Theory

Scott recently posted his own theory about Daniel's identity. Short version: Daniel is Damien from Dreams in Darkness.

My thoughts: Could be. However, Zeke Straham mentioned a Damien (presumably the DiD one) in a recent blog post of his, and that he's in Indiana, which is pretty far from my base of operations (no, I'm not telling where that is). One poster suggested I show Daniel Dreams in Darkness to see if it jogs his memory. As unpleasant as that might be, I think it's our only shot as of right now. Unless someone has a physical description of Damien that I can compare against Daniel.

I happen to have a theory of my own, but it has less to do with Daniel's identity and more do to with how he ended up this way.

Think about it: what are some of the ways we identify each other? Three big ones are face, voice, and (if you've gotten yourself in some trouble) fingerprints. Now compare that to what happened to Daniel. His face, while still recognizable as human and not nearly as bad as it could have been, has still been marred, and the scarring (to me, at least) almost looks like they tried to cut his face off (I know, I'm sorry if this is squicking you out). He has no voice for some as of yet unknown reason...and the plot thickens. Daniel has to take his mask off to eat, and today I noticed more facial scarring. These almost looked like puncture wounds around his lips. Like they had been sewn shut.

I know, I know, I'm sorry.

Anyway, fingerprints. Those are more-or-less obliterated too. He DOES have scarring on his fingertips, nothing huge, but definitely enough to making ID-ing him through fingerprints next to impossible. Basically, what's been done to him seems to be specifically designed to wipe out his identity, destroying the things that would make him recognizable to others. Then, in the final act of rape against humanity in general, they took away his self-identity by robbing him of his memories.

But the big question is why? Some form of punishment? Did he do something? Was he too close to something? Is this some kind of experiment? Identity has been a huge theme in this whole mess, especially with the Hallowed, who don't seem to have one at all. Maybe...I dunno, maybe he resisted being Hallowed. Maybe they were trying to break him.

Well, this is a depressing post. x.x

Of lesser depressing-ness, but still depressing nature is the fact that I CAN'T THINK OF A DOCTOR WHO EPISODE FOR HIM TO WATCH. Seriously, all of them have some kind of Nightmare Fuel, and while it might not seem like much to you and me, well, it's Daniel. His brain is addled enough as it is. He doesn't need to see the gas mask children wandering around London, even if that one had a happy ending.

Although, now that I think about it, this struggle DID lead to a pretty humorous discussion:

that one doesn't look too scary.

"No, no, no. That one has Daleks. Daleks are scary."

daleks? you mean those things on your poster? (I sort of hand-make posters for fandoms I like. I'm weird, sue me.)

"Yeah. Trust me, they're effing terrifying."

they look like pepper shakers

"But they're SCARY pepper shakers."

alora, they're pepper shakers with plungers attached to them

"Okay, smartass, you try watching 'The Daleks' all by yourself at some ungodly hour! See how tough you are then!"

Yeah, I was sort of scarred by the Daleks in the early days of my Who obsession. More the idea of what they are and what they do than their appearance, though. I admit, they are kinda goofy-looking. Until they melt off your face.

Anyways, I'm going to see if Daniel is up for a Dreams in Darkness archive binge. I'll let you know what happens. Stay safe, you guys.

~Alora

ETA: Daniel couldn't finish Dreams in Darkness. We did manage to establish three things:

One: He is pretty sure he's not Damien, or at the very minimum no details about Damien's life struck a cord with him.

Two: He HAS, however, heard of Damien somewhere, but he can't remember where.

Three: He's seen first-hand what Slender is capable of. He doesn't know where or when or why but he's seen some of the...stuff described in Dreams in Darkness. That's what really freaked him out, and that's the real reason he couldn't finish the blog. He'd seen it before, though God only knows where. He...sort of had a freak out. Not like last night. He nearly threw up and started crying. I managed to calm him down. He's asleep now.

I wish I had some answers right now. And the ability to punch whoever's responsible for this. Poor Daniel...