Difference between revisions of "Fitzgerald Wanderlust"

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Fitzgerald Wanderlust was born in Birmingham, Alabama sometime in the mid 1880s. The names of her parents, and indeed whether "Wanderlust" was her surname at birth or a later adoption, are unknown, but letters later in life indicate one or more of Wanderlust's parents worked in the [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sloss_Furnaces Sloss Steel Works] before the family relocated to Bethlehem Pennsylvania in 1889, presumably finding employment at the famous [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethlehem_Steel Bethlehem Steel Works] there. In one of his later alchemical treatises, Wanderlust indicated this family history of steelworking contributed to his eventual fascination with alchemy, stating "My father showed me that metallurgy, the combination and recombination of natural substances to produce impossible results, was not something you learned at the feet of university professors but by shoveling pig iron into the open mouth of hell ten hours every day."  
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Fitzgerald Wanderlust was born in Birmingham, Alabama sometime in the mid 1880s. The names of her parents, and indeed whether "Wanderlust" was her surname at birth or a later adoption, are unknown, but letters later in life indicate one or more of Wanderlust's parents worked in the [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sloss_Furnaces Sloss Steel Works] before the family relocated to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in 1889, presumably finding employment at the famous [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethlehem_Steel Bethlehem Steel Works] there. In one of his later alchemical treatises, Wanderlust indicated this family history of steelworking contributed to his eventual fascination with alchemy, stating "My father showed me that metallurgy, the combination and recombination of natural substances to produce impossible results, was not something you learned at the feet of university professors but by shoveling pig iron into the open mouth of hell ten hours every day."  
  
 
Little else is known about Wanderlust's early life until her admittance at [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radcliffe_College Radcliffe College] in 1898, pursuing a degree in chemistry. She quickly became enamored with the works of the alchemist [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Starkey George Starkey], and her letters from the period discuss a series of attempts to recreate a mercury based compound "capable of dissolving gold and, when heated, extruding a tree of pure metal which is a direct precursor to the production of a Philosopher's Stone." Whether Wanderlust was successful in this endeavor is unknown, as his letters abruptly cease in 1900 following his expulsion from Radcliffe for unknown reasons and his relocation to New York City.  
 
Little else is known about Wanderlust's early life until her admittance at [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radcliffe_College Radcliffe College] in 1898, pursuing a degree in chemistry. She quickly became enamored with the works of the alchemist [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Starkey George Starkey], and her letters from the period discuss a series of attempts to recreate a mercury based compound "capable of dissolving gold and, when heated, extruding a tree of pure metal which is a direct precursor to the production of a Philosopher's Stone." Whether Wanderlust was successful in this endeavor is unknown, as his letters abruptly cease in 1900 following his expulsion from Radcliffe for unknown reasons and his relocation to New York City.  

Revision as of 17:05, 6 October 2020

Fitzgerald Wanderlust is a pitcher for the Charleston Shoe Thieves and has been with the team since Season 8.


Official League Records

Wanderlust joined the league as a pitcher for the Charleston Shoe Thieves during the Season 8 Elections. As a result of the Thief in the Night blessing, Wanderlust was stolen from the Unlimited Tacos' Shadows, and Kevin Dudley was sent to the Tacos' shadows in return.

Early Life

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

Fitzgerald Wanderlust was born in Birmingham, Alabama sometime in the mid 1880s. The names of her parents, and indeed whether "Wanderlust" was her surname at birth or a later adoption, are unknown, but letters later in life indicate one or more of Wanderlust's parents worked in the Sloss Steel Works before the family relocated to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in 1889, presumably finding employment at the famous Bethlehem Steel Works there. In one of his later alchemical treatises, Wanderlust indicated this family history of steelworking contributed to his eventual fascination with alchemy, stating "My father showed me that metallurgy, the combination and recombination of natural substances to produce impossible results, was not something you learned at the feet of university professors but by shoveling pig iron into the open mouth of hell ten hours every day."

Little else is known about Wanderlust's early life until her admittance at Radcliffe College in 1898, pursuing a degree in chemistry. She quickly became enamored with the works of the alchemist George Starkey, and her letters from the period discuss a series of attempts to recreate a mercury based compound "capable of dissolving gold and, when heated, extruding a tree of pure metal which is a direct precursor to the production of a Philosopher's Stone." Whether Wanderlust was successful in this endeavor is unknown, as his letters abruptly cease in 1900 following his expulsion from Radcliffe for unknown reasons and his relocation to New York City.

Literary Career

The Sophia Cycle

Between 1922 and 1925, Wanderlust published a series of poems referred to by scholars as "The Sophia Cycle". While these poems differ significantly in structure and style ranging from modernist freeform verse to traditional hexameter, they share a common subject, "Sophia". These have traditionally been interpreted as love poems to a woman named Sophia, although some scholars maintain they are an esoteric allegory along the lines of Wanderlust's other works of the period, referencing the Gnostic mythological figure of Sophia. Wanderlust's most widely popular poem, The Sea In The Shore, is from this period.

