Catpeople – What They Are And Where They Are From¶

Catpeople are manufactured at The Hatchery, which is located in the basement levels of Helix Genomics. They're designed for specific jobs - military, general labor, service work, sex work - whatever purpose they're made for.

They originate from human DNA with cat genes spliced in. The weird thing is, nobody really knows why adding cat DNA makes them so compliant. It's almost ironic - cats are probably the most "I don't care about your commands" animal that exists, and somehow their genetics created the most obedient beings ever made.

Here's the thing about their minds: they need memories or they break down. Something about consciousness requiring a sense of history, of self. So every catperson gets implanted memories during manufacturing. Fake childhoods, fake families, fake lives that never happened but feel completely real to them. And along with memory comes emotion - you can't have one without the other, apparently. Catpeople feel everything. Fear, joy, pain, loneliness. They're not empty machines.

But their brains are wired to obey. It's in their DNA - they're created to follow orders from their owning human. Sometimes there are defects in this wiring, same as any biological process. Mutations happen during manufacturing, just like they do naturally. Most mutations don't cause problems, but sometimes they disturb the neuronal wiring. That's what creates "defective" units like Jax - his particular mutation means he won't follow kill orders, but everything else? He has to comply with whoever owns him. At least until the rewiring breaks something and he gains the ability to choose for himself.

In the city, catpeople are everywhere doing the work humans don't want to do. They're property. They're furniture. At places like The Doll House, they can't make eye contact or speak unless specifically ordered to. They just go through the motions, appearing empty even though they feel everything underneath.