Post #22: Alternative #2 - The Pale Woman a.k.a. Mercy

Since I haven't had the time to conduct any experiment, or research, to pass the time I was once again going through a few blogs, due to someone's recent return, I decided to analyze an Alternative that has been appearing around Kelevra and Mr. Incognito the most.

Mr. Incognito was a rather tragic figure, developed a craving for killing whilst in the service of KGB; his wife and only child murdered at the hands of an insane priest; the KGB agency does not fire him after the tragedy, but instead start sending on surveillance and research assignments; insatiable desire for killing drives Incognito to start killing criminals in between his missions, the agency doesn't know; one of his missions finally brings him on a collision course with Slender Man, which is what causes him to start blogging.

Incognito was entirely out of the loop on the whole "Fears" and "Slender Man" business, so whenever he could, he would read other blogs for research, just to familiarize himself with the situation more. In one of his posts, he states that he pretty much spends an entire day reading through different blogs, to the point of exhaustion, but he was refusing to fall asleep, trying to learn as much as he could, this is when we might potentially see the first instance of the Pale Woman's influence appear:

I am gradually falling asleep, I'm trying to distract myself, by typing this, also I hear a voice, a woman's voice, so gentle, so quiet, doesn't remind me of anyone, just a stranger, she simply repeats one word "Sleep". - Mr. Incognito (Report #12)

Now this can easily be put aside as a simple side effect of sleep deprivation on Incognito's part, problem is, The Pale Woman will exhibit in the future the ability to get into people's mind and seems to be able to communicate with her victims telepathically.

Incognitos next encounter with the woman happened a few days later, this encounter, potentially, reveals her allegiances and is the first time ever that her appearance is described.

Saw a woman today, was about the age of 21, was hard to tell. She was staring right at me across the road for a minute, her face was pale, real pale, white hair, and by "white", I mean completely white, white hoodie, the only thing that wasn't white were the jeans. - Mr. Incognito (Report #14)

Apart from odd choice of clothing and style overall, she didn't appear to stand out in any remarkable way, which is what led Incognito to believe that she might be a proxy, considering the fact that she would continue to follow Incognito around throughout the day.

Why do I see her? She keeps following me, but I never see her walk, she just appears wherever I look, but she is always out of reach... - Mr. Incognito (Report #14)

The first documentation of how she travels around, throughout her appearances, you will notice a pattern of her just appearing, out of nowhere, very rarely do you read about someone seeing her actually move to get to her destination:

as I turned towards the door, there she was, standing inside the doorway...That Pale Woman that stalks Incognito. - Kelevra (Syke!)

I didn't get the message at first, took me a couple of seconds before I realized that there was someone else in the room, out of nowhere, from behind, this pale girl - Kelevra (What The Actual Fuck !?)

And I see her once again, the pale woman, standing over Kelevra's body and then I lose consciousness. - Mr. Incognito (Last Words)

However there are a few exceptions of when people can actually see her moving:

I just wrote an operator symbol on my hand, and showed her it trough the window, was wondering how she would react, she was frightened to say the least, she ran away real fast... - Mr. Incognito (Report #14)

Incognito saw her run away, if she has the ability to appear out of nowhere, why simply run? Well as Incognito describes in the above post, she got frightened once she saw the Operator Symbol, maybe whilst in the state of panic, she didn't think of teleporting away, resorting to the running instinct. This is very crucial, because it shows that this woman may potentially exhibit traces of human behavior, despite her supernatural nature, however, this could have been a facade on her part, I will explain my reasoning for this a bit later.

Right now, I would like to concentrate on the next ability this woman possesses, which is the ability to make people see visions and illusions. Convinced that Incognito scared off a potential Runner, he decided to track the woman down, he was able to pin point her location at the time which was a house, located in the middle of a forested field:

So I walk up to the house, I can't really describe it, I mean the house was like a house, it wasn't anything different, yet somehow it felt like home, I don't know. So I walk up to the door, and it is unlocked, from there on I was on my highest senses, unlocked doors, first sign of bullshit. But I didn't encounter anyone, the inside of the house was real nice, I mean it was clean, taken care of, someone was definitely taking care of it. - Mr. Incognito (Report #16)

Keep that description in mind, it will come into play a bit later. So Incognito walks into the house and spots this woman sitting on the couch, staring out through the window. They have a conversation, Incognito explains that he is not actually a proxy and in a surprising act of complete trust, the woman asks Incognito to sit next to him, that she is scared. Now, you'd think that someone who was actually afraid of being tracked by proxies, wouldn't be so easily trusting of someone who just said "I'm not a proxy" right? Which leads me to believe that the whole "Frightened" and "Running away" shtick was a trick, to convince Incognito to find her, to lure him in.

