[Enthralled] third floor (ashton carver)

[cibarium]

rules and mechanics

your mission
The person on this floor is not themselves, and needs rescuing! In order to due so the veilworm filtering their thoughts and making them complacent needs to be removed. The first step to safe removal is causing enough stress to the host for the parasite to disengage.

persuasion
As long as the thrall doesn't seem hostile, this is your best tactic. You can try to remind them what kind of person they really are if you know them, or resort to a less poetic plan of attack if you don't.

• Roll a d10 and bold your persuading phrase
  
• At the end of the turn, the thrall rolls a d10 (if persuadable)
  
• At least one player must meet or exceed the thrall's roll to succeed
  
• Multiple successes in the same turn count as one success
  
• Four successes will make the veilworm retreat and become removable

combat
Fun tip: It's possible to summon up a weapon with magic if you need one, just in case punching isn't your thing.

Everyone starts with 25 HP. If a combat scenario starts, please keep your HP total at the top of your posts!

• You may attack once per round
  
• To attack: roll a d6
  
• At 0HP the thrall becomes incapacitated
  
• Incapacitation makes the veilworm retreat and become removable

other
Thralls are unpredictable at times. If that means something about their rescue doesn't fit the script above, their player will let you know in bolded notes at the end of their post.

 

[Daekie]

Ashton's floor wasn't untasteful, per say, but something was a little uncomfortable about it -- all pure shiny white, clean lines, dappled with splotches and stains a little too irregular to be intentional. It was all white and red, but a sort of neon red that wouldn't have looked out of place on a slot machine; uncomfortably manmade.

There were no chairs, no tables, no beds -- those were human comforts, and she didn't want those. This was his heritage, after all, this was what Michael had given him - fur and claws and knowing, knowing, knowing who he was deep down in his bones; he could take on things a human could never, would never. Every room was small, cozy, comforting; curtains hung from the ceiling, but they were beads and glitter, shimmering and shaking and click-clacking against each other.

The ground was blankets and pawprints, layered and layered and layered --

there were rips in the blankets.

At the end, Ashton rested, sleeping; ears flicking back and forth as he dreamed.

There are no doors, there are no passageways.

(At the entrance to the floor, right next to the stairs, was a cherry red balloon floating gently against the ceiling. Someone had drawn an insincere clown face on it in ink. It seemed to be...staring?)  

[Smerdle]

There was a bear in here. A tiny bear and a creepy balloon.

Theo had met Ashton once, and this was not him, but it wasn't America or Zac or Shun either, so it must have been Ashton after all. How was he supposed to talk down a bear?

He backed out of the room as soundlessly as he could manage, licking his lips before whispering, "That's somebody?" to Julian in the space outside.

cibarium

Daekie

 

[cibarium]

"Moonwalker," Julian answered, suppressing a sigh at their luck. He kept his voice low and quiet. Hopefully they weren't already freaking out Ashton like what had gone down with America. "So... yeah."

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smerdle

daekie

 

[Daekie]

No matter how quietly the two of them had tried to approach, there was a rustling of blankets; Ashton peeked his head out, sniffing, and his ears laid as far back as they could. There was an uncomfortable-sounding shifting of bone, and Ashton-the-semihuman was sitting crosslegged on the blankets, rubbing sleep from his shining eyes -- ears still laid back, cheeks sallow, acne half-visible on his forehead. Hair in a messy ponytail, flyaway strands everywhere; thread-frayed basketball shorts and a t-shirt with a child's cartoon character on it.

Barefoot.

He looked at them balefully, clearly uncomfortable, but said nothing.

cibarium

smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

Despite his disbelief—the Ashton he'd met had said he wasn't magical, after all—there was no denying Julian was telling the truth when Theo peeked back through the open entrance and saw a person sitting in place of the bear. He looked relieved and he even smiled a bit as he said, "Hey, you're all right."

Ashton looked a lot less than all right, but he was trying to be comforting.

Daekie

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

Thank goodness for having a moonwalker aunt, otherwise Julian would have been just as clueless.

"You're Ashton, right?" he asked, a little cautious. "What are you doing here? Everyone else is leaving."

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smerdle

daekie

 

[Daekie]

Ashton didn't look happy in the slightest - he wore the look of 'I'm going to be murdered and sold on the black market, I know it, and I'm terrified' - and his eyes shifted from Theo, to Julian, back to Theo without any real comprehension. "W-what do you want? You woke me up, I was --" he swallowed nervously -- "I was sleeping..."

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smerdle

1/4

 

[Smerdle]

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that. I didn't think..." He hadn't thought that an infestation of brainworms would let a person rest until they'd died. Or that they'd be a bear.

"We came to get you out of here. We've got people who can help get you home."

Daekie

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

Theo had, apparently, leveled up in between helping America and coming to help Ashton, and on the inside Julian was panicking about how much better a job this rando was doing than him. He was supposed to be the courageous and helpful noble guy by now, right? ******** <********, you got infected by a magical parasite and it's warping reality for you," he said. "Kind of my fault, sorry."

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smerdle

daekie

 

[Daekie]

"That, um --" Ashton chewed on his lip, brows furrowed; he was running fingers through the fur on his tail, not really looking at the two intruders - "sounds kind of fake, but okay?" His attempt at a smile was wan. "I don't...really want to go home. It's nicer here. Nobody looks at me here like they did there."

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smerdle

2/4

 

[Smerdle]

"Oh." He might have pointed out that was probably because there was nobody here to look, but he was trying to tone down the sarcasm. If only he'd had the chance to bring Toto. There might have been some sort of cuddle distraction tactic he could have implemented.

"I prefer to be left alone too. But... magical parasite."

Daekie

even a 7 can't make this less uncomfortable

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

"Don't have to leave right this second," Julian offered. "We did kind of show up unannounced." He shoved his hands into his pockets, somewhat underlining the inescapable awkwardness of... well... the entire situation.

"I feel you on the staring thing. But at least think about it for a little bit. Do you remember thinking or feeling differently in the past than you have the past few weeks?"

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smerdle

daekie

 

[Daekie]

Ashton jerked back like he'd been slapped; when he spoke, his tone was quiet, angry. "N-no. I'm fine. T-there's nothing wrong with me, I don't have a parasite or anything - why does everyone say I keep acting like there's something wrong? What do you hate about me so much?"

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smerdle

2/4

 

[Smerdle]

"I don't hate you. I thought you were a fun kid. A little morbid and jittery, maybe, but... Do you remember that? Meeting me. Or was it someone else walking around in your body?"

He was taking a chance that Ashton would even care or that there wasn't some sort of shared consciousness going on here, but he already didn't like where this was headed.

Daekie

sorry ashton everyone's a kid to theo

cibarium