#will allude to the fact that the young man who killed himself remains uncomfortably in the lives and the minds of those who miss him

[flowercrowngods]

cw suicide mention & imagery

original play idea where people seem to live their normal lives but the audience gets the feeling that something’s wrong, there’s a tension and there are things that obviously go unsaid that hang in the air between the characters uncomfortably long enough until the last member of the audience has filled in the blanks in their own way.

there is a figure off to the side, a very young man in a suit, watching them, unmoving and silent, and as the scenes and progress, as characters leave and appear, as the setting changes, the young man is always there. no one interacts with him, but there are moments when they almost do. when the characters stop what they’re doing when they stand close to him, and appear to listen. but there’s nothing.

the sound of TV news reports, all playing over each other, create an uncanny and uncomfortable buzzing that never, never stops, and there are too many to really make out the words. they get more silent the closer they get to the young man in the suit, quieting down to nothing when they stand by him to listen — but the characters seem unaware of the change. so does the young man, statuesque though he is.

then there’s a little girl, covered in dirt, her hair askew, her cheeks rosy — the image of having spent the day outside, playing in the dirt, a smile on her face, her eyes big, as she skips towards the young man and asks, “can we go now? can we play?”

the young man cards his hands through her hair and says, “you go ahead, i’ll be right there.”

but still he stays there, seated.

everything continues as before, but the characters slowly undergo a complete change in character, in routine, in appearance. the old man who wore suits is not dressed in sweats and old, worn out, dirty shirts. the sweet, kindhearted young adult is now quiet and apathetic. the woman who, in the beginning, was talking her friend’s ear off and could barely stand still is unmoving now, staring out into nothingness.

the buzzing and bustling background noise is slowly, gradually getting louder as the characters become increasingly nonverbal and unmoving. the lights dim down.

then all at once, after a crescendo, the noise stops suddenly, the lights turn off completely, before, with warm, yellow light, a woman we’ve seen before — as she stares into nothingness — appears on the stage, slowly approaching the young man as if unsure of her body but undeniable in her grace.

they smile at each other for a moment.

m, whispering: you’re not supposed to be here, not yet

w, cradling his cheeks: i was always supposed to be here long, long before you

m: i know. i’m sorry, i—

w: i know. i forgive you. i’ve always forgiven you

m, after a while: but not yourself

the woman shakes her head.

w: a mother will never forgive herself for burying her child, and a father will forgive himself even less. (a beat) you have such a handsome face.

m: it’s not your fault

w: so beautiful, those eyes, i’ve missed you so much

m: listen to me, it’s not your fault!

w: and your hair! papa would be so glad to know that—

m: mother. mama. listen to me. it’s not your fault

w, tearful and whispering: you were supposed to be fine. you were always supposed to be fine. it was never supposed to be this bad, we were supposed to help, but—

m: i know. i tried, i really did. both times

in that moment, the little girl comes skipping on stage again, approaching them with her wagging ponytail.

g: what are you doing here, mama? will you play with me now? it’s been so long!

the woman gasps, her tears getting the better of her as she falls to her knees and pulls the girl to her chest, who readily returns the hug

w, sobbing, kissing her cheek: hi, baby. yes, i’ll play with you, of course i will. let’s go.

the young man helps his mother up, allowing her to pull him into a hug, and she whispers: “as much as i love her with all my heart, i’m so proud of the young man you’ve grown into. and now i have you both, just as i always did.”

the young man brushes a kiss to her cheek, then lets her go, watching as his mother disappears with the little girl.

m: i have to stay a while. i’ll follow you soon.

(woman and girl, hand in hand, exeunt)

the lights dim, and the buzzing returns, accompanied by the sound of dragging footsteps the audience cannot see, until everything’s back in total darkness. the noise stays. growing louder in increments, leaving the audience uncomfortable and unsure if this was it.

as they quiet down, we hear a man, sobbing uncontrollably, before eerie silence takes his place, too.

the curtain falls.

[theparanormalperiodical]

The Real Story Behind The Slender Man: EVERYTHING You Need To Know

It started in May 2014.

