OFAV/Of Fruits and Vegetables
Characters:
This is my catch-all name for any of the stories having to do with these characters. This is also the name of the 4-panel webcomic I sometimes (ie: NEVER;;) work on with these characters. While most of the stuff I do with these characters is lighthearted, I do have some more serious comics I'd like to do with a couple of them.
The story surrounds Tomato, an up-and-coming model who lives in Paris, and his hair and make up crew + boyfriend + modeling agent. There's no real serious theme surrounding all of them, but it's worth noting that I think I originally created these characters with the aim of them being really superficial. So if anything, superficiality, external appearance, and FASHION (?) are themes that go on here. But these characters are mostly just for fun nonsense.
Stefan and Gabe's Story
Characters:
Out of all the characters in OFAV, Stefan and Gabe are the more developed of them. Sefan and Gabe's story is pretty standard, it's basically just following how the two of them get close to each other and eventually begin a relationship. Idk I have fun thinking about how people with opposing personalities can grow to be interested in each other's lifestyles/ways of thinking/etc. EVEN THOUGH IT'S SO CORNY....
sometimes I think I should try to make Stefan and Gabe's story more ORIGINAL, but you know.... I don't care... I love them and their corn..................
An overarching theme with their relationship and the development of their relationship is like... balance, I guess. When I made them in high school I was really into the concept (?) of how an extreme on one end of a spectrum can't realistically force an extreme on the other end of a spectrum to their side. (? idk if that made sense.) I think I was trying to go against some sort of "good boy goes bad" or "bad boy goes good" (???) trope that sometimes accompanies opposite-relationship stories. (??? idk if this even exists. I'm thinkin' like the end of Grease, I guess.)
Their relationship for me also kind of expanded beyond compromise and bringing two different people to a common middle ground into becoming about learning to understand how someone comes to have a particular viewpoint/lifestyle/perception and accepting that while still being able to maintain one's own personal viewpoint/lifestyle/perception. Idk I guess it's like they come to understand there's some things that you can't change about a person? I think a thing with Stefan and Gabe is that they both bring about a change in each other, but they also learn to accept /like/want to know about the things that they can't change or fully understand about each other.
?????
This sounds corny and incoherent. The main thing is that Stefan and Gabe have pretty different views on life and they're still themselves at their core, but they grow to want to know each other. I JUST THINK... WANTING TO LEARN ABOUT WHO A PERSON IS AND HOW THEY THINK IMPORTANT IN RELATIONSHIPS...
AND ANYWAY, Idk if Stefan and Gabe are really as "opposites" as I try to make them out to be;;; Idk what I'm talking about here.
I also include in their storyline some backstory with Stefan and Gabe. Stefan's backstory is about his (failed?) relationships with Amelia (1999-2001?) and Noland (some months in 2002) in college. His relationship with Amelia reflects on how like-minded people can develop resentment for one another by being too headstrong (?), while his relationship with Noland explores how a sense of innocence can distort the reality of power relationships between two people (???? or something like that). IT SOUNDS COOL WHEN I PUT IT LIKE THAT, but it'd probably be so clumsy if I actually tried to draw out what I'd want to portray... Along with innocence, the effects of cheating also has some role in Stefan's relationship with Noland.
Gabe's backstory is mainly about him in high school and is basically just him being raunchy with Ramil (???? POINTLESS!). The relationship chart here goes "Gabe (openly gay) likes his straight best bro Will, but fricks around with Ramil (closet gay) 'cause It's Hilarious and he's Hot; also Ramil falls for Gabe somehow and Gabe's like 'haha whoops'." (????). Y'know, love triangle (?) lame drama....;;;
I guess it'd discuss what love and sex mean to Gabe (how they differ, how they're the same, how they're conflated), but also is just there to show how clumsily Gabe handles romance. He's kind of a jerk in high school with the way he toys with Ramil (and both of them know Gabe's just messing around even though Ramil falls pretty hard for Gabe). But I kind of want to show how he's hopeful about romance even though he's aware of how badly he handles it. OR SOMETHING? Who knows. EVEN THOUGH IT'S KINDA WEIRD TO TALK ABOUT (especially here on theO), sex and what it means for him and the people he has sex with is pretty important to Gabe and how he understands himself. I still don't really get what's going on with him, I'm trying to figure stuff out...
The backstory stuff would probably be mostly mentioned in hindsight relative to how Stefan and Gabe are developing in their relationship in 2010, but I'd definitely like doing comics and stuff from Stefan or Gabe's perspective at the time of the backstory. :Y Idk how any of this stuff would fit neatly together hahaha;;;;
I briefly had ideas for story stuff regarding Ramil post-Gabe, but I've basically given up haha;;;;
