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random but passionate pet peeve triggered almost entirely by the wave of assorted fandom edits set to Epic: The Musical songs -- if you're going to use a song that contains a specific name and edit other characters to it, and you're doing the stylized lyrics on screen thing, do not put the name of the character you're actually editing about on the screen while the song says another name. It just draws my attention to it and breaks the immersion more. Just don't put anything there for that specific lyric, I beg of you. If I have to hear that guy wailing about Penelope while the screen says [OTHER CHARACTER NAME] one more time I'm going to commit crimes.

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My versions of Mycroft and Albert are always varying degrees of OOC, but something about this ridiculous kinky modern AU in particular is what makes me go "oh, it's time for me to start playing with original fic." They're so far removed from their canon setting and their canon characterizations but I have so much fun writing them and the words come so easily. It's more unabashedly silly than anything else I write and I want to write more stuff like it but without even having the thought of an existing canon to pay tribute to sitting in the back of my head.

I think the realization I'm coming to is that every time I try to write original fic I get quickly tripped up on the internalized expectation that writing original fic should mean writing a book. And I'm realizing that I don't want to write a book. I don't want to plot and outline and plan and have word count goals. I don't want to work with editors or have to submit to the process of constructive criticism. I don't want writing to get entangled in any way with making or supplementing a living. I desperately want -- need, even -- writing to continue being a hobby and nothing more. Something I do purely for fun and for the community experience of sharing and being shared with. So I think what I really want to do is to write relatively short, fanfic-like stories, but with my own characters.

Then the question becomes where to put them. I'm leaning towards just putting them on AO3 because if I remember correctly (though I'd have to recheck) they allow for original fiction that is in the same sort of style with the same tropes and tags and such as fanfic, which this would definitely be. Of course, there wouldn't be a huge audience, I assume just people who already like my fics and would be willing to try something new, but I would miss the rating and tagging system if I went anywhere else...

Anyway I don't know, just rambling lol

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You can and should write fanfiction that isn't perfect. You can and should write whatever fanfiction you want. You can and should write fanfiction that brings you joy even if it's silly or goofy or weird.

Except for me. My fanfic has to be perfect and read like a novel and ruin at least one person's sleep schedule.

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such a profound sense of delight when I realize that a piece of media is matching my freak to the very letter. there are creators out there who are my exact kind of sicko and we are reaching out to each other as if across the cosmos.

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Getting into fandoms is so scary .if I characterize this guy wrong everyone is going to kill me I can sense it

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whats the most traumatised mxtx character in ur opinion?

Xie Lian and it isn't even close his only friend for 800 years was the rope his parents hung themselves with and that's not even the saddest thing about him. Like he's suffered to the point of absurdity

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Tiktok just taught me a weird trick and I'm going to have to write another oneshot in my silly-weird dentist Mycroft au just for the purpose of having somewhere to incorporate it.

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I mean

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@cece-alex since secondary gender characteristics don't manifest until adolescence, pretty much just what Victorian kids wore anyway. I have some little kid OCs who I'm having fun with -- not children of the main characters ((yet??)) -- but I haven't thought as much about what they're wearing as I have about how fun it is to give toddlers little old lady names because of the time period 😂

What I am trying to figure out mentally is what maternity clothes for a Victorian man would look like. I imagine they don't leave the house too much once they're showing so they're probably just in loose lounging clothes all the time. But if I had any artistic skill I would be trying to sketch out something they could wear to a formal event that's masculine while demurely somewhat-disguising the baby bump as is Proper™

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Abut your worldbuilding game thing: does being married and being mated mean the same thing in this AU? Since Mycroft and Albert are mated now but there was clearly no official ceremony conducted in a church or anything, but Mary is John's wife so the two of them ARE married; and if they aren't the same thing, is one seen as being of lower legitimacy than the other? If so, which one/why that one? And does that mean we WILL get to see our boys be able to properly, legally call each other husband?

