Nymphlopedia

Entry 20: Ocean Nymphs

"AQUAFLA! AQUAAAAFLA!" Shouted Sonata. "AQUAFLA! - Still a stupid on-the-nose name by the way - Fancy running in to you here!"

She ran through the beach sand and hugged a tan-skinned Nymph with blue hair. Said Ocean Nymph just put a hand on her side and frowned.

"What is it, Sonata?"

Breaking from the hug, she snapped her fingers and gave her a finger gun-point with a wink. "Okay it's actually Landlady Sonata or Boss Sonata, but we can work on that."

Aquafla rolled her eyes. "What about 'Master Sonata...'"

"Woah no let's not get in to any unhealthy relationship dynamics here, I mean Pan, I have standards, hahah. So, I came here to ask you how it's going with the Humans. Because... you and your friends-"

"I wouldn't say Igniss and Fulgra are my friends exactly."

"-Well okay they're not friends but you're still living together and starting up my big Naked Empire but you're also getting along better than the Humans even though you're all a few centuries younger than me, how is it going?"

Aquafla looked over at Iris who, per her request for a number of reasons, just got a new beach home. She was lying on her back on a towel, twirling around her scissors, wearing a pair of sunglasses and nothing else. Well, the sunglasses were tilted up to look over at the two Nymphs.

"Well, you left a really bad first impression on Iris, dragging her off to you-know-who's place, and I didn't. Plus we like the same place, so I'm getting along with her better than you are. And that's why."

"Cold. But constructive. Thanks."

"That wasn't meant to be 'constructive,' but you live however you want." Aquafla sighed, turning blue all over. "I promised Iris a swim."

She walked over to the ocean, and Iris seemed to know that was the cue. She ran over there and, with perfect timing, hopped right as Aquafla dove down to the water on her stomach, getting on her back.

"Why are you doing this?" Sonata asked.

Iris answered that, flashing her a smirk. "It's called PR, hon! More people will join the Naked Empire if they see what a great time I'm about to have!"

Aquafla appeared to stroke through the waters just once, and they both took off like a rocket.

"WHOOOOO!" Iris cheered while riding out to the ocean. Sonata shielded her eyes from the sun to look on.

"...Wow." Said Sonata.

Once they were out a good distance from the island, Aquafla - with a stern expression the whole time - rotated in the water. Iris slipped herself off her back, twirling about in the open sea, diving down to get a better look at - holy shit that was a lot of empty blue expanse she was expecting a bit more coral and more... visible seafloor. Still looked beautiful to her though.

From there, the still stone-faced Aquafla took her hand and brought her on a little dance. Each of them with one arm on the other's shoulder, moves that slid long distances, ever more spins that made smalll vortecies on the surface. Iris quickly found her footing and moved along with it. Catching rhythym. Actually making Aquafla start to crack just a little smile.

"You ever did this with Sonata?" Iris asked.

"No, but..." And there goes the smile, already. "Maybe I will?"

Vince surfaced. He didn't need to gasp for air, again Gill Potion and all.

"Oh, hey, I'm glad I found you!" He said. He just... pointed straight down. "There's a cave here, do you think I should...?"

"Oh, that's my old home!" Said Aquafla. "I took Iris out here for that reason."

"...Your old home, got it, I'll take that as a 'no.'"

And he dove back under water. Aquafla looked at his blurry outline as he faded to the blue, then back at Iris.

"Oh, right. Most Ocean Nymphs aren't going to be... nice to you, putting it mildly. And there's a lot out here. We really shouldn't be here."

Ocean Nymphs.

The Nymphs of the sea's surface are a bunch that go with the flow. Unless they're the ones controlling the flow. If someone else tries to control them by controlling the flow, it won't end well.

Preferred Environment: Ocean Shallows/Surface. Can also be found in caves below the beaches, or in "Underground Oceans."

Environment Threat Level: Peaceful.

Environment Stats: Average Moistness/Aquatic. Warm. Mundane. Very common. The large bodies of water that make up most of Terraria; specifically, this relates to the parts of the Ocean "closest" to the surface world, without any overwhelming abundance of animal or plant life, so mostly sand and rocks under salty water.

Other Names: Water Nymphs, Sea Nymphs, "Lake Nymphs" (not accurate), Saltwater Nymphs, Nereids, Undines.

Affinity: Water.

Color: Bright Blue.

Traditional Costume Weapon: Simply globs of water - can be fresh or sea, but usually sea - around them, often just around their limbs and by their torsos. Helps them with water powers and the ability to swim very well - enough to move like cars through the ocean, if not faster.

Vince's Comment: Bring Gill Potions. Please.

Sonata's Comment: They're the best swimmers of all the Nymph types! So I'm working with a team of them to do some searching for Merpeople! I SWEAR they exist!
UPDATE: Okay they do exist. One of them nearly roasted me.

Tania's Comment: Ocean Nymphs.
Nymphae Aqua.
Sonata (for once) managed to correctly identify as aspect to a Nymph Variant: the swimming skills of the Ocean Nymphs. They have the strongest connection to water, part of that is manifested through their skills on moving through it. All Nymphs have an innate ability to move through their biomes more easily than the average humanoid, which may manifest in ways that would help them in other environments. In the case of the Ocean Nymphs, they thrive better in salt water, yet navigating through freshwater sees nearly no slowdown on their part. Their main weapons are Tridents and upgrades on that line.

Closing AN:

So I think this is the first mini-story where Vince and Sonata aren't technically ever "together." It probably won't be the last unless I forget this and just get super creatively-sterile.

The third of the Majora's Mask biome Nymphs, we've got Swamp, Ocean, and Canyon now. We'll see Mountain... eventually. I'm still super ahead, having started writing the roughs a few days before Day 1 and still doing twice as many of them as I am publishing "final written" chapters, and to give the idea, my "ahead" roughs as still not at the one I decided to make Mountain yet. It's pretty far off.

Also finally at the last of the first three Variants we'll see in RTLD proper. The RYB-trio.

And I should probably put this in an earlier chapter, but "bright" in the context of the "color" section means "fully saturated." I know Terraria uses "bright" to mean "light" with dyes, so... since the color names go by what Terraria uses I should probably change the term "bright..." probably...

Finally, I'm going back and forth with whether the "scientific name" should use the biome or some sort of "element" that's translated, you might tell by how some of these go with one and some go with the other. Honestly, I might just remove that part altogether. And maybe the "Affinity" section...