Talk:Concrete Mandible/Archive

Concrete Mandible as an insect with a human assistant

(disclaimer: first time contributing to a wiki, apologies for any mistakes in formatting/social graces)

Hello! I’ve had this idea for a potential player for a little while now and here seems like as good a place as any to put it forward. Some of the ideas are pretty loose and I have some alternate ideas specific to Tokyo Lift, depending on the direction decided upon for them.

Due to a bureaucratic mistake, a two-banded weevil was drafted to the team instead of a human player. Due to official blaseball regulations, the mistake could not be undone and the insect now known as Concrete Mandible was confirmed as a Lift lineup player. On the field, it quickly became evident that Mandible, being an insect, was almost completely incapable of playing blaseball and seemed to not even know what it was, preferring instead to consume grain. As a solution the Lift found a volunteer to act as Mandible-Blaseball Liaison Officer: during training and games they waive their own independent existence and act as a physical extension of Concrete Mandible. As such, all accolades (and criticisms) they earn are credited to Mandible.

Further Ideas:

1. the insect and liaison are referred to as Concrete Mandible-A and Concrete Mandible-B, respectively.
2. if the Tokyo Lift end up having a weightlifting theme, perhaps they were initially recruited after impressing current team members with their ability to lift several times their own weight, before they realised that bugs were woeful at splorts. For added effect they could be an ant instead of a weevil.
3. ’Concrete’ is a nickname. Their highest stat is defence, and after a run of impressive performances players and fans commented that their defence was solid ‘like concrete’ and the appellation was quickly applied to Mandible themselves.
4. all interview questions are directed at the insect rather than the human liaison, as under the terms of their contract the liaison is considered to be part of Mandible. Addressing the liaison instead of the insect would be like addressing a players arm instead of their face

sunbeam, lopside#9772 (talk) 04:58, 19 October 2020 (UTC)

Concrete Mandible as a Japanese Urban Legend

Concrete Mandible (コンクリート下顎骨) is a Japanese urban legend and a hitter for Tokyo Lift. According to the legend, the Concrete Mandible is a shapeshifter that can blend into concrete walls and sidewalks. The telltale sign of the mandible is it's mouth, which when hiding looks like a large crack running through the middle of a concrete surface. If a pedestrian touches the mandibles' mouth, the crack in the concrete will open up and swallow them whole.

Folklorist theorize that the Concrete Mandible legend has its origins in the American children's rhyme "Don't step on cracks or you'll break your mother's back." What the folklorists can't explain is how the actual Concrete Mandible wound up on a blaseball team. So far the mandible has not exhibited any of the bloodthirsty behavior characteristic of the legend, but many players are watching their step just to be safe.

(I used google translate to get the Japanese characters for the mandibles name. If someone who knows Japanese wanted to proofread it that would be swell.)

IRM

Hi I'm intending to implement the IRM for Lift players over the coming week Spotterdonut (talk) 10:52, 11 November 2020 (UTC)

Mandible lore pitch from a 'Mandible as an Earth elemental' perspective!

(also my first time contributing to a wiki so apologies if I'm doing this wrong -- I'm very open to corrections)

ORIGIN

Concrete Mandible is a batter and lineup player for the Tokyo Lift. They’ve been a Blaseball player for the majority of their conscious lifespan. Little is known about the manner and reason behind Mandible’s exact origins, beyond simply the location they were discovered. They claim their earliest memory to be waking up in what might have been a forest, observed by the entity they would later come to know as Freemium Seraph. Whether Mandible was born from pure Earthen magic, was awoken via the effects of a meteorological anomaly, was animated from the sidewalk outside the Tokyo Lift’s home stadium by the sheer competitive energy of the game, or came into being by some other means entirely, their existence now is certain- if possibly the only certain fact of their origin.

PHYSICAL FORM

Tall and hulking even in comparison to many of their Lift teammates, Mandible appears to be a large construct made of an indeterminate type of stone/rock-like material, with strangely insectoid elements of their joints and facial structure. They have been primarily referred to, both as a self-descriptor and by other members of the Lift, as an Earth Elemental, although Mandible admits to uncertainty regarding the accuracy of that term.

Some have suggested the rock-like material is concrete, a reference to Mandible’s name, but basic geological analysis of Mandible’s physical makeup has left only questions about the exact nature of the material. It has been suggested that Mandible is, quite possibly, made up of some sort of yet-unknown Earthen mineral. When asked about it, they simply replied, “I don’t know, I’ve never really asked too much about it. People don’t go around asking why they’re made of people, do they? I figure it’s the same for me. I’m made of rocks, that much I understand. Everything else is…… sedimantics.” They did, when reporting this, laugh at their own joke.

REPUTATION

Both Mandible and their teammate Freemium Seraph have garnered the attention of their team and Lift fans over the years of their respective careers for having what’s been called their “lucky streak.” Known around the league as a sort of dynamic duo, Mandible and their fellow elemental* Seraph have endured lengthy Blaseball careers seemingly unscathed by the unpredictable and destructive nature of the game’s weather effects. Having been on the same team together since the beginnings of their league and underleague records, they’ve managed to avoid having their lineup positions changed, being swapped to other teams via feedback, and being targets of any rogue umpires’ incinerations. While rumors of a few close calls and thwarted attempts to break this streak exist, no evidence can be found to prove these claims, and no visible damage exists on either of the pair that might suggest near-misses with umpires or other prevalent hazards.

Several of their teammates and other ILB players and fans have commented that it would be ‘weird’ or ‘strange’ to see Mandible and Seraph playing on different teams, citing the fact that neither one of them has ever been seen on the field without the other.

Mandible, known to their teammates as a fun-loving, ultra-competitive player, is rumored to be willing to accept nearly any type of challenge set before them, particularly if it comes in the form of a game. Notably, their biggest opponent is usually Mandible themselves, as one of their favorite hobbies involves setting personal records and then breaking them. Mandible has been described as a “nightmarish” board game partner, not because of cruelty or a lack of respect for the rules, but because of the stubborn and delighted frequency with which they demand rematches, regardless of whether or not they were the winner.

In line with their competitive nature, Mandible’s signature pregame ritual has been reported as ‘surgery’, which is a slight misinterpretation of the fact that Mandible can usually be found playing ‘Operation’ before a Blaseball game. It’s mostly beneficial for helping Mandible steady their hands and narrow their focus before they’re up to bat -- although they admit that Operation itself has its own sort of thrill.

When asked if they’d ever considered other sports besides Blaseball, they reported having also considered, among many things: competitive darts, ski jumping, cup stacking, and Jenga. Ultimately, the wide reach of Blaseball proved to be a fantastic fit for Mandible’s career aspirations, quoted to be “..to play a game [they] love, with awesome people, for as long as [they] can swing it. ‘It’ being the bat, of course.”

---

Discoyeti (talk) 18:43, 16 November 2020 (UTC) discoyeti#6443, 1:40 PM