Nagomi Mcdaniel/IF-74.790

Rumor / Community Lore
This 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 Nagomi Mcdaniel at their Rumor Registry.

History

Early Life and Career

Mcdaniel was born and raised in Hawai'i by a Scottish mother and a Japanese father. In high school she had a romance with a classmate, the girl who would become the mother of Fridays player York Silk. Rekindling this romance after they had both graduated led to Mcdaniel recruiting Silk to the Fridays.

Despite recruiting Silk to the Fridays, during Season 1 Mcdaniel played for the Tigers, which some Blaseball fans have suggested had something to do with paying off an old debt. They transferred to their home state team under mysterious circumstances after Season 1.

An avid sword practitioner and collector, Mcdaniel has been known to forego her bat in place of a shinai or mighty claymore.

When Mcdaniel ate a stray peanut in Season 3, the protein burst focused their mind and abilities. Since then they have been regarded as one of the best hitters in the league, and have only improved with time.

Baltimore Crabs Transfer

Mcdaniel was initially due to be traded to the Jazz Hands after the Season 3 election. Shortly after landing in Breckenridge, however, she found out about the change in plans and second trade. After taking a moment to collect herself, as the unexpected change in plans had effectively turned her final destination into a layover, she set off again for Baltimore a few hours later.

No one has ever suggested that Baltimore runs on island time, and suffice it to say, Mcdaniel found themself a bit lost in the fast-paced chaos of Baltimore life. With strange new teammates and a strange new culture, Mcdaniel sought a moment of peace and understanding, and took it upon themself to visit the Olde One. They quickly acquired a mech suit (The Cybernetic Limb Augmentation Wearall) to make the perilous journey to the depths of the Oldest Bay and seek the god Underneath.

Mcdaniel quickly arrived at the Olde One's side, confessing her doubts about her strange new home and bewildering teammates. The Mother Crab spoke in an ancient tongue, but regardless, Mcdaniel could hear her. Mcdaniel understood that she could be changed, and that through change, she might begin to understand the destiny laid out before her. Mcdaniel pondered this offer for a few moments, and accepted. With that Mcdaniel committed to fully immersing herself into the strange culture of Baltimore, their history, their people, and their relationship with their dead god.

Rumors flew after Mcdaniel's carcinization. The Baltimore Slun reported that Mcdaniel was now a headless hitter, known in legend as a Coliunn Gun Cheann. The report claimed that Mcdaniel affixed their still-living head atop their neck with a ribbon; however, they have been known to attend practice games without it, and their skills were completely unaffected. Splorts Bleakly disputed these reports, suggesting that McDaniel's head was still affixed to their body. Instead, Bleakly claimed, their head had in fact begun to fuse with their torso, which was now encased in a carapace and more closely resembled a crab's thorax. Eyewitness accounts both support and refute both of these claims, and frankly you can’t trust most of the Baltimore newspapers anyway. The confusion is believed to be part of the Deep One's design.

Further complicating the matter, some rumours suggest Mcdaniel’s new form is the only the beginning of the Mother Crab's carcinization process. The subject of her final form has become a common conversation topic among Baltimore splorts fans and carcinization aficionados, albeit often discreetly. Unsourced and unverified claims suggest she may become a centaur like creature with a giant crab in place of legs; a ten foot tall red cap, with her hands replaced by iron claws, and her blood replaced with Old Bay Seasoning; or perhaps a five-inch high double of Mcdaniel will grow out of her neck and pilot her former body like a machine. These claims, though widely considered fantastic, cannot be disproven at this time.

During their time with the Crabs, Mcdaniel took the field clad in their Wearall and, as they described it, wielding "a claymore and a new-found inhumanity."

Joining the Jazz Hands

Amid the rush of the seasons, Mcdaniel took a page from her first team, and focused on looking ahead to the future with a somewhat startling momentum. It was teammate (and licensed therapy animal) Tot Fox who took her aside and suggested she might benefit from some grounding. The best place for that Fox insisted, would be a team the two of them knew very well and that Mcdaniel remembered fondly from her brief layover. With that in the season 5 election, Holden Stanton and Nagomi Mcdaniel were exchanged again, leaving Mcdaniel in Breckenridge.