OKAY this is a juicy one lmao. Under the cut for those who prefer to avoid world-building spoilers and also because this is gonna get long.

This is still AU Victorian England, and alpha/omega relationships are only considered acceptable because they can result in children. Otherwise, it would fall under sodomy laws. What this means is that actually, alpha/omega pairs are only supposed to be having sex during the omega's heats. Of course, in practice this is not at all how it works, but there's a degree of hush-hush about anything else.

However, after a series of very long church councils shortly after the forming of the Church of England, it was decided that it wasn't reasonable to enforce monogamy on alpha/omega pairs while also insisting they only have sex once a quarter or so (and even less with pregnancies factored in). Also it was thought that a household without a woman in it could not be entirely healthy. As such, it was decided that an alpha could have an omega mate AND a wife, and an omega could have an alpha mate AND a wife. No more than that: a very strictly legally and religiously mandated form of bigamy. Other religions and cultures have different systems, but this is the one most relevant to this story.

Within a household where both the alpha and omega have their own wives, both men are co-heads of the house in terms of patriarchal positioning, but their relationships with their respective wives are expected to supersede their relationship with each other. All the resultant children are considered legitimate and equal and are raised together as siblings.

Sometimes, an alpha/omega pair does decide to get married and be monogamous. This is considered more acceptable in the rare circumstance where an omega has identified as a woman since her presentation. But it does happen in male/male pairs. Generally in this case it's considered some sainted love transcending physicality. There's a lot of readings about David and Jonathan in the wedding ceremonies. It's very "oh these two are soul-brothers who wish to bind their lives in a way that is essentially platonic aside from that one awkward week every three to four months, how noble." And once they're married their sex lives or lack thereof are very "don't ask don't tell," but there's a general lack of scrutiny involved so it's a much easier lot than a beta/beta gay male pair would have.

There are absolutely households where the laws about mates and wives mean there are throuples and foursomes living in polyamorous bliss, but Her Majesty needn't know about that.

........this may be the most culturally Christian omegaverse ever written 😂

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Hello!

I was wondering how does one's secondary gender affect their social standing? Legal rights?

Alphas and betas are pretty much equal in terms of legal rights, but alphas are considered intimidating and also tend to get legal leeway for things like "I killed a man in a technically illegal duel because he insulted my mate" as long as witnesses can attest to both the insult and the duel, so they're generally treated as top of the food chain.

Omegas are assigned male at birth: secondary gender characteristics don't manifest until adolescence so by the time it's realized they're not just boys they've been socialized as male for a decade and a bit. Most of them continue to identify as men, though there are those who identify as women. This is begrudgingly considered to be acceptable, but an odd choice. Omegas who live as male have all the legal rights of men: they can vote, have bank accounts, etc etc. Like men, they can get away with sleeping with women unmarried as long as they're discreet. But like women, if they're found to be sleeping with an alpha unmated, and especially if they fall pregnant without having a mating mark, it would socially ruin them. Particularly in the upper classes, an omega man is generally considered to have the cushiest life you can possibly get. However, there's a lot of pressure on them as well: they're expected to essentially be experts at every skill and art that both a lord or a lady should have.

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what's everyone's designation ? (everyone = the people at the reunion dinner + patterson and lestrade. though feel free to share anyone else's designation that's in the story ; from the og moriartys to the queen and whoever else you might include.)

I have not settled on all of these but this is how it's looking so far:

Mycroft, Sherlock, and Louis are alphas.

Albert, William, and Fred are omegas.

John, Jack, Lestrade, and Patterson are betas.

Mary, Miss Hudson, and Moneypenny don't have a designation other than being women (I'll get into more about how women fit into all this eventually)

I'm leaning towards having Bond be an alpha -- by transition not by birth -- but I haven't really settled on it.

Billy's an alpha, and I haven't decided yet on Herder and Moran, but leaning omega for Herder and beta for Moran.

