Bottles Šuljak

Bottles Šuljak
Bottles Šuljak, a short player whose body is made of blue glass. They are holding a large pair of glassblowing tongs over their shoulder, and wearing an unbuttoned jersey, tank top, gloves, and blue pants. There is an orange light illuminating their glass chest from the inside. Art by @tangyorange_art on Instagram
Basic Information
Team	New York Millennials
Former Team(s)	Core Mechanics
Overall Rating	(3)
Batting	(2)
Pitching	(2)
Defense	(3)
Running	(3.5)
Vibes	(3.5)
Dates Active	Mar 4, 2021–present
External Links	Blaseball-Reference Player Changes Player Page
Personal Information
Evolution	Base 1

Bottles Šuljak is a player for the New York Millennials, and has been with the team since Fall Ball. Šuljak has played for the Core Mechanics.

Official League Records

Šuljak joined the ILB as a lineup player for the Core Mechanics during the Descension.

On Season β17, Day 3, Šuljak became a pitcher due to Reverb.

On Season β17, Day 74, Šuljak retreated to the Mechanics' Shadows in exchange for Cravel Gesundheit via the Core Pillar Center's Fax Machine.

During the December 9, 2022 Fall Ball, Šuljak fell to the New York Millennials.

COMMUNITY REPORTS
The remainder of this article contains lore created collaboratively by the Blaseball community.

Personal Life

Bottles “Bottles” Šuljak is a short butch glassblower and blacksmith, and batter for the Core Mechanics.

Šuljak acts as the Mechanic's core blacksmith, and has done so since the passing of the previous blacksmith, Cups "Cups" Varga. In addition to tools and art, some of Bottles' past projects include forging swords, marriage bats, tables, wind, peanut butter, beetles, and skyscrapers. Šuljak is also a talented glassblower and frequently combines their metalwork and glass. They love to watch documentaries about random incredibly specific topics, giving them a vast amount of niche knowledge.

They are allegedly married to Lady Matsuyama, a fact corroborated by the fact that the two of them have been seen wearing Bottles-crafted rings. Šuljak is famously private and has refused to comment on the matter. Matsuyama refuses to not comment on the matter, holding the current Core record for longest impassioned speech about how much she loves her wife.

Description

Šuljak forged their own body out of molten iron and glass. They are transparent, illuminated from the inside with an orange light. They are designed to withstand high temperatures without sweating to help with glassblowing, as well as to be somewhat crack resistant to help protect them when playing Blaseball. They frequently do have to repair minor damage to their body, though their precautions tend to protect them from anything more serious. Šuljak loves how tank tops show off her craftsmanship. A rotating collection of small glass brooches and flowers can sometimes be seen pinned to her clothes or uniform.

It is unknown what form Šuljak took before they made themself a body and they appear to lack most internal organs, with some clockwork mechanisms visible in parts of their body. They are also capable of moving their mouth and eyes to form expressions or speak, despite those seemingly being made of glass.

A Lucky Save

After the Season 16 elections, parts of the Core were destabilized by the alternating of PolkaDot Patterson and the way that they had clung on to reality. Šuljak was part of the team sent to help manage quantum fluctuations over and around the Prophesea. While Šuljak was working on setting up sensors to detect incoming wave diversions. Partway through setting this up, the detectors all started beeping and Šuljak took a step backwards, inadvertently stepping back into the Prophesea.

One of their teammates quickly came to pull them out, but Šuljak later told researchers from U.P. that it felt like they had been standing there for over a year. Šuljak reported that they had seen an entire possible timeline but wouldn’t share the details, though apparently called everyone on the Blaseball team immediately after and asked if they were OK.

Šuljak was seen talking to Kelvin Drumsolo afterwards as well as spending time with several of the Shadows players including Cravel Gesundheit. Many Core denizens also noted that Šuljak had come around their homes talking about the benefits of fax machines and going so far as to give them fax machines. This became an ongoing joke for several months.

