Blight Management

During a patient’s Vice journey, they may experience elevated blight activity. While blights are a natural and expected side effect of being infected with a Vice, severe or persistent blights may be indicative of a larger problem. Patients experiencing these issues are likely to be referred to a Blight Specialist to closely analyze blight activity and outline treatment plans.

Blights are the body’s way of communicating with us about the status of its Vice. All blights convey information, but not all blights are grounds for concern. Outlining baseline activity levels and understanding the ways in which this activity can change provide a frame of reference for determining severity before speaking with a Blight Specialist.

Most patients are not referred to a Blight Specialist for treatment. The current selection of treatment options—suppressants and AV Shots—are often prescribed with caution, if at all. Because blights give valuable insight into a Vice’s activity, suppressing or inhibiting their manifestation can potentially mask this important information we would otherwise not be privy to.

A Blight Specialist will assess and interpret blight activity before deigning to administer treatment. For this reason, a patient may need to attend multiple sessions before treatment can begin, if appropriate. A Blight Specialist will only provide treatment if it is safe to do so, and the suppressing of blights will not expose the patient to unnecessary risk.

Understanding and Assessing Blights

Blights are determined by and products of the Vice’s exhibition and can give away otherwise obscured changes to the exhibition between Branches. Most importantly, Blights give insight into a Vice’s activity, as more aggressive, sudden blights are indicative of an advancing Vice core.

When discussing blights with a Blight Specialist, it is important to indicate their duration. Acute blights are sudden, drastic changes in the size, potency or surface area of a patient’s usual blights. These blights typically last for relatively short amounts of time, while chronic blights refer to those that have remained visible for over 6 months, despite fluctuations in Vice activity.

Acute blights often indicate increased Vice activity, most commonly seen in the moments leading up to Branch initiation and when a Branch is in production. Chronic blights, however, suggest a well-established network and a mature Vice. Junctions in the network tend to result in chronic drape and extrusion blights. This label may affect potential treatment options.

Blights can further be organized into three categories:

• expulsion: blights that begin in the body, but are ultimately expelled, such as smoke, static, and acid
• drape: blights that lay close to the skin, such as fur, scales, and feathers
• extrusion: blights that are extensions of a patient’s musculoskeletal system, such as horns, claws, and fangs

Expulsion blights are the only category of blight seen in the larval stage. Patients typically exhibit only one expulsion blight throughout a Vice’s life cycle. Because they originate from the Vice’s core, agitated expulsion blights indicate augmentation progress. Drape blights are the result of a well-established network, most commonly found in mature Vices. Agitated drape blights, where they increase in number and expand in surface area, can suggest a movement of resources, but most commonly indicate germination progress. Extrusion blights are unique, as they are not tied to any specific part of the core. While the others do mimic the exhibition, extrusion blights are the most obvious imitations of the Vice’s exhibition. Agitated extrusion blights do not convey any information about the Vice’s activity; rather, these blights are directly correlated with the size of the Vice core and can thus convey information about a Vice’s maturity and the augmentation progress of the core. Larger cores result in overwhelmingly large blights that can be extremely painful and obtrusive.

Some patients may exhibit blights despite being cleared, known as pseudo blights. While pseudo blights are not indicative of Vice activity and are not inherently cause for alarm, persistent pseudo blights that do not respond to treatment may be indicative of underlying issues, such as the advent of a new Vice.

Treating Blights

Different blights respond better to different treatments, and even these preferences can vary between patients. Blight Specialists aim to provide relief, but are wary of masking Vice behavior. In the event of a particularly deceptive or even mature, calculated Vice, a Blight Specialist may deny treatment. They will, however, still assess blight activity and report back to the Vice Management Administrator.

Suppressants

These extended release pills are best suited for treating patients with chronic blights that are intrusive and affecting the patient’s quality of life. They tend to suppress chronic expulsion and drape blights most effectively, while extrusion blights are often unaffected.

Once ingested, a Suppressant gradually releases a steady stream of AV, slightly boosting the patient’s overall AV level. While a patient will likely not see results with a single dose, after a month of daily use, the overall level of AV in the patient’s body will have risen anywhere from 5% to 12%. This increase may not seem like much, but many patients report not only decreased blight activity, but less fatigue and higher energy levels.

After a single round of Suppressants has been completed—typically 30 days—AV levels will gradually begin to drop again, though many report they do not fall as far as they were before treatment. The addition of external AV to our systems tends to “encourage” general AV levels, resulting in an elevated natural output.

If blights persist after one round of Suppressants, the patient will be referred back to the Vice Management Administrator (VMA) with a comprehensive documentation of blight activity. The VMA will then determine whether or not they should pursue alternative treatment—such as Branch maintenance—or refer to the patient for another round of Suppressants.

Criticisms

Suppressants have a tendency for abuse, as taking more than one a day can result in euphoric, manic-adjacent tendencies. Excessive Suppressant usage can not only result in a dependency, but in high amounts, the AV released in the body can mimic the potency of an AV Shot and risk instigation. Additionally, because blights are our bodies’ way of communicating with us, many view the suppression of blights as potentially dangerous. Suppressants can and do mask changes in Vice activity, making it difficult to prepare accordingly. Some VMA may forego blight management altogether and instead focus on Branch maintenance.

AV Shots

This invasive treatment is only performed for patients with unmanageable acute blights, most commonly extrusion and expulsion blights. An AV Shot floods the patient’s body with AV to combat an advancing Vice, most often during staging or when a patient becomes berserk. These are similar in appearance and mechanics to an epinephrine auto-injector. Injection sites vary, but it is recommended to be administrated to low-fat muscular areas such as the thigh to trigger rapid uptake into the blood and surrounding tissues, quickly dispersion across the patient’s system.

AV Shots can be localized or administered to the patient’s entire system depending on the chosen injection site. Extension blights in particular can be injected directly, which often causes an immediate and drastic decrease in the size of the blight. In some instances, a highly concentrated burst of AV can result in the permanent destruction of the blight, severing a Vice’s network. Expulsion blights are generally more tricky to treat, as they originate from the core, which is often buried in the patient’s body. Because of this, standard injection procedures are recommended, with the thigh as the most efficient injection site. Rapid uptake is necessary to treat agitated blights in a timely manner, and injection straight into muscle is the quickest, most efficient way to do so.

Criticisms

Because AV Shots introduce such a large amount of AV to the system, some Vices can perceive this as an immediate threat and initiate a rogue Branch in response. When extrusion blights are treated directly, this is often perceived as an attack on the network as well. The chance of Branch instigation varies depending on the injection site, but can be anywhere from 30% to 65%. Sometimes Branch instigation is intentional to perform Branch maintenance, but if a Blight Specialist is simply trying to facilitate treatment for blights, a rogue Branch can spell danger for the patient. Because of this, Vice Management Administrators are often present when AV Shots are being administered as treatment.

AV Enhancement Therapy

Referral to an AV Specialist

If chronic blights do not respond to Suppressants after multiple rounds, a patient is likely to be referred to an AV Specialist who will perform AV enhancement therapy. General AV enhancement raises the general level of AV, which can help the patient’s body naturally defend against agitated blights. This therapy will likely take repeated sessions.