#koritea

background/vague history

honeybee's world has a huge mix of technology and massive discrepancies between who has access to it, and it's important for context that the desert region the story it takes place in has been more or less abandoned by a lot of the larger world (which is not relevant to the story) and is seen as this lawless/wild west land where a lot of regulation doesn't exist, which is part of the reason why humodification is so prevalent in this specific region

the science that allowed for developments in human modification of course didn't begin with humans right away and was steadily developed through a variety of animal genetic experimentation, which is why there are also a lot of weird hybrid animals in-universe as well (stormy the carnivorous horse is one example, but there are more i need to design lol) a lot of this has taken place in the desert too, as ethical violations there are usually ignored

and so eventually, human experimentation began to take place. justifications and motivations for it include: creating a human workforce literally adapted to harsh desert conditions, eugenicist ideas of altering human genetics "for the better", some cosmetic things (what if we could reliably make cat ears on people real), all sorts of supervillain-type reasons for companies to throw large amounts of cash to go prey on an "expendable" population of people for their perceived profit. it's not done ethically but by the time the story starts, there is some degree of standardization to the process that makes it generally less painful to undergo and the results more successful/consistent

the science behind it began with working its way up the taxonomic ranks, as of right now genetic modification can take place within the same phyla reliably and on a case-by-case basis within kingdoms

the process

quick note: i don't know the science well enough to like, talk about this pseudo-scientifically and frankly the characters don't really know either so like, bear with me

most* humodification is "voluntary". people do elect to undergo experimentation on their bodies in exchange for financial compensation. the more experimental and risky of a modification someone opts for, the more money they get

low-risk modifications are the more standardized procedures and have smaller changes overall, they take less time. while people rarely get to choose the species they're modified with, at this level they're sometimes given choices, all of which are mammals

mid-risk modifications are things that are less standardized, but have a decent chunk of kinks worked out. a lot of bird and reptile humods have undergone mid-risk modification [ex: onris]

high-risk modifications are anything highly experimental, this is where things like invertebrate modifications, multi-species modifications (little more on that specifically here), or anything else that truly deviates from normal processes come into play. very high chance of scrambling your body irreversibly

[* grimm and yarrow are both exceptions to this. grimm was manipulated into it as a child and yarrow was kidnapped and experimented on]

the process is not surgical at all, instead the [genes are tampered with (they probably inject some weird shit idk, this i do need to figure out eventually)] in such a way that the modified person's body begins to reconfigure itself. "standardization" refers to the process itself and not necessarily the results, as no to people express modification in the same way

bc humodification is a reconfiguration of the body, people who undergo modification at a younger age tend to see more drastic structural reconfigurations of their bodies especially with bones and muscle, so humods with things like tails or digitigrade limbs are often ones who underwent modification at a young age

here are different ways that coyote modifications can manifest, for example:

as seen here as well, not all modifications happen symmetrically. sometimes modifications will "even out" during the process, but sometimes it doesn't, or the modification was stopped early

length of time also factors into things as well, so someone like grimm was only modified for a few months and therefore doesn't have as many traits, whereas yarrow was modified for about a year and has majorly visible traits. again, it's not consistent because bodies don't behave consistently

modification relies on the materials that the body already produces and the body's existing structure, which is why mammalian modifications are often lower risk, and stuff like invertebrate modification is highly experimental. fun fact yarrow's exoskeletal parts are actually keratin, not chitin yeehaw

it's not uncommon for humods to have behavioral changes in line with whatever animal they've been modified with. most of the changes are mild to the point where a humod who can "pass" as unmodified would just be seen as quirky. in a lot of cases the sensory organs and some body rhythms do get altered in the process though, so new humods often having to find themselves adapting to new senses routines, such as a craving for raw meat or becoming nocturnal. some can partially communicate with animals they share traits with, or find they have an innate understanding of animal body language

stability

the stability of a modified body is important as well, because when you tamper with the very structure of people's bodies, sometimes things begin to fall apart because, y'know, shit's getting rearranged.

lower-risk modifications and those with fewer modified traits are pretty much stable the entire time. if someone has a higher amount of modified traits though, they often need to be prescribed some sort of hormonal stabilizer (featured vaguely in this writing snippet) to keep their bodies from falling apart at the seams afterwards. this is normally pretty sustainable in the long run

on some occasions, bodies will sort of rip themselves apart from the inside (or outside) when modification occurs. this happens the most in high-risk modifications, but because the process is not instantaneous, patients can be put into a coma and "suspended" in oxygenated liquid to allow the body to rearrange itself with as little metabolic stress as possible. it's a coin toss if people make it out alive and sometimes comas are induced preemptively (or if you're yarrow and you keep throwing punches anytime someone tries to come near you)

it's actually a significant plot point (as of right now) early on in p3 that grimm and yarrow need to break back in to where yarrow was rescued from to retrieve stabilizer? dunno if that's been mentioned

(side note i am genuinely not sure how cancer factors into this, i'm leaning towards a sort of "technology is sufficiently developed to where most cancer has been eliminated as a concern" piece of worldbuilding bc i don't think humodification would exist if it was like. a cancer guarantee)

perception of humods

humods are regarded with a wide range of feelings as any sort of societal group can be, but due to the circumstances in which most people undergo modification, it's often seen as a mark of desperation and generally looked down upon on a wider societal scale. anthropocentrism also plays into this heavily because it's often seen (inadvertently) by most people as a debasement to the human form rather than an evolution/elevation/parallel existence etc.

copypasting from this post that's mostly abt grimm's basktory: at best non-humods ignore it, some pity them as people who were desperate and out of options, some look down upon them for trying to take an "easy way out". regardless of who they are as people or the actual circumstances of their modification, humods are seen as desperate, making it difficult for humods to get certain jobs and forces them into a cycle of poverty, possibly even worse than when they started. the intent of the people behind this in the first place is to save money at the expense of human lives, but the unintended consequence benefits them too, so they're not going to intervene

other facts i didn't have a spot for

despite grimm and yarrow being the main characters, a majority of people within this universe are not modified

humod offspring and reproduction is all over the place, a significant portion of humods are rendered infertile by or have a higher risk of complications due to their modification, and a lack of education means a lot of others don't have children out of concern they will have humod traits. most who have children have mostly- if not fully-human children but sometimes traits get passed down

some people do go "oh fuck yes animal time" and undergo modification willingly! and some people (yarrow) wistfully think it's cool from a distance

because the entire industry is still in the research phase, people who undergo any risk level of modification are housed in facilities of varying levels of comfort during their modification. these are usually like. decent living conditions. but the outside perception is someone disappears for a few months and then comes back part-animal

researchers have more qualms about modifying animals with human traits than the other way around, so the reverse of humodification isn't very common actually

sometimes unexpected side effects like new organs/limbs growing in vertebrate modifications happen, mutations on top of mutations

humods have shorter life expectancies than non-modified humans but not drastically

lots of complications arise from modification with multiple species or modification that's started and stopped. it's advised that once one modification has been undergone and stopped due to interruption or completion that that person does not undergo another modification