Shaping Ivy

We finish breakfast, and I’m a little curious. “Ivy, you can change your shape, right?” I ask her. She looks at me and answers. “Yes, I can do that.” She replies. “Can you change your appearance?” I ask her. “Yes, I believe so. Why do you ask?” Ivy asks in return. “I’d like you to change your appearance, if that’s alright with you.” I tell her. “Of course Gemma.” A window then appears in front of me.

“Okay cool.” I say as I read the window. “Gaia just confirmed that you can change your appearance. This is the only time you’ll be able to make a major adjustment though, so we’ll make sure that you’re happy with whatever appearance you change to.” I tell Ivy. “Gemma…what is wrong with my appearance?” She asks, a hint of vulnerability and uncertainty in her voice.

I’m quick to reassure her. “Nothing is wrong with your appearance Ivy. It’s just that you look like a statue right now, and I’d personally like you to look more human. Is that okay?” I reply. She nods at that. “Thank you Gemma. Yes that is okay. I will be okay with whatever you choose for me.” Ivy says.

I shake my head at that. “I want you to like it too. It’s no use me being happy with your appearance if you aren’t.” I tell her. “Oh…that makes sense.” Ivy replies, her voice clearly projecting uncertainty. I grab the tablet from the table and do some quick googling to find some pictures. A few in particular stand out to me, and I show them to Ivy.

“I’d like you to reshape your body and face to look like her, to start.” I tell her, showing her a picture of Uma Thurman’s Poison Ivy from the movie Batman and Robin. Everybody hated that movie, but I always loved it. The campiness made it really enjoyable to me. Ivy stands up as she changes her appearance and a few moments later, completes the transformation. I’m in awe. I stare wide eyed for a few seconds. “Is something wrong Gemma?” Ivy asks. I clear my throat and shake my head. “No, nothing’s wrong. I just love that look.” I say and Mia snickers at my slightly red face.

I swipe to a different picture for some details. “Okay, reshape your body to the same proportions as this.” I instruct. Ivy’s boobs grow bigger and her waist gets slightly thinner. “Perfect. Can you make your hair more like mine? Individual strands instead of a solid block?” I ask, moving my hair in a demonstration. She frowns in concentration for a moment and holds up her hair, before letting it flow down as individual strands this time.

I swipe to a different picture. “Okay, widen your hips and make your ass bigger like this, please.” I tell her. She does so, and I think for a moment. “Can you make your hair longer and reshape your face a bit to look more like this?” I ask, pointing at the picture. “Yes Gemma.” Ivy says, and her hair grows down to the small of her back, just above her ass. Her eyes become a brilliant violet colour, and the adornments in her hair and above her eyes disappear.

I swipe to a final picture. “And can you make your outfit like this?” I ask her, showing her an artwork of Poison Ivy wearing a dark green bodysuit. Her outfit changes in line with the picture, and I sit back to admire the results. Then a thought strikes me. I swipe back to the previous picture and show it to her. “I’m not sure whether to ask you to change your skin colour to this or not.” I admit to her, and Ivy ponders for a moment.

“If I may Gemma, I would prefer to change it to that.” Ivy presents, and I nod. “Sure, if that’s what you want then I’d love it.” I tell her, smiling. Ivy smiles back, and her skin changes to a pale green colour. I sit back and admire the results of the transformation.

Ivy is now an amalgamation of all of the most (in my opinion) gorgeous aspects of the different artworks of Poison Ivy. I find myself about ready to fall to my knees in front of her, because she looks so incredible and straight out of my dreams. I resist the temptation as Ivy looks at me. “What do you think Gemma?” Ivy asks me. I look her up and down, before giving the only answer that really seems appropriate. “Perfect. Absolutely perfect.” I tell her.

“Earth to Gemma. Come in Gemma.” Mia says, waving her hand in front of my face. I shake my head a little and look at her. “You’re staring.” Mia giggles. “Shut it! This is literally a dream come true!” I tell her. “What is?” Ivy asks, curiously. “I’ve always wanted to meet a real life version of Poison Ivy. Now I have, and she’s even better than my fantasies.” I freely admit to her.

“Is that me?” Ivy asks, and I nod, giggling happily. Ivy smiles at me. “Thank you, creator Gemma.” She says. “Are you able to alter your body composition?” I ask her. “What do you mean?” She asks, her brow furrowing slightly in confusion. “Can you change which parts of your body are made out of which materials?” I elaborate. Ivy nods in response.

“Okay cool. Can you form your skin out of the rubber hybrid material that you ate? Just the outer part, keep the rest of your body made out of the titanium.” I instruct. Ivy nods. “Done.” She announces a few seconds later. “And can you form your boobs and your ass out of the extra soft silicone?” I ask. “Yes Gemma.”

“I wanna feel! Can I?” Mia asks. Ivy nods, confused. Mia leaps up from her chair, having been mostly silent during the conversation, and darts over to Ivy. She starts to grope Ivy’s ass, giving it a smack. “Oi! No fair!” I laugh, and start to squeeze her tits together. “Perfect.” I tell her once again. “Thank you?” Ivy says, still confused about why this is necessary at all.

