Knowledge (noun)

I finished the book. I finished it weeks ago.

Why have I not been posting? I said I would transcribe the book as I read it, but...I couldn't. I became too enraptured, too enthralled by what I read. It was the story of the Slender Man, the Black Botanist, who knows when to cut the flowers and when to let them grow. It made everything clear, everything simple, everything right.

And then he showed up. My doorbell rang and I reluctantly put the book down and opened the door.

"You know it's a lie," he said. He wore a white mask with a pointed chin. Later, he would tell me this mask was called a Bauta. "The book is a lie, everything in it is a lie."

"What?" I said. "How did you-"

"Who do you think sent it to you?" he said.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Like you, I prefer not to use my real name," he said. "So I go by Mister Grimnir. May I come in?" Before I could answer, he stepped inside and past me, the black bag he was holding brushed my arm.

"If it was a lie, then why did you send it to me?" I asked.

"You have read it all?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Did you believe it? Truly?"

"...yes. It made everything...simple."

"Good," he said. "Simplicity is what we want, what we crave. To find simplicity and know that it is a lie, that is what we need." He paused. "I have watched you. I am not a proxy nor am I a runner - I am in the group you would deem 'other.' But I have seen a potential in you."

"A potential to do what?" I asked.

"To know," he said. "The book is a lie, but there are others. Each book claims to have the origin of the Slender Man, each claims to explain what it is, how it is, why it does what it does. All are lies, but all have an element of the truth in them."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"I can find them," he said. "I can show you them. Then you can discern the truth in the lies. And you can create your encyclopedia out of the ones before. A true encyclopedia, a Thin Encyclopedia, as you call it."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because," he said, "knowledge must be shared. I will begin the journey soon. If you wish, you can accompany me. I will find the books and you will find the truth. Do we have an understanding?"

Could I say no to this offer? Could I deny what could be the only chance to understand everything?

No, I couldn't.

"Yes," I said.

"Good," he said and started to walk back to the door. "Pack your things. I shall meet you tomorrow morning."

"I have one question," I said. I lied - I had so many questions - but it was only one that was nagging me right now.

"Yes?"

"What is in your bag?" I asked.

He looked down at the black bag he was carrying and then up at me. "A good question," he said. "Let us just say that it is a font of knowledge. The head of Mimir."

And then he left.

And the next day, I left with him.

Botany (noun)

So I have been reading The Book of Black Flowers with White Petals. It appears to be some sort of treatise on the Slender Man; however, everything is crouched in metaphorical terms and cryptic words. The Slender Man is described as the "the Black Botanist, who observes how the flowers wilt."

He walks among the stalks and seeks the flowers that stand the tallest and then snips them down. Sometimes, will he bend or crook a stalk so that it is lower than the others. Sometimes, will he leave a stalk alone to grow. His will is unknown, his botany strange and unnatural. But only he knows how to grow the black flowers with white petals.

I haven't yet gotten to the part where they explain what the "black flowers with white petals" are. In any case, it is an intriguing book, though I do not know why it was left for me or for what purpose.

Book (noun)

I received a package in the mail today. I know of nobody who knows my address or real name, but the package had both on it.

Inside was a book. It's title was The Book of Black Flowers with White Petals. It listed no author.

I shall try to transcribe some of it as I read it.

Supersymmetry (noun)

What is supersymmetry?

It's quite simply, really: it's a theory that when the universe was created, all particles had a counterpart, called a superparticle. Each superparticle has a slightly different "spin" than a normal particle, so they may or may not be complete copies which depends on the "unbroken supersymmetry" of the particle. This fixes some inconsistencies from the Standard Model of physics.

What does this mean and why am I telling you this?

The "spin" of a subatomic particle isn't actually spin at all. Electrons and neutrons would have to move faster than the speed of light to actually spin, which is impossible. And yet they have charges - generally negative - and thus "spin."

A supersymmetrical particle would spin differently by 1/2. Could you imagine what someone made of superparticles would look like? It would probably look somewhat similar, maybe almost like a person, but always off, always impossibly off.

Remind you of anything?

I will not state for a fact that the Slender Man is made of superparticles, for the simple reason that superparticles are still theoretical. They may or may not exist at all. It is only now that we are even discovering something that might be the Higg's boson - the particle that gives all other particles mass.

