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polaroid-petals · 1 month ago

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Meet the characters: Stray

A comment asked for some more details about the Stray cast, more specifically the dynamics between Rowan, Flower, and Basil—and since I had fun typing that up, I decided to make a character guide for the most prominent Stray characters. Also on AO3.

Last updated 16 February 2025.

Main characters

💻 Omori Hirano

Born on the 20th of July 1996 – 21 years old

An outsider wouldn’t know who Omori is. After all, why would a family of renowned musicians have a talentless shut-in child they don’t acknowledge in public, and why would the Hiranos pass up on another potential prodigy? Only a conspiracy theorist would argue his existence.

Born as the twin to Sunny and the little brother of Mari, the twins’ arrival was a blessing to the Hirano family. While his parents, Heather and Ukon, stood at the cradle of what would become a successful musical career, they agreed that their children should be free to pursue whichever path they wish, be it music or something else.

Still, Omori grew up with music as a central part of his life, and like his sister with the piano and his brother with the violin, he picked up playing the cello and several other instruments when he was just five. Omori learned quickly, faster than his siblings, and was soon branded with the label prodigy. He took comfort in his twin, as they were both silent, unusual children, and his relationship with his siblings was an important part of his childhood as he navigated his shy and quiet personality.

Omori never liked the unfamiliar, but his parents’ career continuously took him there. Shortly before his tenth birthday, they moved to Oregon—far away from home, and into a strange environment—to pursue music. With his progress came expectations, and with that, questions. Am I ready to stand in front of a crowd of people to show what I can do? Is this what I want to do with life? Who am I? Do I have a choice?

Although Mari had been strict with Sunny, she’d let Omori loose after seeing how much her perfectionism harmed her brothers—and as a result, Omori didn’t practice as much as would’ve been ideal for his development. His musical career would come to a screeching halt when, as a part of his debut to the world when he was ten, he’d be set to play a solo piece at one of his parents’ concerts. Mari and Sunny already nailed theirs, but something was wrong the day Omori was to play. His cello felt too large. His hands didn’t feel like they were his. He hadn’t eaten well, his head hurt, his legs were weak. He wasn’t ready.

The concert would ultimately lead to Omori seeking permanent refuge in their house in the woods, afraid to be seen by the prying eyes of the world and desiring to just be forgotten so that he, too, could forget about what happened. To this day, he still refuses to leave, unless under very specific circumstances.

Omori can at worst be described as an antisocial jerk who needs to pull that stick out of his ass already, though a more charitable interpretation would paint him as a tired boy whose childhood passed him by and who now lacks the means to save himself. There is little doubt that he’s selfish and struggles to factor others into his life. He has since grown to despise Sunny, blaming him for reaping success while all Omori got was trauma, and Mari is the only family member he has a good relationship with, though he wonders how long this will last. He’s not happy with the person he has become, but he feels like too much of a sad sack of shit to do anything about it.

Throughout his isolation, things initially looked hopeless. While homeschooled in theory, he mostly stayed inside and rotted behind his laptop. Still, by some miracle, he met one of Sunny’s friends when he was twelve. Some angry prick named Rowan. Big anger issues. Red flags even to Omori. Hated the guy, until he learned that he was also born a girl and seeking to be accepted as a guy.

Rowan changed everything. Omori had just faced two years of being by his lonesome, yet this Rowan felt like he belonged in Omori’s life. They became friends, and although Omori had grown to hate music, Rowan would introduce him to new genres so far removed from the classical music that filled his life at home that if you were to catch him during a vulnerable moment, Omori might even admit that he loves this new music. They would enjoy alternative rock and metal together, though any genre that goes hard is fine. The more chaotic, the better.

The first time Omori left the house again during the night was to join Rowan to his home. The first and only time Omori left the house again during the day was to be there when Rowan woke up from his top surgery, though this event sits repressed in his mind. Rowan could move mountains, and Rowan could mean the world to Omori. Rowan invited Omori to his band and allowed him to create again. Rowan could make Omori accept that he might love again, and when Omori was sixteen, they would even start a romantic relationship. Rowan could do anything to Omori.

