Ray Cats

Ray Cats are not my invention but their creators want it to be in the public domain, grow and evolve in stories and legend. As a free element I have accepted it into my universe and in the spirit of the creators, my additions to Ray Cats are, as an exception to my work, fully in the public domain. No credit to me is required to use may additions to the myth.

Ray Cats, as a living entity, were proposed as a method of having a radiation test for danger in one million years, where nuclear waste may still be toxic but language and society may have become completely different from now. The proposal by two philosophers, Françoise Bastide and Paolo Fabbri, was to create a mythology where stories about the cats changing colour was linked to danger, so as the stories evolved the link would remain.

The best description is on the podcast 99% Invisible.

For more information see Wikipedia HITF.

Robilliverse History

The real history of the creation in concept by Françoise Bastide and Paolo Fabbri, is taken into the fictional universe, and so the two philosophers are credited by the characters within Robilliverse. As the work is in the public domain, in the Robilliverse, many Ray Cats stories come about and the stories grow, although the cats themselves don’t exist... yet.

Creation

The 2103 gold rush had led a booming Belter population, where many mining groups were setup without adequate funding and resources. Acetylene Lox grew up as a child loving the stories about the Ray Cats, yet while as a teenager, ou started seeing ous friends and family get sick from processing dust from uranium occasionally found in asteroids. As ou grew up, ou became determined to make Ray Cats a reality and solve the ignorance problem that led people to handle uranium. Acetylene was vocal in stating that Aetherial should engineer Ray Cats, but such work was illegal by HA federal law, meaning that Aetherial could not sanction it if they wanted to. As it happens Aetherial was also against such engineering, but unknown to themselves, Fe RiOs had provided funds for Acetylene to do ous work.

In 2117 Acetylene took the whitest Norwegian Forest cats, due to their large fur coats and lack of colour variety, and began altering their DNA, but only in regards to changing their coats. Other than their fur, no other aspect of the cats were changed.

Yellow: Alpha radiation
Green: Beta radiation
Red: Gamma radiation
White: Arsenic poisoning
Plum: Lead poisoning
Grey: Mercury poisoning
Cyan: Cyanide poisoning

In the case of alpha radiation, the fur coat is enough to entirely protect the cat from radiation, providing it is shaved after exposure. Non-fur covered areas should be treated.

Pink Ears

Generally, Ray Cats are allowed to roam anywhere they choose, as it is the best way to sweep for radiation. However, in order to protect unborn kittens, pregnant females’ ears go pink to denote that they should be kept away from potential radiation sources. Due to variation in the genes of the descendants of the originally created Ray Cats, some pregnant cats just have the tips of their ears go pink, while for others its their whole ears.