It would have been fair to assume Fluffies would never gain any form if legal protections prior to 2028. Only eight years had passed since the Cleveland Disaster, and the city was still experiencing the prolonged economic deathrattle while the refugee camps still had a sizable number of evacuees.
Only a year after the incident Canada passed laws designating them as rodents in spite of lobbying efforts and the far more nuanced complexity of their classification, and in most countries around the world the biotoy designation never stuck. But actually enforcing any kind of cruelty to animals laws was not in the interest of most law enforcement except as a means of adding charges to suspects.
This changed when Zierk Nony was spotted outside a social gathering alongside an unidentified woman who was bleeding from a lacerated cheek and looked to be in severe distress in spite of the fact she was arm in arm with Nony who continued socializing cheerfully with a drink in his other hand.
Officer Silvio Tinti of the 108th Precinct investigated, having not been informed of the particulars of Nony’s illegal arrangements with and bribery of police forces. Within minutes Nony himself was on the ground, a taser sending jolts of electricity directly into his nervous system while the woman rocked on the ground crying. The event might have disappeared alongside Tinti, were it not for cell phone footage taken by passerby as well as investigative journalists across the US reacting to the recent libel laws hindering their ability to cover almost any scandal on any politician.
It only took a month for Tinti’s body to be found, and leaked footage from the investigations and infiltrations of the late Mwamimi Jones into the Mattbio Labs facility that Nony had visited just prior to the incident revealed the dark truth.
Mattcartel, a megacorporation that originated in the Matt Toys brand, had expanded in the 1990’s trying to catch up to the global expansion of its chief competitor Hassenfield Sisters, or Hasis. Just as Hasis created Hasbio, Matt Toys created Mattbio. While Hasbio focused on bringing the My Lovely Horsy cartoon to life with side projects into Vulcan Ninjas, Sgt. Shmoe, and Botshifters, Mattbio focused on its own biggest properties; mainly the Barbra Ann fashion dolls. Although a series of escapes of test subjects unleashed Hasbio’s Fluffies as well as other slightly more intimidating horrors on the world, Mattbio kept its projects under wraps to the degree that the mainstream public was not even aware they existed.
Mr. Jones uncovered the facility where living Barbara Annes as well as Etern-Man and Etern-Girl creations were bred in captivity, genetically and structurally modified, and sold to wealthy patrons looking to have modern day slave labor and in some cases exotic harems. Talking organic “cars” based on the Bot Wheelz line were also in development and were intended to compete with Hasbio Fluffy and Fuzzy products.
The barbarity and callous disregard for the sanctity and dignity of life was never an issue with Fluffies, mixed up slushes of genetic code vaguely resembling living cartoon horses that otherwise lived like talking hamsters and were full of defects and production mistakes. But Barbara Anne had a pristine legacy of excellence as representing the ideal woman to children of every generation, while the two sibling Etern franchises were well-beloved. Matt Toys had not devalued their brand the way Hasis did, and irate fans demanded two things: blood, and their childhood dreams of their best friend being their favorite doll.
Mattbio offices worldwide were raided before destruction of documents could progress, and employees tasked with eliminating evidence often chose to dump it online for internet fame or provide evidence of their innocence instead. Initial attempts at arguing their products as biotoys failed legal scrutiny, and elevating the cases to the highest courts instead triggered review of the very definition of the previously undefined term.
Mattbio living dolls were found to have mostly human DNA, with sources ranging from Bonobos monkeys and gorillas to rats, felines, and Fluffies. Non-genetic modifications including grafts and “smart” uterine nodes were derived from even broader sources, notably fungi and sharks. SomeFluffy fan organizations even classify them as the first widespread Fluffy Anthros.
Today the varying degrees of legal protection the various intelligent artificial creatures have as “Plasmatio Sapiens” only offers the barest of protections. In most places any creature modified to include human DNA is considered a sentient being by default. Programmed intelligence is classified similarly as artificial intelligence, with the ToM (Theory of Mind) level granted sentient rights while SA (Self-aware) and AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) are eligible for classification as sapient life.
Presently the UN defines Sentient Rights as “Limited Right To Physical/Emotional Security And Sensation”, limiting the amount of suffering and anxiety that animals and AI experience while providing a basic level of quality of life. The standard is admittedly low, with old fashioned farming practices from the Victorian era seeming a paradise compared to modern farms and mills, while the RAM and cooling allocation for AI is not far removed from simply being able to function at all.
Sapient rights are only a step removed from humans, usually lacking protections and privileges in regards to cultural practices, titles and inheritance, marriage, disposal of remains, and citizenship. Most prohibitions or lack of rights are formed along religious taboos; for example it is not difficult to find a spiritual leader willing to marry an AI to a Fluffy, no legal status is affected and neither party has rights to sue for recognition nor argue discrimination over refusals of any party to participate. General rights such as property, safety, and wellness are available to all sapients.
Of course legal protections only exist in theory. In practice it is still common to find sapients being sold as pets or meat in wet markets across the world, some even documented claiming to have been tourists and pleading for release. It is unlikely an arrest warrant will be issues for the deletion of a local instance of Chat Bot MCMXVII, and cases of Gen 5 Barbara Anne trafficking are frequently dismissed. Sentients are rarely protected by much more than fines, bringing the phrase “Fines are an obstacle only to the poor” to mind. In the United States the vagueness of laws protecting nonhumans as well as the convoluted hierarchy of state, federal, and superfederal laws renders actual prosecution an entirely local affair unless there is sufficient public outrage, though even then it can be insufficient to affect change: New Florida Senator Horace Pierrat and his infamous Dolcette fundraiser grilling parties are routinely criticized even by those in attendance as well as his colleagues and family, but that has not stopped him from winning his eighth consecutive term in office.
Today, Generation 1 and 2 Barbara Annes can still be purchased from a catalog or custom-ordered to your preferences for almost anything you want to use them for so long as you claim to have killed them humanely. Generation 3s are considered a delicacy in some high class circles. Even Generation 7s and their hybrid offspring face housing and employment discrimination, as do human men and women who resemble them.
Feral bands of former Biotoys are often met with the cruel realities of the world and population control efforts by an increasingly inhumane human race, regardless of whether they believe they live in a fantasy world, one of the first three World Wars, or are just trying to live and be loved.
Up next, Lab Brat Humanimals: generation of the future, or sign that we have finally lost the last rays of god’s fading light. You decide, tonight on World News Now!
