YS-523

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

Yellowstone National Park

National Park Service Standardized Irregularity Report

Documenting Researcher: Researcher REDACTED Kallisti

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Irregularity Designation: YS-523 ("The Grapple")

Irregularity Class: GUEST

Park Management Protocol: Knowledge of YS-523 is to be disseminated to all incoming park staff, especially to those whose duties include property management, or other infrastructural obligations. Any and all staff members are to report directly to the head of the Conservation department should YS-523 be found operating within the bounds of any of the park's nature habitats, including its caves, fields, meadows, lakes, and etc.

Tour guides are to be aware of YS-523's presence at all times when conducting tours; until further research is conducted, guides are to prevent park guests from stepping on or otherwise touching YS-523's creations, especially if the irregularity itself is present. With that said, guides should be made aware that YS-523 has, on at least one occasion, (see Additional Notes below) shown itself to be adept at camouflage. If a guide sees YS-523 while on duty, they should inform all other nearby guides ASAP.

Staff of all kinds and ranks are to clear away any items from YS-523, and its creations (leaves, trash, art supplies[!], etc.) as soon as possible.

Unless otherwise instructed, YS-523's creations are to remain where they are and should not be tampered with or erased. Transportation of the works is, at present, to be done with caution; the Crafts And Leisure department have set up an outdoor "holding pen" for YS-523's works, situated in a courtyard a half-mile southwest of the park's border, seemingly outside the range of YS-523's influence. Some of its works have been transported here; specifically, those that have been "painted" onto removable surfaces like paper, canvas, and asphalt.

Irregularity Description: YS-523 is small, and apple-shaped, with a flat bottom and a cylindrical "stem" coming out of the top. Every time it has appeared, YS-523 sits motionless on or near a piece of graffiti, often taking on the colors of said art pieces, or the surrounding environment, presumably with the goal of blending in seamlessly with them. Its attempts at such camouflage are often spoiled, however, by what look to be two yellow stickers, both with either the number 99 or 66 printed on them, which typically contrast heavily from the coloration of the rest of YS-523's body.

Its graffiti vary in size, shape, subject, and art style. Whether or not its medium is as variable as these other factors is as yet unclear; attempts to take samples from graffiti have led to repeated instances of sample-collectors REDACTED and REDACTED resulting in the loss of such samples. As such, it is currently unknown what mediums YS-523 uses to "paint" with, though theories abound among researchers, based on the visual appearance of the available graffiti. When text appears with the graffiti, or on the being itself, it is always in Greek (varieties of ancient as well as modern).

Additional Notes: Rangers and researchers alike have taken to calling YS-523 "The Grapple", as a contraction of "The Graffitist's Apple" (the first nickname staff had given it, proposed by an employee, detailed below, who was among its first observers). The name has stuck ever since.

The Grapple was first sighted in the Parkpark five months ago, during the unloading of shipment EK-9159 to the Crafts and Leisure department. Details of that shipment can be found in the department's records, but it will be noted here that it contained perfectly average art supplies. Brushes, pastels, oil paint, spray cans, magazines, etc. The driver of the shipping van noticed the anomaly sitting on top of a cardboard box containing some of the ordered supplies. What once was plain, brown cardboard was now festooned with random paint splatters and magazine clippings. There was no scent of paint in the air, nor any visible or tactile wetness to the painted box, according to the witness; he did go on to describe The Grapple as having a "rough exterior" and "a gash in the middle". Days later, when the irregularity had departed from the box, Crafts And Leisure department staff found it to be empty. Since then, The Grapple has materialized at random times in locations around the park.

During one of the earliest encounters with The Grapple, then-new staff member REDACTED​​, not knowing about the irregularity's existence, started talking to it while they were off work. REDACTED sat beside it for "about a half hour or so, I dunno", talking to the being, and themselves, about "work, life, existence, and stuff", before deciding to try and give it a pencil from their back pocket. Once The Grapple disappeared from this scene, outside of the park's gift shop where Mx. REDACTED was working, it did not appear again for approximately a week. When it reemerged on top of the flagpole above the visitor's center, The Grapple's previously-described "roughness" and "gash" were no longer present. Note: it is unclear why Mx. REDACTED decided to sit and talk to The Grapple. Questioning has gotten the Park Security team nowhere, other than learning of YS-523's new "Grapple" nickname. Since the incident, Mx. REDACTED has been monitored in case they make further contact with the irregularity.

In its only recorded instance of camouflage, YS-523 had "painted" a 5'x5' square of graffiti on the wall of an information booth in the northeast of the park. The square, and thus, the whole of its body, was "painted" to look like the two stickers that normally give away its presence. To date, it has yet to replicate this or any similar pattern.

Attempts to pick up or otherwise move YS-523 have proven fruitless, as it remains in a fixed position where it sits. Tests conducted to see what happens when YS-523 is observed constantly have ended in REDACTED, and as such, fellow researchers are encouraged to allow the irregularity to remain unobserved, so that it might materialize elsewhere after a few hours. Such extended observation tests involving park security cameras have resulted in said cameras being "painted over" by YS-523. It should be noted that these events are the few where YS-523's graffiti have been documented in indoor settings, while YS-523 itself has remained outdoors in all recorded sightings to date.

Attempts to peel back the stickers on YS-523's body have revealed a wood texture. Whether or not this means that some or even the entirety of its body is wooden is unclear. What is clear, however, is that YS-523 does not appreciate being touched; when the irregularity is tampered with, YS-523's proceeding graffiti is, in the words of some park rangers, "decidedly unpleasant to look at." When left alone, though, YS-523 has "painted over" some of these works. Attempts to put stickers or paint on YS-523 directly have failed, with the foreign objects sliding right off of the being.

Few in number though they may be, visitor responses to The Grapple's graffiti remain largely positive; with its range of subjects, multivarious art styles, and the fact that its pieces are (so far) always placed in outdoor areas away from nature and wildlife, guests have yet to make many complaints to staff. Some have even praised the artworks, when they've happened to take on a nature theme or complimentary color-palette.

If rain or erosion happen to tamper with its graffiti, YS-523 will "repaint" it approximately 24 hours later.

To date, the irregularity has yet to "paint" on the grounds of the Ballpark.