This is just something to think about.

Proxy (noun)

Proxy (noun): 1. an agent or substitute authorized to act for another person. 2. The authority to act for another, especially when written. 3. (software) An interface for a service, especially one that is remote, resource-intensive, or otherwise difficult to use directly.

You may be wondering why I have included the third definition. I believe the third definition is, in fact, the most accurate one in respect to the "proxy" that serves the Slender Man.

Let me explain:

Proxies are servants. They do anything and everything that the Slender Man wants them to do. They are not equal partners, they are not a workforce, hired for a job. They serve. Sometimes this is due to the Slender Man's machinations (I have heard of it "hollowing" out people to make them serve him) and sometimes this is due to a person's own willingness to perform the deeds that the Slender Man wishes them to perform.

So this would fit the first definition. They are agents authorized to act for the Slender Man. Except...they do not act for the Slender Man, they act because of the Slender Man. It instructs them to do something and they do it, not because it is incapable of doing so, but perhaps because it is unwilling. Or perhaps there are other reasons unfathomable to us as to why the Slender Man uses proxies. But the fact remains: it does not need them.

Then what of the second definition? Proxies have the authority to act for the Slender Man, yes, but they rarely get it in written form. And while many do "act" for the Slender Man - do as it does, i.e. stalk and kill or kidnap targets - many act not for him, but for themselves. They are not silent, faceless killers; some are cartoonishly villainous, some are mundane workers that do not wish to do violence at all. Yet all serve the Slender Man.

So we come to the third definition, the one applied to software. Are proxies an interface? Well, first, let us look at that word, interface (noun): 1. The point of interconnection between two entities. 2. (computing) The point of interconnection between two systems or subsystems. 3. (computing) The connection between a user and a machine.

Did you read that? "The connection between a user and a machine."

The proxy is the connection between the user (us) and the machine (the Slender Man). It is the interconnection between two entities, the point where two systems meet.

Think about it: the Slender Man does not speak. Can it? Even if it could, would we be able to understand what it said? It is so alien to us, its motives so unknown, its actions to incomprehensible, would we understand anything it said to us?

Proxies are the interface between us and the Slender Man. They interpret it, like a fortune-teller interprets tea leaves. Does it really need them for anything else? It can do all things they can and probably faster and with less fuss. They are simply tools for comprehension. Proxies.

Perhaps I am completely wrong. Perhaps proxies serve some other purpose, as yet unknown to me. I do not believe so, however.

Encyclopedist (noun)

An encyclopedist. 1. A member of a group of French authors who collaborated in the 18th century in the production of the Encyclopédie, under the direction of Denis Diderot. 2. A person helping to write an encyclopedia.

The Encyclopedist. 1. Me. 2. Myself. 3. I.

I'm sorry for not introducing myself earlier. It was a lapse in judgment that I shall now rectify. I am the Encyclopedist. I am writing the Thin Encyclopedia.

And what is the Thin Encyclopedia? It is an encyclopedia of everything relating to the Slender Man. And I do mean everything. Every proxy, every runner, every thing that can have an entry will have an entry. I suspect that I shall be writing it for the rest of my life.

And why am I writing this? Why do research that could potentially do harm to me, even kill me?

Did I not explain how I was under the Compulsion? I need to write. And so, instead of wasting my writing on trivial things, I decided to dedicate my time and life to creating a compendium of everything related to the Slender Man. A Thin Encyclopedia.

That is my goal. I hope I live long enough to see it done.

Compulsion (noun)

A compulsion. An irrational need to perform an action that often results in negative consequences.

I am a Prisoner of the Compulsion. My fingers compel me to type. I write and it makes want to write more. I fill pages with my thoughts and still my fingers are restless. And so I come to this blog and I write. I am compelled. I have a compulsion.

Have I seen it? Does it haunt me like it has so many others? Well, it must; otherwise, why do I have this compulsion?

Why do I write if it is not because of its presence? Is the Compulsion not a side-effect of it? Or is it just our minds trying to grasp something we are incapable of understanding, trying to force us to write what we cannot, trying to find others that share our own experiences?

Or is the Compulsion completely separate from the Slender Man? Are we compelled because of it?

Or does it target those are who have the Compulsion because they have the Compulsion?