A teenager who dressed up as weird Internet character Slender Man was asked to leave Sydney Comic Con for touching people.
Daniel Simao wore the 7ft tall costume to the convention and apparently went around gently poking people, touching their hair or placing his hand on their shoulder and was ultimately asked to get the hell out of the place by organisers after people started complaining.
The creepy behaviour is one thing, but people were already extra-wary of Slender Man after two young Wisconsin girls stabbed their friend 19 times because they believed it would allow them to meet Slender Man. Another Slender Man obsessed girl in Florida set fire to her home with her family inside; luckily, they got out alive.
Daniel said that the costume wasn’t intended to freak everyone out, and that he mostly chose to wear it because he’s tall, but he did acknowledge that he’d heard about the stabbings.
‘In no circumstances did I inappropriately touch someone,’ he told Vice, clearly not understanding that randomly touching strangers is in itself in appropriate.
We get that ‘cosplayers’ are role-playing in costume, but when someone is so imposing in height and their face is completely covered with a white mask, it’s unnerving to have them invade your personal space. We’ll put it down to the fact that he’s probably just a bit naïve and move on.
Picture: Getty
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.