#why are sexually dimorphic if they don’t even have sexes???

[raphaelenthusiast]

Praying that if Jazz is introduced as a woman in ES that she isn’t given colored lips like Skywarp and Frenzy. 🙏🏽 Give her a voice actress and she/her pronouns, that’s all that’s needed to make her gender clear.

[crevicedwelling]

How do you breed bugs? Do they just go at it as soon as they’re capable of reproducing? Are they ever picky? Do you just open their container one day and suddenly find eggs you didn’t expect? I think about this every time breeding is mentioned, I’m curious on how it’s intentionally done.

vastly different for every animal, but I’ll try to condense it here; also I mainly have experience with the taxa I talk about below and don’t really know much about breeding scarab beetles, butterflies, shrimp & crabs etc.

the most basic stuff is things like isopods, some millipedes, and many cockroaches, which are kept in colonies and can breed freely—as you said most do so as soon as they can (I’ve seen pregnant isopods 1/4th of their maximum adult size). many cockroaches and all isopods are live-bearing, though, so there frequently aren’t visible eggs involved!

certain species of the above taxa need special care to trigger breeding or hatching: a cooling/drying/heating/moistening period of eggs or adults to mimic the seasons in nature. many desert or temperate species need this sort of climate control. in some cases these requirements are so strict that the species will not breed in culture—Orthoporus ornatus is a SW US species that has never been reliably bred; Asbolus death feigning beetles from the same area are usually collected as adults and kept on sand but larvae cannot successfully develop without richer organic material and humidity control, so sadly most people do not breed them even though it’s just a little more effort.

for solitary, cannibalistic predators like mantises, spiders, and centipedes that must be kept alone, one is usually introduced to the other under human supervision to make sure they’ll get along. feeding the hungrier sex (often females) may make them less prone to eating their mates; many mantises are best paired while the female is already occupied with food. tarantula egg sacs are often pulled from the mother and incubated artificially; spiders aren’t my thing and I don’t know fully why this is done (easier to catch and monitor health than 60 baby fuzzies down a deep burrow, I guess). scolopendromorph centipedes are dedicated mothers but will eat their own eggs if disturbed, so you’ve got to keep them dark and totally quiet with no food for several months until the kids are mobile.

sexing certain taxa is difficult too—in tarantulas and mantises sexual dimorphism can be extreme, whereas in most centipedes sexes are identical to the human eye and must be anesthetized and manually probed to tell.

some scorpions (all scorps are livebearing too) and some cockroaches, for example, are parthenogenetic, which means females just clone themselves and need no partner, which is a reproductive strategy that lends itself to colony keeping. certain stick insects and mantises can be facultative parthenogens that can pop out viable kids if they haven’t mated, but apparently these aren’t always the healthiest and pairing is best when possible.

[antiyourwokehomophobia2]

while i agree the other anon wasn’t particularly eloquent, they are right. AFAB, in its original definition from intersex terminology, means assigned female at birth OFTEN INCORRECTLY due to ambiguous genitalia. this happens to males more often than females because most intersex genitalia fall inbetween full penis and full vulva, and many (not all) intersex males end up being born with genitalia that appear to skew towards the female end. this doesn’t correlate 1:1 with intersex females simply because an underdeveloped vulva still looks like a vulva. to answer your question, the ones who are AMAB are still overwhelmingly male. the doctors are not purposely scheming and declaring a male baby a female baby because they see a male and decide to shake things up: they see a female baby because of the ambiguous genitalia they see. it’s a mistake, not a conspiracy.

in the cases of Caster Semenya, and likely Imane Khelif, most intersex males in sports are essentially fully male but with internal gonads due to their condition, which makes their genitalia just appear as a vulva at birth. that’s why they’re raised as female. and it’s common knowledge that it’s easy to mistake the sex of prepubescent children outside of straight up looking at their genitalia because the sexual dimorphic traits that we can see from a distance don’t begin to really show until after puberty. this same thing happened to a swiss skiier in 1966, Erik(a) Schinegger, who accepted the reality of his male sex and even tried to return the medal he won to the woman he beat in the Womens Downhill Run Ski World Championship. Caster Semenya has fathered children and has every single sexually dimorphic trait as perisex men, the ONLY difference is that he was born with ambiguous genitalia that got labelled as female at birth.

i think you have your heart in the right place, but listening to what’s actually being argued in regards to Imane and intersex males (especially those with confirmed 5ar2d) is crucial. it’s very likely, if not guaranteed, he’s male and knows it. multiple boxing organizations have now come out to say he is. they cannot release private medical information (only Imane can, and he knows that if he’s asked to prove his sex and refute the claims it’ll show that he is in fact male) but they can say he did not pass a test that determines if XX chromosomes are present in the dna of the athletes, which by process of elimination means he does have XY.

i say all this in factual matter by the way. i have empathy for intersex males who grew up fully believing they are female until they underwent puberty, especially in Imane’s case where his home country is extremely misogynistic and anti-LGBT. however, it’s still completely unfair to the perisex female athletes who have to compete against males who are AWARE of their male sex, and are far more at risk of injury or death due to the nature of boxing. personally, i choose to put the safety of women over the hurt feelings of men who are just being told they can’t compete with women. no they didn’t ask to be born that way, but neither did perisex women.

the ioc is also complicit in muddying the waters of this situation too. they were the ones who let Laurel Hubbard compete, they are the ones who refuse to do sex testing to ensure fairness and instead go off of editable documents, and they are the ones insistent on making feminists look evil by intentionally conflating intersex men with intersex women. even women with pcos and hyperandrogenism do not have HALF the levels of natural testosterone as the LOWEST LIMIT of testosterone of males, including intersex males. the ioc allows intersex males to compete in the womens catsgory with higher levels of testosterone than women who are banned by DOPING WITH TESTOSTERONE. literally, trans men who take T are not allowed even if they still have lower testosterone than intersex males. this is why we’re frustrated with the ioc and with the situation with Imane.

I see. I'm not too proud to admit that I can be wrong. My honest answer to this whole situation is that I do not know enough about it. I did not know all of this. Thank you for sharing. I'm interested to know what others have to say in favor/opposition to this.

[bethanythebogwitch]

It’s once again time for me to talk about the real-life inspirations for every fish Pokémon. Today I’ll be covering generations V and VI. For previous generations check here and here.

The Unova games were the first ones I played and so a lot of the gen V Pokémon are special to me. This is not the case for Basculin. These stupid fish made any time spent on the water a living hell and they don’t even have the decency to evolve into something good like Zubat. Basculin was added to the Unova dex last minute to fill out the fish archetype and they really shouldn’t have bothered as this Pokémon is pretty garbage. But wait, what’s this? BAH GAWD IT’S HISUI WITH AN EVOLUTION! Basculegion redeems white-striped Basculin as a concept by giving it a pretty awesome evolution. Only white-striped Basculin though, red and blue still stink since they can’t evolve. Anyway, they’re bass, most likely largemouth bass as they are large, predatory, and the dex entries say they put up a hell of a fight when hooked. Largemouth bass are a very common predatory fish in north America and have been introduced to freshwater systems around the world due to them being incredibly popular amongst anglers for the fight they put up. This has led to them becoming invasive species in many regions, which could be why Basculin can be found in every region since Unova.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH (image: a largemouth bass)

Basculin’s aggressive nature could be based on common misconceptions about piranhas (see the gen III entry for more info about that) and their different colors and habit of fighting each other could be based on bettas, which are famous for being colorful and ready to throw down at the drop of a hat. The color differences of the Basculins could be based on allopatric speciation. This is when a population gets split by some geographic feature and the populations on each side start developing differently to each other. If that is the case, all I can say is that the Shellos line did it better. White-striped Basculin takes the same inspirations as red and blue and adds in salmon. Like salmon, they swim up rivers to spawn and their jaws have points like kypes, those weird jaw hooks that male salmon get.

Puberty hits the salmon the way Godzilla hit Tokyo (image: a male salmon in breeding season)

Basculegion continues the salmon trend of white-striped Basculin, while also adding some Ainu inspiration. Ainu legend has the ciray, a gigantic salmon or taimen (a salmon relative) that can eat deer and boars. It also drawn influence from a type of Ainu boat called the itaomacip, hence its use as a ride Pokémon in Hisui. The Ainu are indigenous people hailing from Hokkaido, the Japanese island that inspired Hisui. Basculegion status as a combination of fish souls may be inspired by schooling fish, though in this case the whole school is one fish. I also think it has some definite inspiration from decorative carp streamers. The color differences between male and female Basculegion is inspired by the sexual dimorphism in salmon and relatives. Both sexes change color during mating season, but males become much more vibrant than females. Wow, I did not think I would have this much to say about Basculin.

Alomomola should be the long-needed evolution for Luvdisc, but it isn’t. Hell, the devs know it should be an evolution and teased us by putting Luvdisc in Alomomola’s Paldea pokedex picture. It’s a mola mola, also known as the ocean sunfish. I mentioned these previously while discussing Sharpedo. They are gigantic and weird animals that look like somebody chopped the back half off of a fish.

(image: an ocean sunfish)

like Alomomola, the mola is a gentle giant that moves slowly and is basically incapable of actually hurting anything. The sunfish’s diet consists largely of jellyfish, which is why Alomomola lives in the same places as the Frillish line. Its fins look like hands and its body looks like a heart, making it a possible reference to the Claddagh ring, an Irish symbol consisting of two hands clasping a crowned heart, representing love, loyalty, and friendship, fitting for a defensive support Pokémon. Alomomola’s tendency to wrap itself in a protective membrane is likely a reference to parrotfish, who incase themselves in a  protective mucus cocoon when sleeping. Alomomola’s role as a healer fish may be inspired by cleaner fish (who clean parasites and dead skin off of larger fish, something that molas often need) and the red garra, a fish often used in spas to eat dead skin off of people’s feet.

What’s this? A non-water type fish? Yes, it’s the Tynamo line. Anyway, these fellows have an interesting inspiration. They’re based on lampreys and electric eels, two animals that are often called eels but aren’t. Electric eels are a genus of knifefish while lampreys aren’t even fish. Maybe. This gets complicated. Starting simple, electric eels are famous for their ability to generate electricity, though this isn’t unique to them. The ability of an animal to generate electricity is called electrogenesis and it is usually used to detect prey by creating an electric field and then sensing changes in the field. A few animals take this farther by generating enough electricity to stun or kill prey and potential predators. Electrogenesis and electroreception are mostly seen in aquatic animals as water is a much better conductor than air. Electric eels are easily the most famous electric fish, capable of delivering very painful shocks to humans. Studies on it appear to have influence some very important inventions in the study of electricity. Electric eels are also obligate air-breathers, being incapable of breathing water. This could be a reason why the Tynamo line live outside of water.

More like EELectric, am I right guys? ...Guys? (image: an electric eel)

Lampreys are also capable of electroreception, though they can’t generate shocks like electric eels. Lampreys are some of the only surviving agnathans, a group commonly known as the jawless fishes for pretty self-evident reasons. Most agnathans went extinct due to competition from jawed fish (gnathostomes) but the lampreys and hagfish managed to hold on. Lampreys are famous for their conical mouths, which they use to suction onto things. While the Tynamo line are based on the more famous parasitic lampreys, who suction onto other fish to drink their blood, the majority of lamprey species are harmless algae-eaters.

Gimmie a kiss (image: a lamprey, mouth toward the camera)

Tynamo is distinct from its later forms in that it looks like a leptocephalus larva, a type of fish larva known for a body plan that looks like a transluscent leaf with a head on one end. Leptocephalus larvae are found in fish of the superorder elopomorpha, which includes eels among others. So an eel larva evolves into a combination of to animals that are often called eels but aren’t. I love it.

(image: a leptocephalus larva)

Tynamo may also be based on early lightbulbs like the Crookes tube. The lamprey brings up to the complicated question of “what is a fish?”. From the standpoint of a fisherman, a fish is any scaly thing with gills that lives in the water, but when you look at things from a taxonomic viewpoint, it’s much more complicated. Because you can’t evolve out of your ancestry and belong to any categories your ancestors belonged to, any attempt to classify all scaly things with gills that live in the water in the same clade results in every vertebrate falling under the fish classification. This is why, to taxonomists, there is no such thing as a fish. it’s simply not possible to put bony fish, cartilaginous fish, and jawless fish in a category together without making that category so overly broad it isn’t useful.

It’s flat fuck Friday and I’m talking about Stunfisk. Its biggest influence seems to be the flounder, the most famous of the flatfish, though flounders lie on their side and stunfisk lies on its underbelly.

(image: a flounder)

Because of this, it likely also draws influence from stingrays, particularly the electric rays, which can release an electric shock to stun prey similarly to the more famous electric eel. This would explain the electric typing.

It's shocking! (image: an electric stingray)

Both Unovan and Galarian Stunfisk live in wet, muddy areas but don’t necessarily live in water. This makes me think of fish that can live both in and out of the water, like walking catfish, mudskippers, and lungfish. These fish can often breathe air and can spend much of not most of their time on land, though they generally must stay in wet environments like beaches and mud puddles. Both forms of Stunfisk are ambush predators, but they employ different strategies. Unaovan Stunfisk simply buries itself under mud and waits for prey to step on it before delivering a shock. Galarian Stunfisk is somewhat more active as it uses aggressive mimicry to actively lure prey in. Disturbingly, it uses a mouth colored like an item ball to lure in prey, suggesting it may be specialized to attract and prey on humans. Because Galarian Stunfisk doesn’t have the electricity generating organs of its Unovan cousins, it relies on strength to take down prey, clamping shut with modified fins that are based on a bear trap.

