Our Apartment Keeps Filling Up.

Hi. I'm Cammy. Elan's talked about me, I know. He's too busy with Shan and with his dissertation to post much, lately, so I decided to do it.

Uh. Things have been nice, really. Mostly quiet. Shan and Elan are still inseparable. Which is sweet, I'm really happy for them. Elan  needed someone, I think. He's so... closed off. With most of us. Doesn't like to let his real feelings show.
But Shan cuts right through that. I've never seen him so... openly happy. At least, not since we were kids.

I guess I'm doing pretty well on that front too. Nikki, our neighbor, the one I've been dating... well, her apartment got robbed. Whoever it was stole her bed, so she's been... She's been staying with us. My bed's big enough for two, so...
.////.

The robbery has us fortifying our own apartment, we don't really want to risk a break in here, with all of us.

Settling In

I'd honestly expected it to be harder. I mean. It's been just Cam and I for so long, I'd expected a lot more awkward and adjustment. But Shan... one more reason I love her so much. She gets along amazingly with Cam, and the three of us work so naturally together.

The only real adjustment here is teaching Shan how to live in one place again. There was some minor hilarity when I had to teach her to vacuum, but she's picking it up. The rest of the cleaning is at least never boring.

Not much else to report, really, we've been preparing and enjoying each other's company mostly. Cam's not home much-she's spending a lot of time with our new neighbor actually. Good for her. There's no shortage of happiness around here, at any rate.

And with that, I'll sign off. I want to get more thesis work done in time to take Shan out for dinner.

Shan's HERE

Oh god, Shan's here and she's amazing and beautiful and even better than I could've possibly imagined. It was just... from the moment we met up it was cheesy and romantic and felt like a moment from every lame romance you can think of, but we're just... I dunno, we just fit. And...
Yeah. No offense, internet, but I think I'm keeping the details of tonight to myself. Because no matter how long I live I will never forget tonight.
The first night together with the woman I love....

In any event, I'm going back to bed(and Shan!), just wanted to get this brief update up.

And So It Begins

I meant to put this up a the night before last, but Cam was a little spooked so we end up spending the past... day or so together doing random cheerful happy things to calm down and  keep safe. There's been a lot going on with us...

Okay, first, my current theory. This is the big one, the one we're basing our current strategy on. I know people like M say that you have to run, you have to run, there's no other way to be safe, but I'm not noticing any particular difference in encounter rates for those who run and those who don't, when I'm peeking through the blogs. More importantly, I'm seeing a pattern, one that a certain book I mentioned the other day supports.
It's not about running or fighting or whatever. It's about fear.

Think about it, guys. When do you see Slendy? It's always when you're sad or angry or afraid, right? Anyone reading this, I want you to do me a favor. Think about any encounters you've had-proper encounters, not just unobtrusive sightings. Think about what you were feeling at the time. Be brutally honest with yourself. And then and only then, if you can think of an exception, please let me know, either by email or in the comments.

But that's what Cam and I are working off of. We're fortifying all the doors and windows to the apartment to keep proxies out and instituting a firm policy of staying as cheerful as possible. We've stocked up on cheer-up music, movies, and the like to help in this effort.

I wish I could give you all citations from the book, but I can't scan it, and random floating quotes don't really count for much outside of formal papers.

Ah well.

In other news, Cam and I had our first Proxy encounter Saturday. We were out picking up supplies when we were approached. We were in Home Depot, and Cam had gone off to go look for something that we were having problems finding when these two women walked up to me. I thought at first they needed help, they were both... not dressed like the kind of person you'd normally find in a home improvement store. This impression was not helped by the giggling when they approached. I prepared myself to politely help them and move on, but the conversation wasn't quiiite what I expected. It just felt... OFF somehow.
That feeling wasn't helped after they left and Cam returned and told me she'd had a similar run in. Neither of us were horribly surprised, therefore, to discover the four of them waiting in the parking lot.
Subtlety was not quite their strong suit. After some minor bullshit about being an easy mark for someone so high on their list or something, they came at us.
Guys, Cam did SCA heavy fighting back in college and I was on the wrestling team in high school. They were pretty obviously not prepared for us. I guess we look weak or something.

I've got one hell of a black eye and Cam has a wicked bruise on her ribs, but we're doing pretty well otherwise. I don't expect us to be so lucky next time. Cam's pretty freaked, because next time the odds are high that there won't be a convenient dowel rod for her to fight with, and she's pretty useless without some vague approximation of a sword.

We've finished our fortifacations, and we don't plan on leaving unless we have to. Until we figure out better plans to defend ourselves, it'll have to do.

Decisions and Research

After the scare of a couple days ago, Cam and I have been spending a lot of time putting our heads together and making plans, when I'm not buried in the campus library reading till I go cross-eyed. We've come to a decision. We're staying. We are staying here, staying put, fortifying and keeping strong. I have an idea that will hopefully keep us safe. We do have a fourth floor condo, which will help. Our condo can only be reached through a locked indoor staircase, which will help against more mundane threats. We're fortifying the crap out of this place and instituting a 'no open blinds ever' policy, which will help reduce sightings, though it will be hell on the lighting in the house.

