“Ohana means family and family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten.”
~~Stitch, Disney's Lilo and Stitch


Hi all,

I was pretty far into this newsletter before I realized I'd just done an "Ask a JABB Co-Founder."  Oops.  I try not to put two similarly formatted newsletters so close together but I'd honestly forgotten.  I suppose two out-of-state trips since JABB 553 was bound to mess with my sense of time.  Combine that with a busy weekend and... I just decided to stick with this.  Hopefully next time will be something different.

God bless,
Jenni


Ask a JABB Co-Founder: Family Stuff

Since we're coming on the holiday season when families tend together, I thought I'd tackle some questions about the Dyelanders/Friends and their families.

Question: So... what exactly is the nature of Andrew's and JenniAnn's relationship these days and why did you decide to make it more physical?
Answer: First, just to be totally clear, they're both still virgins and will remain that way.  But a number of things conspired to make me think that, realistically, they wouldn't spend JenniAnn's entire life in a totally G-rated, Disney prince and princess space. 

For one, they adopted a couple of babies (Belle and then Avi) and I've read multiple articles about the importance of skin-to-skin contact with your baby.  Given both Andrew and JenniAnn are quite affectionate, warm people, I figured that style of parenting would appeal to them.  And it just seemed goofy to think that JenniAnn wouldn't have been comfortable with a shirtless Andrew snuggling their babies.  I mean they went on a cruise together.  They're surrounded by unpolluted bodies of water.  There's no way Andrew doesn't go swimming and that JenniAnn hasn't frequently seen him in just swim trunks.  Plus, there's the fact that society doesn't view the male torso as particularly sexual.  However... society does have hang-ups about the female torso and, thus, I could see JenniAnn being significantly more hesitant to let Andrew see her topless.  So when it came to snuggling Belle, she probably only did that when Andrew was absent. 

And then she got shot by Rex...

This event continues to loom large in Andrew's psyche (quite possibly because, in his line of work, he's seen multiple shootings since so can't move on as easily as the relatively sheltered JenniAnn can) and when, while they were vacationing in North Carolina, JenniAnn discovered that he was still having nightmares about it (see "Hope and Healing"), she let him see the scar from the bullet wound.  This allowed him to see how well it had healed.  Because the scar stretches from just below her right breast and across her side, I think it's safe to assume Andrew more or less saw everything at least on that side.  Nonetheless, JenniAnn remained pretty covered up around Andrew over the next couple of years until "Cupid and Psyche" when she finally reveals to Andrew that Rex groped her.  She's understandably traumatized by this and particularly by the thought that Rex is the only man who has drawn pleasure from her breasts and it was gross and forced.  So... Andrew assures her that's definitely not the case because, though he doesn't draw pleasure from her body as a human man might, he does in his own way.  Remembering how healing their encounter in NC was, JenniAnn removes her top, Andrew follows suit, and they kiss and snuggle.  So it's become a comfort thing for them... in a way similar to how it is for their babies, I suppose.  Since JenniAnn is nursing Avi, she's probably become much more comfortable with Andrew seeing her topless and it's not even a big thing any more... just like it never was with him being shirtless.

And one more thing...  I actually amped up Andrew's and JenniAnn's relationship for a rather weird reason.  Given that JenniAnn's only other relationship was with Eliot and we know that didn't have a very physical dimension, it occurred to me that the man she'd had the most physical contact with was... Joshua.  While it was in a completely different and highly unromantic context (putting the scourging and Crucifixion make-up on him for St. Genesius' JCS), I still didn't like the idea that JenniAnn was likely more familiar with Joshua's body than with Andrew's.  That just seemed like a really good way to develop some sort of complex.  So I could totally imagine Joshua nudging Andrew and JenniAnn to where they are now so that Andrew could usurp him in that one very particular area.

Question: So... how many more kids are the Friends going to have?

Answer: Well...  I can't say for sure because I don't know how inspiration will hit but...  I do keep a chart and currently have 22 as yet unborn/unadopted children on it.  And that's only counting the currently adult Friends.  That doesn't include any children of Ivy and Sy or anyone younger than them. 

Question: Does Max still have contact with Rex?

Answer:  I suppose at some point I might have some story idea that would involve Rex reappearing... from behind a plate of glass in a jail.  But unless/until that happens... no.  Joshua preaches forgiveness and I'm sure Max, Rose, Andrew, JenniAnn, and others have worked on forgiving Rex.  But forgiving doesn't always mean you let someone back into your life.  Because he now has a wife and child, I highly doubt Max wants Rex knowing anything about him.  Andrew is his father now in all ways but genetically and as Joshua and his Abi will tell you, genetics isn't everything.  Besides, it's not like Rex led a stellar life and then did this one horrible thing.  He wasn't good to Max growing up so I don't see any reason to maintain a connection.

Question: Speaking of estranged parents... will Kylie or Emma ever make peace with their moms?

Answer: Honestly, I haven't given that much thought until just now.  To recap, Kylie's mom wanted her to stay with her first husband even though he was abusive because her mother doesn't believe in divorce.  Emma's mom, meanwhile, didn't do anything to break her teenaged daughter away from an abusive older man and then didn't support Emma in the aftermath.  So... pretty awful moms.  I suppose it would make sense that one or the other would try to re-establish contact so... maybe?

Question: Will we ever see Joshua/Yeshua with his siblings/cousins in flashbacks?

Answer: Probably not any time really soon because I feel like I'll need to do some research first.  But I'd certainly like to explore that dynamic!

Question: What's the status of Monica's and Arthur's relationship?  Has it progressed like Andrew's and JenniAnn's?

Answer: One of my chief disappointments with getting so off-track with JABB this year is that I really wanted to catch back up with Monica and Arthur.  2019 was really pretty much a wash with writing just because I had so much personal stuff come up (major plumbing issue, mice invasion, broken AC, having to replace my furnace, deaths in the family, unexpected travel, etc.)  I still hope to end strong by finishing my current story and then a short but sweet Christmas story.  But 2020 will probably be a rebuilding year in which I hope to get to everything I'd planned for 2019 then had to set aside.  And then maybe in late 2020 or at least by 2021, I'll be able to do some shorter, character-focused one-offs.  And I'd like to do one about Arthur and Monica... because I really don't know how things are going for them.  I mean they're definitely still together and raising Liam.  But what exactly that looks like?  I'm not positive.  I would imagine it's considerably more complicated.  Andrew and JenniAnn are both asexuals as is Monica.  Arthur is very much not.  So what Andrew and JenniAnn can do without worrying they're trying each other's resolve... Arthur and Monica maybe can't.  I don't know.  I'm not a straight male so that's hard for me to wrap my mind around.  Probably another one I'll have to do some research on.  ;-) 



This newsletter is dedicated to John Dye for giving us a show that so many of us enjoyed with our families.

JABB Portal
 JABB TOC
JABB 556

 (Photo Credits: The photographs used on this page are from Touched by an Angel and owned by CBS Productions, Caroline Productions, and Moon Water Productions.  They are not being used to seek profit.)