My Father's Plight

As I thought, my mother couldn’t hold out from my pestering for a week. But I seemed to keep running into one problem after another, delaying me for some time. I apologize for this.

And so it all comes to light, now. The most obvious seems to have been the case.

My father was protecting me. I had been in contact with one of the beasts as a child. I had had nightmares, spoken of a man that wasn’t there, who terrified and yet comforted me with open arms waiting. My mind was racked, dreams invaded, and I drew like a man possessed.

All the hallmarks are there. The drawings are gone because my mother burned them.

It started after a trip to a cabin in some small forest near our town for fishing and that sort of thing. I apparently saw it there, told my parents, and was brushed aside. I was just jumping at shadows, of course, they would say. But after we returned home, it not only continued, the condition was exacerbated. I was taken to psychologists and they found nothing. All they could tell me was that I genuinely believed I saw something, but could find nothing otherwise wrong with me. The next step was that I was really being targeted by some tall man in a suit. This was reported to the police. They of course never found such a man. This went on for some time. And then one day, my father just left early in the morning. He left a note for me, which I am trying to locate somewhere in all my family’s old belongings. Provided it hasn’t been thrown out.

Of course, that letter was his last attempt to communicate with any of us. The next thing we knew, they found him dead in that same forest. My father had perished, but within days, I realized I would never see one of those faceless things again (until now, of course).

So that’s it. I was one of the lucky children to escape. Whatever my father did, however he distracted the Slender Man, it seemed to have worked. My father saved my life.

He gave everything so I might live.

Thanks, Dad.

Think of the Children

I’m sorry I haven’t posted in over two weeks. I honestly don’t know what’s been keeping me from this. My finals didn’t keep me that busy. But straight into the work. (Disclaimer: I must admit that I am not an expert on the following material, so the conjectures presented should be subjected to even more criticism than normal)

--How do the children escape?

My current thoughts on this are that the Slender Man stalking the child in question is “calibrated” to a certain type of brain chemistry. Or rather whatever method the Slender Man uses to access a human mind is. It is accustomed to a “childish” brain, and if it gets distracted, say by an interloper such as a parent, during a point in the child’s life during which the brain chemistry is altered, say puberty, it either can’t or chooses not to adapt and simply goes after another “childish” brain.

Assuming this, we must assume that the percentage of Slender Men “thrown off” in such a fashion is very small.

Alternatively, if adaptation is indeed impossible, it may be that any child that reaches puberty can be saved. In this case, certain medications may be used to save children from being taken while young. Of course, medications that might force puberty to occur should be avoided for obvious reasons.

As a note, this may have a connection to the medications some of the victims in various blogs have been documented to take. More information is needed for any certainty.

--Does it simply stop or does it taper off?

If it is indeed the brain chemistry as described above, it depends on the adaptability. If they refuse to adapt it may be a sudden stop or a tapering effect. If they cannot adapt the same could be said, depending on if they must have an “exact” chemistry or if it slowly becomes inaccessible.

If a disruption does occur, preventing contact, a sudden stop would be expected. 

--Why does a Slender Man wait years and years for a second attempt?

If a Slender Man is interrupted and thereby loses contact with a child due to chemical change, they must wait until they can access their brain chemistry again. But if they can adapt, why wait? And if they can’t, how is it possible to access the now permanently changed brains?

The most reasonable answer is that they can adapt to different brain chemistries, but not suddenly. By comparison, a human can be killed by a sudden high dose of poison, or become immune over a period of time of controlled exposure. The same principle may apply here. Trying to access a suddenly changed (chemically speaking) mind may be “toxic” and render it impossible. On the other hand, actually being in contact as the child becomes an adolescent may allow the Slender Man in question to now go after teenagers in addition to children.

However, it may take many, many children until this occurs. The initial victim that escaped may be out of puberty again once this has occurred, and the issue must be resolved again. The Slender Man must become accustomed to the adult brain chemistry. Once this is achieved, a Slender Man, frighteningly, can pursue virtually anyone they want.

Thankfully, there is no telling how long this may take.

--Is the goal the same as with the children or is there another reason?

This is absolutely impossible to know. I have no inkling of an idea as to what the initial idea is to begin with, thus I cannot possibly say if it has changed. Perhaps this condition of whether the child escaped or not makes them a candidate to be an Agent, or ensures their demise.

Perhaps the Slender Man that finds them the second time isn’t even the same one. Even that much is impossible to know for sure. For that matter, it’s impossible to know if there is only one from the beginning.

Now there’s a nightmare. Imagine being cornered some dark night by half a score of those abominations.

I’ll leave you with that. My mother may have information to give me regarding my father’s death at any time. I’ve been waiting for her to call me back, as she was in no shape to tell me anything immediately, as one might expect with such an issue. But two weeks is too long. I’m leaving for home later this week since classes have finished for the semester. She can’t hold off on the issue much longer.

Closing In

I have to give a quick update, everyone, before I can start on the previously discussed set of questions.

The Slender Man following me is becoming more bold. It’s moving away from the forest more, and closer to me. Previously, it seemed to stay within twenty feet of at least one tree, but has recently started appearing much closer to me. In fact, at one point it was within ten feet of me. Well and away the closest it has come yet. If it had been lying down it would have touched me.

And the sounds have started again. Loudly into the night they play for me, a satanic symphony. I have confirmed with several people on my floor that no one else has heard them. It’s a good thing I don’t really worry about what they think of my sanity, though.

I can’t help but think it reminded me of the Flower of the Panopticon (hereafter shortened to Flower) to get me digging and unnerve me. It certainly has done that. Remembering the strange date of creation for the Flower’s file, finding out just how horrific my father’s death was, and all the questions raised by both. I must admit I’m not in the most reasonable mood at the moment. My hands are shaking as I type.

But what scares me is I don’t know if it’s fear or anticipation.

All the depressing thoughts and happenings aside, I feel alive. There is a purpose to this work now. Slender Men are real, they have affected my family in the past, and there is (in my mind) a small glint of hope, maybe even victory in the past.

How? Why? When? Where? Who? The five basic questions are firing as fast as the neurons can reload. My mind races. The puzzle pieces shift and try to fit in any way they can. I think my father left me something important in this. Maybe I just want to believe that he it wasn’t just a brief encounter. I want to believe that my father actually fought back against this nearly unfathomable monstrosity to a final, fatal stalemate.

Such a romanticized idea is unlikely, but I can’t help think there may be some truth to it, even if only by some happy accident. However, until I can speak with my mother about both my father’s behavior and my own surrounding the incident, I cannot be certain of anything.

However, something else has recently occurred. I’ve found a location that seems to have consistent activity. There is an old observatory on campus that always has some sort of activity when I recorded near it. To be perfectly clear, I have no intention of breaking in, as the experiences of J, Strahm, and others has shown me this is rarely if ever a good idea. I do, however, feel that it is relevant to mention it now, however briefly.

Extra, Extra

So my father’s death was described in rather grisly (I really didn’t think they were able to give this kind of information, more for taste than security) detail in the archives of my local papers. It’s also amazing that they allowed that picture. They could never do that today, I should think, I don’t know who they did it then. But it’s clear that my father didn’t die of stab wounds.

