Slenderman is a relatively new monster, having emerged from the depths of the internet. He’s know for having very long limbs and being creepy. I could have made my arms longer easily enough, but longer legs would require stilts. So, I hit on the idea of “wearing” a puppet of Slenderman as my costume – and dressing myself all in black.
It was a lot of work and there were design and engineering issues and triumphs – but in the end it was worth it.
I got a ride to work in the morning and snuck into the office. Slenderman was fastened to me with suspenders, a luggage strap, and dowel rods at the knees. So, using the bathroom or even sitting down were well-nigh impossible.
I started my rounds in the computer center and then headed out on campus. The morphsuit mask made it difficult to see and the lack of glasses didn’t help, but I stumbled around and didn’t run into anyone or get hit by car. It was better when the sun came up – but I still had some accessibility issues on campus.
The place is made of stairs.
I ran into a little trouble in the student union – they weren’t allowed to talk to me unless I took off my mask. Someone even went so far as to leave the game room to tell me to take off my mask. “You there! Stop having fun!” I get it, I guess, but it was still annoying. There were people I wanted to visit that weren’t in and others that were no longer at UA – but I had some great reactions from students and my colleagues.
There were very big hugs – the only kind slenderman knows how to give – and lots of selfies. And at least one video of slenderman dancing. I covered a lot of ground and visited a lot of people – and I was hungry and tired by the end of the day. So, I count that as a win.
I don’t know that I’ll do this next year – the campus is not as much fun as it used to be – but I’ve still got ideas if I do decide to go again.