What Rowan can’t do is get Omori back out of the house.

Both Rowan and Mari have made many attempts, but it’s starting to look like it’s hopeless. Every step forward, Omori darts backwards two steps to stay within the cover of his home. No one can address the fundament of his agoraphobia, and he has thus far resisted all attempts at professional intervention.

No one can save Omori, and he doesn’t want to be saved. It would be better to just die, but he lacks the energy and drive to do it.

Because of his lifestyle choices, Omori never finished elementary and high school. He’s officially homeschooled, but he never ended up actually learning much, instead keeping himself busy as his parents weren’t exactly available. As such, he has learned to keep his empty mind semi-engaged, mostly filling his time with video games, drawing, and picking fights with people online. He doesn’t have any prospects of finishing his education or pursuing anything, as he has no clue who he is or what his role in society would even be.

He has developed at least some interests, despite everything. He loves trash metal and noise music, and he loves the music Rowan has brought into his life. He likes roaming around the internet doing nothing. He’s learning Japanese and hasn’t missed a single daily Duolingo lesson in over five hundred days. He likes to watch the stars from by the pool, and he likes space. Sometimes, he still draws, and he’s gotten into coding lately. But in the end, absolutely none of that changes anything.

Though he wants to get better, he has very little drive to do so. He’s deep into depression, and his motives are lower than ever. Constantly pulling Rowan closer only to push him away has become second nature. Deep down, he’s scared that Rowan will give up on him, and Omori needs to test these waters to feel briefly secure. Frustrations with Rowan have recently caused him to break things off abruptly, this contention the only way he can feel anything anymore.

No professional diagnosis has been made as the idea of meeting strangers sends him panicking. Were he to see a therapist, evidence would be more than sufficient to diagnose him with agoraphobia, depression, a cluster B diagnosis, more specifically something along the lines of borderline personality disorder, and a cluster C diagnosis, somewhere in the area of avoidant personality disorder. While this helps him understand Rowan’s specific anger disorder better, it also is an intensifier of their fights, and Omori’s attitude ultimately leads to an unhealthy, unsustainable relationship.

So what’s left then, really? Unless an earth-shattering event takes place in his life and scrambles his psyche into something workable, what chance does he stand?

🧩 Rowan Dorian Finley

Born in 1994 – 23 years old

At first sight, Rowan may seem like a handsome, well-mannered, and charming young man who has his life together. Those who know him more intimately understand that it cost him blood, sweat, and tears to get to where he is today.

Born to a Scottish mother, Rowan spent the first thirteen years of his life with her as his single mom. Growing up, he fell victim to extreme anger issues stemming from an unstable home and his sense of helpless directionlessness in life. He suffered from critically low weight due to an emerging eating disorder, not like he cared. The two often fought, and Rowan ended up learning about the identity of his father. He could leave for all she cared, and since Rowan had zero ties to his home country due to his inability to make friends, he ended up meeting his biological father, Olivier Moore, and his wife Camellia.

Rowan’s existence was a tough to swallow pill. Camellia knew that her husband had cheated after the birth of their son, but she didn’t know it had happened before too. How many more times had it happened? Still, the two had compassion for this teen who travelled across the ocean to come see them and who begged them to let him stay, so Rowan ended up being dropped off at their two other sons, who stayed with Olivier’s mother at the time. Rowan was well aware that he was once again being a problem child pawned off to someone else, but he was eager to meet the rest of his family.

Although he was dropped between two apparent brothers he didn't even know existed before he arrived, they were the nicest brothers he could ask for. He quickly got accepted and bonded with them, and they became as inseparable as they might’ve been had they been together since birth. Rowan would go on to become fiercely protective of them. At the time, he was in denial that he had any responsibility for his issues and angry at the entire world, and he hid his problems from these new people he respected. He couldn’t keep them hidden forever, though, and would eventually struggle with harming people he didn’t want to hurt.

