my annoyingly specific creepypasta headcanons
Chapter 1: setting the scene

Originally written 3 October 2023

(note: this fic is also up on AO3.)

Summary:
this fic goes out to the fellow freaks who grew up with crpa and wished slenderman was their dad. everybody who got into it during the pandemic doesnt know what it was like in 2014. This is not wish fulfillment fic this is revisiting childhood trauma
Notes:
This work may be helpful as a point of reference down the line when I get more work done on my actual fic. My writing is based on very particular personal interpretations and diverges from canon frequently. It may be even more important to note that it also diverges from what is commonly accepted as fanon (ie. Slenderverse,) as my work is slightly more grounded and literal. I’m most interested in writing about these characters based on how I feel they would interface with the real world, following rules inspired by Marble Hornets and other found footage media and ARGs.

what actually are the logistics of a bunch of weirdos and monsters living in the woods together unnoticed:

• there is no slender mansion. i’m not gonna write about the slender mansion. its 2023
• there’s a rotting two-story farmhouse in the middle of a remote field in the Ozarks, originally built in the 50s. It has an expansive basement and sub-basement, a shed, and the surrounding miles of land aren’t populated but dotted with small landmarks like sheds, pavilions, blown-out shells of houses and mine entrances, few in number, far between, and all long abandoned.
• The proxies live within this stretch of land in the mountains, usually milling about pointlessly by themselves or in pairs and vandalizing the already-desolate buildings. Some of them have informal ‘territories’ like a building or other landmark where they keep their belongings and spend a lot of time. Others aren’t as restricted by physical space and can be found anywhere. The only crpa’s that live in the farmhouse full-time are JTK, Smile Dog, EJ, LJ, and Ann; this is still the main point of congregation for all the proxies—it being the only building for miles with electricity and plumbing, though no other utilities are functional—and most of them come and go from it regularly.
• The closest civilization can be reached by finding the hiking trail of a regional park about six miles out. Then it’s just about walking another twelve miles to get out of the park and down a series of roads to the nearest ‘town,’ a trailer park, that itself is at least an hour away from anything besides a gas station. However, the proxies usual means of ‘travel’ is passing out and waking up in a ditch nearby wherever they have errands to run, thanks to the Operator.
• I’m working off of the same implied rules of Marble Hornets when it comes to explaining the supernatural aspects of crpa in general. They’re psychologically vulnerable people who’ve been caught by the Operator, or in the case of cryptic and non-human crpa’s, they’re entities that have come into existence by its will and occupy a somewhat unreal corporeal body, essentially only existing on the peripheral of human consciousness in the same way as the Operator itself.
• The Operator (‘Slenderman’) need only be explained here briefly, as it plays an altogether indirect role. It mostly works out of sight. Within my writing it is more or less a force of human suffering and fear perpetually attempting to physically manifest, to varied results. It works through its proxies, which it collects by seeking out the vulnerable and appealing to their fears, wants, or base instincts.

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