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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.