Since there are Companion children--or at least new robots that need to learn, ie Yosh in midtown-- i can only assume that a new companion is booted up with a standardized ai modeled by the parent[s] and then it’s a process of teaching. The base isn’t the bare-boned Helper # whatever code, but it’s about halfway between that and an Adult Companion that’s been around for a few hundred years.
So having a kid in this context is like having a kid as a human, but pretty much more instant. I assume smaller bodies are chosen for first frames if only because they’re simpler to control than a full sized or oversized frame, and as they mature they can choose to upgrade themselves or stay in the smaller frame. And that comes with time, yes, but also emotional maturity.
This is why Zbalthazar is shown as shorter than the other Outsiders--he just liked the smaller frame. And Seamus, meanwhile, learned enough to want a larger frame before Doc went missing--but emotionally i feel like he’s still clinging to a state of time when he was still learning from Doc and trying to stay there. Not because he’s regressing mentally or anything, he’s just... trying to hold onto the time when his father was there to guide him when he wasn’t sure of something.
I also imagine it’s far easier to have a kid in midtown than anywhere else, because 1: no zurks, 2: parts available to choose from because they probably manufacture quite a bit of things at Neco aside of trash, 3: they have time to space out a kids development with things like music and fashion instead of just survival. I assume Antvillage could make kids and raise them fine, but it’s cramped and while we see several bots that could be considered juvenile, we don’t really know.
Slums bots probably have to weigh not only how being there will impact the kid, but what happens if the parent[s] get Zurk’d? Are there going to be parts left, after older bots are repaired, to upgrade someone if they feel they want to change their body? How do you prepare a child for the zurks without rendering them terrified of literally everything not covered in bright lights? Or how to explore around their home without clinging to the Guardian? Not to mention, anything culturally important you could teach them is limited by however many books got rebound and copied--or what your memory still has. Others could help, yes, but how do you know they will?
I'm gonna play stray again so I can have more educated thoughts on it, but the game, aside from its love of humanity being shown in the companions- how humanity thrives even in the darkest times- is answering the question of what is in a legacy.
okay, I know I know, Hamilton is so out of fashion. it has many issues re American history and how Black ppl are treated and I know all of its critiques but let me have this, please.
but like... who tells the stories of humans when they die off, who sows the seeds of a future without the humans? humans had made a mark on history, good and bad. the obvious choice here is "who lives, who dies, who tells your story", but the line that is seldom referred to that I'm thinking of is "what is a legacy? it's planting seeds in a garden you never get to see."
humans might not have been able to see how humanity thrived on. b12 comments that they are the last human consciousness, which then implies that the companions evolved their code after the humans had died.
that is a response to who sees the flowers after the gardener has died. the companions, arguably more human than the humans, that will tend to the plants, just as their forebears had before them.
It is very likely that the main cat in Stray is a female, as domestic cats in the wild will travel in female-only groups, kicking out males when they reach maturity
@queenmismatched asked: Hello may I yell about Jin Oshiro for a min cause i rewatched the movie? Okay so I have so many questions: How long has he been in the US before the film's events?? Where does he live?? What does he do all day??? Jake said he got arrested for assault in '08 and i need those details??? Does he work?? WHO IS HIS DAD?????? Do he and Nori have the same dad??? also HOW OLD IS THIS MAN?????? Joe Sill didn't answer ANY of these in the film and I am so upset I need more Jin content
let’s do this again bc tumblr fucked up the formatting of my answer and I can’t fix it without deleting the post itself. >.>
pls don’t yell at me for never answering this, I literally just realized I had like a cubic ton of unanswered asks waiting in my inbox omg tumblr why
pls never hold back from yelling about Jin bc chances are I’m gonna yell with you. no idea how I ended up fixated on this movie and this character but here we are. maybe it’s got something to do with miyavi, but honestly, I just. relate so much to Jin it’s not funny anymore.
this is all headcanons of mine because JOE SILL DIDN’T ANSWER ANY OF THESE IN THE MOVIE OMG WHY. also a Read More bc I don’t wanna throw a giant post at anyone else currently scrolling down their dashboard.
first of all, I entirely forgot that he’s apparently been in the US for at least 12 goddamn years what. I think the movie’s set in 2019 or 2020, so if he got arrested in ‘08 - and I’m not assuming he went back home and then came back bc money who? - that makes at least 11 or 12 years. which, yeah, throws up a hundred questions. if he’s 33 now - which I calculated roughly, by assuming his mother left him when he was 13, bc I think to remember Nori is 19 or 20 in the movie, and their mother didn’t have her yet when she left, or was currently pregnant when she did, that’s 2000, right? and I also think to remember Jake saying the Oshiros immigrated in ‘99 but correct me if I’m wrong, which would check out, and _13 _bc I just. you know. hope she didn’t leave him when he was even younger. we don’t know and honestly I don’t want to know bc thinking about it makes me angry already.
anyway if he’s 33 now, he was 22 or 23 in ‘08. what has he been doing all this time??? more importantly: how has he been living all this time??? I’ve been imagining that he really just lives wherever he can. abandoned buildings, mostly. maybe he’s managed to gather some kinda-still-good furniture from around the neighborhood and moved that all into some warehouse nobody’s using anymore? I also think he’s gotten tragically good at stealing; back home already, but like, if you have smoke magic that can apparently put ppl into a trance then, you know, who’s gonna stop you? the assault was likely part of it somehow. maybe a misunderstanding and he was actually the victim, maybe not, but I doubt that he’d just stay calm if someone threatens him, yk. though he tries. hard.
he also has been and maybe still is on rather good terms with the sexworkers in the neighborhood. I had this idea that the first winter when he had to survive on his own, he’d almost have frozen to death but the spring-sellers took pity on him and took him in. maybe that’s how he survives the winter in the US too??
if he does work (which I doubt) it’s likely odd jobs, and he never stays anywhere long bc he can’t deal with authority. maybe that’s how he’s gotten the motorbike and the needed license. just saved up money somehow.
I also think he loves to spend time at other people’s homes if they let him. in the rare case of him making friends, or acquaintances, friends with benefits, flings, however you wanna call them, he probably insists on meeting at theirs, bc the warehouse or other buildings he’s squatting at, just remind him of what a failure he (believes he) is. also hot showers. and maybe food. and, of course, the illusion of care and intimacy and closure. ;;
I do believe Nori and he have the same dad, actually. that maybe their mother was, as mentioned above, already pregnant, when she left. Jin doesn’t mention a father when he talks about the incident and the beatings and all, but it would make sense to me that Kyoko, in her desire to have kids and continue the legacy (probably also pressured/”encouraged” by her own mother), first gets Jin (and doesn’t tell the dad who may or may not have been a one night stand too), and when he turns out to be a “rotten fruit”, she seeks out the same guy again (or maybe she doesn’t, who knows, really) and then leaves the country once she’s sure she’s expecting??
but yeah. so many questions and literally zero canon answers. thanks, Joe Sill. akfjdgffhg. and thanks for the ask, I love yelling about Jin all day any day.
