04-08-2020, 08:14 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-09-2020, 11:08 AM by Fordhammer.)
Sorry if this is a little rough. I don't do character based articles usually and haven't written once since I first made Ironside. Wanted to do a little something for my new character though!
Many would look at Adélie de Pengu and wonder exactly how he made it into professional football. They would be right to have that curiosity. After all, it is not every day that you see a penguin play any form of sport. It is even more rare to see one make it to the big leagues as Adélie becomes the first of his kind. His story is a long and strenuous one filled with frights and terrors and ups and downs, but such would be expected from such an improbable occasion. So today we’re going to dive into the history of Adélie and see exactly how he made it big in the world of baseball.
You see, the honest truth is, Adélie knows absolutely nothing about the sport of football. He’s a penguin after all. Like most others of his kind, he was born in the frozen tundras of the south on a giant expanse of ice and cold known as the Antarctic. He started off just like any other baby Adélie penguin. Tiny, clumsy, cold, and filled with a devouring curiosity and a pig-headed disregard for his own safety. You see, the Adélie penguin is actually known to be curious to a fault. They often disregard what should be warnings of self preservation in pursuit of all things that catch their attention. When explorers first encountered this species, they were often known for being a bother due to distracting dog teams. In fact, they often confused the barking of dogs with greetings and would bumble their way towards the dogs excitedly to return the greetings. They often had to be saved from their folly by the explorers themselves. This has long been the way of this species of penguin and Adélie is no different.
Such curiosity is how Adélie first discovered his natural abilities and his affinity to small round objects all in one go. You see one day as his mother drifted to sleep, young Adélie spotted a small, beautiful pebble. He tried to ignore it, but the sunlight kept reflecting off of it and the gleam caught his eye time and time again. Though it took some maneuvering, he managed the squeeze from under his mother’s protective body, he finally got free and clambered to his little feet. He began his slow waddling journey towards the pebble when he did the most predictable thing. He tripped and face planted into the snow. Luckily for him, he had gained some momentum while waddling forward and he found himself sliding at surprisingly fast speed towards his little pebble. He managed to collect it in a curled wing as he slid past and when he finally stopped, he spun around and found himself sitting up and cradling the pebble in his wings.
He found himself tossing the pebble back and forth between his wings and found that they were surprisingly adept at holding on. He scrambled back to his feet and in the process the pebble slipped away from his grasp. He was quick to dive on it to recollect it, but found himself only sliding further and further away from the nest with each attempt. Before too long, he had travelled quite a distance away and found himself completely and utterly lost. He tried to get himself turned back in the right direction, but the more he tried the more hopeless it became. He was alone in this frozen waste and in the wild you don’t usually last long alone. He found himself hunted by a skua. A predatory bird known for preying on young penguins and one had his eyes set on young Adélie. Adélie tried to scurry away as quickly as he could, but the skua continued to make dive after dive at the small penguin. Alone and exposed, it seemed Adélie didn’t have much of a chance.
The skua finally made a full landing in an attempt to block Adélie’s path. The small penguin quickly tried to change directions, but once more fell due to his clumsiness. He went down belly first into a full slide towards the skua. Not expecting the sudden charge, the skua had no chance to get out of the way as Adélie collided with the larger bird with a bone crushing hit. It was enough to leave the skua sprawled out and dazed at Adélie once more clambered to his feet and waddled to his escape. Little did he know, this entire exchange had been observed from afar by a very familiar figure.
Bjørn Ironside had wandered into the Antarctic with his three bear brothers after the injury that ended his career. He had a lot to think about as really all he had known in his life was football. Now that he wasn’t really able to play, he had to figure out what the future held for him. He had to clear his mind and reassess his priorities and he decided to do that in the same way Bjørn always did. A long hike in one of the world’s coldest environments. Bjørn was a big guy and when he needed to cool off, well he really needed to cool off. Few places were as comforting and as quiet as this frozen tundra. As such, he found himself watching this whole scene as it played out. Ironside saw something of himself in the small penguin. A willingness to fight and an untapped curiosity. A plane began to form in his mind and he found himself approaching the small penguin.