Alchemical Treatises

In addition to his poetry, Wanderlust also published four alchemical treatises throughout the 1920s. None of these works have survived, but references to them in Wanderlust's later letters indicate they dealt chiefly with medical alchemy, culminating in a final work titled On the Transmutation of Living Flesh, about which almost nothing is known beyond the title. The only surviving reference is in an anonymous polemical circulated among the alchemical community in Kiev, describing the techniques described in the text as "troubling to anyone of sound mind and conscience" and advising readers to destroy any copies they came across.

Move to Los Angeles and Disappearance

In 1927, Wanderlust became a notable activist in New York City protests against the execution of Italian-American anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, and was arrested in Massachusetts during protests that followed their funeral on the night of August 28, 1927 and held for twelve hours before being released without charges. While the reality of her continued involvement with the anarchist movement following her release is unknown, New York City Police allegedly investigated her in connection to a series of attempted bombings of local police precincts in early 1928. Wanderlust claimed innocence, writing in a letter to one of her contemporaries in Atlanta: "I have been mistakenly credited with several honorable acts of public poetry… while I am thoroughly flattered, I must say I intend to decline the free accommodations offered by the city government as a reward, as I have my own plans."

Facing increasing scrutiny from both the local authorities and contemporaries in the alchemical community, Wanderlust relocated to Los Angeles in the summer of 1928, staying in the home of actress Greta Garbo, briefly becoming involved with the so-called "Sewing Circle" of lesbians and bisexual women working in Hollywood at the time. Allegedly, Wanderlust even directed a silent film in 1929, a five-minute surrealist work titled Vainglory, of which nothing else survives.

Disappearance

Wanderlust disappeared on September 3, 1929, having left Garbo's home that morning for "a short drive" and failing to return. Local police declined to assist with a search, and a private investigation funded by Wanderlust's Los Angeles associates was unable to locate him.

Resurfacing and Career With the Tacos

Sometime in XX17, Wanderlust emerged in Los Angeles and encountered Los Angeles Tacos players Wyatt (then Taiga) Quitter and Wyatt (then Wanda) Pothos while attempting to refuel a 1927 Ford Model A at a local gas station. Wanderlust agreed to accompany the players to one of their practices, meeting with Tacos manager Al Pastor, who was surprised to discover Wanderlust's name and signature already on a contract with the team that neither party recalled negotiating. Despite this unusual circumstance, Wanderlust had no objections to joining the team, and was officially added to the Tacos roster as a pitcher in Season 2, although she did not start in an ILB game during that period.

Despite not actually playing, Wanderlust was considered a full member of the Tacos, participating in their kickball games and Taco Tuesday events, though she was banned from cooking at the latter after distilling a salsa so potent and spicy that it had to be ritually destroyed, contributing to dimensional instability in and around Los Angeles.

Wanderlust was personally unaffected by the Wyatt Masoning in Season 3, but made use of his extensive alchemical experience to assist with the resulting complications, helping to stabilize NaN in the aftermath. Shortly after, Wanderlust decided to explore the newly Infinite Los Angeles, becoming trapped in a rogue Feedback Storm and disappearing.

Rescue From the Shadows and Career in Charleston

During the Season 8 postseason, Charleston Shoe Thieves player Velazquez Alstott heard a cry for help coming from behind an unmapped door in the Beck And Call Hotel in Sunken Charleston, and alerted her teammates. The Shoe Thieves decided that a rescue operation was fundamentally a type of heist, as it entailed stealing a person from the concept of Danger, and took action.

Kevin Dudley volunteered to handle the rescue, reasoning his ghostly ability to move through space without physical interaction would prove useful in the zero gravity environment beyond the unmapped door. Disaster nearly struck when the rope tied around Dudley's waist as an anchor passed through his incorporeal body and he was sucked into the Feedback Storm.

Finally having two players from different teams, the Feedback Storm swapped the two players team assignments and, having fulfilled its purpose, subsided. With the Storm calmed, Wanderlust and Dudley were able to easily locate the room's exits into both The Beck and Call and a public bathroom in Los Angeles. Dudley decided to remain in the void chamber, asking Wanderlust to tell the Tacos he was taking "a long overdue vacation" and that "if they need me to toss a ball or two, they know where to find me."

The Shoe Thieves were initially shocked to see Wanderlust emerge from the door without Dudley, but accepted her explanation of events. She quickly endeared herself to the team by demonstrating unexpected competence as a pitcher and performing radical alchemical experiments on Snyder Briggs, Hotbox Sato, and Simon Haley, improving both their blaseball abilities and long-term health.

Wanderlust's left arm was decorporealized in the Feedback Storm, and he fashioned a prosthetic replacement out of an esoteric compound of gold and brass with roughly the same texture and warmth as human flesh. While previously he had been right-handed for the majority of activities, Wanderlust made the decision to pitch left-handed, utilizing the power of his new arm.

Wanderlust began playing in ILB games for the Charleston Shoe Thieves in Season 9.

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