Nymphlopedia
Entry 72: Toyland Nymphs
Beginning AN:
Whoo last chapter marked the point where I broke the 100,000 word barrier! Of course, if I update and expand on these little stories a bit, that would be outdated.
"VINCE." Sonata said while the Will-o-Wisp flew around to light up the plastic walls of that part of a cave. He was also planting way more torches than he usually had when lighting up caves. Sonata was a bit worried that he would incur the wrath of the Torch God again, but since that hadn't happened since the first time he did the thing... maybe they were safe? Sonata still didn't want to tempt it. "I said this already. Tania and I handled this one without you! This Toyland is SAFE. We have a TRUCE set up."
His pupils were still pretty small.
"The scariest thing that could happen here is that you step on a Building Brick." Sonata said. "Okay, that is pretty scary, but... you know what I mean."
"I'm not scared of the Nymphs! I'm scared of the Clowns!"
"Oh..." Said Sonata. "Oh, well that makes more sense. Yeah, I take that back, you should be afraid. At least, if we don't have our Toyland Nymph friends about..."
Yeah, there was a lot of... off-looking decorations. Vines and even whole underground trees that looked like they were made of plastic, but according to Tania, they weren't. The biome was somehow 'natural' in spite of looking shiny and fake and everything but. And the trio walked further on down.
Also what looked like giant dollhouse furnature. But that was artificially made. From the not-artificial, not-plastic plants and trees.
"The Clowns you're talking about seem to follow a sort of death cult." Tania said. "Maybe the Toylands are hiding societies of theirs that will let us find information about them? I wanted to go back here to find out more, asking if the residents Nymphs have any clue."
"You're not helping me." Vince said. "Cults seriously creep me out. Especially since one of them just set up camp outside the Dungeon."
"That too, I want to know if the Lunatic Cult has any ties at all to this 'clown cult.'"
"Again, not helping."
"I wasn't trying to help to be honest."
They came across a door. Sonata knocked twice - just the eye-bar thingy that Sonata didn't know what they were called opened up, showing a pair of purple eyes behind. Sonata just knocked a few more times - in a very specific pattern - and the eyes widened, then the door just opened, revealing a matching Nymph with back-length hair that seemed a bit... 'stiff,' to say the least. She had a band around her left wrist and nothing else.
"Ah! If it isn't the Naked Empire! Your embassy is coming along great! So, do you want to speak with the Toymaker?!" She leaned against the door with a cocky expression and put a hand on her hip. Then her eyes went to Vince. "And you must be Vince! Tania and especially Sonata said a lot about you! I'm the Toymaker, by the way, I was just arrogantly referring to myself in the third person back there!"
"Uh... yeah, we-"
"Know an annoying guy that does that too? Yeah, I met him too, and sorry, third person's a habit of mine I had before Dave was even born."
She took a giant mallet from her hair. Not a 'plastic' one, it looked like one used for serious advanced metalsmithing. The head was white-hot. Even dripping with bits of lava. The sheer sight made Vince tilt his head.
"So what do you know about Clowns?" Tania asked.
The Toyland Nymph rolled her eyes. "Very little, honey. They didn't even show up until about sixty years ago. And now they're fighting us over this spot. You can join our efforts in to fighting them off if you-"
"I'll gladly do that!" Vince said. His voice even cracked a little. That fast, higher-pitched line made the 'plasticsmith' chuckled a little.
"Oh, Vince. Sonata was right about you." She said.
Vince looked at Sonata. "What did you tell her about me?"
Sonata just grinned and shrugged. "Keep talking to her, you'll find out. I think it's more fun if you find out on your own!"
The Toyland Nymph pointed at her. "See, I like your spirit! You get the themes and the feeling of the Toyland Biome! You're close to having a connection with it!"
"Neat." Was all Sonata replied with.
Toyland Nymphs.
Standing above dolls and other plastic monsters are the Nymphs that rule the bizarre dollhouse funhouse. They are definitely NOT collector items, and NOT for sale!
Preferred Environment: Toyland.
Environment Threat Level: Dangerous.
Environment Stats: Fairly dry. Cool. Fantastic. Very rare. Naturally in the caverns, they appear to be made of plastic, and have plastic-like lifeforms from them. (The Nymphs do not look like they are made of plastic.) Also bears resemblance to "funhouses" or "carnivals," and has a few... "relatives" of the mysterious Clowns drawn out by the Blood Moon.
Other Names: Plastic Nymphs, Doll Nymphs, Dollhouse Nymphs, Carnival Nymphs, Clown Nymphs.
Affinity: Fire.
Color: Light Purple.
Traditional Costume Weapon: A band worn around one wrist. Helps with control over plastic and other "natural-artificial" as well as especially actual artificial materials. Works best with (again) plastic, smoke, metal, and for some reason meat. Has mixed effects with sugar.
