"𝔉𝔦𝔫𝔡𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔱𝔯𝔲𝔱𝔥" creepypasta research, Slenderman & paranormal

Marble hornets/ the operator

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MarbleHornets

Marble Hornets, the series which really got the ball rolling on Slender Man's popularity.

What is it?

Marble Hornets is a series of videos posted on YouTube taking place in the Slender Man Mythos. In the setting, a student by name of Alex Kralie was working on a student film, titled "Marble Hornets". After two months of filming, he dropped the project completely, claiming "unworkable conditions". A friend of his, named J asked Alex what he was planning to do with the tapes.

"Burn them."

Not wanting to let so much work go to waste, J convinces Alex to let him have the tapes, on the condition that they never speak of it again. J filed the tapes away, but at the time was too unnerved by Alex's reaction to look through them. About two to three years later, he decided to go back through the tapes.

Judging by the contents, our favorite abomination was trying to get into the film business.

To put the plot in the simplest way possible, while making "Marble Hornets", Slender Man began to follow Alex. Like most victims, Alex started to fall deeper into paranoia and fear as a result. Things became increasingly worse, and Alex claims in one of the tapes that some people have even disappeared.

While watching these videos, J begins to record his own research into what was going on. As often results from people investigating these things, weird shit starts to go down pretty quickly. Standard Slender Man fare: black outs, waking up in different places, loss of memory, electronic distortions, etc.

In addition to Slender Man, J often encounters an individual who the viewers have nicknamed "Masky", a mysterious person wearing a mask who is likely a Slenderproxy. There's a good chance that Masky is also totheark, a YouTube user who posted cryptic, and sometimes downright creepy, video responses to J.

The series ended on a slightly ambiguous note. After the downward spiral really started to hit J, he called quits on the whole thing, and leaves. After staying on the move for a while, his mental health began to return, and he no longer had any involvement with Slender Man. When you're starting to think that the whole series may just on a bittersweet tone, J receives a tape, with the instructions "WATCH THIS". The tape shows that Alex has also found a normal life via the cunning strategy of running away from Slender Man like a girl. This ends when his girlfriend finds his old video recorder. Alex gets uncomfortable with her filming around the house, and then BAM, Slendy appears, and the video ends with the words "HELP". J decides to be a hero, and goes to the rescue. That's it.

There is a season 2 being planned out, which will provide an actual ending to the series, though work has not yet started on it.

Marble Hornets is what brings many people into the Mythos. As it is a visual medium, it's easier to be drawn into it, instead of having to read through text. MH makes no assumptions about the viewers' awareness of the Mythos, unlike many other stories, and is accessible to people who have never even heard of Slender Man. The series also has a tendency of being spread around, especially on forums or in emails. Through this, it acts as a gateway series into the Mythos. Those that enjoy it often will search for more information, and in the process, discover the other blogs/videos related to Slender Man.

Relation to the Mythos

As MH is one of the main factors behind the popularization of Slender Man, it's the thing which everyone else imitates. MH may not have created the Mythos, but it codified it. Many things which are now standard Slender Man fare were created by, or inspired by, them. The idea of Slender Man slowly hunting victims over an extended period of time, the operator symbol, Slendersickness, blackouts, electronic distortions, and Slenderproxies were all started or inspired by MH.