Moving on to gen VI, we have the Skrelp line. These are based on the weedy seadragon, a relative of the seahorse and pipefish. Like its inspiration, Skrelp relies on defensive mimicry for survival, camouflaging itself as seaweed to avoid predators, and its tail is not prehensile like a seahorse’s would be. Once it evolves, it becomes more of a leafy seadragon, another seahorse relative of seahorses that uses the same defensive mimicry, but it much more elaborate in appearance. However Skrelp and Dragalge are poison-types and I could find no examples of poisonous or venomous seahorses or sea dragons. That being said, there is a possible inspiration for their poison typing. The line is specifically stated to live around rotting seaweed, which emits hydrogen sulfide and ammonia, both of which are toxic to humans and many other animals in high enough doses. Like with Kingdra, Dragalge’s dragon tying comes from the Japanese word for seahorse: “tatsu-no-otoshigo”, which means “dragon’s child”.

(image: a male weedy sea dragon carrying his eggs)

(image: a leafy sea dragon)

Next time I'll cover gens VII and VIII. Gen IX will probably get its own post as there are a surprising amount of fish in Paldea

[shisogelee]

so what is it that you mean by “female” when you say, “female-targeted consumerism is so insidious”

I would imagine you don’t mean (feminine) womanhood identified or feminine or femme aligned or any of that crap because you at least sound aware of sexism enough to notice how sexist that all is

But you sound real mad at “terfs” and believe trans women (by definition male people) “are women” … so I have to guess you won’t define female in humans like female in any other sexually dimorphic species… you won’t say it’s a reproductive type evolved to produce ova. (Please don’t try and use DSDs as a gotcha, none of it represents a third sex or hermaphroditism or a reason to deny humans are sexually dimorphic, or a reason to act like taking on a certain name, wearing certain clothes, or even mimicking the physical traits of the other sex using hrt and surgery actually changes anyone’s sex.

So…. What do you think it is? Best definition I have ever gotten from a trans activist is saying basically yes female is a neutral physical trait but some people have dysphoria so bad they need us all to believe so why won’t we play along. Which, at least is honest. And on an emotional level I agree.

There’s just a huge amount of lying, abuse, racism, sexism and homophobia from trans ideologues I can’t ignore. No matter if some genuinely in-need, kind people benefit from it at times. Some of my kindest friends need to believe in an afterlife and a personal god to get by. I can respect how they feel and avoid conflict about it with them. It doesn’t make it real, though, and if they tried to FORCE me to parrot them, affirm them always OR ELSE, we would not be friends and I would give thanks we’re not in a theocracy (yet) so they can’t get the state to force me or anyone. Do you get it?

[radfemistry]

Do you think it would be possible to accept trans-identified people’s pronouns and the like if they accepted the reality of biological sex? Like a “born in the wrong body” idea. Is that what “”transmedicalism” is? Because anyways like. For me, I know I’ve tried to argue that the reality of sex (+ sex-based oppression) disproves trans identity and claims, but TRAs who I’m friends with still claim sex exists. And it’s difficult because the axis of sex can change how their arguments work entirely, whether they believe in biological sex or “it’s a spectrum/not real/etc.” And… it (no sexual dimorphism) seems a more recent, online development than in real life, or is that just me? Sorry if this doesn’t make sense and I’m just rambling. It’s hard to put it into words if that makes sense, it gets so confusing sometimes!

Hi hi! I’m sorry, I’m sure this has been sitting in my inbox for months and I simply didn’t see it! I’ve been thinking a lot about this, and I’m afraid the answer I’m going to give you is imperfect.

People are not born in the wrong bodies. The arguement I continuously saw was that people have male or female brains, and sometimes those brains don’t correspond with the right bodies, hence the existence of trans people. This concept has been disproven again and again, which I believe is why it’s not seen as often as it had been previously. After that came the ‘biological sex is a spectrum’ nonsense.. I have no idea how to begin having a conversation about that one, honestly.

Trans-ness is a social construct. It is the result of conditioning, intentionally or not. We are affected by the way we were brought up as children, how we learn to view men and women, what content we were exposed to and interact with. You know that shitty Garfield meme “You are not immune to propoganda”? It’s true. Our psyches are formed by positive and negative feedback, and we don’t even realize it.

There are situations when I can’t blame an individual for feeling what they feel. It is difficult to overcome that conditioning. As someone that was raised in an orthodox church, I still feel the urge to pray when I am in a tough situation. That doesn’t mean that behavior is logical, only that it was enforced. We must be concious of how we rationalize our behaviors. Thoughts, actions, etc. I do think, if your friends are open to it, that it would be wise to have a conversation to get to the bare bones of what they believe and why. Often times, that is enough to spark genuine change.

Personally, I have two requirements for respecting pronouns. The first is that the individual must know and acknowledge their biological sex. The second is the individual must pass. I base my usage of pronouns on observation, and sometimes trans-identified people do pass. Am I morally just for doing so? I don’t know. This is something I think about more than I would like. I think it is up to you to decide what pronouns you use, why, and with who. You are allowed to cherry pick. Life is not made of homogenous situations.

It is easier to use your friends’ pronouns. It’s easier to conceed. You avoid argument, you keep your friends. Speaking from experience, this option is not worth it. Have those talks. Listen to understand where they are coming from, and speak with the intent that they are also making that effort. Don’t start this conversation with the goal of responding. Neither party will get anywhere. If you find that you disagree and there is no chance that either of you will change your opinions on the matter, that’s fine too. I won’t say it’ll always end well, because it doesn’t. Sometimes you remain friends anyway.

The last thing I’ll say, and forgive me for rambling, is that saying a person can change their biological sex is immoral. It is an immense disservice. While I use preferred pronouns on a case by case basis, I will never say a biological woman can become male, or vis versa. Ultimately, it is up to you to decide how you want to approach this situation. My advice to you is to keep learning, keep reading, keep having these hard conversations. I hope it goes well :)

[davekat-sucks]

Related to that anon who didn’t like trans Vriska, I’m okay with trans Vriska, even if I don’t share that headcanon, but its existence in pesterquest perplexes me.

I feel like it’s another case of projecting human customs on an alien race because how does gender even work for trolls? I can understand gender dysphoria and not feeling like you belong in your body, and troll sexual dimorphism exists… exclusively at the breasts. Female trolls have boobs and nipples, male trolls are flat chested.

So I guess Vriska’s ideal dreamself/ post transition body’s one difference is chest bumps.

This only is in matters of Vriska’s personal physical transition, another thing is social customs. Alternian gender roles are nonexistent. The nuclear family or any form of human household doesn’t exist, they’re bug-children raised by animals that dragged them out of a cave that they had to compete for survival in immediately after hatching.

All male and female trolls are soldiers when they reach 9 sweeps, the only difference in their job is how they cull their opponents.

So Vriska, being a troll, wouldn’t have to do anything to change her social behavior to be more accepted as her transitioned gender, respect only comes to her from her aggression and blood caste.

And Vriska has a complicated relationship where she feels bad for killing Tavros and feels empty even for all the customs of Alternian culture she follows (not feeling comfortable following societal norms or roles is a very trans thing) while also worshipping her ancestor and exerting her independent will, especially on others to maintain her position of power in the status quo (which is a very uh, politically Conservative thing)

Third is her ancestor. Vriska wanting to be her ideal “girl self” by looking up to mindfang seems like a really cool angle to do a trans story! Being uncomfortable with yourself and told down about who you are but you have this role model you want to be so badly and “wouldn’t it be cool if I was a girl” or something or other.

But the thing is mindfang is Vriska’s ancestor who is almost 100% genetically identical to Vriska. There are a few minor distinctions between Vriska and Aranea, but being a different sex would not be a minor generic difference, it’s a whole chromosome apart.

So either both Vriska and Aranea are cis women or both trans women who in each of their timelines looked up to their ancestor and transitioned to look more like them. If anyone headcanons the latter go ahead but I think I vibe more with the former.

Overall trans Vriska doesn’t work for me because people are imposing a human identity onto a bug person. Being transgender as a troll doesn’t work the way a trans human does. Mostly I can see trans Vriska being for a power fantasy of a confident cocky trans girl who knows who she is and is proud of it. Sure she kills people and manipulates her friends, but as many Briska apologists have said before: “she didn’t choose to be that way, she was forced to be a murdering psychopath by an empire of murdering psychopaths. Also she’s a minor.”

Mostly people pick and choose the parts of Vriska that are cool and punk over the manipulative and self-destructive parts of Vriska so trans female Vriska fans can feel empowered and independent.

People projecting onto Vriska, want that same confidence of being a badass bitch and being able to do whatever the fuck she wants. That's why they want the trans label slapped onto her. If a character that represents that has much pride, that means they can motivate themselves too with it. Same applies to any character. They can like the personality, actions, and motives...but if they aren't one-to-one in terms of appearance, for some reason, they can't relate. Like let's say someone looks up to Superman. They like his heroism, personality, lore, etc. But they feel uncomfortable to dress up as him because he is not white or Kryptonian. So instead, they blackwash so then they can get that boost of good feeling about themselves to enjoy the character again. And even if a dark skin character DOES exist within a series, they always get criticized for either A. being a stereotype even when they aren't most of the time or B. they aren't the main main fan fave popular character (ex: Stardust Crusaders has 6 members with one of them being a dark skinned character, but people prefer Jotaro or Kakyoin and would blackwash them instead). They can't realize they can be just like Spanish community that doesn't need Spanish rep and love Goku from Dragonball Z as he is. Light skinned Saiyan and all. That the characters don't have to be EXACTLY the same as the audience. When it comes to headcanons onto bad guys or villains, in this recent times, it's been a double-edged sword because if people slap that label onto some big bad, whether it is from the creator or fanon, they get accused of being something horrible because it is X minority doing a bad thing, so they are either racist/homophobia/etc. And if they don't get that label, they are still accuse of them as that and say that even minority groups can still be bad guys too. Nobody knows what the fuck they want anymore. Too many people play it too safe these days.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

Unsurprisingly, I see a lot of conversation about the infamous ‘gender pay gap’.

A lot of opinions, and strongly held believes, and plenty of information that is not accurate, or at least… not anymore.

For the nature and shape of the pay gap has changed. And so out of the outrage, garbled conjecture, and political agendas; must come a new conversation that once again asks, ‘why are women paid less?’

Because the truth is, it’s not ‘women’ who are getting paid less, but rather ‘women with children’.

Mothers who are out of work, either full or part time, whose lower income drags the average down - they are a large piece of the conversation, too often missing.

No. Women are not paid less than men, and such slogans belong in the museum, not upon the placards of today.

Now it’s time to talk about parenthood.

To honestly discuss why mothers are paid less than fathers, and ask if this is a result of societal expectations… or women’s own free choices?

Do women want to be part time parents?

Do men? Who wants to work full time at a job they don’t even like anyway?

Do you?

We rightly talk about the price of motherhood on women; but what is the price of barely seeing your child at all?

What is the price of the late nights at work, or early morning shifts; or the second job, to make ends meet?

Also if mothers are to get equal pay, are they willing to share their parental leave with fathers in order to get it?

These are better questions.

And one’s I don’t see asked.

Instead I find the pay gap conversation to be a broken record; that redirects energy from logic and reason, into outrage and anger instead.

Yet another stick to hit ‘men’ with, another patriarchal poster child, and sermon preached from the pulpit.

It is a gap that is never closed, because it is never truly discussed.

So tell me, what’s in the gap?

--

Sources:

The Economist, Motherhood Penalty: https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2019/01/28/how-big-is-the-wage-penalty-for-mothers

US Census Bureau: https://towardsdatascience.com/is-the-difference-in-work-hours-the-real-reason-for-the-gender-wage-gap-interactive-infographic-6051dff3a041?gi=2dc24b441466

Denmark Study: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/app.20180010

The Pay Gap Explained, full video: https://youtu.be/hP8dLUxBfsU

==

What's in the gap is different choices and different priorities. It's sexist to act like men's choices are the default, correct ones, and if men and women make different choices and get different outcomes, there's a problem that needs to be solved.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18179326/

Abstract Previous research suggested that sex differences in personality traits are larger in prosperous, healthy, and egalitarian cultures in which women have more opportunities equal with those of men. In this article, the authors report cross-cultural findings in which this unintuitive result was replicated across samples from 55 nations (N = 17,637). On responses to the Big Five Inventory, women reported higher levels of neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness than did men across most nations. These findings converge with previous studies in which different Big Five measures and more limited samples of nations were used. Overall, higher levels of human development--including long and healthy life, equal access to knowledge and education, and economic wealth--were the main nation-level predictors of larger sex differences in personality. Changes in men's personality traits appeared to be the primary cause of sex difference variation across cultures. It is proposed that heightened levels of sexual dimorphism result from personality traits of men and women being less constrained and more able to naturally diverge in developed nations. In less fortunate social and economic conditions, innate personality differences between men and women may be attenuated.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27000535/

Abstract Men's and women's personalities appear to differ in several respects. Social role theories of development assume gender differences result primarily from perceived gender roles, gender socialization and sociostructural power differentials. As a consequence, social role theorists expect gender differences in personality to be smaller in cultures with more gender egalitarianism. Several large cross-cultural studies have generated sufficient data for evaluating these global personality predictions. Empirically, evidence suggests gender differences in most aspects of personality-Big Five traits, Dark Triad traits, self-esteem, subjective well-being, depression and values-are conspicuously larger in cultures with more egalitarian gender roles, gender socialization and sociopolitical gender equity. Similar patterns are evident when examining objectively measured attributes such as tested cognitive abilities and physical traits such as height and blood pressure. Social role theory appears inadequate for explaining some of the observed cultural variations in men's and women's personalities. Evolutionary theories regarding ecologically-evoked gender differences are described that may prove more useful in explaining global variation in human personality.

