Oh §HIT! Ok, I love the angstposure

Absolutely loved it! Amazing job. You’ve done the fandom proud.

I know this fic is four years old now, but I read it just now and I loved it. So refreshing to read something dark and twisted, but also good. So often people go over the top with their grimdark macabres, but this was a perfect amount of horror and psychological troubles- a delightfully upsetting story.

I really liked Dib's returns to his horrible nightmare visions. ("It's called life Dib.")

I AM SO SORRY I DROPPED OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH BEFORE THIS WAS FINISHED.

Anyway I'm leaving a final review now after reading this at work because HA HA ACTUALLY WORKING AT WORK RITE?

So where to start? I think I'll start by saying just as a basic horror story this is far above the usual rubbish you find on . The horror is built up nice and slow, and while there is certainly a lot of gore to ramp up the horror it's really the terror that gets to you while reading. Dibs panting, paniced reactions are absolutely fantastic to read and you truly get a sense that is life is in danger. That at any moment the Slender-Zim is going to stick a sharp PAK leg through his temple. The slow build up to the true horror at what Zim had become as well as drip feeding us what had happened to Zim in the past was a great hook to keep me reading each chapter.
The descriptions you give gladly help out with that by the way. The environment building was fantastic, especially because you include that all too often forgotten sense of smell in many of the more grisly scenes. Saying an abandoned asylum is dark and spooky is one thing but adding that line saying it smelled of 'disinfectant and excrement' was what really brought the place to life.
Dib's character was a joy to read in this, as much as watching a man go insane and then fight back from insanity can be. Which is a lot! Gaz too was very well written and you managed to keep her well IC while also building on that stressed relationship of family between her and Dib.
Zim was also super, super creepy in this fic. Like his complete brutal over the edge madness was terrifying. I suspect he was really more of a physical manifestation of the 'hunter' that lived within Dib. The difference being that Zim was utterly lost to his while Dib, despite all the pain and loss, managed to keep his together.

But now the real meat and potatoes of the review. The critique!

One thing that bothered me in the story, the latter scenes especially, was that Dib seemed to sustain a hell of a lot of punishment and somehow keep going without falling into shock or blood loss. I also felt that perhaps more time could have been devoted to the Slenderman myth building, though the direction you took it in with Zim was certainly interesting and welcome.
I also felt like sometimes you maybe relied a little too much on the blood and gore when perhaps moving in a subtler manner could have worked better. Again perhaps working in more of the Slenderman myth would have helped with that, especially concerning Dib's hallucinations.
Also maybe I missed it but what happened to Gir?

So yes all in all a very, very good story. Deffo earned a spot on my faves list forever and why this doesn't have like 200 reviews I don't know. I'll have to promote it in whatever fic I update next because fo srs this is one of my faves.

You be awesome. This be awesome. Anyone looking at the reviews before deciding to read let me tell you to READ THIS RIGHT NOW WADDYA WAITIN' FOR.

Peace out.

When I read that part "not every half-heard sound is a ,monster,alien,or serial killer". I swear I thought of JTHM.

For those of you who don't know what that is its a comic by Johnen Vas(?) the creator of IZ. It's really funny although it's more for the older crowd.(you kids will ignore this warning anyway)You can find some of the comics on YouTube actually, but anyway I won't go into much detail except that their are refrences on IZ that come from JTHM.

You know, I think we all know that this "slender man" is Zim, and Dib even admitted to himself that they looked similar. Your only lying to yourself Dib! Accept the truth!

Good lord this chase scene killed me. Perfect pacing perfect creepy allusions without an actual desription of the monster. Leaving that to make it that we still dont know the monster. Makes it all the more creepy. Kudos on this chp. Yesssss

Two of my favorite things? I think I love you. -

(not logged in)

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story! It had just the right amount of action, suspense, horror, and psychological thriller qualities to make it awesome! Being a huge Zim fan, I'm not entirely used to having Zim be the antagonist of a story (especially since he's the protagonist of the show), but it was a very refreshing change to what I normally read. Despite my delusions, Zim really is a ruthless killing machine (albeit ridiculously incompetent which is why he never actually kills anyone) and you portrayed that bloodthirsty-ness perfectly. Great job!

Also, Psychonauts is amazing. During all of the Crazy House scenes, I couldn't help but think of Raz traversing the abandoned asylum. That place gives me the chills, especially since there's NO music in that area. But yeah, I could totally see where the Psychonauts inspiration came from. Ironic how Raz is Zim.

Ah Dib, the Slenderman will make organ donation easy! With little plastic bags. Loving this so far!

I like how the story builds up in a painfully slow manner and how Dib is NOT being made fun of anymore. Plus, I want to know what happened to Zim.

Haha, Melvin and Keef are talking about Star Wars. XD

That was a very satisfying conclusion. Zim is buried, and Dib can move on from that horrific chapter of his life to whatever future he chooses. I'm really glad that Zim stayed dead, as I would have been really disappointed with an 'OR IS IT? OOOOOOOOH!' ending after all of the stellar writing you've done. It would be a deception to say I wasn't unsettled by some of the situations Dib found himself in.

I also like that 'bonus' section at the end, very informative! I expect a lot of great things from you!

For absolutely no reason, I was expecting something a smidge bit deeper for the last chapter (which, when one contemplates further on the very last of the chapter, is an absurd expectation that was fully met in a different way than anticipated), but I digress. And, yes, I'm back on my bro's cell, so yeah...unholy single-paragraph horror all over again! Anyway... I can see the whole messenger bag deal you delved into (for although I was desperately trying to avoid the inescapable HS heirarchy, I still managed to notice certain trends in individuals w/ certain personality types. Granted, the bags were a subtlety, and some were readily taken by those of the "goth" (or otherwise dark fantasy) type, there were plenty 'nerdy' people claiming these bags that I noticed), so no worries about me being 'upset' about it being brought up frequently. BTW, I still have a hard time believing that this was your first time writing horror/suspense. This was written too damn well to be a first, at least I think so. Can't guarantee me reading any of your later instalments of the IZ fandom, but I promise to at least take a look when I next get the chance (gonna start moving within the next week n' Internet access will most definitely be limited, so I can't promise any sort of regularity wothout ultimately turning out to be a liar). Before I tap the 'Submit' button, I wanna thank you again for writing such an engaging story and ultimately piquing my interest in FanFiction again (and HOLY TRUCK I have that bloody effing song from 'Titanic' playing in my head...GAGH! Shoot me now while I have a minute particle of dignity within my being! *oh zeh drama*)-I briefly rejoined the ranks of FF out of genuine interest (though I'd highly advise AGAINST reading my IZ/TT crossover), and though that almost sounds like an insult, I promise it's meant with surprise and a sincere compliment to your awesomeness. Now, to close this rant while you're (hopefully) still awake...THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR AWESOMENESS! Burakku's Shadow

Wow. That ending was kind of... depressing. Kind of empty. Like the end of one of those tragic animes. But I guess that's the way you intended it to be, so good job. I'm gonna go curl up in my closet and cry now.