Nightmare Fuel / Maeka Enderfox

Oh, I’m sorry. Were you under the impression that an animation series set in the world of Splatoon couldn’t be terrifying? Allow Maeka Enderfox to relieve you of any such delusions.

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Youtube

• While “Mutsuki the clone” is mostly adorable, it also has Maeka creating the video’s title character by combining her blood with an octoling’s blood. She’s essentially playing God, and it’s never explained where she got the octoling blood in the first place...
  • The sequel, “2 octolings part 2”, pretty much goes into full nightmare fuel mode about 3 minutes in. First, a scene where an octoling tries to murder an inkling with a dagger, only to be killed for doing so by another octoling. Even though we don’t see it happen, the noises and the inkling averting her eyes are enough to indicate it probably wasn’t pretty. The next scene has an octoling asking another how many inklings she killed, and she casually answers 4. There’s also the fact that the octoling who saved the inkling earlier, Tori, later tells Maeka that she’s been forced into an inkling killing clan by her parents. When the clan find them, they try to kill Maeka and force Tori to watch, only for her to be possessed again by the shadow inkling, now complete with horrifying freeze-frame bonuses. Even worse, it seems the thing is getting stronger, as not only does its new appearance scare the other demons away while evoking the disguise Maeka took on at the end of “strange inkling girl”, but it essentially turns Maeka into a full-blown demon, with a distorted voice, one eye completely white and the other glowing blood-red, a terrifying smile, and clear intent to murder. So to recap, we have a clan dedicated to killing innocent civilians based solely on their species, whose leaders have forced their daughter to help with that goal and presumably beat her whenever she tries to resist, and now they’ve awakened a bloodthirsty demon that’s already demonstrated itself to be chaotic neutral even with Maeka holding it back, which she may no longer be willing/able to do. Pants to be darkened.
  • Part 3, “Demon VS Cyborg” opens with a flashback to Maeka’s childhood, specifically her being beat up for her large ears. Her shouts of pain when she’s being kicked certainly don’t help matters. The situation sure as hell doesn’t improve when she starts violently twitching in pain before a Jump Scare with the shadow inkling. Cut to the present, where the possessed Maeka impales one of the octolings with her new tail, starts begging Tori to help her, and fights the leader of the octoling killing clan, who turns out to be a cyborg almost able to match Maeka’s new powers. At least, until she cuts his arm off and punches his eyes out. Even then, he still pulls out a gun and shoots her in the face, which only serves to get Maeka even more angry as she starts chanting for all of them to die. She then says “help me” before chanting “die'' several more times and then screaming in absolute rage, turning completely red and black. She ultimately finishes the fight by using her now four tails-which at this point are more akin to tentacles-to stab the cyborg in the eye socket, chest, and torso, essentially forcing Tori to watch the violent death of her own father. We then cut to Maeka’s mind, where she’s completely at the shadow inkling’s mercy until a heretofore unseen figure appears and drives it away, though it promises to be back. The whole experience proves to be so traumatic, that Maeka has to be taken to the hospital and vomits. Oh, and then we learn the origins of the entity that saved Maeka earlier: it’s the soul of her dead brother, who died in childbirth.
  • The fourth and final episode of the 2 octolings arc, Strange Mother, is absolutely full of nightmarish imagery, to the point where it might just be the darkest video yet.
    • Someone shooting Maeka and Tori with sleeping darts, without them being able to see the shooter, is Paranoia Fuel at its finest.
    • The shooter is revealed to be Tori’s mother, who makes it no secret that she plans on killing Maeka for destroying her cyborg husband.
    • The Reveal that Tori is a cyborg, and her subsequent reaction, certainly isn’t a pretty sight. Especially the metal parts on her face and hands, glowing metallic eyes, and sharp, segmented tail.
    • Not only has Tori’s father been repaired, but he knocks out his daughter with just one button press.
    • How about Tori’s mother promising to kill Maeka, while brandishing a sword and smiling like a psychopath?
    • A flashback to maeka at daycare starts out adorable, until young Maeka’s head starts twitching like it did in the previous video’s opening flashback. We then see a closeup of her face, shadowed so that the only visible part is her much-too-wide grin.
    • After that, we get a shot of the toys young Maeka was playing with, decapitated and covered in paint clearly meant to stand in for blood. The Scare Chord makes it all the more unsettling.
    • The shot of young Maeka ordering the teacher to “PLAY WITH ME!!”, made all the more horrifying by the noises she makes, the way her head twitches and her neck snaps, and her face looking like the inkling version of mr. widemouth.
    • After that, the scene cuts to doctors treating the daycare supervisor after young Maeka apparently amputated her hand offscreen, with said supervisor referring to her as a crazy monster. Does young Maeka regret this or feel any remorse whatsoever? Nope, the next shot is her watching from a rooftop and smiling sadistically. At this point, we can pretty much forget about Maeka being anywhere close to pure good.
    • After the flashback is over, do we get a respite from the horrifying imagery? If you’re even considering saying yes, you must be new here. We go back into Maeka’s mind, this time with her being pulled into some black liquid by disembodied hands and the shadow inkling(revealed to be named Arima) standing over her.
    • Maeka’s brother being unable to help her, Forced to Watch as his sister is possessed by a monster he swore to protect her from.
    • The shot of Arima lashing out all four of her tails and shouting that “SHE’S MINE!!” While conjuring a blazing hellfire, is definitely one to remember.
    • Back in the real world, Tori’s mother has impaled Maeka through the neck. Demon or not, that can’t feel good.
    • The demon succeeds in possessing maeka again, this time complete with a blast of fire when it first emerges.
    • Remember how demon Maeka fought Tori’s father in the last episode, with a mixture of inhuman savagery and superhuman grace? This time, she attacks Tori's mother with nothing short of feral rage. This brings up two possibilities: either the demon was holding back last time, or it’s gotten even more powerful. Neither is a particularly pleasant thought.
    • Cut back to Maeka’s mind, where she’s trapped in a glowing red force field, and the only way her brother can save her is by blasting through it with a massive force of energy. Arima makes it clear she won’t be giving up, either.
    • Tori’s mother promises revenge on her for betraying the clan.
    • Maeka’s ending monologue is mostly heartwarming, apart from the idea that Arima will never quite go away.

