Stephanie

Warning: This article contains details that may spoil key plot points.

“	I just feel, that in say five years’ time, we’ll be able to look back at our darkest days and smile in triumph. The de facto family, our child’s uncles, of course just as bumbling and useless, and the man I love, laughing at calamity. We will be happy.	„
	~ Stephanie on the CANYOUSEETHEWORDS blog

Stephanie, also known as Damsel is one of the main characters of EverymanHYBRID. She was first introduced through her blog that was featured in the video "Sleep Lab Part 1".

Since she did not sign her blog posts and there were no references to her name on the site, fans dubbed her "Damsel", short for "damsel in distress," since most of her blog entries alluded to a force that was persecuting her and to a secret past. Her name remained a secret for months after her first appearance, and even in videos like "Damsel" where her real name was spoken, it was inaudible because it was covered by audio distortion.

After nearly 7 months of her involvement in the story, her real name, Stephanie or "Steph", was finally confirmed on Dec 19, 2010 when Jeff referred to her by name in a tweet.

History[]

2010[]

Damsel's blog canyouseethewords (with annexed Twitter youseethewords) was first spotted/alluded to in the EMH video named "Sleep Lab Part 1 - Sleep Deprivation", where Evan can be seen reading it. How he discovered her blog is unknown.

Initially not a lot was known about Damsel. She had explicitly refused to give her true name, and most of what was known about her had been deduced by her posts rather than outright stated by her herself. She claimed to be in the age of "teenage angst", and that she had attended the Alabama School of Fine Arts and moved to Princetown at about the same time she started her blog. She had interest in art, and posted some of her paintings on her blog. She was loner, and had only one friend. Most of her past was only hinted and alluded to, and her responses to direct questions were filled with prevarication and sometimes lies. She alluded to her parents being killed in a house fire, and hinted that she was at least aware of the existence of Slenderman, if not that she was being outright pursued by him.

In the beginning, it wasn't clear what the connection between the EMH videos and Damsel's blog was, until it was revealed that the "friend" Damsel referred to in her posts was Jessa, Jeff's girlfriend. However, Damsel repeatedly stated she didn't know Jeff, Vince, or Evan, even if Jessa has talked to her about Jeff, and even if the followers of her blog almost immediately pointed her to the YouTube channel.

Damsel passing the boys at Hoagie Haven.

On the 30th of July, 2010, Damsel posted a picture of the three EMH boys eating at Hoagie Haven, stating she "passed" them. Also, a few days after "A Day in the Life" was uploaded to their channel, she posted The Beatles' song by the same name. A more mysterious connection was found in the coordinates she received on two different occasions, (in one case only receiving half of them, while the other half had been given to Vince -- "Slushpops and Surprises"). Both sets of coordinates have led to the discovery of mysterious boxes. In a video posted of her and Jessa, a person can be seen running by in the background who was later identified as Evan. This, coupled with the fact that he was viewing her blog in the "Sleep 1" video, led some people to theorize that Evan was stalking Damsel, or at the very least trying to establish a connection with her.

Damsel later stated that they were all supposed to meet up before Jessa's disappearance, but now that the old menace resurfaced, "avoiding them is unavoidable". An argument between Jeff and Damsel on Twitter showed that both parties didn't trust each other. At 0:54 of Jeff's video "In which I assume the role of a 13 year old MySpace girl." there is a brief flash of a drawing of Slenderman with the words "GUILTY GUILTY GUILTY" scrawled across the page. The similarity of this drawing with the statement from Damsels queued post that "By this time, I will have been (accurately) proven guiltyGUILTYGUILTYGUILTY" lead to a lot of speculation regarding Damsel's true involvement in Jessa's disappearance.

