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.

[seekingferret]

Thanks for the tip. ;)

[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?

[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.

[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.

[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?