Adélie thought he was still trying to escape the hungry skua and was waddling as fast as his little legs could carry him. It wasn’t fast enough as he found something blocking his path and a massive shadow was cast over him. He came to a stop and prepared to accept his fate as his eyes slowly wandered up the massive figure before him. It was a large, smiling Bjørn. The man laughed and spoke with a warm, rich voice. “You need not fear me, small friend. I am Bjørn Ironside and I have a proposal for you! I’ve seen you, I watched how you fought off that skua. It was an impressive display! You see, I have a proposal for you, small one.” The large man kneeled before Adélie. “You have two choices. Choice one? My brothers and I can help you return to your family and you can continue your life as you have lived it thus far as just an ordinary penguin. Choice two? You can come with Bjørn and I can promise that you will never be hunted again. You? You will become hunter. So what do you say?” Bjørn reached out a massive hand and waited.
Adélie stared up at the man in confusion. He wasn’t entirely sure what the man was offering or what it meant in the grand scheme of things for a penguin such as himself. Still, he was riding off the adrenaline of escaping the skua and this man at least did not seem eager to eat Adélie. The least he could do was accept the offer and see what would become of him. Adelie extended a wing to embrace the man’s hand. To accept whatever the future may hold for him. The large man bellowed out a laugh and Adélie knew he was in good hands.
Things began to fly by at a rather rapid rate. Bjørn had big plans for this little one and he intended to dive into them immediately. He took in the penguin, brought it back to New Orleans with him, and immediately began to teach Adélie about everything that mattered in life. Football, tacos, and the city of New Orleans. Adélie was particularly fond of the tacos as they ended up being much better than the raw fish he was used to. He also began to take a liking to football as he found himself spending hours in front of the television watching game after game. Seeing him absorb at such a high level made Bjørn realize he had absolutely made the right choice. It wasn’t too long until Adélie began to play with some of Bjørn’s old equipment and mimc what it was he saw in the games he had become so fond of.
As this began to happen, Bjørn once more approached the small penguin. “Very well, friend. I see you have chosen. I once promised that you would become great hunter. Now I keep that promise. Bjørn has secret stuff. Lots of training, lots of secret stuff. You can’t be great hunter at current size. We need to make you bigger. So come friend, we will make you a hunter.” Adélie agreed with his new friend completely. If he were to be a hunter, he needed to be bigger. He would do whatever Bjørn asked of him if it meant achieving his goals.
So began the greatest training montage in the history of training montages. It was obviously set to old inspirational rock music as Adélie began to pump himself up. Cardio, weights, and plenty of special stuff. He worked his tail feathers off or at least would have if he had them. Ironside had saved him from his old life, had promised him that he would be a great hunter, and now Adélie wanted to make him proud. He put in the work and results followed. Once he had built up, he worked on technique. Bjørn while watching his battle with the skua, Bjørn had realized the penguin could piece together a very peculiar tackling form. By sliding at full speed on his belly, not only was Adélie faster, he also angled himself for greater impact. Bjørn knew that if the penguin could perfect this art, he would be one of the hardest hitters any league had ever seen.
At the end of it all, it was time to uncover what Bjørn had been working on. He had hidden himself from the world and many thought he was too wrapped up in his grief from losing his ability to play football. None knew what was waiting for them as Bjørn held a press conference and standing next to him in a custom jersey, pads, and helmet stood a massive penguin. Thanks to training and Bjørn’s secret stuff, Adélie had grown to an absolutely monstrous 73 inches tall and carried a heft of 215 pounds. He was easily the largest of his kind and looked to be an absolute unit, built like a tank. “I would like to present to you all a close friend of mine and a future star in the NSFL. This is Adélie de Pengu. He comes from Antartica and his dream is to become a hunter. That is why he has elected to play as a safety. So he can hunt the ball in the backfield and prey on anyone who dare catch it. We will now be taking your questions.”
After a very lively press conference, Adélie and Bjørn began to work on their plans. Many doubted them. Many called them crazy. There was no way that a penguin could play football right? Bjørn had every intention of proving them all wrong. First he needed a bit of help from his old friends. The New Orleans Second Line. This was a radical idea and to make it work, he needed a radical group. Given that the Second Line already fielded a polar bear and an orc on their defense, they would surely understand his plight and give Adélie the shot he deserved. Sure enough, when Bjørn asked them to host a scrimmage so they could get the first look at this titan, no one even missed a beat.