At any rate, it yielded more clues than I could have hoped for reasonably. At the least, it confirms that it was a suspected murder, though I have yet to find follow up information indicating how the investigation went. Though considering I cannot recall my mother or myself being interviewed concerning his death, I feel that either it didn’t last long or that there never was a proper investigation at all.

After all, there was a lack of material evidence. At the time of the article, no fingerprints, tire tracks (other than those of my father’s truck), footprints (other than my father’s), or indeed anything tangible could be found pointing to a subject. The only known thing was that my father had been killed with something sharp.

However, it is was his manner of death that was especially grisly. His abdominal wall had been cut though, then ripped open. His organs had, apparently, been individually removed and subsequently replaced in the body.

Anyone reading this should know that this is a more or less typical scene from a Slender Man’s killing. There was nothing taken, except a life and the structural integrity of a person’s innards.

But perhaps the strangest part is that my father didn’t have any of the characteristic behavior of someone being stalked by a Slender Man. There was no paranoia, no obsessive observation, no frantic drawing. My father went to work every day, came home, watched TV, played with me, he even helped around the house. He was a more or less normal person to the end.

Thus there are two primary possibilities for how my father came to this state (killed by a Slender Man, but with none of the accompanying behavior changes):

One, he came upon it suddenly and tried to interfere with it (saving me/someone? If it was me, it fits with both a Slender Man coming after children and returning again when they are older if they evade it the first time).

And two, there was something different about my father. Maybe he simply hid it from me. Maybe his mentality simply made him too stubborn to give into the fear (a proto-Zeke Strahm?). Maybe he carried a mutation that made him immune to a Slender Man’s control (if the fear is caused by a Slender Man interfering with the mind directly). Maybe it was something even more farfetched and ludicrous, like my father being a Slender Man.

Of the two, the first is obviously more likely. There was a precedent for this in Just Another Fool, provided it wasn’t the rambling of a veteran driven insane. The second is unlikely, though it is possible that my father simply hid it well. My memory is foggy around that time (itself a cause for concern), so it could be that I simply forgot any subtle behavior changes my father made to hide his situation from me.

But the strangest thing perhaps was my father’s age. My father was in his early forties when he died, by far the oldest case I have come across (Strahm was 27 if I recall correctly, the oldest age I can recall given explicitly by a blog). This again may suggest that it was a more “spur of the moment” incident compared to the stalking examples typically seen. If a Slender Man had intended to claim my father as a child who escaped him previously, why wait so uncharacteristically long and apparently simply end it quickly rather than dragging it out as is typical?

So I must conclude for the moment that my father had not been pursued before his death. I will have to ask my mother for more details since she may have held even more information back due to the nature of his death.

But in the meantime, this makes me think of a subject that I have yet to discuss, and that I have not yet found any information on whatsoever.

How do the children escape? Does it simply stop or does it taper off? Why does a Slender Man wait years and years for a second attempt? Is the goal the same as with the children or is there another reason?

While I work up the nerve to open these old family wounds, I’ll try to make some sense of these questions, and hopefully come to sensible answers.

The Flower

So, there is a symbol in my old files. I had forgotten about it, but it’s been around in my backups for ten or more years now. But let’s just get it out of the way. Here’s the image (edited for size):

It looks like a flower to me, so I’ll call it as such. However, it personally reminds me of a certain type of prison, the Panopticon. This prison is constructed in a circular fashion with a central tower. The cells are such that the guards, in the tower, can view into any of them at any time. However, the tower windows are constructed in such a way that the imprisoned cannot be sure if they are looking at them or not. The point is control. The prisoners cannot see the guards, so they can never be sure when it is safe to do something… less than moral or forbade within the walls, such as escape attempts.

At any rate, there is something it reminds me of even more, as mentioned in the last post:

The Operator Symbol. Although it’s almost certainly unnecessary, a comparison follows:

This makes me wonder if I had an encounter in the past with a Slender Man, and out of boredom stylized the symbol that is so common to its appearances. However, as mentioned, I did not own a computer when this apparently was created. But I did finally realize something. And I believe this to be very significant.

The date in the file’s properties states it was created the day my father was killed. Or rather when they found him.

My father died under strange conditions. Not that his cause of death was atypical. It was obvious that he had been stabbed repeatedly, or at least that’s what anyone would tell me. It was where they found him. He was near his truck in the woods.

Up a tree. They found it odd that he would be in a tree after being killed, as the evidence suggested that he had been placed there after he almost entirely bled out. There was almost no blood on the tree itself.

That was all anyone ever told me. I was just a child at the time, it would have been cruel to tell me anything more graphic than that, I suppose. Even that was a little much.

But now, I must assume that there was something more than that to his death. The symbol’s date could simply be a taunt, trying to elicit an emotional response from me. But I can’t afford that. The tree symbolism is near constant within Slender Man lore. I can’t dismiss it out of hand as coincidence, as it may be the connection that finally led a Slender Man to me, rather than it simply finding me after I started investigating it. That’s more likely than coincidence.

However, I’ll have to look through public records to figure out if any of my assumptions are correct. I have to admit, I think I’m making too many sweeping declarations lately. My father died, therefore Slender Man involvement. I’m grasping at straws, it seems.

I will post again if I find anything.

Home Sweet Home

So I’m home for the weekend, and it’s certainly relaxing. I don’t have to see a Slender Man for a couple of days (hopefully), and the only strange sounds at night are the familiar ones of the house settling.

And no tests or coursework to worry about either.

I love being able to just kick back, sleep in, and not worry about anything except what to do with my friends, who I haven’t seen in some time. I love this laidback lifestyle. Living in a suburb of a major city. Everything you need is close by, scenery of all kinds to take in, and all the people you can stand.

Pity I can’t stand most people.

But that’s neither here nor there. In fact, this entire post is absolutely pointless. This is what blogs are supposed to be about. Just the everyday happenings of the average Joe. I wish I could go back to the beginning and ignore all the video and text that lead me down this path. It’s such a hassle to just keep up a semblance of normal life when you have to look over your shoulder out of fear of being snatched up.

It may not come across very well in my writing, but this whole experience has left me rattled. The thing about writing is that you can always edit out emotion in post, even if it’s very personal. That’s one of those things I’ve never understood about the internet. Everyone can put up a calm, dignified front easily, whether they actually are or not. But very few do, it seems. So many let their emotions get the best of them, typing up angry responses to dissenting opinions or empty taunts on message boards. It’s so pointless.

But I’m certainly not guiltless in this regard. My last post concerning The Tutorial was seething with anger at M. Just because I don’t use exclamation points doesn’t mean I’m not a little… excited. I was a little out of line, I think. I should have controlled myself better. I shouldn’t simply disregard someone’s experiences out of hand. After all, tall tales and legends grew from exaggeration and trying to make sense out of memories tainted by fear and darkness. The same can be said about the Slender Man blogs. People are just trying to make sense of their experiences. Unfortunately, they may not have the time or knowledge to make a scientific judgment.

