Victorian A/B/O is a series of original Omegaverse stories in a shared universe by JD_Riley and GooseberryPicker. All of them are set in an Omegaverse version of Victorian Britain (or in some cases, an Omegaverse version of Gilded Age America). The series includes over a dozen stories.The series began in March 2017, and is currently ongoing. All of the stories, barring only Whatever Mischances May Happen and Society Pretences (which GooseberryPicker wrote separately, and can be found here
), are on the series' Archive of Our Own page here.
These stories contain examples of the following:
- Anachronism Stew: Minor example- the (frequent) use of the word "Ton" to describe upper-class society and upper-class social gatherings is mainly associated with the Regency period, not the later Victorian period.
- Arranged Marriage:
- In Fates Arranged, Warren Oakley was supposed to marry Nora, but Nora presented as an Alpha. Nora's brother Jasper presented as an Omega, setting off the plot of the story.
- Tristan Blackwell's mother trying to rope him into one is the inciting incident of A Stone's Throw.
- Victoria Lanchester escaping one sets off the plot of The Devil and the Deep.
- Author Appeal: 19th Century romances, period dramas, neurodivergent characters, Omega male boxers, and arranged marriages (and escapes therefrom) all recur frequently.
- Author Vocabulary Calendar: Much of the language the series uses includes archaic words from the 19th Century.
- The Beard:
- Tarantella has a variant where the Beard for a lesbian couple is another lesbian- Alex (an Alpha Female) becomes the Beard for Florence (an Omega Female), who is in love with Olivia (a Beta female). Things get complicated fairly quickly.
- A Stone's Throw has the more conventional variant, with Tristan's wife as his Beard.
- Big Applesauce: In this setting, New York City is a hub of Omega boxing, as seen in Swan Shine and An American Dream.
- Blue Blood: Many protagonists are upper-class.
- Boxing Episode: At least three protagonists are either boxers or boxing coaches.
- The Casanova: Lord Benjamin Knightwick, Earl of Rogueford, has made a sport out of seducing high-born Omegas. He's also a competent marriage counselor, advising Warren Oakley in the art of wooing his mate in Fates Arranged.
- Cinderella Plot: Whatever Mischances May Happen is a queer variant with a closeted Omega Trans woman in the role of Cinderella, and an Alpha Female Tomboy in the role of the Prince.
- Content Warning: Par for the course for AO3, each story has multiple content warnings.
- Continuity Nod: Several characters may appear in multiple stories.
- Covers Always Lie: The summary for The Belletrist suggests that the story is mainly about Phineas declaring war on porn and exposing Honor Blackwell as "the Librarian". Phineas's anti-porn pamphlet only appears in one chapter and is mentioned in a couple more, the story is more about Phineas's relationship with Honor and his struggles with past trauma, and Phineas himself is a much more passive character than the summary suggests.
- Dark and Troubled Past:
- In The Belletrist, Phineas Harborel and his twin sister Pearl were both sexually abused by their uncle when they were growing up. Phineas in particular ends up becoming a Broken Bird with several hang-ups around sexuality.
- Dead Fic: Whatever Mischances May Happen and Society Pretenses are incomplete and have not been updated since 2019.
- Defiled Forever: Phineas considers himself to be one in The Belletrist, after surviving sexual abuse growing up. His eventual love interest, Honor Blackwell, doesn't care.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: The series mostly goes by 19th Century moral standards (differing only in how the existence of Alphas and Omegas makes society less heteronormative), including Victorian morality regarding modesty, sexuality, monogamy, and etiquette.
- Domestic Abuse:
- In Whatever Mischances May Happen, Ivy and Millie are being emotionally neglected by their aunt, who is raising them for the sole purpose of marrying them off.
- Phineas Harborel having been a victim of sexual abuse by his uncle is the reason he publishes an anti-porn pamphlet in The Belletrist.
- Evil Uncle:
- Phineas Harborel's uncle in The Belletrist was an abuser of the incestuous kind.
- Tabitha's Uncle in Had Nature an Apostate tries to poison her in an Inheritance Murder, and when that fails he takes her out to a hunting cabin to off her more violently. It ends up failing because she already called the cops.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: How Honor Blackwell in The Belletrist realizes that Phineas and Pearl Harborel had gone through something traumatic related to sex.
- Fainting: Phineas faints during a panic attack in The Belletrist.
- Freak Out: Phineas has a panic attack in The Belletrist. He ends up fainting as a result.
- Gayngst: Surprisingly common for an Omegaverse setting, since Alpha/Beta and Beta/Omega same-sex couples don't meet the same approval as Alpha/Omega same-sex couples do.
- Homosexual Reproduction: Warren and Jasper in Fates Arranged.
- Good Adultery, Bad Adultery: If one or both partners are actively trying to consummate the relationship, it's Bad Adultery. If it's a marriage of convenience and both spouses are pursuing affairs, or if one spouse is acting as The Beard for the other, it's Good Adultery.
- Inheritance Murder: Tabitha Baxter is the target of an unsuccessful attempt at one in Had Nature an Apostate.
- Long Runner: By Omegaverse standards, this story is a long one, with 19 stories and counting, the shortest of which (excluding dead or ongoing stories) is over 45,000 words long. The series itself is, as a whole,
at least a million words long. - Mister Seahorse: Jasper Wrightmore is pregnant with his and Warren's first child at the end of Fates Arranged. The story ends well before he is due, so the birth is not seen.
- My Beloved Smother: Tristan Blackwell's mother keeps trying to pair him up with suitors, either ignorant of or deliberately ignoring his orientation.
- Non-Heteronormative Society: Downplayed. Nobody bats an eye at Alpha/Omega same-sex couples, but Alpha/Beta and Omega/Beta gay and lesbian couples are considered scandalous.
- Original Flavour: Aside from the sex scenes and the author's 21st century knowledge of mental health, the stories read very much like a 19th Century romance novel.
- Pædo Hunt: Phineas Harborel was a victim of incest by his uncle.
- Parental Neglect: Whatever Mischances May Happen has Ivy and Millie neglected by their aunt, who is only raising them to marry them off.
- Poison Is Evil: Tabitha's uncle tries to kill her with a poisonous mushroom.
- Poison Mushroom: Tabitha's uncle in Had Nature an Apostate tries to murder her with one of these. It fails because her current love interest is a botanist who studies mushrooms.
- Porn Stash: In The Belletrist, Phineas's twin sister Pearl, the titular Belletrist, has an extensive collection of self-written erotic literature. It gets attributed to Phineas as a form of blackmail.
- Purple Prose: The series leans on this, owing to its deliberate immitation of 19th Century romantic literature.
- The Runaway: Victoria in The Devil and the Deep and Lottie in Trespass Sweetly Urged are both running away from arranged marriages.
- Sex Is Evil, and I Am Horny: Another of Phineas Harborel's issues in The Belletrist.
- Slut-Shaming: One scene in Fates Arranged has Nora loudly chewing out her brother Jasper for his apparent affair with Lord Benjamin Knightwick.
- Spin-Off: Harriet and Lottie is a sub-series that follows the titular Lesbian couple.
- Trans Tribulations: Whatever Mischances May Happen is about Ivy Farrow, a closeted Trans Woman who has only come out to her sister, is constantly deadnamed and misgendered in public (due to not having come out), and her one public outing as a woman caught the attention of a high-born Alpha Female (who Ivy leads on a wild goose chase).
- Unexpected Successor: Tabitha presenting as an Alpha in Had Nature an Apostate makes her one for her father's Dukedom. Her uncle objects to this with extreme prejudice, but is foiled.
- Victorian London: One of the recurring settings in the series.
