Maiden Rose meta and alpha/beta/omega worldbuilding
This is a companion piece to my Maiden Rose A/B/O fic, "For As Long As You Will Have Me", detailing some of the worldbuilding and backstory that went into developing it.
Worldbuilding
In Taki's country, male omegas basically take the place of wakashu (male objects of male and female desire/men it's culturally acceptable to fuck) historically, except that since pregnancy is a possibility, a male alpha being onna-girai (woman-hating, i.e. exclusively homosexual) is seen as a choice that's consistent with their social responsibilities. Male betas are still expected to marry women and produce children, but may fuck male omegas if they choose without social sanction. Male omegas are equivalent to wakashu, in that they are considered fully male and no dishonor attaches to being the receptive partner in sex. Female alphas are expected to continue in female roles, but are considered equivalent to male alphas for marriage purposes and so are accepted as capable of continuing the family line without requiring marriage to a man and his adoption into the family/eligible for adoption into a family that would otherwise die out. Because there was no cultural pressure from the West (since the WA also considers the alpha/omega relationship legitimate), the replacement, within living memory of Taki's era, of shudo (the set of rules that governed m/m sexual conduct) as an acceptable cultural practice with Western-typical pathologization of male/male sex did not occur.
As a result, Klaus is an acceptable partner for Taki. Suguri infers, in explaining Taki's purity taboos, that not all Reizens have abstained from marriage, and Inariya appears to have derived the prohibition on sexual conduct largely from Shinto concepts of purity. In preparation for rituals, Shinto priests will ritually cleanse and then abstain from sex (and meat, which is another of Taki's taboos). This means that, in a society where Klaus is a legitimate partner for Taki, their relationship may be acknowledged openly, but Taki would have to ritually cleanse himself after each sexual encounter in order to maintain the state of purity that allows him to lead. (This ability to cleans impurities is also likely the reason no one sees Taki as permanently marred by incidents like his visit to the infirmary in canon.)
The Western Alliance considers alpha/omega relationships normative, but doesn't see them as a replacement for marriage, nor did it accept female inheritance until a few decades ago. As a result, it's not uncommon to see two same-sex mated pairs marrying and establishing a joint household. It places no restrictions on men in the armed forces, except that it usually houses alphas and omegas separately, in an effort to cut down on unplanned bonding during heats.
Taki looks, according to both cultures, much more like an ideal omega than an ideal alpha. Klaus looks much more like an alpha than an omega.
Omega heats last two to three days, happen every one to two months, and are intensely physically taxing for the omega, who will not eat for the duration and will be driven to mate every three to four hours. Alphas do not always form a mating bond with omegas during heat. Alpha/omega bonding is a practice recognized in both cultures, both of which view it as irrevocable and dissolved only with the death of one partner. This is not strictly true. While alphas and omegas tend to form very tight, possessive unions and, once bonded, will reject other partners even in heat, there is no strict physiological element governing this, and prolonged separation of any sort is sufficient to abate the psychological effects. Taki's country considers suicide an acceptable, honorable response to an unwanted bonding, and also strongly romanticizes unsuitable mates who were strong enough to offer their life to their lovers, to free them for more fitting unions. The Western Alliance countries do not officially consider suicide acceptable, but tend to privately consider it the best choice available in untenable circumstances.
Backstory
All of the ways their world is different mean that Klaus and Taki's relationship has also progressed rather differently. In keeping with the fact that they would not normally be roomed together, their assignment to the same room is officially a bureaucratic oversight. Wires were crossed about alpha and omega status, and they ended up sharing a room. Unofficially, it's a deliberate plot. The Western Alliance intelligence service here, given the option of tying Taki to them more definitively, has taken full advantage. Klaus is a honey pot this time, under orders to sleep with Taki if possible, and ideally induce him to form a mating bond. Klaus has been ambivalent about these orders from the start, and becomes moreso when he finds himself fiercely attracted to Taki. He'd rather like anything that happens to be genuine, and he has no idea how to raise the issue with Taki, who is fiercely proud and kind of standoffish. Klaus makes certain to spend heats out of their room, in the inn in town, so that nothing will happen by accident. This displeases his handlers.
