a stupid, fun little beta-verse drabble. set pre lamb to slaughter and not necessarily canon, it made me laugh
i'm sick. SUFFERING!!! you can't be this cruel and heartless.
The vein at his temple throbs, his jaw grinding. Under normal circumstances, it'd earn an eye roll at best, but weeks without his beta has chafed at what limited patience he has.
Irritation rolls off him like a thick miasma, which is why the team's given him a wide berth all day. He's nothing less than professional. Admittedly, he might be venting his frustration through incessant drills, but if they're complaining, they don't dare it in his hearing.
"Can I ask ya somethin'?"
Shoving the offending phone back in his pocket, Iwa stares dead on at Miya Atsumu, a voice in the back of his head – the one that that now sounds like his mate – reminding him that the idiot in front of him isn't the source of his frustration.
"If you make it quick. Five minutes 'til you're back on the court."
A smart man would take it for the warning it is. Atsumu plunges on, unfazed. "You've got a beta for a mate, right?"
Iwa goes preternaturally still, hackles raised.
"… I do," he grits out, more teeth than anything else. Alpha or not, national setter or not, if he says one fucking word about her, he'll drag him outside without a second thought. Most people either don't care or know better; if there's one thing that'll push him over the edge, it's disrespect to his mate.
There's something oddly serious in his expression as he hesitates for a split second and then leans in close, lowering his voice. "So there's four of you, an' one of her, how do you not bre–"
"Laps," Iwa growls. "Fifty. Start running."
Atsumu rears back, jaw dropping in sheer disbelief. "But I jus–"
"Now."
He waits until the muttering alpha's hauling ass around the court before he fishes his phone back out and starts typing.
Makki can stay and play nursemaid if you need it that bad. She's flying tomorrow or it's your ass I'm kicking.
Why do all the people in a pack go for the same person ? 1 mate for 5 people feels like a lot, and society wise, doesn't that create problems with too many people not finding anyone ?
Is it possible for conflict to happen inside a pack because they don't approve of the mate ? What happens if everyone accepts except the leader ? What if nobody accepts except the leader ? And what if it's someone else from the pack ? Can a pack member call dibs on a mate and refuse sharing ?
I'm going to need a chart with the rules society imposes, the biology ( ruts, smells, superpowers ( like being able to feel what they feel, wtf ) sex, and the physical aspects of it ) and the percentage of Alphas/Omegas/Betas, a full deep dive 🧐 Like an encyclopedia
you're assuming that there's an equal split between alphas, omegas and betas, which isn't the case. betas make up the majority, then alphas with omegas being the 'rarest' designation. betas tend to have smaller families while mated alpha packs tend to have more kids. the size of alpha packs ranges as well, and there's also lone alphas and alpha pairs. but yes, some alpha packs won't ever find an omega mate and some omegas won't ever find a pack (admittedly a rarer circumstance, but still possible).
ofc there can be conflict when choosing a mate. it isn't a hive-mind situation or a 'pack alpha decides so we all gotta fall in line'. scent plays a huge role, and it's a strong indicator when it's a draw for each of the alphas, but it's not the sole determining factor. usually if there's discord over a potential mate, it's a good sign that they're probably not the right fit for the pack as a whole anyway – which is why most packs go through a courting phase with a potential omega. once a bite happens (with an omega) it can't be broken or undone, so if anyone does jump the gun, even if they aren't a good match, they're stuck with them. the other pack members could hypothetically search for another omega but... it's not gonna go down well. even if they could convince another omega to walk into that situation, neglect and jealousy and overall toxicity in their environment would more than likely lead to bond sickness for both omegas, which would eventually lead to their deaths if the situation weren't fixed. multi-mate situations really don't work.
i've said before that once a pack member bites their mate, the others feel a sort of instinctual craving/impulse to complete the bond on their end as well. it's by no means a compulsion – they can absolutely ignore it if they're adamantly against it, but it's kind of like the universe's way of nudging them in the 'right' direction. as in, one of you has a (presumably – if it's an omega) unbreakable bond, the rest of you better get on board for the sake of pack harmony etc.
pack isn't a hive-mind kind of bond, but there is a reason packmates are drawn to each other. that isn't to say that there aren't disagreements and differences of opinion and jealousy and all that fun stuff, but you're not going to be in a pack if you're a selfish asshole who has no issue consistently stomping over your fellow packmates' needs and wants. in that vein, a single alpha is unlikely to call and enforce dibs, and, unless they're oikawa, unlikely to intentionally bite and bond someone without the rest of the pack's approval. it's a recipe for disaster and a breakdown in pack.
Hellooo rhi! I noticed smth from the beta verse, is it intentional that the first alpha who bit the betas are the (ex) captains? or is it just a coincidence??
yes and no. ushijima, kita and oikawa are all pack alphas for their respective packs, basically the head, but hierarchy and how strictly it's adhered to varies from pack to pack. for example there's more deference towards kita than iwa, makki and mattsun have towards oikawa, so it isn't a 'my word is law' thing at all.
in a more traditional mating, where an omega was properly courted by a pack, it would be somewhat expected that the pack alpha would be the first one to bite and make that claim.
but not one of these has been a traditional courting. ushiwaka was thrown into a rut over jealousy, oikawa went behind his pack's back to secure his beta and kita was unwittingly coerced into ending a long game. aran was there too, and it very easily could've been him that 'lost control' and bit her.
