Slender Man

"We didn't want to go, we didn't want to kill them, but its persistent silence and outstretched arms horrified and comforted us at the same time..."

- The original description of Slender Man.

"He gets into your head... like a virus!"

- Wren describes the Slender Man's behavior in the 2018 film.

The Slender Man is a widely popular internet urban legend, horror icon, and very commonly the titular main antagonist of many stories involving him. Slender Man is a humanoid creature with a vast array of supernatural powers and abilities, his most common hobbies include kidnapping children and brainwashing innocent people into becoming his proxies. Due to his popularity, Slender Man has been seen as one of the most famous urban legends and horror icons of the internet.

Origins
Slender Man's origins are surrounding in mysteries, no one knows just who or what the entity is, some believe he was once a human who was cursed with immortality and mutated into his current state. The most popular explanation is that he is simply a malevolent demon, fairy, or possibly an ancient deity or other entity from another dimension who travels across dimensions to feed on humans, although it is unknown just exactly what he does to his victims, as he either kills them, feeds on them, brainwashes them, or takes them into another dimension.

Regardless, Slender Man has been connected to numerous creatures from mythology, such as Der Großmann, also known as The Tall Man, an ancient fairy of the Black Forest who would abduct bad children until they confessed their wrong doings, making it possible that he snapped within a point in time and took on the identity of the Slender Man.

Appearance
Slender Man's general appearance consists of a tall figure standing from 6 to 14 feet tall wearing a black suit, white shirt, a black or red tie, black trousers, and black shoes. Slender Man's skin is pale white, and he has no facial features of any kind, although some depict him as having somewhat empty visible eye sockets, nose, and mouth. Slender Man is also iconic for having long black tentacles (also seen as extra long hands) which he usually uses to snag in victims.

However, it is possible that this is not his real form, and that he is actually and eldritch being who's true form cannot be comprehended.

Personality
Due to Slender Man's history being completely unknown, it is hard to determine just what he is thinking, although he is commonly seen as a cruel, sadistic, manipulative, predatory, misanthropic demon who only comes to capture humans just because he despises them. It is entirely unknown if Slender Man actually cares for his proxies' safety, or if he's just using them in order to get what he wants, showing his controlling and tyrannical personality. Due to Slender Man being such an enigmatic figure, it is entirely unknown if he is indeed malevolent, or if what he does is true, leading others to portray him in an anti-heroic and benevolent way, and is only taking children in and brainwashing people simply to show them his ways in trying to be better than the current state of humanity. This leads to another popular variation of the Slender Man, commonly used in AUs, headcanons, and fanfiction, portraying him as a fatherly and typically caring personality to other villainous Creepypasta characters, usually getting irritated by their antics and controlling what goes on, typically in a mansion.

Powers and Abilities
Many stories seem to indicate that The Slender Man can control a person's mind, which became the basis for the Proxies in the video ARG, a trend that later spread to Slenderblogs. The Slender Man also originally had stronger connections to children, and many of the original stories revolved around disappearing children or featured Slender Man sightings in photos with children. This was often attributed to the innocence and morbid curiosity of children, which could lead them down the path of discovering the creature.

As more stories came forth, however, the use of tentacles and tentacle-like appendages became less common, and the invisibility was limited or eliminated depending on the storyteller. (On the other hand, some stories took the invisibility even further and claimed it was entirely invisible without the use of electronic devices.)

EMH, TT, ML, and DH all contain some sort of video and/or audio distortion, indicating that The Slender Man has an effect on modern digital instruments. This does not appear in any of the original accounts, but these also mainly make use of photographs and lower-tech video. EMH has suggested that this distortion is the effect of Sigma Radiation, a radiation said to be given off by Slender Man and the Rake. Sigma Radiation is also contagious, as it entered Evan's blood-stream when his arm was brutally maimed by The Rake.

EMH and ML also describe the phenomenon known as "Slender Walking." Slender Walking is a term created to describe Slender Man's apparent teleportation and space-time warping/teleportation between locations. These abilities were seen in early Slender Man accounts, and is one of the most recognizable elements of the mythos. Slender Man’s ability to appear – seemingly from nowhere – in a place where he wasn’t mere seconds before is one of his most terrifying traits, and EMH mentions the effect of this on a person's mental health.

Certain contemporary views see his movement as either extremely limited or impaired, as if he is incapable of moving his body properly. It is rarely seen to actually move, and goes from standing still to rapidly teleporting within the blink of an eye. There is no apparent coherency to his movements or position, and he is capable of teleporting several dozen times to various locations in a few seconds. He does not flee, and can be just as dangerous standing still as when obviously teleporting. He is capable of – and often will – stay within several dozen feet of his target, no matter how they try to escape. It seems to be part of his psychological attack to stay just within visual range without actually attacking – the fact that he is there, no matter what, is often described as worse than actually being attacked, the psychological effects often deteriorating the mind of the victim as a result.

He appears to be able to follow any and all targets regardless of where they go, or where and how they hide. It isn't certain how he does this, but he seems able to keep a perfect trace on its targets, often speculated to be a part of his supposed existence as a potentially omnipresent being.

Danger Level
Slender Man is immortal, he cannot be killed through any means and there is presumably no way to get him to leave you alone, no exorcism can get him to leave, and even if he does decide to leave he can still get his proxies to carry out his work. Without a doubt, he is one of, if not, the most dangerous Creepypasta characters of all time. This scores him a 11 on the danger level.

Trivia

 * In 2014, two girls were "influenced" by Slender Man into stabbing their friend 19 times in order to "please" him and put the blame on the character, the girl survived and the attackers were apprehended.
 * Slender Man has received a live action film of him that was released on August 10th 2018, being portrayed by Javier Botet, written by Victor Surge, and produced by Screen Gems.
 * As of now, there have been no ways as to defeating or getting rid of Slender Man in the canon so far.