
He is most commonly described as very tall and thin with unnaturally long, tentacle-like arms which he can extend to intimidate or capture prey. He sometimes appears with appendages resembling tentacles that appear from his back. In most stories, his face is white and featureless, but his face occasionally appears differently to anyone who sees it. He also wears a black suit and tie. The Slender Man is commonly associated with the forest and abandoned locations, and has the ability to teleport. Proximity to the Slender Man is often said to trigger a "Slender sickness"; a rapid onset of paranoia, nightmares and delusions accompanied by nosebleeds, as well as a TV static effect on devices with screens. Early stories featured the Slender Man targeting children and young adults. Some featured young adults driven insane or influenced to act on his behalf. Others included the idea that investigating the Slender Man would eventually draw his attention. The web series Marble Hornets established the idea of proxies, humans who fell under the Slender Man's influence and were transformed into beings with similar abilities to him. Initially depicted as simply violently insane, they came to be portrayed as puppets of the Slender Man. Marble Hornets also introduced the idea that Slender Man could interfere with video and audio recordings, as well as "⦻", a symbol which became a common trope of the Slender Man fiction and as a general representation for the character. Graphic violence and body horror are uncommon in the Slender Man mythos, with many narratives choosing to leave the fate of his victims obscure. Shira Chess stated "few of the retellings identify exactly what kind of monster the Slender Man might be, and what his specific intentions are—these points all remain mysteriously and usefully vague."