Been thinking about the soulmate count down AUs, and I can't stop thinking about how it would be corrupted and exploited by the powers that be. Also trying to imagine how the time line of people finding their soulmates would change over time.
Okay so like getting past the fact that humans came up with the concept of numbers, time, and just rolling with this is a universe where all humans are born with a count down indicating the exact time when they will meet their soulmate, and that this may have allowed people know about the number zero before 3BCE, and gives everyone a standardized concept of time through all of humanity. Ignoring all of that, think about the ramifications.
Like in the start of society, I'm talking like the start of river valley civilizations, you'll likely meet your soulmate in your village. If the count down indicates the time you will meet them, then in all likelihood your soulmate is someone you meet where you grew up, because unless you were a traveler or a trader, you're probably not going very far, so you would probably meet your soulmate at a young age.
But say you are born with a count down that says you wont meet your soulmate until you're twenty or thirty or forty? Would you be volunteered to explore? Would you be made to do the more dangerous tasks, because it is guarantied that you will live that long?
Going off of that lets skip ahead say to the Roman Empire, would they record infants count downs? Would say a child born with a count down over the age of sixteen be volunteered to the army? If your count down already passed would you be excluded from certain tasks?
Would there be a religious reformation? What would be the take from organized religion? Would it be considered blasphemous or morally abhorrent to condemn someone with a long count down to backbreaking dangerous work that could leave them permanently disabled?
Would careful census's of the populations be taken? Would governments try to predict wars or famines with these countdowns?
Like before in the 1880s would there have been a governments census, leaving them all scratching their heads as to why millions of men would meet their soulmates before they were twenty-five.
In world war two would you be considered 4F if your count down was in the next six months? Or would they not care? Would they say nah, at the least we'll get six months of fighting out of you. And how would someone feel, knowing that their buddy's soulmate counter was only two days away, while their own was ten years. Would they fight harder to protect their friends, because soon their safety net would be gone?
At some point would there ever be a civil rights movement, saying it was discriminatory to place those with longer countdowns in such dangerous situations?
And this doesn't even touch on the questions of how interracial, and queer couples would be treated. Would platonic soulmates be respected? Would dating even be a thing? If you were expected to meet your soulmate in your eighties could you marry and have children without any social stigma?
There is just so much untapped potential, and so many questions this au raises.
