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Take a moment to imagine this particular scenario: You and a few friends are walking through a series of trails just to do a bit of light exploring. You take a camera with you to record the escapade. While you’re filming the trail, you scan the woods to take in the environment, cough a little bit, and keep on going for the rest of the day.
You head back home and examine your video that evening: for some odd reason, there is a bit of audio distortion and video tearing right around the point that you start coughing. As the camera steadies itself, you see a tall black tree…or at least, what you thought was a tree. When you rewind and freeze the video, you see a tall man in a dark suit…and no face.
And he’s looking directly at you.
You are noticeably freaked out by this. After about an hour or so, you calm yourself down. Realizing that it’s a bit late, you get ready to turn in for the night. After your nightly routine, you move over to your windows to close the blinds.
Only to see the exact same man that you saw before peeking into your room.
Ladies and gentleman, this is perhaps one of many scenarios that could potentially happen within the Slender Man Mythos.
But who…or…what…is the Slender Man?
It is difficult to get a full idea of who or what Slender Man is, as there are numerous stories involving him, be them web or video blogs. It does help to get an idea of the origin of Slender Man. He came to be from a series of creepy pasta posts from quite some time ago on the SomethingAwful forums. In most of those pictures, he is seen in the background: a tall man in a dark suit, with no face, and tentacles. One of the most prominent photos is of a group of kids sliding down a slide in the playground. They all seem quite happy, but none of them seem to notice tall figure in the background. From the picture’s description, the children were never found again. This highlights one of the overarching themes of Slendy himself:
He loves children…FOR DINNER! Ok, maybe not for dinner...or I could be wrong with that too. Slender Man’s main targets involve children, seemingly stalking them and causing them to vanish into thin air. There are many theories as to why he does this, but there is one piece of speculation as seen from the Marble Hornets universe. In one of the entries (Entry 38, to be exact), there is a brief telling about a sacred place in which trees would grow at a rapid rate. This made it perfect (for some odd reason) for tying up criminals, child molesters, etc. for their crimes; the trees would stretch them out. Overtime, they would die of dehydration.
At one point, a kid had turned up in that sacred area, where trials against criminals were done. The kid was dismembered and strung up on the trees. The trials were ceased after that.
It could be theorized (bear in mind, this is speculation on my end) that Slender Man targets kids for either one of two reasons: A) He is the culmination of the vengeful spirits of criminals and child molesters, and thus seeks out children as his prey, or B) he is grown, well dressed, spirit of the boy that was dismembered, which is why he seeks to…play with some of the kids. It could also explain why he has almost a child-like curiosity of some of the characters in various ARGs, such as the characters from Marble Hornets: he may have some sort of connection with them from their childhoods.
The scenario that I presented shows another theme of Slender Man: Sickness.
Anytime the Slender Man is near, a person can get a sort of creeping sickness, usually a bad cough. This kind of sickness sneaks up on an unsuspecting person the more they A) decide to delve deeper or B) are in almost close proximity to the Slender Man. The worse it gets, the higher the chances of Slender Man himself showing up.
If the cough becomes chronic, chances are it’s a good indicator that someone has encountered the Slender Man on more than one occasion. There are many theories as to why this coughing does happen, but there is one that I have heard that I can’t recall where I’ve actually seen it. The coughing is to try and see if one can clear their throat, as it feels that there might be some sort of blockage. It’s not necessarily a blockage; it’s Slender Man’s ways of trying to pull you backwards through time, or at least to another plane in reality.
Which brings me to my next point: Slender Man can warp places…including one’s mind.
It’s been shown in certain works that a place that has been touched by the Slender Man is a place that is forever changed. An abandoned hospital can be more sinister than it is already theorized to be. An old elementary school could have desks, tables, and other things out of place. A house can quite literally transport a person from one place to another. If the Slender Man is around a park? Well, then you best believe that that park will also be changing too…
His effect on a setting could also explain why filming him is also increasingly difficult. This could be a reason as to why—whenever he is close—the video starts to tear a little, or there is audio distortion or no sound at all. Slender Man’s presence in this world is so alien to us that not even modern technology can fully capture his presence. Neither can our minds. Slender Man has been known to drive people insane, or at the very least, instill into a person an intense amount of dread and fear. Once someone gains his interest, Slender Man will follow. He will stalk. He will observe. And in this time, a person whom is in close contact with the Slender Man will become paranoid, irritable, or worse: hypnotized.
Yes. He is known to take control of people’s minds.
It is also stated that the more you think about the Slender Man, the higher the chances that he will arrive.
Also, don’t even think about trying to confront the Slender Man, as this will result in a fair amount of memory loss…on your end. This may seem harmless at first, but think about it for a second: In the instant that you tried to encounter the Slender Man, you have forfeited a large chunk of your memory. Unless you had a means of documenting the past few days…months…years, there is almost no way of getting those memories back. They don’t belong to you anymore…they belong to him.
There is one final thing about the Slender Man that the scenario that I presented showed:
He can be anywhere.
When most people think of the Slender Man, most would probably think of him lurking in the dark and observing you. This isn’t necessarily the case all the time. The Slender Man has been show to not just be in the woods, or in a park, or what have you. He is also known to be either around your house, or worse: inside the house.
Because of his thinness, his black suit, and blank face, one would think that he wouldn’t be hard to spot. In one particular episode of Marble Hornets, though, he is literally right outside the window, and NO ONE NOTICES!!!! Could it be that with his close proximity to people, he makes it so that they either A) Don’t readily notice him or B) make them completely forget he showed up? If the former, then he apparently makes himself known to others when he feels that he wants to be noticed. If the latter, then whatever activity that a group of people do becomes almost immediately lost to him, as he would have taken the memory of it away from them.
Slender Man is one of those entities that no one fully understands. I do believe that he—like other entities that could be found in a classic Lovecraftian horror—is one that humans shouldn’t be able to fully comprehend. Those that try will be left with scraps of mad scribbling of a tall man, in a dark suit, and no face. It would be best not to think about him.
Just take a look at this picture and don’t think about him.
Sorry.
not
so
rry.
-Chocothunda (10/30/2012)
images by funnydictionary.com, tvtropes.org, theslenderman.wikia.com, marblehornets.wikidot.com, my own phone
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