Nightmare Fuel / The Blueballs Incident

Moments pages are Spoilers Off. You Have Been Warned!

 

Wake up. You have a troll to do.

Malicious Bunny's take on the Trollge mythos is quite possibly one of the darkest out there. To think one woman is able to take the internet's most famous meme combined with a happy rhythm game and twist them into something like this...

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General

• The appearance of the Trollges themselves are deep in the Humanoid Abomination territory. The stick bodies of the original Rage Comics characters have become proper, but emaciated and skeletal bodies with fingers better described as claws, and their faces when in "troll" mode have sunken-in eyes and permanent Slasher Smiles.

The original version

• Right after beating the main week's second song Rage (already rather unnerving thanks to Smiler's Ax-Crazy expression), you get treated to a cutscene of Smiler dropping his axe, followed by the Wham Shot of him clutching his head as he gives in to his anger and desire to troll. Which leads into...
• Incident, the final song of the main week, marks the point that Smiler is no longer holding back. A few key moments:
  • After going through a single verse in darkness, the lights come on and you're met face-to-face with Smiler's Trollge form, which alone is enough to frighten Girlfriend and cause Ominous Visual Glitches.
  • About halfway into the song, the lights go out again and Boyfriend is left singing alone in darkness. Soon enough, however, Smiler begins using some sort of Trollge power to rapidly drain your health at a speed that requires peak performance to even survive.
  • During the final part of the song, Smiler becomes completely covered in static as the background is replaced with a sped-up version of "How to Trollge your best friend". This continues up until the very end, when things finally begin to wind down.
• After Smiler's final song and the perfectly innocuous credits scene, the game says that it has something else to show you before prompting you to press Enter. Do so, and you're treated to five digital logs describing the origin and containment of various "Troll incidents", which seem to be humans that fell victim to infectious TP cells. These cells caused the victims to gain anomalous abilities and murderous tendencies, and anyone affected by them has to be captured by the Troll Containment Foundation and contained for god knows how long...and that's if it can be reversed. The entries themselves introduce you to the opponents you'll be coming up against, and they are not pleasant introductions:
  • "Just a little trolling", aka Stairway, is this universe's cause of the infamous Heaven's Stairway Incident, putting an oil-like substance in New York's water supply to cause everyone to uncontrollably float into the sky once it rained with the power of Insane Troll Logic (oil floats on water, so of course oily humans do too).
  • "Exhalted", aka Jhenkins, was a famous pianist with thousands of fans before he just suddenly disappeared one day. No one was able to find him for nearly a decade, but when he was found in a cove in Rio de Janero, he had a corpse with him. That wasn't his only victim, either, judging by the several other reported disappearances in the time period he was gone.
  • "The Smiler" was found by the TCF when he simply at on a bench one day waiting for someone, an individual dubbed "D_23". The next time he was seen, he had the mutilated corpse of D_23 with him. We're never told how this happened. Even worse, based on his dialogue and the confirmation that Agent BLUEBALLS was sent after him, that's the one you were just fighting.
  • "The Happy Clown", aka James Jacob, already gives off a bad vibe, so you know you're in for a fun time. Back when he was a man, he worked as a very popular clown in an unknown town. There was something dark growing in his heart, however, and he transformed into an incident through his own malicious thoughts. Said thoughts apparently manifested in the form of mass mutilation of children, though thankfully he was stopped and captured before he could act on those thoughts.
    • Let's emphasize a part glossed over before; The Happy Clown wasn't infected by TP cells. His mind was so twisted already that it transformed him into an Incident.
  • There's also Case 0000, simply known as "Trollface". All his log says is "ACCESS DENIED".
• As of the 1.999 update, Pteromerhanophobia has easily managed to take the nightmare fuel of Smiler's week and condense it into a single song. This time, Boyfriend is tasked with recapturing Stairway, noted above as the Trollge that started the Stairway to Heaven Incident. The first part leaves you stuck in a dark, empty room with a creature even more deranged-looking than our Smiler friend as thousands of people float into the air just outside a window. That's not the half of it, though; halfway into the song, Boyfriend is suddenly transported to what appears to be the roof of the building, viewing a live-action scene of New York midway through the incident as Stairway starts flying with a crazed look in his eye. Though his method of flight may look a little goofy, said goofiness is quickly killed off by the horrific images often flashed on the screen and the beautiful close-up of Stairway's Nightmare Face that lasts for the rest of the song.

