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TombsGrave
Feb 15, 2008

Think I might hammer out a short story about Slender Man tonight, as words are my area of relative expertise. Should I base it on one of the pictures, or no?

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TombsGrave
Feb 15, 2008

I know of an old Romanian fairy tale, highly unpopular even in its earliest iterations. It might be based on a particular event, or perhaps it is an extrapolation from existing Slender Man stories. The translation I'm most familiar with goes a bit like this:

* * *

Once upon a time there were twin girls, Stela and Sorina. They were brave little girls, and had no fear of the dark, nor of spiders and other crawling things. Where other young ladies and even young boys would cower, Stela and Sorina would walk with their heads held high. They were good girls, obedient to their mother and father and to the word of God. They were the best children a mother could ask for, and this was their undoing.

One day, Stela and Sorina were out with their mother gathering berries from the forest. Their mother bid them stay close to her, and they listened, as they were good children. The day was bright and clear, and even as they walked closer to the center of the forest the light barely dimmed. It was nearly bright as noon when they found the tall man.

The tall man stood in a clearing, dressed as a nobleman, all in black. Shadows lay over him, dark as a cloudy midnight. He had many arms, all long and boneless as snakes, all sharp as swords, and they writhed like worms on nails. He did not speak, but made his intentions known.

Their mother tried not to listen, but she could no more disobey the tall man than she could forget how to breathe. She walked into the clearing, her daughters shortly behind her. "Stela," she said, "take my knife, and cut a circle on the ground big enough to lie in." Stela, who was not afraid of the tall man, nor afraid of the quiver in her mother's voice, obeyed what her mother said. "Sorina," the mother said, "take the berries and spread them in the circle, and crush them underfoot until the juice stains the earth." Though Sorina wondered why her mother asked her to do such a thing, she obeyed, because she was a good girl.

"Stela," the mother said, "lie in the circle."

Stela, though she worried she might stain her clothes, did as her mother asked.

"Sorina," the mother said, and bid Sorina cut her sister open with the knife.

Sorina could not; would not.

"Please," her mother said. "If you don't, it will be worse. So much worse."

But Sorina could not, and she threw the knife away and ran home, crying. She hid under her bed, afraid for the first time in her life. She waited until her father came home from the fields, and told him of the terrible thing she had found in the woods. Her father comforted her, and told her she would be safe. He went to the woods, his axe in hand, and as he commanded, she stayed by the hearth, waiting for his return.

After some time she fell asleep. When she woke, it was to the sound of knocking on her door at the darkest hour of the night. "Who is there?" she said.

"It is your father," the knocker said.

"I don't believe you!" said Sorina.

"It is your sister," the knocker said.

"It cannot be!" said Sorina.

"I am your mother," said the knocker, "and I told you it would be worse." And the door, locked tight before her father left, fell open as if it had been left ajar. And her mother stepped in, her sister's head clutched in one bloody hand, her father's in the other.

"Why?" wept Sorina.

"Because," said her mother, "there is no reward for goodness; there is no respite for faith; there is nothing but cold steel teeth and scourging fire for all of us. And it's coming for you now."

And the tall man slid from the fire, and clenched Sorina in his burning embrace. And that was the end of her.

TombsGrave
Feb 15, 2008

Dr. Sanchez posted:

Am I the only one getting "unfolder" vibes from Slender Man? Something about the way his arms seem unspooled, and lurking in the background of photos with children.

Hey, I thought so too. That and, coincidentally, of an old superhero/villain (he was a bit ambiguous) I created, only his tentacles grew out of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

TombsGrave
Feb 15, 2008

Radio and video transmission from the bathyscaphe Nyx, following a deep-sea excursion on April 6th, REDACTED.

Transmission Resumes

(Following a burst of static, video and radio return. Outside Nyx is a wall of blackness lit only by powerful lights attached to the hull.)

Jonas REDACTED: "...ack online. Can you hear me? Over."

Patricia REDACTED: "Some interference, but clear enough to hear. Over."

J.: "Thought I was lost there for a minute. Any idea what's causing interference? Over."

P.: "No clue. Usually you come in nice and... wait. Port camera. What's that?"

J.: "Hn?"

(In the lights on the port side are long, irregular streaks through the plant life on the sea floor. The plants near the path are sickly and dying.)

P.: "Looks like something gouged into there."

J.: "Wait... there's scoring on the rock below. drat. Whatever did that had some serious kick."

(The port camera zooms in.)

P.: "There's a lot of them... seem to be going off in either direction. Did you notice any of these earlier?"

J.: "No. Rock face is clear behind me. Maybe whatever-it-was didn't start feeding until now."

P.: "You're... going to follow it. Follow the trail of something that cut through rock."

J.: "As long as it doesn't try to nip me, I'll be fine."

(The bathyscaphe follows the scorches through the plants. They continue on for several dozen yards.)

J.: "Hey... I see something."

(There is nothing visible in the wall of darkness.)

P.: "What do you see? The cameras aren't picking it up."

J.: "Hang on. Scooting in..."

(The bathyscaphe gradually crawls forward. For a moment, a tall, vaguely humanoid shape leans out of the dark. The cameras all go dead.)

J.: "...No way."

P.: "Jonas, the cameras went dark! What do you see?"

J.: "...sorta like a guy in a suit. And now you think I'm c... wait. What in the hell are... poo poo, he saw--mother of gently caress, what are--"

P.: "Jonas?! What's--"

(Screaming, hard metallic crunching, terrible wet popping sounds.)

Transmission Ends.

* * *

The above video was confiscated shortly after the Pole Star returned to port, minus the Nyx. Patricia REDACTED remains in our custody.

TombsGrave fucked around with this message at 01:44 on Jun 17, 2009

TombsGrave
Feb 15, 2008

An observer posted:

Hmmm, I still think it's better if there's just one Slender Man. It's much creepier that way.

