#why a rut?

[not-poignant]

Hi! I apologize if you've spoken abt this already, bur how come ruts aren't really a thing in the UtR verse? Anton mentioned he's never had one, and they're very rare - is there a biological reason for it? Did Gary ever have one? (Starting to see what he is like during regular sex, I feel like he'd commit actual murder-by-cock during ruts fjfnfjnfjf) Anyway, love your writing to bits!!

Hi anon!

So I'm gonna write an essay, buckle up (I always write an essay on this stuff, I can't help it, I signed a contract at birth that said I would)

Firstly, ruts are sort of a 'new invention' in the omegaverse landscape. And by new I mean I'm really old and some people don't remember omegaverse without it. But I sure do! Only omegas went into heat, because heat indicated hyperfertility, and alphas were already hyperfertile without a rut. That was the whole point. You know, that's why they make such a perfect match. Hyperfertile mate meet hyperfertile mate.

They didn't need a rut.

Ruts came along later, and honestly in most of the fiction I've read that have them, ruts are very rarely written, and are often more like a threat hanging in the background. A sort of 'lol make sure you have food and water because like people go to hospital if they're in rut / heat at the same time.' Literal just about fuck-or-die situation. Or fuck-and-die. Probably more like fuck-and-who-cares-about-anything-else.

Anyone who has ever fucked a lot in a marathon session knows that eventually you just need carbs. *coughs*

Ruts are conceptually a TON of fun to think about. It's like authors went 'you know what hyperfertile alphas need? Something like a heat, that also makes them completely out of control.'

The thing is... alphas could already go completely out of control around an omega for a lot of reasons. It happened in fated mates stories. It happened in 'an omega is in heat and I just can't help it' (oh bless all those noncon omegaverse stories we have which are literally 'you just smelled so good you had to be mine'). A lot of the things ruts are supposed to achieve, already can easily be achieved in omegaverse.

Conceptually, ruts can be interesting as 'the alpha is also super vulnerable and helpless and needy during this time' but it's almost never written that way and it's not how I like to think about it. And in terms of worldbuilding, the places where it's made the most sense has almost always been as a dystopian thing that's almost dreaded by both the alphas and omegas (and everyone else) alike, and is just as much likely to be controlled by suppressants as heats, because no one likes to turn into an Automatic robot rapist. (Even though that's basically what many alphas become if they smell an omega in heat, I'm not saying ruts are the Department of Redundancy Deparment or anything, but they're a little bit like City of Redundancy in the shire of Redundancy population Already Covered In General Omegaverse tropes in the country of But It's Fun Anyway continent of Redundant.)

I love reading stories with rut worldbuilding but I have to suspend my disbelief so hard. And I know, I know, you kind of have to do that with omegaverse anyway, but there just comes a point where it's like 'but...the heat...triggers a response in alphas...thats mean a rut...is not needed...because that's what the heat does.' In some ways it takes some power and strength away from the symbolism of the omega's heat (romantically it's very interesting as the trope that renders the often hypermasculine character as so helpless to the omega that they basically have to have sex with them (guess what a rut is? Same same not different! Okay it can be different. It's often not though.))

As a result, I personally like worldbuilding that differentiates a general alpha response to an omega's heat, to a rut. And therefore if a rut is the more extreme version of a general 'must fuck' alpha response, it's likely to go pretty not...great. Much like unfulfilled heats are often characterised as agonising, I like to think of ruts are potentially very fatal. (Warning! Warning! The hypermasculinity levels are critical, boss! He's gonna blow! This time his heart! Not his cock!)

The worldbuilding mentioned in the chapter you're referring to - in the Underline the Rainbow universe - states that ruts are vestigial. It's killed too many alphas who have experienced it.

It basically knocked itself out of the genetic line, in the same way that peak alphas are going the same way because people just don't do great living like that in a functional society.

Also consider the...setting of the story if you will. This is a place where we're rehabilitating omegas and helping them recover from extreme trauma. The professional response to 'I go into rut all the time' alpha companion candidates is 'see a health professional, you can never ever ever ever ever be a companion here, because we...care about our omegas, and don't think your rut takes precedent over their health during a heat. Go away.'

None of these alphas go into rut! None of them should! It would be terrible from a story perspective (I mean, for me. I'm writing trauma recovery).

The only alpha on the grounds who potentially could go into rut is Caleb, I think he has the disposition for it. And I think it would be speedily suppressed with heavy doses of medication for the safety of any omega near him.

