Question about Combat Example

[Whitehart]

Hello! Another newbie question that may have been asked before. In the example of combat given on p.131 of the core book, it states:

The Bite’s Effects are Grappling and Persistent 2, so Athala is Grappled and will suffer the Persistent Effect. This means that she will suffer 2§ damage per round for two rounds, which her armor will not protect against. This does not sound very pleasant, so Athala declares that she will avoid the toxic bite entirely by paying 2 points more to the Doom pool. She takes 3 points of damage to Vigor that bypass her armor, and is still Grappled.

I think I’m missing something, because I do not see where in the rules it says that Athala can choose to avoid the poisoning. Can someone direct me to the place that says this? TYSM!

[FrankF]

Here (Core Book page 149):

Persistent X
The attack has a lingering, deleterious effect. If one or more
Effects are rolled, the target will suffer X[CD] damage at the
start of each subsequent turn for a number of rounds equal
to the number of Effects rolled. Each effect rolled on the
ongoing damage adds one additional round of duration. This
condition can be avoided entirely at the time it is inflicted by
adding a number of points to Doom equal to the number of
Effects rolled; after this, it can only be removed by waiting
for the duration to end or by taking the Clear action.

[Grendel]

Under the Persistent Effect, page 153.

[Whitehart]

Ah, thank you! X3