For what? Well, what happens next, is she tries really hard to convince Incognito to stay for a few minutes with her and just relax, originally Incognito hesitates and tries to leave, but she convinces him to stay. Incognito proceeds to lay down on the couch, trying to relax, drifting off into deep thoughts, thinking of his happy place I guess? Not sure, since Incognito's description of his thoughts seems like it could either be his memories, or this woman was planting thoughts into his mind.

Whatever the case, something seemed to interfere with the relaxation process:

The image continued, me and my family having a picnic at some sort of park, it was sunny.
But again for an instant the image changed to them lying on the ground bleeding.  -Mr. Incognito (Report #16)

I lied back down, yet this time I wasn't imagining anything I was just starring at the window.
Then I saw IT (Slender Man) in the distance, that was the final straw, I jumped up, I had to go. -Mr. Incognito (Report #16)

Incognito's relaxing thoughts would suddenly morph into disturbing images, until the moment he saw The Slender Man in the distance. After that, he realized that something was wrong and that he had to get out. However, the Pale Woman had other plans and tried to force Incognito to stay, that's when everything changed:

...the view from the window was not as beautiful, it was surrounded by burnt trees, looked around the house, it was all torn apart, the furniture lying around. -Mr. Incognito (Report #16)

Which brings me back to the house's description in the beginning, it looks like this woman is capable of creating very convincing illusions to fool you into trusting her, or to play up to your weaknesses to fool you into walking into a trap. In this instance, there seems to have been a mixture of both, she created the illusion of this beautiful looking house and then would start planting ideas in Incognito's head that would make him feel like "Home" which is exactly the feeling Incognito described that he was getting when walking up and into the house for the first time. On top of that, it looks like the memories about his family that Incognito was replaying in his head during his relaxation attempt were also somehow planted by the woman, because as time would go by after this encounter, Incognito would begin to have dreams of his family on a regular basis and as Incognito claims:

This whole dream process was activated from that encounter with that woman, before that encounter I didn't have dreams, or nightmares, I didn't have anything, I just slept. -Mr. Incognito (Report #26)

Now there is an argument to be made here, that maybe Incognito is jumping to conclusions, after all, we can't control our dreams. Or, maybe he is half right and these dreams were indeed triggered because of that encounter, but it could be because he was repressing those memories for so long. Or maybe she is indeed capable of planting dreams within your mind during your sleep, she was, potentially, capable of making Incognito hear her voice whispering, when she was nowhere near him.

Now this seems like the same type of ability the previous Alternative, Sanctuary, possesses. Creating illusions that make you comfortable to approach the Alternative, in fact, if the methods that these two Alternatives employ weren't so different, I would say that this woman was either one of Sanctuary's servants like Sagari, or she was the sort of beacon for Sanctuary to manifest in this world.

Here are a few more instances of her exhibiting this power:

..one day when I came to visit her, through her window of course, her room was torn down to hell, like nobody lived inside of it for ages, covered with confusion I looked outside and what I saw, was that I was now standing inside of an abandoned building.
At first I was covered with confusion, but quickly I got my shit together and was ready to get out of there, as I turned towards the door, there she was, standing inside the doorway...That Pale Woman that stalks Incognito. -Kelevra (Syke!)

I turned around to see if the girl was still there, in her place it was the same pale woman that I keep seeing, the little girl, it was her, playing mind games with me... -Mr. Incognito (Report #86)

Another power she seems to posses acts as a sort of defense mechanism for her. Basically, whenever you try to get into physical contact with her, you will find yourself being transported to a different place, this can range from being transported just a few feet:

...yet the minute I jumped at her, I found myself flying out the door of the house... -Mr Incognito (Report #16)

To several miles:

...so I ran towards The Pale Woman and in an instant, I was in a different place, outside the city... -Kelevra (Syke!)