Really, I’m shocked that I still have the time. Not only because finals are but a few short weeks away. I’ve been in this long enough that I would have thought stranger things would have happened. I’ve yet to have been “moved,” it’s never appeared closer than thirty feet, and I haven’t started making any crazy drawings, or even recording myself.

But there is something I would like to discuss. It’s a symbol. One I had long forgotten, but found today in some of my old computer files as I was backing up files on an external hard drive. I don’t know where it came from. The properties indicate it was created before I ever owned a computer, and it bears an odd similarity to, among other things, the Operator Symbol. I’ll post an overview of it tomorrow.

Insufficient Funds

Due to some poor budgeting on my part, I will not be able to do anything regarding the ultraviolet or infrared cameras at the moment. Sometimes electronics you have simply break down, and they prevent you from getting the ones that you want.

This will set back any possible experiments for some time, I assume. Unless I get some surprise income that is, which is highly unlikely.

Laughable

I’ve been looking through The Tutorial lately, and frankly, this kid is a mixed bag when it comes to reliable information. The three rules are mostly solid, except “get up high.” This one is positively ludicrous.

Slender Men go inside houses. Slender Men can traverse stairs. Slender Men can see the difference in height from one floor to another through windows. Slender Men can see people through windows. Slender Men can see people on the Xth floor while on it themselves and still recognize them as human. All of this information can be seen directly in various logs or inferred from the same.

And yet this M kid concludes that Slender Men cannot get you, or at least won’t pursue, if you are high up. Not only that, they cannot comprehend that a mere human could be taller than them. Ridiculous.

And what makes this worse is that M says, repeatedly, that what one thinks of Slender Men becomes reality for them. Most people don’t believe this tale “I have the high ground” automatic safeguard, but he implies it is near ironclad except for human limitations. And maybe I misunderstood his writing, but didn’t a Slender Man get to M while he was sleeping on a rooftop?

But what bothers me most is the insistence of rules upon something one claims to be ever-changing in response to the beliefs of humans. To quote the internet, “head meet desk.”

Don’t get me wrong, M has his heart in the right place, but his thought processes are conflicting and sometimes outright insulting to anyone with a bit of common sense.

To be fair, however, my thinking on Slender Man biology is… unconventional to say the least. But the creature in question is far from conventional itself. I daresay it goes against Earth-based evolution. It dwells in the light but has no eyes. Or at least, has no eyes optimized for the wavelengths most likely to break through the ozone layer and atmosphere in general (the visible spectrum, due to the peak wavelength of the Sun). From this do I think Slender Men are aliens? The answer is a resounding maybe. There is simply not enough information.

But I try to make conclusions based on possibilities allowable by the physics of reality. M, on the other hand, buys into this foolishness that Slender Men are not only the product of the collective consciousness of a million internet dwellers, but also that they are beyond the laws of physics.

I say, for example, Slender Men use wire-like appendages to send electrical impulses into the brain and modify behavior and even a person’s personality. A strange, even ridiculous conclusion, I know. But this is not wholly outside the realm of possibility. Humans do something similar even today, though with less malicious intentions. We can electrically stimulate sections of the mind to cause a person to feel a certain way. Science fiction came to the logical extensions of this long before I did.

What’s more, M seems to say that some of the problems caused by the presence of a Slender Man are that they try to make it fit into our world as we see it. Obviously they aren’t trying very hard, or they, too, buy into this foolishness of extradimensional entities and mentally manifested monsters so much they can’t consider reality as a plausible realm of existence. Don’t be naïve. These creatures live in the universe. Not “our” universe. The. Singular. No other qualifiers necessary. There are no bridges between realities. And if there were, you have to adapt to the new dimension, not the other way around. We only exist as we do because the universe allows creatures like us to exist within its laws. The same goes for Slender Men. Strange as they are, they follow the universe’s rules. To say otherwise is simply to fuel the fear of fairytales.

I’m cutting myself off here. This rant has gone on long enough. I’m going to go cool off.

Slender Man Characteristics

I’ve been thinking about the physical characteristics, or rather the possible ones, of a Slender Man. This is beyond height, width, color, etc. I mean physical capacities. Here are my current thoughts on said possibilities:

Biology: Nothing worthwhile can be said, other than it is clearly alive and humanoid in appearance, but is also clearly not a typical organism, as there is no clear face (and therefore entrance to the digestive tract or any external indication of sensory organs beyond touch). However, repeated reports suggest that it can see (“Sees me”). There is the possibility that the “face” does conceal a more typical arrangement, or some other portion of its body does. It may simply see in a different part of the spectrum, allowing it to see through its own skin. Alternatively, lens for its eyes may simply appear the same color as the surrounding material in the visible spectrum (compare that the external portion of the human eye has visibly transparent material, which is not transparent at all wavelengths).

Cross-Species Interface: It is possible that the creature can directly connect to the nervous system of a human being. This is evidenced by the blackouts attributed to its appearances. The most likely cause would be a thin, almost wire-like appendage (possibly either an extension of or modified tentacle) that can be easily inserted into the skin, possibly through bone, even, that can connect to and interfere with nerves electrically. This insertion, obviously, is either wiped from memory or entirely painless. This presumably has the potential of rewriting information, and even causing massive behavior changes. What changes are intended are impossible to be certain of, if any are explicitly desired. For all we know, this kind of interaction could be something akin to sex or drug usage, a pleasure-based or even necessary action.

Electronics Interface: I theorize that a similar or same appendage is used to interfere with electronics, sending impulses into them to disable, or even manipulate them. If this is sophisticated enough (as it would need to be to intelligently modify humans through the nervous system) a Slender Man could even implant information into the system, such as adding footage to a recording, either as it is being recorded or after the fact, depending on the storage medium.

These conclusions, if correct, are disturbing. Obviously I’d prefer them to be wrong, but if they are indeed correct, this might actually give an advantage. Knowing what to expect gives the opportunity to counteract.

Wearing thick clothing and a helmet (the motorcycle sort) could stave off the appendage, but it’s impossible to be completely shielded from something that passes through bone without ludicrous and costly accoutrements. Shielding electronics is easier, in that metal plating is comparatively cheap for smaller items, such as cameras, though the lens is still potentially an issue.

In the end, the most intriguing idea for me is trying to get non-visible imaging of the creature. My gut instinct is that ultraviolet is the best bet, but it could be anything. However, the imaging requires the chosen wavelength to have an external source. I can’t exactly lug around a gamma ray-emitting device for obvious reasons. Radio, on literally the other end of the spectrum, is unlikely to give me the resolution I would need for any meaningful analysis.

An ultraviolet source is much easier to obtain, or as they are commonly called, a black light. Unfortunately, the range wavelength-wise is smaller than I would like, but I actually own some currently, even if they are not on hand at the moment. This includes a small handheld one I can have on my person at all times. The only issue is a camera that can pick it up. However, I have a friend whose father likes to tinker in this sort of thing. I’ll see if he can get something jury rigged while I look for things online within my price range.