Three teenage girls were enjoying a Wisconsin summer evening when they decided to go for a walk in their local forest.

Only two of them would return.

The third would be stabbed 19 times by her friends.

She survived, pulling herself out of the forest and to safety. Her classmates were promptly arrested, and confessed their crime, later going on to plead insanity.

Yet despite the shocking nature of this crime, a stabbing doesn’t necessarily make worldwide news. But it wasn’t the circumstance of the attack that hit the headlines. It was the motive.

They claimed they did it to appease the Slender Man.

And they were not the only ones that committed such a crime in his name.

To a majority of the population, these claims can be written off as the ‘insanity’ stamped on the official court documents. But the thing is, these atrocities aren’t the only times Slender Man has been sighted outside of his pixelated world.

In fact, Slender Man made his name many years before we began our search for the 8 pages.  

Does he really only exist within the World Wide Web?

What Is The Slender Man?

Our story starts 5 years before Wisconsin hit the headlines.

In 2009, comedy website Something Awful launched a paranormal images competition. Users of the website were to mock up supernatural-inspired or horror-themed pictures, and leave them to be judged by the internet.

Eric Knudsen’s entry forged together the mystery of an urban legend and the dark reality of pedophilia.

Knudsen used pictures of children playing in playgrounds, or hanging out in friendship groups, or any other innocent gathering of youngsters, and photo-shopped a figure among them. This figure was an 8 foot tall, thin man, with a faceless, pale profile draped in a formal suit.

Emerging from his back was a set of dark, twisting tentacles.

He called him the Slender Man.

It was only when 4chan users picked up on these pictures that his urban legend infamy was set in stone.

Both the forum site and Creepypasta.com moulded his backstory, infusing the simple tales of kidnapped children with the concept of proxies - that is, children which were used to do his bidding. And it’s this premise that would alter the landscape of teenage crime - and suicides - in America.

From here the urban legend extended its tentacles, haunting the darker corners of the internet. But it was his debut in video games that drew him out into the mainstream.

In 2012, the first video game first entered our downloads folder.

The free game followed a simple principle: you wander through dark woods in the dead of the night armed with a torch and surrounded by pixelation only an early Buffy demon could muster up, and you look for 8 ‘pages’.

These pages are poorly pencilled drawings that have been left by children taken by the Slender Man - but the terror only starts here. Throughout your search you are followed by the entity titling the game.

Slender Man: The Arrival hit the shelves only two years later and followed the same concept as the original. But this time we are joined by some sense of a plot, and a few other characters, too.

Nevertheless, the undying premise remains: he follows kids, and then he takes ‘em for himself.

Why?

This remains unknown.

But it’s this premise which fuelled the urban legend haunting the teenagers, fitting the real life cases that have scarred America.

This was confirmed in his film debut in 2018: Slender Man preyed upon the wave of crime inspired by the creepy pasta, merging the reality of the recent stabbings with the video games that put him on the map.

But this premise has scored a stab wound on our society before, fitting historic folklore far too accurately.

Crime In The Name Of The Slender Man

Wisconsin was not the only American state to witness a shocking crime inspired by this indie horror icon. In fact, a variety of other attacks pinned on the Slender Man followed a similar pattern:

One 14 year old burnt their house down, a tragedy linked to their history of reading creepypastas exploring the legend, whilst another young teen stabbed her own mother in order to please the Slender Man.

But it doesn’t stop there.

Alongside the spike in violent crime was a sharp rise in teenage suicides at the Pine Ridge Native American Reservation.

The suicide rate among the Native American population in America is already far more prevalent than any other ethnic group, but the sudden spike of 9 suicides of those aged between 12 to 24 sparked concern. And when the motives were drawn back to the Slender Man, these concerns only grew further.

The authorities even made mention to this urban legend in their official investigation, determining that the Slender Man was considered by the teenagers in the community to be a suicide spirit, a dark entity within Native American folklore. But to them, the Slender Man went by a slightly different name.