Adélie was absolutely electric in his first action as a player. He was fast, he was strong, and he was big. He zoomed around the field with ease and made clutch tackle after clutch tackle. He had some difficulty with interceptions due to not being able to clutch the ball as well without thumbs, but he did manage to get a few. He slapped balls out of the air with no problem though and every tackle he made was with a cracking impact that echoed through the building. Adélie was very clearly built for this and when it was all said and done, Bjørn had more than enough film to put Adélie out there and expose him to the world. Adélie de Pengu, safety extraordinaire.
The video produced from Bjørn’s filming led to Adélie exploding on social media. He quickly became one of the biggest names out there for people looking at the NSFL and buzz began to build around him as a prospect. He was getting a later start than a lot of other guys, but due to the influence Bjørn held, he was getting a fairly sizable boon in popularity. Rumors and stories began to run amok and with the DSFL draft just around the corner, Bjørn knew that time was limited. He would need to get Adélie ready. He would need to make sure this new, young star would succeed with the task at hand. After all, their fates were intertwined.
The two returned to training and Bjørn began to make some phone calls. He knew the public was buzzing about the young star and now he wanted to make sure teams did too. He called in some favors with some old league friends and before long, all eyes were on the young talent. Scouts were beginning to knock on the doors and everyone wanted a front row seat to the superstar on the rise. Where might he end up playing? Well now only time would tell as Bjørn made sure the penguin was on every radar he could possibly be on.
With the young Adélie now set up with every tool he needed to succeed, he went straight to work. He began to make connections in the league, he began to make friends, and most of all he continued to keep himself in shape through hard work and using Bjørn’s secret stuff. Bjørn kept his promise and had turned Adélie into a great hunter. Now he had a chance to become one of the biggest stars the world had ever seen. He would not let Bjørn down.
Meanwhile for Bjørn, he now had some time to reflect upon himself. He had gone to Antartica originally to look inwards and see what the future held. Football was his whole life, it was everything that was important to him. That and tacos. Faced with his injury, he had thought that he was losing football. That he would lose his grasp on the thing he loved most. Little did he know that helping Adélie would teach him something. Something he didn’t know about himself, something that he didn’t know about football itself. Just because you can’t play, it doesn’t mean that football has to end there. There is so much more to the sport than what happens on the field and for the first time, Bjørn had an idea. He had a plan. He had a future. Now it was time for him to grasp that future and step into what football held for him next. The football world was his oyster and if Adélie had taught him anything, it was that with enough hard work you can achieve your dreams. On to the next chapter.
Many would look at Adélie de Pengu and wonder exactly how he made it into professional football. They would be right to have that curiosity. After all, it is not every day that you see a penguin play any form of sport. It is even more rare to see one make it to the big leagues as Adélie becomes the first of his kind. His story is a long and strenuous one filled with frights and terrors and ups and downs, but such would be expected from such an improbable occasion. So today we’re going to dive into the history of Adélie and see exactly how he made it big in the world of baseball.
You see, the honest truth is, Adélie knows absolutely nothing about the sport of football. He’s a penguin after all. Like most others of his kind, he was born in the frozen tundras of the south on a giant expanse of ice and cold known as the Antarctic. He started off just like any other baby Adélie penguin. Tiny, clumsy, cold, and filled with a devouring curiosity and a pig-headed disregard for his own safety. You see, the Adélie penguin is actually known to be curious to a fault. They often disregard what should be warnings of self preservation in pursuit of all things that catch their attention. When explorers first encountered this species, they were often known for being a bother due to distracting dog teams. In fact, they often confused the barking of dogs with greetings and would bumble their way towards the dogs excitedly to return the greetings. They often had to be saved from their folly by the explorers themselves. This has long been the way of this species of penguin and Adélie is no different.
Such curiosity is how Adélie first discovered his natural abilities and his affinity to small round objects all in one go. You see one day as his mother drifted to sleep, young Adélie spotted a small, beautiful pebble. He tried to ignore it, but the sunlight kept reflecting off of it and the gleam caught his eye time and time again. Though it took some maneuvering, he managed the squeeze from under his mother’s protective body, he finally got free and clambered to his little feet. He began his slow waddling journey towards the pebble when he did the most predictable thing. He tripped and face planted into the snow. Luckily for him, he had gained some momentum while waddling forward and he found himself sliding at surprisingly fast speed towards his little pebble. He managed to collect it in a curled wing as he slid past and when he finally stopped, he spun around and found himself sitting up and cradling the pebble in his wings.
