01-10-16 I was too rough

[BlairFan]

Matt and Yuki would make an interesting couple.

[Lokitsu]

Only if it revealed something about Matt other than his sex drive. I just realized that he's one of the least explored characters in the cast. AFAIK all we know about him is he's an underwear model and loves sex. If I'm wrong, someone please correct me.

[Spidrift]

Well, he's also clearly an adrenaline junkie, but that's part of the "loves sex" thing with him. More significantly, he's smart, perceptive, and interested in people.

We don't know much about his childhood or his family, but that's true of all these characters, really.

[Lokitsu]

I was referring more to hobies and interests. Most of the group have something other than work to define them. But now that you mention it, the only character backgrounds that we know anything about are Yuki and her family, that Gary was apparently raised in a strict religion and that Zii had a mostly normal childhood. I don't think we know anything about DiDi, Matt or Kiley's lives before their first appearences in the comic. That's odd even for a light comedy.

[Spidrift]

This is a strip about young-ish people finding their place in the world, having moved to the Big City. The defining feature of people like that is that they're cutting themselves off from their roots - not necessarily in a hostile fashion, if they had an okay upbringing, but they're generally trying to define themselves on their own terms, rather than in the terms set by their families and home towns. Talking about their backgrounds too much would miss the point.

But, that said - the comic has dropped a few hints, but very patchily; these characters have as much background as the latest gag requires, and no more. Gary said in that early strip that he was raised in a strictly religious community, but that looks like the writers offering a snap explanation and/or Gary making excuses for his own pathological lack of confidence; he's since shown exactly zero signs of religiously-based hang-ups or ethics, or religious knowledge, and when his mother called him on his birthday, she seemed nice enough and fully aware of his social difficulties (which isn't inconsistent with the idea of her being religious, but doesn't quite fit Gary's attempts to depict his upbringing as a traumatic mess), and she didn't say anything about praying for him or anything. Conversely, Gary has admitted to having been a troll in the past; if I thought that he had a consistent back-story, that would make me think that the horrible teasing girls he complained about may just have been fairly normal teenage girls who were simply fending off a creepy nerd.

Zii really hasn't said much about her upbringing, beyond the fact that she seems to have had a normal-looking teenage girl's bedroom, she evidently discovered sex fairly early, and Amber was her best friend. DiDi has said that her parents weren't well off but did their best for her (which leaves me thinking of DiDi as an alien cuckoo, who can make normal humans do whatever she wants by just standing there). Dillon had some problems with being a bit closeted as a teen, but ultimately got through okay. Sandra had an interesting prom night...

But yeah, that's about it - except for the Larose family, who've been filled in a little more because plot, but not very much. Zii claims that their parents are wealthy doctors, Amber's behaviour says that they're not so cool and liberal that she can easily tell them about her porn career, Ruby thinks that they favour Amber, the sisters have got into a mutual emotional mess thanks to lack of communication or something... But no, there's not really a detailed picture even there.

As to Matt - well, it looks a lot like sex is his hobby, in a way that isn't true even for Zii. Or rather, I get the impression that he's interested in people, especially but not solely the good-looking ones he can get into bed, perhaps to the point that it defines him as much as a hobby would. Plus, he works out a lot to keep that physique, which could perhaps eat his time, and he also travels on business. I'm not sure that we know much less about him than about most of the others. Heck, at least we know what he does for a living, unlike Yuki.

[Error of Logic]

Suzi may have dropped a hint that she lost a lover to a cheerleader, and if that is true, it may have given her relationship issues to the point that she can't commit.

[Spidrift]

I don't recall that. I certainly don't recall a cheerleader being mentioned, though I may be wrong.

I do get a feeling with Zii that her first serious relationship may have crashed painfully when the other person cheated on her, leading to her love-'em-and-leave-'em mentality; "betray them before they betray you." She was nervous as a kitten about committing to Erik, she was dramatically pissed with Gary for "cheating" on Yuki, and she talked about that behaviour like it was a conscious choice. It'd fit. But we've never had hard evidence for that theory.

[Error of Logic]

When first involved with Erik, she had a crying fit one night while screaming at Lita that 'Erik was probably banging a cheerleader that very moment'.

[Spidrift]

Actually, it was "three sorority girls".

(Which does tie up to my hypothesis about a bad first serious relationship.)

[Error of Logic]

Ah, so it was! Odd how memory rewrites these little details.