maladied | ROLE

Hello Doctor.

Can I call you "doctor"? Well, regardless of your feelings on the matter or whether you have the qualifications of being a doctor, this will now be your role. Your task will be simple - figure out who has been infected and help them. A bit daunting of a task, I know, however it will come with an upside! 

You will be completely immune from the infected and will be given an item that will let you know how recently that person has been infected. If they have been infected in the first place. This item will take shape of whatever you wish it to be but will have a single (1) use - unfortunately.

Oh, and before you leave, there's a book titled "Doctors for Dummies" that you may find to be very interesting. It might help you out - help all of us out.

NOTES:
- The book will be updated every Monday at 9 AM of the new week.
- This is NOT a secret role, however it would be beneficial if you did not make your role public.
- You may request help from one (1) other player and one (1) NPC of your choice. You cannot change your choice.
- Pick one (1) person to save on Thursday, even if you are chosen to die that week.

♡

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It's a potion I came up with to combat mental distortion and deterioration...something that you might say is hereditary within my family. Some key ingredients wouldn't be available here, but I might be able to duplicate the effects with some trial and error.

[Still, it's a salve...a dam that, at least for a while, keeps the tide at bay.]

Has anything—anything at all—brought you closer?

[(For continuity's sake I am going to section this off into a new thread for post-weekend discussion for anything important but they can chatter about remedies and stuff a bit more here.)]

Perhaps you can tell me about those properties sometime. If we want to duplicate it, then that may be something I can help in with my knowledge of alchemy. It would still only buy is some time, but time is nothing we can get back.

[ because well. ]

The closest I've gotten is still not good enough. [ and this poor puppet will be tugging at its hair. you know, if it had hair to pull at. and the strained and agitated voice that it speaks with is a far cry from the gentle or self-depreciating tone that's more typical. ] The side effects of what I've administered have either sped up transformations or only allowed for temporary relief—if they had any effect at all.

For I moment I had thought I managed something but... [ the puppet will shake its head and go limp. ] It was just a way to give them a gentler death.

[Just with how readily they'd perked up the moment herbal remedies became a topic of discussion and how much they committed to their evasiveness, she sees a flash of something in this moment that's deeper than their nervous insecurity.

Cantarella knows very well the puppet forms are not their true images, but she reaches out anyway, stopping the little marionnette hands from pulling at that sparse and horrifying excuse for hair.]

Comfort in their last moments isn't failure. That much is something that they might not have been granted otherwise. [It's ugly, but it's something she says like she knows.]

[ she should have allowed the puppet to go bald. ]

I had given them—both of us hope that I figured it out. That things were going to start taking a turn for the better.

[ which is the part that is eating at this puppet's psyche. assigned wet cat by the general public. ...but a wet cat that so very much wants to help. desperately. ]

[This is worse than wet cat...This feels more like an animal still flailing in the water, fighting to stay above it and hurting itself.]

Hope is not an enemy, but I can't undo their loss. Refusing to admit you may have made their pain more bearable, even for a while, is doing their memory a disservice, though.

[Firm, but not unkind. She leans back a little, once again letting her hand fall from the puppet surface.]

I'm sorry you had to persist alone. Maybe you can share their story with me when the tide threatening to overwhelm us has ebbed.

[ closes my eyes. this puppet will make it through. it knows how to swim. ]

...I'm sorry to have worried you.

[ there's a long pause as it considers sharing its story. there's an obvious then a less obvious answer and it ultimately goes with a the middle of the two. ]

But I wouldn't mind sharing my story with you if you'd be willing to part one yourself.

[She is here to make sure the puppet is wearing its inflatable arm floaties, too. Hence the firm reminder when she watches it start to dwindle...though the way they regroup makes her give them a tiny and reassuring smile. No more external comfort or praise, though.]

I have a few stories and quite a few secrets...Some might even be relevant to what we're experiencing now.

[ it's a real shame that foxglove's puppet looks as it does but it'll look up at her with a slight tilt of its head. ]

Would you mind sharing it with me?

You're certainly shy, aren't you? [She doesn't think it's all shyness, nor does she hide that belief from them in this moment.] As long as you don't abandon your form and skitter away.

[She doesn't have the advantage of being able to simply drop out of the pupet body and evacuate if she doesn't like what she hears or what happens. It's a marked disadvantage, but given the subject of their discussion, she settles once and for all the rumor that might be obvious from her profile card.]

Each successor to the Fisalia family takes his or her place by granting their predecessor the sweetest dream. Due to our circumstances, the family head deteriorates over time, until their mind and body are no longer their own...essentially, a puppet. [There's no pun there, but she's aware of the irony.] To those outside the family who would gossip about it, it's vicious witchcraft, but I granted my dear lord peaceful slumber to free him. [Unhappy but resolute, the way she says it all.]

But I will try to end it, for all of us, until I too am taken by the sea.

[ nothing to worry about, this puppet is here to listen to every word she is willing to share with it and...it understands. it will place a hand on her, gently. ]

To go against your family's legacy in such a way like that wouldn't have been an easy decision to make, especially if you wanted to preserve their sacrifices. [ the puppet mumbles to itself. ] If only I had the same courage to do something like that.

[ but given that she shared, it's only right that it do the same. she picked something heavy and a burden she carries and so, it's only fair that it does the same. ]

...I'm not sure if you're familiar with the philosopher's stone, but it's known to be the pinnacle of an alchemist's work—a key competent to create an elixir to immortality and so many other miracles. [ the shame is real in its voice here. ] I was asked to find a way to create it, and since I was younger at that time and blinded by the other possibilities that it could be used for, I agreed.

But all that I was able to create was a poor substitute that could only destroy life than save it.

I don't consider a curse a legacy. [And she does consider the darkness that binds her family a curse, even if she doesn't mean it in the magical incantation way.] What I desire is freedom for them, regardless of legacy. [And...it will take a long time to undo the more negative aspects of the family name from public perception, if she's around to see it.

She listens to the puppet's story, allowing its "hand" to rest on her, no longer certain which one of them is the one offering reassurance.]

So now that your eyes have been opened to the harm that was done, you're doing all that you can to aid all that you can.

[ foxglove nods and understands that. maybe not personally, but it can understand where she is coming at. truly though. who is comforting each other here?

especially as it chuckles to itself. ]

Less that my eyes have been opened and more that I realized how immature I was, and I want to correct the mistake that I made.

[ ... ]

Still, I'm not sure if I'd take it all back.

[Given their attitude up until this point, it piques her curiosity.]

Why is that? Do you still wish to see your ambitions fulfilled?

No, I want to see the substance I made destroyed—every last bit of it. It was a mistake that shouldn't have ever existed.

...however, it managed to give someone life.

ROLE - DOCTOR

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i become more worried by the day

WHY ARE YOU WORRIED...

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