In 2030, Earth discovered the cure to all illnesses. For years they had struggled, but finally a small team of Scientists unravelled the answer: emotion. That was the link. At first, everyone questioned it, but once evidence was put forward the World was silenced.
They decided that altering human DNA was the only choice. Embryos were implanted with a serum that stopped the emotion receptors in the brain from developing, deleting the gene entirely. The remaining population, the people born with emotions, were given a chip that would stabilise their emotions so that their health would not disintegrate early. The chips were not as effective as the serum, but it was the only solution until the new generation of beings began to populate the Earth.
As the new children developed however, people began to question the method. The children were like robots, never smiling, never laughing. They were hardly children at all. Mothers clung to their children, sobbing, begging them to love them. The extreme pain of rejection often caused their chips to malfunction, leading to extreme illnesses being contracted. The general population was furious. But then came Tabs.
Every family was gifted twenty Tabs in the beginning. Bliss, Sad, Love, Pain, Cry, Laugh, Dance, Play and a collection of others. Each Tab induced an emotion or action. If you pinned every tab on a child at once, that child could function almost like a normal child until the credit ran out. The actions and emotions were slightly delayed, however. If the child fell over and cut their knee, it would take them exactly 2.5 seconds to begin crying. But the technology was so amazing and sufficient that soon everybody was heralding the creators.
Tabs were expensive though, and after the initial twenty ran out a lot of families had to really save to buy more. It soon became that only the rich could feel. By 3000, The entire population was Emotion Free. There were now over ten thousand Tab forms to choose from, and the rich threw Tab parties whenever a new one was developed. The poor, known as the Underlings, were treated as servants, and instead of working for money they worked for Tabs.
Among the new Tab types was the fabled Soul. It was impossible to fabricate love, but if the love was a possibility then Soul was the answer. It was the only Tab that could bring out true love for another being. The Tab didn’t react to just anyone though. If your souls did not connect, then the Soul Tab disabled itself. But if the person was the right one, the Tabs would eject a thin, red electronic current and connect to each other, joining the two people forever. The idea was taken from the East Asian belief that God ties an invisible red string to those that are destined to be soul mates. The Soul Tab did not run out of credit once connected to another. People who had found their other half were called Love Borne and were considered close to Royalty. There were only five known couples in the world who had accomplished this: Grace and Ren July, Jinnifer and Quinn Lace, Tally and Hank Grey and Polina and Krakov Renski.
The most popular Love Borne was Jinnifer Lace, a worldwide celebrity and television personality. She was beautiful and her story of fate was one known in every household. But her true trade was dark. Jinnifer sold the bodies of young Underlings to the richest of the Tab users, exploiting them out of greed. She especially preyed on young Sentiments, people born with a rare genetic mutation that makes them immune to the emotionless gene and any corrective serums. As people were not keen to hire Sentiments, they would not say no to a roof over their heads.
All Sentiments were taken from their parents at aged two and transported to an Orphanage where they were raised to be emotionless, or at least delayed their reactions so they appeared to be under the influence of Tabs. When a Sentiment reaches maturity however, they are left at the nearest town with a small amount of money and expected to survive on their own. Sentiments are treated much worse than Underlings; if someone discovers a Sentiment they are often fired, removed from their place of rest, abandoned by friends and worse. They are avoided like the plague because a Sentiment might as well have the plague. After many years of an almost illness free world, the illnesses that do develop are feared immensely.