But most important is this. I found an old first edition from 1688 in the old book room on Monday. It appears to be a household guide to dealing with various pests-which for the time was rather strange in and of itself. The strangest part, however was the amount of supernatural entities listed and discussed in the pages along with more mundane threats like rabbits and snakes. At the end, there is an entire chapter devoted to 'the masked one.' He is described as appearing as a very tall and thin man who appears to be wearing a blank mask to obscure the existence of features. Unsurprisingly, the masked one is described as highly dangerous, especially to children. Most of the advice falls along the line of rosemary sachets at doorways and ensuring children wear crosses at all times, but at the very end it mentions one last resort-positive thought. It suggests that he needs fear and/or despair to properly manifest in a way that can harm us, and that if you can deny him that, then you can stay safe.

It seems worth a shot. We've already instituted the plan. Admittedly it's a lot easier to stay happy when Shan is on her way here to see me. Beyond  that, we're watching lots of cheerful movies and shows, paying plenty of games and generally being silly and having fun as much as possible. Makes me glad we both took the summer off work, otherwise this staying happy thing would be a lot trickier.

Fucker is EVERYWHERE

Cam and I have been trying to lay low, stay home, keep the blinds closed, etc, but folks like us, with previously very active social lives, can't just vanish at the drop of a hat, and honestly we're still not sure if that's a good idea anyway. In any event, it's summer, the social season in a college area like ours, and there's only so many invitations we can turn down before looking suspicious. So we went last night to a barbecue in the park near our apartment.Which, yes, it is heavily wooded

Guessing you guys can figure what happened next? He showed up. We got through most of the barbecue, and we were sticking around helping Lee clean up, because it was her birthday party and it's only polite to help ANYWAY. But it was just us and Lee and one or two other people, when Cam taps me on the shoulder and points out our least favorite business man in the trees. We tried to play it cool, but it was pretty obvious pretty quick that we were panicking, so we made our excuses and walked home. Now, since we're apparently genre-blind idiots, we took the short path home. The one that's a narrow path through the trees. Because we can get home in less than half the time if we take that instead of the winding sidewalk route with a big cleared out space on either side.

The good news is, it was a short walk, so there were limited opportunities for him to do anything. The bad news is that he apparently really likes to pop up right behind you. Jeez. We did our best not to run, like M says, but we walked as fast as we damn well could. We were both fucking terrified out of our skulls by the time we got home. It wasn't helped by our dog, River, going completely nuts at the window all night.

We kept the blinds closed, because we didn't want to see. Neither of us got to sleep till well after sunrise, and we did so falling all over each other on the couch. I only woke up a couple hours ago. We're still pretty much terrified.

Beginnings

Hi, I'm Elan. I'm Twenty four years old, and finishing up my masters degree in Urban Folklore. Provided I get through the committee in the fall, I'm set to take a Professorship in the spring.
Then, about a week ago, I was walking home through the park across the street from my condo (which is pretty heavily wooded), and I found a notebook. Specifically, one completely filled with random messages and sketches. Nothing I saw identified it to me, but it was interesting, so I took it home and showed it to my roommate.
Who suggested it might have to do with Slendy, because of the sketches of him that are spread throughout the thing.
I did some research. The thing is COVERED in Operator symbols, and a lot of the imagery and ranting are consistent with the notebooks from JAF, as well as the sketches that are referenced in pretty much every Slendyblog I've found so far. Silly me, I was excited. I thought it was a great chance to see an urban legend in action. I started reading up on the blogs, caught up on Marble Hornets, got really excited. But things were starting to happen. I didn't pay any attention at first, because I thought it was just paranoia. These tales are terrifying.
But The feeling of being watched just got worse and worse. And I couldn't quite convince myself it was safe to walk through the park. My roommate and I both started keeping the curtains tightly drawn. We didn't talk about it. It just felt safer. And all the same, if my cat hadn't started going mad at my bedroom window, I would have chalked it up to paranoia. I didn't dare open the blinds to peek.
But then last night I was at a party, and THEIR windows weren't completely covered. But I wouldn't look. Nothing on earth could have made me look. Until their speakers started buzzing. Not the speakers for the music, that were on and going. The ones in the back room where I was sitting talking with a couple friends. The ones that were attached to a computer THAT WAS TURNED OFF. They start buzzing,and the set up is right in front of a window that's only partially covered. I looked, without thinking. And there he was. Cam was there with me, and she saw too. We both slept on the couch there that night-nothing was going to make us go home in the dark with him outside.
So, we're kind of fucked. And it's probably my fault that he's stuck with it too. I don't know what exactly I'm hoping for, posting this. Maybe commiseration? Maybe just someplace to swear the air blue where Cam doesn't have to deal with my freakouts? Maybe I just have to have SOMEPLACE to say things, otherwise I'll go mad.
In any case, if anyone's reading this that has any advice to offer? It would be much appreciated. In the meantime, it's time to do some research, see what I can dig up. This is my field, after all. Surely I can put SOMETHING together