A question about the setting and world of Hey Kitty and Hey Fox.
Thank you to @Frankwolfest for your question sent to @HeyKittyComic. To paraphrase “I remember seeing a kid anthroid in one page, are android kids a common thing or how’s that?”
At first I was going to try to summarize this on twitter, but I quickly realized that even saying “there’s too much to say here” rolled into threaded tweets. I wanted to address the question directly, on the other hand, because it touches on part of what we’re trying to do with Hey Kitty and the worldbuilding therein.
To answer the question directly: Anthroid kids are not particularly common, but they are becoming more and more so. Some are surrogates, stand-in’s, for children that could not be. Some parents that can not conceive, whether because of some sexual incompatibility of species or gender or some other reason, may design an anthroid to be their impossible “child.” Some are more tragic, a stand-in for a memory of a child lost, though this is a more rare case as the personality and memories of the Anthroid are not writable. That is, one might design a “replacement” that is physically identical to another child, but there is no guarantee that their personality would be similar. Still some others are for less savory purposes. Although not officially supported by Pear Industries, there are third-party modification shops that cater to the more lascivious desires of the populous.
That said, what really sparked this post comes from that first set. The incompatible parents, and something that is more than just a graphic twitch in the Hey ‘verse of comics.
You might have noticed that there is a lot of wooded area, and there aren’t often a lot of people around. The cities tend to border on forests and other natural preserves. This is not a reflection of the inhabitants “animalistic” nature… Rather it is a luxury born of a small, and in many cases shrinking, population. Interspecies couples, more than anything else, has led to a diminished propagation. Some species breed, despite divergent genetics (See, Pixi, the half cat, half rabbit, for example, and though these crossed breedings are rare at best, they speak to the common genetic heritage that is much more similar than just a shared genus.)
Although some are perturbed by the practice, some even blaming Pear for the falling population numbers, others see their impossible children as nigh miraculous gifts.
Most simply see the as another product. They are a simulacra, a facsimile, that looks and acts like a child, but is only as interesting or as important as the latest video game or new car.
They are new though.
The oldest Anthroids are perhaps fifteen or twenty years on the market.
The oldest of the children models, closer to five or ten.
There are questions, some of which are important to the future of Hey Kitty.
What happens to a child that can never grow up? Could they be given new bodies to simulate growing up? Is life an endless childhood, until parents age and pass, leaving a forever-child alone? Is it discarded, a doll who’s lost its charms? Or is there something more to an anthroid than it’s base programming?