EXILIS VERITAS

Stella here. This is...well, I'll keep this blog up. I don't think Vivi and Chester would have wanted me to shut it down. So here it will remain. The story of two university students from New Zealand that came across some weird shit on the internet. You people...you got them together, you did, you helped them through this and I know they're thankful.

This account will remain open, although I have changed the password. I'll be around. I might comment occasionally, perhaps. I'll still run Stella, Searching. I'll be sure to let you know how Vivi and Chester are doing every so often, and if anyone has any questions as to their wellbeing or whatever, you can ask me using the "Talk To Me" link sitting around there somewhere.

I went into their work today. For lunch, since it's near my new workplace. They're fine. They're happy. Happier than I'd ever seen them before, in the short time I'd known them.

Their memory of me has changed. I was a friend of Vivi's in primary school who moved away and has only recently moved back. I wonder what else has changed. Who they remember, and how different what they remember is from the reality.

"Exilis Veritas". Vivi told me, a few days before H made his debut, she named the blog that because when she started all she wanted was to find out the honest truth about what He That Is was, but now it's a much bigger thing than just He That Is.

"Slender Truth".

Only a small amount of this blog is the true, unbiased, objective truth. Because this is almost a love story. Familial, platonic, romantic, simple, complex, in all it's fucked up glory. The only thing that ever motivated Vivi and Chester was love. Love for each other, for their friends and family, for their ideals, for you guys. And the whole nature of love is that it can't be rational or objective.

I sound so fucking wishy-washy. This sounded better in my head, I swear. I'm really not very good at all this emotional stuff. I'm just not used to it. I probably sound like the biggest fucking idiot since who knows when, but it's the truth. Veritas.

I received a note this morning. I've copied it all out as accurately as I can but any mistakes are excusable since that was a lot of ones and zeros.

00111000001011110011010000110100001011110011001100110011001011110011011100110111001101110010111100110011001100110010011100110111001101110011011100110111001011010011001000101101001101010011010100110101001011110011010000110100001101000010111100110100001011110011010000110100001011110011100000101101001100100010111100111000001011010011100000101111001101000011010000101111001100110011001100101101001100110011001100101111001101100011011000101111001100110010110100110110001101100011011000101111001100110011001100110011001011010011100000101111001101000011010000101111001100110011001100101101001110000010111100111000001110000010111100110110001101100010111100110110001101100010111100110011001100110010111100110101001101010011010100101100001011010011001000101111001101100011011000101111001100110011001100101101001110010010111100110011001100110010111100100111001101110011011100110111001011110011001100110011001011010011100100101111001100100010111100110101001101010011010100101111001101010011010100101111001101000011010000110100001011110011011000110110001011110011010000101101001110000010111100110110001101100011011000101111001110010010111100110010001011110011011100110111001101110010111100110011001100110010111100110111001101110011011100110111001011010011010000110100001101000010111100111000001011010011010000110100001011110011001000101111001101100011011000101111001100110010110100110100001101000011010000101111001101100011011000101101001101000011010000101111001100100010111100110110001101100010111100110011001011100000110100001010000011010000101000111000001011110011010000110100001011110011001000101111001101100011011000101111001101010011010100101101001110010011100100111001001011110011011000110110001101100010111100111000001011000010110100111000001110000011100000101111001101000011010000110100001011110011100000111000001110000010111100110100001101000011010000101100001011010011001000110010001100100010111100110100001101000010111100110011001100110011001100101111001101110011011100110111001101110010111100110111001101110011011100110111001011100010110100110100001101000011010000101101001100100010111100110110001011010011010000101111001101010011010100110101001011110011001000101111001100110010110100111000001011110011011000110110001101100010110100110100001101000010111100110010001011110011100000111000001110000010111100110011001100110010110100110101001101010010111100110110001101100010111100110110001101100011011000101111001110010010111100110110001101100010110100111001001110010011100100101111001101100011011000110110001011110011100000111000001011000010110100110011001100110010111100111000001110000011100000101111001100110011001100101111001101100011011000101101001100100010111100110111001101110011011100110111001011010011001100110011001011110011011000110110001011110011001100110011001011110011011000101111001101000011010000110100001011110011001100110011001011110011011100110111001101110011011100101110

--Two Face


Fuck you, Two Face, I don't know binary (can somebody who does translate it please?). But I know you follow the blogs. Go read what Reach has said. the deal was that you became a monster to protect your family. You're not a monster, you're human and you've never been anything different. The deal's gone, now, and you're free. You can go back to them now.

I guess this is what you could call a happy ending.

It's what they would have wanted.

--Stella.

Last Goodbyes

Don't mind me, I'm just passing on their message to you. I've done what I came to do.

This is their last goodbye.

"It's been decided."

"Has it now? What were the choices, anyway?"