But she doesn't use this ability to only defend herself, there was two instances of when she protected two other people of interest to her:

I would have reached IT, if the woman didn't push me and somehow transport me to a different place, some sort of road that looked normal... -Mr. Incognito (The Path Part 8: The Pale Woman)

I tried to go for the unexpected attack, this time sending Fortissimo to attack Diana, this time she complied, but this girl (Pale Woman), she moved in front of Fortissimo and once again I was moved from the place where I was, in the middle of a forest. -Kelevra (What The Actual Fuck?!)

There's not much to say about the ability itself, but there is a pattern emerging here, all of her abilities seem to border on the defensive aspect, more so than the offensive, which leads me to believe that this is a relatively passive alternative, who simply acts as an observer and only interferes, when the one she is targeting, is being targeted by other creatures, which of course has lead to interactions between this Alternative and a Fear.

I'll start off with the time this Woman had, somewhat, of an encounter with the Unnamed Child, I say somewhat because it isn't clear if this was an encounter, or an alliance, or neither:

Remember The Pale Woman standing behind me? What I don't get, is if she was working with The Unnamed Child, or was she invisible to The Unnamed Child, just like my darling Fortissimo? Because The Unnamed Child, payed her no attention during that whole conversation. -Kelevra (Syke!)

Neither of them seemed to acknowledge each other's presence in that room and as Kelevra remarked, apparently the Pale Woman is capable of making herself appear invisible to Azoth. See, Fortissimo is what seems to be Kelevra's sentient, Azoth jacket who appears to have a symbiotic relationship with Kelevra, who's body they share. Now it is unknown whether this symbiotic relationship is real and if "Fortissimo" is really sentient, or of Kelevra is just delusional due to high exposure to Azoth. Regardless, when Kelevra would try to attack The Pale Woman with Azoth, it wouldn't happen, because, as Kelevra describes it, she just appears non-existent to Azoth.

But this is potentially, not the only documentation of her appearing as non-existent to other creatures, after all, she was able to operate within The Path of Black Leaves, which is Slender Man's domain, freely without interruption for a while, which I would imagine, be a bit difficult to pull off, considering that The Slender Man can probably feel everything that happens within The Path, unless, he couldn't sense her, of course.

Furthermore, she might have been able to interfere with how The Path worked, see, at some point, Incognito went inside the Path to get some answer, figure out how the place works. At some point he encountered The Pale Woman again and when he rushed at her, she transported him to another part of the forest, where there were a bunch of mirrors with reflections of all the people who Incognito had killed. At one point he saw a reflection of one of his partners, who had died whilst on the run with Incognito, when he approached the reflection, it was the only reflection in that forest of mirrors to be able to talk to him. He was also the only reflection that could walk outside of the mirror and come with Incognito, he was willing to help Incognito to navigate through the Path, which is strange, considering what he said:

"Listen, I know you think I might kill you, in fact, I think I am meant to do that, simply because all those fellas behind those other mirrors want to do it, I can hear their thoughts for some reason." -Twitch (The Path, Part 6: Forest of Mirrors)

So apparently, everyone else in those mirrors had the desire to kill Incognito, except for the only reflection that could talk and walk out of the mirror. I believe that all of these mirrors and reflections were either conjured up by the Path, or Slender Man, to either mess with Incognito, or kill him. But somehow, The Pale Woman was able to hijack one of the reflections and use it as means to try and lead Incognito out, the reason I say that, is because this Woman is the reason Incognito got out alive from the Path and the way she achieved it, is by having Twitch lead Incognito to her:

"That's where I keep hearing voice's from" Twitch told me, pointing to the cocoon. -Twitch (The Path Part 8: The Pale Woman)

Specifically speaking, he led Incognito out into the open field within the Path, in the middle of which was, apparently this cocoon. Potentially, another sign of this Woman being able to manipulate her surrounding area within the Path is, as Incognito describes, all the grass in the field appeared to have been dead and burnt, but not around the cocoon, apparently, the grass surrounding the cocoon was alive and growing.

