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And here I just have all of the cousins together in one post! You can read a bit more about each of them in their individual uploads:

Ifemi

Jericho

Fadekemi

Azubuike and Afamefuna

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"Oh, good~ There you are~! I was just about to wonder where the help went, isn't that right, 'Funa~?" "..." "Of course it is~! Anyway, I need a drink so be a good waiter and get me three more bottles of this wine, okay~?" The poor waiter looked at the empty bottle in the boisterous man's hand as well as the empty bottles at the table. "Sir, are you sure you haven't had enough? Our other guests may want some wine too..." He didn't miss the infuriated tensing of the quieter man's eyes, but the louder one was quick to speak up. "Ah-ah! Didn't ask for your two cents~ Looking you over, you may want to keep them. Go get me my fucking drinks." The waiter sighed but turned around once the louder man started stumbling on his feet, just for the quieter one to help him back to standing.

The last of Jericho's cousins and ones that those following Speak Not to the Gilded Dragons haven't seen before (they were alluded to in V2 but they haven't made an appearance in the story yet).

The twins, Azubuike (the right) and Afamefuna (the left) Nwachukwu, who both run a high-profile wine vineyard on the east coast.

Afamefuna oversees the labor aspects of the vineyard: overseeing employees, logistics, corporal punishment for failure, and the health of the orchard's offerings. Azubuike, the embodiment of the term 'functioning alcoholic' is the visionary: he develops the scopes of the vineyard's experimental offerings and flavor profiles.

All while doing a lot of diligent taste-testing.

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"Hurry up." "I'm trying..!" "Stop trying and do it. Come on!!" Fadekemi rolled her eyes as she strolled onto the beach, leaving her husband to struggle with her daybag. While she did like being on a beach she could actually wear a bikini on in comparison to the Isle of Kambi's frigid shores, she sneered at how many unruly children were left to jump and shriek about. "Some people shouldn't be allowed to breed... Bitrus, hurry up!!"

Dr. Fadekemi Onyema: the youngest of Jericho's cousins and definitely the quickest to anger and lashing out.

Despite her status as the 'baby' of the family, she prowls through the halls of professionalism with just as much deadly grace and precision as any Wall Street wolf.

She runs a private academy where she has been spearheading her own trademarked method of education and life preparation for the children of the world's wealthy and elite. And said program has been offering guaranteed results! ...As long as you don't mind your children being traumatized or turned into chemically-induced zombies.

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"I was under the impression that we were here to 'relax'..." Jericho told Bitrus, the mere notion of talking to Fadekemi's waste-of-sperm husband ruining whatever sense of leisure he had been soaking in. Bitrus bit his tongue. "I'm not asking you for surgery, I just need something for this headache." Jericho's countenance remained icy. But he did offer, "Were it not for Hippocrates, I would let you suffer. I have painkillers in my bag; help yourself."

The man, the myth, the legend: the paradigm of Mayo Clinic, Dr. Jericho 'Ekine' Nwadike. Yes, I do my best to draw him the most of his family members (he is one of the main leads of Speak Not, after all) but I do need to get better at keeping him in mind with the context of his extended family...

Anyway, as those who have been keeping up with Speak Not to the Gilded Dragons know, Jericho is a doctor and developer/investor of pharmaceuticals.

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Of course, he was doing his best to keep his cousins in line as they enjoyed this rare window into tropical leisure, but Ifemi could never deny the siren's call of inspiration. As the waves crashed into the shore, sprinkling him with chilling droplets, he wondered, 'It wouldn't be too hard to design something to trigger tidal waves, right? Note to self: get the team on the line when I get back to the hotel to start drawing up concepts and potential client pricing...'

The oldest of Jericho's cousins, Ifemi Balogun is definitely the most endearing of the lot. Whether it's his beaming smiles, his broad stature (eight feet and all muscle), or his charm, he brings it all to the table and more.

Which definitely comes in handy for his career: being a munitions engineer with private contracts all over the world.

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Incoming OC art dump...

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So I heard that the art event for Pride this year is drawing our OCs in Pride attire?

Either way, Happy Pride: here's Jericho and Linus, the main leads of Speak Not to the Gilded Dragons, in their finest for the occasion! Character orientation explanations under the cut:

Dr. Jericho 'Ekine' Nwadike (on the left): Pansexual, though he leans more towards men in the real world so as not to risk women trying to 'baby-trap' him (like what almost happened to his cousin).

Linus Meyer: Gay. So very gay. In actuality, your typical 'grew up in a rural area with an abusive asshole dad who was trying to do everything to make sure that he was "raising a fag"; got the hell out of dodge once he was old enough.

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Saw a 'character-age' drawing meme online, so I decided to do a brief version of it for the two leading men of Speak Not to the Gilded Dragons: Linus and Jericho.

It can also serve as a character-reference for the two, so, you know: multipurposing!

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Continuing my trend of drawing the female characters from Speak Not to the Gilded Dragons for March, here we have Linus's little sister, Zadie Meyer.

What a sweet young lady. I hope nothing bad happens to her*!

*She said, knowing full well what happened to her.

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Adamma swung the cane down again before pulling back. The maid's face was starting to swell: cheeks bulged out like festering tomatoes too long on the vine, her lips were split in several areas revealing battered gums and missing, if not broken outright, teeth. "Chen." Adamma held out the cane, Chen rushing over to wipe away the blood. "There." That word was directed to Ekine, the boy looking up at his mother's face. That was blood streaked across her cheek, wasn't it? "If anyone disrespects you," Adamma said, "Make certain that they can never do so again."

I know that International Women's Day was on Saturday, but I still want to take the opportunity to draw more of my female characters. Who better to start with than Dr. Jericho Nwadike's mother: Adamma Nwadike?

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You're just trying to perfect your pole-dance routine before that night's shift, but every ten minutes, someone comes up for the latest gossip about that little firecracker that was in a few weeks back. Smh...

In regards to the secondary characters in Speak Not to the Gilded Dragons, Aurori (the snake) is definitely one of my favorites.

It's a pity that I don't get to use them much when it comes to the narrative but, hey, 2025 is the Year of the Snake. So it's as valid a window as any.

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The cover art for Volume 2 of Speak Not to the Gilded Dragons, my light novel series over on itch.io.

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When your cousin doesn't understand that you're not on that Alabama grindset.

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I really do need to collect all of my refs for the art I make for Speak Not to the Gilded Dragons.

Well, there's the next project now that the May promo for V2 is out.

Anywho, here's General Fava!

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They who are in charge of recruitment in the name of Acrioziolana's golden god...

Here's the picture of The Capitol Empire of Porcelain Heavens and Gilded Skies, one of the new characters who will be appearing in Volume 2 of Speak Not to the Gilded Dragons.

And here's a link to the promo this picture was used in!

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A bit of a not-quite-belated B-Day present for @hideawayfairy.

Seems like the celebrations got a bit out of hand with their impsona, Fizz, and everyone's favorite Octavinelle boys...

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As we swiftly approach the end of 2023, I just want to extend my arms in thanks to everyone who has supported me through my ups, downs, and beginnings of new projects.

Putting myself out there in terms of self-publishing was a big step forward in trying to get my voice out into the world with my special brand of fucky-wucky content and though only a few people have picked up copies of Speak Not to the Gilded Dragons V1, everyone who has has done so much for me. I don't think I could ever properly elaborate on how much.

So, for my last doodle of the year, I decided to make a thank you piece with some of the core characters readers encounter in this first volume.

From left to right: Etikutt, Mauve-Charka, The Dread Beast: Fimbulventir, TailBlazer, Meow-La-La, and Guildine.

Thank you so, so much and here's hoping for all the best in 2024 and the release of Speak Not to the Gilded Dragons V2!