Nymphlopedia

Entry 37: Refuse Nymphs

Beginning AN:

Credit to the dump zone of the SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (Video Game) that inspired this biome. Have "Shell City Dead Ahead's" theme playing while listening to this if you want to.

Also happy Hecking Ulumate Crconikals anniversary (eh should I put this at the end of Entry 39?), for that I posted the first page of the third and final Dryad & Nymph comic on Deviantart.

Yeah all the terms Vince had heard were completely accurate. It basically looked like the forest was melted, and there was quite a lot of trashy, decayed, half-eaten fruits and stuff around. Thankfully it was mostly fruit, no meat, the only animal mass there (well, obviously except for the ones that attacked the gang) was in skeletal form. He didn't want to touch anything.

Sonata, on the other hand, was gleefully kicking around a random can while he stood still and while Tania searched the area. The can was actually the first of its kind Vince saw; apart from discarded food, there was very little in the way of "garbage" garbage thrown out. It was just like... the trees and whatnot of that "forest" looked... goo-y? Like they were melting?

"HEY!" Tania shouted at her. "That's already litter! don't desecrate the lands here even more! Throw that out now! Or destroy it!"

"Okay, fine!" Sonata rolled her eyes.

She cut it up with her Excalibur, making it explode with a bright, radiant glow. "There? Happy?" She said in one of her most dull tones yet. Tania, of course, replied by shooting her a look.

Roots emerged from the ground and wrapped themselves around the trios' ankles. Vince rolled his eyes and took out his Hallowed Repeater.

"Not this again..."

He shot before anyone else in the gang attacked, making the roots leave and start spinning around under the ground. The ground of which got muddier and muddier, looking like it would stop supporting them at any second, so of course the trio went to the skies and started flying.

Once they were a good distance up and landed on a relatively solid-looking hill, a green Nymph emerged from the floor that had since transformed in to a swirling vortex. Of course, she was in the center.

"WHICH ONE OF YOU BROKE MY TREASURED CAN?!" She shouted. "THAT WAS MY DAD'S TROPHY FROM THE WAR! THE LAST THING HE DID BEFORE HE DIED OF CANCER WAS TELL ME TO PROTECT IT, SO I WILL!"

Sonata pointed at herself. "Yeah, yeah, I did, what's it to you?"

"Wait you're taking the blame?" Tania asked her. "I mean, it was my idea..."

"We thought it was litter. I treated it like a toy. I'm sorry, I didn't know how much it meant to you."

She started walking to the swirling vortex, and the Refuse Nymph began to swim her way out of it.

"...Why are you doing this?!" Vince asked. "I mean, she could-"

"What I'm still armed at least. Besides, you both had a good point." Sonata said. "Tania hates seeing Terraria being peoples' garbage dump, but that had a lot of personal stuff to you. If there's any way to make it up to you - except dying - I-"

"Alright, stop." The vortex stopped swirling. "I lied."

"Oh. I've been hanging around honest Nymphs lately so I'm a little more surprised than I should be, but it is a Nymph thing to-"

"I did have a father who died of cancer, but he had nothing to do with the can. He was just an asshole, and that was just a can I liked filling with Voltage water and watching it react. It was built for that. So, it was more like a little tool of mine, nothing personal."

She walked out and sighed.

"So if there's any-"

"Ah you're just an asshole then." Sonata said.

Believe it or not from Sonata's comment, yes, that Refuse Nymph would in fact become a Naked Empire recruit.

Eventually.

Refuse Nymphs.

While they seem ominous, these Nymphs and Satyrs simply represent a natural part of the cycle of life. The last part.

Preferred Environment: The Refuse.

Environment Threat Level: Dangerous.

Environment Stats: Wet. Cold. Moderate on the Mundane-fantastic scale. Rare. A large, usually disorganized, toxic "dump" made of what looks to be "rotting" semi-liquid plant mass. Appears to be a wasteland that resulted from pollution, but this biome specifically is in fact a part of nature. Yet Refuse Nymphs take to actual dumps, which may look similar but are more mundane in appearance, anyway.

Other Names: Trash Nymphs, Dross Nymphs, Sludge Nymphs, Compost Nymphs, Corpse Nymphs, Rot Nymphs, Melted Tree Nymphs, Landfill Nymphs (not actual landfills).

Affinity: Water.

Color: Dark Green.

Traditional Costume Weapon: A "scarf," mostly just around the shoulders, of "rotting" wood. This helps them temporarily liquify themselves and their targets.

Vince's Comment: I've been "melted" by one of them before. Not a very pleasant experience.

Sonata's Comment: Yet another Nymph Variant that even creeps me out. Yeah, yeah, I'm still friends with some of them, but... "some" is the best I could get. I'm not going to their biomes alone. Other Oreads do, still having not gone through their character arc to develop beyond "Imma monster pretended to be lost and helpless Imma getcha!" and they're braver than me for sure.

Tania's Comment: Refuse Nymphs.
Nymphae Nolens.
These Nymphs would seem to have been adapt to improper waste disposal from other races, if not for the fact that, like (almost?) all Nymph Variants, they predate those other races by millennia. There is a curious duality that could be said about their "natural landfills" and Humanity, Goblinkind, and the like with how they dispose of their unwanted substances...
...But who am I kidding? Nymphs are filfthy. No, I am not masking snark at Sonata! (For once.) I will admit, us Dryads are bad with this too! Even me! I swear, all these useless gold and platinum nuggets I find, all the useless gemstones... I have thrown so much away just because it filled up my Collection... sigh... am I a hypocrite? Good Gaia, I think I might be a hypocrite. I feel like I owe Sonata and Vince an apology for some reason.
(Note from Sonata: Apology accepted. :) )
(Note from Vince: Eh...)

Closing AN:

Whoo I snuck in another King of the Hill reference, if a very obscure one. Hint: It's in the "Bestiary description" part up in italics.

Also color-wise I'm thinking of swapping these with the Branchflare Nymphs.