The Tutorial

Welcome to The Tutorial. Being stalked by Slender Man? Well, M is just the man to turn to. Starting from the first entry of The Tutorial, he instructs people how to not only survive being hunted and haunted by Slender Man, but to live and enjoy life in spite of the terror of being followed by an Eldritch Abomination. He offers a lot of insight on the mythos and was the one to found three rules which players of the ARG have been prescribing to ever since his blog took off. People who follow his rules are called Runners.

The Three Rules Are:

1. Get up high. Due to Being on a different wavelength than mankind, Slender Man doesn't seem able to perceive people of a higher altitude than two stories up.
2. Keep moving. Stay in one place too long and you will find yourself having nightly visitations.
3. Keep your eyes open. Be alert.

Note: The rules are not foolproof, as some people prescribing to M's thinking have found out the hard way.

Not to be confused for tutorials for products.

Tropes used in The Tutorial include:

• The Ace: No, not Zeke Strahm, Robert, or Zero. For having been there from the very start of Slender Man's reign of terror and still being alive, sane, and in one piece today, this particular Title goes undisputedly to M. Follow his example if you want to survive. He's not a Broken Ace, either. He won't let himself break, for one thing.
• The Atoner: M shows some shades of this. He once teamed up with a man named Sam. At the time, M thought that they could seek safety in the woods and guided Sam out there, as the result, the other man was torn limb from limb.
• Big Brother Mentor: To Shaun.
• Cluster F-Bomb: The blog entries are filled with all kinds of colorful language.
• Crazy Homeless People: Subverted, in that M is largely a Only Sane Man when compared to some of the other bloggers (looking at you, Sandra). He's got the homeless part down, though.
  • However, this is the fate of some most people on the run from Slender Man.
  • Not just M but most of the homeless people described in Tutorial are portrayed as resourceful and well adapted to their environment. M just extends this mentality to fighting abominations.
• Deadly Prank: M lampshades that this is how the whole thing got started, with a "make a scary photo" contest.
• The Determinator: M. He has fought and clawed his way to survival since day one of Slender Man's appearance. Now he's on the Run and not about to let himself to caught.
• Don't Go in The Woods: Do not. This is how ol' slendy gets around.
• Everyone Is a Suspect: To an extent. Proxies and agents under slimjim can act perfectly normal.
• Final Guy: M, himself. Everyone he ever knew, friends, family, that guy at the supermarket. All dead.
• Genre Savvy: M. Just M. He is teaching fellow Runners how to weather the hunt, after all. He knows how to survive anything that Slender Man can throw at him, whether it's fire, his slaves/followers, or direct confrontations. He's also been doing so ever since the whole mess got started at Something Awful forums.
• Hope Spot: M, himself. To explain, there is almost nothing stable about the slendercommunity. It's always changing cast members via Slender Man battering the poor bastards. M's The Tutorial represents a stability not found elsewhere. Thus his continued survival through all the storms and hellfire Slender Man has thrown them (think Late November) is enough to give some bloggers enough of an inkling of hope to keep soldiering on.
• I Work Alone: His title given to him by Robert Sage was Hermit. M neither claimed or rejected the title, but it suits his role in the mythos. He goes it alone all the way but is more than willing to pass his knowledge onto others and encourage experimentation to learn about the bloggers' common foe.
• Implacable Man: Slender Man, natch.
• It's Not You, It's My Enemies: M goes it alone. Everyone who has teamed up with him have met grisly ends.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: M, himself. He's abrasive, unfriendly, blunt, rude, and swears like a sailor. He's also the first person to sit down and make a comprehensive guide to help others endure the horrors brought up by ol' Slendy and has become something of an authority on the subject.
  • As such, just about all of the entries of his blog to become a gathering place for the slenderbloggers to congregate and discuss the matter at hand.
• Lampshade Hanging: Has done this with just about everything the mythos has to offer.
• Mad Scientist: Occasionally M shows some shades of this while discussing theories about Slender Man, especially when in conversation with the former Sages.
• Massive Multiplayer Crossover: Just about everybody from the slenderblogs makes an appearance on the comments sections of his entries at one point or another whether it's Robert, Jay, Zero, Maduin, Nessa, Fizzy, Reach, Amelia, Zeke Strahm, A, B, Jess, Jean, Vieve, Shaun, Sandra, Matt, or Lya. It's where they do a lot of their discussing and planning, in fact.
• My Greatest Failure: See The Atoner.
• Non-Action Guy: Unlike the likes of Everyman Hyrbid's Evan or Seeking Truth's Zeke Strahm, he never attempts to bring out the good ol' Boomstick or Chainsaw to try to bring the fight to Slender Man. He's perfectly content to spend his days running. Of course, it's worked for him so far.
• Offscreen Teleportation: Actually Invoked in this blog. The whole point of M's third rule is the theory that the Slender Man can't do this if he thinks you're looking at him. In other words, he literally cannot teleport unless he's "offscreen" in your mind.
• Only Sane Man: Yes. Very much so. Out of all the slenderbloggers, he's the only one who has yet to lose it even once, thus setting an all-time record which no one else has yet to match.
• Schedule Slip: there are times when M has gone months without contact, which, given the subject matter of the blog, is unsettling. One went on so long that most bloggers assumed him dead.
  • Thankfully, he finally got back to them, confirming he is still alive.
• Shaggy Dog Story: Yes. Though M is still alive, he was unable to save his brother, other family members, or friends, and will spend the rest of his days being chased down and hunted by the Slender Man.
• Tagalong Kid: Bondie - After M "hiatus" at the start of 2011 M was found by a kid named Bondie.
• Tomato in the Mirror: He warns people about these. They're people Slender Man has taken over and left alone for a while for whatever reason. He can seize control again anytime, though.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Zeke Strahm. It's good fucking coffee.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Slender Man's inability to see you if you're higher than two stories up.
• Wild Mass Guessing: A lot of this goes in both the blog entries and the comments section. By extension, Epileptic Trees are sometimes indulged as well.
• Your Mind Makes It Real: Like many other Slender-based vlogs/blogs, he considers Slender Man to be a product of the Tulpa Effect, which is essentially this trope.