unforum

[Hunter_Omega]

[TRAILHEAD] There's a Man In the Woods

[lonsumtravlr]

OK--I'll bite. Well, as I want to avoid feedback that doesn't seem like ballwashing of the most gratuitous kind or scathing jeremiads against lack of "creativity," why don't I go with the legitimately positive?

I absolutely love the oral history/independent folklore anthropology-public history approach here. In fact, I'll say that this blog is giving me precisely what Marble Hornets didn't: enough of the local collection/mythology to flesh out the unsaid connections between Slendy and those afflicted by "him." MH coulda gone just a wee bit--even if like me you accept the "it's mostly visual storytelling" justification (or excuse)--deeper into the connection of The Operator with Rosswood, et al. (other than the old hospital and the one etching of a seemingly faceless humanoid figure). This seems also to be building at a good pace--though I wonder about that floppy (it comes early enough that I don't feel spoilers are necessary--I won't say what becomes of it; I actually can't because I've more to read).

It may just be me trying to justify my American Studies undergrad major and my love of archives and other research fora, and it's likely far from enough to stem the tide of underfunding of many of the humanities and social sciences, but I will say that I am looking forward to seeing where this one goes.

[slendydreaming]

This looks really cool! I like the research element, I wanted to do something like that for my vlog but couldn't figure it out. I'll be following this person.

[Ithilwen22]

So it's been a while since I found a series that actually caught my interest. This one has gotten me out of the post-MH slump you could say. I'm coming out of my Internet hermit cave for this.

I really, really love this sort of thing, connecting it all to old folklore. It just thrills me. I also feel like it's closer to what the original mythos was about-all these stories, seemingly connected to the Slender Man.

Also, I feel like the creator is setting a good pace. We haven't gotten into full-on slendy-shenanigans yet, but there's enough hints and clues to have a reasonably fast narrative.

(Also, I agree with what lonsumtravlr said-I felt like Rosswood was going to have a great significance in MH along these lines before that came to nothing. Maybe part of the reason I like this is wish fulfillment as well. )

[lonsumtravlr]

Have been too busy to check it out in further detail, but I hope to get caught up with the Thanksgiving break.

As for what I posted earlier: I think Rosswood in MH is a huge missed opportunity. Too much time on the hospital, not enough on providing some more backstory. Troy et al. we're going for something but then stopped. Here's hoping this project delivers.

[Tails]

Back to the topic of the blog, this post caught my attention:
Research log 11(?), archives box thoughts

It has a QR code on the pic, which did lead me to this archive.

It has several disorted pictures and a text about german settlers in it. Also, there were 2 letters with expedition-notes on it.

[tloyc2012]

The final picture is the exact same one as the second photo, just glitched-out.

I had to compare it to aforementioned un-glitched photo to really make sure, but it is the exact same location.

It's just... there's a tree that wasn't there before. A thin, black one with white spots where the hands would be.

Well, this is going to be creepy as hell.

[Ithilwen22]

I saw that, and it seriously creeped me out, especially since I'm reading all this in a very quiet house on a rainy night. It's all made creepier by the fact that I'm going to a Beowulf book discussion in, like, an hour. I'll try not to get kidnapped by eldritch horrors on the way.

I kind of wonder about our protagonist here too. She's experiencing memory loss already, but also seems to be vaguely hinting that this has happened to her before. I wonder if she's researching this because of whatever happened.

[SilentMedusa]

Uh, guys? Our protagonist is missing. And her friend quoted an email from her that makes it pretty clear the "man in the woods" is after her.

[Ithilwen22]

Boy, that escalated quickly! (I had to.)

You know, the archives keep throwing emphasis on the people forced to serve, so I'm fairly certain that is happening to our protagonist, what with the memory loss and all. But who knows? I could be totally surprised by something else. (And I hope I am. XD)

[lonsumtravlr]

[lonsumtravlr]

Well, this seems like a little bit of nothing: http://theresamaninthewoods.blogspot.com/2014/11/blog-post_28.html

I say seems, of course, because there's obviously something to that sketch attached to the tarot card and that showed up in the latest video.

Does that sketch seem to suggest a sort of connection between two levels--I mean like a slope between, say, a ground level and a pond level beneath a waterfall and not between dimensions--to anyone? Maybe I'm reading way too much of that video.

[SilentMedusa]

You know, I believe I recognize the sketch. It looks like a picture I saw in a book I now can't remember the name of, but that picture? It's a depiction of the Devil. That little scrap is the pitchfork, and part of the hand holding it.

If you watch the video, when she turns it (the scrap of picture) so that the pitchfork is pointing up (making the picture right side up, which I find important since it was paper clipped to the card so that it was sideways), and in front of the magician card, it cause distortion.

Now, how does this tie in with the millpond man business? Sacrificing a child, or allowing one to be taken in exchange for safety/prosperity for the rest of the town could be seen as making a pact with the devil. Especially by people in centuries past.

OH yeah, I almost forgot. "As above, so below" means there is a connection between the physical, and the metaphysical worlds. What happens in one happens in the other. That's how magic works: certain items and actions 'down here' in the physical world are used to make things happen 'up there' in the metaphysical one.

[lonsumtravlr]

[SilentMedusa]

I think you're right about our protagonist being targeted by the Millpond Man (who I think is Slendy). But I don't think she was promised.

See, people might have actively sacrificed to the MM once, but times changed, the law got involved, and the practice stopped. But He didn't stop. MM has continued to mark and take people anyway, because He sees it as His due.