Then, he met Omori. So similar to him, it’s almost terrifying. Just as angry at the world as Rowan, but actually committed to shutting it out, and initially even rejecting Rowan as part of that world. Wearing the same dishevelled look as Rowan, though Rowan went all-in on the black clothes, hair dye, and washed-out eyeliner. Somehow, Rowan got a place in Omori’s life, and the two became tight friends, pulling each other deeper into pessimistic subculture. He was also the one who convinced Rowan to fully pursue living his life as a man and seeking transition.

Rowan faced a balancing act between his brothers’ constructive efforts to find him help and Omori’s lack of care for anything. In the end, improvement ended up winning, and Rowan finally got the professional help he needed when he was sixteen, missing the final years of his high school education to get ambulant care and therapy. He started taking care of his appearance, he got medicated and learned how to handle his anger, and he became a generally pleasant person to be around. As Rowan got better and Omori did not, he could feel them growing apart.

After a few years of effort and classes taken independently, Rowan goes on to get his high school degree at age 21. His life’s stable, his weight is under control, his transition is going swimmingly, he’s happy with Omori, and he starts his college degree for pharmaceutical technician the same year. And things will keep going well, until changes in Omori’s behaviour destabilise Rowan and he falls back into his old habits of undereating.

🦌 Florence “Flower” Delaney

Born in 1999 – 18 years old

It’s easy to underestimate Florence when everything about his appearance invokes the word “meek”, but if one were to get to know him, they’d find that between his brimming positivity and altruistic spirit, there sits a core of unwavering strength.

Born to a Canadian mother, Florence is the youngest of the three known sons of Olivier Moore, and one of his two extramarital children. While he was born to a kind mother, she wasn’t ready at the time to have a baby and chased Olivier down to step up as the child’s father.

Florence initially grew up being raised by his father and his wife, Camellia, having no ties to his biological mother. Growing up, he always had strong ties to his half-brother Basil, and they have long been emotionally tight. Florence and Basil both went through the same cycles of parental abandonment, as their non-committal parents would eventually leave them at their grandma’s for extended periods of time, leaving them with only each other as the constant factor in their lives. Florence in a way feels responsible for their parents leaving, as he was the cheat baby, and he was probably what made his parents decide to take their distance from their children in an effort to mend their broken relationship. Despite the guilt, he learned to value voluntary bonds over familial ties, and the fact that both Basil and Rowan chose to stay with him gives him the strength he needs to stay hopeful.

When Rowan joined the family when Florence was only eight, he was quick to accept him as his brother and over the years became just as tight with him as he is with Basil. Florence went through the opposite journey compared to Rowan; as a teenager, he craved reconnection with his biological mother, and he ended up meeting her. Now, he still visits over the holidays, and they share a positive relationship.

People assume that based on his appearance and stature, he must be weak, and Rowan is immensely protective over him—but in his spare time, he commits hard labour working with wild animals, and he has slowly been working his way up to becoming a champion in his featherweight youth boxing class. He’s the type of friend to wrestle a bear to save you. Diligent and sometimes a little unhinged, Florence is fiercely protective of his friends and will do anything he can to support them. He has friends of his own in the animal care field, but he’s been known to roam around Basil’s friends and even potentially had (has?) something going on with Aubrey. While initially not that close to Omori, he stuck around Rowan enough to get a little place in Omori’s claustrophobic world and be considered one of his few safe people.

He finished high school this year and is embarking on his veterinary studies when the summer vacation ends so that he can more effectively work at wildlife shelters, and ultimately wishes to become a Yellowstone veterinary park ranger.

🌘 Stranger

An enigma. Perhaps getting to know the creature better will clear up some mysteries.

Artwork by @atempause-art.