The 2.0 update:

• After the events of Smiler's songs, Boyfriend is given a note to meet with his "dear friend" on a stage at midnight. When he arrives, he is instead greeted by another Trollge incident with glowing yellow eyes and a much more obvious malicious intent. This Trollge is T_333, who offers to strike some sort of deal with Boyfriend. He never states what this deal entails, but the player is forced to accept if they want to make progress. Accepting the deal causes him to transport Boyfriend into some sort of nightmare realm under his control, leading into the rest of the update.
• Pteromerhanophobia:
  • While "Troll Physics #33333333" is mostly funny thanks to the silly presentation and canned laughter, it can have an uncanny sort of feel to it when combined with Stairway's constant Slasher Smile. A few times when the lights go out, he gains a single realistic eye that the camera tends to hold on for uncomfortably long, and when Boyfriend is revealed as the "special guest", Stairway pulls off one hell of a Nightmare Face as he growls, "The rain is coming."
  • After "Pteromerhanophobia", T_333 has another talk with Boyfriend while staring at him through a window. His facial expressions, now clearly visible, look downright psychotic at all times, and he gives Boyfriend a few threatening words before leaving him to face his next opponent.
    T_333: If you really want to beat me, you'll have to beat yourself first.
    T_333: Don't play dumb with me. We both know exactly what you're capable of. So go ahead and die over and over again.
    • Take note of that last one and consider the implications. T_333 is fully aware of Boyfriend's time-resetting ability.
• Paedophobia:
  • The encounter with The Happy Clown begins with a scene of what appears to be a police interview. JJ can faintly be seen lying on the ground, and as the man behind the camera keeps asking questions, his face continually gets more and more twisted. The clip is also occasionally interrupted by grainy, red footage, presumably from JJ's perspective; first of him wandering through a forest, then walking towards the sounds of laughing children, then of a newspaper clipping detailing the child murders, an ominous black figure rushing towards the camera, and a desolate playground. The interview ends with JJ's deep, psychotic laughter as he clutches his quivering Nightmare Face.
    JJ: I will avenge them... even if I have to become a monster. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!
  • "Paedophobia" itself begins with JJ threateningly shaking and staring down at Boyfriend...before suddenly breaking out into an extravagant dance. Combined with his exaggerated poses compared to the previous foes, it looks a little silly at first, even with the dark environment around the two, but then halfway into the song, two more JJs appear and do the same dance in unison in the background. Later on, the screen goes black a second time, and when it returns, even more JJs appear, alongside a titanic Trollge behemoth that joins the others in the uncanny dance.
• Technophobia:
  • T_333 makes his true intentions clear in the cutscene immediately after "Paedophobia"; mentally break down Boyfriend through the battles with the Trollges, though the reason is yet unknown.
  • The next Trollge to go up against Boyfriend is a familiar foe; a returning Smiler, brought Back from the Dead by T_333. As Smiler stands in stasis looking absolutely miserable, T_333 taunts Boyfriend about how silent he is and how he killed the Smiler back in "Redemption" before forcing the two into one last showdown.
• Glossophobia:
  • While this part of the mod goes more heavily on the Tear Jerker end than Nightmare Fuel, Jhenkins' descent into insanity is depicted rather unsettlingly, with his former self gaining a psychotic grin lined with More Teeth than the Osmond Family that stretches past his facial structure.
  • Additionally, this is the first point in the mod where we get to see a Trollge in their former, human forms, and Jhenkins here is depicted as an attractive Animesque pretty boy. It really goes to show just how drastic the mutations caused by the Trollge infection can get.
• Dystichiphobia:
  • The cutscene begins with T_333 laughing maniacally while facing away from the screen. As Boyfriend, through unspoken text, repeatedly demands to know where Girlfriend has gone (as she disappeared during a transition near the end of "Glossophobia"), T_333's laughing gets louder and louder until he finally answers that she is "with him" in the real world and that there is "nothing [he] can do". When Boyfriend tells him to take him back to reality, T_333 only mocks his determination further before pitting him against a...different being.
  • "Dystichiphobia" introduces us to Derpy, a Trollge-like abomination with even more twisted features than anything else shown yet. His right arm doesn't have a clawed hand, instead tapering off to a long, but seemingly useless nub, and his face bears a huge yellow-toothed maw hidden beneath what looks like an average Derp face with a singular eye glowing a faded yellow.
    • His appearance only gets worse and worse, however. As the song progresses, Derpy continues to mutate and grow in size, ultimately becoming this; a colossal, warped blob with a ridiculously wide Slasher Smile, a shattered and worthless Derp mask, and its nub hand ripped open to reveal a drooling maw bigger than most of the Trollges on its own. Around this point, it will also start to drag your health bar down with a long tentacle. Appropriately, this is the first opponent to visibly scare Boyfriend.
• Thanatophobia:
