Getting Down to Business

First off, hey there everyone. It's kind of awesome to all of a sudden have people. Hopefully with my current plans I'll give you something worth reading.

Secondly, Cam is currently absolutely furious at me. For reasons I'll explain in a bit. So forgive me if I'm a little jumpy whilst typing this, I'm alone in my bedroom to give him some space.

Third, and most important, I've done some more work with the idea of doing research/experiments. I've made a list of things I want to look into as of right now. The list is, of course, subject to additions and edits, but for now, here it is, with brief summaries of what I want to accomplish/learn.

The Unspoken Plan

It has been noted in various blogs, specifically by Ava I think, but by others as well, that plans tend to work better when they're not publicly posted. From what I've seen, this is exactly the case, though that could simply be because I don't pay attention when it DOESN'T hold true. I'd like to test this and see how well it holds up.

Step one is already in the works, and for obvious reasons I can't say any more about it.

Humor/Good Spirits

Part of the whole preparing/dealing with the Slenderstalking I've been doing has been reading up on various other blogs, which I mentioned. Something I've noticed, and which Maduin and Robert have both worked with some, has been the power of positive emotions. Maduin has managed to pull some CRAZY shit and come away with comparatively little retaliation, by staying positive and treating them as pranks. Robert actually chased Slendy away by doing karaoke.

How much of this is luck and how much of this is due to the above, I'm not sure. But I'm intending to find out. If it's something that actually helps, maybe it's the key we've all been missing.

The Notebook

This is the one that Cam's flipping shit about. He's convinced investigating the notebook is the worst thing we can do now. Okay, he's flipping shit about all of them, but he's especially convinced that looking into the notebook is a bad idea. Probably because he hasn't figured out that Just Another Fool is a fake.

But the notebook had a bunch of strangeness, some of which isn't just stereotypical slendyranting. It might give us a lead.

Operator Symbol


The bloggers seem pretty torn on whether it attracts or repels him. Which, if what Ava found in Egypt is accurate (Check The London Librarian's post entitled ZEKE for more info), it might do both. Or neither. Either way, there's a modified operator symbol like the one Ava found in the notebook. Circled. I didn't know what it was before.
My question is, why the fuck is it even a question when it came from a known fake, Marble Hornets?

Sanity

From what I've seen and some people have theorized, it might be that Slendy can't actually hurt you until you've gone off the deep end. I certainly haven't seen anything that disproves it, and quite a lot that supports it. But I am rather concerned about how I can test this without being absurdly stupid.

Motivations

Why does Slenderbender go after the people he does, when he does? Why does he go after everyone differently, to the point where M and Shaun's Slendy seems stupid and instinctual while Zeke, Scott, Celie, Lucas, and Joel's Slendy seems clever and crafty?

What exactly does Redlight want? Why does he do the things that he does? Why does he have Scott captive in a crazy Silent Hill-esque town?

I don't really expect I'll find these answers easily or often, but these are key, because if we can understand our enemy, we can defeat him. So I'll keep asking the big questions and eventually I'll get some answers.

The Narrative/The Power of Belief

Robert has the Core Theory, the first of which included all the titles and ceremonialism of a religion. Zero... well, he believed in the whole belief thing so much that the Solstice thing happened. And we all know how that went. There's been a lot of speculation about the power of belief, whether it comes to his weaknesses or to his very existence. Some think he's a Tulpa, some think he's always been here, some think the truth is more complicated than that.

In addition, something the notebook said when I glanced over it before stuck in my head as I read through the various narratives. It talked about the lot of us being no more than characters in a story, warning me to follow the narrative. We all make cracks or warnings about Genre-blindness. What if that is nothing more than plain fact? The blogs read like a story-right down to narrative timing and dramatics. Oftentimes, things happen for seemingly no other reason than to serve the narrative. Think about it. How many things Slendy does could finally be explained by serving the story? He's staring in your window to increase the tension. He hasn't killed you yet because it's not a satisfying ending to your tale.

That could all be complete bullshit. But it's something to think about. If I work with the narrative, if I really believe in it, maybe I can make things work FOR us, instead of against us. Or at least predict trouble and point people to the best way to prevent it.

Uhm. Maybe I'm way the hell out of my depth. Maybe all of this is insane. But it's worth trying, because EVERYTHING is worth trying until we've got some idea of what the fuck to do. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go calm Cam down and go back to biting my nails about what I've just done.

Oh, and also planning what to do next.

Edited to add a discussion on the Operator Symbol.