Hm... let me touch it up a bit. Make it a little more vague.

EDIT: there we go. Bett'r?

TombsGrave fucked around with this message at 01:44 on Jun 17, 2009

TombsGrave
Feb 15, 2008

I am so terribly sorry.

But not sorry enough to refrain from posting this:

TombsGrave
Feb 15, 2008

Perhaps he's normally got the two (or more) arms/two legs configuration, but when he's hunting, or just arriving, he sprouts the giant legs to ease into his physical form from whatever he might have Otherwise.

TombsGrave
Feb 15, 2008

mr_jim posted:

He sounds like an icecream truck.

...playing a cheerful song that turns out to be an ice-cream-truck-jingle version of a funeral dirge...

TombsGrave
Feb 15, 2008

I am totally up for some Slender Man mafia. Link to thread if you get one started up!

Meanwhile... is it me, or has no one really picked up on Slenderman having a thing for fire? Was "kids" more notable than "fire"?

TombsGrave
Feb 15, 2008

(A journal entry. Written around a taped-in photograph later removed.)

10/7/88
Thought: Why always in photo b/g?
Conj.: Nobody looks for him. Always accidental. Coincidence.
--SOLVED(?)--
Found three photos from S.M. hunters. One was usual b/g appearance. Rest no good, were supposed to be dead-on photos of the guy. Recovered photos ruined. Definitely not overexposure. Likely innate quality of S.M., only found after photography developed*. People can draw him without pictures going bad, problem being most people don't get a good look at him. Or get a very good look at him and are killed/go crazy. Lose/lose situation for us.

(Other side of paper.)
*Maybe developed this reflexively, when photos first invented. Or when first taken picture of. Or maybe he just can't be photographed because we don't have the tools to catch what he is on film in full detail.

Why show up at all? Bad luck for photographers? Idea: drawn to the flash, not too likely given daytime spottings but possible for night. (Leads to question, why photographers period? More later.)


I really FUBAR'd my go at the Mafia game, didn't I.

TombsGrave
Feb 15, 2008

Knackered posted:



I think I've found my first avatar.

EDIT: Why yes I have. Thanks, Knackered!

TombsGrave fucked around with this message at 18:28 on Jul 14, 2009

TombsGrave
Feb 15, 2008

Szmitten posted:

Slendermilf? :pervert:

Slendermom is a Slenderlady, young man.

TombsGrave
Feb 15, 2008

Marble Hornets: The Movie of the Thread.

Ol' Slenny just silently infiltrated into the deep, dark woods of our hearts and commenced stalkin'.

TombsGrave
Feb 15, 2008

finalellipsis posted:

the Slender Man's head sure is tiny.

(?)He(?) had a run-in with a witch doctor recently. Give the (?)man(?) a break.

TombsGrave
Feb 15, 2008

I like to think of ol' Skinny as being fairly open to interpretation, but my personal favorite is one of curiosity. He's curious about humanity, and knows better than to intrude too deeply and disrupt what he's trying to study... but being what he is, he can't examine mankind without hurting people, sometimes badly. By sometimes badly I mean sometimes they die in a quick and efficient manner, and other times he unintentionally stretches it out...

I think I mentioned this before--but the original Slender Man pics associated him with fire, as in preceding or instigating fire. Dissection and other means of destruction came later--not that I'm complaining. As Call of Cthulhu d20 once said, a beastie can have a thousand legs today and no legs next time, so long as it makes each encounter more horrifying.

TombsGrave
Feb 15, 2008

homerlaw posted:

Its less horifying when you realise the track was a line from episode: 2

Yeah. Slow Anakin just isn't scary no matter how many distortion effects you add to. Makes me wonder if they were trying to see if the line could be scary in isolation. The answer is no.

The music itself was reasonably creepy until then, tho'. Make me wonder if there'll be another Halloween album on the forums soon, or if I've somehow missed the thread if there is one.

TombsGrave
Feb 15, 2008

Surfingelectrode posted:

What is it that makes the Slender Man so scary to you guys? I've read through the entire thread and I just don't get it. The original set of images and a few others were a bit creepy, but after that it just kind of fell flat to me.

Really good Photoshop work, though.

Why's he creepy? It's gotta be the ease in which he can slide into any circumstance. Combined with his unsettling appearance and as-you-please list of horrible-things-he-does, it's a great psychological trap for people who get into the act.

I don't like the "government forces trying to deal with Skinny" bits. Organized response seems... well, sort of like that Blair Witch video game getting Let's Played over in the LP forums. It's taking a creepy, low-budget concept and filling it with shoot-first survival horror elements. Not creepy in the slightest. The Slender Man is small-scale horror, not a Cthulhu that threatens humanity, but a Colour Out Of Space that threatens you, specifically.

I do like the idea of "family permutations" and sub-legends of the Slender Man. After all, in nature wings have showed up in many different varieties in many different species to achieve the same function; it's possible freaky otherworldly weirdos might have similar mind-warping effects to Skinny, and people might make logical connections between them and Slender Man, without there necessarily being a literal line of descent, a Munsters of fire and child mutilation.

As for motives and abilities and such, that's up to the individual photoshopper. I'm fond of a relatively straightforward Skinny m'self. In my mind he's something of a scientist, curious about mankind. He'd like to better fit in, but he can never get the proportions right, and his manipulators like to revert to something closer to their real shape... so he stays off in the distance until he finds someone who draws his attention--a prime specimen, perhaps, or someone who seems to know he's there...

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TombsGrave
Feb 15, 2008

Tripplejol posted:

:ughh:

I can't be scared of this anymore

The obvious response is the same as to all Rule 34: pretend it doesn't exist, or drink until you forget.