• The opening of “a young mom”, with Maeka in a dark room next to a corpse, and Arima asking if that was a delicious meal. Sure, it turns out to be a nightmare, but still creepy. Even worse, it’s never brought up throughout the video and confirms that despite maeka’s brother raita’s best efforts, Arima will always be there.

• “A nightmare connected”. GOOD. LORD. turns out, Maeka’s friend Jay has been possessed by another demon, who forces him to try to murder Maeka. If it hadn’t been a dream, he would’ve been mauled to death by Arima. Of course, even if it was a dream, there’s no guarantee that demon isn’t still out there, or still possessing Maeka’s friend.
  • Hell, just the idea that Arima isn't the only demon in this world. Who knows how many there are? And what if there are demons stronger than Arima?

Deviant Art

• The horror isn’t limited to Youtube. Maeka’s artwork itself has no shortage of terrifying imagery and, if canon to the main series, implications.
  • "A Scary Call": an Arima-possessed Maeka calling someone on a phone while holding a knife.
  • "Ink Parasitic": a 14-year old maeka, looking completely terrified as Arima stalks her from behind. The blood-red background covered in Arima’s black ink really doesn’t help the creep factor.
  • “Escape 1”: A teaser for a then-newly released video, this is quite possibly the most viscerally unsettling picture, with a guard collapsed on the floor of a bloodstained room, his intestines hanging out of him. Given the exit sign nearby as well as the title, it’s reasonable to assume something very dangerous got out of somewhere.
  • "My Home": Arima looming over a boy, with a black and blood-red background. Even worse, you can see some sort of black goo in the foreground, as though Arima's power is starting to leak out...
  • "Prisoner #1": After a solid month without anything truly creepy, this pic more than makes up for it with Maeka in chains being held by two guards. We have no context for why she's in chains, one of the guards’ goggles are glowing an eerie green, Maeka has something chained over her mouth with her eyes wide from fear, and then there’s the fact that the pic has #1 in the title.
    • Prisoner #2: The followup reveals that there are 5 guards watching a completely chained-up maeka, with the description reading “no escape.” JUST WHAT THE HELL DID SHE DO?!