Life in Breckenridge was not without its reminders of the Crabs however - former Crab Valentine Games greeted her in Breckenridge, and from their history spoke in quiet tones about the legacy and culture of carcinization, as well as what it was like to be at the center of the Olde One’s attentions. While she was hiking the mountain trails, Mcdaniel had plenty of time and space to think, slowly sorting through what parts of themself were from their life in Hawai'i and what parts had been carcinized. Over time, they reconciled these disparate aspects into what they once described to Games as a "newer, truer Mcdaniel." When asked about their feelings towards batting for the Jazz Hands in an interview, they replied, "I feel like it's only fair repayment, given the space and time the Hands have afforded me. I have no doubt I'll be traded away soon enough, but until then I will give the Jazz Hands my all."

It was during her time with the Jazz Hands that Mcdaniel was introduced to Japanese jazz fusion. Lowe Forbes shared a selection of their jazz albums with Mcdaniel, and alongside artists like Llouis Slatchmo and Smiles Dlavis, Forbes provided her with the album Mint Jams by Casiopea. Intrigued by the distinctive style, she independently sought out new artists, and discovered Hiromi's Sonicbloom, Himiko Kikuchi, Toshiko Akiyoshi, and Sloul & "Plomp" Slessions, and became a lifelong fan of the Japanese jazz scene. In an interview, she described the experience of discovering Japanese jazz as "a roundabout discovery of culture [she] never had," citing a disconnect between the Japanese cultural festivals of Hawai'i and a more personal experience of Japan.

Return to the Crabs

This reprieve from the spotlight was short lived however, as Mcdaniel was Shelled by a disgruntled Peanut due to her idolization by blaseball fans. The Jazz Hands were prepared to admit that these grand fates and heroes journeys that Mcdaniel seemed to be destined for were outside the realm of their expertise. They consulted with known god-killers and former team the Baltimore Crabs and arranged a trade back to Baltimore where they could hopefully assist Mcdaniel in whatever fate came next. Holden Stanton had already packed his backs, and was back in Breckenridge in days later.

Mcdaniel spent the first few seasons of her return encased in a shell, unable to interact with much of the outside world. During this time it was the enigmatic Forrest Best who spent the most time watching over her, and it was often seen carrying her to and from games, tapping on the side of her shell, and simply looming nearby when she was left in the sun on warm days. When she was finally freed in the Season 9 postseason, Mcdaniel immediately hit a 3 run homerun, and it seemed that the titan of blaseball had returned to the field. It was however, not the return people were expecting.

After her return Mcdaniel was more withdrawn from the public eye, making less appearances outside of games, and speaking less when she was spotted. As she recuperated from her time in the shell she was seen more and more with Best, with the two of them often signing to each other quietly, or simply being present near each other away from a quiet afterparty. This matched with their impressive performance on the field, where Mcdaniel would buy enough time for Best to steal its way around the bases before batting it home. It was with this very same technique that the two of them scored the Baltimore Crab’s final run and making history as the first team to ascend since the return of Internet League Blaseball.

While the Crabs ascended, Mcdaniel was not allowed to rest just yet - with the cruel hands of the league pulling her away from the team and Best despite its best efforts. Mcdaniel landed back in Hawai’i of all places, alongside teammates Sutton Dreamy and Montgomery Bullock where she would once again take up her place on the mound.

Return to the Fridays

Mcdaniel's reintegration to Hawai‘i was not as easy as anticipated. Although she missed her home dearly, she felt her connection to the land and her culture severed by the years away. York Silk was in a different country, her teammates were either gone, dead, or feedbacked to an unfamiliar team, and yet Hawai‘i was the same as it had ever been.

Meanwhile, the observatory in Maryland has received an influx of postcards from Mcdaniel. They are kept in a near-overflowing pile along with the other collection of mementos from former teammates and fans of the missing Baltimore Crabs.

A Dream

During the Grand Siesta Nagomi Mcdaniel had a dream. She was playing blaseball on a team she had never heard of, against a team that didn’t exist. They were playing under an eclipse and she was underperforming due to her ever present flinch from her fight against THE SHELLED ONE'S PODS. She felt the now familiar heat of the umpire dissipate into what should have been a guaranteed home run. She looked up at the pitchers mound and saw Forrest Best.

Nagomi Mcdaniel flinched and struck out. Transported back to her home by the Chesapeake, where the Crabs tend to her, hoping one day she might be freed.

