#in one setting i'm considering betas as a result of alternative mating strategies over a long evolutionary period

[tumblweeds-omegaverse]

This is very true! I think it's easy to forget, sometimes, that physical strength isn't the only power that matters.

(and doesn't that say a lot about the stories we've been brought up with, what our societies values are, how strength and heroism and courage have been coded for us!)

If you know you can't win in a head to head battle, what sense does it make to fight that way? Instead, you'd come up with other methods.

And you would choose your battles very carefully...when you only have one chance, it has to count.

So yeah, omegas that know very well how to make themselves look harmless. Omegas who play up the stereotypes in order to be underestimated. Support groups of omegas who take what they have control over and use that as a shield.

Does the society wave off certain aspects of life as "just for omegas"? Are things that are for omegas are seen as weak or lesser? Are there entire parts of society that are basically ignored?

Then that weaving or quilting circle is full of wisdom that never got recorded, but still was spread. Those songs aren't just songs, they're messages of hope passed down from one generation to the next. That book of recipes wasn't just for next week's dinner.

(of course it isn't the kind of world one should aspire towards. when people know better, they should try to be better. but depending on where you are in history, it might still be a long trip ahead)

And, cornered animals fight back. Even creatures that don't normally eat certain things might try, if it's that or starvation.

So an omega that's pushed out of fawn or flight and into fight? Absolutely should do some damage, even if they can't win a fair fight.

(can't be a fair fight if the scales were against them from the start! so why expect them to play at it? go for the junk, throw sand in the eyes, sucker punch and then run)

Give your omegas the secret tricks, the clever escape routes, the poison slipped into a strong tasting drink. Or give them the sharpest teeth, the most deadly claws, a long history of consequences for underestimating them.

But the group who carries the young, who protects those too weak to run for safety, should never be entirely helpless. And if they can defend their pups, why not themselves, too?

(the view of "sure omegas aren't physically the biggest, but they are the most deadly, like 'could literally tear the throat out of their prey with their teeth as a hunting technique' dangerous" was one of the things that made the omegaverse worldbuilding gears start turning for me! so I'm very biased)

lol i had more to say here than i thought i did

I need people to understand that omegas are NOT helpless 😭😭

The whole omegaverse thing is a biological exaggeration of male and female stereotypes/standards, so sure, omegas are expected to be soft and sweet but damn, do they fight dirty. Alphas are all brute strength and punches and kicks, but omegas are scrappy and clever. The usual high school fight between girls, turned up even more vicious: hair pulling, scratching nails, knowing all the spots that’ll hurt like hell. Oh—and biting.

Sure, an alpha will probably overpower an omega in a 1v1 boxing match. No duh. But omegas will latch onto you and gouge your eyes out, rip the cartilage of your ears. Grab your head by your hair and bash it into the ground over and over and over again. Especially since they’re fast, and quick, and there is most certainly force behind agility. Besides, you think an omega would leave their alpha behind in a fight? They’re not diving for safety; they’re tag-teaming by ripping flesh from bone.

They are not helpless.

And of course, that’s talking outright physical fights. I’d like to think omegas have protected themselves from alphas in other ways, as women in real life have for millennia—support systems, omega-only safe havens, and when necessary, a little poison something-something to get away from an abusive alpha.