There's also a handful of OCs in Mycroft's staff: two women, Mrs Caldwell and Janie (housekeeper and maid), a beta named Jones who is the driver/gardener/general help, and my favourite, Timothy. He's the cook and is a widowed omega with young children who becomes Albert's friend and sounding board for navigating being mated.

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What's the running theory on how alpha and omega scents are decided/where they originate from/why they smell like things that are more strongly associated with "Not people" things? Because you just know Sherlock and William are nerds about it

This I have definitely been purely bullshitting about and just running with established omegaverse tropes. 😅 I've gotten as far as there being similarities in the scents of family members, (it's a minor plot point that Albert was using the way the suppressants dampened his natural scent to then conveniently replace it with an artificial one that made him smell similar to William and Louis) so there's some genetic element. I think there'd be an aspect of it helping alphas and omegas choose suitable mates, something where a scent dissimilar from but complementary to one's own signals good baby-making compatibility. And a very similar scent would suggest you should probably make sure you're not long-lost siblings. Anyway, it's definitely not something I've thought through much. But I'm going to have to give it at least a bit of thought now, because you are so right and Sherlock and William would 100% nerd out about this!

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Jayce and Viktor sitting in a tree C-O-D-E-pen-den-cy

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Have to go to bed but I'll be back at this tomorrow night! 😊

Help me think of things I might not otherwise: ask me world-building questions about my omegaverse fic so I can bullshit up the answers in real time as I respond lol

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Hi!

I'm not really good at coming up with questions, so I'll go with an obvious one. To quote your author note one chapter 2 :

"I realize the scruffing might raise some concerns in terms of consent in other contexts. I'll get around to addressing that in the story eventually, but for now just trust that it's nothing so nefarious."

Would you be open to explaining it now?

Have a wonderful day!

Thanks so much for the question!! This one will be explored pretty thoroughly within the fic. But I'm in a blabby mood so I'll explain it beneath the cut in case anyone would rather wait and get it from the story itself haha!

It's a response born from a deep and instinctual trust, so it's only alphas an omega feels safe with who can even do it to them, and it's also not impossible to fight against.

It's a kind of evolutionary thing. An alpha has the sharpest senses and instincts of any designation, so this was a way for them to be able to make their mate go completely still and silent without having to speak or signal in the event of a threat they noticed first. After the initial quick freeze the omega could fight it off, but generally they'd be more inclined to stay still until they knew what was going on.

However, in Victorian England, chances are omegas in high society are a few generations at least away from being in such imminent danger that their mates have to scruff them for safety reasons. So it's become mostly known as a sex thing. It's the kind of thing people make crass jokes about, and alphas in gentlemen's clubs will brag of their omegas submitting to scruffing. But the truth is that the alphas whose omegas actually let them scruff them are definitely not the ones who will yap about it.

Anyway this is a lot of lore just for me to have a new angle on my old classic, "bondage would fix Albert." 😂😂

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How come Louis, the adopted child, being the family alpha is possible / recognized by noble society?

I think I saw one of the comments questioning it and you mentioned you'd forgotten about Louis being "the adopted one" but would find a way to explain it.

Lmao yeah that was an embarrassing slip. In my defense my brain is just busy with Adulting day to day and sometimes even extremely obvious and important fandom facts get lost in there. 😅😅 Anyway I have thought that mostly through by now!!

It's a combo of factors:

Firstly, same as in The First Poem (and my headcanon for the actual manga as well), people accept that William is Albert's brother, but they do notice William and Louis look alike. The previous Lord Moriarty was known to have affairs, so everyone just assumes the two adopted children were the result of one and that Louis is Albert and William's half-brother.

Secondly, the child formerly known as [redacted] and Louis were formally and legally adopted so from a paperwork standpoint are full Moriartys.

Thirdly, Victorian Omegaverse society REALLY wants omegas to be under the care of a family alpha until they're mated. Like they will be assigned to an eighth cousin thrice removed if that's what it takes. So legally-adopted-probably-half-brother was resoundingly good enough if only for being so convenient.