After the infamous Twitter fight between Damsel and Jeff, it seemed like Jeff pointed Damsel to the police as a suspect, or at least a person involved, in Jessa's disappearance. Damsel's last post on her blog was about being put on suicide watch and into a mental health clinic. She announced that, not knowing how long she will be gone, she had posted an explanation of sorts in her post-queue. That post appeared on Halloween night and explained the truth behind her parent's deaths as well as her complicated relationship with the police and with doctors. When speaking of her parent's death she had originally lied, saying "I came home from school one afternoon. The house was a half acre of ash." but on Halloween the automatically queued post revealed the truth:

"That day, when I said that I arrived home from school to a half-acre of ash… was not entirely accurate. I came home from my classes and everything was normal. My family’s house was older and relatively sizable. Made of fine, decaying lumber. Easily combustible. Upon setting foot within the threshold, I immediately felt something in the air. Something was terribly off. The house was silent. No sound from my siblings, no familiar clicking of my mother tending in the kitchen, no sound of shuffling from desk-to-shelf in my father’s study. And then I saw the bags.

Through the large sliding glass door, I saw them all, each strung from the old ash tree in the center of the backyard. I… I opened each one. I just had to be sure; you would understand. I was covered in a bit more and more of my family with each inquiry. I took the opened bags and went upstairs into my parent’s master bedroom and laid down on the gigantic bed. I placed each of the bags around me, resting one last time with my family. The bags that still held their contents bulged towards me in a comforting embrace.

I saw myself in the mirror. Perhaps my body was still in shock because I wasn’t crying, not yet. I was drenched in the blood of my siblings and parents and I couldn’t feel anything. I knew He did this to me. The one I had been seeing in my dreams since I was a baby. He wanted me out of the house. I don’t know why, but He willed me elsewhere. I burned my house. I set the fire. I don’t care who knows anymore because by this time, I’m sure they would have coerced this confession from me. By this time, I will have been (accurately) proven guiltyGUILTYGUILTYGUILTY."

After the investigation of her family's deaths, Damsel was medicated, but she said in her blog that she had been avoiding taking her pills. Also, she had a bad relationship with the police, and hinted at being harassed by them in the past. It had been theorized that she was accused of causing the death of her parents, or that some deaths due to Slenderman might have been blamed on her, and the truth about her past bears out that theory.

After the death of her parents, she said "I was alone and He told me to go north." There is much speculation about her relationship to Slenderman fueled by this statement.

Damsel outright admitted she was withholding information for fear of the consequences of "talking too much". She was convinced that the more people talked about the Slenderman, the more powerful it became. She has said she's willing to help those who already "know", but she refuses to spread the knowledge to those who don't. She had stated that the last time she did, the people who tried to help her died (during another "trip up north"). Damsel also felt that she has become somehow tainted by her contact with the Slenderman, and that all the people she grows attached to are destined to die.

The Twitter fight and the subsequent events brought Evan, who as we know follows CYSTW, to post the "Injustice." video, in which he criticizes Jeff's behavior towards Damsel. However, as time passed, Jeff has indicated remorse at whatever actions he took that lead to Damsel's interment; following the realization that the trio had been led to Centralia merely to be presented with yet "another puzzle," Jeff became insistent that the crew track down and consult Damsel for help. Damsel seemingly signed off permanently at the end of her post-queue. But a later appearance in the video .... (one of the "hidden" videos,) signaled that she was still important to the game. However, she did not move or speak in the video, and the ambiguity of the "hidden" videos is such that the footage of her may have been taken at any point in the game.

During the 11/26 UStream Jeff again expressed regret for his part in having Damsel incarcerated, and reiterated that they had a plan to help her, though he did not relay any specifics about the plan.

After a conversation with UnFiction user rhiannon regarding the "hidden" videos, Jeff seemed to realize that in order for the cast to see those videos they needed outside help. This seems to have finally set in motion the plans to rescue Damsel. In the video "Damsel", the boys went to the institution where she was being held, now revealed to be the hospital where Jeff works, and using Jeff's keys they released her and helped her, reluctantly, leave the grounds. As they drove away Damsel revealed that she had been scheduled to be released that day.

2011[]

In "HospitalFire.wav" , Damsel's name is edited in order to cover it up. It can easily be reversed and heard as "Stephanie," later confirmed in a tweet to be her name. Hospital Fire relays some serious timeline inconsistencies surrounding the timing of Damsel's rescue and release from the hospital.

