[I think I've only seen a few stories where the alpha refrained from sex because the omega (sensibly, in negative circumstances) didn't want it. So they did something else instead to be helpful.]
Yess. One of the things I want to play with is the idea that Alpha + Heat!Omega doesn't necessarily ≠ sex; there's a whole lot of ways it could play out, and even knowing the people involved, it's often difficult to predict what will happen. So while a lot of the time it does happen with an uptick in libido from one or both parties, because a lot of people are sexual people and associate intensity of emotion toward another person with sex, it's the intensity of emotion that's the real hallmark of the interaction, and it's just slipped into cultural understanding as a sexual thing in the same way that intimacy is present in cultural understanding as a sexual thing.
[I suspect that someone would shift alpha if they felt a need to fight, because that's the alpha mode. It could give them the strength needed to win. Conversely, they might shift omega if they felt a need to defend -- say, if violence was unavailable or counterproductive -- or if they felt a desire to be protected.]
•nods• And it's interesting, also, examining that in the context of a fight/flight/freeze response, where one context could have a range of different responses, not all of them actually helpful in any given circumstance. (Like, the freeze response in deer definitely does not help when the trigger is headlights on a freeway, but technology outpaces evolution, so they're kinda stuck with it. At least for howevermany generations it takes for it to assert an effect on what genes get passed down to the next generation.)
no subject
Yess. One of the things I want to play with is the idea that Alpha + Heat!Omega doesn't necessarily ≠ sex; there's a whole lot of ways it could play out, and even knowing the people involved, it's often difficult to predict what will happen. So while a lot of the time it does happen with an uptick in libido from one or both parties, because a lot of people are sexual people and associate intensity of emotion toward another person with sex, it's the intensity of emotion that's the real hallmark of the interaction, and it's just slipped into cultural understanding as a sexual thing in the same way that intimacy is present in cultural understanding as a sexual thing.
[I suspect that someone would shift alpha if they felt a need to fight, because that's the alpha mode. It could give them the strength needed to win. Conversely, they might shift omega if they felt a need to defend -- say, if violence was unavailable or counterproductive -- or if they felt a desire to be protected.]
•nods• And it's interesting, also, examining that in the context of a fight/flight/freeze response, where one context could have a range of different responses, not all of them actually helpful in any given circumstance. (Like, the freeze response in deer definitely does not help when the trigger is headlights on a freeway, but technology outpaces evolution, so they're kinda stuck with it. At least for howevermany generations it takes for it to assert an effect on what genes get passed down to the next generation.)
[Let me know if you write it?]
I shall! :)