One evening, right before Klaus's heat, they're having a last dinner at the inn. Taki will be returning to the Luckenwalde dorm, and Klaus is planning to stay. But they leave it a bit long, and Klaus's heat rises a bit faster than expected, and next thing anyone knows, Taki's spent the duration of the heat in the inn with Klaus, and they're mated. Klaus feels hideously guilty, because he's been trying to avoid something just like this happening. Taki feels equally guilty, because he's gotten Klaus stuck in all this without even asking. They're both expecting the other person to be hideously unhappy with the whole thing, and are kind of amazed that they both seem pretty okay.
Things go pretty well until they get back to Taki's country. Klaus is not a good match politically, and of course he's nothing like the kind of partner Taki was expected to take eventually. He's a foreigner from an enemy country, and he doesn't even have useful familial ties in the government. There's also a very strong likelihood that he's a spy who seduced Taki for continuing access to military and political information. One thing that is much improved compared to canon is Klaus's social status. He's effectively Taki's spouse and aide, rather than his slave.
So, Taki has yet to tell Klaus about the sexual purity issue, because he's gotten Klaus stuck in this relationship (he thinks) and so doesn't want Klaus to feel constrained about asking for sex if he wants it. The least he can do to make up for this mess is make sure Klaus has whatever he wants from Taki. Unfortunately, the first time he has to go take care of something during a lull in the heat, he asks Suguri to keep an eye on Klaus. Suguri wastes no time suggesting that Klaus should be less selfish, because the Reizen purity is important and the less sex Taki has, the easier it will be to maintain. Klaus is already feeling guilty about the fact that Taki is stuck with him (this is one place he differs from canon, because here, unlike there, he doesn't feel as though Taki made an affirmative choice to keep him) so he pulls back and tries to let Taki set the pace of their relationship.
Taki has been expecting something exactly like that; for Klaus to come to his senses and be unhappy with the relationship and being removed from his life and stuck on the opposite side in a war from the country he was presumably loyal to. So he does the only thing he thinks he can, which is to pull back and give Klaus as much space as he can. The best thing he could do, of course, would be to kill himself and free Klaus to return to his life, but that would mean abandoning all his other responsibilities, so it's not an option in wartime. The fic picks up after this has been the status quo for around six months.
This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth. There are
comments on that post. Please comment here or there using OpenID.
Worldbuilding
In Taki's country, male omegas basically take the place of wakashu (male objects of male and female desire/men it's culturally acceptable to fuck) historically, except that since pregnancy is a possibility, a male alpha being onna-girai (woman-hating, i.e. exclusively homosexual) is seen as a choice that's consistent with their social responsibilities. Male betas are still expected to marry women and produce children, but may fuck male omegas if they choose without social sanction. Male omegas are equivalent to wakashu, in that they are considered fully male and no dishonor attaches to being the receptive partner in sex. Female alphas are expected to continue in female roles, but are considered equivalent to male alphas for marriage purposes and so are accepted as capable of continuing the family line without requiring marriage to a man and his adoption into the family/eligible for adoption into a family that would otherwise die out. Because there was no cultural pressure from the West (since the WA also considers the alpha/omega relationship legitimate), the replacement, within living memory of Taki's era, of shudo (the set of rules that governed m/m sexual conduct) as an acceptable cultural practice with Western-typical pathologization of male/male sex did not occur.
As a result, Klaus is an acceptable partner for Taki. Suguri infers, in explaining Taki's purity taboos, that not all Reizens have abstained from marriage, and Inariya appears to have derived the prohibition on sexual conduct largely from Shinto concepts of purity. In preparation for rituals, Shinto priests will ritually cleanse and then abstain from sex (and meat, which is another of Taki's taboos). This means that, in a society where Klaus is a legitimate partner for Taki, their relationship may be acknowledged openly, but Taki would have to ritually cleanse himself after each sexual encounter in order to maintain the state of purity that allows him to lead. (This ability to cleans impurities is also likely the reason no one sees Taki as permanently marred by incidents like his visit to the infirmary in canon.)
The Western Alliance considers alpha/omega relationships normative, but doesn't see them as a replacement for marriage, nor did it accept female inheritance until a few decades ago. As a result, it's not uncommon to see two same-sex mated pairs marrying and establishing a joint household. It places no restrictions on men in the armed forces, except that it usually houses alphas and omegas separately, in an effort to cut down on unplanned bonding during heats.
