magibrain

...I find myself vaguely wanting to write A/B/O fic, except less with sex and more with navigating tricky power dynamics and slews of body dysphoria, and with a heavily tweaked version of the whole A/B/O premise.

(Basically, the idea in my brain is that Alpha, Beta and Omega are just psychophysical modes people operate in, and while people tend to have "baseline" modes that they operate in for long stretches – sometimes even their entire lives – people can switch from mode to mode in response to various physical or psychological stimuli. Like, a baseline beta might find themselves going omega or alpha after a major trauma, for example. And there would be drugs and such which could affect what mode people operated in. Plus, while the modes would have specific physiological effects – people operating in alpha mode might have overactive adrenal glands and produce more testosterone, while people operating in omega mode would experience heat and all its attendant fun – it would only affect personality in as much as, say, gayness does. In that there would be a ton of stereotypes and there would be established cultures which people might or might not do any social commerce with, and aside from that, it's not really something you could tell by looking at someone.)

(...though you could probably tell it by scent. Because that seems to be a thing?)

(Also, people would be able to resist physical urges, with varying degrees of difficulty from "I am having this strong craving right now!" to "I am experiencing this with the intensity of an addiction." And there would probably be a lot of discussion on medical and political stages about that.)

I don't know. I've read a grand total of two A/B/O fics in my life – feels like the start of something and The toppiest girl in the school, and ironically neither of them is for a fandom I'm actually in – and I feel like this may just be a continuation of my picking at the assumed conventions of tropes I don't actually write or read (see also), which always makes me feel a little weird. But I feel like, given some of the discussion in the prompt thread for feels like the start of something, it might be a weird little space to explore which other people are also interested in seeing explored. And it does seem like there's a healthy movement in A/B/O writing areas to dissect the heck out of the trope, from what I've read.

Of course, it also doesn't help that I already have way too many other projects clamoring for my attention. Including the one where Neal is stuck on a magical Greyhound for five years.




This is one of the ways you can tell I'm ace. I find tropes that are deeply rooted in kinky sex and then expend considerable time and energy carefully plucking out the sexybits so I can nest in the kinky power dynamics. <_< One of these days I'll write and post my WC OT3 fic and it will be 80,000 words of neither sex nor romance, continuing my trend of OT3 fic which is neither sex nor romance, and everyone will be able to tell me that I'm doing it wrong. AND I WILL LAUGH FROM ATOP MY ASEXY THRONE, I SHALL EAT THE CAKE THAT IS MY BIRTHRIGHT, AND KNOW THAT I AM THE OVERMIND, THE ETERNAL WILL OF THE ACE COMMU – no, wait, that got away from me, sorry.

You know, I need to get over this thing where every time I watch something, I end up wanting to cross it over with White Collar. Sure, some of them work really well, but I do not have time to write all of them.

But, consider:

The Finder. Willa pickpockets Neal! Neal is confused as to how this is possible. And then Walter shows up unannounced in Neal's apartment and starts doing his Walter thing and just casually excavating all the secrets that stand between him and whatever he's looking for, and Neal has what he feels are legitimate questions about the whole thing.

Alphas. Hey, it takes place in NYC already! And Peter could know or know of Bill already, considering Bill is an FBI guy. Probably not working white collar crime – 'cause, I mean, Bill – but, you know. And Nina could put the whammy on Neal, and Mozzie would feel so, so very vindicated when the Alphas thing went public. And then it would turn out that Keller was the only one among them who was an alpha, and everyone would feel as though this was incredibly unfair.

Bones. Continuing my fascination with cross-canon FBI friendships/rivalries/awkwardness. I feel like Peter would derive endless amusement from Booth's relationship with his squints, his extremely unconventional partner, and pretty much all of the weirdness that goes on in his life (and Booth's frequent discomfort with said weirdness). And then Peter and Booth would both go bang their heads into walls when Bones and Neal decided that flirting with each other was the natural next course of action. ...and it would all be worth it for the look on Neal's face when Bones first stuck her hand into something bug-riddled and rotting.

Orange is the new Black. I just want you to consider the possibilites of Kate serving a sentence parallel to Neal's. We know it's a federal prison. (And oh, the extent to which Kate would not put up with Piper's well-meaning but privileged and often ignorant crap.)

Primeval. If any of you can say that you don't want to see the team dealing with prehistoric megafauna, I am going to suspect you of lying. (Again, Mozzie would be so, so happy!) And Peter would get the added fun of realizing that not only does he have to worry about his CI running off to Venice or something, he may have to worry about his CI running off to Venice through time. (If you ditch your anklet in the late Cretaceous, who is ever going to be able to track you?)

The Avengers. Because I like aftermath stories, and you can just imagine the gang looking out at their poor, abused city and wondering how to put it back together again, now that all the flashy heroics are done with.

I'm starting to suspect that White Collar just goes well, crossed over with anything.

(Fortunately, I got no ideas for a crossover after watching the first episode of Twin Peaks. Mostly because I'm still not sure what I the hell I was watching. *g*)

And we will just alllll pretend that I don't already have a Scrivener project with a Puella Magi ☆ Madoka Magica crossover started in it, because on a sliding scale of one to ridiculous, that one clocks in at a solid stop now.