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Jessica Telephone has always been very, very good at blaseball. She starts playing as so many kids do in her backyard. She plays with her twin brother Sebastian. She’s better than he is, which he says is because she’s older than him and which she says is because she practices more. She plays in her local little league, and then in her school’s teams. The trophies and ribbons in her room pile up. Sebastian does well too, though it’s clear to them both that he’ll never catch up to her. She plays in the evening when she’s supposed to be studying using an old pitching machine her dad helped repair. She feels like she could do this forever. She wants to do this forever. When she plays she feels totally in control. She can’t control that her friends ditched her for being too obsessed with the splort, she can’t control her parents divorce, she can’t control that the whole town is crumbling apart around her but she can control her body, how she swings when she hits a homerun.
Jessica Telephone listens to the games on the radio in her dad's old beat up truck and thinks about the awards in her room and how she would give anything to play, to prove to everyone how good she is. Once she is old enough she submits her name to the pool. Sebastian begs her not to, "it’s too dangerous, too busy, we're still so young, are you sure this is what we want?" She tells him to stop worrying, that she can handle herself, he doesn’t have to follow her and that there's no guarantee she'll get in anyway. There's thousands and thousands of names submitted by other hopefuls, by people looking to pay off debts to Aequitas Corp, by people getting drunk and losing bets with friends thinking that they'll never get called, that it will never happen to them. But Jessica gets called. She always does.
Jessica thinks waking up in the field of eggs is the scariest thing that will ever happen to her. One moment she’s sitting in a college lecture hall half asleep and the next she’s clawing her way out a shell gasping for breath, soaked in blood and shivering. She’s still herself and she isn’t at the same time. Her memories feel like she's watching someone else's life and it feels like someone is watching her as well: a million eyed fans deciding who she is. Jessica Telephone loves anime (she’s never watched any), Jessica Telephone is an expert skater (she’s only okay, she thinks), Jessica’s favorite drink is Jolt Cola (is it? she can’t remember). She’s shaking watching her arms as the scar she got from falling off her bicycle when she was six move from place to place on her arm. She closes her eyes and Sebastian is helping her up off the ground as she tries not to cry, her bike laying on the ground next to the tree she slammed into. He offers his hand and then the scene replays but it's different this time. She tries to scream but she can’t make her mouth move. She stumbles forward and falls to the ground as the world goes black.
When she wakes up again she’s at the Dallas Steak’s locker room. She recognizes it instantly, she has spent years following the splort after all. A man with a cow skull for a head (Leach Herman, one of the best pitchers in the league she thinks with excitement) and a younger, handsome man (Sam Scandal, worlds biggest jerk according to sources) are standing near the bench she’s laying on quietly talking and looking over at her. She sits up, too fast apparently because her vision starts to blur. Her head still hurts but she feels more stable, like she knows who she is now, even if some of it feels wrong. “Woah there sweetheart,” says Sam gently helping her from falling over, “Here drink this, it’ll help." He hands her a bottle of glatorade which she slowly sips. Leach approaches her as well “We’ve all been through this, you’ll be okay.” He hands her a Steaks uniform with her name embroidered on the back. “Here you go kid.” She holds it in her hands, it’s solid, it’s real, this *is* real. “I- I get to play now?” Leach laughs “You sure do kid.”
She does get to play. And she’s good at it. Not as good as she was in her local games, of course, but she’s making a mark for herself just like she knew she would. She’s got fans and merch and even her own chant. More than that though she loves playing, she loves going against different teams each with their own new challenges and she loves practicing with her team. She loves how her hair blows back when she hits a homerun. She doesn’t regret putting her name in the pool. She knows that this is what she was born to do.
Seb was right though, she's busy. Constantly. They talk on the phone constantly of course but it’s not the same and sometimes when he recounts a story from their childhood Jessica’s memory of it is completely different. She never tells him this of course- she already feels guilty enough leaving him behind. She thought it would be easier, a notion that now seems so silly to her. Still she gets to visit sometimes and when she’s playing nearby Sebastian always comes to see her play, cheering for her even when she strikes out.
Sebastian never told her that he put his name into the pool, but she knows he did. She knows once again that the chances that he’ll be chosen are rare, the chances that they’d even be on the same team is even rarer. Yet here he is, covered in blood, lying in the Steak’s locker room like she did. Her team let her be there, but she’s not much use for keeping watch. She’s sitting down, head between her hands as it pounds. Sebastian being heer means her history is being rewritten again. It is comforting for her to know that this time, their histories are being rewritten together. They won't be apart anymore. Later she’ll hand Seb his jersey and they’ll both laugh and cry as they hug.
They get to play two glorious seasons together before they get the announcement. Baseball is apparently becoming democratic. Teams and fans will get to vote on changes that can affect the whole league. “Should be pretty exciting!’ says Seb and she rolls her eyes.
God speaks to Jessica Telephone for the first time at the election. It tells her that she has been chosen. She will be the new face of blaseball, someone for the fans to adore, to inspire, to fight over. To do this she has been granted something, or rather something that has always been inside her has been unlocked. A weapon. With the Dial Tone pulsing inside her she will protect the splort. Jessica comes back down to earth, her ears ringing just in time to learn that she’ll be going to the Pies. She starts to cry looking at Sebastian but before either of them can say anything Jaylen Hotdogfingers is incinerated.
