Alejandro Leaf/IF-1667
Rumor / Community LoreThis article contains lore created collaboratively by the Blaseball community. It is just one of many Rumors that we've found in the Interdimensional Rumor Mill. You can find more Rumors about Alejandro Leaf at their Rumor Registry.
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
Alejandro “Aly” Leaf was first discovered when The Tokyo Adrift found itself caught in a kelp forest near the port city of Infinity Plains. The location was also known the Watermill due to a high frequency of "sudden and turbulent waves dashing ships against nearby rocky outcrops, grinding them to pieces". According to a related entry, "many a ship found themselves pulled towards the rocks by strong, persistent tidal currents". As such, the region was often avoided by even the most experienced of sailors. A notable exception is found in one Captain Charla, whose "oddly constructed vessel, built to maximise buoyancy, floated unusually high in the sea, drifting right above the dangerous riptides".
The Adrift had stopped there to allow Goodwin Morin and Captain Strongbody to dive in search of specimens for the latter's research. Strongbody was later quoted in the journal describing the experience as “anxiety-inducing, it was like the entire environment was watching me, and it did not like what it saw”. The divers located their goal, a mollusc shell of considerable size and lustre, but found themselves unable to swim back to the surface. The journal reflects their retelling of the incident, describing “kelp clinging to [them], pulling [them] ever deeper” and “shadows lurking at the edge of [their] vision, only to disappear when focused on”. Morin later said “I’ve never felt so powerless while beneath the surface, the more we fought, the harder it fought back.”
Meanwhile, the ship itself found its rudder immobilised, kelp having crept into every available crack of the mechanism. It was only after returning the shell and backing away that the divers were able to make contact with the entity they would come to know as Aly Leaf. When reassured of their intentions and upon receiving their word that they would not harm the kelp forest, Leaf allowed them to retrieve their quarry.
Anatomical sketches of Leaf depict a head and tail resembling a leafy sea dragon, with the front legs and torso of a horse. Her exact form seems to be mutable and the journal posits that the entity witnessed was but an avatar of the greater whole. Leaf appeared to have full control over kelp from her domain, demonstrating the ability to independently control the movement of “as many as thirty individual fronds at a time”. Water dwelling members of the crew reported a deep hum echoing below the surface of the waves when she used this ability, the sound of which was described as “haunting and enchanting in equal measure”.