Since her rescue she had been staying with the boys waiting for the police to stop watching her home. She was sleeping in Evan's room and he had taken up residence on his own couch. She resumed posting to her blog again until January 13th, 2011 when she made a video announcing that she was discontinuing the blog since she didn't need a place to vent anymore due to her newfound friendship with the guys. A few months later, in April, she began making sporadic blog posts again, but eventually abandoned the blog for good. Early in the summer of 2011, it became clear that HABIT had assumed control of the blog, posting violent videos of serial killers and claiming a relationship with them. Evan made a post there announcing that Steph had abandoned the blog, leaving it to HABIT, and would no longer be posting there.

In what appears to be a minor crossover with the series Seeking Truth a video on youtube, "Left Behind.m4v" was posted by someone called TheMysticisDead. The video seems to show the last moments of Zeke Strahm, star of that series. In one part of it, he has this message for the boys: "You Hybrid boys, keep your eyes and ears open okay? Your buddy Evan... however bad he is now, it's going to get so much worse before it gets better. It's funny... she'll talk about what happened to her parents, but not about what happened to that group she was traveling with. Just a thought."

This seems to refer to the group that she travelled north with, following her parents' death. She referenced them in a post to her blog on August 15, 2010, saying: "Telling my story only got the last group who tried to help me killed. Was that a fun trip north." This seems to be the only previous mention of the group she travelled with.

It was revealed in "HALLOWEEN HANGOVER" that Evan and Steph had begun a relationship. In "A Vinny/HYBRID Christmas" it appeared that Steph was performing an at home pregnancy test, presumably to determine if she was carrying Evan's child.

2012[]

The results of the test were not revealed at the time, but it was made clear in "Twenty-four months" that she was indeed pregnant. Stephanie later gave birth at an unspecified time. In "Next" Evan, at this point completely taken over by HABIT, appears to be cradling the child, an unmoving Steph in the foreground of the shot. Based on the memories shared by Evan in "WAKE UP" after HABIT left his body, he recounts how HABIT killed Stephanie, and then ate their child.

In "The property", Corenthal mentions to Vinny how his "brother" and "sister" are "holding down the fort". Implying that both Jeff and Stephanie after death were with Corenthal in the Eden, Corenthal's safe space within the Candleverse.

2015[]

On January 6, 2015, a new post from Damsel was added, presumably from the post queue function years after her death. In it she confirms the "big news" that she is pregnant, and how and that she believes that her and the crew are on the road to happiness, and that better times are ahead. She shares a passage she wrote to Jessa during a time they were venting to each other, stating how reading it makes her believe Jessa is still with them.

Alternate Iterations[]

Fairmount Stephanie[]

In the Corenthal Papers, we had frequently seen a redacted name, the owner of which Corenthal described as being a "visual artist." This was speculated to be Steph, and the events of The Hidden Videos, wherein Steph and the boys seem to speak in a trance as the young Corenthal children, seemed to confirm that speculation. Finally in the Corenthal Letter Dated 2-27-1975, Stephanie's unredacted name appears, confirming that she is one of The Mining Town Four. As relayed in the Corenthal Report dated 12-14-1971, she was also called "Stephie" by Jeff and the other Mining Town boys.

Fairmount Steph and three other children were adopted by Dr. Corenthal and his wife Maryann, and taken away from the children’s home. He described the four children as being haunted by personal demons. In 1980 Corenthal wrote a journal entry that is visble on the Ink Ribbon describing the possible death of Fairmount Steph.

Appearances[]

CYSTW Videos[]

EverymanHYBRID Videos[]

Speculation[]

Damsel killed her family under Slenderman's influence, but doesn't remember it.
Damsel killed Jessa under Slenderman's influence, but doesn't remember it.
Damsel is the "Unattainable Companion" referred to at the end of "Slushpops and Suprises."

Gallery[]

External Links[]

canyouseethewords (her Tumblr Blog)
youseethewords (her Twitter)