Liv gave a hearty cheer as the Soggy Log Canal™ broke through the final bit of mud and water began to flow from the new puddle in what she hoped would become her new territory, mixing with her own waters in the middle. It had been long, slow, and nerve wracking. Once the diggers reached the edge of her boundaries, Liv had been forced to experiment with sending creatures beyond her reach. She could issue only simple commands, but luckily as long as she instructed them to return after completing some VERY basic task, they did so without issue. It was a risk, though. She couldn’t see or help them out there. But the little guys had gotten it done!
As she jumped for joy, Bushwhacker waved its arms over its head like some bizarre little cheerleader. Even the placid amphibians were seemingly dancing excitedly. As soon as the water settled down, the biker turned botanist poked her finger into the yellow-green pond scum and pushed. With barely any prodding, the algae surged down the canal and the fog parted like the Red Sea. Liv looked excitedly down the very narrow passage and could see a tiny pocket of water beyond, slowly being covered in the growing mat of green.
“WOOOOOOO!” Liv’s victorious war cry reverberated from the submerged stone as she thrust her hands in the air and ran in circles. “YES! IT WORKS!! IT WOOOORKS!!” she screamed.
Kneeling down, Liv dumped everything she had into the glorious, snot colored goo that would be the architect of her expansion. She never thought she’d love a disgusting bacterial colony so much.
Near collapsing in exhaustion, she felt secure in the knowledge that she had given it the best start she could and that the fast growing algae would keep right on expanding on her behalf! She wanted to rest, but she knew she also needed to use this opportunity to learn more about her new condition. Being tapped of SP was a learning opportunity. She had noticed early on that she seemed to regenerate SP at a slow but steady rate. She had also noticed that larger patches of plant-life seemed to give off energy. Her running theory was that her base level of SP regen had to do with the plants in her domain. She wanted to try to quantify it.
Lifting her hand with some effort of will, the exhausted woman demanded “Skeeter”. Unsurprisingly, nothing happened. She didn’t have enough SP. Which meant she was either at zero or some fraction less than one. Slowly she began to count in her head…
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45 minutes. Ish. That's how long it took her to regenerate 1 SP. Which tracked; it usually took her about a day to recover if nothing stopped by her puddle and provided a boost. With sure, steady motions, the former artist began to draw her thoughts onto the very air before her. Honestly, the ability to will her art into being like this almost made everything worth it. No pens, or paper, or eraser lines, she just visualized what she wanted and she could paint it anywhere she wanted.
“No bastard cops to get all pissed about it either.” she mumbled to herself, smirking as she worked out her notes.
—
[Current SP: 0]
[Max SP: 25]
[Regen: 1.25 per hour]
[Time till full regen:—]
—
Liv mumbled under her breath, eyes looking upward at nothing as she did the math in her head.
—
[Time till full regen: 20 hours]
—
“Thirty two per day, base. Except I top out at 25 unless something big comes through.” Her eyes widened in realization. If she didn’t spend at least seven a day, she was just wasting resources! Unless… where did that energy go if she was ‘full’? Try as she might, she couldn’t think up any way to test that idea. Her head was starting to hurt.
She paused in her note taking as she felt a small rush. She hummed contentedly, it was like taking the first sip of coffee of the morning. A quick inspection of the area revealed only one region with any noteworthy activity. Sally was in the canal, wiggling happily. Liv strode over and knelt beside her.
“What you got there, girlfriend? Anything good?” Sally, of course, said nothing. Just that same blank, amphibian stare. Liv sighed, wishing she could at least pet her critters. When Sally’s attention suddenly snapped back to the canal, she followed the salamander’s gaze. It was a fish! A tiny silvery fish! Liv felt another rush as Sally snapped up that one too before deciding she was full and dragging herself out of the shallow canal and back towards the puddle.
Standing, she cupped her hands around her mouth and called out across her puddle.
“CHIIILDREEEN! DINNER TIME!!”