[menalez]

Am i off or is it the case that all this chasing brain scans to show we can identify female vs male 67 or whatever percent of the time (which as you rightly point out is a pretty weak prediction) is also overinterpreting to at all conclude it = gendered or sexed brain by birth/genetic/innate nature.

I think of it like this. Because patriarchy and sexism is MULTIPLE THOUSANDS OF YEARS old, and pervasive globally, and how we are raised in it has physical affects on not just the rest of our bodies, but also our brains………. a scan could just be learning to pick up on the changes that tend to happen to the brains of people treated as women are. Who are encouraged to do certain things and banned or discouraged from others. Who are deprioritized with nutrition and resources globally. Who are moulded toward certain beliefs and personalities. And then it would be no wonder that not only are these signs found in 60-something % of women, but also pop up with gay men and other gnc men (cough cough the trans identified males who think they’re women or non-binary)

Are they accounting for this? Also are these studies looking globally or basically just whoever they can grab off the street in Boston?

Other thought: even if let’s say female typical estrogen levels in the womb or throughout puberty or something = certain significant brain changes……… that impact everything from the brain physical structure to abilities and behaviors…. even IF that were true (and I don’t think we see evidence that it is) A MALE WITH THAT TRAIT WOULD BE AN ATYPICAL MALE NOT A FEMALE PERSON. Female-typical brained male would be a female-typical brained male in the same way a giraffe-typical heighted human wouldn’t therefore be a giraffe.

This is all on top of the initial point that you and Cornelia Fine cover with delusions of gender and debunking the gendered/sexed brain

Are they accounting for this? Also are these studies looking globally or basically just whoever they can grab off the street in Boston?

in general neuroimaging studies are: time-consuming, expensive, and difficult to conduct. this is why they don't tend to have very high samples and also why they are usually limited to whatever labs they have. for it to be done globally, there would have to be a cooperation between numerous labs around the world and they need to follow the same exact methodology, it would be difficult to organise. so you can bet that almost every neuroimaging study and its finding is "whoever is willing to participate in the vicinity of the lab" rather than a global effort.

that said, yeah the people who make these arguments ignore the fact that socialisation does influence brain development. we don't even need to account for the fact that this same socialisation has been existing for generations, even in one generation the brain is impacted by socialisation. the way girls are taught, talked to, what theyre encouraged to do, what theyre taught is their purpose, what theyre discouraged from doing, etc ALL will play a role in how the brain develops. these people do not seem to understand that brain plasticity means that our environment, not just our biology, often impacts how our brain develops. a lot of brain differences are thought to be down to environment, namely socialisation. a second factor is hormones bc yes hormones can affect the brain. but despite these two factors, there is significant overlap between "male" and "female" brains AND there is significant variation in "male" and "female" brains. there is a lot we do not know yet, like why these differences & overlaps exist.. but we do know that its existence makes it clear that brains are not sexually dimorphic.

i wish i could find it rn but i read research papers before on how the vast majority brain differences found when comparing males & females either appear post-puberty or due to differing experiences & socialisation. we aren't actually born with distinctly different brains that u can distinguish sex with, and even as adults, our brains are not as distinguishable by sex as some ppl pretend

[hibiscusseaart]

Altean families hcs

Heya! I'm not stopping. Twi thread

Warnings: 18+ (mostly cuz biology talk), Half-altean Lance.

I am gonna start with alteans and their structure. I believe that alteans are quite matriarchal. We don’t have enough clues about it in canon, but from what I see, mothers are quite the leading power.

Honerva was unstoppable and she stopped only when SHE wanted (tho destroying realities, like she got what she wanted) and Allura talked to her. Plus she got Zarkon wrapped around her finger before going mad and even a lil after that. Imagine her not being evil. Jeez what a woman she’d be.

I believe that Melenor might be the Queen by blood and Alfor entering the family by marriage and becoming a consort. Why? One of the main reasons is that Alfor never ever wears any kind of crown, while Melenor and Allura always do. Also you can see in this screenshot, Melenor sitting next to Zarkon - the sole emperor of Daibazaal - closer than her husband, who is friends with said emperor, meaning Melenor has higher status than her husband.

Though, here, she’s standing on the side. But he is not a King for nothing right?

But it can say nothing about alteans being matriarchal. I hcs them like that, cuz it seems fitting for them to put mothers and families on a pedestal.

So, now I’ll start to explain altean process to start a family. I already explained their courting process here (вставить ссылку).

Alteans can only get pregnant when both partners want it and it can not happen by accident. Conception is actually considered a very special process and even a ritual in Altean culture and is not considered like something dirty or full of lust. It’s usually something very-very gentle. Though usual sex is kinda stigmatized and they mostly don’t talk about it. Yeah you have really slow social progress, when you live in monarchy and your population lives for more than 600 years (that’s around Coran’s age and he considered as middle aged man).

Getting back to pregnancies. At conception, a portion of quintessence from each partner is fused to form child’s. It’s a big strain for future parents cuz it’s literally part of their life force is gone to their child. Because of this, they rarely have more than 2-3 children.

This ritual is counted as the 1st day of child’s existence. So birthday counts from the conception date. Also, because of their huge life spawn, they count their age as centuries. For example, “I am 17” means that the child is 170 years old. They’re considered as a minor till their 250 birthday. Modern alteans can, basically, live forever until they’re killed (im pretty sure that they have tech to change DNA (also this shit is controversial as hell, but i will talk about it when i get to write about politics). But they can look old, like Alfor did, because of stress. Stress is their kryptonite in that case.

(also i suspect that Altea has a shorter year, being closer to it’s sun)

Oh, also, a little biology: alteans deffinetly have different sexes, looking at their bodies, they have pretty obvious sexual dimorphism. Though, knowing how advanced they are (thanks for changing DNA tech) and their abilities for shapeshifting, they probably can easily change how they like it and have a child. They might be like some kinds of fish or lizards, which can change their sex when needed. Like they’re born as hermaphrodites. but for some alteans male hormones are stronger, for some female are (and i’m pretty sure that they have their own hormones, they’re aliens after all, i’m just using this terminology for better understanding).

Anyway, mothers for alteans are the ones who bear the child and feed them later (and they def feed some kind of milk, why else would alteans have boobs? to store quintessence there?). And they are quite the heroes/heroines, cuz babies take a lot from alteans, mostly quintessence, I think. But physically too. I think that they can have longer pregnancies. The reason humans have their babies for 9 months and even then the baby is helpless and can’t even hold their head, it’s cuz the head is so big and if it’d grow more it’d be a big problem for mothers in the stretching department. But alteans don’t have that problem with shapeshifting so the babies are bigger. Maybe a lil smaller than Allura on the screenshot.

So because pregnancy is really taxing, it’s exactly why they prefer to have multiple partners, so they can help each other (looking at you, Coran). Also I think alteans could have little traditions, like giving a pregnant lady some presents or flowers, even if you don’t know her well. Pregnant one is a really precious one. Alteans if stress (kryptonite!) can easily have a miscarriage and it’s always devastating for them. So they try to avoid any bad news during pregnancies.

sidenote: it’s weird to refer to a pregnant altean solely as she/her, cuz alteans can literally alter their biology. who knows, maybe it’s alfor who gave birth to allura. we will never know.

(but, according to my hcs, we know, cuz allura calls melenor mother and that means that she was the one who was pregnant with her.)

So the next thing is really important for alteans and their families. As you well know, alteans have a deep connection with quintessence and can kind of control it. Each family has its own little “lake” of quintessence. This lake keep them all connected to each other, mostly emotionally. They can’t read each other’s minds, but it’s easy for them to sense a mood and feelings in general. I think, it’s the same how the Lions communicate and connect.

This connection is really important, because it can help all members of this lake to feel needs of altean mother and then children’s needs. It also helps them to feel their quintessence more clearly and develop empathy.

A child is accepted into family’s lake when their quintessence grows stronger and detaches from their mother’s completely (at first it’s really intertwined and helps mother to take care of their kid). They have a traditional ritual for that and it’s held by the most magically talented member of the family. But it can also happen naturally, if the kid is close with everyone in the family, tho connection will be a bit weaker, because no one leads kid’s quintessence in the right place.

The acceptance ritual usually happens at their 5-10 year (it’s really early for alteans if you remember their lifespan). If not accepted, then the child will feel unwanted, abandoned and in general will be very restless and prone to stress and depression.

If someone is not accepted, they’re not considered a real family. The marriage is all about future spouses to get this connection with each other.

This connection can weaken though, it’s not permanent and needs refreshing. Usually it’s enough to just spend time with each other. But it’s highly emotional and if someone doesn’t want to be connected, they link will break.

Now let’s talk about my baby half-altean Lance >:)

So, Luis and the others are not full siblings. Luis was born from the human, when the others were born from an altean who happened to get on Earth somehow (i know how, but i wanna save something for my long ass fic which MAY be translated if I could find a beta). That altean and Lance’s mom have had Marco and Veronica. But the altean didn’t expect that Lance’s mom would have 2 eggs. Alteans do not have that at all. A little later after Lance and Rachel were conceived, he died of the quintessence strain. On Earth no one really knew why.

But well, these two were never accepted in the lake with his father, Marco and Veronica (these two didn’t even know about being part-alien), so they grew up with diagnosed ADHD and self worth issues.

There we step into more of the AU territory, cuz Lance is known as altean much earlier, maybe before s 2. Coran and Allura are estatic. They were so used to their big families always buzzing lake, so felling only each other was really lonely. So Allura accept Lance as her own brother (yeah, Allura was that much uninterested). She did use a little too much magic because of her inexperience, so Lance got his marks and his ears started to change (cartilage are softer and can be bend easier).

He started to become more altean in general. Like he isn’t disgusted by food goo anymore for example and gets stronger easier. He can’t shapeshift, bc human bones, but he can change his skin color. It was weird af for him to feel Allura and Coran as he feels his lion, but it did helped him a lot with his ADHD and worries. Plus he got a new sister and, kind of, a new dad? Or Uncle? He’s not sure. But it’s the closest to his family he ever had since they got into space.

Thank you for reading! Hope you like it! Please let me know what hcs do you have about altean or maybe galra families!

[pissenchanted]

Pokemon sexual dimorphism dissertation?? -grabby hands-

omg hiii okay so i’d just like to say u brought this on urself (i’m so sorry)

also i was exaggerating when i said dissertation it’s more like a rabid monologue situation. anyway. so i saw a video on instagram where meowth and oshawott are confessing their love to a purrloin and purrloin’s trainer is like uhhh purrloin is a guy, and meowth and oshawott are shocked. and it made all the wheels in my brain go brrrrrr. so i wrote down my train of thought to send to my friends (i altered it here for clarity because when i wrote it i was just spitting all the words out like a mama bird. also i added some stuff bc i got side tracked when i initially wrote it and forgot my original point somewhere along the way, so i threw that in there. okay go (under the cut)

this video raises some fascinating questions about sexual dimorphism (or apparent lack thereof) in pokemon, bc in some pokemon sexual dimorphism is very apparent (take pikachu or wobbuffet for example), but in others it doesn’t appear to exist at all (like we see with purrloin in this video. also oshawott do not have any documented sexually dimorphic characteristics). i have two main hypotheses for the surprised reactions we observe in meowth and oshawott when they are told purrloin is "a guy"

1. purrloin don't exhibit sexual dimorphism and do not have visible reproductive organs. meowth and oshawott assumed purrloin was not “a guy” because purrloin don't exhibit sexually dimorphic or identifiable reproductive organs, and meowth and oshawott just thought it was hot and assumed it was not a guy, despite a lack of sexually dimorphic characteristics

2. purrloin do have visible reproductive organs, but this particular purrloin has characteristics that align with a biologically female phenotype (or otherwise do not align with a male phenotype), which led meowth and oshawott to the conclusion that purrloin was not in fact "a guy". sexual dimorphism is kind of irrelevant to this hypothesis because if the circumstances of this hypothesis were true, whether or not sexual dimorphism was involved wouldn't change the reactions of meowth and oshawott - they would still be surprised either way, because this hypothesis is concerned about whether or not meowth and oshawott were mislead by visible reproductive organs.

if the first hypothesis is correct, we can assume that pokemon do not have external/visible reproductive organs. this is interesting since pokemon lay eggs - even the mammal-like pokemon (though it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to apply our taxonomic system to pokemon). this also calls into question - what the fuck is moo moo milk? if pokemon aren't mammals, is that even milk? or is it some other biologically produced liquid that happens to resumble what comes out of mammory glands in the animals of our world (like a convergent evolution type beat perhaps). i'm going to table that truckload of worms though because we already touched on it in a different discussion. (as a side-note im currently of the opinion that there is a cloacal kiss situation going on but thats not what this conversation is about)

both hypotheses raise interestings question about sexual orientation in pokemon. purrloin’s trainer told meowth and oshawott that purrloin was “a guy”. since meowth exhibit documented sexual dimorphism (varying whisker length in males vs. females), we can assume the trainer knew meowth is male (not even going to get into him talking/his voice/things he says). the implied meaning behind the trainer stating that purrloin in a guy is that, since purrloin is a guy, it would not be interested in meowth or oshawott.

but now there are more questions!

why does the trainer assume meowth and oshawott aren’t into “guys”?

how did she know oshawott is male? oshawott don’t exhibit documented sexual dimorphism. she presumably couldn’t tell oshawotts sex or gender by looking at it, so even if she’s homophobic and thinks boy pokemon can’t be in love with each other, for all she knows, oshawott could’ve been a girl. maybe she just knows that the majority of oshawott are biological males, and made the assumption based on statistics? or maybe she has internalised misogynistic and sees male as the default?