He found himself tossing the pebble back and forth between his wings and found that they were surprisingly adept at holding on. He scrambled back to his feet and in the process the pebble slipped away from his grasp. He was quick to dive on it to recollect it, but found himself only sliding further and further away from the nest with each attempt. Before too long, he had travelled quite a distance away and found himself completely and utterly lost. He tried to get himself turned back in the right direction, but the more he tried the more hopeless it became. He was alone in this frozen waste and in the wild you don’t usually last long alone. He found himself hunted by a skua. A predatory bird known for preying on young penguins and one had his eyes set on young Adélie. Adélie tried to scurry away as quickly as he could, but the skua continued to make dive after dive at the small penguin. Alone and exposed, it seemed Adélie didn’t have much of a chance.
The skua finally made a full landing in an attempt to block Adélie’s path. The small penguin quickly tried to change directions, but once more fell due to his clumsiness. He went down belly first into a full slide towards the skua. Not expecting the sudden charge, the skua had no chance to get out of the way as Adélie collided with the larger bird with a bone crushing hit. It was enough to leave the skua sprawled out and dazed at Adélie once more clambered to his feet and waddled to his escape. Little did he know, this entire exchange had been observed from afar by a very familiar figure.
Bjørn Ironside had wandered into the Antarctic with his three bear brothers after the injury that ended his career. He had a lot to think about as really all he had known in his life was football. Now that he wasn’t really able to play, he had to figure out what the future held for him. He had to clear his mind and reassess his priorities and he decided to do that in the same way Bjørn always did. A long hike in one of the world’s coldest environments. Bjørn was a big guy and when he needed to cool off, well he really needed to cool off. Few places were as comforting and as quiet as this frozen tundra. As such, he found himself watching this whole scene as it played out. Ironside saw something of himself in the small penguin. A willingness to fight and an untapped curiosity. A plane began to form in his mind and he found himself approaching the small penguin.
Adélie thought he was still trying to escape the hungry skua and was waddling as fast as his little legs could carry him. It wasn’t fast enough as he found something blocking his path and a massive shadow was cast over him. He came to a stop and prepared to accept his fate as his eyes slowly wandered up the massive figure before him. It was a large, smiling Bjørn. The man laughed and spoke with a warm, rich voice. “You need not fear me, small friend. I am Bjørn Ironside and I have a proposal for you! I’ve seen you, I watched how you fought off that skua. It was an impressive display! You see, I have a proposal for you, small one.” The large man kneeled before Adélie. “You have two choices. Choice one? My brothers and I can help you return to your family and you can continue your life as you have lived it thus far as just an ordinary penguin. Choice two? You can come with Bjørn and I can promise that you will never be hunted again. You? You will become hunter. So what do you say?” Bjørn reached out a massive hand and waited.
Adélie stared up at the man in confusion. He wasn’t entirely sure what the man was offering or what it meant in the grand scheme of things for a penguin such as himself. Still, he was riding off the adrenaline of escaping the skua and this man at least did not seem eager to eat Adélie. The least he could do was accept the offer and see what would become of him. Adelie extended a wing to embrace the man’s hand. To accept whatever the future may hold for him. The large man bellowed out a laugh and Adélie knew he was in good hands.
Things began to fly by at a rather rapid rate. Bjørn had big plans for this little one and he intended to dive into them immediately. He took in the penguin, brought it back to New Orleans with him, and immediately began to teach Adélie about everything that mattered in life. Football, tacos, and the city of New Orleans. Adélie was particularly fond of the tacos as they ended up being much better than the raw fish he was used to. He also began to take a liking to football as he found himself spending hours in front of the television watching game after game. Seeing him absorb at such a high level made Bjørn realize he had absolutely made the right choice. It wasn’t too long until Adélie began to play with some of Bjørn’s old equipment and mimc what it was he saw in the games he had become so fond of.
As this began to happen, Bjørn once more approached the small penguin. “Very well, friend. I see you have chosen. I once promised that you would become great hunter. Now I keep that promise. Bjørn has secret stuff. Lots of training, lots of secret stuff. You can’t be great hunter at current size. We need to make you bigger. So come friend, we will make you a hunter.” Adélie agreed with his new friend completely. If he were to be a hunter, he needed to be bigger. He would do whatever Bjørn asked of him if it meant achieving his goals.
