Grollis Zephyr/Rumor Registry
Rumors
Grollis Zephyr has 3 Rumors written about so far.
Grollis Zephyr/IF-1667
The waters beyond this point are uncharted, tales from distant shores echoed back into our reality.
Background
The following accounts can be traced to a single leather-bound journal originally found in a locked wooden chest alongside a sextant-like device of indeterminate origin and a shell that matches no known species of mollusc. The chest was located in a storage room in the Legscraper’s lower levels that was described as “smelling faintly of the sea”. Subsequent attempts to locate and navigate to said room have been unsuccessful thus far. The journal details the exploits of the crew of a large sailing vessel, The Tokyo Adrift, descriptions of which are largely consistent with mid-17th century galleons.
With The Tokyo Adrift
Beginning as a cabin boy aboard The Tokyo Adrift, Grollis Zephyr was quickly promoted to sailing master when hyr preternatural skills at navigation were discovered. The journal describes Zephyr as “young and fresh-faced, with star speckled eyes that seem to contain galaxies within them”. The captain first took notice when Zephyr, after a full day’s shift, spent most of hyr evening above deck, watching the sky above and charting stars. Further questioning revealed that Zephyr had been “turning hyr eyes skyward ever since ze was a wee un” and that ze had kept extensive star maps for years. The journal also contains some of Zephyr’s work that the writer obtained permission to recreate.
Zephyr is described as being close to hyr fellow navigator, Yusef Fenestrate. Though their methods differ greatly, they “spend long evenings together trading stories and techniques, each an expert in their field anxious to learn more”. Between Zephyr’s knowledge of star charts and wind patterns and Fenestrate’s mastery of reading currents, they were a formidable force in setting a course for the Adrift, rain or shine, night or day.Grollis Zephyr/IF-19.97
Early Life
Grollis Zephyr spent hyr youth chasing roles in films and television shows to follow in the footsteps of hyr mother, fitness coach and action movie star Arda Zephyr. Despite hyr surname’s fame, hyr halfhearted acting left casting directors unimpressed. After a few gigs in minor roles and many rejections, Grollis admitted that hyr interests lay elsewhere, eventually taking on a part-time job as a theme park tokusatsu actor while continuing to live with Arda.
Lazarus Pit
In hyr freetime, Zephyr pursued hyr own passions as an avid amateur speleologist, ecologist, obscure bootleg game connoisseur, and taxidermist. Ze gained particular notoriety in spelelogical communities for hyr contributions to the exploration and mapping of several cave systems, and one time said that the slow rate at which caves change was a welcome change of pace from a busy and stressful life of dealing with an ever-changing world. Hyr explorations would eventually re-uncover the Lazarus Pit located under Dilsneyworld, and some have observed that in low lighting ze appears almost bioluminescent, possibly due to side effects of prolonged contact with the water of the Pit. Zephyr has advised against other amateur speleologists and thrillseekers exploring the Pit, stating that rumors of the Pit offering immortality are misleading, overblown, and wildly dangerous.
Joining the Lift
When the Lift formed, the late captain and founder Stijn Strongbody appointed Arda to be one of the team’s coaches and she convinced Grollis to join the team’s rotation, as ze “really need[ed] to get out there and socialize more.” Grollis readily accepted, likely because the Lift’s stadium often came to rest directly above the Pit.
Upon joining the Lift, Zephyr quickly joined a close-knit group known as “Brokyo,” consisting of Val Hitherto, Coolname Galvanic, Yusef Fenestrate, and Gerund Pantheocide. Their antics caused Strongbody and the other more responsible members of the team many a grey hair, as Fenestrate and Pantheocide’s common sense appeared to be nullified in the presence of the others. At one point they made a short-lived band in which Zephyr played the drums, and Zephyr often hosted game nights showcasing the worst of the bootleg games ze had dredged up from the depths of the internet. Of the group, Zephyr was most often seen in the presence of Fenestrate and Hitherto.
As a pitcher, hyr career was strikingly mediocre but other members of the rotation were often worse. Never the biggest problem, but never an asset, Zephyr drew Fan ire both for hyr unfriendly personality and hyr consistently lackluster on-field performance. Despite Fans jeering at hyr from the stands, ze appeared unphased, merely saying, “they hate me because I lose games? Well hey, I don't know if you've noticed, but the Fans aren't like us. Our suffering is their entertainment, and I refuse to give them what they want.”
A Rivalry
During their first season together, Zephyr and Pantheocide realized that they pitched “in the exact same way. Like literally, we’re pitching twins,” and the two entered a good-natured rivalry. As Zephyr ended the season with a better record than Pantheocide, Pantheocide endeavored to party once more than Zephyr, attaining a lead. This lead continued for the duration of their time together on the rotation, as every improvement one made was quickly followed up by the other. Pantheocide unintentionally put an end to it when she moved to hitting and became the team’s star hitter and co-captains with Fenestrate. Zephyr, feeling that despite all hyr growth ze had been left behind not only by Pantheocide but by Fenestrate and Galvanic as well, fell from that friend group entirely. In the following seasons, Zephyr drifted between the Lift’s social circles, befriending a number of players, but with the exception of Elwin McGhee’s alternate and Rylan O’Lantern, most did not stay on the team for long. This led Zephyr to believe that no matter how much ze changed, ze would always be left behind in some way or another, and ze spent more and more time in the Lazarus Pit.
