Revenge of Ask T Questions

[TCampbell]

I have a few questions:

1. I'm not sure if this has been answered before, but how old are Meighan and Hilary supposed to be?

Also, I've thought about the Sara/Daphne relationship a lot, and I have my own ideas for answers to the following questions, but I really would love to know the real answers:
2. What changed for Sara to make her want to ask Daphne out originally?
3. Did Sara truly never trust Daphne at all, or did she retcon her own past a bit when things started to go south for her in Hollywood? (I assume that she at one point really envisioned a future for them - she did picture them getting married at one time.)

I would also like to say thank you, T, for the "Ask T Questions" threads. I think it's really amazing that you provide your readers this sort of a forum to get true inside knowledge of the characters and behind-the-scenes looks at your process. It's just awesome, and I like how friendly these boards tend to be (virtually flame and troll free - a rarity on the internet). So again, thank you.

1. Meighan is in her mid-to-late twenties. Hilary is a teenager. I realize Hilary looks older, especially at first. In the real world, this is due to a misunderstanding between me and Jason, but I attribute it to a high-stress lifestyle and desire to be taken as older than her years. (We had something very similar happen with Shanna Cochran, both in the misunderstanding and in the explanation. Shanna's later transformation was more extreme than Hilary's, though.)

2. It's hard to say how much of it was a desire to replace her lust for Cyndi with another, healthier attraction. She was drifting toward Daphne already. She liked Daphne, and, despite The Big Issue, appreciated her friendship. The physical desire wasn't totally absent either, though Sara's hormones don't seem overly choosy. She probably would've given things a try with Daph for those reasons sooner or later, all things being equal, but Cyndi unconsciously pushed the development forward.

3. This is a hard one. Sara decided to trust Daphne. But what happened in L.A. basically made Sara's requirements in order to trust someone stricter.

[TolKooAD]

I wanted to weigh in a little bit on the tentative Lucy diagnosis. Speaking as a kid with ADHD which used to be quite severe (as I've grown the disorder has become a much smaller factor in my life, due both to chemical maturity and instinctual coping mechanisms) and one who's very involved with a boy who suffers from mild OCD, neither of those really translate in the comic. Besides, in this day and age I don't see having ADD as a cause for concerns for parents -- the stigma on the disorder is totally different than what you're describing. If you had emphasized Lucy's hyperactivity or distractedness, sure, but at the risk of drawing flames... it's not really a learning disability. It's a disability that often has an impact on learning, but the differences are really distinct.

However, my sister does have an auditory learning disability (she can't learn from lectures; she has to write or doodle for it to fix in her brain) and moderate dyslexia, which to me was a no-brainer for Lucy -- she was flipping words left right and sideways in her IM conversation. Slipping letters might have indicated ADHD because it would have implied that she was rushed while typing (I do that a lot, mozilla spellcheck is my bff) but flipping them or making logical mistakes with phonetics is really more of a dyslexic thing. So does Lucy have a disorder or a disability? I have to admit I'm a little unsettled by ADD and OCD being listed as learning disabilities but that's not to say she couldn't have those TOO, or that you simply misnamed Lucy's problems.

[Valerie]

That could be a good point to make. The only mental/learning/etc. disabilities I'm very familiar with are autism and mental retardation, neither of which suits Lucy, so I just kinda pulled ADHD out of thin air. I didn't mean to offend, and I apologize if I did.

(I actually did consider high functioning autism for a second. It suits her ability to memorize lines and to be completely focused on acting, as autism usually creates a person with one or two intense interests, but she's too in tune with emotions. Autistic folks tend to be socially detached.)

[TolKooAD]

No worries

I really want to put my bets on dyslexia. She seems very wise and social, which doesn't really fit the spectrum, at least from my vantage point.

[TCampbell]

I wanted to weigh in a little bit on the tentative Lucy diagnosis. Speaking as a kid with ADHD which used to be quite severe (as I've grown the disorder has become a much smaller factor in my life, due both to chemical maturity and instinctual coping mechanisms) and one who's very involved with a boy who suffers from mild OCD, neither of those really translate in the comic. Besides, in this day and age I don't see having ADD as a cause for concerns for parents -- the stigma on the disorder is totally different than what you're describing. If you had emphasized Lucy's hyperactivity or distractedness, sure, but at the risk of drawing flames... it's not really a learning disability. It's a disability that often has an impact on learning, but the differences are really distinct.

However, my sister does have an auditory learning disability (she can't learn from lectures; she has to write or doodle for it to fix in her brain) and moderate dyslexia, which to me was a no-brainer for Lucy -- she was flipping words left right and sideways in her IM conversation. Slipping letters might have indicated ADHD because it would have implied that she was rushed while typing (I do that a lot, mozilla spellcheck is my bff) but flipping them or making logical mistakes with phonetics is really more of a dyslexic thing. So does Lucy have a disorder or a disability? I have to admit I'm a little unsettled by ADD and OCD being listed as learning disabilities but that's not to say she couldn't have those TOO, or that you simply misnamed Lucy's problems.

I'm not a medical professional, and I probably overstepped myself here. This is ANOTHER reason I don't rush to diagnose characters, working more from hypothesis and observation.

[mindstalk]

Can't she just be outright slow? Somone's out there getting 90 or 80 on IQ tests.

[TCampbell]

The line between "just slow" and learning-disabled can be difficult to draw.

[Alice Macher]

Unless it's going to be addressed in the comic, could you fill us in on where Iseul and Theo are vis-à-vis acceptance of Sara's sexual orientation?

[TCampbell]

Love the sinner, hate the sin? Well, they wouldn't put it in terms of "sinning," but Iseul's opinion hasn't changed much since their last on-panel conversation about it. Having her daughter's preferences exploited for a TV show really did not help matters. Theo is more of a don't-rock-the-boat type, and might be inclined to accept this if he were a single parent, but he's at least nominally standing with Iseul on this one. It won't get Sara kicked out of the house or threaten her college education, but it's going to make for a lot of tense meals.

[Tamar]

Are Aggie and friends still just at the logo-painting stage of her film, or has she been concurrently filming scenes that don't rely on the painted work? (Just curious, since they were shown painting in "June" and it's now "August." Unless Aggie intends to finish the film during senior year?)

And no, I don't mean to come across sounding like an anxious investor.

[TCampbell]

Are Aggie and friends still just at the logo-painting stage of her film, or has she been concurrently filming scenes that don't rely on the painted work? (Just curious, since they were shown painting in "June" and it's now "August." Unless Aggie intends to finish the film during senior year?)

And no, I don't mean to come across sounding like an anxious investor.

Logo-painting, but the actual filming is going to be pretty quick.

[Oasis]

Just what to say great comic =D everything is just really neat! =D enjoy the stories plots a lot.

[xoxi]

Did Penny break Aggie's hymen XD

[snowmansam]

Has Penny gained any awareness of Rob's heart condition? If so, has she let go of the resentment she's had towards him? If she's still unaware, do you think she will figure it out at some point?

[TCampbell]

Did Penny break Aggie's hymen XD

This somehow wasn't the question that 20-year-old me expected to be answering at this phase of my career. Aggie hasn't been timid about messing around down there herself so I'm gonna go with no.