“Ho-ly shit.”
Growing up with a rather colorful character of a mother, Liv had learned early on that truly momentous things were worthy of an extra syllable. Staring at the monstrosity that was Masque, she felt this had safely earned the DEFCON 5 drawl. DEFCON 1 was mostly theoretical, and involved adding an extra expletive in the middle and then deciding to turn all three words into a six syllable sign of the apocalypse. She’d hold onto that one. Who knew, she might get a dragon or something wandering by some day. A girl had to be ready.
Some vague memory of her grade school days told her that there had been a point in history where Salamanders the size of alligators had actually been a thing. She remembered being amused by the idea of the soft amphibians having been the apex predator of its day. Now, though, she could see it. Massive jaws, a powerful tail, sharp teeth; good gods she hadn’t known salamanders even HAD teeth.
“Masque!” she exclaimed. “You absolute BEAST! That was AMAZING!!” Liv crawled towards him, shaky and exhausted but grinning from ear to ear. She pushed herself upward onto her knees, kneeling in front of the massive creature. “Who’s a good boy?” the leather clad punk cooed in a voice usually reserved for babies and kittens. “Who’s my magnificent monstrosity?!” Masque opened his eyes and looked up at her, tongue still lolling happily like some kind of 200 lb puppy as his tail swished in the mud. “That’s right! YOU ARE!” Liv said with child-like glee. “And good boys get upgrades!”
With a tired chuckle, she needlessly licked a thumb and smudged out the little 1 on his portrait. She thought for a moment, considering how she’d rate Masque if she was DMing a game. “Let’s see… You must have grown at least three sizes. You also definitely got some natural weapons there.” Masque was looking up at his little floating sign in anticipation; then practically danced as his dungeon wrote a glowing four in its place.
—
Liv had been pleasantly surprised when, after the fight, she’d discovered that the whole second pond had been ‘claimed’. Somehow it seemed as though defeating that snake had allowed her access to the remaining space, despite not having invested any further in the plant-life she’d been using to expand. The logic of her new existence was truly bizarre.
In the days that followed she had learned several things. First, whatever kind of population limit she’d had, Masque now took up substantially more of it. She’d been able to fill his spot in the first pond, but he seemed to take up a majority of the resources for her new, even bigger expansion. She was growing increasingly certain that those limits had to do with the ecological niches of the life in her territory. After all, she’d been maxed out on amphibians before, but Bushwhacker hadn’t been a problem.
She’d also discovered that her own capabilities had increased. Repeating the skeeter experiments had been annoying, but fruitful. After some basic math, she’d just updated her “stat chart”.
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—
[Current SP: 35]
[Max SP: 40]
[Regen: 1.5 per hour]
[Time till full regen: 26h 40m]
—
Eyeing her numbers, the former graphic designer idly wondered if there was some way to animate her illusory displays. How cool would it be if she could make an actual timer? That was a back burner project though. Right now she had SCIENCE to do!
An investment of SP had allowed her to physically alter an existing creature in spectacular ways. She needed to understand the limits and capabilities of such enhancements. Size was obviously a quality she could enhance, but could she do more? She didn’t want to deal with multiple variables if she could help it, so she chose Wile as her next test subject.
The excitable little guy was scampering around like a mad lad.
“Alright buddy. We already have one giant and he takes up a lot of space and resources. So, for you, I’m thinking speed.” Liv sat cross legged and tried to concentrate on Wile. His shape, his personality, position, mood, she tried to mentally catalog every single detail about him and hold it in her mind. It took a few tries, but eventually she felt it. A sense of ‘knowing’. She smirked as she reached out towards Wile, mumbling under her breath. “There is no spoon…”
With Masque, it had felt like blowing up a balloon animal. Pumping in raw power and soaring growth. Here, she tried to be more delicate. Wile spun about in a tight circle and Liv could almost see the little flares in the threads of his being, traveling from his head, down his back, to his limbs. She focused her attention there. She had to be careful. Speed without control could lead to disaster. Speed without durability could likewise result in the body’s breakdown. So rather than a frantic push, she began to apply her own inner power in a much more controlled and natural way.
She imagined a brush in her hand, and with smooth, languid strokes she began to paint those delicate threads. Each coat built them up, making them more robust, and brighter with every pass. She stopped when the rest of the pattern began to shift, bending inward as if straining slightly to accommodate the heightened abilities. Opening her eyes she looked down at the bored creature.
“Let’er’rip!” she cheered. Then she nearly fell over backwards as the spunky little salamander dashed for the water. Wile himself didn’t seem to comprehend his speed until he hit the pond… and kept hitting it. His little feet slapped the water with such ferocity that the yellow striped Salamander literally skipped across the surface! The simple creature looked as though he couldn’t quite grasp the realities of his newfound abilities. This was made apparent when he stopped running about half way across and tried to inspect the water below his feet, only to promptly sink into it with a loud *bloop*.
“WOO!!” she cheered, pumping her fist in the air before collapsing into a fit of cackling laughter.