User:SlightlyChaotic/Slender Man

Slender Man

Slender Man (also sometimes referred to as "Slenderman" or "Skinny Man") is a mythical supernatural figure notable for being conceived entirely on the internet. The figure is depicted as a very tall, very skinny man with elongated limbs and no face, wearing a suit and tie. Occasionally he is shown with spines or tentacles protruding from his back. He was first brought to existence on a thread in the forum Something Awful.

Origins
Slender Man was first depicted in the Something Awful forums in a thread for "paranormal pictures" on June 8th, 2009. The original images were posted by user Victor Surge and was inspired largely by H.P. Lovecraft, Stephen King, and several survival-horror genre video games (especially Silent Hill and Resident Evil).

The original post of Slender Man had two pictures with accompanying captions. The first image shows several children walking in what appears to be a field, with a blurred and obscured Slender Man standing behind them with his arms held outward. His faceless head is clearly visible. The accompanying caption read: "'We didn't want to go, we didn't want to kill them, but its persistent silence and outstretched arms horrified and comforted us at the same time...'" "1983, photographer unknown, presumed dead."

The second image shows much younger children in a playground. In the background, shrouded in the shadow of a tree, Slender Man is shown with several children surrounding him. Although less of his physical features are visible (due to the shadow), tentacle-like growths of some sort are visible protruding from his back. The caption posted with the picture is: "One of two recovered photographs from the Stirling City Library blaze. Notable for being taken the day which fourteen children vanished and for what is referred to as 'The Slender Man'. Deformities cited as film defects by officials. Fire at library occurred one week later. Actual photograph confiscated as evidence."

"1986, photographer: Mary Thomas, missing since June 13th, 1986. "

Victor Surge's subsequent posts in that thread depicted more images of Slender Man, usually having something to do with children (such as children's drawings of Slender Man, or Slender Man hidden at a birthday party.)

Marble Hornets
Very soon after the original images of Slender Man, a project known as Marble Hornets began on Youtube. On June 20, 2009, a video entitled "Introduction" was posted by a character named "Jay" under the account MarbleHornets. The video introduced the project as a collection of tapes from an abandoned college movie project (also entitled "Marble Hornets") by Alex Kralie. Entry 1 (the video immediately following the introduction), however, simply was a video of Slender Man (without his back tentacles) standing outside Kralie's house.

Jay (who usually refers to himself as simply "J") finds that many of these tapes (which were unnumbered and undated) have the tall man hidden throughout, or have video tears or audio distortions. The distortions seem to correlate with Slender Man, as the videos often distort in Slender Man's presence. It also becomes apparent that Alex begins experiencing paranoia and mood swings due to Slender Man's elusive presence, as he begins to yell at his actors and insists on constantly video taping himself.

After Entry 9, a video response by user totheark was posted. It was coded and contained several hidden messages. Nearly every subsequent entry by J prompted a video response by totheark, each containing encrypted messages, warnings, or prompting J to some form of action.

After J uploads a video which appears to show Slender Man enter Alex's room during the night, and then shows Alex with a bleeding head, J decides to investigate the mysterious man on his own. This leads him to the abandoned old house of Brian, Alex's best friend. The house is very messy (as if someone has been squatting in it) and contained suspicious items which J took home. This was also the entry in which J appears to become ill, a theme which recurs throughout the remaining videos and J's tweets.

The next entry shows that J is also suffering from amnesia, which also appears related to Slender Man. In Entry 18, J returns to the abandoned house and is attacked by a man in a mask who is most likely totheark himself. Totheark also appears in the next entry, having broken into J's room and filming himself. Soon after, J returns to the house a third time an after chasing totheark around the abandoned structure, finds himself in a different building altogether and face-to-face with Slender Man. The next thing J remembers, he has returned to his own house with no memory of the night other than what is on the tape. He vows to never return to the house where he encountered Slender Man.

J decides to leave his apartment. He spends some time in several hotels, trying to keep away from the Slender Man and totheark. He discovers that someone burns down his apartment after he left. Soon after, he receives a tape from an anonymous sender which shows Alex being tracked down by Slender Man. J promises to find Alex, and claims to leave the state.

Marble Hornets is notable for being one of the most prominent examples of Slender Man lore and for being an ongoing story (which appears to have since ended with Entry 26.) Other similar youtube chronicles include TribeTwelve and EverymanHYBRID.