Ghost Blog!

Are betas a thing?

Yes! Omegaverse without betas is no fun for me because I think that they can be utilized in interesting ways <33 I... may have to make a post talking about some of the details of how I do omegaverse lol

Etiquette

This is something I'm still building up and it's currently very rough/flexible, but it's fairly reflective of etiquette at the time! It's mostly about deciding how to slot alpha women and omega men in without going the "o!men are Women Lite" route--and without forgetting to consider alpha women at all, one of my major pet peeves in omegaverse lol.

A lot of Victorian etiquette can be built upon in an omegaverse context (long sleeves and high collars to hid scent glands? gloves to protect from accidental scenting? strict rules of contact between genders? oh yeah baby), which makes things easy for me (rip Victorian omegaverse, you would have loved scent blockers) (I think pefumes and colognes would have been popular to help cover scents, and I imagine one could make a lot of money being a perfumer at the time)

The etiquette of how people would interact with each other is pretty dependent on how they're approaching the social situation, too, though this might be better approached in the next question:

Courting Rituals

So! First off, I should probably quickly cover the like... rules of who can marry who. There's a lot of directions I could swing this and they're all equally valid, but this is fundamentally an au I am making to have fun! so. easiest (for me) answer that doesn't completely erase The Homophobia but instead reimagines it through the lense of omegaverse: child-bearing couples are, in general, permissible. The lower the chance of producing a child, the more side-eyes the couple is going to get. This is, of course, not my personal stance on the matter but instead a very loose summary of the reasoning.

For some added context: Alpha women tend to have a harder time conceiving/carrying children, and omega men have a harder time siring children.

Some quick examples:

A!Woman x O!Woman: great! A!Woman x B!Woman: fine! A!Woman x A!Woman: well, I suppose.

A!Manx O!Man: stellar! A!Man x A!Woman: are you... sure about that? A!Man x B!Man: no.

So, etiquette-wise, a lot of it depends on intent. If you're intending to court, you must determine if you are the court-er, or the court-ee, and act accordingly. An alpha woman for example might court an omega man, but a beta man would court an alpha woman.

Onto the more fun stuff: it wasn't uncommon for a lot of 'courting' to actually take place via letters, so I think sending each other lightly scented letters would be a popular trend. Also, sending ribbons or kerchiefs or other such items that are scented along would be pretty common!

Direct scenting would be pretty scandalous probably, especially anything near the throat. Generally reserved for close family and maybe friends I'd imagine? Probably not done until late engagement or after marriage.

As an additional sidenote, courting in the Victorian era was generally a fairly short ordeal. The engagements however were often much longer, usually lasting a year or more!

Clothing:

Fashion between Alphas, Betas, and Omegas

I've mostly addressed this here and here! Things are still being workshopped and I can't think of anything else to add off the top of my head but if you have more specific questions feel free to send 'em!

Eveningwear vs. Dailywear

This is one of the areas still heavily under construction tragically as I try to figure out how to blend feminine and masculine styles to create alphine and omegine styles that I like lol

I've been doing some experiments with using the bodices of evening dresses (specifically, the off-shoulder look) and adapting them into skirtless pieces for male omegas, but I haven't quite been happy with it yet. I think I need to experiment more with shirtwaists and such.

I haven't been drawing much for this au lately (got very focused on some other art pieces lol) but here's some doodles/sketches