this is kind of going back to the first point but why does she assume that purrloin’s sex and/or gender is correlated with its sexual orientation? perhaps she's not assuming at all - i mean, we do see purrloin say something before she states that it is a guy. maybe purrloin stated that it was a guy, and she was simply translating. maybe purrloin is the homophobic one afterall???

it's important to acknowledge and discuss potential sources of error, such as biases the trainer may have, as well as other environmental and contextual biases that i havent even touched on. these factors make it difficult to use this interaction alone to make grand inferences on topics of sexual dimorphism, reproductive morphology, sex, and gender of pokemon as well as the intersection between these topics. that said, this interaction provides important data that can be helpful for a variety of people and fields, for example; researchers seeking to further the body of knowledge on such topics, pokemon healthcare providers whose understanding of pokemon physiology impacts the quality of their care, and breeders who stand to better raise their pokemon with an improved understanding of these topics.

an interesting potential avenue for further investigation would be understanding whether purrloin could be used as a proxy for other pokemon that humans have not or cannot distinguish as sexually dimorphic. if purrloin is determined as a suitable proxy, then this research as well as other purrloin-related research could give us insight onto the sexual dimorphism or lack thereof of a wide variety of pokemon species.

another avenue for further research could be determining whether pokemon can precisely and accurately identify the biological sexes of pokemon species that do not have documented sexual dimorphism, using visual cues alone. if they can accomplish this task successfully, researchers can learn an astonishing number of things based on what types of pokemon were more or less successful and how that correlates with the types of pokemon they could accurately sex. widespread success at this task could also provide insight on cues that humans are less tuned to picking up that pokemon have a better sense of.

lastly, and perhaps the most important future research path would be investigating how. the. fuck. pokemon reproduce and why do they all lay eggs and shit and oh my god i need to create my own taxonomic system for them so so so so bad.

okay thank u for reading my literally brain juice spewing everywhere <3 <3 <3 #< <3 <3 <3 <3

[hylianengineer]

Comfortember Day 5: Game Night

“Hiiiii, Julian, what’s up?”

“Oh, nothing much, I’ve just been working on this experiment using muons to try and improve cellular regeneration of lymphatic tissue. What are you up to?”

“Well, I just finished a report on X’Aran table manners, and I’ve got a new holoprogram I've been meaning to try. Would you like to join me? It’s sort of a… fantasy adventure thing, based on a very old Earth game.”

“I’d like that very much. When does your shift end?”

The friends find themselves at Quark’s that evening, pouring over the rulebook and instruction sheets. The game Caitlyn’s chosen is more than a little complicated.

She leans over a datapad, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. “So it looks like most of the character creation process is automated- at least on the technical side of things. All we need to do is choose species, class, and background, although there’s plenty of room to add more details if we feel like it.”

“Do you know what you’re going to pick?”

“I’m not sure yet… You?”

Julian grins, “I’ve always wanted to be an elf.”

Caitlyn grins too, the choice suits him. “Are you going to be a healer too? Somehow I can’t imagine you as anything else.”

“I thought I might branch out a bit, actually,” he muses. “Maybe a rogue, or a druid. Oh! What about a sorcerer?”

“Mm, those all sound pretty cool. Alright, fair enough. I’d better pick something more on the beefy side then, for balance. I like paladin; it’s the perfect combination of spellcasting and bashing your enemies with a sword… Shouldn’t you be a wizard, though, not a sorcerer?”

“Why’s that? I’m not sure I understand the difference.”

“Because you’re a nerd, Julian. The difference is where your magic comes from- a sorcerer inherits it, a wizard learns it through extensive study. Their spellcasting ability is intelligence instead of charisma.” 

“Are you saying I’m not charismatic?”

“Of course not! You do have a sort of… magnetism. If you want to be a sorcerer, I’m not trying to stop you, I just thought you might like wizard.”

Julian smiles reassuringly. “I know, I’m only joking. Maybe I’ll go through the class descriptions again…”

“All those species and you chose to be human?”

“Well, it’d be weird if I chose something like tortle or kenku- they were designed for a game played with imagination and scraps of paper, not the holodeck. I’ll admit I was tempted by dragonborn, but I think that’s mostly the desire to escape human gender norms. Reptiles don’t usually display sexual dimorphism, or anything we might recognize as secondary sex charactersistics. It’d be nice, but then I realized that I could just be me with a sword, and I think I like that better.”

“Well, I can’t argue with that logic. ”

“Gosh, I didn’t think character names would be so hard. I just want it to be the right one, you know? I’m being a perfectionist again, I just need to pick one.”

“That’s alright, you can take all the time you need,” Julian soothes. “You might have that name for quite a while, well, that is if we survive that long.”

I’m immediately grateful for his patience - as much as I don’t want to slow us down, I want to savor this choice. I want a name that feels right - though I hope I don’t get my character killed before I can use it. “This game does seem to involve lots of mortal peril doesn’t it? Very dramatic. But what’s an adventure without a few near-death experiences, eh?”

“No adventure at all!” Julian laughs.

Caitlyn leaps across a chasm just before a snarling dire wolf catches up with her. She lands in Julian’s arms, both of them lying on the grass as they catch their breath. She rolls off of him and stares up at the holographic sky, panting. A glance at the stat bar above her head reveals her character took a few points of bludgeoning damage from the fall, but overall she’s not in bad shape. 

“God, why do dire wolves have to be so cute and yet so scary? They’re like horse sized dogs. I wanna pet them, but they just want to eat us for dinner.”

Julian smiles fondly, “Don’t look at me, it’s your program!”

“Yeah, that’s fair. I don’t know what Wizards of the Coast was thinking.”

“Who’s that?”

“The developers.”

“Oh, right. You know, wolves are fairly common antagonists in a variety of media, going back to folktales that have been told for centuries.”

“So we’re continuing the age-old tradition of fighting our best friends’ cousins. I still don't like it, they look too much like dogs.”

“We don’t have to fight them. We can avoid them, or distract them while we run.”

“Julian, this is why I love you. You indulge all my weird impulses.”

“I’m unconscious again!” Julian calls out. Physically, he’s fine, but his health bar has dropped to zero, and in accordance with the rules of the game he is now lying on the ground and not allowed to move. Technically, he’s not allowed to speak either, but that rule gets broken fairly frequently.

Caitlyn pulls her sword out of a holographic mercenary. “Dammit, I forget you wizards are so squishy! I’ll be there in a second!” This is the second time Julian’s character has been knocked out in this battle alone- try as he might to keep out of melee range, they’re well outnumbered. Caitlyn has been plowing through enemy soldiers, safe in her chainmail with an armor class of seventeen, but sometimes she gets so focused on stabbing things that she doesn’t realize she’s too far away to watch her partner’s back. Then she has to rush back and heal him before he can fail his death saves; she’s not nearly high level enough to cast a resurrection spell yet, and she’s become nearly as attached to Eladrin as Julian has.

She makes it to his side just in time to bash an attacker in the skull with the pommel of her sword. They fall to the ground, and she kneels to grab Julian’s hand. She chants a spell, and with a pleasant sound effect his health bar turns green, now about half full. She helps him to his feet.

“Thanks,” he grins. “Do you want to see what happens if I use Silent Image to create the illusion of a dragon flying over their heads?”

“Heck yeah I do! Start casting, I’ll watch your back.”

[ridedatbull]

Imma infodump real quick because this has been bubbling in me and holy crap I can’t believe people care!

First off, I’m gonna preface by saying I’m just a Tauros rancher. Been one all my life, my family has been doing it in the traditional Johto fashion for… I dunno how long exactly, but a while. My only real scientific know how comes from old schooling and documentaries about fossils. Everyone had that phase right? Anyway…

So Tauros are pretty neat. Hoof to horn to tail they are the coolest. But they’re also kinda weird. They’re one of those weird mons that have a strange sexual dimorphism thing with another ‘species,’ aka Miltank. But actually they are technically the same. And yet, they are so physically different. Why?

Let’s start with their history. Bovine Pokémon were some of the first to be considered ‘domesticated,’ domesticated here meaning more willing to work with humans than most for one reason or another way back in the day. Hisui era type stuff. There are some who suggest that Tauros and Miltank looked much more alike in that time, or that they had a pre-evolution that branched depending on the sex like Ralts or Snorunt, but no proper records seem to have survived that prove either of these theories.

All we really have are old tales passed down by ranchers generation after generation. And anyone familiar with oral histories will know how messy that can get in terms of getting facts straight. My Pa and his Pa before him both told me stories of a time when Miltank looked very different, much more similar to their male counterparts in body structure and ferocity. At the same time, Tauros were also even more wild. The better to battle each other over mates and fend off the far more ferocious predators of their era. Neither Pa nor Grandpa ever actually saw these differences. Nor apparently did my great grandpa. But for a story to last even that long, surely there has to be something to it right?

As they tell it, Tauros and Miltank eventually decided that humans weren’t so bad. We could grow amazing food, build reliable shelter, and make a good racket if something threatening comes around. A lot of canine Pokémon had already figured out that we were willing to share the spoils for a few favors, so y’know, why not also try to get in on that?

Tauros were great at helping plow the fields to make even more food for everyone. Miltank was able to, of course, give milk as additional food so young children wouldn’t starve. Who’s idea it was to start that particular arrangement is anyone’s guess. That part of the story hasn’t survived in detail, but I believe it may have been the Miltank?

Anyways, outside of hard labor, meat was the only other thing humans could really do with the male Tauros at the time outside of the standard Pokemon Partner relationship. Miltank was more valuable as they could produce more without the need for a butcher. So as with many other living things, selective breeding happened. Both Pokémon were bred to be less temperamental, especially Miltank, though it’s never fully worked on Tauros.

Miltank were bred to have shorter legs, the harder to escape with. Smaller bodies, the easier to house in a barn. Gentler dispositions, the more willing to share their milk without a struggle. Somehow a degree of bipedalism became a side effect of all this. No one really knows how that part happened. Maybe an added cute factor? But that’s just my own speculation. More likely it’s so their teats don’t scrape the ground because… ouch.

Regardless, all those small changes resulted eventually in the Miltank and Tauros we all know of today. Put them in a field together, and they can still make more of themselves in the *ahem* ‘old fashioned way.’ More than that, they are always fully comfortable with each other, differences and all. Like nothing ever really changed between them after all this time.

Sometimes I think about all this and wonder what those ancient Tauros and Miltank were like. I wonder if Miltank could ever be restored to their original form. I wonder if they would want to. I wonder if either ‘species’ would have chosen to be our friends if they knew how it would change them.

Not that that really matters in the here and now. We’ve all become so intertwined as species that separating at this point would only hurt everyone involved. Sure there are plenty of wild herds as well, but even they carry the marks of what we humans have done.

I guess what I’m saying is, if we really are responsible for changing them, then we must also be responsible for continuing to care for them where we can. Sorry to get all philosophical suddenly, this stuff just kinda raises those questions. All I know for sure is I’m gonna keep doing what I do to raise and care for these beautiful Pokémon for all my days. And someday maybe I’ll pass this story to my own kids.

[ohheyidothat]

Honestly sex (the anatomical structure) is so COOL as a evolutionary structure shared by many diverse lifeforms. Mammals are neat to compare to mammals; but comparing mammals to reptiles gets even cooler (slight pun regarding sexual development in crocodiles). Birds are equally fabulous to compare to, especially in relation to same-sex pairing, and individuals who have unusual sexual dimorphisms (”roosters” laying eggs, “hens” that fill the roll of a rooster, etc).

And then like, “fish.” The huge and complex and almost trivial category of “uh, its in the water now, and it was in the ocean before, but it didn’t get out of the ocean before going back into it...and it has a spine...” Clownfish that change sex, fish that don’t have a sex until later life stages, fish that have “both” sex sets at once, oh my god, did you know sharks eat their siblings before being born? What the fuck.

Anyways so like, sex in non-animal lifeforms is so cool too! Plants? Some have only a single sex? Some have both? Some plants only have a single sex and never reproduce sexually? (Animals can do this too!)

There’s a fungus with like, 2,000 different “sexes” (”mating types”). Did I even mention bees and other eusocial insects? They have sexes that we recognize at first glance, but that are different in heritability, form, and function?

It’s just really fun! And weird! It’s so silly, how various life forms evolved various strategies! It’s like teeth almost! A lot of things have teeth, but they’re like--are those really teeth? Like Venus fly traps and sharks and snails? Sure! They can all be teeth! Why not! Language is a silly tool we used to assign patterned data to concepts! Maybe one day we’ll have the vocabulary to discuss biology and sex, the way we can discuss teeth and radulae and Venus fly traps.

[genderisareligion]

“aun cuando en este momento existen suficientes datos para saber que el sexo también es una construcción y que trasciende el binario macho-hembra”

even though at the moment there is enough data to know that sex is also a construct and that it transcends the male-female binary

A relatively well known feminist in my area, a professor who teaches feminist theory at one of our best universities, said this. This woman is very anti terf or whatever, but usually I hear this kind of argument from people with the most insane takes so I was surprised hearing it from her. She didn’t cite any of the “data” and I know this is a tired argument, but where did these people even get the idea that sex is a construct to begin with? Like what is the data? I want to see it, genuinely, I want to read where it says that sex is a construct that transcends the male-female binary and why that is so. Is it in reference to intersex conditions? Because people have recognized intersex conditions for a long time and nobody was saying that sex is a construct before. And in any case, if it is in reference to intersex conditions, wouldn’t a statement like that only apply to intersex people instead of it being a testament to the legitimacy of trans identity (which is how I’ve seen it most commonly used)? Or is it something else? I’m asking for real lol I don’t know much about the trans stuff and I want to know where they’re getting the information.

