|00.1| OOC: Application
Name: Tie or Vanny
LJ: _geist
E-Mail: photographer_steals_souls@yahoo.com
IM: mylemonlies
Character Name: The Operator, or Slenderman
Series: Marble Hornets
Timeline: Post-game, sometime in April or May of 2010.
Canon Resource Link: Slenderman
Character Background:
The Operator, more commonly known as Slenderman, is a paranormal entity of indeterminate origin. As to whether he is some ancient horror, his manner of dress and a certain affinity for speaking in binary suggest not, but perhaps he has adapted to the times; regardless, he has been sighted throughout the world, beginning at least in the 1980's, when he was connected with the deaths of fourteen children in a massive library fire. And he is, as far as anyone can determine his likes and dislikes, fond of preying on children. No one knows quite what he does to them, but they wind up dead or simply gone, and so it is perhaps best not to know.
Nor are the young his only prey. His tastes run wide, from mental patients to American soldiers in Iraq; in the last few years, he has developed an interest in nondescript twenty-somethings with video cameras. The trouble with video cameras is as follows: they reveal him, and they slow him down. And one of these twentysomethings wound up filming in one of his favorite hunting grounds. So began the Operator's acquaintance with Alex Kralie.
Unfortunately, Alex was a little quicker on the uptake than his usual victims: perhaps he started filming himself only to combat Slenderman's memory-wiping effects, but the result was that the Operator was able to do little more than surface-damage his body and wrench his sanity a bit. Alex even escaped him--for a while.
Alex's other friends weren't so lucky. As time went on, they...changed, becoming so warped from proximity with the Operator, their memories so full of holes, that Alex no longer recognized them as the people he knew. At least one--Seth, to be specific (the cameraman who isn't J)--may be physically dead. Somewhat understandably, Alex fled the scene, resolving first to burn his tapes and all evidence of the Operator. Somewhat mollified, Slenderman let it drop for the time being.
But it didn't quite pan out, because then there was J--or whatever was left of him, and J wanted the tapes. After all, he'd been the one to take a lot of that footage, surely it wasn't all trash. Alex gave them to him reluctantly, advising him to show them to no one else. Three uneventful years passed.
Then J watched them and, ever considerate, put them on YouTube. The Operator didn't like it. J had forgotten his previous dealings with Slenderman; it was time to remind him. He'd only forget again, of course, but one way or another he'd be made to regret making those tapes public.
This time, the Operator found a way around the videotaping. Unable to do much to J on his own while under a camera lens, he enlisted the help of one of the former Marble Hornets actors, Tim, whom he'd used once or twice before (not that Tim was aware of it, then or now). Tim was pliable by this point--in fact, he spent so much time as his masked alter-ego that he lost days of memory at a time, and even began switching to the personality of the masked man without Slenderman's orders. What followed was several months of following J, using Tim (masked, of course) to lure him in--although he did notice that his servant had an odd tendency to try to protect J now and again, which was irritating, and suitably punished.
And slowly, perhaps because the Operator wanted him to, J began to put the pieces together, and he found Alex's final tape. It was enough. J decided to quit, put the tapes away, keep moving, try to forget about it.
That wasn't what the Operator wanted, so he burned J's former apartment building down. He knew J wasn't there, naturally. It was a message. J got the message and continued to run, like any sane person would do after having their building burned down by a faceless horror. But you don't get to put tapes of Slenderman on the internet and just walk away. It was time for the Operator to bring out the big guns: Alex.
And conveniently, Alex's girlfriend had been rooting around in a closet, and had found Alex's old camcorder. Perhaps the Operator was drawn to its sound, or some electronic trace it left in the air like a scent. Perhaps he was already there, had already been there, unseen or unremembered by Alex. No one knows, because this is where the story ends. The Operator is there, waiting for J.
And then he's not there anymore. He's in the Mansion.
Abilites/Special Powers:
To begin with, the Operator is invisible--or perhaps in another dimension, or moving too quickly to see--unless directly observed or caught on video. He has some kind of semi-corporeal tentacles that he can extend from his back, and his arms and legs are extremely long, so he has quite a reach. He seems able to see--or sense--what's around him, despite his lack of a face.