🐈‍⬛ Mewo

Estimated to be born in 2006 – 11 years old

Lazy and mischievous, Mewo is the Hirano housecat.

Sunny and Omori initially found Mewo in the woods surrounding their new Oregon home while exploring beyond the property’s fence. She was a kitten of several months old, emaciated and barely hanging on by a thread. The boys took the kitten inside, and she was quickly taken to the vet, making a full recovery.

Mari ended up getting ownership after she’d wanted a cat for ages and the boys decided to give Mewo to their big sister, and she named her Mewo. After her brush with an early demise, Mewo lets herself be spoiled by her new owners, growing attached and fat and happy. She absolutely loves to laze around and cuddle in her owners’ laps, but she’d chase down a cougar to keep her beloved humans safe and alive. Even when she can’t win the fight.

Mewo’s breed never got determined. She is a black cat, and that’s about it. She’s most likely a bombay, though the thickness of her fur and her stature hint that the maine coon tomcat sometimes seen in the backyard may be her father.

Sunny, Mari, their parents, Basil, Aubrey, Hero, and Kel's info can be found below the cut to keep this post shorter.

Supporting characters

🎻 Sunny Hirano

Born on the 20th of July 1996 – 21 years old

Prodigal son and skilful violinist, Sunny isn’t so sure if this life that was chosen for him truly fits him. After so many years, does he really have a choice anymore?

Sunny is Omori’s twin brother and Mari’s little brother, born to Heather and Ukon Hirano. Growing up, he had a tight bond with his twin brother and with Mari, though both would go on to become tainted.

Like his siblings, he picked up an instrument when he was five, in his case the violin. While he struggled with this immensely, he steadily improved with plenty of practice. Though close with both of his siblings, the presence of music proved to be a point of immense stress in his life, and in his relationship with his family. After Mari was asked by her parents to help tutor Sunny to catch up, he was pushed too far, and the two ended up having a fight that was only broken up because Omori intervened. With Omori’s encouragement and Mari stepping back, Sunny managed to successfully perform his debut to the musical world, though it planted anxiety within his heart that would go on to pervade the rest of his career.

After moving to Oregon, he met new people through school and made his first friends: Basil, Kel, and Aubrey. Though he was often busy practicing, they were the first people in a long time who allowed him to be a kid, and they would go on to become life-long friends. They accepted his silence and awkward shyness, and they understood that despite these traits, he still craved to be social. He’d introduce his friends to his family, and when he was seventeen, feelings that had been growing for a long time finally germinated into a romantic relationship with Basil.

It’s no lie that Sunny is a musical wonder, weaving touching melodies through the strings of his violin. Still, his interests lie elsewhere. He has always been a creative soul, and he spends a lot of his time daydreaming and escaping from this world into one where his brother didn’t turn against him and he is free to write and draw for a living.

He has never understood why Omori went from being his best friend to hating him. Why he got blamed for Omori’s bad performance, and why that caused his brother to turn against him. Sunny only encouraged him to stay strong and step on that stage, the way Omori did to Sunny once and that saved Sunny from going down. It’s never been fair, but when Omori doesn’t even want to talk about it, he has given up on having a positive relationship with him at all and focuses his energy on his friends and other family these days.

Sunny didn’t pursue higher studies due to how busy practice is, but like Mari, he may join the conservatory to finetune his skills and further his education. He’d rather stay home and be with his friends, and he doesn’t look forward to the near future.

🎹 Mari Hirano

Born on the 1st of March 1993 – 24 years old

Prodigal daughter and master of the piano, Mari wishes that she didn’t struggle so badly with perfection and she could instead help. Between family tensions, a depressed brother who won’t leave the house, and tight deadlines, she holds her head high and keeps her own troubles under wraps as well as one possibly could.

Eldest Hirano sibling, Mari grew up with music and standards imposed upon her by her parents. By no means was she forced to do anything, but that push to play music was all there. And when she became the big sister to a pair of twins, she immediately picked up her role as these tots’ guiding figure, making sure she’d be the best big sister she could.