"You never told us what you were making them choose from. You said there was another option, besides Vivi or I dying."

"Yes. The other option was for you both to be mind-wiped. To wake up tomorrow morning with no memory of He That Is. To be free."

"And what did they decide?"

"They chose the kindest thing. For you to forget. Your lives will go on as they always should have. Nothing ever went wrong."

"So Chester and I... we'll forget everything?"

"For the things which you cannot forget there will be new explanations for. For example, you will remember you two getting together before the Solstice differently, Stella will be a friend returned from overseas or something along those lines. I am nothing if not thorough."

"I see. So you're going to do that to us, then?"

"Is there anything you wish for me to pass on?"

"..."

"Vivi? You go first."

"Yeah...there's a lot of things. Tell them that we love them, all of them, even the Indoctrinated, because when all is said and done they're human, and the fundamental right of all sentient beings is to love and to be loved. Tell them no matter how thoroughly H wipes our minds, in our hearts we will always remember you and what you have done for us."

"I admit I'm not exactly happy about this...I'd happily die so Vivi can go on, but she'd do the same just as easily, and neither of us is willing to let the other walk calmly to their death while we can prevent it...so I guess this is the best thing. Keep fighting, guys. Keep supporting each other, because the only reason Vivi and I have made it this far is because you have been there for us."

"Thank you. Thank you so much. You...you helped us believe. We would never have made it this far without you, but..."

"Now, I guess, it's time to say goodbye."

"Yeah. Take care of yourself, everybody."

I think you all would like to know that they never once let go of each others hand, even when I tranquillised them. They woke up this morning with the sun rising from the east, the ground below them and the sky above, hand in hand, with everything as it should be. 

Forget

I'm glad you have chosen to let them go. I've tidied up their internet history, removed a few things from their house, etc etc etc...Then I'll go and wipe them. If they want to say anything to you guys before they go, I'll forward it on to you.

I did tell you I am not an unkind man.

Tomorrow, they'll wake up and be Vivi and Chester, two ordinary young adults living together in Auckland, New Zealand. They attend university, in their last year, and both work at a restaurant. They both come from good families and have good friends. They'll be okay.

I'll go back to being cleanup crew, making people forget before they get too strong and they have to die.

Everything will be as it's ought to be.

Decisions, Decisions.

Let's cut to the chase. I'm H. I have Genevieve Sullivan and Chester Matenga-White, along with orders to remove them from the equation through whatever means I can. So I'm giving you a choice.

If you want to, you can have them back. But you can have only one. You can have Vivi, or Chester, but not both. The other one will die. I'll make it painless, I assure you. As I said before, I am not an unkind man. Chester being my flesh and blood means very little to me, but I do not enjoy playing with my prey.

That's not the only choice you have. You can let them go. I can remove any and all evidence of Slender Man ever having existed from their memories. I can remove all pages pertaining to Slender man from their internet histories, remove all possible triggers from their immediate area. They'll be free. Memory wipes aren't perfect, but we do our best.

I'm offering you three choices. Each has it's upsides and downsides. Cast your vote.

"GENEVIEVE LIVES" if you wish for Genevieve, and Genevieve only, to survive.

"CHESTER LIVES" if you wish Chester, and Chester only, to survive.

"CLOSE THEIR EYES" if you wish for them to both be mindwiped.

The first one to reach a certain number, which I will not tell you, will be carried out as soon as possible.

Their fate is yours to decide.

he's in the house

Mask guy.

He's in the fucking house, I saw him in the living room.

We're one step ahead of him but I'm not sure how long that's going to last...we can't leave. Slendy is blocking all entrances and exits, including new ones. Stella, I promise we will fix the hole in the wall in your room.

I know who he is, too. And that just makes it so much worse. I have a loaded gun in my hand but I'm not sure if I can use it. Chester does not have a monopoly on uncertainty.

Try to believe. I have to try.

--Vivi

The Man in the Mask

I think I've found out who Mystery Caller is. There's this guy just chilling outside the house. Near the letterbox. He's wearing a mask. One half is white, with a single hole for the eye, the other is black with a white question mask stretching from about where his eyebrow would be to his jaw.

He's just looking at us. From my estimation, he's a bit shorter and more heavyset that I am, dark skin, what I can see of his hair is brown. Hoodie, jeans, trainers. Fairly nondescript apart from the mask. I don't know if he plans on trying anything, but I could probably take him if he does. I don't know. Bloody proxies.

I...actually don't want to fight any of them. I know I've taken my fair share of levels in badass, but I've hated every second of every fight I have been in. Proxy or not, they're human and it's against everything I've ever been taught to hurt another human being unless I absolutely have to. If it weren't for the possibility of Vivi getting hurt...

Why does Slendy always appear outside during my darkest moments? The times when I dislike myself and the situation Vivi and I are in the most? Whenever I feel like giving up?

