Nymphlopedia
Entry 68: Base Nymphs
Beginning AN:
And no while this is technically Chapter 69 thanks to the Intro/Oread chapter there won't be a joke about that here either.
Yeah if you want a tip for coming up with fantasy biomes: Once you've come up with one, try making the opposite of that as well. Ideally you could do "different things that could be interpreted as the opposite," keeping your options open.
Oh I didn't realize until I was editting this for the publishing, but while I did plan that there were two "sky" chapters separated with one in-between, I did plan that this would be so close to the "similar"ish "soap" chapter, again with just one in between. So... kind of an alternation. Sky, cleaning stuff, sky, cleaning stuff. Weird way to have a pseudo-"theme" for this day specifically. And said day is, yet again, "Soos and the Real Girl" (SatRG) Day.
Ah, right, Pikmin 4. Last time I made a bet about a Nintendo announcement finally showing Pikmin 4 (or, the next mainline title, but if they introduce a spinoff and it looks better than Hey! Pikmin maybe that too? Not sure, bottom line, spinoffs are not guaranteed) it was that I'd draw some Simpsons Hit & Run cars as anime characters. (I only announced that on a Discord server.) So, that was for that specific day - oh E3 I think - this time I'll do something different. Hmmmm... I'll draw Hank Hill cosplaying as each Pikmin type including any possible new ones that would be revealed.
And by "cosplaying" I mean I'll draw Hank Hill naked with just body paint and a fake stem with a leaf/bud/flower on his head.
I'm dead serious. If I make a claim I think will be unlikely to actually happen, I'll still follow through it in the off chance that it does, in fact, happen.
Sonata was carrying another bucket of highly basic, bluish liquid with a scowl on her face. Vince, a bucket of highly acidic, yellish liquid. With less of a scowl on his face.
Of course Sonata didn't have to walk as far - right, Vince himself did not run a marathon on account of teleporters and especially the Pylon system and whatnot - but Sonata had an even shorter distance because she was right at the Basic Lakes. Home of really weird cleaning chemicals and... basically, it seemed like a more dangerous counterpart to the Soap Lakes.
"You sure this would work?" Sonata asked to a small group of Base Nymphs resting in that one lake Sonata, obviously with permission otherwise she'd be burnt in some spots, took from.
"I should be asking that." Vince chimed in. "After all, I'm the one who took the longer walk."
Sonata looked right at him in surprise. "You... you do know we could have just loaded the base side of the cannon, then moved the cannon by itself over to the Acid Lakes, and filled up the acid side."
"We'd be moving the cannon, which is still transporting the same amount of base."
"...Well, no, if we have the cannon being carried I mean..."
"Oh. I see, you have a... point..." Vince blushed. And he loaded his half of the cannon-like device. One of the Base Nymphs stretched out, got out of the pool, and shook all the liquid off herself as she looked at it.
"Okay, and just pull that tab there and they'll mix and fire on their own." She said.
"Great!"
"Oh wait... let me just..."
She ran to the side that Sonata loaded, put her hands on it, and started glowing a bright blue. She silently chanted something.
"Okay, there. Made it just a little more basic."
"...We should make the acid a little more acidic, then." Said Vince.
...
That actually started a back and forth, with the Naked Empire's Acid Nymph warrior heading over to acidify the already juiced-up other chamber of the cannon, and so on and so forth. Eventually, Tania was called in to make a sort of 'final judgement' and get the cannon ready.
"Oh," Tania said when she saw it, "this is like an improved model of a weapon a sect of the Dryads used!"
"...Back when they were in harmony with the other Nymphs-" Sonata asked but was cut off by a very fast, sharp:
"No."
"...Okay so where did they get the acid and base from? Or did they just load up a lot of soda and tablets?"
"Um... actually..." Tania looked down and began thinking. "Hrm... they never... told me..."
The Base Nymph tapped the cannon twice. "Okay, so what are we firing this unholy children's science project volcano on crack at?"
That got three different answers all at once. Vince spoke first, saying "We haven't actually decided-" but got cut off with Sonata's "DUKE FUCKING FISHRON! Sorry I thought I told you, must have slipped my mind!" Meanwhile, Tania's comment was a quieter, and of course drowned out, "Wouldn't that just be an artificial volcano at this point...?"
And then a familiar redhead dropped by them. No, sadly not Sophia.
Her fucking brother.
"DAVE THE BETTER MECHANIC HERE!" He shouted. "LINDSEY WILL STILL RISE! BOW BEFORE THE NEW NYMPH QUEEN!"
"Oh, perfect!" Cheered Tania.
With a cheery smile on her face, she blasted Dave to the cannon hole with her staff, turned it away from them, and pulled on a sheet separating the liquid of the two chambers.
BLAM!
The cannon spewed out highly bubbly, VERY high-pressured foam and water at an alarming rate, which also burnt. It shot Dave all the way to the ceiling of the cave the gang was in, and pushed him inward to it. As would be seen later, it left a Dave-shaped indent in the baserock.
