Chapter Text
Zoro stares unblinkingly at the words on the screen.
“The world has witnessed a long, complicated history of shifting gender dynamics between the three secondary gender classes. Alphas, Betas, and Omegas alike have been mistreated, lived as tyrants, or were dismissed by other classes in different societies during different time periods…”
He stared at the blinking cursor next to the words. It was fucking mocking him at this point. He let out a sigh before typing out another half-assed summary. Glancing at the textbook thrown in front of him on his bed, he set back to writing.
“In the Western Hemisphere, the medieval era, particularly Europe, as early as the 13th century (1200s) seemed to have a complicated relationship with Omegas, deeming them to be honorable, and almost holy due to their ability to give birth. Yet is was this same ability that saw Omegas being kept under lock and key away from participating in larger society “for their own protection”. By the Reformation, Omegas had been deemed all but useless when left to their own devices, and a strict binary was formed between what then became deemed as the “submissive” and “dominant” dynamics.”
“The fuck else is there to say about that?” Hours of being bored out of his mind listening to people ramble and angry at long-dead Alphas in this stupid Gender Studies class, and all he had was a pathetic 150 words. And it was a goddamn undergraduate class of all things.
Fuck you, Nami. He crossed his arms in front of his chest, glare intensifying at the annoyingly white screen. He only took the stupid class because she begged (threatened) him to. He cursed himself. If only he hadn’t been such a softy (afraid to see his already gargantuan debt rise even further) he’d wouldn't have agreed to this shit.
Eventually he noticed he’d been wasting more time sulking then writing and forced himself to actually ponder on how to further analyze this thing.
The fuck does she expect? For us to take every single obvious fact from history and trace it into some emotional impact today? Alphas have never been shit, everyone knows that. He sat back staring up at the ceiling trying to think of something “unique” and that “contributed to the larger conversation” to impress his nitpicky professor.
It wasn’t that Zoro had anything personal against her. Dr. Atticus seemed alright as a person, and even as a professor. It was the subject he taught that seemed to take joy in torturing the omega. Not gender studies, no, Zoro was admittedly interested in how peoples perception of him came to be. Especially since he had not long ago been declared the world’s strongest swordsman the year previous.
Though he much preferred to tell himself people were more upset with his age then his gender. More so because he really didn’t really want to believe that the majority of people only saw him for his reproductive system. He always prided on himself getting to be where he was because he was HIM dammit. Plus, it was gross.
There was also the matter of how people treated his friends. The large majority of them had known each other for years (some since childhood) at this point. It wasn’t until they really got into the “real” world in the early years of Zoro’s college career that their vastly different experiences due to their genders became prominent. Zoro still got a sick thrill at the amount of people he got to unleash his bloodthirst on (not murdering them of course) when Nami had been revealed to be Princess Vivi’s secret lover. Omega only coupling had been accepted on a purely legal basis for some decades now, but for a national royal to be engaged in such debauchery? Suspected as goes with many politicians, but never heard of in reality.
Sure, did Zoro appreciate the regular dehumanization of his friends? No, of course not. Did he really enjoy proving how and why he was the best goddamn swordsman in the world? Absolutely. The fact that these two things often occurred together was just a very pleasurable coincidence.
Anyways, no it wasn’t gender studies that he hated. It was history’s fault. He didn’t harbor any particular hatred for learning history itself, but writing for the subject always seemed like some made-up academic criterial bullshit to him. Why write on stuff people already know?
His phone lit up with a notification from an app he didn’t use but still hadn’t got around to deleting.
Huh.
Am I that desperate?
A yawn that cracked his jaw brought about his decision. He missed his goddamn nap over this thing. And it was pushing midnight.
I’m not desperate, I’m efficient.
He search for Robin’s contact.
Z: Hey I get it if your totally busy with research shit or whatever
Z: But got any tips for writing an history essay?
Before he could even think about turning back to his laptop screen he heard a familiar chime. Great, now she was excited. Robin barely remembered she owned a phone, let alone to respond. He knew for himself what grad school was not for the weak, and he could only imagine what the doctoral program was like.