  • Immediately, it's clear that T_333 is finally getting to the normally unfazable Boyfriend. When T_333 starts to go on about how much he loves stories, Boyfriend interrupts him with a blunt "I don't care" and demands once more that he take him back to reality. Realizing that it's time for him to give his end of their deal earlier, T_333 transports him back with a chilling "Just don't regret it," complete with a Sickening "Crunch!" as his head rotates just for the hell of it. He still isn't done toying with Boyfriend, however...
  • T_333 has one last trick up his sleeve, the one thing that affects Boyfriend more than anything else possibly could; turning Girlfriend into a Trollge incident. All Boyfriend is able to do is stare on in horror as T_333 dances with the transformed Girlfriend, taunting that this is all Boyfriend's fault for accepting the deal in the first place. Even worse, this actually works - as memories of his time with Girlfriend flash onscreen, Boyfriend goes berserk, sporting a wide Slasher Smile and psychotic red eyes that remain throughout "Thanatophobia".
  • Girlfriend spends the entirety of "Thanatophobia" trying to fight off the Trollge infection, constantly switching between her evil grin and clutching her head in pain, letting out the occasional "right", "left", "up", and "down".
  • After "Thanatophobia" finishes, the song "My Dear Love" begins right away, and it looks as if Boyfriend is going to be able to save Girlfriend from the Trollge infection. Unfortunately, it's a Hopeless Boss Fight - the Life Drain effect is too strong to overcome, leading to an unavoidable death at a long silent part of the song. This then cuts to T_333 mocking Boyfriend for believing he had a chance and claiming - in a voice so deep it's hard to hear - that, "The world, and everyone in it, belongs to [him]," before crashing the game.
• Athazagoraphobia and Ending:
  • When the game is reopened, T_333 tells the player his backstory, which is more tragic than scary. However, the text onscreen isn't spoken and there is no Background Music, leaving nothing but the sound of wind to accompany it. All of the faces in the pictures shown are also blacked out, and the story is ended by a sudden Jump Scare from a human figure with Trollge-like teeth.
  • The cutscene before "Athazagoraphobia" shows just how much control T_333 has gained. He is revealed sitting atop a throne that towers over the camera, and when asked by a long-haired Boyfriend where everyone went, he states that he has turned every single person on the planet into Trollges. When Boyfriend confronts him and says he's going to stop his reign of terror, all T_333 does is laugh before the song begins.
    • Judging by Boyfriend's significant hair growth, Boyfriend has been asleep for years, and the first thing he discovers after waking up is Legion having taken over the world...
    • If you look closely Pico and Ritz are revealed to be victims of Legion… not even Canon Characters were safe.
  • "Athazagoraphobia" itself is a frightening experience of a song. T_333's voice has a loud echo that adds to his intimidation factor, his poses are wild and wide-eyed, and the song itself is a discordant mess backed by an Ethereal Choir. T_333 also takes on a number of different forms, each with their own brand of horror.
    • He can appear as a silhouette of Boyfriend with a Trollface covering his own, which constantly teleports around the four corners of the screen and requires that you rapidly click on it before it kills you.
    • Another form he takes is so large only its head fits onscreen. In this form, he spits out various projectiles with every note that need to be blocked with the mouse.
    • Later on, he'll also appear as a void of darkness in the background with dozens of eyes appearing above Boyfriend, which have to be removed by swiping over them with the mouse before Boyfriend is eaten by T_333's giant maw.
    • Finally, a few times at the end of the song, he faces the screen in first-person with a twisted, gruesome-looking mouth and visually assaults the player with constant flashing imagery of other Trollges, a mutilated and nearly unrecognizable Derpina, and Derpy's jagged black jaw.
  • Whether you beat the song or get defeated in it, T_333 forces you to choose between retrying the song and giving up your soul. He'll do this every time until you choose the latter. That's right; T_333 wins, no matter what.
  • Once T_333 has claimed Boyfriend's soul, he finally reveals his true name; Legion. He has become God, as he puts it, and now nobody will be able to ignore him...except for one problem. After Legion's victory monologue, he suddenly realizes that the voices in his head have stopped. This leads to a massive Oh, Crap! reaction as he's suddenly brought face-to-face with the one thing that scared even the TCF; a mysterious Trollge implied to be Case 0000, or the Trollface, appearing as an overly-realistic Trollface drenched in the Uncanny Valley. It doesn't say a word before causing the game to crash again, but judging by Legion's reaction, it was not pretty.
  • Though the mod ends with Boyfriend triumphant after a non-Hopeless Boss Fight version of "My Dear Love", the ending shows how scary Boyfriend can be when reaching his absolute limit.
  Legion: How did you do it? My plan was perfect! You were supposed to have lost, and I have finally become a god.
  The cutscene cuts to a shot of Boyfriend with his Face Framed in Shadow and a creepy grin, with him laughing faintly in the background
  Legion: Who are you laughing at?
  Boyfriend: How pathetic.
  Legion: Who are you calling pathetic?
  Boyfriend: You. Pathetic creature. Boyfriend's red eyes are revealed, with his skin eerily pale
  Legion: What is this I'm feeling? What is this feeling in my chest? What did you do to me?
  Boyfriend: All this time… of all those I have faced…
  Legion: Do not approach!
  Boyfriend: You are the only one I really hate.
  Legion: Please do not do this!
  It cuts to another shot of Boyfriend
  Legion: …Oh shit.
  Boyfriend proceeds to scream into his mic, killing Legion