Jessica quickly understands why she has been chosen as a weapon. They chose to open the forbidden book. Strike one. She feels a pit in her stomach when she thinks about Sebastian out there, unprotected and prays every night that he gets granted the same gift she has been given. She knows he won’t, he never could catch up to her. In season 2, two others are chosen and Jessica tries not to feel smug about how she was chosen first.
The Shelled One was right about the fans too. Jessica is blaseball now. Even with the danger ramped up she can’t help but love it. She’s good now, as good as she always knew she could be. She’s never going to stop loving playing she thinks. After all it’s what she’s always wanted to do. She's sure that memory, that part of herself, is real. She misses Sebastian everyday, but they still make time to talk when they can and hang out at league parties. Playing against him is always feels like coming home.
Jessica is on the Tigers when the season 4 election happens. Their motto is “Never Look Back” which she likes quite a bit, but when a version of her twin brother who isn’t her brother is staring at her she doesn’t know if she can fully follow it. This new Sebastian is so much like hers but in all the worst ways and different enough that she feels like she first did looking in the mirror after her history was rewritten. She doesn’t want to talk to him at first. She doesn’t see the point. Her Sebastian followed her here and now he's gone forever. She tries not to think about it because when she thinks about him all alone universes apart she can barely keep moving. She hopes there's a Jessica in his new world to guide him like she’s always had to do. New Sebastian is persistent about calling her though and she eventually gives in and talks to him. He’s much more self assured and confident than her Seb, and she eventually finds out that in his world, she joined blaseball because of him. He breaks down when he talks about how he has left her behind. “It’s not your fault,'' she says suddenly, very sure. “It’s the fault of everyone on your team, and every fan who voted for this to happen.”
The rage inside of her only simmers at first. She still loves the game after all and her new brother is nice enough. Sometimes, in moments that she later hates herself for, it almost feels like they have known each other their whole lives. They nervously discuss the Garage’s plan to bring back Jaylen as Jessica nervously watches her own spot on the idol board as the time to the election ticks down.
The first time Jessica Telephone is shelled she is scared. She claws at the shell until her hands bleed and she gives up and lies down. She starts humming the only song she can think of, Rap God by Eminem. Seb had taught it to her, one of the few things he had taught her rather than the other way around. It is quiet in the shell, too quiet without her singing Rap God over and over like her life depends on it but she has to stop eventually as her throat runs ragged. She doesn’t want to be alone like this, with her thoughts. Eventually she hears the voice of the Shelled One. “I am so sorry they did this to you. They should have not put you up there on the idol board.” Jessica’s rage starts to burn.
Eventually from inside her prison Jessica can hear the noises of blaseball games going on around her. She dreams about hitting the ball over the fence and the crowd cheering.
When she is freed from her prison by birds tearing it apart Jessica almost doesn’t know what to do. She hugs her teammates as they tell her through hushed tones about Jaylen’s debt. Something inside her hardens in anger. They shouldn’t have resurrected her. She calls Sebastian as soon as she can and he catches her up on every mundane thing that has happened since her shelling while she cries in relief.
She’s watching the game on tv a few days after being released when it happens. She always tries to catch Sebastian's games and she missed so many while she was away that she doesn’t want to miss any more. Suddenly Sebastian is on fire. And then he’s gone. Again. She doesn’t scream. She doesn’t cry. She sits completely still and watches the tv until it turns to static. Until she can no longer stay awake.
The second time Jessica Telephone is shelled she is angry, so angry it scares her. She’s not scared of being stuck in the shell anymore. She’s not even sure if she wants out. She dreams about smashing her bat as hard as she can into the umpires heads, into Jaylen's head, into the heads of all the fans. The Shelled One speaks to her again, apologizing and explaining that there had to be punishment for the resurrection. That it will make sure that nothing like that ever happens again and that her time to protect baseball as it’s weapon has come.
She answers the call and steps up as a member of the Pods to bring about retribution. She has more power than she ever has. She will make things right. When she plays she is always in control. At the top of the sixth inning she hits a solo homerun that leaves the Shoe Thieves collapsed on the ground. She thinks that now the league will understand. Now this can all be over.
It’s not.
As she steps up to bat for the Pods the second time she thinks about how none of this should have happened. How the book should have never have been opened, how Jaylen should never have been resurrected about how her brother should be fully and completely alive and not some undead creature covered in flame. She knows that if they just kneel, if they just accept the punishment everything will be okay, it will all be over. That everyone will stop hurting if they just submit.
And then she watches Sebastian light up in flames again. She screams, the sound muted by her second skin. She doesn’t remember the rest of the game.
When she comes to again the Shelled One is gone. Her last desperate act was for nothing. The Sebastian who is not Sebastian is still dead. Everyone else is free from the Pods and the Shelled One's control. They assume she is free now as well.
The Breath Mints offer her a blanket and water and tell her everything's going to be okay now and she laughs so hard she cries.
The Mints don't know what she did and she can never tell them. She hears that there's a new God in the sky from her new teammates. That no one knows how to really feel about the Boss, though it seems several teams have already started plans on how to kill her. Jessica nods along and pretends to be on board with it even though she knows it is going to be a hopeless task. As for her God, she can no longer hear the voice of the Shelled One in her head. Some days she is grateful for this and some days she finds the silence unbearable. Inside of her the Dial Tone feels muted and off, like a heart that occasionally skips a beat. She goes to practice, she plays, she goes through the motions. She remembers sitting in her dad’s truck listening to games on the radio, she remembers her excitement during her first game. She still must love blaseball after all.