#not me flavoring omega as an ignorant american lol

[generic-sonic-fan]

If you care to entertain the thought:

The Finnish language has a gender neutral 3rd person pronoun for people and an "it" pronoun for objects & animals = not people. In official/book language at least. But 90% of the time in casual speech, we use "it" to refer to people as well. (It feels like night and day to use "it" in Finnish for people compared to English.)

Do you think Neo would thrive off of hearing people refer to it as "it" so casually if it interacted with (& translated) language speakers with this type of convention? Or would "it" being used like a "3rd person pronoun" feel strange/not fulfilling to Neo, due to the lack of distinction unless written down? (I assume "neutral 3rd person pronoun", by itself, might be like they/them for Neo?)

Similarly; you hc Omega with a strong he/him preference &, IIRC, an even stronger distaste for it/its. Would he tolerate a language that uses "it" so casually when meaning *3rd person pronoun*, not meant to sound objectifying in any way? + All while only having gender neutral pronouns in the first place, even if one was speaking properly (or in writing) & actively not using it/its. >No existing masculine pronouns to affirm gender anywhere (not counting using "Mr/Ms" type of titles).

I suppose it's up to interpretation on how difficult/easy it would be for them (compared to organic characters), to adjust to different language conventions like this, but I'm curious if you have any thoughts?

Ooooh, this is a fantastic question.

I think that Neo would be flattered with either pronoun! Sounds like both forms of "it" within the Finnish language lack a gender or pluralness- and gender is what Neo is seeking to avoid. It would be very pleased with this, and it would also wonder why it was programmed to think in a language as silly as English instead of the clearly superior Finnish. Neo's a bit more, shall we say, cerebral than Omega. I think it would adjust to the different language conventions very quickly.

Omega, meanwhile, would definitely have a preference. He would not tolerate the pronoun that's meant for objects and animals. He'd see it as incredibly demeaning, and you'd have to have a long talk with him to explain that the inanimate pronoun is not demeaning in the context of Finnish culture. He's got a little bit of a self-centered view of the world and doesn't handle the idea of different traditions very well? Mostly he just thinks they're weird and perceives himself as not being a part of any culture (despite that being untrue. He's kinda got the stereotypical American thing going on lol.) He's already a bit of a rebel in his own cultural context, let alone understanding the connotations of different cultures, if that makes any sense? He wouldn't adjust to the different language conventions very easily is what I'm saying.

Thank you for sending this ask!