Lore videos

• The first Trollge Incident:
  • The video begins with the classic explanation of the Heaven's Stairway Incident; Oil floats on water, so wait for it to rain and watch as the entirety of New York starts floating into the sky uncontrollably thanks to Stairway's tampering with the water supply.
  • Stairway then suddenly becomes confused - what's happening? Where is he? Where is Derpy? This last question is quickly answered, though, as he finds Derpy right in front of him...that is, a beastly Humanoid Abomination with the same appearance as a Trollge case, save for having Derp's face and a drooling jaw below it, walking right towards him. Stairway backs away, trying to get the creature to get away from him, but when that fails, he grabs an axe and murders it in cold blood, complete with squelching sounds and a screenful of blood. This is what causes Stairway to completely snap, going Laughing Mad and insisting to himself that it wasn't his fault - he was just trolling.
• "How to trollge your best friend" (sic) shows the full origin of the Smiler, and good lord is it a ride. As described in his log entry, the Smiler sits on a bench waiting for Derp (different from the previously-mentioned Derpy) to walk past, stating that it "looks like a trolling time" once he does. Following the same step-by-step format as Stairway, Smiler corners Derp in an alleyway, knocks him out, and kidnaps him. When Derp wakes up, he's restrained to a chair and face to face with Smiler, in full Trollge mode, telling him that he's his best friend and that he needs to learn to smile. When Derp refuses to play along, stating that he doesn't even know him, Smiler brings in a TV and starts forcing Derp to watch psychedelic patterns that instill voices in his head demanding he smile. It gets worse when you remember what the end result is from the log in the mod, leading to some unsettling implications about what happened afterward.