Oh Wanderer of Blazes, will you please pass me by?
I am not worth your interest, so leave me here to die.
As the flames close in and curl around this frigid winter night,
I pray I will not see you coming, by the fire's light. - Full Circle
A six story-arc creepypasta saga about the Slender Man written by one Star Kindler. It starts with a single attack by the Slender Man on an unsuspecting young writer named Connor Russell and his friend Kurt Kent. From there it spirals out of control into a series of killings, during which things tend to go from From Bad to Worse.This story harkens back to some of the earlier depictions of the Slender Man, including its association with children, fire, and its meta nature.
The six stories in order are:
- By the Fire's Light- Main character Connor Russell
- The Wanderer of Blazes - Main character Dr. Ellen Kennedy
- The Nameless One - Main characters Detective Carl Rourke and Mira Grolinsky
- The Curling Flames - Main character Jared Holloway
- Fighting Fate- Main characters Detective Carl Rourke and Mira Grolinksy
- Full Circle - Main characters Detective Carl Rourke and Mira Grolinsky
Tropes Associated with the By the Fire's Light series are:
Spoilers Below!
- And I Must Scream: Slender Man traps his victims in a Pocket Dimension where they're constantly put through the pain of being burned alive, unable to die or escape.
- Anyone Can Die: Anyone can. And eventually, it's implied everyone pretty much does.
- Batman Gambit:
- Detective Carl Rourke and Mira Grolinsky try to use Slender Man's meta nature against it. This ends up blowing up in their faces spectacularly, when they accidentally cause his powers to become stronger than ever.
- Slender Man plans one of these, menacing, but not killing, Connor Russel, because he knows that he's a writer, and expects him to utilize the trauma inflicted upon him as the basis for a book about Slender Man. It works, and Slendy causes Connor's death afterwards. It's also subtly implied that Connor's death was a way for Slendy to help spread the word of the book via infamy, thus spreading his influence even wider.
- The Blank: The Slender Man, faceless as usual in stories it stars in.
- Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Long before the events of the story, Slender Man was a creature without form or name, until it latches onto the identity of The Slender Man in order to affect events in the physical world. It's two-edged, however, because if people know Slender Man exists for real, they can use the force of belief to oppose it. This ends up being how Detective Carl Rourke and Mira Grolinksy fight, and, eventually, lose to the Slender Man.
- Cosmic Horror Story: The Slender Man is treated as an Eldritch Abomination and hails from an Eldritch Location in story.
- Decoy Protagonist: Connor Russell. Though he sets things in motion, the main protagonists end up being Mira Grolinsky and Detective Carl Rourke.
- Defiant to the End: Detective Carl Rourke and Mira Grolinsky go out telling Slender Man that they'll be the corner of light in the world of darkness he's trying to create.
- Driven to Suicide: Several characters commit suicide, including Connor Russel, who does so to rob Slendy of the satisfaction of taking him, and Jared Holloway, who takes his own life so that Slender Man can no longer use him as a pawn.
- Eldritch Location: A fiery dimension Slender Man hangs out in with its victims.
- From Bad to Worse: How the stories tend to arc. The series begins with Slender Man killing a teenage boy and ends with the apocalypse.
- Genre Savvy: Disturbingly, Slender Man shows a large amount of this. It runs off the belief of people who fear it, so it kidnaps somewhere between hundreds to thousands of children and places them in a Pocket Dimension that they can't escape from, and makes them endure the agonizing pain of being burned alive perpetually. The main characters Detective Rourke and Mira Gorlinsky recognize that they can fight him through the power of belief, so they write a book where he has clearly defined weaknesses for them to exploit and gear up for a climactic showdown. Slender Man realizes exactly what they're trying to do, and never shows up to fight them until he's so powerful that he no longer needs to feed off the power of belief, making all their preparations worthless and allowing him to start the end of the world.
- I Have Many Names: The Slender Man, The Wanderer of Blazes, The Nameless One
- I'm Not Afraid of You: Dr. Ellen Kennedy tries this on Slender Man, insisting that Slender Man is a fictional ghost story that can't actually hurt her. Unfortunately, it only slows him down, since Slender Man is already too powerful to be stopped in this way.
- Immune to Bullets: Rourke tries to shoot Slender Man, only to see to his horror that the bullets disappear when they make contact.
- It Can Think: Slender Man successfully manipulates people into doing what it wants or thinking of ways to overcome their defenses.
- Lean and Mean: It wouldn't be Slender Man if it wasn't tall, lean, and very mean.
- Mind Rape: Features heavily whenever Slender Man takes an interest in someone.
- Multiple-Choice Past: The origin of Slender Man given in "The Wanderer of Blazes" might be true. Or it might only be retroactively true because people in-universe believe in it.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Downplayed. Mira and Rourke's efforts to create weaknesses to use against Slender Man causes them to accidentally lend more power to his usage of belief as an energy source, leading to Slender Man growing powerful enough to end the world. Despite this, Kurt Kent shows up just before the end to tell them that they likely only sped up the inevitable rather than outright causing it.
- Oh, Crap!: Massive one in "The Curling Flames" towards the end when Jared Hollowed realizes he and Detective Carl Rourke have set themselves up for the Slender Man.
- Sadist: Slendy enjoys causing pain and torment to his victims. While he never says a word, body language and telepathic communication shows just how gleeful he is when causing harm.
- Show Within a Show: Two of them, which become plot points. Connor writes a book about Slender Man, which in turn gives him more power. Mira and Rourke end up writing another book about Slender Man in order to give him defined weaknesses to stop him with. It ends up backfiring when they accidentally upgrade the power of belief he runs on.
- Spell My Name With An S: Several different variations on Slender Man's title, including slenderman and Slenderman, appear at some point during the story.
- Taking the Heat: Slender Man tortures Jared into accepting the blame for Kurt Kent's murder.
- Tulpa: The Slender Man shares several aspects with one in this series. He started his life as a nameless and formless otherworldly monster, then took the name and form of the character we know as Slender Man using the power of belief and fear.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
- The event that allows Slender Man to take shape in the first place is a brief, mediocre prank where Kurt throws a business suit at Connor. This is enough for a passing Eldritch Abomination to latch onto and take Slender Man's name and likeness.
- Connor writes a book about Slender Man ten years after the initial attack. This only serves to give Slendy more power, spreading his name further than ever, and prompts him to re-emerge.
- Mira and Rourke write a book as well, this time inserting several discernable weaknesses that can be used to fight Slendy. They inadvertently make the power of belief he runs on even stronger, which causes his power to boost so much that he becomes unstoppable.
- Would Hurt a Child: Slender Man targets children, naturally, though the method is especially notable since they're permanently trapped in a world of his own making and are continuously put through the pain of being burned in a fire, with no way to die or get out.