After the season began, Šuljak began working on Drumsolo’s combination mobility-device-and-drumkit to add modifications with the purpose of harnessing the interdimensional energy which still flooded the Core. On Day 3 as reverberations began to echo around the field, Drumsolo stepped forward and seemed to begin harmonically vibrating, burning hotter than ze ever had before. Drumsolo and Mindy Kugel swapped places before Drumsolo seemed to somehow catch the reverb and fling zirself back into the lineup in exchange for Šuljak themself. After the game, Šuljak gave Drumsolo a pat on the back before loudly and repeatedly talking about how cool fax machines were and how everyone in the Core should appreciate fax machines.

Pitching Career

Šuljak struggled on the mound, though at times seemed to enjoy how badly they were doing as a pitcher. One of their signature moves was pitching a ball incredibly far out of the strike zone and loudly saying ‘oops!’ before smiling widely. They also made shirts for themself and Patterson which read ‘All Aboard the Party Train’ with the pair pictured driving a steam-powered locomotive.

Following the Feedback of Matsuyama, Šuljak responded to all questions about their behavior by telling askers that it was ‘worth it’ and that ‘this couldn’t be avoided’ but that they and Matsuyama would ‘be together again - sort of, at least’. If pushed for an explanation, they would say that they were ‘doing this for the team’ before refusing to elaborate any further. They and Matsuyama called after the end of every game.

When the renovation options were revealed and a Fax Machine was among them, many of the Mechanics latched on to fax machines as part of their identity. Šuljak also ran a propaganda campaign wherein they taped a printout of a picture of a fax machine with upwards pointing arrows and the word ‘this’ in all capital bolded letters beneath it onto their ‘All Aboard the Party Train’ shirt. It is probable that Šuljak’s persistent efforts to introduce fax machines to Core culture had an impact on the decision to build a Fax Machine at the Pillars.

Šuljak faxed out fairly promptly, leaving Gesundheit in their place. During a game against the Yellowstone Magic, Gesundheit swapped places with Jaylen Hotdogfingers in the Feedback. Once this had happened, Šuljak seemed to visibly relax and spent the rest of the season in Hawai’i with Matsuyama before returning to the Core for the elections.

Šuljak was asked about how they felt about staying in the Shadows for the foreseeable future, especially given that their team’s chances of victory still seemed slim with the addition of Kelvin Andante to the rotation. Šuljak responded by patting the side of the Fax Machine, smiling, and saying that Season 18 was going to surprise a lot of people. They then pulled a spanner out of their toolbelt and began making some minor adjustments to the Machine.

S.H.A.D.O.W.S.

While S.H.A.D.O.W.S. was a preexisting concept, and many members of the Core Mechanics Shadows team identified as part of the organization, it broadly consisted of a few people who gathered up balls at the end of games and not much beyond that. Historically, they had taken on maintaining The Pillars, which required a level of technical expertise and know-how as well as the resistance to non Blaseball related harm given by being a player, but this had fallen by the way-side due to the chaos of Renovations and ILB sanctioned equipment and modifications.

Šuljak quickly assumed an coordination role in S.H.A.D.O.W.S., retraining their teammates and creating systems of accountability to ensure adequate fulfillment of their roles. S.H.A.D.O.W.S. began handling maintenance on items and renovations, as well as resuming care for the Pillars. Šuljak also began organizing social events and team-bonding activities, using Kofi Gildehaus’s teashop as a central gathering point.

They also revamped the S.H.A.D.O.W.S. warehouse, establishing a daily cleaning rota and getting a coffee machine. While it is still improbably dark in there and time and space are still more fluid than they usually are, most things are now on shelves or against the walls and there are stricter rules about returning lanterns to the racks by the entrance and exit.

Fan Works

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  Bottles Šuljak and Lady Matsuyama

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  Art by @skelebells

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  Art by @wiresandlight

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  Art by @william7th

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  Bottles in the shadows, by @wiresandlight

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