If this fails, infrared is the alternative imaging choice. It is even simpler, as normal cameras can pick up certain infrared wavelengths. However, if I were to use a normal camera, I would have to use a filter of some sort, else the infrared would be lost amid the visible light.

So there is my current plan. Secure and if necessary modify electronics to look at a monster that likely wishes to kill and/or mutilate humans, probably including myself, just so others can know about it. Oh, and it may be able to control both humans and electronics directly.

Sounds like an enjoyable pastime, doesn’t it?

Scientific Method

I believe that the Slender Man following me is… observing me. While it itself is trying very hard not to be observed. You might think this obvious for a stalking creature, but I mean that I believe it is trying to glean knowledge beyond when to strike. My scans indicate it’s been following me for some time, and still is, but I have seen it only once. In most cases, it seems by now I would have seen it at least once more (though perhaps reading/viewing the logs so “late in the game” has simply skewed my expectations). And those sounds so early… It makes me think it may be trying something different.

It is trying to learn. What I can’t be sure of. I assume that it would want to learn what scares me, considering that its modus operandi is to terrify victims before they disappear, or die. I can’t explain precisely why I feel that it is trying to learn about me, but I suppose it just seems… cautious. I could simply be misinterpreting its actions, but my gut is telling me that it’s trying to learn. The sounds could have been for probing me. Could it have predicted the scans? How does it expect me to react? How should I react? Why did it choose to show itself to me? I still have too little concrete information to infer anything useful.

At any rate, I will be careful and observe it as best I can. It's likely still too soon to be making such a conclusion, anyways. I will keep my eyes open and my mind sharp. The mind is the only effective sword and shield that I know of at the moment. I intend to use it as much as possible.

Confirmed Sighting

I have finally confirmed a sighting of a Slender Man. It is absolutely stalking me now. When I first spotted it, I had just finished a class and was walking back to my dorm. I looked up and there it was. It was approximately nine to ten feet tall, no more than two feet wide at the shoulders, faceless. And not fifty feet from the exit. I fumbled in my pocket for my phone, but by the time I had it raised and ready to take a picture, the creature was gone.

I luckily had a good look at precisely where it had been standing. It was next to the trunk of a large tree (by which I made the above size estimates), near an exposed root. After recovering from the initial shock, I went to investigate the site. Here, I must admit that I am no tracker, despite my father having been an accomplished hunter. However, I could not find any disturbance where it had been standing.

There was no possibility of it being the wrong spot. I had snapped my head to exactly where it had been standing a moment before. It was gone, but I kept my eyes locked. I didn’t take my eyes off the patch of ground for an instant as I walked to it. There can be no mistake. It was exactly the right spot.

There was no imprint suggesting anything resembling feet, no bent grass, no scattered or crushed leaves. It was just like every other piece of ground around it. This is the first bit of evidence that I cannot draw any immediate logical conclusions from, besides the possibility of hallucination. However, given that I have not been quite stressed enough for that and I don’t take any drugs or medication that would have this effect, I can only conclude that this is not a reasonable conclusion.

I’ve hit another solid roadblock, and it’s much more secure than the last one. I can’t use known unknowns or coincidence to dispel it. It was there, it was gone, it left no obvious trace but a memory. I will begin carrying a (marginally) better camera that I will keep in sleep mode on my person at all times.

The Mystic in the Dark

I’ve finished reading through The Mystic. And unfortunately, it seems Strahm is not well. He is fractured mentally from his experiences. He sees visions of a dead man when he drinks enough, and argues with the phantom.

And a surprising development occurred. I didn’t expect to read about Damien, author of Dreams in Darkness, to say the least.

I hadn’t expected it as I personally don’t believe that there was any actual Slender Man activity in that particular log. I viewed it as simply the ramblings of a mentally unstable man after the death of a close friend who happened to have viewed Marble Hornets before the traumatic event, which became incorporated into the delusions.

Strahm, however, believes that the log may have more truth in it than that. Of course, he also now seems to believe in a government conspiracy involving observation of any Slender Man-related events and potentially covering them up.

I cannot say that such a plan is impossible or outside of federal power, but I find it a bit unlikely. Though it does match up with some of the police and other authorities’ behavior regarding abductions, attacks, etc.

At any rate, Strahm seems to believe the cult described by Damien in Dreams in Darkness does indeed exist, and seems to be pursuing leads regarding the organization.

I cannot say that such a “religion” is outside the realm of possibility, however. In fact, considering the length of time this species (Slender Man) has been around, it would not be at all surprising that a religion would be constructed around it. After all, it does seem to have powers akin to a god at times.

However, considering Strahm’s current mental condition, the same of which could be said for Damien, may he rest in peace, I will take this with a rather large grain of salt. I will, however, be keeping an eye on developments, as I have been with other logs (forgive me, but I will only give updates regarding any log if a notable piece of information regarding Slender Men arises; considering recent events in Everyman HYBRID, that may be soon).

I will update again if anything happens.

Brief Update

I apologize for not updating as regularly recently, but I have had an unusually heavy course load lately, and as such, time to even think about updating has been scarce.

However, there has been a development with the Slender Man. The video distortion has become near constant, as best as I can determine. To elaborate, I have been doing what I have come to call “scans.” This is, of course, simply me pulling out my phone, making a short recording as I walk from place to place across campus, shooting my surroundings, and reviewing it to find any defects or consistencies. I have yet to see an actual Slender Man, with my own eyes or through the video recordings (though the low resolution of the video does limit how much detail I could see in the recordings to begin with).

Thus far, the only consistency is that I am near trees when the distortion occurs. This, of course, is meaningless as we have already established that Slender Men prefer wooded areas, and the college campus has small (at most a quarter acre, minimum tens of feet square) tree filled areas within sight of almost any building.

I’m currently trying to determine if there are any more consistencies, such as “favorite” areas for the distortion, or deterioration vs. location correlations. I must admit that I am not hopeful in this endeavor.

At least the noises haven’t been recurring lately, which allows me to sleep. Though who can tell if this is actually a fortunate turn of events or not?

Seeking Truth

Unfortunately, nothing new has occurred. I would have posted this before, but I simply didn’t have the time for a lengthy post. At any rate, I merely wish to say that I finished reading through Ezekiel Strahm’s blog. Or at least, through the parts wherein he seems to still have all his senses. After the incident in the warehouse that apparently resulted in Conaghan’s death, he has seemed less stable.

And I am not sure if anyone ever cracked his account, FBI or otherwise. In fact, I am almost certain the FBI would not do this. They would not use, even hijack, a suspect’s account to look for him. That would immediately tell him they were searching for him. But what’s most jarring is who I think did make that post.

I think Strahm did it.

There’s not much evidence to support it, I admit, except that I noticed a spelling error. The word “bee” was where “been” should have been written. This is definitely another indication that the FBI would not have been involved as that is a juvenile mistake for someone calmly typing properly, as the FBI are supposed to be able to do by nature of their office.

But the reason that the error sticks out in my mind is that Strahm made similar errors throughout his blog. There was a missed letter here, a wrong one there, but never more than one or two per post that I noticed. And these were often very long posts indeed. It fits with Strahm trying to make it seem like someone’s hacked his account and used it for their own purposes, specifically to help catch him.

