Fishy Also Does Like Fic

-Omegas have it the worst off if they’re not unconditionally loved from a young age. They exhibit signs of insecurity, anxiousness, and chronic fatigue

-Omegas will have nests full of stuffed animals and blankets and pillows just to feel some sort of comfort and warmth that they didn’t get in their childhood

-Omegas will think themselves as annoying and undeserving of love especially if they’re touch starved from a young age

-It’s hard to convince any dynamic who wasn’t unconditionally loved that people now love them unconditionally

-Therapy is a must for all dynamics who don’t fit into packs or isolate themselves

-Alphas have more violent tendencies when not shown unconditional love. They’re more likely to lash out and say things they don’t mean

-All dynamics who are touch starved and conditionally loved will be way more sensitive to discussions and will either cry more often or not at all

-Betas will close off their emotions and pretend like everything is perfectly fine when it’s really not fine. It’s hard to catch a beta in this situation off guard

Honestly, I've had this ask in my inbox for just under three years and I haven't the slightest clue what to write for you.

Any friend who would like to give some ideas?

An omega who gets touch starved too long kind of develops a side effect to their heat. They become extremely clingy and emotional (mainly crying) to make up for the lack of touch they get in their normal life. Kind of like why it’s important to have skin to skin contact for babies.

Sure, if you want to see how I've organized these blogs check out this post: https://omegaversetheory.tumblr.com/post/653477000238039040/types-of-omegaverse-tumblrs

*oh and I'm sure there are a bunch more than this, I just can't keep up! here are some I've seen recently and I'm only including blogs that have updated within the last 180 days*

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Masters: @omegaverse-professor, @sortingabosincebirth , @jar-of-omegaverse, @omegaverse-daily (also a pair of lifestylers I think)

Lifestylers: @misce-beta, @sunshine-omega. @miscecrisis, @curious-omega, @bubblegum-omega, @miscellaneous-miscecanis, @gothic-alpha, @cutebatomega, @starryeyed--omega

Artillery: @unusually-omegaverse , @pack-the-pack, @omega-butch, @i-kinda-like-omegaverse, @omegaverse-headcanons-and-ideas, @omegaverse-scribbles, @omegaverse-seeker, @omegaversehellscape

Generators: @animeomegas, @bnhaewritings, @basically-i-write-shit, @aghoulishomega,

@hamilwriter02, @trashytoastboi, @kpopomegaverse, @jmalchanceux

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this is by no means an exhaustive list, but it did take me 45 minutes to make lol so don't come at me. also, there's a bunch of overlap, especially between lifestylers and the other categories. I sorted them based on what kind of information I think they post most often and based on their original posts.

By metatext I mean like tagging, summary, and authors notes (especially initial authors notes at the beginning of a fic). The means by which we communicate to our readers what they’re getting into.

Because we kind of all have to learn it by osmosis and there are conventions but nobody’s really taught them at the start, so there’s inconsistencies and misunderstandings or people just not knowing things through no fault of their own.

This ends up breeding frustration and confusion and in the worst cases resentment, hurt, and aggression.

I’m severely tempted to make such a handbook and get it circulating.

Go here for the PDF, or here to view the whole document as a tumblr post.

I recommend the PDF.

belatedly: more salty opinions

this one goes out to both the untamed and fandom in general, none of y’all are free from sin

every damn one of you vanilla ass virgins and diehard BDSM hall monitors needs to quit it with the handwringing “but where are the safewords” shit.

safewords aren’t the be-all end-all of kink safety! and nobody is handwringing this much about “but condoms” or “but where’s the shears while they’re doing rope bondage in case somebody panics” or “how long have those nipple clamps been on?” because for those things people seem to understand that it’s porn and “you have to be careful with abruptly pulling long hair because you might fuck up someone’s neck” isn’t fun and sexy to read about. smut is for fun! the author controls whether or not there’s accidents, so if i’m reading something that’s just a kinky pwp, i assume that no inconvenient practicalities are going to rear their head the way they always might irl. included in “inconvenient practicalities” is being prepared someone might need to safeword out. 