If you were to ask her what her greatest regret in life is, she’d answer not being a good big sister to her brothers.

Despite her insistence upon doing anything she could to keep her beloved baby brother safe, she struggled with her own demons. She learned to play the piano at four, and she improved at a rate so rapid that every mistake she made came with anxiety. She had to do better, and it caused her a fair share of frustration that she couldn’t be. Once it was her brothers’ turn to learn, she’d do whatever she could to help them do the best they could.

She pushed Sunny too far. He couldn’t take it. Snapped one evening, when he was practicing for his debut, and the only reason that it didn’t escalate to a full-blown shouting match is that Omori intervened and stood up for his twin. Now facing not one but two strained sibling relations, Mari made the choice to let loose, shocked by the sheer distress she’d seen in Sunny’s eyes, the fear Omori had held for his siblings. And as a result, she didn’t properly guide Omori and he ended up locking himself inside the house for good.

Mari carries tremendous guilt on her shoulders for ruining her brothers’ lives, and she has no idea how she can help them out of this unfortunate situation.

Above all, Mari is kind and compassionate. She’s a bubbly and sweet girl with quite the bit of sass, liked by all and a central figure in the friend group. She hides her insecurities well, only revealing them to Hero occasionally but otherwise not wanting to saddle him with her troubles. Even when the two started dating at fourteen, she’d kept to herself and put up that act of the sweet, careless girl, despite knowing that Hero can look straight through her.

It’s her ultimate dream to stand on a stage alone and mesmerise thousands, but she knows she has a long way to go before she’s ready for this. With her conservatory studies finished, she should be prepared, but there are too many imperfections. Too many blemishes. And to juggle her own issues with those of her family, she’s not so sure she can keep her head above the water.

Ideally, no one will ever know.

🎼 Heather and Ukon Hirano

In their early 40s

As the Hirano matriarch and patriarch, Heather and Ukon form the centre of the success that the family has faced in the musical world over the past years.

String specialist Ukon and esteemed conductor Heather were a match made in heaven. Not only did their personalities mesh together well, but they also had a strong overlap of interests that ultimately pushed them together. Heather possessed mastery over an impressive amount of instruments, from strings to the piano all the way to percussion, and proved to be a strong leader that Ukon needed to further his own career.

They’d go on to have their first child in 1993, temporarily putting their career on hold, and once more have twins in 1996. They never pushed their children to follow in their footsteps, but were overjoyed when they did anyway and each successfully picked up an instrument. While they’d keep their career central, they enjoyed the prospect of one day getting to become a proper musical quintet.

Things didn’t go to plan. Omori would leave the musical scene after a bad debut—and worse, he’d refuse to go to school and leave the house anymore, forcing Heather and Ukon to pull him out of school eventually. Rather than focus on the negative, the pair decided to focus on the two remaining children who were still poised to pursue music while seeking appropriate help for the third. Eventually, Omori would fade from the media, and they’d use that to their advantage to hide this blemish on their family record.

In the end, someone who doesn’t want to be helped can’t be helped. Years of focusing on their career have exposed that perhaps, they could’ve done more to prevent this fate for their youngest.

Minor characters

🌿 Basil Moore

Born on the 18th of February 1996 – 21 years old

Initially a soft and sassy flower boy, Basil has had his fair share of abandonment from his parents’ side and troubles with his mental health. Still, his friends’ support system and his brothers’ care have helped him stay afloat and develop into the person he yearns to be.

Of the three sons, Basil is the only one whose parents were married as of his conception. That didn’t exactly lead to them favouring him, though. He learned that his brother Florence was from another mother pretty early on, and he always felt weird about his parents’ absence. Still, that didn’t stop him from loving Florence and later Rowan all the same.