Taki looks, according to both cultures, much more like an ideal omega than an ideal alpha. Klaus looks much more like an alpha than an omega.
Omega heats last two to three days, happen every one to two months, and are intensely physically taxing for the omega, who will not eat for the duration and will be driven to mate every three to four hours. Alphas do not always form a mating bond with omegas during heat. Alpha/omega bonding is a practice recognized in both cultures, both of which view it as irrevocable and dissolved only with the death of one partner. This is not strictly true. While alphas and omegas tend to form very tight, possessive unions and, once bonded, will reject other partners even in heat, there is no strict physiological element governing this, and prolonged separation of any sort is sufficient to abate the psychological effects. Taki's country considers suicide an acceptable, honorable response to an unwanted bonding, and also strongly romanticizes unsuitable mates who were strong enough to offer their life to their lovers, to free them for more fitting unions. The Western Alliance countries do not officially consider suicide acceptable, but tend to privately consider it the best choice available in untenable circumstances.
Backstory
All of the ways their world is different mean that Klaus and Taki's relationship has also progressed rather differently. In keeping with the fact that they would not normally be roomed together, their assignment to the same room is officially a bureaucratic oversight. Wires were crossed about alpha and omega status, and they ended up sharing a room. Unofficially, it's a deliberate plot. The Western Alliance intelligence service here, given the option of tying Taki to them more definitively, has taken full advantage. Klaus is a honey pot this time, under orders to sleep with Taki if possible, and ideally induce him to form a mating bond. Klaus has been ambivalent about these orders from the start, and becomes moreso when he finds himself fiercely attracted to Taki. He'd rather like anything that happens to be genuine, and he has no idea how to raise the issue with Taki, who is fiercely proud and kind of standoffish. Klaus makes certain to spend heats out of their room, in the inn in town, so that nothing will happen by accident. This displeases his handlers.
One evening, right before Klaus's heat, they're having a last dinner at the inn. Taki will be returning to the Luckenwalde dorm, and Klaus is planning to stay. But they leave it a bit long, and Klaus's heat rises a bit faster than expected, and next thing anyone knows, Taki's spent the duration of the heat in the inn with Klaus, and they're mated. Klaus feels hideously guilty, because he's been trying to avoid something just like this happening. Taki feels equally guilty, because he's gotten Klaus stuck in all this without even asking. They're both expecting the other person to be hideously unhappy with the whole thing, and are kind of amazed that they both seem pretty okay.
Things go pretty well until they get back to Taki's country. Klaus is not a good match politically, and of course he's nothing like the kind of partner Taki was expected to take eventually. He's a foreigner from an enemy country, and he doesn't even have useful familial ties in the government. There's also a very strong likelihood that he's a spy who seduced Taki for continuing access to military and political information. One thing that is much improved compared to canon is Klaus's social status. He's effectively Taki's spouse and aide, rather than his slave.
So, Taki has yet to tell Klaus about the sexual purity issue, because he's gotten Klaus stuck in this relationship (he thinks) and so doesn't want Klaus to feel constrained about asking for sex if he wants it. The least he can do to make up for this mess is make sure Klaus has whatever he wants from Taki. Unfortunately, the first time he has to go take care of something during a lull in the heat, he asks Suguri to keep an eye on Klaus. Suguri wastes no time suggesting that Klaus should be less selfish, because the Reizen purity is important and the less sex Taki has, the easier it will be to maintain. Klaus is already feeling guilty about the fact that Taki is stuck with him (this is one place he differs from canon, because here, unlike there, he doesn't feel as though Taki made an affirmative choice to keep him) so he pulls back and tries to let Taki set the pace of their relationship.
Taki has been expecting something exactly like that; for Klaus to come to his senses and be unhappy with the relationship and being removed from his life and stuck on the opposite side in a war from the country he was presumably loyal to. So he does the only thing he thinks he can, which is to pull back and give Klaus as much space as he can. The best thing he could do, of course, would be to kill himself and free Klaus to return to his life, but that would mean abandoning all his other responsibilities, so it's not an option in wartime. The fic picks up after this has been the status quo for around six months.
This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth. There are
comments on that post. Please comment here or there using OpenID.