So began the greatest training montage in the history of training montages. It was obviously set to old inspirational rock music as Adélie began to pump himself up. Cardio, weights, and plenty of special stuff. He worked his tail feathers off or at least would have if he had them. Ironside had saved him from his old life, had promised him that he would be a great hunter, and now Adélie wanted to make him proud. He put in the work and results followed. Once he had built up, he worked on technique. Bjørn while watching his battle with the skua, Bjørn had realized the penguin could piece together a very peculiar tackling form. By sliding at full speed on his belly, not only was Adélie faster, he also angled himself for greater impact. Bjørn knew that if the penguin could perfect this art, he would be one of the hardest hitters any league had ever seen.
At the end of it all, it was time to uncover what Bjørn had been working on. He had hidden himself from the world and many thought he was too wrapped up in his grief from losing his ability to play football. None knew what was waiting for them as Bjørn held a press conference and standing next to him in a custom jersey, pads, and helmet stood a massive penguin. Thanks to training and Bjørn’s secret stuff, Adélie had grown to an absolutely monstrous 73 inches tall and carried a heft of 215 pounds. He was easily the largest of his kind and looked to be an absolute unit, built like a tank. “I would like to present to you all a close friend of mine and a future star in the NSFL. This is Adélie de Pengu. He comes from Antartica and his dream is to become a hunter. That is why he has elected to play as a safety. So he can hunt the ball in the backfield and prey on anyone who dare catch it. We will now be taking your questions.”
After a very lively press conference, Adélie and Bjørn began to work on their plans. Many doubted them. Many called them crazy. There was no way that a penguin could play football right? Bjørn had every intention of proving them all wrong. First he needed a bit of help from his old friends. The New Orleans Second Line. This was a radical idea and to make it work, he needed a radical group. Given that the Second Line already fielded a polar bear and an orc on their defense, they would surely understand his plight and give Adélie the shot he deserved. Sure enough, when Bjørn asked them to host a scrimmage so they could get the first look at this titan, no one even missed a beat.
Adélie was absolutely electric in his first action as a player. He was fast, he was strong, and he was big. He zoomed around the field with ease and made clutch tackle after clutch tackle. He had some difficulty with interceptions due to not being able to clutch the ball as well without thumbs, but he did manage to get a few. He slapped balls out of the air with no problem though and every tackle he made was with a cracking impact that echoed through the building. Adélie was very clearly built for this and when it was all said and done, Bjørn had more than enough film to put Adélie out there and expose him to the world. Adélie de Pengu, safety extraordinaire.
The video produced from Bjørn’s filming led to Adélie exploding on social media. He quickly became one of the biggest names out there for people looking at the NSFL and buzz began to build around him as a prospect. He was getting a later start than a lot of other guys, but due to the influence Bjørn held, he was getting a fairly sizable boon in popularity. Rumors and stories began to run amok and with the DSFL draft just around the corner, Bjørn knew that time was limited. He would need to get Adélie ready. He would need to make sure this new, young star would succeed with the task at hand. After all, their fates were intertwined.
The two returned to training and Bjørn began to make some phone calls. He knew the public was buzzing about the young star and now he wanted to make sure teams did too. He called in some favors with some old league friends and before long, all eyes were on the young talent. Scouts were beginning to knock on the doors and everyone wanted a front row seat to the superstar on the rise. Where might he end up playing? Well now only time would tell as Bjørn made sure the penguin was on every radar he could possibly be on.
With the young Adélie now set up with every tool he needed to succeed, he went straight to work. He began to make connections in the league, he began to make friends, and most of all he continued to keep himself in shape through hard work and using Bjørn’s secret stuff. Bjørn kept his promise and had turned Adélie into a great hunter. Now he had a chance to become one of the biggest stars the world had ever seen. He would not let Bjørn down.
Meanwhile for Bjørn, he now had some time to reflect upon himself. He had gone to Antartica originally to look inwards and see what the future held. Football was his whole life, it was everything that was important to him. That and tacos. Faced with his injury, he had thought that he was losing football. That he would lose his grasp on the thing he loved most. Little did he know that helping Adélie would teach him something. Something he didn’t know about himself, something that he didn’t know about football itself. Just because you can’t play, it doesn’t mean that football has to end there. There is so much more to the sport than what happens on the field and for the first time, Bjørn had an idea. He had a plan. He had a future. Now it was time for him to grasp that future and step into what football held for him next. The football world was his oyster and if Adélie had taught him anything, it was that with enough hard work you can achieve your dreams. On to the next chapter.