Question How exactly does BIT damage work?

I have a couple of questions about it. Bits can be duplicated in some rare situations, tacked onto other peoples, split between individuals, and more... Phase shredded Tsiphone's bit, causing her to burn out into a demonic looking form, but how did her body- for lack of a better word- "decide" her new form, the addition of new features like wings and horns come from her, or were they picked up by a subconscious thought from Phase? Equating on some level that a "firechick" somehow relates to a firey hellspawn? I would have thought that having your physical body image destroyed would cause you to lose your features, diss-assembling your body into a less complete form, like a puddle of tissue and organs... *shudder* a living blob of ... eww... Does this mean that if Phase bit-smashed someone else they would also assume a demonoid form, or do the person's powers factor in?
Would an aqua-manipulator become a merfolk? Would Phase smashing Roulette cause a similar intense burnout and transformation, but cure her of the problems with her BIT that induce periodic burnouts? It's known you can add to a BIT, like super-imposing another over your own. We know that Jello's is unstable. What would Phase do to Jello? There is a lot we don't know about BITs. maybe we will learn a little BIT more as things go on...

the existence of BIT is still only a theory in the WU and no one can really say they understand how it works if it does exist.

Esar wrote: the existence of BIT is still only a theory in the WU and no one can really say they understand how it works if it does exist.

My theory has bin that Phase didn't shred her but but made it stronger. Sara described bits as coming from somewhere else and being imprinted on mutants. A week imprint from demon might give a person fire power. A strong one give her physical transformation.

But this is just a theory at this point. No real way to prove it.

NJM1564 wrote:
My theory has bin that Phase didn't shred her but but made it stronger. Sara described bits as coming from somewhere else and being imprinted on mutants. A week imprint from demon might give a person fire power. A strong one give her physical transformation.

But this is just a theory at this point. No real way to prove it.

It's a good theory, I think maybe Phase didn't destroy her BIT, so much as maybe finished her incomplete mutation? Maybe Fireball was an incomplete manifestation, and Phase induced enough trauma to get her to finally complete what should have been her full mutation? Maybe Tsiphone's form is how she was always intended to be.

Interesting thought. Phase may be worried sh is tearing people's BITs apart, but perhaps she is pushing them to completion.

Kristin Darken wrote: You're welcome to continue to speculate on this one, but this is one we will not be answering with canon info at this time... because of its relevance to a number of plotlines and future stories. You'll eventually know a lot more about how BITs and mutants come about... but that time is not yet arrived.

Of course, but speculation is fun. I mean if you lay it out on the table, there might be that " You mean all Jade/Roulette/whomever needs to fix their problem is for Phase to poke them in the BIT?" moment where the "rules" outweigh the story development

I never bought into the phase shredding the BIT anyway.

Always felt more like a burnout.

I recall seeing a theory a while back that I particularly liked about this topic.

We know that Ayla has an irregular BIT. There's a good chance that it was artificially imposed on him by Nimbus, and during the BIT-Slicer attempt it was described as looking like several BITs jammed together. So perhaps what happened was that part of Ayla's bit detached and welded itself to Tissy, causing her own shape to distort?




Huh. It just occurred to me that another known source of physical mutations is hosting a spirit when your Hollow is too small. As far as we know Tissy isn't an avatar, but this feels really similar.

Arcanist Lupus wrote: I recall seeing a theory a while back that I particularly liked about this topic.

We know that Ayla has an irregular BIT. There's a good chance that it was artificially imposed on him by Nimbus, and during the BIT-Slicer attempt it was described as looking like several BITs jammed together. So perhaps what happened was that part of Ayla's bit detached and welded itself to Tissy, causing her own shape to distort?




Huh. It just occurred to me that another known source of physical mutations is hosting a spirit when your Hollow is too small. As far as we know Tissy isn't an avatar, but this feels really similar.

Ssso... kinda sorta like Adore?

Arcanist Lupus wrote: I recall seeing a theory a while back that I particularly liked about this topic.

We know that Ayla has an irregular BIT. There's a good chance that it was artificially imposed on him by Nimbus, and during the BIT-Slicer attempt it was described as looking like several BITs jammed together. So perhaps what happened was that part of Ayla's bit detached and welded itself to Tissy, causing her own shape to distort?

