Infection

 I started this as a response to a question by Uriel, but it grew to be too large to be a simple reply. So I made it a post instead.

Uriel said: I Wanted to know more about this Abomination and how people usually get involved in all this.

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This is what I have observed. I won't claim to be a scientist or a psychologist, but I am a bibliophile. heh I read, I learn. Observing... watching the world go by and learning from it, that's just another way of reading to me.

Others are welcome to add to this or disagree. There are already links to theories which go into his origins in the Slender theory section, so I won't go into that here. This post is strictly about how people become "involved" in this.

There are three basic ways that the infection seems to spread. The first and current primary source of infection occurs when someone discovers the videos or a blog and through anxiety or paranoia or some unmeasurable level of awareness attracts the attention of the entity. They then introduce others to it via blog or vlog, spreading the infection. Some have argued and taken steps based on this argument that if runners and proxies were taken out of the equation (IE killed), and all record of the Slenderman's existence erased from the internet and elsewhere, that we could destroy him, starve him. This argument is based on the idea that our awareness of the entity is necessary to its continued existence. Based on first hand experience however, I cannot accept this argument. The possibility of people being helped by the experience of others outweighs the argument of reducing infection through "extreme sanction." At best the murder of the innocent victims of Slenderman become a stopgap measure.

Secondary infection occurs via psychic sensitivity. Some people are simply more aware of spiritual/supernatural activity in general. This causes them to stumble across a "proxy" or the Slenderman himself. Their awareness of the entity draws its attention. It proceeds to haunt them, causing them to act out in various ways which causes the spread of the infection as with the primary source of infection, the blogs and vlogs. This has been called a compulsion by others. Having always been interested in writing and words, I can't say if this is true or not. Prior to the creation of the internet and blogs and vlogs, general public opinion would have been to label such people insane, paranoid schizophrenics.

The rarest form of infection was previously the primary source. Prior to the advent of the internet, this was a "patient 0" type scenario caused either by the individual's sensitivity to psychic phenomena or some unknown personal quality which attracted the attention of the creature. (This is the nature of my own exposure to the creature over 20 years ago.) There are certain types which seem more prone to infection than others however. These are people who have psychic or creative ability, who are highly intelligent or inquisitive. Which is not to say that others are not also affected, but that these specific types possibly are more inclined to enter environments or have contact with items which have a higher possibility of carrying infection. Or again, some quality of their minds, as opposed to the minds of others, attracts the creature's attention, causing it to investigate and infect.

And here we are and there we go

First order of business, we're alive. We're safe-ish. We're recovering. But we have missing and... I'm not okay with what happened.

I cannot begin to describe how thoroughly pissed off I am about... everything- How easily we were trounced, how that overpowered bastard tore apart our house and hurt my family, how MASC has been twisting our arms to make us accept their "patronage." I do not appreciate threats, veiled or not. Money is another matter, and I hope that doesn't make me a gold-digger for letting that influence my decisions.

I REALLY don't appreciate the fact that, from what they knew about us before they started asking their questions, they had to have been watching us for WEEKS. They could have intervened at any time but chose to only begin firing at the last minute. I mean, granted things happened pretty darn quick, but you'd think someone beating the crap out of people and tearing apart a large structure with his freaking MIND would be a target they'd want to take down ASAP.

Bleh... I am so not happy, and it has nothing to do with being beat to crap and back. At least MASC is letting us go home today, to "look at the place;" they insist it isn't livable, and it isn't safe. They seem to think we should stay with them and be happy for the protection. I might have taken them up on it if any of my friends were interested; they're not. They can't legally hold us, no matter their threats. It's the threats that make me not trust them even more than their hesitation in saving our frikkin lives. And since I'm in their custody and using one of their computers, I'm sure they'd read this even if they aren't already monitoring our blogs.

I don't want to say thankfully only two people died in the attack because that is two people too many, even if one of them was an enemy. But we also have missing... Tim and Drake... are lost; Lullaby... we know who has her, though we don't know where. I'd almost prefer she was missing still and not in his hands. MASC says they're looking but after they were apparently attacked a second time while picking over the mansion, I don't know how much effort they're putting into it. I don't know who attacked them either. They weren't very clear. All I know is that it wasn't Thuggee, though his latest blog post is puzzling then, since he insisted in his gratuitous, self-aggrandizing, masturbatory murder-fest that he disintegrated the bullets fired by MASC.  

But we're going home. I don't care what the mansion looks like. If Drake or Tim or Lulls come back, that's where they know to go. Ecko showed up at the mansion the next day, so I know the others might still come back there too. And as bad as our injuries are, the little spirits of the place will help us heal. I know it. We'll heal faster there. Come hell or high water we are going home.

And are we really in more danger there than anywhere else? I don't think so. MASC twisted my arm... not with their threats but with the offer of money. I haven't seen the mansion yet, but I know it's in bad shape from the attack. And in accepting their money, I had to accept their presence in the mansion. They're making us house a half dozen men (argued DOWN, I assure you), but in exchange they'll rebuild the place and put in cameras with CCTV and "patrol the perimeter." (I can't say that last part without feeling like I'm in a war movie... I hate war movies...) And money for food since that reject from a dead assassin's cult tore up the garden and woods too from what MASC has told me. The cover story is apparently a localized tornado since lots of people in town saw the trees getting thrown about even if they weren't close enough to see some masked buffoon doing his best Dragonball Z villain impression. And our MASC liaison is to be one Trevor Brood, who's been silently following my blog and a few others for a while now, sneaky bastard.

I'll post more on my personal blog. Just wanted to update you guys on what's going on with these MASC people.

A Warning

This is a mark against the resistance. You will be found, none are safe. The Defenders Against Slenders have been made into an example. This is the end of everything you have tried to build. Good bye, pets. Until we meet.

The Hand of the Gods