Maybe he wants to be caught, but I don’t know. More likely I think his mind has fractured, so to speak. I believe his personality was altered by the encounter, or that it has split. Neither is out of the range of possibility when dealing with a Slender Man, as should be apparent by now.

Either way, Strahm still has computer access. He posted about the EverymanHYBRID “rescue” of “Damsel” shortly after the occurrence, and has since created a second blog entitled “The Mystic.” I have not started reading it yet, but it is much shorter than Seeking Truth in addition to being updated. I should be caught up shortly. Perhaps this will give me a clearer picture of Strahm’s current mental state.

Bringing this to a close, I know I’m drawing sweeping conclusions from little evidence here, and honestly I do not like it. But there it is: my gut feeling is superseding my mind on this one. A rather unsettling thought, for me.

Definitely Near

A Slender Man is most certainly nearby. I was taking a recording with my camera phone (though the reason was unrelated to the creature and thus unrelated to this log). After reviewing the recording, I noticed tearing in the video. There was no reason for this to occur at that specific time other than the creature’s involvement, and subsequent attempts at recording in the same area yielded no such defects. The possibility of normal video corruption exists, but is unlikely as it has never occurred before. I will post an update if anything relevant occurs.

Collected Thoughts

After the sounds I have been hearing recently, I am still rattled. But I feel I must continue onward. Here I will collect my current thoughts as succinctly as possible.

My current belief is that Slender Men have an appreciable population. Otherwise the widespread terror they spread would not be possible. The alternatives are that they do not mate often, have a long life span, and/or reproduce asexually. Though the last is naturally absurd for a species of such physical size. These assumptions, however, are all based on the guess of humanlike travel speed, specifically on foot, which is likely incorrect.

The abilities of the species are obviously the biggest conundrum. They seem to have control over space-time to some degree. The keyword here is “seem”. It is more likely, though still rather unbelievable, that they have the ability to tap into the human mind and rearrange, put in a suspended state, and/or control thought itself. This may even extend to technology. I once called a tech savvy Slender Man ridiculous, but that may have been in error. Rudimentary skill, possibly taken from the minds of victims, could be used to stop and restart a camera, or a human may simply be commanded to do this. (For a scene in which I believe both mental and electronic control are at work, see everymanHYBRID, “Ashen Waste”, 6:00-30)

However, the biggest issue with mind control is the mechanism. Long-distance, “wireless” communication is flat out ridiculous. Emitted electromagnetic radiation could account for video equipment disruptions, or perhaps a strong electric field (a magnetic field would be obvious for hopefully equally obvious reasons, and said reasons’ absence rules it out). The human mind, however, has no method with which to accept EM radiation of any wavelength, except by proxy (the eyes, which simply do not work as “input devices” so much as passive receivers). It is more likely that a direct method is used. A fine wire covered in anesthetic could be slipped into the skin and towards the brain to affect control, unpleasant though the thought is. These, if in existence, are likely housed in the tentacles or arms. I should mention the constraint of “fine wire” was used as otherwise there would be a visible entry wound, and the appendage itself would be clearly visible. The anesthetic is to prevent the victim from noticing the attack, of course. As for potential evidence, I direct you to Marble Hornet, “Entry #22,” 6:19-21 where something is seen apparently going towards and into a person’s (Alex’s) head.

This isn’t quite everything I have compiled, but I feel it covers the important ideas that I have been able to come up with for now. If anyone can find any flaws in my reasoning here or elsewhere (and I’m sure there is at least one flaw), please alert me in the comments and I will consider the implications and rework my theories.

Strange Sounds

Last night, there were strange noises in my dorm room. It’s a somewhat old building and there are a lot of people, so normally I would have written it off as something like that. But being on the tenth floor on a Friday night, only one of those could have held (there’s rarely anyone but me here on the weekends).

None of the sounds made sense to me. I don’t even mean that they were strange or I couldn’t see the cause. They simply made no sense. Nothing in architecture, cooling, or even biology makes sounds like those. I have never heard anything like that even synthesized by man. I still can’t believe that those sounds even existed. I can’t believe I was even able to hear them.

I’m afraid. And I’m certain that I have been targeted. I had hoped it would take longer, or that the sounds wouldn’t be the first thing I had to deal with. I must admit that they unnerve me greatly and no description I have ever read prepared me for them. But I will not be cowed. My hopes and plans are dashed, for now. This just means I have to rethink the situation a bit.

Research

I just want to say that, when I began this blog, I thought I was alone, that I was the only one trying to figure out just what a Slender Man is, what it actually can do.

As I have  searched through the internet, I found that there are a great many blogs that seem to be doing the same thing as me. They want to figure out this very strange and dangerous creature. However, I have noticed two distinct things that set me apart, at least from those blogs I have found thus far (though again, these are limited by the logs I have found).

The first is that I began this work before being actually affected by a Slender Man. The reason why is obvious: most don’t truly believe in Slender Man until after first contact. I decided to begin before any contact was made because if it exists, the blog is useful to others. If it doesn’t, this is a harmless little project to keep myself occupied.

Secondly, I have yet to find any blog firmly rooted in reality. Instead, they all believe that the creature is supernatural, that it is beyond the laws of our reality. I disagree vehemently. In fact, I discourage this sort of thought, even if it does have some supernatural origin. If you believe something about it, it is true. That is the general consensus among these people. If that is the case, believe it is of our world. Then it is limited by reality. Then it becomes fallible, it can be outrun, it can bleed, it can burn.

In short, then it can die.

Science has raised man to a plateau that is unreachable by other animals. It has given us untold strength which can only increase so long as the resources necessary for it exist. We have used it to overcome every obstacle that this universe has thrown at us, save death itself. We can use it to destroy this pathetic, faceless monstrosity as we did with the beasts that threatened to take us in the night so many millennia ago.

It has only as much control as we give it.

Knowledge

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the Slender Man is that it seems it only appears after knowledge of it is obtained, at least with cases where those who were not stalked as children are involved. Modern incidents have apparently skyrocketed with the recording, in video or writing, of interactions and subsequent posting on the internet. One would be hard pressed to find much mention prior to the information age. Otherwise, it was simply relegated to tall tales or stories to scare children, nothing anyone ever believed in.

However, the pattern is undeniable. A person finds out about it from someone else, or on the internet. Then they are stalked. This has happened as described in the logs Just Another Fool, Everyman HYBRID, Marble Hornets, Tribe Twelve, and countless others. One rarely sees the creature without having heard of it first.

This is something I cannot properly quantify, except as coincidence or that a Slender Man follows a target, finishes or abandons it, and then finds someone with connections to that person. Simple enough, one might think. Or it would have been some decades ago. The internet has complicated this. Some are stalked with no connection to other targets but photons from a computer screen.  This is most baffling. Again, simple coincidence could explain it neatly. Or even a larger-than-expected Slender Man population. But I simply do not think that is the most precise or reasonable explanation. I could joke that the species is tech savvy, but that is patently ludicrous.