Ooooh someone’s ask says that semi was the one to bump into all in’s reader and instantly catch on to her scent. How does that work for packs in general, seeing as semis not the lead alpha (if that’s such a thing)? Like can a non-lead pack member smell a scent and just *know* that that’s the packs omega/beta, or something? I’m mainly curious about how wakatoshi and tendo just trusted semi immediately (that they had to find *this* specific beta), because I think for oikawas pack there was something mentioned about the dinner guest omega, how the rest of the pack were fine with the guest omega? How they kinda liked her and her scent and how they had been looking for potential omegas the entire time when oikawa hadn’t told them about reader yet? I love hearing so much about your world building thanks so much!
ushijima is actually the pack alpha, and it wasn't that he and tendou trusted semi blindly. semi had a hunch, and then brought ushijima to meet aya to see if he had a similar reaction. he did, and therefore it was a solid bet that tendou, still overseas at the time, would too.
i've talked a little about scent compatibility and how it works with packs here but essentially, an omega can still smell good and appear to fit fine with a pack without it. it's sort of the difference between thinking you're in love, and actually being in love. until you experience the latter, you don't realise that the former is just a shadow of the real thing. yeah they liked kana and her scent, but it wasn't the instinctive pull they had with the reader's scent.
Heyo Rhi ! Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and have a Happy New Years too!
I absolutely LOVE your work as always.
‘Lamb to Slaughter’ is both the most perfect name for it and the most exciting thing I’ve read in so long! I absolutely adore the way you build things up, like suspense is so tasty.. I can literally feel the dread creeping on me as we go on reading and I love it lol.
may I ask-
1) are all the a/b/o fics connected and in the same timeline? does each team meet each other and know what’s going on in the others lives (even if they don’t see each other often due to busy schedules)?
2) how long did the inarizaki pack have their pack houses for? we are aware that there are two locations and both are big and exude wealth, but may I ask:
was the room prepared for the mc specifically for a long period of time? Or was it for a future omega? which superstar owns it out of curiosity? (LOL LEGALITY)
3) we know that Aran obviously had his way with her in the shower but does kita as well? or is he just restraining mc and enjoying the shenanigans lol
4) if you were to describe scents for each main team member, what would you say? kita was the mint, right?
5) natsuo… like TODOROKI?!??
6) in the future could you pretty pretty please do a little snippet of how life is after a while for this fic? whenever you get the time🥺 does reader end up settling and experience any sort of stockholm syndrome? or does she end up still missing natsuo and attempt to go back to normal life (I’m sure the boys wouldn’t let her at all but)..
THANK YOU SM FOR YOUR WORK! so much love for you and all of your pieces, mwah! can’t wait for the next
yes! i actually was going to at some point release a mini prelude drabble thing which would've been set just before lamb to slaughter (but after all in & hiraeth) involving iwa, ushijima and atsumu, suna & aran while they're training for the national team. ushijima and iwa know each other's deal at that point as it's more or less common knowledge within their circles. but they aren't like meeting up for playdates or anything ghfdhgfd
again the timeline is kinda loose as it's not set within a specific timeframe beyond from 'a few years after high school'. they bought the houses pretty quickly after going pro. as for the ownership, it's pack ownership, pack law babeyyy. the room was always designed for their future mate – so technically it was always hers, but not officially
he didn't fuck her, but he wasn't a boy scout either.
kita was mint, aran was the woodsy musk. suna's got kind of a spicy, burnt sugar-y thing going on. atsumu's all citrus and osamu's a warm woodsmoke.
lmao no. i mean sure if that's how you want to picture him go ahead, i think i only ever described him as good looking or smt so go nuts, but his character wasn't based on natsuo from bnha. i just liked the name. i keep giving my oc's names that start with A and i needed to stop doing that lol
Question randomly popped into my brain, are the betas in hiraeth & all in affected by the alphas scents as much as the alphas were affected by theirs? Ik u mentioned in these works the betas scents are more subtle than alphas or omegas. Are alpha/omega scents also subtle to them? Or do they just not respond the same like almost instinctual way that iwaizumi & semi seemed to?
alphas i would say have the strongest sense of smell but omegas are more sensitive about scents. betas have the weakest sense of smell – they can identify someone's scent if they're standing close by, but that's about it. comparatively, an alpha could walk past someone and pick up not only their scent, but the scent of anyone in close proximity/contact with them and, to a certain extent, environmental stuff – where they've been, what they've been doing etc.
as betas usually end up with betas, there isn't the same fixation on scent. they'll acknowledge someone smells good, but it won't necessarily factor into their decision on who they date/marry. they don't get that same intuition about scents that alphas do.
Main Verse. No tags.
Valerie is a faller who suddenly appeared in Alola. Although she is recognized as a Pokemon Ranger, aspects of her past are still eluding her.
Central Verse:
Tagged with fighting the cold [Central verse]
After falling into a wormhole, Valerie comes to a world without humans and is transformed into a sylveon. After a deadly battle with Kyurem, Valerie finds herself travelling through the dimensions via Ultra Space. Her memories of what happened in the humanless world and her home world are fuzzy, but her main focus is to protect the other realms from a deadly being.
Ultra Verse:
Tagged with Another Being [Zossie]
Ultra Recon Squad member Zossie explores Alola and other regions in the Pokemon world while dealing with her own insecurities tied to her beginnings in the squadron.
“If you don’t want me to breed you, lock yourself in your bedroom. I’m taking the couch.”
Kurt whined as the fire inside of him burned hotter. “Why do you have to be so mean?” He huffed and threw his pillow away. “Fine, do whatever you want!” He walked away and slammed the door behind him, not locking it though.