The Base Nymph that helped with the cannon-loading whistled at that. "So that's Dave, huh?" She asked. Also high-fiving the Acid Nymph.
"Yes and he's a jackass." Sonata replied.
Tania happily sighed. "Isn't nature wonderful? And Tordak keeps teasing me for not being 'explosive enough...'"
Everyone was just staring at her.
"Wow Tania, you're, uh..." Sonata said. "So uh, subject change, subject change... Oh look! Dave looks like me after I whispered 'come to mommy' in Vince's ear once!"
Vince lightly popped her on the shoulder. "Yeah? That's what I look like after... um... she typed 'Artistic Dryad' in her Internet search!"
Sonata laughed a bit and popped him back, on the shoulder. "That joke doesn't work because that's actually true. Also you should know women's cum doesn't look like that."
"I mean, men's-"
Yeah okay I think that's a good time to end this chapter. Dave was suffering as he had to listen to that for a while, before he was able to pry himself off.
Base Nymphs.
Nymphs that like to set up basic bases in a pool of highly basic liquids. One might say they're "based."
Preferred Environment: Basic Lakes.
Environment Threat Level: Severe.
Environment Stats: Wet. Warm. Fantastic. Rare. Pools naturally deep underground with extremely basic
Other Names: Dissolving Nymphs, "Drain Cleaner Nymphs," Alkali Nymphs, Basic Nymphs (not to be confused with Oreads being called "Base Nymphs" and similar terms), High pH Nymphs. "Soap Nymphs" may also be used although they are a distinct type on their own, usually if one group is far away from the other Nymph Variant. As with Acid Nymphs, "Caustic Nymphs" and "Dissolving Nymphs " may be used.
Affinity: Water.
Color: Light Sky Blue.
Traditional Costume Weapon: A single (usually, a few have more) "snaking" trail of a basic liquid that zigs and zags around their bodies, usually starting from a foot, going up the side, and down an arm. Aides in controlling material with a high pH; the closer to about 12, the better. More or less would be more suited to more elite Nymphs, who could also manipulate the earth and plants around them, "regular" water, and more general basic material like baking soda. Or the body's blood.
Vince's Comment: BASE AS IN THE ACIDS AND BASES STUFF. I tried to talk Tania in to putting this at the beginning of the entry, but she didn't want to. I say this because I know the word is more used for... well, fortresses and stuff. Anyway, yeah, if they want to eat you up, either they could very easily eat you, or the liquids they fire at you can.
Sonata's Comment: Again, I'd like to talk about "bitter tastes" and the like, but also again, Tania threatened to not publish it in this book. So again, I could talk about how much things dissolve but... I think by this point you're familiar with the whole "Nymphs just eat holes, or eat shit in general," thing.
Tania's Comment: Base Nymphs.
Nymphae Alkaline.
These Nymphs dwell in strongly basic environments, which is even more alien and rare to humans than highly acidic environments, as most of the natural material they are familiar with tends to lean to being acidic, while bases are associated with manufactured items. This surprised me to hear. What surprised me even more were people saying I should be shocked, or taken aback by how what I supposedly said was "unnatural" was not. Why would bases not be natural? Even seawater is slightly basic, according to the very same people who were shocked at my lack of a reaction. The rarity of creatures that thrive on very alkaline materials may make this biome seem alien and its Nymphs bizarre, but it is not. It's still just another location. And one that may need to grow, at that.
Before anyone asks, Acid Nymphs and Base Nymphs do not "react" if they were placed together. Their respective magics, however, do form a somewhat unstable and explosive reaction when paired. The ones I have met tend to use this combination to their advantage - while Nymph Variantss prefer to stay to their biomes, they are cooperative with other Variants should the need to team up arise. Which... mostly did, so that they could all hate me for the actions of the Dryads in the past. And some of the actions I did, if I'm being honest. Also, hating Humans for siding with us.
Closing AN:
Day 22! The update for the "Soos and the Real Girl" anniversary is done, and... well, I made this quick MS Paint joke image of me getting attacked by both .GIFfany and Sonata, and in the end, it seemed like .GIFfany's attack was well-deserved, because I was working my ass off with this to make its chapters at least presentable, meanwhile RunGif had just one chapter (obviously though it's a bit longer than these) slated to be out that I was working on throughout the year and... I couldn't completely finish that on time. Shit. Well, I don't have to worry about RG any more now, especially since I'm putting the actual rewrite on hold for three weeks, so I can move my focus to this for that last eight-day stretch and hopefully move through things better, since that's one distraction of a story down.
I might remove the "based" thing in the "Bestiary description" if I decide later on that it's a dumb joke. I don't know.
To completely break character for a minute, I was going to write .GIFfany "hijacking" this since it's (the last of the Nymphlopedia chapter updates of) SatRGday but... yeah... I decided not to...
"Jesus why is Tania that happy about blasting Dave away?" I mean that's kind of the default around him really. You'll see. Tania wasn't just being creepy and a teeny bit suspicious.