Do you have any headcanons for Omegas making herbal suppressants to hide scents and prevent heats?
I had a briefly mentioned those in my war headcanons list tho it was under the circumstances of well… war. But I do believe scent blockers were a thing since the dawn of time, but the usage and purpose of these changed considerably. I also just made a whole post about mating bites and there’s a lot of mentions of herbal shit being used there throughout history so if you want maybe check it out, it might clear up some other doubts you may have about the subject.
- Primitive Omegas would ask Betas from their pack or warren to find them the most fragrant and pretty herbs and flowers for them to crush and mix with creams and oils as a beautification process. Betas do have the keenest noses (and it could even be sort of a courtship thing) and having ones natural scent mixed with these plants (which was a new thing back then) was seen as extremely attractive and sure to bring you many suitors looking to court you. - lavender, roses, primrose, mint, clovers, frankincense, garlic, lilies, cinnamon and ever the tabacco flower were all very popular as “home made scent-blocking” ingredients up until the industrial revolution, and many Omegas would sew little bags containing these or just sewing the whole bunches of these plants inside pillows and quilts for both protection and for “aromatization” of their nests.
- This trend also translated into a traditions of sewing these under on inside one’s collar. Forget a pocket full of posies, Omegas that wanted to be discreet or needed to traverse dangerous places without being identified for one reason or another were walking with collars heavy with all sorts of sprouts and dried up herbs. - Obviously these didn’t really block any scent, they merely diminish them or made one’s scent get so mixed that it’d take someone a minute or two to trace their core scent amidst all that other stuff clouding it, and over time people started figuring out which plants worked best and which worked worse for a certain outcome. - Before synthetic scent blockers existed I feel like trans-dynamics people would use these as an essential thing in their daily routine. I also personally like to believe that the first ever publicly released encyclopedia of world-wide plants and their functions in scent blockers and scent-disguises was a pseudo-gardening book published on the early 1800′s cleverly named “From Root to Bloom - Perfumes, Lotions, Creams and more for the hidden flower within you - By Madam Peafowl” Which was just a book written by an eccentric ATO trans-dynamics noble basically teaching people how to disguise their unwanted scents or how to simulate the desired scent as a way to alleviate dynamics-dysphoria, amongst other things such as how to find these plants, how to care for them and how to manufacturer these products.
- I also think that inevitably this book would be converted into other smaller, cheaper and concise little booklets or pamphlets that’d just circulate secretly in HGPT circles making it more accessible for other people of other social classes though I think it’d be less common because wide-spread illiteracy was a thing back then so first you’d have to find someone you trusted that’d be willing to read these for you or even make them. I also think that these would just be given in secrecy by Omegas to Omegas anyway without the whole trans thing on top of it simply because these were useful either way for them as well in many cases. In conclusion: This book was real popular and it helped immensely on the development of modern scent blockers and SNU and ASN units.
- Nowadays I feel like scent-blocking would retain certain roots in things from the past such as “It’s proper to mask your scent when in church” being turned into “If you knowingly will be in a small or closed space with people for a long period of time it’d be polite to at least tone down your scent” and instead of complete scent neutralizers you’d buy in drug stores herbal concoctions would still be used for these.
- I also think Eleusinian dynamics would use it a lot in modern times as a fashion accessory, so like using certain floral or herbal mixtures that enhance or mute certain “notes” of their natural core scent in order to go along with a certain aesthetic or “look” they are going for. Many times marrying those with other perfumes and lotions in order to make a whole new scent. It still doesn’t erase their core Omega or Beta scent, but it makes for a new temporary sensation and that’s always fun.
Aaaaaand I think that’s it, I know this isn’t a 100% Omega exclusive and I hope this is not a problem, I apologize if it is and it wasn’t exactly what you were looking for but it’s what I was able to come up with. I hope you guys - in general - enjoyed tough, peace.
Edit: I also don't really think there would have been a way pre-industrial revolution to prevent heats from happening. At least not in my verse.