Huh. It just occurred to me that another known source of physical mutations is hosting a spirit when your Hollow is too small. As far as we know Tissy isn't an avatar, but this feels really similar.

Hmm... Crackfic idea: Ayla might have found himself fighting firegirls repeatedly, because of that firedemon shard drawing them to him.

JG wrote: Adore isn't an Avatar.

So no.

In her case, playing host has some very... different implications.

Does this conversation belong in the "Pregnancy on Campus" thread?

Arcanist Lupus wrote: Does this conversation belong in the "Pregnancy on Campus" thread?

Why? Does Jade need a second Demon child to babysit?

Extra! Extra! Read all about it.
The Goodkinds demon love child.
Or proof the Goodkinds are from hell.
Or Goodkind demonic pact.
Or Goodkind making an army of demonic halfbreeds through the mutant race. Making humans hate mutants to make way for there devil spawn.
Or Goodkind child holding the kindred of Carmilla. How Dr. Hammond swiped Gothmog's balls.
Ayla has Class X balls News at 11.

The last two are my favorite.

Kristin Darken wrote: You're welcome to continue to speculate on this one, but this is one we will not be answering with canon info at this time... because of its relevance to a number of plotlines and future stories. You'll eventually know a lot more about how BITs and mutants come about... but that time is not yet arrived.

I blame the worm at the bottom of my tequila bottle. It's what caused me to apply for my grant on substance abuse amongst little green men from Valavitoria of the 9th solar plantation. It was their plan to mislead us. It also lead me to believe that genes are nothing more than the X's and Y's for failing to keep my Z's up. I will soon be giving my disposition to the local authorities on why mutants are not the cause of our problems, but the worms that are forced to drink tequila by the bottle. The answer to the rise of mutants can be found at the bottom.

Gene Roddenberry was once asked how the Heisenberg compensator worked on the transporter. I believe his answer applies.

Gene Roddenberry wrote: Very well, thank you!

With the BIT being firmly in the "maybe" category, speculation is all we have it seems. As for how it could work, if it even does exist...

Perhaps somewhat along the principles of RNA? RNA, as we can recall from our biology classes does many things: coding, decoding, regulating and expressing genes as well as some other functions. The BIT might influence how the DNA of a mutant acts and expresses itself. I don't think that would drastically alter how a person appears in most cases as merely changing a few alleles would be unlikely to have drastic impact on appearance. But... if the BIT were to in some way act on multiple alleles in a wide spread manner and rewrite the persons entire genetic makeup, then that would, in theory cause substantial changes. Which would also support the BIT being part of the manifestation of a mutant AND account for how a BIT could possibly be altered or damaged

A parallel to the damage scenario could be found by looking at ionizing radiation. When a cell is acted on by ionizing radiation, one of four results are possible:
1- The cell repairs and produced normal daughter cells (good daughters)
2- The cell repairs incorrectly and produces abnormal daughter cells (bad daughters, cancer cells for example)
3- The cell repairs incorrectly and produces daughter cells that die (dead daughters)
4- The cell is either killed or repairs incorrectly and is unable to produce new daughter cells (no daughters)
Which, means that you have three of four scenarios that are not good for the subject, but cells are rather resilient, so the odds of proper repair and division are actually much better than the four possibilities suggest. But in the context of a BIT discussion, it could act to explain why some BITs do not express themselves properly, are expressed in a way that is dangerous for the subject or how a BIT could potentially be damaged.

Thus, my theory would be that the BIT, if it actually is something real instead of just theory, acts like a genetic override and reprograms all the RNA/DNA thus causing new expressions of genetic phenotypes due in large part to the alteration of the genotype of the subject.

Understood, but the principles of how it operates and functions may be analogous. It makes a more rational explanation that saying "it does stuff...somehow". While it may operate on a different level or plane, using genetics to explain how it may work puts it into terms that a layperson can better comprehend. Sort of like Ribbon being able to understand the automobile repair explanation of Lady Havoc's cancer cure though she could not understand the biological/devisor explanation.

... To figure out more about BITs... Well, I guess I can assume everyone's caught up? But... Gonna stick this in a spoiler for anyone who hasn't finished Dague de L'Spirit: