"Last years nuts are this years black earth." -Kipling

Jaguar (Panthera onca)

Cover art for Wildlife in North Carolina, July 1974. Illustration by Jay Johnson.

AAAA NIKKI I DON'T!! I find it really difficult to create OCs for existing media :\

BUT!! about Kwazii!!!

I want to talk about what my gaggle of children look like! I haven't drawn all of them, but you sort of know what some of them look like from when I drew them last time.

Characters:

Kwazii - 12 year old trans boy. Tan skin and long, dirty ginger hair. he has freckles, and the left side is extra pigmented. his left eye is brown, but the right is green. He's short, too thin, and fast af. Who fucking knows what his race is. could be any mixture of things.

Dorian - 14 year old boy. White skin and dark brown, close cropped hair. He's tallest in the group but hasn't hit his growth spurt yet. he speaks with a slight Scottish accent. Dark brown eyes. Also thin, but not as bad as Kwazii. (Basically just that he eats at least two meals a day...)

Amalya - 14 year old girl. She has long dark hair in locs and Black skin. Her features are Ghanaian. She's got brown eyes, and again, a slim build. She's the second tallest, only a few inches shorter than Dorian.

Esmeralda - 6 year old girl. She is mixed, Black and Native American. She has big brown eyes and shorter, super thick black hair. She still has a bit of baby chub on her, which she might have grown out of if she had ever had the chance to grow up at all.

OMG YAY!! I GET TO TAKE ABOUT MY LITTLE COLOMBIAN FREAKAZOIDS!!

SO. This is all set in 1920s/30s Colombia, with two main characters. Jamison (Jami), was born and raised in Colombia. He’s white tho. His grandparents moved to Colombia from the US after the War of 1812, because they were British and everyone absolutely hated them. They were absolutely loaded though, and after setting up shop in Colombia they were still well off and their wealth kept growing. Anyways, Jami’s father died when Jami was three years old, and his mother was left to run their business. She was not great at it and although they had their mansion, they struggled to have enough food. Once Jami’s younger sister Charlotte (Lottie) became old enough to take over, she did. Now you may be asking “why didn’t Jami take over if he was older and also a boy?” Well you see, it’s because he’s a total antisocial loser!! (Also because Lottie is insanely good at running a business and makes their family rich again. She would have beaten the mere suggestion of taking over out of Jami’s mouth if he ever tried that shit.) Jami spends all of his time in the woods, hunting and fishing his heart out, ignoring people if they try talking to him. He grows out of this a bit as he gets older and his fame as a hunter grows, but he is still a little jerk in his youth.

So that’s Jami up until this point. I’d say we’re in 1915-1920 about. At this time, a three year old toddler is dumped at the door of his grandfather’s friend in Jamaica. This is Kwazii. (Absolutely no relation to the Octonauts I swear, I made up this OC like. Four or five years ago when my Octonauts obsession was at its peak and as a result my OC Kwazii the bastard child was born.) Kwazii lives there where he grows to have a close bond with his adoptive sister, Amalya. Behold, art I made of Kwazii [L] a few years ago, and an Amalya [R] I just drew a few days ago!!

Anyways, when they are 7 and 9 respectively, their house burns down and Amalya’s mother and Kwazii’s adoptive mother dies in the flames. They end up being separated, with Amalya remaining in Jamaica, and with Kwazii being bumped over to mainland central America. Kwazii spends the rest of his childhood running around in the woods, from town to village to town. He stays away from cities, which made it impossible for Amalya, who made it her only goal to find him again, to do so. He starts running mail from one place to another, and becomes familiar with many places, towns and villages which give him food and clothing when he needs it. He is still an absolutely feral child though, and doesn't stay in civilization any longer than he needs to. While Kwazii may be fed by kind souls in town whenever he goes, he doesn’t go often enough to stay fed. More often he eats what he finds in the forest or steals from travelers or hunters or woodsmen during the night who set up camp in the jungle. This is how Jami and Kwazii meet. Slowly the two of them become closer to each other and Kwazii starts to trust Jami. Well, more like he starts following Jami around because he knows he’ll give him food.

(He’s talking to Kwazii who is somewhere off the trail.)

Eventually the two of them develop a father-son bond, and thats what most of my art is of.

Behold, Jami and Kwazii sitting by a fire, another OC I named Emilio (Em) standing between them feeding it. Although hoodies/hooded jackets were invented in 1930 (we’re a little past 1930 now), this image depicts Jami wearing a blanket under his jacket and wrapped up over his head because it is COLD up in the Andes!!

And now behold, a product of their time, Kwazii and Jami smoking together, because DID YOU KNOW THAT CIGARETTES ARE ACTUALLY VERY HEALTHY??

Oh, yeah, Kwazii is also a ginger in case you weren’t aware.

And at this point they have about all their lore!!

After this, I just throw them into whatever situations I think would be funny. I have made AUs of my original character’s original universe. These little dudes have been rolling around in my brain for years, and I hope it shows. I know more about early 20th century Colombia than anyone I've ever met and I barely even mentioned any of it here.

Red-thighed Frog (Leptodactylus rhodomerus), family Leptodactylidae, Valle del cauca, Colombia

Her greatest fear?

Kwazii not recognizing her. Or hating her. Thinking she abandoned him. Her greatest fear is finding him, but losing her brother.