this parasite is picked up when come into contact with it needs a temperature around body temperature so it can be found in warm swamps the parasite is a hive mind and they are visible to the eye, about the size of freckles they also repopulate by budding when picked up they slowly dig into your skin relatively painlessly and take over the nerves in the area of skin causing you to lose the feeling, once in your blood they start to take over your nervous system parasites don’t intentionally kill hosts and this parasite can’t even do that, it’s harmless to you other than it basically taking over your being This parasite once in your mind can cause you to see things and hallucinate, it also gives your mind dopamine which makes you feel good, so you’re in a dreamlike state while the parasite slowly continues to use you as a puppet

aaaa thank you! It wasnt really going to be in the story for my characters until I needed a villain I was worried it didn’t sound realistic which was kind of my goal? Real danger is always scarier than fiction in my opinion