sometimes there’s a good reason to put in a safeword discussion: maybe badwrong sexy bit includes someone starting to have a bad time and the presence/absence of a safeword gives the sex scene tension. maybe one character is kinking on inexperience and enjoying leading their partner through the basics in detail. some story justification! something more than “oh right and i need to be a Responsible Porn Writer and include the safeword discussion”

fanfiction isn’t sex ed anymore than pornhub is! you can learn stuff from it, sure (there’s some creative stuff out there on the internet) but it’s not a how-to guide.

but all that isn’t even what i’m most steamed about!

the thing that makes me insane is the idea that you have to have a safeword for all kink activities. safewords are for consent play! there is absolutely no reason that saying “no” or yanking yourself away shouldn’t be sufficient outside of roleplay. otherwise, you know what is a good way to make your partner stop hitting you? saying “stop hitting me.” 

if you’re using a safeword as the big consent marker, then there’s only one way to say stop. if you’re not, there’s a thousand ways to say no. body language! tone of voice! a very wide range of vocabulary! there are also a thousand ways to say yes that aren’t “green,” and you can add “stops conveying yes/enjoyment” to the ways to say no. you don’t have to remember a special vocabulary word to be able to say “hey, bad spot, back off.” more importantly, the person hitting you has no excuse to not pay attention to that signal because it’s “well it’s not a safeword sooooo.....”

there’s just such a big difference between how somebody enjoying themselves acts and someone who isn’t! it’s almost always fucking obvious. people who try to convince you it’s all subtle and confusing are not good people. 

like: “ah, fuck, that hurts so bad, i can’t, i can’t -- oh my god, no, not again, please please please!”

versus: “whoa, uh-uh, that was too much. ow. i need a five minute break.”

one of those examples has the word “no” in it. it’s not the one that should bring things to an absolute screeching halt. the difference in tone is stark, and would be even starker with an actual voice behind it.

another example with consent play!

compare: “oh no, it’s so big, don’t put it in me! i won’t be able to take it! if you touch me there i’ll be ruined forever!”

to: “wait, i’m getting freaked out, let’s stop playing.”

most fic is writing about characters who know each other really well and should be able to read the body language of their partner. a lot of rules and safety precautions are most applicable when two people who don’t know each other super well are having sex and needing to have things you can point to and say “you agreed if i said red, you would stop, and when i said it you didn’t stop” with no room grey areas. if you have a bad actor in the room, they’ll take any chance they get to say they got mixed signals and how could they have known. two characters who love each other should be different! and in that vein: a lot of kink irl is done with dominant men and submissive women, so the dom is physically a LOT stronger than the sub. so many m/m ships are between characters with basically equal strength and there’s an element of fear that just isn’t present the same way.

a safeword is a big stressful thing to use -- there’s a lot of weight and seriousness put behind it. plus if it’s some cutesy thing you have to remember it under duress, that seems hard! there’s not enough nuance in a single word to easily make the difference clear between “i’m getting a leg cramp” and “if you touch me one more time i’m going to feel traumatized.” in some ways, this obsession with safewords makes me worry about the false safe of security given by following the rulebook. ticking off all the boxes on the consent to-do list isn’t a substitute for using your goddamn human social skills that you’ve been developing for 18 YEARS AT ABSOLUTE MINIMUM! 

“Why are you whining, little one?”

“Someone needs attention, don’t they? Such a needy little omega.” 

“I’m your alpha, you need my permission to do anything.” 

“Ssh, I’ve got you. I’ll take care of you, pup / kit.”

“That’s it, let daddy knot you.” 

“Don’t make me bite you.”

“What a pretty beta, such a good little one for me.” 

“Why don’t you come sit in daddy’s lap?” 