I have to admit I am beginning to hit a road block. But I intend to overcome it.           

In fact, there is a very simple possible explanation (with more than enough precedent, I might add) that I will mention here as closing: sometimes people do not know they have had connections with a Slender Man.

Everyman HYBRID

This is perhaps the most in-depth, and sprawling, log of Slender Man activity. It covers two, by association, YouTube channels, a blog by a related party (Can You See The Words, now abandoned) and a Twitter account, at minimum. I haven’t delved much deeper, so there may be more. It covers the experiences, still ongoing, of a group of would-be personal trainers. They begin their encounters with a Slender Man by apparently angering it with parody, having had a friend dress up like it and stand in the background.

Shortly afterward, they encounter an actual Slender Man and experience the usual results. Video distortion, strange messages and apparent lapses in temporal/spatial continuity are all seen. This appears to go the usual way of paranoia, except for the member of the main trio named Vincent, who most vehemently insists it’s just someone messing with them, at least for a while.

Overall, nothing out of the ordinary for the creature occurs, though the lack of a definitive Agent is noted, but my own interpretation of the situation is that Evan could be heading in that direction. The only other notable difference is that actual violence is attempted against a Slender Man, something I cannot recall having seen or read in another log, though Strahm seems the type to try it, eventually. It does not, however, end well, whether one-on-one with a baseball bat, or trying to run over the creature. It is unfazed and the instigators are noticeably worse off for the attempt.

One thing does grab my attention, however. A second creature, commonly referred to as “the Rake,” appears in the log. It openly attacks, and with apparent intent to kill. It attacked Alex, the brother of the third of the trio, Jeff. It is pale, runs on all fours, gangly, and apparently has vicious claws at its disposal.

This second creature has never appeared before in tandem with a Slender Man, bares little similarity besides a pale complexion, and can likely be considered incidental rather than a connected entity. However, the apparent creation of a “disappearing crawlspace” which leads to more distant locations than is reasonable is strange to say the least. Therefore, a connection cannot be entirely ruled out.

Eventually, the men of Everyman HYBRID meet (i.e. break out of an instituition) and join with the author (commonly known as Damsel) of Can You See the Words. She has been stalked by the creature in years prior and managed to survive. They were originally connected through a single person, Damsel’s friend and Jeff’s girlfriend Jessa, whose disappearance inadvertently facilitated the team up.

Conclusion

Unfortunately, no new information of merit with respect specifically to Slender Men is presented. I seem to have come to an impasse at the moment in what I can derive from existing logs, or at least those I have to date reviewed in full. Next, I will be posting my thoughts on the creature at the current time.

No Tutorial

I’m sorry, but I will not be doing an analysis of The Tutorial, as a much more intriguing resource has come to my attention. It is a log written by someone hunting Slender Man, or at least a person that uses similar motifs. In this day and age, people will imitate anything, I suppose. The blog is called Seeking Truth, written by a man named Ezekiel "Zeke" Strahm. He is a detective on the case of someone with… Slender Man like tendencies, to put it rather coarsely. Or, he was as of the point I have reached in his log.

I have only just begun to review and think through this blog, and it will take time due to courses and the fact that his entries are often even longer than mine. If it turns out Strahm is after the creature, this will likely end badly. If not, we may learn the limits to which humans can replicate the creature's abilities. Either way, we gain something. Though some of you reading this may already know the outcome, as this log is rather lengthy.

That is all for now. I will cover Everyman HYBRID in the next post.

Possible Sighting

I just got back to my dorm room from my part time job (I believe I’ve neglected to mention this, but I’m a college student), and I saw something that made me look twice. A tall man in a black suit. However, there are plenty of business students and professors who wear the same sort of thing every day, here. I won’t jump immediately to the conclusion that it was a Slender Man, especially since he was waiting at the bus stop. The lighting and distance were also such that any facial features or even the existence of hair couldn’t be confirmed or ruled out. I will, however, admit that I took a long detour after spotting him. Prudence is the best course of action when dealing with the unknown.

If such sightings become the norm, I’ll have to make the assumption that I’ve been targeted. Until then, I’ll just have to assume I’m jumping at shadows.

Just Another Fool

I’m going to try to make this the shortest entry yet. I’m jumping straight in.

Summary

This blog was written by a man named Logan, originally just as a typical blog, but after receiving a notebook from a deceased friend and military man, Matt, who had encountered a Slender Man. It was Matt’s belief that a Slender Man had wiped out his entire squad (I’m sorry if this is incorrect, but I’m not familiar with military terminology). The official story was that two children had set off a bomb which slung the three men who died into a tree. By Matt’s story, Slender Man targeted the children, the soldiers attacked it, and three were killed and ended up in said tree. Matt was institutionalized and died some time later.

The notebook found its way back to Logan, who had originally given it as a gift. It was filled with sketchy, heavily drawn pictures, sometimes with cryptic messages that spanned multiple pages using cuts made from pressing too hard while writing. This was the trigger that led to Logan’s own interactions with a Slender Man. He too was driven to begin sketching in the same notebook in a similar manner, even modifying the existing sketches.

Eventually Logan was apparently driven completely insane and abandoned the blog, though he apparently is still at large, though I haven’t had the chance to properly look into it yet.

Observations

This brings up the subject of drawings. Slender Man victims often are compelled to draw the figure of the creature and cryptic messages, often with references to seeing or being seen. This could be viewed as the artist slipping down the slope of insanity, or as a coping mechanism. It isn’t quite clear. However, it is fairly common among victims, though not absolutely so.

Other than the military action taken, there isn’t any particular item I can recall that was of significance.

Conclusion

Simply put, drawings of the creature are something victims may be driven to create. Why or how is not yet clear. That’s really all I could draw from this that hasn’t already come up in previous logs.

I plan to look into The Tutorial next. However, I may not as there are some other things I would like to recap beforehand. I will decide shortly whether or not it’s really important enough to ramble on about.

Ongoing

It should be noted that I will not be updating as often as the past few entries. It just so happened that I started this blog during a particularly open weekend, giving me excessive time to complete the posts. Today, I’ll be covering Tribe Twelve. Again, “spoilers” to follow.

Tribe Twelve:

Here we may have gotten a clue as to how Slender Man chooses its victims. They seem to need to have seen it before, whether they realize it or not. Significant amounts of time may have passed, but they are still marked.

I draw this conclusion from the fact that Noah, the uploader of the Tribe Twelve log, first encountered the creature (unbeknownst to him) two years prior to his own… experiences may be the best word to describe it. His cousin Milo had apparently been dealing with it for some time and become extremely paranoid. This became apparent from simply viewing the videos on the YouTube account and logical conclusions from the given and observed information (forgive me if this is too vague; I’m trying to shorten these entries to digestible chunks rather than having lengths akin to a scientific journal’s article).

During what would be Milo’s last visit with Noah, a Slender Man appeared to have followed him, manifesting in and around Noah’s home. This was all captured on camera, but Noah did not realize it as he did not watch the recording until after Milo’s death two years later. It can be inferred that the Slender Man was involved in Milo’s death, but it cannot be proven as there is no evidence given to fully support that conclusion.

