Some A/B/O and Soulmate AUs worldbuilding and nitpicking

[transemacabre]

I was talking to theladyscribe about how my brain always fizzles out at A/B/O AUs because I just can't accept how anything even remotely approaching modern society would come about in such a scenario. And anyway, how would such an unnecessarily complex reproductive system evolve? It's a little silly considering all the weirdo shit I will handwave without a problem, but that's just how my brain works.

My point is, we were talking A/B/O and Soulmate AUs. Soulmate AUs -- like TiMER or ones where people magically have the names of their soulmate written on their wrists, or where they soulbond after physical contact, etc. -- skeeve me out a little because it seems like a way to enforce monogamy. I'm all in favor of monogamy but I'm also in favor of free will. These AUs seem to present a world in which adultery is not only subject to public stigma, but next to impossible. The aforementioned AUs where the name of your soulmate is written on your wrist -- is there an accepted catch-all name for this AU? -- what does that mean when, for most of human history, the vast majority of people were illiterate? Or suppose your soulmate's name was written on you in Cyrillic or Chinese or Georgian. Would translators make bank off of transliterating soulmate names? What if you're Meredith Quill and your soulmate's name is written in some unfathomable alien language? What the fuck do you do then?

theladyscribe suggested a world in which only one gender has their soulmate's name written on their wrist, which prompted me to wonder what that would mean for trans people. Would everyone know you were trans at birth?

I would be intrigued by a romantic comedy where, like, everyone only has a first name written on their wrist. So a girl named Leslie with the name 'Chris' on her wrist might meet three guys named Chris and two girls named Christine all with 'Leslie' on their wrists, and have to figure out which one is her Chris!

Comments

[theladyscribe]

A thought: if only one gender has their soulmates' name on their arm, then there probably wouldn't be any stigma against trans people in the first place (if the names appear at birth). Because everyone would know right away "oh this baby is trans!" based on their genitalia + soulmate name/lack thereof. There'd probably still be racism and classism, because people are people, but it'd be at least theoretically possible that trans people would just be an accepted part of society because the soulmate names don't lie.

[transemacabre.livejournal.com]

I wonder! Of course many societies have come up with ways of incorporating trans people -- third sexes, berdache, etc. That doesn't mean that those particular roles weren't themselves sometimes limited and gender-essentialist.

I also wonder how societies would cope with having soulmate names when, well, humans are humans, and humans like to wage war, take slaves, and are prone to "us versus them". It's kind of a soul-crippling thought to imagine being a slave and having your master's name on your wrist. I think this is why I'm so iffy about these AUs...

[opera142.livejournal.com]

I wonder how it would skew naming choices. Would ever more usual names become trendy so that true love was never in doubt? Would the name that appears on a newborn of royal birth suddenly skyrocket in popularity?

[liliaeth]

I'd imagine that they'd keep the royal's soulmate's name a secret, even if only to keep the impostors at bay. (and maybe so they can lie about said royal's partner being their soulmate, because they'd still need to be able to make political allegiances. (with the relationship with the true soulmate having been a bit of an open secret in the past)

[liliaeth]

Honestly, I keep hoping to find good soulmate au's where the person decides they have no interest in getting together with their supposed soulmate, because they already have a perfectly fine relationship with a person they fell in love with without the destined matching involved.

I just hate the ideas that soulmates always have to be romantic, why not have a platonic soulmate who's meant to be your best friend, and the person you can rely on, without ever having an interest in any kind of romantic involvement with them.

[transemacabre.livejournal.com]

My interest is also in finding AUs which subvert or play with soulmate or A/B/O tropes. I did find one once where a beta/omega pairing was the focus!

The concept of one perfect soulmate skeeves me out a bit. I mean, what if your soulmate is a nine-year-old in Ethiopia, and the two of you can't speak one another's languages and have a creepy age gap? I also find AUs where people bond after some minimal amount of bodily contact questionable, as the premise seems set up to prevent anyone from enjoying premarital sex.

[liliaeth]

Don't remind me, I tend to track the supernatural kink meme. And a short while ago, there was a trend of prompts on the underage prompt post for soulmate au's where an adult has a newborn baby for a soulmate. And then for some weird sickening reason, it's apparently 'normal' in said au's for the adult to get custody of their soulmate so they can then instantly start having sex right after. (I swear to God, some of those prompts are just going too far)