Fuck you, Slendy. Just...fuck you. I have enough reason not to give up in this room with me. We're the only active fighters in New Zealand as far as we know. Vivi is strong, but she's not strong enough to face off with every proxy in New Zealand without help. Next to useless I may be, but she does need me.

Everybody stay safe. Keep yourselves, and each other, safe. Please.

--Chester

What's going on...?

We managed to capture the proxy following us. The girl. We gave her the cure. But...she's still thrashing around and swearing at us and yelling about slendy saving us all and it's been nearly a day.

What...is going on? Is the cure not working? is it just taking a while to kick in? What do we do? Crap!

Crap crap crap crap...

Warning

Everything is fine around here. We have somebody tailing us, but we can solve that problem without too much trouble unless this kid is actually Chuck Norris in drag. I've never been able to get used to Slendy using kids.  This girl, she can't be older than 15 or 16. She should be in school, learning stuff, with her friends, doing normal teenage girl stuff. Fucking Slendy.

Stella unfortunately did not get the job she applied for but she has a couple of other places with spots open she could work at. Wish her luck, guys.

Also, I keep seeing Two Face and Frank around. They haven't come into work, but I have seen them on the street and things. I'm a little worried, to be honest. Two Face is a good person, but she's still on Slendy's side and to coax her into a Heel Face Turn would mean she had to abandon something important to her- her family. We need as few enemies as possible, but to have Two Face on our side or at least not an enemy we would be putting three innocent, uninvolved people in danger.

...I keep getting these weird calls. The number is private. Usually I just get distortion, but sometimes I get somebody who actually speaks. It's a guy, around the same age as Chester and I. He's...not usually coherent. For example:

V: Vivi. Who speaks?

?: You watch the world burn, knowing all you love is lost

V: Oh no, not you again

?: you offer a hand but you can't hold on for long

V: Are you reading me your poetry, dude? I'm pretty sure there's a website you can publish that stuff on...

?: you can try and you can try but you can't save everyone

V: What on earth...

?: time is running out and your trump card is gone

*he hangs up*

That was the most coherent he has ever been ever. And I admit I can understand what he's getting at, except for the last line. What trump card is he going on about? What the hell?

We're going to have to be more careful from now on. Mystery Guy may be bluffing but it's not advisable to count on it. We're not that stupid.

Everybody stay safe.
--Vivi

Quid Pro Quo

Hi guys. Vivi here. Sane again. Mostly.

Slendy's been chilling outside, but otherwise nothing really notable. I had classes this morning, I'm at work now, life as normal. Well, as normal as my life gets. Massive freak out one day, next I'm tired but AOK, day after that it's business as usual. Yay for living a double life. On the one hand, I'm Genevieve Sullivan, a normal young woman in almost every respect, and on the other I'm helping fight a war.

Chester is...well, he feels really bad about what happened over the weekend. He was stupid, yes, but everybody is stupid, and anyway, he's here now and here is where he's staying. Chester and I, we stick together. Always.

To clarify, I met Chester on the first day of school, Year Eleven, but I didn't get to know him until April, nearing the end of the first school term. I was in the library, looking for a book for my Science project, and the book I wanted had apparently been misfiled since although the computer said it was there, it wasn't in the place it said it was supposed to be, so I went and asked one of the librarians and they didn't know either. Then I felt somebody tap on my shoulder and found this lanky, awkward looking Maori guy I recognised from a couple of my classes standing there, holding out the book I was looking for.

"I was just about to put it back on the shelf, since I've finished my project, so you can have it." he said.

I gave him a blank look. "You've finished that project already? It's really hard- how did you manage that?'

He just blinked at me and went "It's easy, actually. D'you want some help?"

"...Sure, but I need to get my lunch off my friend Kathy..."

And that was kind of it. He helped me with my Science work (it was meant to be just the project, but it kinda snowballed) at lunchtimes, at first in the library and then outside sitting with my friends. He wasn't too happy about that at first, but I told him that you didn't get good with people if you didn't practice.

I don't know. We just got each other, Chester and I. I was there when he found out his grandfather died. He was there when the Boxing Day Tsunami hit where my Dad was working at the time and we waited a fortnight before we found out he was alive and well. I was there when he got the award for best-performing student in Biology in Year 12. He was there when I landed a fairly major role in a school production. Through thick and thin we supported each other.

He knows me better than anyone else ever has and ever will, and I like to think I know him the same way.

No matter what stupid things Chester does, I'll always be there to get him up off the ground. Even if I do it by accident. (i.e. having a massive BSOD, then getting attacked by SlenderHERP) And when I fall, he'll be there to remind me Vivi doesn't sit down and take a beating, Vivi gets back up and gives the person who got her down a piece of her mind. Or a punch in the face. We'll back each other up.

Always.