystique (2754 words) by Pookaseraph
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: X-Men: First Class (2011)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier
Characters: Erik Lehnsherr, Charles Xavier, David Haller, Angel Salvadore
Summary: Erik meets Charles at a local Omegaist chapter and slowly gets to know the man; they discuss Omegaist philosophy, single parenthood, and life. Erik slowly finds himself falling for the unassuming beta, and wishing they could have more.


Apparently the alpha/omega trope is often associated with werewolves. I rec the following because it offers a (I think) quite interesting take on embodiment and the construction of gender roles in the context of werewolves without going anywhere near alpha/omega territory:

Skin Deep (29412 words) by manic_intent
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: X-Men: First Class (2011)
Rating: Explicit
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier, Emma Frost/Sebastian Shaw
Characters: Erik Lehnsherr, Charles Xavier, Emma Frost, Sebastian Shaw, Hank McCoy, Angel Salvadore, Sean Cassidy, Alex Summers
Summary: Written for the kmeme, Everyone-is-a-werewolf AU. Erik happens upon a seemingly abandoned mansion in Westchester during a full moon and finds an insanely clueless werewolf living in isolation.

Do read the sequel, In Escrow.

Note to interested readers: Neither of these stories have significant Jewish content.

Comments

[sasha_feather]

Thank you for the recs! I'd never heard of this trope until X Men FC either.

[starlady]

You were one of the people I was thinking of when I was writing this up.

[seekingferret]

Thanks for the tip. ;)

[starlady]

No problem. :)

[rachelmanija]

Via the wiki entry: for ages I thought "knotting" meant something like macrame, and couldn't figure out why it was a kink, but figured that maybe lots of fans were into it as a craft and so liked to write it in. Like knitting! Oops.

I like BDSM-verse but have avoided alpha/beta/omega due to being squicked by mpreg. Do these stories have mpreg in them?

[starlady]

The first two contain mpreg discussion (well, sort of, i.e. werewolf mpreg, in the second one) but no actual mpreg. The sequel to the second one is an mpreg story.

LOL macrame! Someone I know was talking about writing an actual macrame fic (probably for Community) as meta on that whole idea, which I would read the hell out of. I didn't know what it was either! I didn't even think to look it up on Fanlore, which then led me way farther into wolf biology websites than I ever wanted to go to figure out just WTF it was.

[rachelmanija]

Thanks! I will check them out. I don't mind the discussion of mrpeg, just actual onstage mpreg.

ETA: Mr. Peg! Like Tipping the Velvet's Monsieur Dildo. I am totally fine with onstage pegging. ;)

[starlady]

*snorfle* I did not even notice, trufax.

[torachan]

I assumed it was some sort of rope bondage when I first saw people talking about fic with knotting kink.

[troisroyaumes]

Me too!

[mrkinch]

(Someone could totally do a fascinating longitudinal study on the infiltration/cross-pollination of phrases and motifs in XMFC fic over time, incidentally.)
I would love to see this! My focus is smaller, on words and phrases, but I imagine that the mechanisms and flow would be similar.

I've read a few of these fills, at various levels of appeal (to me) and writing ability. Pookaseraph's fic is making my happy just knowing that I have it waiting for a time (soon) when I am in desperate need of something good to read.

[starlady]

It's so interesting to me that there's definitely a visible diffusion of things like words and phrases (mostly describing Charles/McAvoy's facial features) and then also of motifs (such as, frex, rimming), as well as at the level of tropes. I had a better grasp of the progression of the first two in my head a few months ago, but it would totally be possible to reconstruct, between the kink memes and the AO3.

[mrkinch]

In your copious free time, of course.^^

I've particularly noticed the diffusion of specific, incorrect usages. My theory is that they spread because they are fresh, to which meaning is secondary. But that could be sheer grumpiness.

[kindkit]

I was definitely a strong shade of raised eyebrows about this trope, but that was about the un-revisionist, un-thoughtful version of it. I don't know if I'll read the fic, for several reasons, but I do like the idea of a metafic that's critical of the gendered assumptions behind the trope.

[starlady]

Yeah, it's nice to know that other people have the raised eyebrows.

[noldo]

Yeah, I have seen the trope around my readinglist and been a bit '...' at it -- you're not the only one with the raised eyebrows, definitely.

[starlady]

What really gets me is just how much of it there is in XMFC. Why this fandom of all the others besides SPN?

[recessional]

You would think I had no eyebrows, for lo, they're so far up they're lost in my hair.

[megaptera]

I've never heard of this stuff outside of furry/lycan type stories. I mean... with canine characters it makes at least a little sense because real life canines have this feature. It can leave them in helpless, embarrassed situations if they're interrupted during mating. But we're talking about human/oid naughty bits that do this?

[starlady]

More like, if I can make a truly terrible pun, human/oid knotty bits. But, yes.