It was not until after he viewed the footage that Noah began being affected, perhaps because the creature was “done” with Milo. Noah began hearing noises in his house at night and generally becoming unnerved by strange scenarios. He even received a package containing what could be a warning, a threat, or simply clues to interpret. Shortly thereafter, however, the encounters increased in severity. A phone, barley functional, which came in the previously mentioned package, began receiving strange, almost phantasmal calls, not long after which Noah destroyed the phone. Some data on the phone, audio and visual, were recovered before this, but have not been explicitly analyzed, though they were presented to the YouTube channel’s viewers.

However, not long after the phone was destroyed, Noah’s home was most certainly invaded by a Slender Man. This was caught on video, and gave us a clear view of something never so captured: the tentacles. These tentacles seem to be defense, offense, and/or transportation appendages. They are black in color, smooth, tubular except for the tapered ends, and shockingly prehensile (comparable to an octopuses’). The exact number is unknown, and their connection to the main body could not be seen (indeed the main body was not seen at all in the video in question, which makes this more than a little speculative, to be honest). Any strength or full length they might have could not be ascertained as the video cuts off shortly after the tentacles appear.

A thing to note is the obvious: where did the phone, package, etc. come from? The Slender Man likely hasn’t studied up on the intricacies of electronics and registering cellular phones, especially with the guerilla tactics companies sometimes use to get new contracts. It is later revealed that there is indeed someone working for the Slender Man, becoming known as the Observer. Subsequent entries show the agent has adeptness in video editing and something of an artistic flare. They are much more proficient than totheArk appears to be, for comparison.

But perhaps the most rattling incident was Noah’s stay at a friend’s house. Noah began vanishing in the night, twice in all. This location was very far from Noah’s own home, yet Slender Man activity persisted, and even became worse. After a day at his acquaintance’s residence, they moved to said friend’s father’s home. That night, Noah was literally and visibly dragged out of bed, and was later found standing in the dark, laughing, covered in blood, and holding a knife. He proceeded to become violent towards his friend (who had found him in this state while holding the camera he had been using to record himself sleeping), apparently assaulting her in some manner. Sometime after regaining his senses, Noah quickly leaves the house, amid loud thumping noise which had intermittently been occurring throughout the visit. As he climbs into his car, the chassis is audibly attacked by something, most likely a Slender Man. This aggression is rather notable, as I cannot immediately recall another log showcasing a Slender Man of such direct tendencies.

Conclusion

A quick analysis would seem to reveal that a Slender Man will pursue a specific target until death. Shortly after, a connected person may be targeted, but this may be a coincidence. I will also claim that a second, controlled human Agent is used to contact the target, most likely to cause stress and reduce their mental capability. The exact desired end is, of course, not yet determined. However, the more violent nature of this stalking is something to be considered. This may be an indication of individuality among the species.

I feel this is still much longer than necessary, but I must admit it is shorter than it could have been. Any ways, next time I will be looking into Just Another Fool.

Noted

Please note that hereafter references to “the” Slender Man can be taken as a reference to what I believe is a species, rather than an individual.

In the Beginning…

After the wall of text of the Marble Hornets analysis, which hopefully will be the longest, considering it is perhaps the most informative that I have currently come across, with a few possible exceptions, I will now regress to and interpret the “origins” of Slender Man.

It seems to have first appeared, according to some, in Germany, at the earliest in feudal times, in a woodcut circa 1540 entitled “Der Ritter” (“The Knight”). In it, a skeletal knight in (apparent) chain mail with what seems to be a spear or lance of bone attached to itself killing a knight in plate armor (I haven’t done in depth research, but the plate armor seems to be possible for the period). This creature also has multiple legs and is roughly faceless. I say roughly as it still has some outlines/cavities of typical features (eyes, mouth, etc.) but does not have the features themselves. This may have simply been an artistic choice, or how it actually appeared.

If this thing is indeed a Slender Man, as so many have suggested, why is it so different? The multiple limbs add up to the tentacled depictions of the modern version match, but why the stark differences?

Simply put, for infiltration. Even assuming it can hide in plain sight, when it is seen, outside of a Renaissance Faire, the armor would immediately appear out of place. Perhaps more ghastly, but panic does not seem to be the prime objective of the creature. It could clearly accomplish that as it is, anyways. But if it wanted to blend in, it must adapt, or evolve as a species, or shape shift. At some point (probably the 20^th century by the style), Slender Man became a suited man and has remained so to this day.

What is interesting are the forms it has taken: the knight and the business man. They both have two significant but contrasting characteristics. They are successful, powerful, a higher class, at least in theory. They are something to be looked up to, not feared, unless you cross them. But they are feared nonetheless. Business men are sometimes thought of as crooks in suits, and the suit itself can conjure up the image of the corrupt official or attorney. In a similar fashion, knights were not always noble. They committed atrocities themselves in their day. Of course as with any time and profession, it was a mixed bag. But people seem to favor the negative view in their hearts.

However, this is not the only connection to Germany. There is a tale regarding a creature similar to Slender Man known as Der Großmann, or the “Tall Man” living in the Black Forest. He was thought to be, obviously, a tall man in form, a fairy of the forest, and took children, something common to the Slender Man stories. The tree association is also usually shared by Slender Man. However, further information is scarce and this post is long enough as it is, so I’ll wrap up quickly.

Conclusion

Slender Man may have originated in Germany, or at least was best recorded there. This may be the species’ homeland, so to speak, but it is impossible to know for certain. It has apparently spread and changed, now residing (apparently, by reports) primarily in the United States and most likely remains in Europe in some form. It has the ability, either in the individual or species, to adapt to better infiltrate human society in such a way that seems targeted to generating conflicting emotions or unease. To what exact end, I do not know.

That’s all for today. This is still too long, so I’ll continue to try to cut down on the length. Next time, I’ll be focusing on the Tribe Twelve video log.

The Hornets' Nest

As stated before, I will be going over the log known as Marble Hornets to establish a base from which to derive information. I suppose this should go without saying, but for those who still treat this as a game, spoilers follow.

Marble Hornets:

The entire ordeal started years ago when a group of college students started make a film called “Marble Hornets,” from which the events’ collective name come. They encountered the creature and were all apparently affected one way or another, such as loss of memory, paranoia, and possibly abduction as at least one crew member, Sarah, apparently hasn’t been seen by Jay, the video uploader, for some time and is rarely even mentioned. This log also set the precedent for Slender Man causing aberrations in film when it is nearby.

Alex Kralie, the mastermind of the student film, was apparently plagued by the creature and began videotaping himself. Precisely why or when it began is never explained, but it eventually becomes evident that it was a good decision, at least if certain theories are to be believed. Slender Man is captured on film in many of Alex’s tapes, both directly and indirectly.

Jay himself is eventually given the tapes and Alex disappears. After reviewing the tapes, several things become apparent. Jay’s involvement in Marble Hornets had been erased from his mind, to an extent, though this was not discovered for some time. The Slender Man’s presence unnerved Jay, and he started looking into things, eventually trying to track down Alex himself. This leads to encounters with a masked individual commonly referred to as totheArk (sic), who had previously been “commenting” on the Marble Hornets videos.

