Memorial

School has officially begun once again. Students go to their classes, professors earn their keep, everyone pretends that education is taking place….
Not that it affects me, as I haven’t been attending classes. Yes, our own Arkady Svidrigailov has been playing hooky.
“Arkady! How could you!” I hear you shout. “Don’t you know that getting a degree is a vital part of becoming a functioning gear in the cogs of society?”
To which I respond, “Screw you all, I’m going to be dead and all my organs removed within the year. I have better ways to spend my time.”

Using my now unlimited quantities of free time, I have worked towards preparing myself as best as possible for whatever confrontation comes. Most of my mornings are taken up by working out; being able to do things like throw a good punch or run away quickly may not be all that helpful against Slendy, but it’s something. I’m planning to sit in on some of the self defense courses the university offers, but that will only work so long as the instructor doesn’t take attendance and realize I’m not a student in their class. I’d also like to learn how to use that replica sword I have as something other than a bludgeoning object, but I highly doubt a single soul in this city has even the slightest clue of how to handle a weapon like that in a real fight.

Research has been another priority. I’m already familiar with the major blogs and vlogs, and have read through all the informative blogs, so finding more info on Slender Man isn’t the goal. What is a priority is learning practical skills and techniques. It’s amazing how easy it is to find how to guides online for picking locks or making homemade explosives. Only the first of those is really practical; I’d bought a set of lock picks several years ago because I thought I needed it to show how aloof and above society’s restrictions I was (Yeaaaahh…..). Now that they’re coming in handy, I can’t complain. As Jason no longer needs his door, I’ve been using it as practice.
Explosives are a different story; I don’t want to blow off my hands making them (a very possible consequence for someone unskilled like me making them), but more importantly, I don’t want to give Javert and his crew more reasons to bother me. Ever so often, I’ll find that I have an officer tailing me as I walk through the city. So far they haven’t interacted with me beyond their stalking, but it makes it ever so difficult to commit illegal activities. For the time being, I’ll just stick with those leftover fireworks I have.
Another avenue of my research has been more historical. Curiosity still nips at my heels from time to time, and I can’t help but wonder just what this thing following me is. Finding primary sources about him is an awful chore, so I’ve needed to settle with researching the periods and ideas he seems associated with. I’ve read through several books and essays on Norse Mythology, focusing on the tree Yggdrasil, with a spattering of Ragnarok, and have checked out several books dealing with medieval Germany. If I have the time (unlikely, but I can hope), I’m planning to look into Tibetan Buddhism, where the word “Tulpa” originated from. Then I’m going to look into those Egyptian hieroglyphs that reportedly showed Slender Man in them. I doubt any of this will help me find a weakness, or give me any small edge in fighting him, but it can’t hurt. I should at least know what it is I’m stabbing before I stab it.

For a fun, none research related fact, my bank accounts have been frozen. Yup. No more money flowing from them. Also no explanation, warning, or anything. I found out when I tried withdrawing some money. Thankfully, I’d been making preparations in case I ever needed to liquidate everything and go on the run, so I’d been withdrawing money, at a rate slow enough that it wouldn’t attract suspicion, for the past few days. With my accounts frozen, that plan has to stop, and what I have on my person is how much cash I’m going to have to live with. Comes up to around $500, which means I need to choose between paying next month’s rent or eating.

In news relating to people who are not me (Yes, such people exist in this world. Unless solipsism is correct, and I am god.), the memorial service for that proxy who tried to kill me was held today. It seems his name was Benjamin Sayer. It just so turns out that I had a philosophy class with him last semester; the beard and long hair made recognizing him a bit difficult when we met. He’d stood out to me in that class, something which doesn’t happen often. We didn’t agree on our philosophical views in the slightest (Kantians can be just so annoyingly self righteous at times), but he was one of the few people there intelligent enough to hold a reasonable debate with. From what I’ve heard, he disappeared over the break, and the report of his death was the first his family had heard of him since then. It’s kind of a shame he had to die; intelligent people are such a rarity these days.

And hey, look at that. Javert’s set up a speed trap right next to my apartment. I can see him from my window. Even wave at him. Hi there, Javert! You go and stop those dastardly college kids who think they can destroy American values with their fast driving!

Hm…. I’m actually tempted to go and talk to him now….

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