The dilemma of Fresh bitty, Behavior, care, control, morality
Fresh bitty are known in bittyverse as a pest species. This is because like their larger counterpart they are actually small betentacled parasites that requires soulstuff to survive. They are also a fairly invasive species as they do not need a partner to reproduce their true body, but periodically seek out a second host and drop in a single ephyra (a baby fresh) into this second host.
Fresh ephyra are fully independent from the moment they are born and latch onto the host. They do often linger around the parent for a few minutes to a few hours depending on how dangerous the area they are in is. Once away they can function fully and survive without aid.
You can often tell the age of a Fresh parasite by how it behaves. The younger the parasite the more wooden and slow their emotional reactions seem.
Despite being souless and emotionless Fresh bitty can in fact grow attached to others; bitty and biggie alike. This is suspected to be part of their survival instincts. They also seem to understand the need for emotional care. If they become attached to a person they often seek to care for their “friend’s” emotional health and will also accept emotional care in return. Despite not feeling emotions they can come to emulate emotions so well most people will not know the difference. Again this is suspected to be a survival instinct seeing that creatures with emotional investments in them are more prone to protect the parasite from harm.
It has been seen in Fresh that they will develop behaviors unique to themselves. There have been observations showing that some Fresh will only seek out a single type of bitty as a host and have their forms show characteristics from said host. It has also been noted that Fresh will refuse hosts even when injured as to not “waste” the soulstuff of their current host body.
The longevity of a host depends on the host and the specific Fresh parasite using them. As is with any creature some need less sustenance and some need more. Hosts soul strength also varies from bitty to bitty and many combinations between host and parasite can change the duration a Fresh can use said host. An ideal host is one that the Fresh can use for a longer period of time. This reduces the chances of being caught and danger of having to seek out a new body to inhabit. This is also why Fresh bitty will often refuse hosts. Bitty can have souls too weak to sustain a Fresh long enough to be worth the investment. This is why they refuse to host in infants and children. They also will not mess with bitty with weak souls or sickly souls. Their souls are not strong enough to sustain them among several other reasons.
On the note of host bitty and health. There are several “lineages” within the fresh parasite species. Within these lineages there are two major types which are denoted by how they leave their host bitty. The first type, and most common, is the type that to attach to a soul they harm it so irreparably the host will dust regardless of how much soulstuff is left behind. (these are often the ones who develop the need to remain in their host until there is nothing left as it waists the life of the host they claimed) The second type is a rarer variant who leaves little damage to the souls structure and therefore can leave a host before it is dangerous to the host’s life. It is currently suspected that any Fresh with enough time and care can learn to claim hosts without killing them. This allows them to jump from host to host without leaving a trail of dust behind.
Fresh also produce chemicals to make their takeover of the soul comfortable and painless. This is unique to Fresh bitty as the original Fresh leave their hosts aware and awake though the whole process. Older Fresh can learn to use these chemicals to help “share” the host body giving their host time with control while they just support them from the inside. This is extremely rare though as only the oldest Fresh bitty develop this skill, and with Fresh being hunted as an invasive species they do not often live long enough lives.
Fresh seem to be able to mark areas as bad for other Fresh and their own personal territories. Fresh are very territorial as safe places for long term inhabitance is difficult to find for a Fresh. They are nomadic otherwise.
On rare occasions you can find Fresh cohabiting areas up to and including living together and sharing spaces. The individual Fresh have to be very compatible or this will always end in a fight. Often having an “alpha” Fresh helps mitigate and control the others in the population. You can also find Fresh sharing territory but do not cross paths remaining solitary despite the intersecting spaces.
Being the adopted family for a Fresh bitty has always been a difficult thing. Most chosen biggie tend to request a Fresh to avoid certain bitty and areas hunting only for specific bitty such as feral or stray bitty as not to rise suspicion from other families. For the most part obtaining hosts tends to be left for the Fresh in question and the biggie stay out of that business. It is often times better to not know than it is to know. Fresh bitty have also admitted to finding Biggie that will willingly adopt and offer normal bitty for the Fresh to inhabit. It seems though that it becomes apparent that biggie willing to offer bitty to a Fresh like this will not have any wellbeing in mind and are quickly left and avoided.
This is part of the biggest issue with Fresh bitty. There has been no alternative food source found for them as of yet.
There are several labs currently working on how to address the Fresh bitty issue in more humane ways. Through medicine, specially constructed hosts, magic surgical procedures and more we hope to reduce the harmful impact Fresh have on any given bitty population.
One thing we do know for sure is that controlling the population seems to have a far better effect for the health of the ecosystem. It is not to dissimilar to what many communities are doing with catch and release of stray cats. Catch, sterilize and release them back near where they were caught. Their solitary nature and penchant for claiming territory within a given area prevents any new Fresh bitty from being able to thrive. This allows a smaller overall population to live within an area than what we tend to see when people do sweeping exterminations. This is also advantageous due to the fact that older fresh bitty have far less impact on an ecosystem than younger fresh do. It should be noted that not only do these large scale extermination programs destroy Fresh bitty but also many other bitty breeds and some small animals and is not recommended for use anywhere. (Sterilization as a form of population control is looked down upon by many advocates as it is feared to have longer term negative effects seeing as bitty are self-aware)
There are current theories that Fresh bitty might not be as “invasive” as it first appears, but that their invasive qualities might come as a result of our influence on their population. We constantly disrupt healthy or semi healthy populations during our culls. This results in power vacuums that cause more disruptive behaviors from the overall fresh population. More study is currently being done in regards to this, but for now it is just a theory.
Another thing to note is older Fresh bitty have been known to periodically breed with regular bitty (using their host body) and the results are very fresh like bitty often called Radicals or Radical bitty. They mimic Fresh highly in looks and behavior and are usually considered non host material amongst the Fresh population. An issue we see often is that Radical bitty are turned in for extermination mistaking them for their Fresh parents. Unlike their Fresh parent they are not parasites and do not require soulstuff to survive, and therefore are harmless to the overall bitty population. These bitty are often victims in the overall war against their Invasive parent species. Most that are found are culled with no concern for their actual nature.
Fresh are a common topic amongst bitty enthusiasts. Many believing that Fresh bitty are a hazard and should be put down, and a growing population who has come to see Fresh as more than just a parasite. These two communities are at odds with one another both coming fourth with valid and compelling arguments.
It is easy to forget that Fresh are bitty too. They have made no choice in how they are and what they are, and while they are a hazard we do understand that we are not going to be removing them from the world anytime soon, if at all. Currently we are trying to develop programs to keep bitty safe in more humane ways than our current standard. These Programs may one day completely remove the danger Fresh bitty pose allowing for safer existence for them and the greater bitty population.