They called him the Tall Man spirit.

“He’s appearing to these kids and telling them to kill themselves.” - a local minister who supported youths in the community

Suicide spirits follow a similar line of thought to Catholic views of demons or evil spirits: they are negative spirits that feed off our energy. This entity in particular, however, spends its free time targeting and possessing individuals that are undergoing a spiritual crisis.

Alcoholics, addicts, the depressed - they are all worthy contenders for being the personal buffets of suicide spirits.

With a cluster of Facebook videos alluding to local folklore combined with viscous cyber-bullying encouraging the victims take their own lives, the notion of the Tall Man gathered strength, tying together the folklore of the suicide spirit and the urban legend of the Slender Man.

But this wasn’t the only time the Tall Man has been sighted in Native American communities.

In 1890, the Wounded Knee Massacre occurred.

20,000 Latoka Native Americans were left for dead by US troops. To this day it is considered one of the most atrocious acts committed against the Native American population.

And it was here that the Big Man was first seen.

Many claimed an entity taking the form of a tall man sporting a top hat would wander the reservation after the massacre, and made the younger generation take their own lives.

Whilst negative spirits donning the top hat are common outside of Native American folklore, the similarities between the Big Man and the Tall Man create an uncomfortable link between the tragedies scarring the past and present Native American population.

But this community’s folklore isn’t the only place the Slender Man has been referenced outside of the video game.

Nearly every other culture has their very own Tall Man.

Could the Slender Man have existed before the original video game even entered beta testing?

The Slender Man In Historic Folklore

When I began researching the entity’s existence - aside from being overwhelmed by the array of tragic stories - I encountered many dead ends.

One of these dead ends sticks out.

Out of all of the rumours circulating following the Wisconsin stabbings was that Slender Man originated from Romanian folklore, and was based on some similar entity possibly bearing his size, demeanour, and pastime of abducting and/or traumatising children.

This was proven to be untrue.

But upon realising the Slender Man didn’t first make his name in Romania, I discovered he had made his name in a lot of other countries.

Like a lot.

Like way too many.

From motive to dress sense, the Slender Man’s first sighting starts a couple millennia before his internet debut.

Fear Dubh from Irish folklore is the most popular contender for being the OG Slender Man, his name literally translating to ‘Black Man’. It is claimed that this entity would scare children snooping round the woods, and his title confirms his attire matches his more modern formal suit.

Germany’s Eriking too bears a resemblance to the Slender Man’s irish counterpart - with a focus on both his height and dark clothing, this internet icon might have travelled further than we think. This mythical beast prides himself on dwelling in the woods and kidnapping children, confirming he has potential for the official historic Slender Man.

However: the plot thickens when we consider another German entity known only as the Tall Man.

With the same name as the Native American suicide spirit, and the guiding principle of kidnapping kids who wander the woods, the potential for an international entity once again emerges from the darkness.

Historic legends from the American South also contain a similarity that should have you sleeping with the light on: a treelike man who kidnaps children was often spotted throughout history.

Regardless, it’s easy to decode these vague mythical creatures as warnings to their children of the dangers of wandering near uncharted territory alone and at night.

But it’s the details of the Slender Man that click together when we trace the folklore back to the oldest recorded sighting of the urban legend.

And this takes us to 9000 BC.

Both Eypgtian hieroglyphics and Aztec paintings often portray the same distinct tall, thin, menacing figure, but it’s Brazilian cave paintings that house the oldest attributes.

In these paintings you can clearly see a tall man lead a child by the hand, his unnaturally large limbs dominating the scene.

Yet aside from the Slender Man’s basic features - that of his height and incessant stalking of children - his facelessness (#new-word) is a feature we have yet to discuss. Fortunately, many cultures have already discussed it. And the greatest conversation takes place in Japan.

Japanese faceless ghosts have haunted the small island for centuries. The Noppera-bo prides itself on frightening humans, often taking the face of someone the victim knows before their features dissipate into nothingness.

All you can see is a blank, smooth, flat layer of skin, a sight only witnessed when the Slender Man finally catches up with you in his video game debut.