“I can smell your slick, little one. Have you gone into heat?” 

“What have you got there, baby?” 

“I know it hurts, little one. You’ll get through it, breathe.” 

“You need someone to be firm with you, little omega.” 

“Did you just talk back to me?”

idk, bud, what is "normal"? is it "normal" to write about the life and times of Antony and Cleopatra, as Willy "The Bard" Shakespeare did? how about making a critically-acclaimed biopic about a real woman who really walked this earth, speculating about the sex lives of actual humans, like 2018's Colette (or indeed 1991's Becoming Colette)? is that "normal"? or what if you write a screenplay about the real Jane Austen and her doomed love life (Becoming Jane, 2007)? or about Thomas Jefferson's "sexual combustibility" (1776, 1972)? ooo, on the topic of the Founding Fathers, is Lin Manuel Miranda "normal" for writing raps about Alexander Hamilton boning down on another man's wife (Hamilton, 2015)? or, if you're more sympathetic to the other side of that conflict, where do you think The Crown (2016) falls on the scale of "normal"?

really, who among us is "normal"? how do we define "normal" in a media landscape absolutely bursting with the authorized, unauthorized, uncouth, and unabridged imagined lives of real people, living or dead? for that matter, how do you define "real" people? if you're writing about a public figure whose entire persona is curated for you through tabloid magazines and film directors and editors and makeup artists and graphic designers and publicists, how "real" can this figure be said to be to you? if you're writing about the completely made-up life of a movie star reimagined as a college student in your hometown falling in love with his costar who through a twist of fate has become his roommate, is this still a "real" person you are writing about? is this a "normal" pastime? is writing anything fictional, fantastic, or completely fabricated based on a sliver of the actual world a "normal" thing to do?

If you’ve watched TV on any network or heard of any Oscar-nominated movies ever in your life, then you’ve seen RPF. It’s just not called RPF. It’s often called a “biopic” or “historical fiction” or “based on real life events.”

The Crown? RPF.

Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocket Man? RPF.

The Social Network? RPF.

A fairly large number of Doctor Who episodes? RPF.

Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter? RPF.

Just look at the actors who have won Oscars. In the last two decades, 22 out of 40 leads won for playing biographical roles (55%). And this isn’t a recent trend, either. We’ve been writing books and movies and TV shows about real people for as long as humans have been able to write. 

So why do people hate RPF so much in fanfiction form? I think an argument can be made that it’s not the RPF that’s the problem. It’s the sex. Somehow, writing a story about a real person and including a sex scene in it is worse than just writing a story about them that doesn’t include sex. 

So is the problem RPF? Mainstream awards shows would have me believe that it’s not. Entire genres of literature and film make me think that writing fictional stories about real people isn’t an issue at all. It’s writing stories about those real people having sex with other people that causes the problem. Which means that the problem isn’t RPF at all, it’s sex. 

The F in RPF stands for Fiction. People who post it on AO3 are posting it on a website that is specifically dedicated to fiction. Anyone reading a story on AO3 and thinking that it’s an accurate portrayal of reality probably doesn’t even know what AO3 is. Which makes me wonder how they found the story to begin with. 

Pick your genre of fanfiction and someone out there has a problem with it, and a lot of the time that problem comes down to the wrong people having the wrong kind of sex.  Or the right people having sex, but the wrong people are writing it. 

RPF exists in the world. It’s written about the famous and the nameless. It’s written about the dead and the living. It’s written about adults and about children. 

RPF is fantasy. Pure fantasy. Nothing wrong per se; I think most of us who engage one way or another with fanfiction have had our own stories or ideas in our heads about the actors who play the characters. 

The problem begins when people start to confuse real life with fantasy, confronting the actors with stories/fan theories on their relationships with their co-stars. I’ve seen this going really bad in fandoms where they started to harrass the actor’s partners, calling their relationships fake, a cover-up.