Following Pantheocide’s death in Season 21, Zephyr was one of three players on the team who partied, and the only one of those three to have known her. After getting shadowed and emerging onto the lineup, Zephyr finally became a better pitcher and baserunner than Pantheocide, and the same season as she was resurrected by the ILB Semi-Centennial, Zephyr benefited from a division hitting boost that ended hyr career at a tantalizing 0.02 batting stars less than hyr formerly deceased rival, in the same position in the lineup Pantheocide had initially occupied.
Skipping
During hyr stay in the shadows, Zephyr decided to go deeper into the Lazarus Pit than ever before, spending months in the twisting Infinite depths without emerging. After voicemailing out of the shadows and into active play as a batter, something about Zephyr was different, and when asked ze merely commented with a question about what happens when one meets the end of something Infinite. It is suspected there is some connection between hyr comment and hyr earlier claims of the misleading and dangerous nature of the Pit, but it is uncertain whether ze has actually taken the Pit up on its “offers of immortality.” Regardless, Fans speculate that whatever ze had experienced in the Pit, it transformed hyr nature in such a fundamental way that ze was unmoored from the normal passage of time, Skipping through blaseball and showing up to bat with strikes and balls from pitches that hadn’t happened in the same timeline the Fans watched. Even as the end of Blaseball drew near, ze began to approach each game with a carefree sort of irreverence, quite literally skipping up to the plate without appearing to care about the outcome.
Trivia
- Zephyr's face is always partially obscured in photographs and videos, though the cause of obfuscation varies. Common causes range from sunglasses, face masks, shadows, a bird conveniently flying past just as the photo is taken, a dirty camera lens, to the files themselves becoming corrupted. Nobody has observed this phenomenon when meeting Zephyr in person.
- To Grollis’s chagrin, when Mags Banananana arrived on the Lift she quickly fell into a relationship with Arda Zephyr, becoming Grollis’s unofficial step-mother. Grollis has since joined a group chat of Banananana’s other children, step-children, and grandchildren.
- Zephyr made a brief background appearance as Dilsney’s first gay character in the film “MBP 2: Miku Binder Primate,” a modern reimagining of the classic "MVP 2: Most Vertical Primate," starring Stijn Strongbody.
- After Zephyr’s computer became unusable due to the vast array of viruses ze accrued while downloading bootleg games, it was enshrined in a glass case in the Legscraper’s conservatory, next to the memorial gardens.
Grollis Zephyr/IF-36.28
Background
Grollis Zephyr comes from a dynasty of tokusatsu heroes based on Okinawa. Ze joined the family business as a teenager but soon found hyrself uncomfortable with the costumed-hero lifestyle.
While boldly-dressed, highly athletic and equipped with all the poses and catchphrases expected of a hero, Zephyr often felt ze was going through the motions. In particular ze felt hyrself to lack the empathy required to fully inhabit the role, something which seemed to come easily to the rest of hyr family. Zephyr also disliked the relentless publicity work, preferring to lose hyrself in biology textbooks and solo exploration of the island's limestone caves.
In Tokyo
After the cancellation of hyr lacklustre TV series, Zephyr took the chance to step back from front-line heroing and moved to Tokyo to study fashion design. Hyr clothes make use of sustainable fabrics such as cellulose, soy protein and hemp, as well as vivid natural dyes sourced mostly from seaweed. Both of these elements are present in the eye-catching full-mask superhero suits which ze continues to use for Blaseball duties.
While in the capital ze became involved in urbex, and particularly in mapping disused Metro tunnels - often the closest to peaceful seclusion the neurodivergent and distractible Zephyr could find. On one never-completed line ze chanced upon a loose grating which opened into a natural cave system. Return visits to the site revealed a series of passages inhabited by unfamiliar species, including bicep-curl-shaped fungi apparently tended by an agricultural society of centipedes. In time these friendipedes led hyr to a grotto teeming with bioluminescent life, centred on a glowing, nutrient-rich pool fed from both warm and cool springs.
Zephyr recalls hyr first thought as "wow" and hyr second as "I could make some awesome colours with these algae". While kneeling to take photographs ze slipped on moss and fell headlong into the water. Hyr eyes later developed a soft blue-green glow. Zephyr is adamant ze has now acquired Actual Superpowers though cannot as yet identify what they might be.
Blaseball career
Having established that the cavern lay under the former Dilsneyland Tokyo park, Zephyr was both excited and puzzled to be contacted by the Tokyo Lift Blaseball team. Ze agreed to try out for the batting lineup but found hyr cartoonish, acrobatic style more suited to pitching.
Ze discovered only after earning hyr place that the invitation had been sent by hyr mother, retired tokusatsu superstar and newly-installed Lift coach Arda Zephyr, who had conceived of this as a convenient way to spend more time with her "little Grolly". Ze agreed to remain with the team on the condition that there be "no snuggly-wugglies in front of the guys". This arrangement held firm for roughly seven minutes.
Zephyr is in a queer platonic relationship with the more socially confident Yusef Fenestrate. Ze is part of the close-knit "Brokyo" clique alongside Val Hitherto and Coolname Galvanic, who are only too happy to take turns play-acting as supervillains.
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