Whether you believe in the Slender Man or not, there is no doubt that the concept harnessed by Eric Knudsen did not begin in 2009.

We might not know when the Slender Man began hunting children, and we might not know why he does, but there is one thing for certain:

He has not finished just yet.

If you liked this post, chances are you’ll like my other posts, too! You will have to come out from beyond your quilt, though.

Make sure you hit follow if you want to see more stuff like this - and, you know, less traumatising posts about the paranormal every week.

Don’t forget to join my ghost hunt, too, where I post a new real ghost story everyday!

[leakinghate]

Do you think there is any chance for lotura now, when we've just seen romantical teasing of Allurance that can be foreshadowing? (If it's so, showrunners go to hell)

Hello Anon,

Yes. I do believe there is still a very legitimate hope for Lotura to be endgame.

I was going to take some time to mull things over and plan before making a post. But, you took the time to ask, so here are my thoughts.

*ahem*

Lotura is Endgame, Y’all can Fight Me

In for a penny, in for a pound, eh?

I cannot promise you 100% that Lotura will happen, but there are two things I know, and that I can promise with reasonable asurridy. One, allurance is not going to be endgame. It may happen for a episode or two; but it’s not going to work out.

Two, Lotor will be returning, and as an eventual ally to boot.

Let's tackle our rival ship problem first.

Lance’s character arc has always been about him maturing to a point where he can believe in himself and grow some self confidence. He’s a classic case of a young man insecure about his place in the world overcompensating in an effort to make sure no one else notices it. He’s probably struggling with imposter syndrome, though I doubt he’d recognize it as that. The ironic thing, is that he’s so caught up in his own head that he doesn’t notice his team’s genuine appreciation of his talents and friendship. He’s the emotional support of the team, and possesses a genuine talent for leadership and calm headedness that even Keith is shown to struggle with. Despite flying the Red Lion now, he’s still obviously a Blue Paladin at heart.

The fandom’s perception that Lance hasn’t had an arc is because his arc is a long one, and it’s not going to pay off completely until near the end. Hunk’s arc was early, and his most dramatic developments took place in season one. Pidge’s arc happened in fits and starts, but was obvious and telegraphed from the beginning - it also focused on tangible goals rather than personal growth. Shiro and Keith’s arcs were intertwined, and formed much of the backbone of the show - when one wasn’t in focus the other was. Allura is the central character of Voltron, and her arc won’t be over until the show itself is - her arc is the plot of VLD itself.

Lance’s arc is slow, and has tackled small bits of his character development at a time. It’s always been about his self confidence, but it started from the outside-in. Beginning in season one with his jealousy of keith over the other’s physical abilities and natural talent in areas Lance wished to accomplish. Moving on through developing security in his value as a team member and place among the paladins. Finally, we have yet to tackle his emotional security.

Lance desires romantic attention. He thinks that he’s in love with Allura, but he really isn’t. He’s in love with the idea of her. Her beauty, her personality, her position, even her seeming unattainability - all things that attract Lance to her, but attraction does not a stable relationship make.

I’ve said it before, several times, so I’ll be brief. Lance and Allura’s life goals, positions, interests, and lifespans are not compatible. Lance wants to be with his family on Earth - a major component of his characterization is his family inclination and homesickness - he’s very young with no political experience and has shown no inclination to gaining any, he’s dismissive of and uninterested in Altean culture, and his human life expectancy is unlikely to exceed 100 years. By contrast, Allura is the last remaining Altean royal, and one of only two Alteans who remember what life on Altea was like. She’s going to want to be in space with the recently revealed still living survivors of her people. She’s the leader of the coalition and the owner of Voltron, she has countless populated planets to oversee and diplomatic negotiations to attend to. Her culture is precious to her, and she values it highly. And her lifespan is likely at least 1000+ years - Coran, a non-magical Altean, is at least 600 years old and appears to be only slightly older than a middle aged human equivalent.

And she’s only a few weeks, a month or two at most out from a very nasty breakup.

