Learning Curve Self-Promotion

All About A/B/O

This year I wrote a Sastiel piece for the Sam Winchester big bang, and in doing so I opened a big ass can of worms when it comes to A/B/O and how I think of it as an AU. Now, I do like a good, old fashioned “we’re mates because you smell amazing and holy crap I have to have you right now!” as the next person, but I also love using A/B/O as a way to deal with genders, relationships, and sexualities that aren’t always addressed. This sastiel au has required me to completely re-think my a/b/o universe and write way more than anyone should after the story is finished.

Sex is alpha, beta, or omega. Gender is male, female, agender, ect.

Until children present at age 16 (usually) they’re determined male or female based on their genital (like in our world) but after presentation, their sex is the primary classification. But in terms of presentation rates, alphas and omega make up about 95% of the population. Beta are the remaining 5% but betas have their own issues with people trying to stuff them into either alpha or omega boxes. Male alphas are 96% of the general population alpha. Female omegas are 94% of the general omega population.

Sex, like in our world, is determined by a number of factors. If a child is born with a penis, it’s assumed that the child will be a male and an alpha. If the child is born with a labia, it’s assumed that child will be a female and an omega. But that’s not always the case, as it is with our world.

The primary things that determine alpha/beta/omega presentation are:

Hormones

Chromosomes

Genitalia

Gonads

Secondary Sex Characteristics

(sound familiar?)

Male omegas have wombs and smaller testicles than their beta and alpha counterparts. Female omegas have knots in place of a clitoris and retractable testicles. Both male omegas and female alphas can get pregnant and impregnate others, but female alphas have the lowest fertility rates in the population. Male omegas have a difficulty impregnating others and tend to have high-risk pregnancies. Betas are tricky because their traits vary based on chromosomes combinations and hormones.

Genes are more complicated.

Within every ova is the genetic material the womb carrying parent is able to provide. Within every sperm is the chance for whatever the sperm providing parent is able to provide and as such both parents ultimately determine the sex of the baby. Ova can hold one, two or (rarely) three genes and sperm only carry one. When an ova is fertilized, genetic material combines and the combination sets genetic presentation for the baby. If I fertilized egg has four genes (AAOb) it will split and form a set of semi-identical twins.  (Yes, that is a real thing!)

In the case of Sam, Dean, and Cas, their mothers were Mary (an omega) and Ellen (an alpha) Mary supplied Ob genes and Ellen supplied AA. A and O are dominant genes, b is always recessive.
Dean and Jo both wound up with Ab chromosomes, and Dean received the gene from Ellen that “turned on” the male gene within him. As a result, he is a male alpha. Jo is a female alpha.
Sam, on the other hand, has AO genes, which complicates his biology and makes him technically a beta. He also has the gene to “turn on” male-ness, which makes him a male beta.

There are three classifications of beta: “true” beta (bb or bbb), “mixed dominant” beta (AO), and “full spectrum” beta (AOb).
bb/bbb betas are much like people in our world. No one has a knot and males do not have self-lubricating channels from presentation on.
AO beta have knots and lubricating channels and can go through lesser heats and/or ruts. The high level of competing hormones in their bodies make it so that most are infertile.
AOb betas may have an easier time conceiving children, and they also have knots and slick channels.

Heats and ruts are not a desperate situation for most people in this AU. They are more highly fertile, and their bodies are producing more pheromones than usual, but they aren’t life or death and most people are full cognizant of what’s going on around them. It’s like a mild cold in terms of functionality and mental awareness and most people do take time off work or school to deal with it. A heat typically occurs every three months and lasts about five to seven days. Ruts occur every four to five months and last three to five days.

In terms of mating, bites aren’t actually required. Mating, like other romantic relationships, is voluntary and can come with bites or rings or just verbal commitments. Relationships can and do occur between all genders and sexes, and can be monogamous or non-monogamous. There is no real biological drive that requires one mate or a mate by a certain age, but there is social pressure to have one. Scent bonds are largely unconscious and can occur when people who can be potential mates spend time with each other. It’s similar to the way people who like each other mimic the other’s behavior, just with scents.

I like to imagine that this society develops much like our own, and as such it still has issues with homophobia and prejudice against two people of the same presentation dating/mating/marrying each other. Depending on the time period the story is set in (Learning Curve is sometime around 2010) there are issues with how accepted certain relationships are based on bigotry and assumptions.