The thing that really frustrates me from a worldbuilding perspective is that in some ways, heats make sense. It's a fertile period for an animal that cannot afford the physiological cost of being that fertile all the time. That's it. In humans who already have menstrual cycles (which create fertility windows so the woman or person with the uterus doesn't have to be consistently fertile the same amount all the time), this makes actual biological sense.

Ruts in omegaverse don't even mean what they mean in nature, it's so frustrating. In nature, ruts are sort of connected to mates, but not about fucking them endlessly most of the time. It's about competing with rivals. Going into rut is marking your territory, attacking fellow stags (sometimes to the death), and keeping hold of your herd or flock. This makes...much less biological sense. It's not how it's written in fiction most of the time, and it's really just 'what if heat but alpha.' I'd love if ruts were 'HHH I have to FIGHT every ALPHA I SEE to the DEATH or at least MEASURE MY HEIGHT against HIS or SHOUT to see whose VOICE is LOUDER we are DICK MEASURING NOW my dick is BIGGER I am going to FUCK AN OMEGA IN TRIUMPH. YOU! THERE! COME HERE! No wait where are you going? Stop running!' That's... that's the world I want to live in sdalkfjsaflksaj

I have no problems with that, most omegaverse is just pure mindless pornography for fun, or very thin worldbuilding for fun, and orgasms are had by many and it achieves it's purpose.

But I can't justify something like that making sense in the Underline the Rainbow as a thing these characters experience. I like it as a 'oh this used to happen but we couldn't just go around killing each other and also we died so...' I'm pretty sure it's taught about in schools, lol. In the same way that alphas dueling each other to the death is now pretty much illegal in most places, some things you either just culturally change for the betterment of society (which is...literally the purpose of Hillview), and some things you X out of your own genetic lineages because the thing itself kills you.

Since ruts are in most serious omegaverses presented as extreme events, and alphas are already hyperfertile (in worlds where betas exist), they're just redundant.

Fun in PWPs, and fun for angst, but not the kind of angst I'm personally going for.

Thanks for coming to my really-not-a-TED Talk! :D

(Er so no, Gary has never gone into rut).

(In webtoon Define the Relationship one of the alphas goes into rut but because he's like a submissive alpha he basically needs to be fucked like he's in heat by another alpha and I just actually do kind of love the subversion of 'what if heat but alpha' where it's like 'no literally what if they have to be knotted and they have a whole bunch of shame about that.' But almost no one is writing it that way so aslkfjdsa)

[sir-camelot]

Zmarqa is one of my absolute favorite Hualian artists that I found on Twitter and this is just a taste of some of her more recent work.

She writes and draws her own comics of AUs involving them that have so much thought put into them. Her pieces in general are so detailed and you're almost always rewarded for taking the time to really look at them.

Since she's not active here on Tumblr, I would highly recommend following her on Twitter (zmarqa), Twitch (Zmarqaa), or, if you have the spare funds, Patreon (Zmarqa). Her Patreon Discord is full of great folks and she pretty frequently streams on there for patrons, so it is well worth the cost.

I did get permission from her before making this post with her artwork.

[dpurut]

primum non nocere

art ig- @acepostale

[new-revenant]

Hi, sorry if this is annoying but I've had this idea for a while and I can't get it outta my head and I'm not a good writer. So here it is

Danny inherits an old amusement park from his deceased grandfather, it would've gone to Jack or Jazz but knowing Jack it would've been demolished in a week from him kool-aid manning himself through attraction walls and he didn't think Jazz would want a whole amusement park so he gave it to Danny, especially since he hated Maddie for encouraging the whole ghost nonsense with Jack.

So that's how a nineteen year old Danny found himself in an abandoned amusement park on the outskirts of Gotham and standing over the Joker who he accidentally knocked out with a 2 by 4 while assessing what he needed to fix. In Danny's defense the clown snuck up on him and he had headphones in. Now if only the group of furies would understand this was an accident

This isn’t annoying at all! “Kool-Aid maning” love that.

Danny would have to show them the paperwork he has that show that he now owns the place, but he doesn’t have it on him so he’s freaking out, thinking that he’s going to jail or something for trespassing on his own property. The Bat Fam are smart enough to know that he’s probably not lying about owning the park now, but they are going to need to do a background check and get the paperwork, because he is kinda sus. They are thankful that they don’t have to deal with Joker for a few more nights as he’s sent off to Arkham(idk how to spell) again. Some members jokingly want him to join, and the idea horrifies Danny so much he almost passes out from that alone.