Allura is absolutely still in love with Lotor - you can’t just turn off loving someone like flipping a switch. It takes time - a lot of time in many cases, and it takes processing, and dealing with those emotions.

It may be, that Lance and Allura attempt a relationship for a few episodes, but it’s not going to work out.

As Lance is faced with the prospect/reality of getting what he thinks he wants, his character development in other areas is going to come to the fore. He’s going to be aware of and have to deal with the realities of having a relationship with the Altean Princess, and realize how very incompatible they actually are. There is a very good reason that Lance’s realization about his feelings towards Allura happened in the B-plot of s6e2, ‘Razor’s Edge’. The episode in which the A-plot revolved around the impossibility of a relationship between a human man and an alien woman. VLD likes it’s parallels, that wasn’t an accident.

He’s also going to realize that he deserves to be more than somebody’s second choice. Lance deserves more than being a rebound - and he knows that now, even if he hasn’t expressed it.

Because that’s what’s going on here.

Allura’s sudden apparent reciprocation of Lance’s feelings this season feels like a rebound because it is a rebound!

Allura felt very off this season, and that’s almost definitely because she's still really shook up over what happened with Lotor.

She's NOT okay, and that hasn't been dealt with.

It will be, next season. But she was in focus in a major way the last two seasons, so she had to take a back seat this one so she could get focus for the end. It's the same reason why Keith was in the background for several seasons before stepping back up in s6 and s7. And it's why Lotor was such a late addition to the cast. He's a huge plot mover in s3-6 (arc #2), and he will be again next season. So he was absent from 1-2 (arc #1), and again from 7 (the first half of arc #3). Same as why Haggar was absent this season, it's about balance.

I was majorly sketched out by the few little out-of-nowhere allurance moments.

But I think, that it's supposed to come across as odd, and uncomfortable, and abrupt.

Because I think it's ultimately leading up to Lance turning down Allura.

He's going to realize that she doesn't actually care about him romantically. She's hurt and lonely, and feeling like she failed her team for falling for Lotor. So she's overcompensating, and trying to force herself into liking Lance. Because he's there, and he likes her, he’s dependable and safe. So when she’s desperate to move on and salve the pain? She kinda feels like she owes it to him to give him a chance.

Allura has lost almost everything. Her people, her culture, her planet, her father - twice! Last season she lost the castle, after just barely snatching it from the metaphorical jaws of death she then has to voluntarily blow it up to save the universe. She lost Lotor - the person she’d fallen in love with, who she’d connected with and come to rely on - and she had to ‘kill’ him with her own ship.

Her people, that she only just learned weren’t entirely wiped out, have vanished without a trace before she even gets to see them.

By the end of season 7 she’s lost all that was left of her castle, her crown, and even the clothes on her back. She’s been stripped of her distinctive cultural clothing and garbed in the generic military uniform of an alien people.

It’s no coincidence that she didn’t begin ‘reciprocating’ Lance’s feelings until they arrived on Earth - where she was even more isolated without her lion and Voltron. She’s feeling so incredibly lonely and is looking for comfort and love anywhere she can find it.

It can’t work out though, for all the reasons we've already identified.

There was zero flirting this season, and other than the weird blush there was NOTHING.

Contrast that with the solid two seasons of beautiful and mutual Lotura buildup - even more, some would argue, if you consider Allura and Lotor’s clash in s3e3 ‘The Hunted’ as foreshadowing.

The biggest things for me. Is that nothing happened to prompt Allura to see Lance in a new light. We go from her irritation at him in e4, to neutral, average team members, to a sudden blush in e10, and lion-look-framing in e13.

And amidst it all Lance still managed to manipulate the situation to get himself alone with a pretty girl. It backfired on him pretty spectacularly when Romelle turned out to be far more rambunctious than he could handle, but that doesn’t change the fact that he chose the passenger arrangement. This is long after his apparent realization of ‘loving’ Allura, and pretty handily demonstrates that Lance isn’t really ready for a long-term commitment.

So are Lance and Allura being set up for endgame?