Also, completely unrelated, but I know you’ve said you’re Latina. Which country? Lmao I hope this does not come across as creepy, you do NOT have to answer me if you don’t want to lol. I just like to keep track of all the Latina women I follow.

Man I miss @not-your-intersex-pawn. Used to immediately refer people to/defer to her blog since it's always better to hear this directly from one of them. But you're onto something with "wouldn't a statement like that only apply to intersex people?" "TERFs conflate sex and gender they can't tell the difference sex and gender are different!" but constantly TRAs tell everyone of the likelihood of intersex conditions in the population to legitimize their likely non intersex related gender identity. Who's conflating what now? Lol. not-your-intersex-pawn and her orbiters constantly complain(ed) about and sometimes (even though they didn't deserve it) tried to politely explain to dyadic trans people why pretending intersexism has anything to do with you when it doesn't and LARPing as a community member because "I'Ve NeVeR hAd My ChRoMoSoMeS lOoKeD aT yOu NeVeR kNoW" is disrespectful.

Found this piece the day I found her blog many years ago. Glad Medium hasn't given it the axe yet

I also defer to some of the intersex organizations she recommended since despite what devout genderists would have you believe they're divided on what constitutes an intersex condition and their criticism of gender since minority groups are not monoliths.

Main thing I wanna impress after years of reading her blog is that some intersex people find it offensive for you to call them a "third" or "other" or "nonbinary" category and would like everyone to still refer to them as male or female with a sex specific intersex condition. I tag posts I find/have of hers now she may have mentioned it in there

"Sex is a social construct" lol when will any of these genderists actually tell me who managed to invent that? Seriously. What white colonizer somewhere managed to change the construction of virtually every single member of the species across the globe so that 99% of us are sexually dimorphic? Wild as fuck that this is being preached in academia.

As far as where they're getting their information, usually a game of social media telephone and only reading interpretations of the data that line up with their religious beliefs because "intersex people can be TERFs too!"

I'm Mexican 🇲🇽 But currently stuck in USAmerica lol. As I've mentioned my Spanish is garbage because I'm from like a "white washed" family (don't love that terminology but like we were Bush conservatives and lived in a mostly white community). When my Spanish is better I plan on crossing "the border" (the one they stole lol)

[mypoisonedvine]

𝙞𝙩 𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙚𝙙 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙣𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙞𝙣 𝙙𝙚𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 • alpha!eddie munson x reader

𝙨𝙪𝙢𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙮 • eddie's chances of being an alpha are quite small. your chances of presenting as an omega, especially while still in high school, are almost none. almost.

𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙙 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩 • 10k

𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 • SMUT (18+ only, technically dubcon due to heat, omegaverse, unprotected sex), knotting, possessiveness and protectiveness, mentions of pregnancy/slight breeding kink, size kink (alpha!eddie is Large in every way), brief trypanophobia warning, mentions of/implied deceased parent (not reader's they're fine),

“The official term is enhanced sexual dimorphism, sometimes abbreviated as ‘ESD’,” Mrs. Mittelman explained, “but, you’re probably all more familiar with the names for the two enhanced sexes: Alpha, and omega.”

You sighed as you rested your chin on your fist.  Health class was always boring, and awkward.  Most of all, it didn’t seem very useful.  In all of Hawkins, you knew of six omegas and eleven Alphas.  Why did the curriculum need to dedicate a whole month to this when you, and everyone you knew, were going to end up not presenting at all and just be betas?

“Due to modern fertility advancements, these sexes are becoming more and more rare,” she continued to explain.  “Alphas and omegas, when in a mated pair, are significantly more fertile than a beta pair.  However, times are changing: after all, I think all of you have beta parents, don’t you?”

You didn’t even know anyone had raised their hand, until Mrs. Mittelman pointed behind you to someone in the back.

“Yes?” she prompted, and you turned around.  You were pretty sure his name was… Freddie?  No, wait— Eddie.  You’d seen him around, and he was sort of hard to forget with his… ostentatious styling, but you weren’t sure you’d ever heard him talk in class before.

“Uh, actually,” he cleared his throat, “my mom was an omega.”

“Oh!” Mrs. Mittelman nodded, looking a little wide-eyed.  “I didn’t realize that.  Well, then maybe some of what we’re talking about today will be more familiar to you.  I hope you’ll bear with us.”

Was.  There’s no going back after presenting, of course, so she must not be around anymore.  You saw him look down, and wondered if he regretted bringing it up at all, before you returned your focus to the board where the teacher was pointing to some particularly uninteresting charts.

“The window of development for Alphas and omegas is actually very narrow: about ninety percent of enhanced sexual presentations take place at age twenty-one,” she continued.  “The odds of presenting after age twenty-two are so astronomically low, that anyone who turns twenty-three without presenting is immediately registered as a beta.  Can anyone remember from this week’s assigned reading—”

Everyone groaned, realizing she was about to spring a pop quiz on the class.

“— what an individual’s odds are of presentation if their parents are an Alpha and an omega?”

A girl in the front row raised her hand, and the teacher pointed to her.  “Um, eighty-two percent?”

“Correct!” Mrs. Mittelman smiled.  “Okay, what about the odds of presentation if one’s parents were one Alpha and one beta?”

The boy that sat next to you on the right— James Richey, which you wouldn’t know if you hadn’t been paired with him on far too many assignments— raised his hand.  “Forty-five percent,” he answered.

“Ohh, a little lower,” she winced with her gentle correction, “anyone else wanna give that a try?”

Intimidated by James’ folly, it took an awkward pause for someone else to take a guess.  It was your closest friend in class, and likely in the whole school, Helen.  “Thirty?” she proposed.

“Well, twenty-nine, but yes,” Mrs. Mittelman.  “What about if the pair is one beta and one omega?  Mr. Munson, you should know this one— since it applies to you.”

The whole class turned back to look at Eddie, who was awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck.  “You see,” he began, “I agree with you that I should know that but, uh, I didn’t exactly… read the chapter.”

Mrs. Mittelman sighed slowly.  “Right, um, well… maybe someone else who did can tell us?”

“Twelve percent,” somebody behind you, from the other side, announced, and the teacher smiled.

“Yes!  That’s right,” she replied.  “Okay, last one: how likely is one to present if their parents are both betas?”

You raised your hand, because this one was the easiest to remember.  When you were called on, you answered: “The odds are less than one percent.”

“Yes, good job,” she smiled.  “Congratulations!  You all passed today’s pop quiz.  Your prize is… not having a pop quiz tomorrow.”

The bell rang; everyone reached for their backpacks and sighed with relief.  

“Tomorrow, we’ll be covering the rest of the chapter, so if you forgot to read it,” she said pointedly, “now’s the time to do so!”

You didn’t know a lot about the guy— hell, you’d forgotten his name— but you figured Eddie Munson was not going to read the chapter, even when given a second chance.  You don’t end up on your third senior year by reading the assigned material.  I wonder if it bothers him, being twenty years old and still in high school, you wondered, it would sure bother me.

But that was the last time you thought about Eddie Munson for about two weeks.  You didn’t plan on thinking about him again until maybe graduation, which you did hope to see him at, but you were forced to wonder about him when he was absent from class for an entire week.  Frankly, you were pretty sure he couldn’t afford a vacation.  A rumor had spread that he was in jail for dealing marijuana, but that was all you had to work with.  Helen thought maybe he was gone for good, moved back in with some other family— you hadn’t even known before this that he lived with his uncle, so maybe his dad was somewhere out there and he was spending time with him.

All the rumors were dispelled in an instant when Eddie returned.  As near-impossible as it seemed, it was even more impossible to deny when you saw it for yourself.

You were ten minutes into the midterm exam for Mrs. Mittelman’s health class when the door opened; in a silent room, it was instinctive to look up, but you choked when you saw him come in.  It was Eddie, for sure— that hair and Hellfire Club tee were unmistakable— but he was… different.

Completely different.

He was taller, to the point that Mrs. Mittelman was craning her neck to look up at him (though to be fair, she was already pretty short).  He was… bigger, specifically more muscular— his body was straining against his clothes, the half-sleeve of his shirt exposed the prominent veins of his forearm, even his ripped jeans struggled to hold him in anymore.  

“Sorry I’m late,” he said quietly to the bewildered teacher, and even when he deliberately spoke softly, his voice was clearly deeper.  She handed him a blank exam and he attempted to slip through the rows of desks to find his own seat.  You certainly weren’t the only pair of eyes following him across the classroom, or the only one noticing the way he struggled to fit back behind his own desk due to his radical change in size.  He cleared his throat and shifted in the chair, starting to take his test— and either not noticing, or successfully ignoring, the stares he was receiving.

At the same time, you and Helen looked at each other with wide eyes, and she mouthed something to you: What the fuck?!

Your entire class was specifically prepared to appreciate the anomaly of probability that this was.  Still, statistics be damned, it was clear that in the time Eddie Munson had disappeared, he’d become an Alpha.

Three months later…

“Oh come on,” you rolled your eyes, “that’s bull and you know it.”

“I’m not sure if you really believe that that attitude is going to help you in any way,” Principal Higgins frowned, “but to be completely clear: it will not.  Three dress code violations add up to an after-school detention.”

“But these are stupid violations!” you insisted.  “It’s not like I was walking around in a mini-skirt— look, this one says my sneakers were untied!  That’s ridiculous.”

“Arguing with me is considered disrespect of authority,” Higgins reminded you, leaning in closer, “which is also punishable by after-school detention.  I’d recommend that you stop now before you end up with two dates with me this week.”

You shut your eyes to stop yourself from rolling them, but relented.  That said, you were playing the interaction over and over in your mind as you sat at that desk in detention, arms crossed and lips curled in a sneer as you imagined really telling him off instead of laying down at taking it.

You jumped when the opening of the door startled you out of your fantasy, and there was Eddie— wow, he was even late to detention.

You looked down sheepishly as he crossed the room and took his seat, but once he was settled in front of you and off to the side, you had your first chance to get a good look at him after his… transformation.

It was a good thing his jacket was sleeveless, because it didn’t look like his arms would’ve fit through the sleeves if it had them.  It wasn’t that he was just outrageously ripped now or something, or that he was specifically some outrageous height… he was just big.  Alphas were built that way.  He towered over nearly everyone in school now; he stopped getting bullied immediately after he came back, that must’ve been a nice perk.  Still, for a guy who got so massive and so well-known practically overnight (or in this case, overweek), he didn’t seem that… happy?  

You looked down into your lap again.  Who were you to judge his emotions?  You didn’t know anything about him.  It was just that, well, he’d had a reputation for his antics and dramatic behavior before, but lately he was uncharacteristically quiet.  He never made a scene in the cafeteria anymore, he never talked back to teachers (which he’d apparently done plenty before, you’d seen it once or twice and Helen said it happened near-daily with Ms. O’Donnell), he was just… existing.  Maybe he was finally being normal.  The only problem with that theory is that, while you didn’t like to buy into stereotypes, you were confident that Eddie Munson would’ve been among the first to become better behaved after presenting as an Alpha.

You weren’t trying to be sexist, really!  Alphas were hormonally predisposed to aggression and impulsiveness, it was just a fact of the matter, especially when omegas or other Alphas were involved.  To be fair, that wasn’t really an issue in his case, in a school where literally no other students had ESD.  Technically, there was one other Alpha here, but he was a teacher… he was not only mated, but mature, and no one was exactly worried that he and Eddie were going to end up brawling on the lawn or something.  Alphas were always fighting over unmated omegas anyways, of which there weren’t any in Hawkins.

It made you wonder why Eddie stayed, if he had no chance of finding a true mate here.  Alphas and betas didn't get together very often, for reasons that weren’t explained in much detail in your health textbook.

Torn from your thoughts by the Principal clearing his throat and addressing the room, you looked up quickly.  “Now,” he began sternly, “all my regulars know I believe in working detention— labor is good for the soul!  And there’s lots of work to do on campus today so you three,” he gestured at some boys in the front, “you’re gonna be in the garden out front with our landscapers.  And you four in the back, you’re sweeping up the wood shop before you give our gymnasium a good mop.”

The other students stood, and you glanced at Eddie as you realized he was the only other person left sitting.

“Uhh, you two,” Higgins noticed, “you can go clean the cafeteria.  But we’re all out of mops, so, just grab some rags.”

“Rags?” Eddie noticed.  “We’re cleaning the entire cafeteria floor with rags?”

“Oh, not just the floor.  Table and chairs too.”

“Hopefully not in that order,” you breathed.

“Get to it,” he snapped, and Eddie gave you a quick look over his massive, hard shoulder before shrugging— god, his neck just seemed thicker when he did that.

Your eyes still found themselves lingering on the hulking mass of his body as the two of you were on your hands and knees wiping the laminate cafeteria floor.

"So," Eddie broke the silence, "you, uh… I haven't seen you in detention before."

"No," you agreed, "this is actually my first time."

"Oh wow," he smiled, "a detention virgin!  Don't worry, I'll be gentle."

You snorted, shaking your head as you looked at the floor again, but the off-color joke made you feel a little strange.  You blinked quickly and tried to get the image of Eddie being gentle out of your head.

"What are you in for?" he asked.

"Dress code," you nodded.

"Woah!  Something skimpy?"

"Not at all," you chuckled, "just, like, ripped jeans and a visible bra strap?  Apparently?"

"Aw, that's a shame," he smirked.  "I was thinking I missed you showing up in some sweet little number."