He is capable of mind control, and unless he is caught on video, his victims invariably forget all contact with him, and may even lose bits of their personalities, or become warped beyond recognition (see Tim/Masky for an example of someone who has been heavily under Slenderman's influence for a long time). His presence induces fear, and a strong, paranoid sensation of being watched or followed (this is not, however, a delusion; the Operator is watching, and he is following). Some people may experience severe coughing fits when he is near (Alex seems to be immune for some reason).
He has effects on technology: when he is nearby, video technology displays a visual tear, and sometimes static or audio distortion. He may also be able to deliberately cause changes in video or audio.
And when he doesn't feel like being that subtle, he might just steal your organs, twang you into a tree, and light you on fire.
Third-Person Sample:
The figure is impossibly thin, impossibly tall, blending with the darkness of the trees--or maybe he is the trees and his arms the branches, differentiated only by the stark white of his collar and the stark white of his blank, featureless face. He moves lazily, slowly between the trunks, his arms swinging in a grotesque parody of a real man. He is unconcerned. Tim won't run from him. It's been too long now; Tim can't run from him.
It does register that he is somewhere different, that the stately mansion in the background is not the abandoned house where his servant spends much of his time. It is of interest. His head tilts far, far to the left, further than a human could without a snapped neck. It doesn't matter. He continues to drift forward. His are here. He is here. It's enough, for now.
Ahead of him, just visible in a small clearing, is a young man, back to him, with a head of dark hair and a brown jacket. The Operator has no face, but something about his posture suggests that he is smiling as he stretches his arms toward Tim. A shudder runs through the young man, and he reaches into his jacket, draws out a mask, and pulls it over his face. Slenderman draws his arms back, and the masked man turns to face him.
First-Person Sample:
[The hallway monitor at first picks up nothing but the window behind it. And then a low buzzing begins, and the image on the screen seems to split for a moment, the bottom segment blurring.
And then he's there, a white empty face in the window, eyeless, noseless, mouthless, and yet somehow seeming to see in, maybe even past the walls, maybe even into the place where the Mansion's inhabitants sleep, or read, or whatever it is they do.
Then the image blurs again, and pale green text appears over the feed:]
here.
LJ: _geist
E-Mail: photographer_steals_souls@yahoo.com
IM: mylemonlies
Character Name: The Operator, or Slenderman
Series: Marble Hornets
Timeline: Post-game, sometime in April or May of 2010.
Canon Resource Link: Slenderman
Character Background:
The Operator, more commonly known as Slenderman, is a paranormal entity of indeterminate origin. As to whether he is some ancient horror, his manner of dress and a certain affinity for speaking in binary suggest not, but perhaps he has adapted to the times; regardless, he has been sighted throughout the world, beginning at least in the 1980's, when he was connected with the deaths of fourteen children in a massive library fire. And he is, as far as anyone can determine his likes and dislikes, fond of preying on children. No one knows quite what he does to them, but they wind up dead or simply gone, and so it is perhaps best not to know.
Nor are the young his only prey. His tastes run wide, from mental patients to American soldiers in Iraq; in the last few years, he has developed an interest in nondescript twenty-somethings with video cameras. The trouble with video cameras is as follows: they reveal him, and they slow him down. And one of these twentysomethings wound up filming in one of his favorite hunting grounds. So began the Operator's acquaintance with Alex Kralie.
Unfortunately, Alex was a little quicker on the uptake than his usual victims: perhaps he started filming himself only to combat Slenderman's memory-wiping effects, but the result was that the Operator was able to do little more than surface-damage his body and wrench his sanity a bit. Alex even escaped him--for a while.
Alex's other friends weren't so lucky. As time went on, they...changed, becoming so warped from proximity with the Operator, their memories so full of holes, that Alex no longer recognized them as the people he knew. At least one--Seth, to be specific (the cameraman who isn't J)--may be physically dead. Somewhat understandably, Alex fled the scene, resolving first to burn his tapes and all evidence of the Operator. Somewhat mollified, Slenderman let it drop for the time being.
But it didn't quite pan out, because then there was J--or whatever was left of him, and J wanted the tapes. After all, he'd been the one to take a lot of that footage, surely it wasn't all trash. Alex gave them to him reluctantly, advising him to show them to no one else. Three uneventful years passed.