And side note, it was Jack’s side of the family that seemed to be obsessed with the supernatural, see the blood blossom episode. But I do like the idea of different Fenton members believing in different supernatural creatures and not believing in others, so it still works for my head canons ha ha👍

[observethewalrus]

I think the thing that feels the worst right now is the fear that this fandom will fade away like so many others once their shows stopped. I would’ve felt the same even if we’d gotten all three seasons. And don’t get me wrong, people are always gonna drift away and move on to other things, that’s just life (and it already happened after s1)

But I’m seeing so many writers and artists here and on twitter all like “the apocalypse couldn’t stop me from writing/drawing/talking about these pirates” and it’s like, I love all of you so damn much. I’m not very talkative and I don’t interact with people here much but I haven’t had this much fun in a fandom in years. I know we’re going to lose people, but I’ll be eternally grateful to everyone who was here and everyone who keeps this ship afloat 🏴‍☠️

[7goodangel]

Me, several years ago: "I'll never try digital 3D art... just have no interest to learn it. Already have learned other art forms that I barely use anyway... so why add to that ?..."

Me, currently: [Is attempting to model a donut in Blender] "... uh... I can explain..."

[of-mutts-and-men]

So cruel that T makes you hornier than any man alive but also gives you hella dryness and pain.

[shotmrmiller]

I’ll be real

If any of the boys are queer, it has to be my boy Soap. That man oozes bisexual slut energy. It’s not even a fan hc at this point, I’m just analyzing his character and it’s telling me he likes sucking dick.

he just oozes slut energy in general which means anything with a pulse is getting ate/sucked. truly just a hyper sexually free man 🥴

[artforkuponuts]

Gave the boys something to cover up with but the full version is on my twitter

Fingers crossed this doesn’t get taken down lmao

[sqwdkllr]

I like cleaning not bc it makes my house clean or bc I’m scared of messiness but of a very convoluted situation that if I were to explain to someone I will definitely get stared at

[androgynouspenguinexpert]

(blood below the cut)

Lurched like a stray to the arms that were open

No shortage of sordid; no protest from me

[uncanny-tranny]

Also, in response to the "testosterone making people angrier" myth, I've found that, personally, testosterone has given me the self-respect to recognize and call out when my boundaries are being overstepped in ways that I wouldn't have had the courage (or, frankly even liking of myself) to have done before. This is in addition to me working on my trauma responses, but testosterone was the spark that gave me the will to do this in the first place. When I see people sae that as anger and thus is a "bad thing," I wonder how much of that is just people being uncomfortable with us... having boundaries or enforcing them, and that the response to that overstepping is labeled as aggressive anger.

Frankly, I now actually respect myself enough to care when I am being mistreated. It seems that people sometimes take that as a personal failure on my end because I don't think I deserve mistreatment.

Caveat: Anger is a fine emotion, and it is a worthy thing to recognize and honour. I find that the accusation of trans men* and trans masc* people "being angry" on testosterone is a moot point simply because it is often a false accusation which uses anger as a punishment. My issue isn't that we're "angry," but that our perceived anger is used, often, as a transphobic bludgeon to punish those who either want to transition with testosterone or who currently are, and everything in-between.

[jeansvoid]

Trying to get out of an art block. So have Noa chilling

[pokeberry5]

i really wanted lynx to kill king snake in war of the dragons

redesigned her look a little:

notes + ref below

alt:

i adapted the dialogue from 'tec #685

i thought lynx's outfit was boring here though and adapted the outfit from her earlier appearances (modified the leotard but kept the short hair. what's up with leotards in 90's comics??)

she also doesn't actually have a push dagger, but that was the only thing i could think of to make the panel work

i also used photos of current UFC strawweight division champion weili zhang as refs bc i wanted lynx to have that mma fighter build (i should also note that i don't believe king snake should have abs but he doesn't deserve a character sheet)

@deepwithintheabyss requested a panel redraw of the panels below, from DC vs Vampires, and this is not that lol -- but i did use them as refs!

[saltyafterhours]

You think trolls have mating seasons?

I know they can reproduce asexually and all, but we've only seen it with Guy Diamond (I have yet to watch the show so correct me if wrong)- But they clearly also reproduce with partners as well

I just like making creatures as feral and animalistic as possible sjdnm,as

[antsyandpantsy]

random stuff from today