Time on the Flowers

Through a series of improbable election results, Nagomi was drafted into the Boston Flowers' shadows for Season 12. The Flowers team, used to such improbability, seemed almost relieved that nothing too ill came from this trade and warmly welcomed their new player under the boughs of the Gardens' trees. The team told Nagomi to rest. This was an unwelcomed surprise for Nagomi, as they were at the height of their Blaseball career, but in accordance with ILB law, no play could be done within the oddly comfortable shadows. The Flowers thus asked what could be done to make Nagomi's stay even more comfortable-- and, there was one request. In the middle of the night before the start of the new season, the Flowers reunited Nagomi with their partner, █████ Silk. The two of them then rested together.

Season 13, the election swung in the Flowers' favor yet again. Nagomi McDaniel, fully rested in a way that she had forgotten years ago, stepped up to the team's mound as a six-and-a-half star pitcher (oh my god). The new position was refreshing, and they took it it like a crab to water. They knew, though, that those waters were infested. They watched as, bit by bit, their new teammates and their own stars were chomped away by the consumers. And yet, the team kept their optimism. They had been through worse; they could weather yet another storm. Nagomi did not want to passively withstand another storm, though. They began to defend their fellow pitchers, sacrificing themselves so that one-star pitcher Owen Picklestein could live and pitch game 99 of the season.

The pendulum of votes swung yet again at season's end; Nagomi McDaniel left for the Crabitat-- but not without a modest flower crown on their head and a fist-bump to the traded Crab, Parker Parra.

Transfer to the Dale

Following her consumption and redaction during the Season β15 postseason and an unsuccessful Plunder attempt in the Season β15 Election, Mcdaniel’s future was uncertain at best. She emerged from the Secret Base at Worldwide Field on Season β16, Day 27; was batted in by Dale lineup player Riley Firewall; and, having scored, retreated to Miami’s Shadows. The move was described most generously as “shocking,” with some outlets suggesting Mcdaniel meant to effectively retire or that Dale management had engaged in Soul-related blackmail. These claims were wildly spurious, even resulting in legal action, but demonstrate the League-wide suspicion that arose from the unlikely series of events.

Career in Miami

Mcdaniel joined the Dale as a lineup player in Season β17 via the Foreshadow will, which sent longtime Dale player Don Elliott to the Shadows in her place. According to multiple reports, Mcdaniel and Elliott had formed an unlikely friendship despite never sharing the roster, and frequently went on fishing trips together. One source went so far as to quote Mcdaniel’s attribution of her more laid-back demeanor and greatly diminished performance as relating to her conversations with Elliott.

Mcdaniel’s performance was a subject of much speculation throughout the ILB given the stark difference between expectations and reality. Despite a very high star rating, Mcdaniel had her worst season on record with a batting average of 0.138, on par with known Dale offensive weak spots Caleb Novak (0.136) and Jasmine Washington (0.135). A midseason interview from Mr. Wide was similarly tangential to the questions on the rest of the League’s minds, choosing to showcase obscure statistics at which Mcdaniel excelled, including HPH(FC)* and CT†.

Mcdaniel and her teammates were as unfazed by her stats as the rest of the League was perplexed. When questioned about the team’s difficult season, offensive powerhouse Logan Horseman said “yeah, of course I’m disappointed in Nagomi. She keeps stealing my crop tops and looking better in them than me! How could I, in good conscience, steal them back, knowing that? I can’t. So I’m almost out of shirts. This one used to say ‘Don’t Kill My Vibe.’ I had to cut it and now people think I care about murder. It’s basically the worst thing that’s ever happened to me. I need to go, this is too much. Even for you, Gerald!”

Mcdaniel’s stats improved noticeably following her Day 56 trade to Mexico City, with her BA nearly reaching 0.200 as part of the Wild Wings lineup.

*Hats per Head (Fishing Cap)
†Crabbitude

In Literature

Crabs Poet Laureate Runolfio Peeper wrote the following verse, which appeared in the Baltimore Slun shortly before season 4:

Nagomi's travelled o'er the earth
The journey started out of hell
Returned to islands of her birth
And for a Friday spent a spell

But sad to say, she could not stay
The Blaseball Gods (those wicked frauds)
Did her betray, sent her away
Based on her squad’s poor gambling odds

And so she flew to Breckinridge
But hardly settled in that place
She dove from Royal Gorge's bridge
And there she found a Crab's embrace.

Once in the deep Crabitat keep
The Olde One spread its claws and led
A stunning evolution's leap.
Now her humanity all shed,
She'll lead the team to get ahead.

Trivia

• Mcdaniel's favorite radio station is KZOO
• Mcdaniel's favorite anime is Cowboy Bebop.