smiling fondly realizing i can put althaea into worthwhile kids (the parasite one) wrt her transformed self
i think for althaea she would be met by anthony and clarence, and clarence being unable to tell if she's a parasite pupeteering a human host or a human host simply holding a parasite makes her suspicious. Usually its obvious between the two, but althaea acts too human and aware to be a pupeteered body, yet she has the ''stench'' of a parasite that others can smell off her (especially Clarence, who as a parasite lacks visual awareness and therefore finds his way around through scent and touch, making him able to detect this scent stronger than most)
Althaea works a job and can communicate who she is to clarence (ie where she was born, her last name, past memories) which one cant do as a stolen body, yet at the same time when one is a host to a parasite they usually have physical tells (like Cordelia, who has to eat more than usual to sustain herself and has swelling in her right arm where the parasite is stored). Althaea gives off no tells
i think eventually althaea will be found out through Clarence meeting another parasite, who refers to himself only as himself and has no name, and who is very obvious a pupeteering parasite; the man who this parasite took over is entirely dead, and the parasite is wearing him like a suit to exist in society without being caught
this parasite, who Clarence refers to as ''Althaea's protector'', reveals their natures; Althaea is a solo parasite who came to Earth between the first and second invasion, and has the awareness to learn human nature and integrate into society. Rather than want to feast or control humanity, she fell in love with society and wanted to live amongst humans, and integrated herself entirely. She, however, is not in her original body; instead, she infected a different body years ago, who gave birth to the child they speak to now named Althaea. The original Althaea is a parasite capable of cloning itself genetically, so when the original Althaea (Althea Prime) wanted to enter into society completely, she knew she had to ''humanize'' herself, and used the original body's eggs to create genetic clones that were developed and birthed with both human and parasite genetics. Thus the Althaea clarence and anthony watched were Althaea 2, an asexually produced clone-child of Althaea Prime, and why Clarence smelled the essence of a parasite on althaea yet could not find any true trace of one --- Althaea 2 is essentially a blend of herself and the body, and the lungs she breathes with and the heart that beats her blood is both that of a parasite and human, and entirely Althaea Prime reborn
Althaea's protector is however entirely parasite, and lives lodged within the heart of the human body he stole. He has no love for humans or parasites and is neutral on the state of events between the two, but lives purely to see Althaea flourish and continue to reproduce herself so that she can live amongst humans forever; as long as Althaea can reproduce before death and make a new Althaea, he will live only to serve her desire to live, and if she ever dies before she can reproduce herself, he will consume her body and carry her into a new offspring to be reborn.
That soecific notions disgusts Anthony and makes him wonder by Althaea's Protector is so... well. protective of her. Clarence tries to explain that though the idea is very alien, they chose to be classified as "parasites" because they too essentially have the same singular drive in life; to reproduce at any cost. Althaea's Protector's life is bent on Althaea reproducing herself, and though the end goal of reproduction is a natural goal, Clarence believes this parasite has been swayed by the development of a sense of "care" for Althaea, and hence why he puts his life in forfeit for her --- like spiders who let their children eat them, this is how this parasite's care and sense of companionship shows itself, and consuming althaea to clone her genes into his own offspring simply makes sense for his behavior
This however also makes Althaea a very potent target amongst the other parasites, who have essentially begun integrating with human hosts hoping to find a way to "overcome" them, so far their best bets being to literally Become Them. Some parasites have this tried to reproduce amongst themselves using human hosts, but found they just make human children, and havent figured out the key to this. Althaea's understanding of human reproduction and ability to use human eggs to clone herself would open wide the gates, but Althaea's Protector has been doing a clean job keeping her a secret; he doesnt want anybody to find out what Althaea truly is, both because they will kill Althaea and tear her from her play life as a human, so he has successfully hid three generations of Althaeas --- the Althaea Prime, and two sets of offspring.