It is usually theorized that this person is someone named Tim, who previously had worked on Marble Hornets as a cast member and showed early signs of behavioral irregularity (coldness in comfortable temperatures, a cough commonly associated with the creature, and consumption of unknown pills). The encounters with totheArk are usually strange if not outright dangerous, with video disturbances similar to Slender Man and unexplained disappearances.

To be blunt, things went downhill from there. Jay developed a cough similar to Tim’s, and several times tried to give up the quest. Various incidents prevented him from doing so, the last of which resulted in months of inactivity on all of his internet accounts. Things only became stranger when he returned. But I will not cover that portion of the log at this time, if ever.

Analysis:

It should be noted that this log introduced the Operator symbol, which is depicted as a circle crossed out with two lines in an "X" formation, sometimes represented in text as (X). However, beyond identifing a connection with the creature, no real use or meaning of merit can be obtained from the log regarding the symbol.

totheArk is the most interesting thing aside from the creature itself. He has connections with the creature, that much is clear. But to what extent is not. Some theorize he is under direct control of Slender Man, or that his actions are merely guided. Alternatively it is thought he may be fighting against the thing, in his own insane way. I fall into the former category of beliefs.

He actively tried to harm Jay, apparently kidnapped him, and hijacked his account. He also insists that Jay lead him “to the Ark”. What the “Ark” is has not been made clear. The most compelling argument I have found is that Ark is actually an acronym for Alex R. Kralie (though I have yet to find an “official” source confirming Alex’s middle initial). totheArk certainly has an interest in Alex, with some goal in mind relating to him. totheArk seems to want to use Jay to find Alex, if my interpretations are correct, as well as possibly using for some other purpose as well.

It has also been suggested that totheArk is not unique, that there are others like him, and Entry 26 seems to indicate as much, with four masks in total, only one of which is definitely totheArk’s. However, the video corruption is such that is impossible to tell if these are just film problems in all cases.

If Tim is totheArk, then he provides us with clues. Those who become like him may experience coldness, a cough, and take some sort of pills. This could provide a warning sign for those being stalked.

As for Slender Man itself, several things become apparent. Firstly the video distortion. It manifests in any number of ways, the most mundane of which is simple tearing. But the more severe it is, the stranger it gets. Clips and images are inserted, audio is lost, and entire sections simply vanish. In addition, it has become evident that it can “hide itself in plain sight.” That is, under certain unknown conditions, it is possible to look directly at it and not see it.

However, it has been often suggested that Slender Man has a sort of weakness to observation. And that being seen, even by a nonliving video camera, inhibits it. It is often seen standing stock still or moving slowly on video. But when it moves off screen, it seems to teleport. Some attribute this to Slender Man being a macroscopic manifestation of quantum physics (that which is observed is changed, specifically), or that it is a being from another dimension.

This is pseudoscientific trash.

The observation phenomenon of quantum physics is not just some quirk of reality. I simply cannot explain everything wrong with any assertion to the contrary. However, I suggest you read up on subjects such as the uncertainty principle, deBroglie wavelengths, and other basic physics subjects.

As for the dimension-jumping version, it is possibly even more ludicrous. If you come from one universe to another, its physical laws do not change to suit you. Here is a programming analogue: if you try to use a Java compiler for Fortran code, the result isn’t functional. It’s just a meaningless mess. More specifically, if you try to apply the physics of our universe to something from another, you would get a result consistent with the physical laws of the universe in which that “something” currently exists within. Gravity, electromagnetism, the weak and strong nuclear forces, they all still apply. If the particles do not exist in our universe naturally, but have the appropriate properties (mass, charge, spin, etc.), they will act as expected according to our laws. There is no diplomatic immunity. If the particles cannot exist in our universe then they will cease to exist. Or rather, they will not have existed here at all.

But there is a much more reasonable explanation for the apparent incongruities in appearance and behavior. As frightening as this may sound at first, the more rational line of thinking is that there are more than one Slender Man. However, this is more of a boon than it seems. If there is more than one, there is likely a method of procreation.  And if there is procreation, there must be a reason to procreate. The most likely is death, unless it is as (crude as it is to say this) pleasurable as the human equivalent. The third is numbers insure a goal. But by far, avoidance of species death is exceedingly more reasonable, again considering established reality as a basis.

Conclusion:

I will make this quick; totheArk is dangerous and possibly “contagious” as an agent of Slender Man, while Slender Man itself may be less so than initially believed and part of a larger species.

That is it for my Marble Hornets analysis. I am sorry that it ended up much longer than I initially expected. Next time I will be writing about some of Slender Man’s possible origins and modern resurgence into public knowledge.

If you find any errors in either the facts of the log or the conclusions drawn, please leave a comment specifying the error and correction below. Also, alternative theories are encouraged.

This is about Slender Man.

I’m not going to waste my or your time beating around the bush or ignoring reality. This thing is real, and should be treated with caution. By most people. I will not use caution for reasons that I will explain shortly. I don’t intend to be cryptic or hold back any information or analysis on this creature.

Most of you likely know Slender Man as the subject and primary antagonist of numerous, sometimes interlinked, alternate reality games. But it is very real.

 It appears as a tall, thin man in a business suit, almost normal except for the lack of a face. Children are often asserted to be its main targets, but older people are not out of its range, for one reason or another. Occasionally it is attributed powers such as pyrokinesis, or at the least some means of starting fires. It also can apparently teleport, though rarely if ever when directly observed. Usually it is described as having tentacles, usually protruding from its sides or back, sometimes used for motion or combat, but they are not always immediately visible. Its primary motive is absolutely unknown and can only be guessed at from its (sometimes presumed) actions. Numerous deaths have been attributed to it, but few by anyone of certain sanity.

In short, it’s dangerous and no one should try to find or interact with it in any way, as it has no known weaknesses or in even a way to escape its clutches. If Slender Man wants you dead, you will die. But, for whatever reason, it lets many live. And that is arguably more frightening.

So I’m going to study this thing. I will take a look at some of the numerous accounts online, in blog and video form, and analyze what I can about the creature. This is potentially dangerous and I acknowledge that. There is nothing in my history that suggests that I may have previously encountered Slender Man, and for those my age not interacting with children, it seems that may act as some buffer to prevent me from being stalked, since it has been suggested that it terrifies those that escape it as kids.

You may wonder why I choose to put myself in such danger. Is this some humanitarian effort for the greater good, to aid those already embroiled in struggle with this silent gentleman? In a word, yes. This is an attempt to gather information for the greater good. I do this for the collective knowledge of the world, “for science” as the saying goes. If I come across something of merit, something important that may help those being chased now or may be in the future, I will not hesitate to make it public.

I will give fair warning, however. My writing style is a bit... dry. If you think this was a bit overstated, it will only get worse from here.

I will start by analyzing Marble Hornets, which seems to be the sort of go-to log, with a wealth of information and interpretations from its followers. I will see you then.