Splashing water is heard coming from the nearby swamp. Footprints of three humans walk alongside that of a single strange set walk together from into the distance, diverging when they get near, with the three human tracks heading over to a nearby tree, while the single track continues to head to the water. The owners of the three footprints crouch in the tall grass under the cover of the tree, looking over and trying to see what is making the noise. Their boots are covered in dirt and they eagerly, but quietly, gulp down water. One woman is putting away a map and compass into her large backpack and grabbing out a journal, while the other is taking out not only a journal but gloves and plastic bags as well. The man is taking pictures and videos on a large camera, and checking them, adjusting his camera to fix the flaws he sees.

“Thiago,” the map and compass woman whispers, “is your camera ready?”

“Yes,” Thiago answers, just as quietly, “the lighting should be adjusted properly and the sound is all set up for video. Narelle, are you ready too?”

“I’m ready too.” Narelle confirms. “Maria, just to confirm before we all go closer, since out of all of us, you’ve looked at the folklore the most, the legends never say that it is particularly aggressive, right?”

Looking over her notes, Maria answers, “uh, yes. However, there is a legend about a man who was killed by one, and there are so many different variations on what it is supposed to look like, maybe having an “emu-like” head, a “crocodile-like” head, or even a “dog-like” head. We do need to be careful.”

Suddenly, the splashing stops. The three immediately stop talking and freeze, their faces paling. They scoot closer to one another and pull out hunting knives, Thiago holding up his camera in one hand and his knife in the other. Maria and Narelle also noiselessly grab large sticks from around them. Just as suddenly, the splashing continues. They breathe sighs of relief.

Maria signals for them to walk forward. They inch forward, towards the swamp and towards the noise.

For this assignment, I had to generate a random prediction or proverb using this generator. The phrase I got was “This is the time for caution, but not for fear.” I decided to that this would be a perfect tie-in with my character post, as I mentioned the bunyip in there and an expedition would be a great place to practice this proverb. I purposefully left out any visual description of the creature or confirmation that the creature is the bunyip, as I wanted to leave some doubt as to what happens next and if the creature actually exists. I used the bunyip wikipedia page for the information used in this assignment.

The characters practice this proverb when first Narelle wants to double-check the “known” behavior and when Maria cautions them. Neither want to stop the expedition, just exercise caution. They also practice this proverb when they are rightly quiet when they suspect they could be in danger but when it seems the danger has lessened they don’t give into the fear and continue on while being careful.

This is the assignment I made this for:

http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/changing-fortunes/

This is where from featured image is from:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bunyip_(1935).jpg

Quick Info

Superhero name: Jagged Duckling

Actual Name: Lope Endre Kobayashi

Personality: He is an appreciative, patient man, very thankful to what he has been given in life. His life motto is to “Enjoy the small things you find on your journey.” He is hard to anger, but like many who are hard to anger, even more dangerous when angry. He is seen harmless and is gentle, like a duckling, but can be jagged and sharp when angered.

Superpowers: He is able to fly using his yellow and brown suit and the feathers on his wings are sharp. Those features, when he flaps his wings, can shoot off and impale whatever they hit. P.S. I know ducklings can’t fly. However, as a bird superhero, I feel like he should be able to.

Background: An ornithologist by trade whose specialty is ducks, he has seen poachers in the nature reserve he works for and this angers him. He has also seen people mistreat birds in other places, such as not stopping when they seen a bird walk across in front of their car, or throwing rocks, soda cans, etc. at them. One day, a villain called Grisly Partridge got frustrated on waiting while a long line of ducklings crossed on front of him. He went to go kick and chase the ducklings away, and Lope went to defend them. Scared, they pecked him, and the next day he woke up and there were wings around his arm and he had webbed feet (basically, he looked a bit like a harp from Greek mythology). His feathers are sharper and harder than normal feathers. When not fighting, he covers up his wings with voluminous sleeves and his feet with large shoes. The mean man, angered at being stopped, went after a partridge later on that day, and was also pecked. He become the Grisly Partridge. They both made their suits themselves, based on each of their wings. Jagged Duck’s brown feathers on his suit, much like a real duckling, make a mask around his eyes, like any other superhero mask.

Archenemy: Jagged Duckling’s archenemy is the Grisly Partridge. He is very much someone who likes to “Cry Over Spilt Milk”, leading to many outbursts and endangering the public on a regular basis. He is the antithesis of Jagged Duckling-someone who is impatient and unkind. His suit is grey and brown, with bloody-looking red splotches on it. He also flies, and attacks using sharp feet and hitting people with his wings. 

Short Excerpt:

Whoosh! Yellow feathers fly through the air! A large, plump blur flies through the air, trying to avoid the sharp projectiles. The gray and brown villain, angered, soars after the screaming citizens, too impatient to try and find the source of the feathers. “I am the Grisly Partridge,” he shouts, “Do not get in my way!” Distracted, he does not notice the yellow, bird-shaped superhero behind him, who begins hitting and blasting him with his wings. The superhero, concerned for the well-being of the citizens, had previously been directing them to safety, but now the coast was clear, his anger was coming out. “I will destroy you, Jagged Duck, and all the people and birds too!”, yells the Partridge, dodging the attacks and trying to fight back. However, while the Partridge was flying and screaming, the Duck was saving his strength and getting angrier and angrier at the repeated attempts by the Partridge to hurt the people, and the birds, of the city. Wham! He blasted the Grisly Partridge with his powerful wings, sending razor-sharp feathers and wind to slash the Partridge and send him flying. He flew back, his sharp talons dulling with trying to use them to come to a stop on the asphalt. Exhausted and out of options, with his talons no longer sharp and wings all in disarray from his reckless flying, the Grisly Partridge realized his defeat. “Blast you, Jagged Duck!”, he shrieks as he flies away to sulk. Jagged Duck smiles in triumph, and then helps those who fled find their missing loves ones and possessions. All the while, he finds small gifts-a coin, a flower-for all those he meets. Eventually, he too flies away, shouting his motto “Enjoy the small things you find on your journey”, as he goes on his.

I used the website http://watchout4snakes.com/wo4snakes/Random/RandomPhrase to figure out the name of the superhero, and then went from there to figure out how he should look and what his backstory is. I used this website (http://www.myfortunecookie.co.uk) to find a quote, which I used as his life motto to base his personality off of. I used these two websites to also figure out the archenemy. I used this website-https://www.behindthename.com/random/-to randomly find his name. I tried to use words like “wham!”, since those are used often in at least old-fashioned comic books. (I don’t know much about comic books. I’ve just seen images from them. I do love comic-book and superhero movies). I have to say-this was harder to write than I thought it would be! I’m not used to writing fighting scenes.

This is the assignment I made this for:

http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/superstory-generator/

This is where my featured image is from:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jpockele/4715007584

Taken by Jannes Pockele and posted on Flicker-picture called “Little duckling”