You raised an eyebrow at that, but said nothing, mainly because your throat was suddenly a little dry.

"A-anyways," he mumbled, "I'm sorry you're here."

"Ditto," you offered, "but I know you're here kind of a lot."

"Yeah," he sighed, focusing harder on one spot that he rubbed with the rag intensely, "not as much as I used to be, but yeah…"

"Used to be… before…" you pressed.

"Before I… got big, yeah," he nodded.

An interesting way of describing it.  Certainly an accurate way.

"Um," he cleared his throat, "I skipped class, that's what they popped me for this time."

"Which class?"

"Shop."

"Oh god, I don't blame you, that's my least favorite class," you hummed.

"Really?  People always say they like it cause it's easy," he shrugged, "thought I was the only one that hated it."

"No, it's so annoying!" you assured.  "First of all, most people aren't being safe and I'm always on edge thinking somebody's about to lose a finger— and the assignments are so stupid!  Building birdhouses and clocks?  Like, isn't the whole point of a high school education to be able to get a job so I can afford to just buy a birdhouse for a dollar?"

"I don't mind the part where we build stuff," he admitted, "I just don't like that we have to build it exactly like he says.  Why can't there be some room for creativity?"

You nodded in agreement, clearing your throat quietly but not quite getting the catch in it; you were looking at the floor, and noticed that you were seeing spots, but simply tried to blink them away.

"I hate it even more now that I keep accidentally breaking stuff…" he continued, trailing off.

"Accidentally?"

"I'm still getting used to it… I'm stronger, you know."

Was it warm in here all of a sudden?  When you first came in, it was a little chilly— normally this room was filled with warm bodies to heat it up, so it was pretty cold when it was empty… or, it had been.  Now you were starting to feel your clothes cling to you, face beginning to flush. 

"I broke a hammer.  Splintered the handle— I guess I was holding it too hard…"

That was when you lost your balance and had to sit on the floor, leaning back against the leg of a table.  The orange light of dusk, coming in through the blinds in stripes, was blurry and disorienting.  A numb heat started to rush through your body, and the quick shallow breaths that filled your lungs did little to keep you from getting dizzy.

“Hey,” you heard Eddie’s voice— his hand was hesitantly holding your shoulder now, and just that made you soothe slightly.  “You okay?”

"I…" you began, but you didn't know what to say.  “Eddie,” you said softly, “I don’t… I feel weird.”

His hand moved up to your forehead, and you sighed and shut your eyes to savor every moment of his touch.  “Christ, you’re burning up.”

Your hands reached out blindly, grabbing onto his thick thigh through his jeans.  You heard him cough slightly.  “Something’s wrong, just… just need you to stay with me,” you breathed.

"Um, o-okay," he agreed hesitantly, kneeling in front of you.  

It was like a sharp pain— a tightness that twisted inside you— and you hissed in a breath through your teeth as your sneakers slid on the tile.

"Do you need some water?" he wondered, and when his hand cradled your face for a second, you shuddered and relaxed against the table leg behind you.

"No, I just need… I…" you panted.  Just touch me more, you thought, though you didn't understand why.  Another pang hit your gut and you clutched your stomach, hunching forward with a wince.

"I-I'm gonna get the nurse," he promised, but you suddenly grabbed onto his arms tightly, stopping him from getting up.

"No, don't go," you panted, "don't leave— you can't leave me here, Eddie!"

"Okay, okay!  I'm not gonna leave!" he promised, frustrated at first but softening up when he saw how scared you were.  "I'm not gonna leave, I swear."

"I don't know what's happening," you whispered under your breath.  "God— what's happening to me?"

"You're just…" he began, trailing off, "you're— fuck, I don't know.  But I think it's… I don't know how, but I think you might be—"

"Just tell me!" you sobbed.

You were clawing at his jacket, desperate to touch his skin, desperate for anything he would give you.  That was when you first felt the heat gather between your legs, a pulse inside you just before a gush of wetness that almost made you worry you were wetting yourself— until you felt it, felt that need arch your back and throb in your channel.  It felt like being turned on, it wasn’t like you’d never felt that before, but it was so much more intense that it almost felt like a new sensation entirely.  Even though your mind didn't understand what was going on, your body was calling out for him: Alpha, Alpha, Alpha—

Something changed in the air then.

"What did you call me?"

His voice was just as dark as his eyes, and suddenly you stilled.  Oh god, you'd said it out loud.

"Say it again," he ordered; for what little you knew about all this, you knew why your body gave into his demand like it couldn't do anything else but obey. 

"Alpha," you whimpered, looking up at him.  But you knew what he was already— right then, you were realizing what you were.  Only omegas were susceptible to an Alpha's voice like that.  This isn't possible, this is not possible… I'm too young, my parents are betas, how is this happening to me?

"You're going to be okay," he promised, "I know… I know it hurts.  But I can make it better, I can help you."

You nodded, panting, going along with it because you just needed him, needed the help he was promising.  You felt dizzy and delirious, but somehow the feeling was sort of addictive— like you craved the cure as much as the sickness.  With Eddie here, it was tolerable, even though the waves of pain made you shudder and whine through your teeth.

“I’m gonna help you,” he whispered, again.

You blinked at him, trying to clear the haze from your eyes, and saw the dark shimmer in his own— his pupils had blown out wide, his nostrils were flaring; he kept shaking his head, like he was trying to clear his thoughts, and it made his fluffy hair rustle.  “How?” you finally asked.

His hands tightened as they gripped your shoulders, and you clutched at his chest, whimpering under your breath as you felt the strong muscle under his thin shirt and hot skin.  “Do you trust me?” he replied instead of answering.

You nodded.  “Anything, Alpha, please—”

“Fuck,” he choked, and you gasped as his face buried in the crook of your neck.  His nose brushed against your jaw, his mouth was right up against your pulse as he spoke.  “I can smell you, you know— I can smell what you are.  It’s… I read about it, but I never knew…”

Your eyes had already fluttered shut as you hung off of him, and you could smell him too; you were so overstimulated that it was hard to focus on it, but it was sort of musky and warm and smoky— and sweet.  Like a Christmas fireplace with roasted chestnuts and caramel just starting to toast on the stove; it was like a memory you hadn’t lived yet, nostalgia for a home you never had.

You whimpered slightly as he pulled away, reaching out for more of his touch, but he just looked at you with his mouth open a bit to let his heavy breathing pass through.  “I— I can help you, I’m gonna help you,” he kept insisting, speaking hurriedly as he opened his belt and jeans.  It was slightly disconcerting, but your need was growing and you were in no place to reject his help— not when searing pain bloomed from your gut, crawled up your back and into your mind where it demanded the touch of an Alpha.

Still, you had some sense left in you.  As well as plenty of fear; your eyes nearly popped out of your head when they caught a glimpse of his cock.  "No— no way," you shook your head, trying to scoot away, "it won't… it can't—"

"It'll fit," he insisted, his grip tightening for a moment on his concerningly-massive erection, "you're an omega.  You're made to take it."

Even as terror clawed at your mind, arousal was coursing through your veins; hearing him talk like that, seeing his body, it all called to something incredibly primal inside you.  Something you didn't even know you had… technically, maybe you didn't until just now.  Or maybe it was always there, waiting for Eddie— after all, you'd presented after being around him for the longest (and closest) you ever had.  

"I won't hurt you, I swear," he breathed, but you could hear his desperation, too.  It must be hard, presenting young in a town like Hawkins where all the omegas are already long-since mated and married— and maybe a little mature for a twenty-year-old anyways, if that mattered.  And as for betas, well, you'd heard that it was… difficult, for Alphas and betas to mate.  Now you saw directly why: it could kill them, trying to take this.  You were still afraid it would kill you.  "It won't hurt, it's… it's going to feel good.  It's natural."

"Okay," you nodded, "okay, just… talk me through this, please— Alpha, I'm scared…"

He wrapped his arms around you, pulling you into a tight embrace.  It should've been awkward, hugging a relative stranger, but it was so comforting… you sighed and held him, too, a bit of the ache inside you stilling.  And yet, your anticipation was growing: you felt another wave of slick start to leak out of you, and you whimpered slightly.

"Please," you whispered, "help me… I want you to."

"Shit," he blurted out, letting you go just long enough to peel his jacket off quickly.  "Just lay down, okay?" he offered as he put the jacket down on the floor behind you, not much padding from the hard tile but at least some protection from the coldness of it.  

You laid back, shivering as he climbed on top of you.  "Have you ever done this before?" you asked suddenly.  "Not just sex— helping an omega, specifically…"

It was kind of a stupid question, because where the fuck were these hypothetical omegas Eddie might have been with?  But you weren’t exactly thinking straight at the moment, understandably.  "Well, uh, no," he mumbled, "but I think I know how to do it.  I mean, I think I've always known— I couldn't tell you how, but… I can feel it."

You swallowed nervously.

"Trust me," he insisted.  "I know how much it hurts, I… just trust me.”

He was alone when he presented, after all; you finally put that together, and the thought of it inexplicably made your heart twist.  You knew nothing of the perils of presentation for an Alpha, but if anything like this… and he didn’t have anyone to hold him like he held you, to tell him it would be okay, to take the pain away… god, how did he survive it?

When he started to lift up your shirt, you did your best to help him— the wave of cool air on your overheated skin was almost a relief, until suddenly you were freezing.  You pulled him down close to you, feeling the warmth of him even through his shirt, and sighed happily.

He helped you out of your pants next, and you should've felt incredibly strange being completely naked in your fucking cafeteria.  But you didn't, you felt better even, you felt more natural than ever as his eyes drank you in and his hands carefully parted your thighs.

"See, all this— this is your slick," he explained, dragging two fingers through your swollen folds until you jolted from his touch.  

There was so much, you'd nearly soaked through your jeans, and just one swipe had soaked his thick fingers with clear, shiny arousal.

"It's gonna help you," he continued, panting slightly as he stared at his glistening hand.  "Fuck, you can smell it, right?  It smells so good."

You could smell something, but you wouldn't necessarily call it good… it was sort of earthy and sour, not like a perfume or candy or something.  Maybe it smelled different to him, or maybe he was just attracted to it anyway.  

"I think if Mr. Maxwell was here, he'd be able to smell it— from anywhere in the building," Eddie explained.  Mr. Maxwell was the only Alpha teacher at Hawkins High… you were suddenly very thankful he wasn't here.  He certainly didn't seem like the type to go after his own student for being a brand-new omega, but what did you know?

"What would happen, if he did?" you mumbled.  "If he smelled me?"

Eddie considered that for a second.  "I… I don't know.  I think he's able to control himself."

Well, that response begged a new question: "Can you?"

You saw his throat bob as he swallowed, his gaze still trained on where your thighs glistened with your need.  "I don't know," he admitted.  "If you asked me to go now…"

He tensed his jaw, and met your gaze.

"I don't know if I could stop," he informed you sternly.  "So don't ask me to, and we won't have to find out."

You shuddered and nodded; you wouldn’t ask him to stop, not when you needed him this badly.  Not when the idea of being alone, of being away from him, made your gut sink.

Still, your heart was racing— you wondered if he could hear it, too, since it was deafening inside your own head— as he reached for you, that intimidating cock still curling up from his opened jeans.

He gripped it with one hand, petting your thigh with the other, guiding himself right up against you; your quivering cunt flexed against itself, another wave of slick leaking down to the floor under you— coating him, before he was even inside.

“Trust me,” he breathed, “trust me— please, let me do this.  Tell me I can fuck you.”

“Y-you can fuck me, Alpha, please,” you whined.

Holding on tight to your hip, he pushed his thick head inside; you were crooning and gasping already, trying to push down for more even though it was already almost too much, but his strong grip kept you still and perfectly helpless.

“More,” you begged under your breath, “god, please?  Wan’ everything, need all of you— Alpha, my Alpha…”

His tongue and lips were all over your neck, hair tickling your chest and face.  “So good, omega, you’re doing s’good, just stay still.”

It didn’t hurt until he was halfway in, and you whined loudly as you grabbed at his thigh under your own, hoping to slow him down.  He was breathing just as hard as you, hot air spreading over your skin that was wet with his spit now, sensitive from the assault of his lips and teeth.

He didn’t warn you that he was going to give you the rest, he just pushed it in all at once and groaned as you choked out your sob.

"Fuck," he said with a gasp, "I— ah, god— I didn't know it would be like this…"

And neither did you, you didn't know how quickly your pain would fade and your body would give in to him.  He was right, it didn't hurt much… there was a sting, yes, and a stretch, but it was good pain.  It was pain you were made to take, like he said.

"Are you okay?" he asked breathlessly.  You could only nod; words had abandoned you.  Well, except one.

"Alpha," you moaned, and you heard him growl beside your neck.

"I'm here, omega," he promised.  "I'm gonna give you what you need… you're gonna be okay, you're safe."

You held on tighter to his shoulders, hiding your face in his neck, and he started to move.  The stretch was so intense that your legs were shaking with every movement, but you wouldn’t trade it for anything, you wouldn’t give up this friction inside you for the world right now— it was a salve for the pain that had been clawing you open from the inside out, but just as intense as the pain had been, now you had this hunger instead.  This… need.

“Feels so good,” you heard him whisper against your ear, “fuck, omega, you feel so good inside, you were made for me.  You were made for this, I know— I know you’re mine.”

You nodded quickly, biting your lip.  As he held you close and moved inside you, time moved differently— slower, but all at once, like you were stuck in a dream.

