You’ve heard of omegaverse and probably nameverse, but you might not have heard of the sweetest and tastiest kind of BL-verse–Cakeverse.
Now, you might be wondering: Cakeverse? What on God’s green earth is cakeverse? And can I eat it?
Like most things in BL, we first have to begin with omegaverse.
The Verse That Started it All
Omegaverse is a subgenre that started in the Supernatural fandom when one passionate fan allegedly wrote a fanfic because they really wanted a story that fused werewolf pack dynamics and male pregnancy. Even though omegaverse isn’t strictly a trope for relationships between two men, it’s become one of the more popularized universes that get used in fanfiction because it subverts gender norms and traditions.
Characters in an omegaverse possess a secondary gender, and while the subgenre has evolved over time, at its most basic roots, there are three types: alpha, beta, and omega.
Alphas are usually depicted as physically dominant and possess a short fuse. Omegas are more submissive, meek, and gentle. Betas are, to put quite simply, average Joes and can be seen as regular human beings. Between alphas and omegas, omegas can only be impregnated by an alpha and vice versa.
ABO? We Only Know Fork, Cake, and Normal
Omegaverse, or ABO, is generally more of a smutty subgenre so you’ll expect to see things like knotting, alphas biting an omega’s scent glands to claim them, and even men possessing self-lubricating holes, and most importantly, men getting pregnant.
Cakeverse combines ABO and cannibalism and takes it to a whole other level.
According to fanlore, cakeverse was created by a Korean Twitter user Rune_comunicat. Cakeverse is divided similarly into three categories: forks (aka alphas), cakes (omegas), and normals (betas).
Forks cannot taste anything either since birth or over time; the only thing they can taste are Cakes and it must be through their flesh or bodily fluids.
Cakes, unlike omegas in ABOs, live their whole lives without knowing they’re a Cake and are essentially like normal people–that is until they encounter a Fork. Because Cakes exude a sweet scent that can only be detected by Forks, and once a Fork has a taste of a Cake, they’ll become consumed (haha, get it?) with the insatiable desire to eat that Cake.
If you’ve lived your entire life watching people eat and enjoying their food while all you’ve been able to taste is flavorless mush, it makes sense why a Fork would lose their rationality once they find a Cake. That Cake is like the Fork’s forbidden fruit or more accurately, the delicious slice of chocolate cake you’ve heard everyone rave about but never had the chance to try.
While the Fork doesn’t actually have to eat the Cake–their hunger can be satisfied by licking their skin or drinking their saliva–some Forks might do terrible things to continue eating Cake.
And that’s one of the most unique aspects of Cakeverse. It takes one common trait of the omegaverse–the treatment of alphas–and turns it on its head.
Because of their domineering personalities as well as ability to impregnate, most omegaverses depict alphas as being in the upper echelon of society where they hold positions of power and are extremely wealthy, while omegas are poor, weak, and discriminated against because of their status as being mere “breeders.”
In the cakeverse, Forks are ostracized because while nobody knows who the Cakes are, everyone seems to know who the Forks are. And because of the Forks’ inability to taste anything, people tend to avoid those they know or suspect are Forks because if the Fork discovers you’re a Cake, the Fork won’t be able to control themselves and it’s game over for the Cake. Even if the Fork has never tasted a Cake before, they’ll inevitably be treated as a criminal.
Cakeverse has all the familiar elements of an omegaverse except with some icing (but not just the smutty kind; get your mind of out the gutter, people) on top. If you’re hungering for a unique spin on omegaverse or you just really like cakes, cakeverse might be what you need to satisfy your sweet tooth because in this universe, you can have your cake and eat it too.
