Question Mutants and DNA

Something that popped into my head rereading Silver Lining; If you where to give Nikki and a few of the more radically altered students, would they show any genetic link to their parents? Strikes me as a loophole someone might try to exploit.

I IMO Nikki is not even human anymore at all. She is all Sidhe or Aunghadhail now

Since it is documented that manifestation can change one's DNA substantially, then it's a matter of documenting the change itself. In most cases, like Nikki, the change is gradual enough that it shouldn't be too much of a problem. Sometimes it even happens inside an hospital, so there are extensive medical records, such as for Ribbon.

But yeah, when the change happens too fast (Tennyo) or away from the sight of witnesses (Feral, Razorback), it could be a problem to reestablish legal identity, particularly if there's someone trying to fight it.

I guess there's probably a story in that -- kid manifests and the family does not want to recognize him/her, and DNA has changed enough that paternity tests are useless. Kid is left in a legal limbo. Legal battle ensues, possibly with inheritance developments. Someone with quite a lot of clout would be needed to protect the new mutant, otherwise the story would end by page 2 with the MCO "disappearing" the kid.

Sir Lee wrote: Since it is documented that manifestation can change one's DNA substantially, then it's a matter of documenting the change itself. In most cases, like Nikki, the change is gradual enough that it shouldn't be too much of a problem. Sometimes it even happens inside an hospital, so there are extensive medical records, such as for Ribbon.

But yeah, when the change happens too fast (Tennyo) or away from the sight of witnesses (Feral, Razorback), it could be a problem to reestablish legal identity, particularly if there's someone trying to fight it.

I guess there's probably a story in that -- kid manifests and the family does not want to recognize him/her, and DNA has changed enough that paternity tests are useless. Kid is left in a legal limbo. Legal battle ensues, possibly with inheritance developments. Someone with quite a lot of clout would be needed to protect the new mutant, otherwise the story would end by page 2 with the MCO "disappearing" the kid.

Divorced parents arguing over whether the kid is really theirs.

Divorced parents blaming the other for having the kid, refusing to pay alimony support.

That's kind of what happened to the Loose Cannons, although with extra complications and no chance to get close enough to do DNA testing.

Whateley has a lot of practice establishing new identities for their students though. Unless the student had a pressing need to have access to their old life (a trust fund like Vamp's, for example), I'm guessing that they'd just get set up with a new identity and move on.

Sir Lee wrote: Since it is documented that manifestation can change one's DNA substantially, then it's a matter of documenting the change itself. In most cases, like Nikki, the change is gradual enough that it shouldn't be too much of a problem. Sometimes it even happens inside an hospital, so there are extensive medical records, such as for Ribbon.

But yeah, when the change happens too fast (Tennyo) or away from the sight of witnesses (Feral, Razorback), it could be a problem to reestablish legal identity, particularly if there's someone trying to fight it.

I guess there's probably a story in that -- kid manifests and the family does not want to recognize him/her, and DNA has changed enough that paternity tests are useless. Kid is left in a legal limbo. Legal battle ensues, possibly with inheritance developments. Someone with quite a lot of clout would be needed to protect the new mutant, otherwise the story would end by page 2 with the MCO "disappearing" the kid.

This is actually an important aspect of the background for Kota, the character I made for Dom's Fate Sucks story. Mind, in her case her DNA may actually be similar enough to still prove parentage, but it's kind of a moot point considering her family completely rejected her existence as a person before abusing her in one of the worst ways imaginable. And she refuses to have anything to do with them now, so she's kind of stuck in a limbo state with no legal identity after she ran away from them.

Arcanist Lupus wrote: That's kind of what happened to the Loose Cannons, although with extra complications and no chance to get close enough to do DNA testing.

Whateley has a lot of practice establishing new identities for their students though. Unless the student had a pressing need to have access to their old life (a trust fund like Vamp's, for example), I'm guessing that they'd just get set up with a new identity and move on.

IIRC Vamp's trust fund was set up in a false ID after her change. The problem was proving that Alex was whatever name was being used.

Valentine wrote:

Arcanist Lupus wrote: That's kind of what happened to the Loose Cannons, although with extra complications and no chance to get close enough to do DNA testing.

Whateley has a lot of practice establishing new identities for their students though. Unless the student had a pressing need to have access to their old life (a trust fund like Vamp's, for example), I'm guessing that they'd just get set up with a new identity and move on.

IIRC Vamp's trust fund was set up in a false ID after her change. The problem was proving that Alex was whatever name was being used.

True. My point was that setting up a new identity is pretty easy with Whateley's resources - it's only when you need to be linked to your old ID that you run into problems.