Everything else faded away— the fear that someone would walk in, the awareness of where you were and how this happened, anxiety and confusion and pain— and you were just drowning in every sensation: his tongue laving at your neck, his fingers holding your waist tightly, his cock inside you and stretching you.  He didn’t say much at first, he didn’t need to, but when you shuddered and another wave of slick leaked out around him, you felt him smirk.  “So wet,” he praised, “so good for your Alpha.  Do it again.”

You were almost self-conscious about how wet you were, maybe you would've been if it wasn't for Eddie being enraptured by it— he was looking down at where your bodies were joined, amazed as he watched you soak his cock over and over with more of your arousal.  You could hear it, the filthy wet sounds somewhat distant and fuzzy in your ringing ears, and your face was hot— your whole head was feverish, really, and your eyes were teary just from how overwhelmingly wonderful it felt.

"Fuck," you heard him grunt under his breath, "it's so— god, how do you feel?  Are you okay?"

You opened your mouth to try to tell him that it was perfect, he was perfect, but only a pathetic moan came out; you nodded quickly instead.

"You're so beautiful," he whispered.  "You look beautiful like this— so pretty for me."

A pained whine jumped out through your teeth— even though you felt good, his words brought back some of that ache from before, and your back arched up off the floor dramatically.

You were about to relax a bit and lay flat again, until you felt his hand move up your thigh, over your mound where his palm rested while his thumb brushed over your clit.  Your body jolted; you were confident you'd never been that sensitive there before.

"Alpha!" you whimpered.

"Shh, it's okay," he soothed, "you need to come— it's gonna help you.  You trust me, right?  Let me help you."

But the feeling inside you was already pushing you to your limits— his cock was already so deep that it felt like it was going to hit the back of your brain or something.  

He rubbed your clit as fast as he could, holding your hips steady with his other hand so you couldn't try to buck away from his touch.  You convulsed and moaned, holding onto him with all your fading strength.

“Alpha, Alpha, please!” you sobbed.  “It’s— too much!”

“No, you can take it,” he promised roughly under his breath.  “Just come for me, let go, little omega— please, let go for your Alpha, this is what you need.  You need to come for me— come, right now.”

Shivering and crying loudly, your body went limp— except for inside, where you were pulsing uncontrollably, bearing down on his thick length.  It was so intense, it almost hurt, and yet it was your favorite pain you ever felt.

You hadn’t noticed that your hands were grabbing his arm until they let go, leaving just a bit of moisture on his sleeve from the clamminess.  “Did you…?” he began to ask.  “I mean, is it better now?  It hurts less?”

You tried to process his questions, but you were still coming down from it, still catching your breath.  “It’s… it’s a little better.”

“You need more?” he asked, and fuck, it was a totally genuine question, but the way he said it…

Nodding, you pulled him down on top of you and buried your face in his neck.  “Just don’t stop,” you pleaded, “Alpha— don’t stop, m’gonna be good for you…”

It was impossible to define what compelled you to say that, but it didn’t really matter.  Your first orgasm had numbed your body and mind enough to let you just submit to your instincts, to trust not only your Alpha, but your own body and its ability to do what it was made to do.  It felt better, when you stopped worrying and accepted your place.

And no, despite what some sexists might say, your place was not beneath.  Your place was not serving, pleasing, obeying.  Your place was simply in his arms.  Your place was with your Alpha.

“I— fuck, I don’t know how much longer I can last,” he admitted lowly.  “You just… you feel so good, omega, you’re my omega, aren’t you?”

“Yes, Alpha,” you promised.

“Loved feeling you come on me,” he grunted through his teeth, “can you do it again?  If I tell you to?”

“I’ll do— I’ll do a-anything you tell me to,” you stuttered as you tried to swallow past the dryness in your throat from panting so hard.

“Then come,” he demanded again, renewing the movements of his thumb on your clit— but honestly, you didn’t even need it.  Just his voice, just an Alpha’s voice ordering you (as well as the overly-sensitive feeling your last orgasm had left behind) was enough to send you over the edge in just a few moments.  He praised you all the way through it, every kind word like another shock of ecstasy through your body.  “So good,” he said again, rough and deep as he rested his head on your shoulder, “so good for me, omega— feels so good when I make you come.”

You smiled through your exhaustion because it felt so good to make him feel good— to know you were pleasing him.  

"You know what's gonna happen, don't you?" he whispered.  "I'm gonna… knot you."

"Fuck, please," you choked.

"It might hurt a little," he warned, "but it's gonna— fuck, s'gonna be so good, if you just trust me."

"I trust you, Alpha," you promised.  "Want your knot, please…"

“Beautiful,” he grunted as he fucked you harder and faster, “my beautiful omega— mine.”

You whined through your teeth, clutching his shoulders tighter.  “Alpha!”

“Whose omega are you?”

“Y-yours,” you choked, “yours, Alpha, Alpha…”

“Tell me again,” he demanded.

“I’m yours!  Yours, Eddie—”

He cut you off with a rough kiss right away; you didn’t even question it.  You felt him coming inside you and your mind went blank, your body went crazy, your senses went haywire.  He was coming inside you, and nothing had ever felt so good.  You sobbed with joy, holding onto him tighter as you felt the base of his cock swelling— you already thought you were at your limits, and yet his knot kept growing inside you and you just kept taking it.

“Alpha,” you whispered with the last of your breath.

He couldn't move as much with the knot growing, keeping him buried inside you, but he still ever-so-slightly rocked your body, grinding his hips against yours.

You fell back onto his jacket on the floor with a sigh, panting so hard you thought your chest might not fit all the air you were gasping for.  Finally you felt almost like yourself again, almost lucid, though still sort of numb all over; which, considering the incredible fullness inside you, was a good thing.

You tried to adjust your hips, wincing as it disturbed the delicate balance within you.  Your bodies were interlocked now, and your returning logical mind remembered that this part might last for a while— that was the whole point, evolutionarily speaking.

“Fuck,” Eddie grunted, finally stilling completely and propping himself up on his arms above you.  You watched him catch his breath, admiring the shape of his jaw, the way his lashes looked extra long when his eyes were shut and they fell over his cheeks; you reached up and brushed some hair away from his face, and that seemed to get his attention.  “I-I’m sorry,” he blurted out.

“What?  Eddie, no— thank you, thank you so much,” you sighed, “the pain’s gone.”

“For now,” he warned.  “It’ll come back— if it’s anything like mine was.  You’ll need more… a lot more.”

You worried, for a moment, that he was telling you that you needed more than he could give.  You couldn’t imagine anyone or anything else helping you now— you needed him, that much was clear.  You grabbed a handful of his shirt, and he looked down at that hand on him before he looked at your face again.

“I’ll take you home,” he said.

“Like this?” you panted.   “What am I gonna tell my parents?”

“N-no, my home,” he corrected, and you were surprised, yet somehow you soothed at the same time.  “I-it’s not much, just a trailer, but you can nest there and I can… I can take care of you.”

Your heart was singing; you’d never been cared for before.  You never wanted to admit that you needed it.

~

You were sort of on autopilot; you’d been gathering random linens and clothes of Eddie’s and piling them on the corner of the bed.  You couldn’t say exactly… why, but Eddie explained it was natural.  At least when you were doing this, you weren’t so needy that he had to stay and hold you— he could actually go out and get some provisions for the both of you.  

He told you that this whole thing could take up to a week, but you could stay here and Wayne was going to find somewhere to crash until you were done; he told you it was going to get worse before it got better, and come and go in waves.  Most importantly, he told you that he would do whatever he could to help you.

You could hardly believe he was a near-total stranger to you this morning.  There was still an awkwardness there, especially on his part, but you felt this impossible connection with him now— you felt so safe with him, in fact you never felt safe without him.  Which was why you smiled with excitement the moment you heard his van pull up outside.

By the time he was at the door, you were already opening it for him.  “Hi,” you beamed.

“Hey,” he smiled back, a bit more hesitant.

You reached for the grocery bags.  “L-lemme help you with those—”

“Nooo way,” he denied as he lifted them over your head while he stepped past you, “let the big strong Alpha do it, sweetheart.”

The door swung shut and you thought you could swoon.  Sweetheart.  This kind of shit would’ve made you roll your eyes yesterday.  Now you were such a sucker for it, and he was just being friendly.

“Plenty of food for the next few days,” he explained as he sorted the contents of his bag into either the pantry or fridge.  “Nothing, you know, fancy, but… it’ll keep your energy up.  And mine.”

You watched him, clutching your hands together in front of you, though you weren’t sure what exactly you were waiting on.  You just liked watching him, really.

“Oh!  I got some ice packs too,” he remembered.  “You might get really hot, o-or crampy, so those can help a lot.”

“Okay,” you nodded, smiling.  He shut the pantry door that he’d been leaning behind and looked over at you.  After a quick moment, he stepped up in front of you, and you tilted your head back to look up at him; he smiled, and reached up to hold your face in his hand.

Looking straight forward, you were right at eye-level with his Hellfire Club shirt.  You reached to where it ended, just beside his black faux-leather belt, and you started to lift it up off of him.  Smirking a bit, he helped you take it off of him— you immediately held the ball of fabric up to your face, inhaling his scent.  You hardly even noticed his toned chest dotted with hair and tattoos, you were too busy realizing you’d just found the perfect final piece for your nest.

You ran to the bedroom and pounced onto the bed, stuffing the shirt in with the other clothes and things, smiling contentedly as you buried yourself in them.  A long, deep inhale filled your lungs with the smell of Alpha, and it made everything feel alright.

You felt the bed dip as Eddie climbed onto the mattress with you, and you poked your head out from your little cave.  “Doin’ alright in there?” he asked, and you bit your lip as you nodded.  “I’ll just leave you be until you need—”

“No,” you interjected quickly, grabbing his guitar pick necklace and tugging him closer.  “No, stay here… you were just gone for so long…”

“Yeah, we needed food,” he reminded you.

“But I didn’t like you being gone,” you breathed.

“I thought you were okay with it!  You said I could go,” he remembered.

“Y-yeah, but then, you know…” you trailed off.  Your eyes wandered over his bare torso, over his arms and shoulders…

When you looked at his face again, he was smiling a little, and he reached up to push his hair out of his face.  “But then?” he prompted.

“I just missed you more than I thought I would,” you sighed.

“Yeah?” he hummed, scooting up on the bed to be even closer to you.  “I missed you more than I thought I would, too.  I probably still reek of you— and your slick.”

You whimpered.  “Do I smell like you?”

“You fucking better,” he said plainly, like it wasn’t so hot that your thighs quivered briefly.

He pulled you close to him, pressing your face against his chest; when you breathed in, you got a big whiff of his skin, of the heady scent of your Alpha.  It silenced every anxiety in your mind and body, and you realized you’d never felt this comfortable— this safe— in your life.  Something instinctive told you that you were going to be protected and loved; you felt whole.

You snuggled into his arms, nuzzling at his chest, and he sighed as he kissed your head.  “You’re cute,” he informed you quietly, and you smiled as you looked up at him.

“Really?” you hummed, and he nodded.  “You’re… big.”

He laughed.  “I’m still getting used to it,” he admitted.  “All of it.”

Your eyes drifted to his chest in front of you, and your fingers drew random shapes in his thin body hair— then moved to trace his tattoos.  “What’s it like?” you asked.  “Going through all this…”

"It's… honestly, it sucks," he laughed lightly.  "It's like puberty all over again."

"Fuck."

"But worse."

"God," you whined, letting your head fall onto his chest.  "Tell me I'm not gonna have to do this alone."

His hand reached up and pet your head.  "You're not gonna have to do this alone."

Your heart hurt as you imagined him doing this alone— of course, presenting is different for Alphas and omegas, they have ruts while you have heats, but it must be similar compared to everything else.

"Are we gonna… do we need to talk about it?" he asked.

"About what?"

"About how we woke up this morning as basically total strangers," he replied.  "About how I wasn't even sure if you knew my name.  And now we… now I…"

You nodded against him.  “It’s weird how right it feels.  Like, I know I should be questioning it.”  You tilted your head up to put your temple on his shoulder, so you could look at his face.  “I know it shouldn’t make any sense.  But it does.”

“Maybe it’s always like that,” he wondered.

“Maybe,” you offered.

He kissed your forehead.  “Or,” he breathed, “maybe it’s just that you really were always supposed to be mine.”

You didn’t reply to that with words, just a shiver and an arm slipping around his torso to hold onto him tighter.  As much as it was far too romantic for anything you were willing to believe, there was a growing mountain of evidence that implied he was right— that you were his from the start.  First of all, you presented early, and suddenly, when you were close to him for a while.

His gentle kisses moved in a path down your face, finding your neck and teasing you there carefully.  “Do you like being mine?” he asked softly.  You nodded as you held onto him tighter, moaning when he dragged his teeth over your skin.  “I’m so fuckin’ lucky, got this pretty omega all to myself.  Every Alpha’s dream— sweet little cunt in heat to breed.”

He rolled you onto your back and descended on you, pressing his body weight into you, and you spread your legs without even thinking about it.  

It wasn’t as bad as the first wave, but it still made you hot and needy, it still robbed you of logical thinking and turned you into a desperate, mewling little thing beneath him.  You were too caught up in the dreamy fog of it all to even be embarrassed, to care about begging for him so pathetically— he didn’t even have to make you beg, he never teased you, he gave you everything you wanted.  Still, you were a broken record: please, Alpha, fuck me— need you, Alpha, please, please—

“Knot me,” you begged, too, and he groaned as he held you tighter.  “Please, s’the only thing that makes the pain go away, please?  Alpha, give me your knot, wanna be full—”

“Shh,” he soothed, “I know, I know, baby… but maybe— fuck, maybe I should pull out this time.”

“No, please!” you sobbed.  “Feels so good when your knot’s inside me, Alpha.”