A ding distracts me from the conversation and feeling up Ivy, and a new window opens up in front of me. I have no idea what it could be related to, so I’m extremely curious as to what it’s about.

I check my character sheet quickly to see that the artificial spirit skill has indeed levelled up to level 25. Huh, I guess that’s what happens when you’re constantly using a skill. “Whatcha lookin’ at?” Mia asks. “Apparently I’ve unlocked a skill tree for Ivy.” I muse, hoping that this is where I can make Ivy into a healer like I had hoped. The artificial spirit skill listing on my character sheet has a green exclamation mark next to it, so I press it to see what happens. I’m presented with a new kind of window.

“Yes!” I exclaim. Mia raises an eyebrow and Ivy looks at me, curiosity radiating from her. “I can make Ivy a healer now!” I say happily. The support and damage dealer paths aren’t really worth considering, given that Mia, Skylar and I are all damage dealers of sorts, and that I intended to make Ivy a healer from the beginning anyway.

“I can see the choices. I would prefer a healer too.” Ivy voices, and I look at her in surprise. “I didn’t know you could see the window, that’s interesting. I’m glad you prefer the healer path. Just let me know if you have any preferences to the skills.” I tell Ivy. She nods in response, and smiles at me.

“Thank you Gemma. I think I’m happy to let you make most of the choices, because I trust you. But it is nice to know that you would give me the choice if I asked.” Ivy says, and I smile at her. I press the healer option, and the next window appears. I move next to Ivy so she can see the options easier.

I immediately know which choice I want, but I look to Ivy to see if she has any preference. The number 1 next to each of the choices indicates that each choice is upgradable, which makes sense. I couldn’t think of many different choices for a healer path, although I’m sure that Gaia is a lot better at this than me. As she looks back at me, I can feel through the strange mental connection between the two of us, that she wants the same choice as I do. “Healing hands please.” She states, and I click the middle choice without a second thought.

Two repeat choices and an upgrade. I look at Ivy and she shrugs. I pick the middle option again, preferring the upgrade over the damage resistance or higher health regeneration.

I’m not sure who in their right mind would ever choose the self healing skill. Ivy having a skill to actively increase her HP regeneration would be situationally useful currently, but why take a skill that gives a flat bonus to health regeneration when there’s a passive skill that gives a percentage increase? The actual increase in regeneration is lower, but it’s a passive and it’ll always be relevant, whereas the flat boost of the self healing skill is likely to be outstripped.

Artificial spirits have naturally high regeneration rates due to being made from non organic material and storing excess material in some kind of a pocket dimension (according to the guide I bought from the auction), so the self healing skill becoming obsolete down the line is very likely. I look to Ivy for confirmation and she nods, so I tap the right hand option and move on to the next choice.

Sturdy is just as uninteresting to me as the last three times. The upgrade to healing hands is good, but the thorns skill has something even better: it gives Ivy a way to defend herself and deal damage to enemies. It doesn’t look like it’ll be very effective but it’s better than nothing, and it’s a ranged skill which means that she won’t have to get up close to use it. Ivy doesn’t object at all, so I tap the skill and move on to the next choice.

After checking with Ivy for confirmation, I hit the shield skill option. I’d have to save up ability points a little more if I wanted to get the next upgrade for healing hands, but the shield ability gives Ivy another method to defend herself and adds variety to her abilities. Another window pops up, which surprises me since I’ve spent all the available ability points.

This choice is a little more difficult. A 10% bonus to all stats is nothing to sniff at. The description of the perk says that Ivy will upgrade her materials passively, which isn’t anything to dismiss either. It’s value generated out of nothing, which is bullshit, and also in line with my powers so far. Rapid regeneration is just good. But compared to aid, it really doesn’t hold up.

Aid would be super useful, if I find myself in a dangerous gang situation alone again and can’t hold my own. Ivy wouldn’t be able to do a whole lot of damage in that situation, but she would be able to support me while I whittle down the defenses of any gang members. Remembering the attack by the Crystal Ravens gang decides it for me. I nearly died then, and Ivy could be a nasty surprise for any prospective kidnappers.

I pick the aid option, then turn to Ivy. “I guess it’s time we took you for a dungeon run then, see how you go.” I tell her. “Gemmm, you have a girlfriend who is very much out of the loop here!” Mia’s voice reminds me and I turn to see her hopping slightly from one foot to the other, clearly itching to know what I’ve just done with Ivy and her skill tree. I cackle at the sight and Mia bats my arm. “Dickhead! Tell meeee!” She whines and I giggle more.

After she bats my arm again and fixes me with a ‘not impressed’ stare, I manage to get my laughing under control and explain the different abilities that I’ve picked for Ivy. Mia nods at the end of it. “Sounds like you’re going for a healer-guardian hybrid type of build.” She says. “Yeah I guess that’s true. I primarily want her to be a healer, but if she can protect us and deal a little damage at the same time, that would be nice too.” I reply.