Basil initially struggled with making friends, so when he met Aubrey and she introduced him to Kel, that changed everything for him. He had a relatively simple childhood, being an open and sassy child despite the anxiety that loomed under the surface due to his parents’ absence in his life. His good relationship with his brothers and grandma kept him from tanking. On top of that, his friend group always formed a strong support system, and at seventeen, he started a relationship with a newer member of the friend group, Sunny, which offered him extra support while at the same time dragging him deeper into the Hirano family tragedy. He started dating Sunny after Rowan started dating Omori, so Rowan and Omori call dibs on the marriage rights. He’s not worried.

Shortly after his 18th birthday, he started struggling with his senses and his grip on reality. He ended up getting a diagnosis of schizophrenia and a generalised anxiety disorder. While initially terrifying, both his brothers and his friends did everything in their power to get him the support he needed, and with the correct connections, he ended up medicated and relatively under control with the use of therapy.

These days, Basil is on the stable side, though his anxiety and his abandonment issues have a tendency to flare up at random. He has eased into his studies and is in his second year of biology in college.

🎀 Aubrey Avery

Born on the 23rd of May 1996 – 21 years old

A headstrong girl with a bubbly personality, Aubrey has managed to turn a bad family situation around by relying on her friends to improve her life.

Aubrey comes from a dysfunctional home. With a mother who’s long suffered from addiction and an absent father, she didn’t get much support from home. She’d meet a boy named Kel who stood up for her after seeing her getting bullied, and later a boy named Basil whom she’d seen sitting alone at the playground, and those two would quickly become her entire world. Kel’s older brother Hero would take care of her, and when Sunny and Mari moved into town, they quickly became ingrained in the friend group and formed yet another new home for Aubrey in the absence of a real home. She also built a strong relationship with Basil’s brothers, in particular Florence, with whom she shared a love for martial arts, fitness, and bunnies. She’s barely ever seen Sunny’s twin, so she can’t form an opinion on him, although Florence claims he’s great.

She didn’t stay at home for much longer after she turned eighteen. With the help of her friends, she managed to find herself a place to stay during the holidays, studying veterinary sciences during the year. She and Florence hope to become veterinary partners, though she’ll finish her studies before Florence will.

🍳 Henry “Hero” Montoya

Born on the 1st of January 1993 – 24 years old

Once destined for greatness as a physician, Hero in later years would end up picking what he wants over what his family wants and has found his footing in life.

Henry is the eldest child of the Montoya family. He grew up close with his younger brother Kel, though he was always the golden child, bringing with it benefits and detriments. His parents had high hopes for him over his intelligence, and they pushed him into becoming a doctor.

One day, when Hero was twelve, Kel would meet someone new at school. A boy from down south who’d just moved here. Hero would end up meeting the rest of his family and falling for the older sister, Mari, a girl from the same year as him whom he’d simply never met at high school before. The two would go on to start dating when Hero was fourteen, and they still are going strong, now engaged but waiting for the right moment to be wedded.

Initially, Hero started premed by his parents’ request. However, as Mari urged him to follow his heart and do what he desires, he gave it all up a year ago to go to culinary school instead. It was a blow to his relationship with his parents, but he’s ultimately happier this way, and he wouldn’t hesitate for a second to start out as a chef fresh out of high school if he could do it all over again.

He never finished his studies as a doctor, but he has gained enough preliminary knowledge on the subjects of physical and mental health to at least offer some solid advice.

🏀 Kel Montoya

Born on the 11th of November 1995 – 21 years old

Always the underdog of the family, Kel found success in sports and aims to further his athletic career.

Kel was the second Montoya child, little brother to Hero. Growing up, the two were close, though Kel wasn’t blind to his parents’ favoritism of his older brother. Still, he managed to smile through it and built himself quite the expansive friend group—both with his best friends Basil, Aubrey, and Sunny and with his mates from his sports clubs.

After high school, he ended up pursuing sports, signing a deal with a promising basketball club.

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