Nah. There's something else happening here.

Especially when it was twice emphasized this season how Allura got them into that mess by getting them close to Lotor. Nevermind that it wasn’t the team’s friendship and alliance with Lotor that fucked them over, but the Paladin’s betrayal of him.

But we're still waiting for the other shoe to drop there.

We haven't had the big emotional Allura moment that’s been alluded to, and we haven't had Keith still having a lesson yet to learn.

Referring back to VLD’s pattern for character prominence, we should expect Lance to fade out towards the second half of next season, since he had major POV framing in this season and the last one.

If what I think is going to happen actually happens, Lance should be dealing with his romantic issues at the start of next season to complete his arc. I’d imagine it will be in the first few episodes of season 8 that this will happen. This should line up with Lotor's return to the story, and thus trigger the 'cool story arc' we were promised with both of them.

This brings us to our next point: Lotor’s return.

We already have confirmation that Lotor is alive in the rift - Rhys, Coran’s VA, let that slip during an interview at SDCC. And if he’s alive, he’s going to be returning.

But as an ally? Maybe not at first, but eventually.

I found it interesting that Lotor was never once brought up this season in conversation with people who didn’t already know about him and about the Paladin’s fight with him.

Even when it would be logical to do so.

When briefing the Garrison. Sam Holt, who was exchanged with Lotor as a hostage and was present on the castle ship during the Kral Zera, specifies that Zarkon is dead but never mentions that Lotor is now - as far as he knows - ruling the main Empire force.

Lotor was an ally of Voltron when Sam returned to Earth. The biggest, most powerful ally they had. They were present on the castle at the same time, and even if they didn’t interact it’s impossible that Sam wouldn’t have been aware of Lotor’s existence and position as the new Galra Emperor.

Why not mention that Voltron had a huge swath of Zarkon’s former empire allied with them?

Because it would necessitate explaining the fallout when the paladins did eventually reach Earth. So? Why not do that? That’s two to three lines of dialogue, and would serve in-show to heighten the drama for our Earth based characters, who might have been hoping for aid from the other half of the empire.

Why specifically leave the position of Emperor in limbo? Why not have Sendak officially assume command?

There’s no reason in story to have things be that way.

So there must be a narrative reason.

The only thing I can think of?

Narratively speaking, they’re avoiding tarnishing Lotor’s reputation in the wider universe. The only people who know what happened in that fight? The paladins. And they left his throne unclaimed, so that he can take it on his return.

It’s the reputation thing that really cinches it for me. There is only so much time, only 13 episodes left in the series, and it would be nonsensical to waste a decent portion of it on doing damage control for Lotor when what’s ideal for the stability of the wider universe is to return to the way things stood at the beginning of season 6; with Lotor in control of the the Galra Empire, and the Coalition - and Voltron - allied with him.

At the beginning of season six the only outstanding major threats were Haggar and Sendak’s Fire of Purification, Haggar is obviously our final arc antagonist, and hey! Wouldn’t you know it? Guess who just just got offed? Sendak.

There is no damn reason to preserve Lotor’s standing with the coalition forces. Except if he’s to return as an ally. Especially when everybody should be asking for explanations of where they’ve been. But they don’t. For a reason.

So will Lotura be endgame?

I believe so.

They’ve said before that they crafted Lotor’s character to be someone Allura could relate to and find comfort in. They redesigned him, literally made him for her.

Every one of our characters in VLD has had to suffer terribly throughout the course of the show. So far though, Lotor and Allura are unique among focus characters in that their suffering has been without respite, recourse, or reward. They have both lost everything.

At the end of s7 Allura does not even own the clothes on her back, and it's doubtful that Lotor is even in control of his own mind anymore.

They literally have nothing left to lose.

They’ve been stripped bare of everything that has ever mattered to them.

So perhaps they can find peace, for themselves and others, by giving themselves to each other.

The love between an Altean Alchemist and the Galra Emperor started the war 10,000 years ago, it’s only fitting that love between another Altean Alchemist and Galra Emperor end it.