“You could… you can get pregnant,” he reminded you thinly, even though it was sort of obvious— that’s the point of all this, biologically.  “It’s not as likely your first heat, you’re still just presenting, but… you could.”

“I don’t care,” you breathed, “just please, Alpha, come in me again, please please—”

“Okay,” he promised with kisses all over your face, “it’s okay, I will, m’gonna help you.  Just need you to come one more time first.”

“Can’t,” you shook your head, but then again, you’d said that last time and he still made you do it.

“C’mon, omega, just wanna feel one more?  You can do it,” he cooed, “you can leak a little more slick with that pretty hole, I know you can, I know— it’s gonna hurt but it’s worth it, just one more…”

You were about to tell him you really couldn't do it, that three was your official limit, even though your heat-brain hated the idea of saying no to Alpha.

"Just one more," he pleaded, "for me, sweetheart?"

And before you knew it, you were nodding and bracing yourself, letting every sensation wash over you even though you might explode from being so overwhelmed.  You didn't explode in a literal sense, but you almost felt like you did— it hit you like a train and you sobbed out his name pathetically as you tried to take it all.

His knot swelled inside you a moment later, bringing the only real relief you got from this.  Eddie seemed to think that your orgasms were the key to staving off your heat-induced delirium, but it was his that soothed your body and mind the most.

Those moments you spent forced to be near him as you both waited for the swelling to go down enough for him to pull out… those were the moments you could think clearest, but your sanity was wasted on simply laying there letting him coo at you gently, praising you, kissing your face and neck.  Those were the moments you really remembered that this was Eddie Munson, that guy in health class, a relative stranger— and everything you needed.

"Oh, it’s all messed up,” you mumbled as you looked up at the pile of clothes you’d carefully arranged on the bed, seeing it had toppled over in the heat of the moment.  You tried to reach for it to fiddle with it, but Eddie laughed softly as he guided your face to look at him again.

“Welcome back,” he greeted, pecking the end of your nose with a kiss.  “The nest can wait— just talk to me for a minute, please?”

You smiled and kissed him back on the lips— just for a second, until he held your face tighter with both hands and kissed you harder and longer.  You hummed into it, feeling him smile against you, and he finally let go to nuzzle his face into your neck.  “Your hair is tickling me,” you complained as you tried to sputter enough to get one wayward wavy strand out of your mouth, but he shook his head just to make it even worse; you giggled and turned your face away, still getting pelted with hair as you laughed harder.  “Stop!” you whined, feeling his hands hold you at either side to keep you pinned under him.

He only stopped when he suddenly rolled onto his back, holding you tight and pulling you with him— you still couldn’t separate from each other, and so you were laying on his chest and straddling his hips with your weak legs.  “I can feel it when you laugh, you know,” he told you, still smiling.  “Inside.”

You shivered, holding him tighter.  Why was that so hot?  You clenched, intentionally, to see if he’d react, and he hissed in a little breath.  “You can feel that?” you realized, and he nodded.

You did it again, and he hissed and gripped your hips.  “Don’t do that,” he warned, “unless you want me to fuck you again.”

Raising an eyebrow at him, he grinned back at you.  

“Okay, wait,” he breathed, “that was basically asking you to do it.  Just… wait until the knot goes down, okay?  I don’t recover as fast as you.”

You nodded, resting your chin on his chest and blinking up at him as he sighed and relaxed under you.  His hands stroked your back, mostly mindlessly, while you found yourself reaching up to play with his hair.  

“Are you still gonna want me around?” he asked suddenly, looking down at you again.  “When the heat’s over.”

You hesitated, opening your mouth and then shutting it again.

“I shouldn’t ask that now,” he sighed, shaking his head slightly as if frustrated with himself.  “You can’t know yet.  I guess what I’m trying to say is… if you just want this to be… this, that’s okay.  I can help you out and then we can go our separate ways.”

You swallowed thickly; he made it sound easy, but imagining it was impossible.  You couldn’t be separate from him, it would be excruciating.

“But, you know, if you wanna… go out sometime,” he stumbled over his words, “a-after this is all over, and we can leave the house again—”

“Are you asking me out?” you realized, eyes widening.

“Um,” he stalled, laughing slightly, “yeah.  Trying to, at least.”

“You’re literally inside me right now,” you reminded him, “and you’re hesitating to ask me to be your girlfriend.”

“Woah, woah,” he scoffed as he raised his hands, “I just said a date, let’s not rush things—”

You laughed and shoved his face away in punishment, but he held you by your wrists and sat up, keeping you perched in his lap as he kissed you— both of you still giggling a bit as you moved your lips together.

One week later…

"You understand why your case is so important to us," the doctor explained, smiling politely as he looked at you.  "Presenting at eighteen is rare enough, even for someone with a much higher likelihood of having ESD.  But with two beta parents… those odds make winning the lottery seem likely."

Eddie had already joked about buying some Powerball tickets, but you still weren't sure if this was all incredible luck or misfortune.  That said, you did feel better with his arm around your shoulders; he'd insisted on coming into the exam room with you, despite the exasperated nurse explaining you were meant to come in alone.  You were impressed she stood up to an Alpha for as long as she did, but she gave in eventually, and you were thankful for it.

"If you don't mind, we'd like to run some tests," the doctor continued.  "If we understand your unique case, we may understand the entire concept of dimorphism better.  Would you give your consent for our research?"

You were swinging your legs as they hung off the exam table, watching your bare feet brush against Eddie's shoes; the hospital gown wasn't enough to shield you from the coldness and sterility of the air, and you leaned harder into Eddie for warmth.  Looking up at the man in the white coat, you only hesitated a second before nodding.

"We'll need a few blood samples," the doctor enumerated as you sighed through another understanding nod, "and a cervical sample."

"Cervical?" Eddie repeated.

"Yes, from the cervix?  It's—"

"I know what the cervix is," Eddie frowned.  "How would this sample be collected?"

"Um, well, I would insert a brush up the—"

"Nope," Eddie interrupted firmly, "no, no way."

"I—" the doctor started.

"Nothing's going up anything, okay?  Nothing's going… in her."

"I understand that you're feeling protective at the moment," the doctor sighed.  "That's a normal hormonal reaction."

You blinked and stared down into your lap, where Eddie's hand was holding yours tightly, just under the plastic bracelet that had your information on it.  Name, birthday, patient ID number, and of course, sex.  You expected to see an F there, like you always had on any form or ID or paperwork.  You were still getting used to what you saw instead: O.

A normal hormonal reaction.  Does that mean it's not really real?  That it's a phase that passes, and you'll just be strangers again?

You squeezed Eddie's hand, feeling him squeeze yours back; it felt so real now, though.  You couldn't imagine life without this, even though that's exactly what your life had been until just a week ago.

"That said," the doctor continued, "she needs to make her own medical decisions.  If we feel that your presence is putting her under any duress, and therefore interfering with her right to informed consent and medical privacy, we will have you removed from the premises."

You almost wanted to see them try, three beta security guards versus one Alpha running on mating instincts.  But you shook your head and spoke up instead.  "It's alright," you interjected, "I— I don't want an internal exam, please.  But you can take as much blood as you need."

Even that seemed to frustrate Eddie, who huffed a little and gently squeezed your shoulder, but kept his mouth shut.  The doctor smiled.  "It won't be that much," he assured, "just a few vials.  And a cheek swab, if that doesn't count as internal."

“That’s fine,” you nodded.

When the doctor left to get the tools needed to draw your blood, you laid your head on Eddie's shoulder as he gently played with your hair.

"I don't think that guy likes me too much," Eddie whispered, making you smile and tilt your face into the crook of his neck.

"He's just trying to make sure you're not controlling me," you assured.

"But compared to your parents he's, like, my biggest fan," Eddie added, and you smacked him lightly on the chest as you laughed.

"Shut up," you mumbled, "they don't hate you… they're just trying to understand all this.  So am I, honestly."

One of his strong hands came up to hold your face, thumb petting your temple, as he kissed the top of your head.  Wayne had been the first to deliver the news to your parents, and you would never have enough money in your life to repay him for being the one to knock on their door and say hey, funny story, your daughter's an omega and she's currently getting her brains fucked out by my nephew, anyways see you in a week when she gets her logical reasoning back and also might be pregnant, toodaloo.

(You figured he found a better way to say it than that, but still, that was probably what they heard.)

It was a couple days before you were stable long enough to go over there yourself, Eddie close by your side the whole time, trying to explain it as best you could in a way they would understand.  They, too, had made Eddie leave to speak with you alone— even though it made you feel like you had to leave your heart in the other room— and asked you if somehow he was making you do this.  It seemed like no matter what you said, people had trouble believing that Eddie saved you, that you needed him now and that he needed you, too.

Not that you could really blame them, because it wasn't something you could put into words, either.  You just felt it.  It was basic, natural instinct.  It's like trying to explain why you eat multiple times a day or why you have to get up and walk to be able to cross the room.

You were snuggled up in Eddie's arms when a nurse came in, rolling a cart with the essentials for a blood draw on top.  You bit your lip when you saw four vials, knowing how those were going to get filled.

"Are you afraid of needles?" she asked.

"I… have a healthy respect for them," you replied, making her laugh a bit.

"That's fair," she nodded, grabbing your wrist and gently pulling your arm so she could wipe down the area she was going to prick.

You turned your face into his chest, closing your eyes, since you figured looking would only make it worse.

As she tied your arm and searched for the vein, Eddie held your head to his shoulder tightly, soothing you gently.  "It's okay," he whispered against your head, "you're okay…"

He winced almost as hard as you did when she finally did it, and you knew that this was hurting him, too.  You felt the same way when he accidentally cut his finger, or when he told you about some of the more difficult stories from his past; his pain was your pain.

"All done!" the nurse announced with a little too much chipperness as she untied the tight rubber from your arm and taped down a cotton ball to the small dot of a wound.

You exhaled slowly, and Eddie kissed your cheek.  "You did so good, sweetheart," he praised.

"That's sweet," the nurse cooed, sweetness quickly slipping into condescension.  "I guess you two are mates, huh?"

You wished you had the guts to blurt out the first snarky thing you thought of: No, he's my tax attorney.  Of course he's my mate, are you blind?

"Yeah," you offered shyly instead.

"How long have you been going out?" she asked, making conversation half-heartedly as she cleaned up the rolling cart and threw away what she didn't need.

"We haven't actually, uh, had a chance to go on a real date yet," Eddie interjected, making you wince and look down.  "Unless this counts— but I was thinking something a little more traditional for our first date than a drive to the hospital and a blood draw."

The nurse made a little face, like she was trying to be nice, not even looking at you.  "Well, that's… sweet… I'm surprised they let you back here together."

"Doctor Ali knew it was important to me," you explained quickly.

She nodded.  "You're young… everything feels important when you're that age."

"What does that mean?" Eddie snapped.

"Well, it's just that… you know, first love and all," she shrugged.

"You don't get it," Eddie laughed coldly.  "You're a beta, you could never understand.  It's different for us— we mate for life."

Your throat caught.  If that was true, it never came up in health class…

You waited until Eddie was driving you home to bring it up— but you’d been imagining asking about it ever since he said it.

"Do we really…?" you asked, looking down at your hands in your lap as you sat still in the passenger seat.  "Are we mates for life now?"

He swallowed, glancing down.  "We don't have to be.  It's not like every omega stays with the first Alpha they meet— actually, maybe most of them don’t.  But that’s how it used to be, back in the day— mates stayed together, always.”

That sounded nice; your heart beat a little faster just imagining it.

“I just…” he began, trailing off and starting over.  “I'm starting to wonder if it wasn't a coincidence.  Even if it seems pretty random— we didn't know each other at all, before— I think it happened for a reason."

You shivered, but nodded in agreement.  “I think so, too.”

"I think you're supposed to be mine."

You smiled, looking down into your lap shyly once again.  “I don’t know about supposed to, but… I know that I want to be.”

“Let me remind you, one more time,” he smirked, “that we barely know each other.”

But you knew everything that mattered about each other, and so you smiled to yourself.  “I don’t care,” you insisted.

You blinked quickly, looking at him and out the window, when you realized he was pulling the van over.  When you were parked on the side of the road, he leaned over the console and held your cheek in one hand as you looked up at him.  His face was determined, yet soft; his eyes were even bigger than you remembered.  “Do you wanna be my mate?  Really?”

“Eddie,” you sighed, “of course— can’t you tell?”

“No, I know,” he shook his head, “I just mean that if we do this— if we really do this, the whole mated pair thing— it’s just you and me, for the long haul.  Together.”

You reached up and put your own hand on top of his.  “That’s what I want.”

“And I should warn you now,” he added, “that if you let me… I’m gonna breed you.”

You shivered.  “I… I want that, too.”

He growled, quiet but enough for you to hear and gasp as it seemed to rattle through your body, as he pulled you into a kiss.  You whimpered into it, clutching at his jacket needily until he smiled at you.  “Sweetheart,” he whispered, and you shivered again.

“F-fuck, Eddie, can we…?  Now?” you asked.

“Here?” he smirked.  “In the van?”

You glanced at the back for just a split second, but he noticed, and laughed lowly in that way that made your thighs clench together.  

“You wanna get in the back?” he noticed, and you nodded, looking at him again with half-lidded eyes.  “I really don’t deserve you— it’s not fair, you know, me having the sweetest omega in the world all to myself.”

“Just take me,” you pleaded, sick of the teasing, desperate for him to make good on that promise to breed you— logic be damned.  “Alpha…”

“Shh,” he soothed, kissing your neck instead as you melted into his arms, “m’right here, sweetheart.”