Even further proof of her goal within the Path and being able to manipulate the Path's aspects, she was able to take over Twitch, as a Beacon, to communicate with Incognito, through him:

After some time, Twitch started to slowly turn towards me, his eyes a different color, a blue color. He started talking to me, but it wasn't him who was talking, why do I assume that? Because Twitch doesn't know my real name. -Incognito (The Path Part 8: The Pale Woman)


She then continued to tell Incognito that she has some sort of vested interest in him, due to a "bond" that they share, she also confirmed her goal, as to why she is interfering with Incognito's progress:

"No, this world, the moment you entered it, he knew you were here, it is a part of him, he has been bending this world, to lead you deeper into the abyss." -TPW a.k.a. Mercy (The Path Part 8: The Pale Woman)

However, The Slender Man eventually caught whiff of this and began to interfere with her plans, which establishes the power dynamic between the two, she is clearly far weaker than the Slender Man:

I looked at the source and there she was, on her knees, yelling in pain. I looked a bit further and saw the cocoon slowly burning down, in black flames and I saw IT, standing there, looking at her, bending IT's head like it usually does. -Mr. Incognito (The Path Part 8: The Pale Woman)

They were both able to get away due to her teleporting ability. So what was her vested interest in Incognito, which would force her to interfere and risk herself for Incognito's safety? Well, that question was answered upon Incognito's second and final trip into the Path.

This time, instead of keeping Incognito away from the Path, she showed him the way inside, at some point they had yet another encounter inside, this is where she divulged the name she prefers to be called by:

"I am what you crave, I am what you have been craving since all of this began, I am something everybody craves, I am Mercy." -TPW a.k.a. Mercy (Closing Report)

She was really vague in their final encounter, but I do believe that I can come to a conclusion on her motives as to why she targeted Incognito specifically. You see, by this point in time, Incognito went through a lot, between being hunted down by the largest Proxy organization in Russia and having a final showdown with Kelevra in order to save Moscow from obliteration, he also was forced to remember and re-live what had happened to him and his family before all of this. All of those experiences led Incognito to admit something to himself, all this time, he wasn't trying to survive, he was trying to die:

I knew that once they were gonna come into my proximity I was going to rise up from this bed and kill every single one of them and then another thought crawled into my mind...maybe I won't. So I remained on the bed, waiting for them to come in and kill me, I wanted to die. -Mr. Incognito (Kelevra's Motives)

So it makes sense, that an entity based on the concept of Mercy would target Incognito from the beginning, their first encounter, in that house, could have been her opportunity to make Incognito fall asleep forever, granting him a merciful end:

"You want to die, a death that nobody hears about, nobody remembers, your dream, your desire, I am here to grant you mercy, accept my hand and you will receive what you crave." -TPW a.k.a. Mercy (Closing Report)

The bizzare thing is, unlike other creatures, she doesn't seem to force the person she targets, to accept her offer. Because Incognito outright refuses and proceeds on his mission, which gets him killed by the Slender Man and this time, she doesn't interfere.

I don't know if it was Incognito's extremely stubborn nature that made her lay off, or if they came to some sort of agreement that was not disclosed. Regardless, that's Mercy, an interesting Alternative, who seems to show herself to people who have a desire to permanently leave their predicament, she seems to have clashing methods with other creatures when it comes to the elimination of her targets.

See, other creatures, like the Slender Man, all exhibited psychotic tendencies, choosing to torture and play around with their victims, before ending them. Mercy seems to choose a quick and painless approach, which clashes with other Creatures, hence why she tried very hard to interfere with everybody who tried to torture Incognito before his death, be it Kelevra, or Slender Man himself. In both instances, she seemed to fail, due to Incognito's refusal to accept her, which of course brings up the question as to why she even bothered with Incognito then? he clearly wanted to die the way he died, in action, it's not an easy task to convince a man like that to accept an easy way out, which conflicts with her easy achieving methods, why complicate things? Go after someone who won't refuse your "Help".

Well, it could be, just like Sanctuary, this is a very deceitful Alternative, she says she wants to give you an easy out, just drift away in deep thought, or some other unknown way. But she seems to target who refuse an easy way out, but still want to die, could it be, because she wants to break their will to fight, by showing that there is a painless way out?

Don't know, whatever the case, be vary.