Vince's Comment: Something about this biome REALLY gives me the creeps, even compared to all those deep dark biomes with cave monsters. Even when I made one on the surface. It might be because it's one of the rarest ones on this list, so I don't expect to see it often. It might be because of some uncanny valley thing - it LOOKS like something artificial but Tania and Sonata both swear up and down it's from "nature." It might be because it took me longer than usual to find some Nymphs there. It might be because of the whole "clown" thing, clowns have always freaked me out. It might be because some of the Frost Moon monsters technically came from here.
Either way though, yeah, the Nymphs aren't too friendly either, most of them. Just... stay away from this biome completely unless you know what you're doing. And if you hear a honk, chug a Recall Potion as fast as possible.
Sonata's Comment: Before you ask: Yes. The Nymphs produce toys of THAT variety as well. ;) The "all ages" side of the biome is creepy as fuck but the "adult side" is surprisingly normal looking, I don't know why. Anyway, you just gotta have a slight passion for dolls while you're an adult and you're pretty much let in there. I didn't lie, do not lie to them, they can fucking smell it on top of all Nymphs generally just being good at lie detection. (I mean most of us are liars, pretending to be lost and helpless and whatnot. Wow I actually forgot for a while that I even used to do that, since I hadn't in a "long" time by now.) But yeah, I genuinely have my hearts out for toy stuff, because I think they're cute. Vince does too and we even bonded over that. It's sort of sweet knowing that I knew someone else the whole time that doesn't just go "This is a thing for kids, adults shouldn't care for it at all" and throw it out. We're both proud toy collectors, dammit. I still have a doll from when I was ten of this Nymph book I read, it's hanging up in my special collector room right near all my old weapons. Ah... childhood memories... I was an orphan hobo, my childhood fucking sucked. As did most of my adulthood for the exact same reason.
Tania's Comment: Toyland Nymphs.
Nymphae Ludibrium.
These are - or were to my knowledge - some of the less-common types of Nymph, and live in one of the few biomes I would call "very rare." They have set up a culture themed around entertanment, mostly for their youth but also to the youth of others, and to a lesser extent the adults of any race as well. Toyland Nymphs are also fully aware of how subjects such as clowns and "uncanny" plastic dolls have been twisted to horror, and they use this to their advantage by populating their underground dollhouses with imagry most people would find to be nightmarish. They use what seems like ordinary plastic, but it is actually a "natural synthetic" as confusing as that may sound. It is a natural "soil" that simply bears great chemical resemblance to plastic, which can be said for other, similar material. Wooden toys are made of actual wood. Toyland Nymph skin has a just slightly "rubbery" texture to it compared to most other Variants, but this is not easily noticeable. They are one of the few Nymph types that spends more time reshaping and molding their biome than they do simply "going along with" whatever it brings and tells them to do. They have even been rumored to very slowly move the boundaries of their biome closer to a target's home, slow enough to avoid suspicion.
Closing AN:
Day 23! The final week is tomorrow, which will begin with the end of Part 3 (holy shit time flies I honestly didn't even think of how the 24th is the end of Part 3 and beginning of Part 4 until today), and... well, that's it. Not much else to put there. As usual for every 25th numbered entry, Entry #75 will be a "special" Nymph of sorts, the story will be the final one chronologically in that part, and there will be a bonus of the gang relaxing and being more "heavy" in terms of sexual themes than the rest of the entries (even if I do sex-up the other chapters).
No I have no idea how all three of the Comments wound up being so long. And yes I refused to go the obvious route of having any of the "Harlequin"-colored Nymph types also double as harlequin or clown-themed. Enjoy purple clowns instead. Take a borderline sort of but not really Homestuck reference (although Cuphead probably inspired this idea the most, it's difficult to say) in its place, with a few references to other things. Same goes for Joy Roy... maybe.
Wow this has been one fuck of a month while I've been doing this, we got the next Terraria update (for consoles, but I mean still) announced and it will happen at the end, uh Deltarune got another free chapter, and um... hrm... I guess that and the Nintendo Direct are it. From what I care about fandom-wise. Also, one of the three "When the fuck is this sequel coming seriously" games that I wanted to joke about (along with Pikmin 4 and Terraria 2, basically it was a joke about "counting" and now I need another third installment that's been teased but we've been silent about for a few years), Bayonetta 3, finally got some new footage and stuff.
(And good Jesus Bayonetta 3 looks absolutely fantastic. They managed to top the second game's sheer crazy action from the teaser alone, and that's not an easy feat.)
One last thing, I fucking hate the Clowns in Terraria, their Teeth Bomb things deal way too much damage, at least on Master Mode. Oneshotting players in general is bullshit.