[Fic] snickfic: Thermodynamics and the Modern Male
[ Invited reccer: J2 friendship ]
Title: Thermodynamics and the Modern Male
Writer: snickfic
Alternate links: Also on Ao3
Status of work: Complete
Characters and/or pairings: Primarily Jared-centric gen with a strong J2 friendship, plus Jared/OFC and Jared/Matt Cohen
Rating: R
Warnings, kinks & contents: [Click to read]Writer's warnings: alpha/beta/omega dynamics, references to knotting and mpreg, masturbation, sex talk ranging from clinical to juvenile, crude and insensitive language, sexual harassment, bullying, extended discussion of intersex genitalia
Length: 23 000
Summary: When Jared goes into heat for the first time, his comfortable high school slacker existence comes to an abrupt halt. Now he’s an omega, which means alphas smell like heaven (exhibit A: Matt Cohen), terrifying senior Katie Cassidy is saving his damsel ass, and the beta girl he’s been crushing on for months suddenly looks more like a sister. Meanwhile Jensen, beta and best friend extraordinaire, is maybe not dealing well with never having been told that Jared was omega.
Reccer's notes: I'd recommend heading to Ao3 to check out the other stories in this verse, because while they're not related to the story in this one, it does give a sense of the world and the approach snickfic has taken here. The alpha/beta/omega trope often makes for excellent porn because the world and the biology of the characters all seems to be geared toward sex. Someone goes into heat and everyone knows it. There's also the consent issues side of it, because sometimes, heat is written as a kind of altered state where a character can't give clear consent. What I enjoyed about this story (and about the other, related stories) is that it acknowledges that context and then looks at some ways it can affect the characters outside sex.
This is a rather lovely coming of age story, with young Jared having to accept an aspect of his identity about which he's been avoidant, until his body basically forces it on him, and there's no hiding it from the rest of the school. His way of interacting with his world has to change as a result of it; it affects his relationships, his sense of himself, and in a lot of ways it seems really unfair. He has to come to terms with the situation and with his own views, too.