This text only contains my personal take on the fluffy experience. If any of my concepts inspire you feel free to use them!
Creation
Fluffies was a project started by a small group of men with access to gene editing in 2010, shortly after CRISPR was released to the public. These men had all had families of some sort, almost all of which included daughters. They’d all heard the longing statement, “Can I have a pony?” Not only was that an enormous time commitment none of them had the money or the land to appease their children. When CRISPR became available to them they got together and started a small workforce. They banded together and started trying to make a small artificial animal that looked like a horse but acted like a dog or maybe a cat. Eventually they saved up enough funding for the project, at this time called “toy-pon-E”s. They recruited additional people into their work force, learned more of the sciences, and started testing gene editing on live specimens. This went on for a few years, a small project with some hired on help and funding from other parties. Until one Christmas of 2013 when the “toy-pon-E”s were coming along nicely so one of the original men took his daughter in and showed her the project. The only thing that she would refer to them as was “fluffies” and she was absolutely ecstatic about them. Eventually the name stuck and they officially registered their business under the name Fluffy Co. They began advertising their fluffies as easy to care for biological toys-- or biotoys. They slid under the radar of any animal rights fanatic for a year or so, until PETA raided one of their production facilities. Many of their prototyped fluffies were released into the wild and that singular plant was shut down. The official founders of the company were outraged with PETA and took them to court. In 2017 they fought for the declaration that fluffies were not animals and were biotoys instead. Their feelings were artificial and programmed, they said. The judge and the jury came to the conclusion that Fluffy Co. was in the right even with all the counter evidence. Fluffies were declared biotoys exempt from any animal rights laws and PETA was forced to pay Fluffy Co. reparations. Fluffies were incredibly underdeveloped and flawed at this stage, but thanks to PETAs intrusion on their work they had been released into the wild. Fluffy Co. released fluffies for purchase as a “beta” for a very low price in early 2018. While they began to haul in cash from these tiny house-fit horses they continued trying to fix the flaws in their genes using CRISPR. With kinks such as weak bowel control, incredibly unstable heat management, and fragile bones Fluffy Co. was looking at years of gene editing.They continued trudging on, openly sharing that they were continuing their work on fluffies with minimal improvements to the situation. At the same time they were producing variants in an attempt to somehow work out the kinks. They continued to ship out large waves of fluffies and fluffy variants to pet stores and release them to the public with promises of further updates. As of 2020 They have made no real progress to solving any of these issues and journalists theorize they are no longer trying.
Humans and fluffies
The marketing of fluffies is known thanks to interviews with the company, and we know the people’s reaction because… well, we are the people. Many people, at the release of fluffies, thought that it was a hoax to clean up their act towards earth. A new species discovered (even though it was man made) should make us take better care of Earth, right? This effect worked for a while, but a lot of habits didn’t last.
The “let’s take care of Earth so this species can last” quickly dwindled into “Eh, everything else is fine what’s one more extinction,” and with that most things returned to how they were. People adopted dogs, cats, birds, lizards, all sorts of things. When fluffies were announced on the market as bio-toys that were exempt from animal rights laws three obvious groups of people formed.
Abuser
Abusers were a group of people that saw this as an opportunity, either to fulfil their own sick fantasies or to make profit. Since they were exempt from animal rights laws that meant there were no rules to these creatures. Didn’t have to feed them, bathe them, care for them, or any of the like. You could beat them, kill them, strew their organs across your living room with absolutely no consequence-- other than social.
Hugboxer
A group of people that highly objected to the court ruling that exempted fluffies from animal rights laws. They saw what fluffies truly were and desired to treat them like animals. They got their name thanks to a viral recording of a fluffy rights protest throwing down their signs and attacking a group of abusers. These people think that any ill will to a fluffy is abuse and should be punishable. They want fluffies to be treated like every other pet. This term is understood across the board by anyone who has heard about fluffies as a “fluffy rights, no abuse” word.
Parent
This group appears neutral to the political stance of the abusers and the hugboxers. They just wish to indulge in the cute fluffy biotoys that are sold all over the world in fluffy marts. Some partake in occasional abuse, mischief, or shady activities with their fluffy but they don’t go to the extreme that abusers do. They do not see their actions as wrong and are simply caring for a fad-pet.
Buildings and events
All rulings on fluffy care are decidable by the governor (if a public event,) or the property/business owner. Daycares, play parks, pet-inns, groomers, and all the like have some form of opinion on fluffies in their business. Hugbox means that any animal-rule to their shop applies to fluffies. Usually owners of these Hugbox places will disallow any for both verbal or physical abuse and might try to buy the fluffy from your care if you allude to abuse. Fluffy-neutral which means they don’t care if the fluffy is injured in their care, before their care, or after their care. To them the fluffy means profit and they don’t care if it has a good home or what happens to it after. No-fluffy usually means that fluffies aren’t allowed at all and other times it means that fluffies will be abused there. Hit-friendly are locations where fluffies are not safe and are in danger. The owners of these establishments will abuse your fluffy, with your consent as you brought them there.
Pest or pet?
Wild fluffies have many controversies surrounding them. Are they endangered, are they invasive, are they pests, are they pets? Some hugboxers won’t even accept wild fluffies into their home due to the belief that they might be harmful in some way. Abusers tend not to care what the political status of any fluffy is and take out whatever anger or fantasy they have. The majority conclusion of hugboxers is that they are endangered pets that can be invasive if given too much food. For example, in places where food is mostly crop, fluffies are considered invasive as they eat away at the plants. However in more meat-centric countries that farms are only an afterthought they might be pests to some but otherwise are neither invasive or endangered. Endangered is not usually a title applied to wild fluffies due to their unknown status and their constant breeding on levels only seen before by rabbits.