In a previous ask about dust you said something about class/gender structure with soulless creatures (i.e. rats) and could you go more deep into that perchance?
This is less of a pride ask and more of a world building ask but yes hehe.. my favourite kind of question
I said before that there are classes of people that are below monsters in some way. These groups in the omegatimeline tend to be those from
1) hostile timelines / aus like an underfell for example
2) corrupteds (substance corruption, code corruption, typically people with varying stages of amalgamation
I’ve already discussed how hollow is used as an insult for those who are mentally ill, but the concept of having less of a soul is quite stigmatized- even if you technically do have one.
Monsters from more hostile aus are just considered to have less of a soul or be innately hollow just because of their culture and circumstances. Any adjacency to violence is pretty looked down upon in the very pacifist timeline dominated OT. Even if the timeline is peaceful (like a theoretical pacifist fell) it doesn’t matter because they are still considered innately hollow.
To be dehumanized and labeled as hollow is to lose some credibility to every facet of your identity, including gender. Being referred to as an it (which is a soulless pronoun) isn’t uncommon. The hostile thing extends to criminals (those with high lv) as well. This is the catagory Dust would mostly fall into if he were to take refuge. In that way his self identification isn’t incorrect to how monsters would perceive him, just a hollowed violent rat.
Dust also intersects with another identity which is corrupteds. This spectrum can go from drug users to immobilized amalgamations. What they have in common is a physical tempering of the soul. Which again is very taboo. Some are garnered more sympathy than others, it seems like traditional amalgamations (those from classic pacifist timelines) are the most sympathized. But still even the state of their soul and identity is debated publicly. Memory for example is an amalgamation of what medically is classified as a “sans blend”. Usually what ever monster trait doctors find they latch onto as the true identity of the amalgam. Memory’s body was forcibly melted down and reconstructed to fit a sans shape, even if it isn’t what memory is and causes later medical problems. Sex wise once the procedure is done memory is assigned as male, but socially people still see mems as soulless hence memories original pronouns as (he/it). No matter how hard memory could try to be a man no one will see her as equal, but memory is expected to play it out regardless.
And for those with the most extreme label of soulless you have those who’s soul aren’t considered human or monster. Psych has an abnormal soul in that it’s not identifiable as anything. Tests done on it conclude it’s closer to the make up of some fauna then the make up of any human or monster soul. Psych was also assembled and made in a hospital, in that way his identity is similar to memory as his body was physically constructed by others. But he doesn’t have to benefit of memory having dna from an actual timeline. Instead he really isn’t any different from lab rats or a heart monitor. He exists not because of a creator but because of the hospital. (In the first chapter he literally calls the hospital his God). In that Psych is owned by people, like an object. Memory and Dust would have the ability to get limited jobs because legally they have some kind of soul even if it’s hollow or tempered with. But Psych is property. His legal documents don’t even assign him a sex or gender even if he’s physically male. People who pity him may give him gendered pronouns like he, but the people who pump his blood and feed him don’t think twice in their internal monologue when referring to him as “it”
That’s for the omegatimeline at least in their social structure
There are characters like Dream and Atrophy who experience a similar gender..torture? Gender dehumanization? To these other cases. Atrophy being pretty close to experiencing the same as psych. I mean he is physically soulless too- augh but this rant isn’t about atrophy.
You’ll see I make the “it” pronoun pretty derogatory, as it is used like that. But some monsters who experience this dehumanizing language reclaim it as something they find community and identity in. Memory will refer to herself as it, which is quite weird because people are supposed to refer to her as that. She’s supposed to play as a man, but her using feminine pronouns and accepting ‘it” is very self expressive and seen as hostile I guess.
Hope that’s enough, I hope you find this interesting
