Bonus the flashback, a memory of youth, starring Semine’s cursed medieval haircut.

Like if the actual reproductive capabilities of your kid aren't apparent until puberty, that changes the game on a lot of male inheritance preferences, doesn't it? Like maybe your son presents as an Omega and suddenly he can't sire a hundred heirs on a harem of politically expedient wives, you've gotta find someone to impregnate him instead. Or he could, maybe, depending on how the fantasy reproduction works, but it's much longer odds on that.

Conversely, your daughter who would normally be slated for marriage alliances and marrying out presents as an Alpha, and now suddenly she's capable of begetting heirs and less than likely to incubate another family's kids. But you don't know for sure until puberty.

Like a lot of historical nobility traded clout in heirs and arranged matches well before puberty. Sure the kids could still die or turn out to be infertile, but it was a generally safer bet to assume that they wouldn't, and even considered slanderous or bad luck to behave otherwise. And if your son or daughter dies, that just voids any betrothal contracts you might have made, it doesn't necessarily throw them for a loop as it might if, on the other hand, your son who was supposed to marry the viscount's daughter turns out Omega, and the viscount's daughter turns out Alpha, and now you have to renegotiate who marries into whose household, and that's not even the worst case scenario.

Say your son turns out Omega but the other family's daughter is a Beta, and let's say that Omega men can still potentially get others pregnant, but at reduced odds. Do you keep on with the match, knowing that the odds of it yielding children have changed? Or do you cancel it, even though it's still politically advantageous to create that alliance, because without children it's not a better alliance than one with?

Like betrothal contracts all over the world would HAVE to incorporate provisos for this kind of thing. Or else people would just have to hold off on making those plans until after their kids reached puberty. On the one hand that second thing seems like the obviously preferable solution, and also tons of cultures did indeed prefer to handle shit that way anyhow, but on the other hand, with the political nature of marriage matches on the table, there would always be the temptation to take a gamble in order to secure an advantageous connection and then just hope wishin' and a-prayin' would seal the deal.

I think that latter would still happen more often if there were, hrm, further odds involved in anticipating the secondary gender of one's heirs. Like quacks and charlatans claiming that they could predict the outcome well before puberty hits, people coming up with alleged ways of ensuring the desired results, actual odds favoring certain outcomes (i.e. Omega girls being more common than Omega boys type stuff), fortune tellers being like gimme that kid's star chart and I'll tell you what they're more likely to become, and so on.

I do have world building ideas for A/B/O fics, but I admittedly didn’t think of quite all these details!

My usual thoughts are:

A) Being an omega is generally dominant for women and recessive for men, while being an alpha is dominant for men but recessive for women. This naturally results in far more omega women and alpha men respectively.

B) As with some sex swapping species, an alpha or beta man with a recessive omega gene can potentially become an omega under the correct circumstances (what is crassly called ‘Bitching’) while an omega or beta woman with a recessive alpha gene can potentially become an alpha (I believe this is called ‘Studding’).

(I imagine the “correct” circumstances being having a mate reproductively compatible with the change, and/or being in an environment lacking in compatible dynamics.)

C) Alpha women and omega men are what in plants is referred to as ‘dichogamous’ meaning they can both be impregnated or impregnate, but at different points in their reproductive cycle.

In light the other two posts above, I’m now imagining all the societal effects that might result from my point B:

First, there are the absurdities people would definately get up to trying to change an “unfortunate” presentation.

Naturally they wouldn’t quite understand the genetic component, and there would undoubtedly be some intersex conditions that only cause further confusion: For instance there’d be a rare handful of men and women who start out presenting in line with what would ordinarily be considered recessive genes, who then potentially end up swapping the other way.

There would definitely be families comfortable enough with the comparative rarity of omega men and alpha women (especially if their own bloodline had coincidentally lacked them up to that point) that they set up alliances assuming their children would grow up compatible.

Then they get a surprise presentation, and start making the poor kid drink dubious concoctions, or suffer through peculiar rituals.

That or they hide the presentation with carefully tailored clothes and perfumes, hoping the mating bite will conveniently fix the situation. (They’ve heard stories of alphas biting their male lovers and somehow getting an omega out of it!)

Alternately, even if one could theoretically suss out possible alpha women and/or omega men at birth, it also could be that girls with alpha genes that will remain recessive, and those that really will be alphas, look identical at birth (same with recessive omega boys, and ones that really will be omegas).

This would make birth identifications far more complicated, as while they could occasionally tell that certain infants will certainly be omega or beta women, or alpha or beta men, there would be others that could easily end up being any secondary dynamic… and may or may not be able to change it as well!

With regard to point A, I really wish I had the knowledge to replicate or adapt the simulation system used by Primer on YouTube.

I want to know how rare female alphas and male omegas would actually be if those genes were recessive for their particular primary sex!

I’d love to try all sorts of different starting scenarios, partner preference settings, and fertility ‘rules’ just to see what sort of population ratios would result.

For Example: If initially half of all men were betas (BB) and half were alphas (equal parts AA and AB) while half of all women were betas (BB) and half were omegas (equal parts OB and OO) and partner selection was entirely random (aside from only “allowing” reproductively compatible pairs)… What would the demographics look like several generations in?

tw: blood, wounds, abstract blood physics, sensual vampire violence ?¿

Spin this to find out yours. (Remember, you are responsible for maintaining this familiar in your dorm room.)

Witch King by Martha Wells

Talon-re, an Enalin chronicler and poet about the Arike:

He told her, "I'm using my own pain."

Ziede's eyes narrowed. "It's not nearly as likely to destroy your consciousness and enslave you to the Hierarchs' Well, but it's hardly an inexhaustible source."

Kai huffed a laugh, though it wasn't funny. "Isn't it?"

Binturong (Arctictis binturong)

Binturongs most commonly have ticking in their coat, often most dense on the face, but the amount varies from animal to animal. This grey headed example has most of the color restricted to it’s head, giving it a very clean and striking look.  [x]

The white head and forelimbs of this slightly raggedy older animal can possibly be due a bit to old age, however since young animals can be born light or dark and I’ve seen older dark ones, it may have had roughly the same coloration when it was younger. It’s hard to tell, but it’s a pretty attractive pattern either way.[x]

Another gruff looking binturong, the unusual black mask really stands out against it’s white face. Overall, it appears to have more of a frosted look compared to the previous animals, probably throughout the rest of it’s body. [x]

About as dark as they get, this handsome black fellow has only a tiny amount of color to his otherwise glorious, luxurious solid coat. This one is my favorite, can you tell?[x]

Warmer grizzling isn’t all that uncommon, with shades of brownish or goldish instead of or alongside the silvers and whites. This sleeping beauty has a very even distribution of brown, and has no mask. [x]

A really neat trait I never would have noticed without the tip from RaggedyBearcat, some individuals have light undersides of their tail. This warmer toned example has a creamy underside to it’s tail, creeping a bit high towards the sides in some areas, and ending in a dark tip.  I thought this was a trick of the light, but pictures of the animal in slightly different poses make me pretty confident in my description.[x]

Though hard to judge with the flash, I’m fairly certain this guy has a light brownish-grey head to go along with the goldish and cream ticking and tinges of the rest of it’s coat. Also, you can clearly see eyespot markings, which are not uncommon in bints with lighter faces. [x]

An extremely grizzled binturong, so frosted it looks especially light and grey. The limbs and face lightest, but the bridge of it’s muzzle fairly dark  [x]

Perhaps it’s because it’s a baby and the lighting is better this equally grizzled individual appears lighter, it’s white face brighter with no masking in sight.[x]