Then J watched them and, ever considerate, put them on YouTube. The Operator didn't like it. J had forgotten his previous dealings with Slenderman; it was time to remind him. He'd only forget again, of course, but one way or another he'd be made to regret making those tapes public.
This time, the Operator found a way around the videotaping. Unable to do much to J on his own while under a camera lens, he enlisted the help of one of the former Marble Hornets actors, Tim, whom he'd used once or twice before (not that Tim was aware of it, then or now). Tim was pliable by this point--in fact, he spent so much time as his masked alter-ego that he lost days of memory at a time, and even began switching to the personality of the masked man without Slenderman's orders. What followed was several months of following J, using Tim (masked, of course) to lure him in--although he did notice that his servant had an odd tendency to try to protect J now and again, which was irritating, and suitably punished.
And slowly, perhaps because the Operator wanted him to, J began to put the pieces together, and he found Alex's final tape. It was enough. J decided to quit, put the tapes away, keep moving, try to forget about it.
That wasn't what the Operator wanted, so he burned J's former apartment building down. He knew J wasn't there, naturally. It was a message. J got the message and continued to run, like any sane person would do after having their building burned down by a faceless horror. But you don't get to put tapes of Slenderman on the internet and just walk away. It was time for the Operator to bring out the big guns: Alex.
And conveniently, Alex's girlfriend had been rooting around in a closet, and had found Alex's old camcorder. Perhaps the Operator was drawn to its sound, or some electronic trace it left in the air like a scent. Perhaps he was already there, had already been there, unseen or unremembered by Alex. No one knows, because this is where the story ends. The Operator is there, waiting for J.
And then he's not there anymore. He's in the Mansion.
Abilites/Special Powers:
To begin with, the Operator is invisible--or perhaps in another dimension, or moving too quickly to see--unless directly observed or caught on video. He has some kind of semi-corporeal tentacles that he can extend from his back, and his arms and legs are extremely long, so he has quite a reach. He seems able to see--or sense--what's around him, despite his lack of a face.
He is capable of mind control, and unless he is caught on video, his victims invariably forget all contact with him, and may even lose bits of their personalities, or become warped beyond recognition (see Tim/Masky for an example of someone who has been heavily under Slenderman's influence for a long time). His presence induces fear, and a strong, paranoid sensation of being watched or followed (this is not, however, a delusion; the Operator is watching, and he is following). Some people may experience severe coughing fits when he is near (Alex seems to be immune for some reason).
He has effects on technology: when he is nearby, video technology displays a visual tear, and sometimes static or audio distortion. He may also be able to deliberately cause changes in video or audio.
And when he doesn't feel like being that subtle, he might just steal your organs, twang you into a tree, and light you on fire.
Third-Person Sample:
The figure is impossibly thin, impossibly tall, blending with the darkness of the trees--or maybe he is the trees and his arms the branches, differentiated only by the stark white of his collar and the stark white of his blank, featureless face. He moves lazily, slowly between the trunks, his arms swinging in a grotesque parody of a real man. He is unconcerned. Tim won't run from him. It's been too long now; Tim can't run from him.
It does register that he is somewhere different, that the stately mansion in the background is not the abandoned house where his servant spends much of his time. It is of interest. His head tilts far, far to the left, further than a human could without a snapped neck. It doesn't matter. He continues to drift forward. His are here. He is here. It's enough, for now.
Ahead of him, just visible in a small clearing, is a young man, back to him, with a head of dark hair and a brown jacket. The Operator has no face, but something about his posture suggests that he is smiling as he stretches his arms toward Tim. A shudder runs through the young man, and he reaches into his jacket, draws out a mask, and pulls it over his face. Slenderman draws his arms back, and the masked man turns to face him.
First-Person Sample:
[The hallway monitor at first picks up nothing but the window behind it. And then a low buzzing begins, and the image on the screen seems to split for a moment, the bottom segment blurring.
And then he's there, a white empty face in the window, eyeless, noseless, mouthless, and yet somehow seeming to see in, maybe even past the walls, maybe even into the place where the Mansion's inhabitants sleep, or read, or whatever it is they do.
Then the image blurs again, and pale green text appears over the feed:]
here.