That meant he also knew how excited people got to talk about their research fields. And he had long known that if anyone had nearly as much passion as he did for swordsmanship, it would be Robin and history.
Robin: Oh I am sincercely grateful to help, Zoro! But first it would be most helpful if you told me what exactly you are writing about. You are in Dr. Atticus’ History of Gender and Sexuality, correct?
Z: Yeah, I’m taking the double-down grad version of it with Nami. We’re just doing the general class first assignment over “What is the importance of examining the history of Secondary Genders and Sexuality?” He hoped she could hear the mocking voice in his head.
Robin: Ah yes, I remember hearing her talking about the assignment the other day. Do you mind telling me what exactly you’re struggling with?
Z: Yeah, I got the info down and everything. I just can’t figure out what she wants from us. Like I get that the shit is important, everyone does. Robin: Everyone? Z: Okay well obviously not tradition obsessed idiots. But everyone knows they’re idiots.
Robin: Haha, wise words as always. I will say I like to tell my students the best beginning tool to writing history is to write about something or someone you care about that could have been impacted by a historical event.
Zoro thought immediately of Luffy and Usopp.
Z: Hey, don’t ever let any of those snobs tell you that you’re anything but a brainiac, okay?
Robin: ^.^ Thank you for your kind words, Zoro.
Zoro looked back at the word document and stretched his arms up and above his head. The cursor continued to blink at him.
Huh, kinda looks like a sword.
Zoro may not have writing skills. He may not have history skills either. But he had fighting skills. And this was a fight we would win. And he was going to demand that Nami clear at least 10% of his debt, or at least get rid of her repeatedly increased interest rate. That was a fight he was not so sure he would win.
“This period of history sees Betas almost erased from the historical record. Being able to both give birth and reproduce with an omega saw them considered “failures” of nature during this point. Laws tending to favor alpha children and reproduction saw several families either abandoning their Beta children in the woods or surviving Betas living in some form of disguise. There was even the occasional court scandal of a royal being caught in bed with a Beta or a Beta noble having their Alpha disguise exposed for fraud.”
Glancing down made him look at a crude sticker that Nami had left on his laptop during class one time when he hadn’t been looking. He wondered how she and Vivi were enjoying their honeymoon. He noted that her camera stayed off the majority of their online class meetings.
Being thrown into romantic atmospheres like that had never been his thing, but it turned out pretty epic. There was so much beer available at the royal wedding that thinking of it again made his eyes water in forlorn longing.
Franky and Usopp had performed some insane music collab and Luffy had to be stopped from hogging the dance floor (and as usual, from eating every single edible morsel in the nearest 300 feet). Even Chopper was feeling bold enough to join Brook on stage at some point. And the cook had finally asked him to dance.
All things considered, it was weird that the most chaotic element of the wedding wasn’t the music that had nearby residents contacting law enforcement out of fear of an earthquake.
At least, it wasn’t in the eyes of the international press. No, they seemed most baffled that an Omega could be pleased with another single Omega, and not a football team size of Alphas drooling after their every whim.
“From this period onward Omegas continued to decline in status. Omegas, though valued, were thought to be so in need of protection that nearly all non Alpha-permitted activity was considered harmful to their health. Until they fiercely fought for voting rights during the early twentieth century, an Omegas physical, mental, and emotional health was believed to be entirely dependent on the quality and size of their alpha pack. However, once allowed to attend school, the following decades of the latter half of the twentieth century and even into the modern 21st century saw Omegas quickly beginning to outnumber Alphas in their classes and graduation ceremonies.”
He thought of the first time someone tried to physically lay hands on Usopp a few weeks after the presidential election. He could hear Luffy’s loud unbothered laughter after receiving a comment that turned the tip of Zoro’s ears red when they had been walking near the bar district.
“Betas, due to years of mass killings and oppression, still remain an incredibly small majority of the population, ranging less than 1% in the United States and most countries post European colonization. However, there have been ongoing pushes for Betas to be acknowledged as their own, legitimate gender. There have been few laws passed since such pushes that now address Betas as existing citizens alongside Omegas and Alphas. The current most prominent figures of these pushes have lately shared a common connection to one Monkey D. Luffy.”