Any idea how Beside chooses it's victims? BG spoilers included

[groinkick]

In Battle Ground we find out Beside has been with Justine for a while.  Justine was used to get Thomas into trouble, but the question is, why not just invade Thomas's mind and do it?  Why use Justine when It could just invade Thomas and get him to cause the trouble?

I'm wondering what limits there are on Beside....  The way It travels from one host to another, or the way it's able to manipulate.  I'm kind of thinking that Beside's weakness is the way It must be transferred to a host.  For example Beside in theory should have been able to jump from Justine to Harry, but didn't.  I mean why not?  That would have been a powerful move.  There must be some sort of limit on the way It moves.

[Mira]

It chose Justine I think for two reasons, first they wanted to be able to control Thomas, what better
way than through his true love?  Second of all, if they had gone directly for Thomas, Harry would have picked up on it.

I don't think it can just jump from one host to another unless there is a weakness it can exploit.  Once Harry knew what it was, any chance of it going for infestation was gone.

[The_Sibelis]

Personally, I think besides chosen hosts are young female, crazy and often users of magic, or at least potent in it if not active users. Let's look at the list of potentials.. Aurora, Maeve, they tried to take the archive. Molly was a target imo, now Justine(probably forgetting someone there), they share a certain thematic don't they?

[Regenbogen]

But what about the Leanansidhe? She gave the athame to Maeve, which got Maeve infected, if I remember correctly.
Later she had to be contained by Mab in the icicle in Arctis Tor to get healed from the infection with Nemesis.
Does that mean, Lea was a vessel for Beside, too and he just hopped into Maeve, after he made Lea arrange that. So Lea was just a means of transport for Beside or was she just influenced by him through touching the athame and only Maeve was the real infected one? Or did it infect Lea, Mab healed her and only after that it had to flee into Maeve, which suggests, Maeve wasn't his original target?
But after the athame, which Lea received in Grave Peril, how did Beside get into Aurora? I have to reread.
Or was Aurora even possessed by Beside or just influenced by him, while he possessed Maeve?
I'm a bit overwhelmed by all the implications). And since when was Beside in Justine? Did he jump hosts out and back again? Was he in Justine since the end of Grave Peril and did he just influence the minds of the Ladies and Lea and Cat Sith?

WAG:
Without having reread everything from Grave Peril on, I can only guess.
My guess is: Nemesis/Beside chooses a main host. From this main host's body he can jump to other hosts and back to the main host. For changing hosts he needs a tool, for example the athame from GP. All the jumped-in hosts remain under his control and he can jump back to the main host any time. Once he has jumped into one host by tool, he can jump back there any time if there is need or influence the interim host's mind from the main host's body.

Justine is the main host, because she is emotionally instable.
What if she wasn't catatonic alone because of Thomas almost killing her (in Blood Rites?), but because he was scheming in another body (Lea?) during that time, because Justine was weakened too much to be of use.

Or: Beside can jump into emotionally instable persons very easily, by skin to skin contact from another host, but for the stronger potential hosts he needs a tool like the athame. This made him able to inhabit Lea.

Edit: Thomas is constantly fighting his Hunger, so he is practised in fighting off possession of other kinds. So not an easy potential host.

[b4utoo]

Well my deal is I think that being born into red Court blood even being a half-breed offers some type of protection on the curse if it's dormant puberty thing

[Snark Knight]

For example Beside in theory should have been able to jump from Justine to Harry, but didn't.  I mean why not?  That would have been a powerful move.  There must be some sort of limit on the way It moves.

I doubt it could possess a starborn unless he or she agreed to it as a partnership.

And it probably would have had a lot of trouble puppeting Thomas for any length of time without Harry noticing something off. Justine was in some ways a better asset anyway, being near-total leverage over Thomas and an eye on most of Lara's business that went through her secretary.

[groinkick]

I doubt it could possess a starborn unless he or she agreed to it as a partnership.

And it probably would have had a lot of trouble puppeting Thomas for any length of time without Harry noticing something off. Justine was in some ways a better asset anyway, being near-total leverage over Thomas and an eye on most of Lara's business that went through her secretary.

Would Harry have noticed though?  Didn't seem to notice Justine at all.  Didn't notice it when the Summer Lady was either.  Neither Thomas, or Lara appeared to know about Justine either

[BrainFireBob]

I think Nemesis needs to be able to offer something- to alter your nature outside of what reality allows.

It can't or won't possess people who fundamentally accept who/what they are.

Be an interesting twist re: Thomas. It would mean as much as he hates his Hunger...deep down he feels he wouldn't be Thomas without it. Or he loves being super-hot.

[Snark Knight]

Would Harry have noticed though?  Didn't seem to notice Justine at all.  Didn't notice it when the Summer Lady was either.

He didn't have a clue N even existed when interacting with Aurora. But he was twigging that something was odd about Justine after, what, an hour or so? The cornerhound attack was to distract him from thinking too much about how something seemed not quite right about her reactions, even if it failed to eliminate him outright.

And she's just Thomas' girlfriend who he sees occasionally - he's got a much broader and deeper baseline of interacting with his brother normally to tell if something isn't being mimicked right.

[Bad Alias]

Would Harry have noticed though?  Didn't seem to notice Justine at all.  Didn't notice it when the Summer Lady was either.

How would Harry have noticed a change in them? He didn't even know how many Faerie Queens there were. Did he react with Justine outside of GP and BR when she wasn't infected? He lived with Thomas for about two years.

I think Nemesis needs to be able to offer something- to alter your nature outside of what reality allows.

We know Lea was after power, Aurora wanted to change what she didn't have the power to change, and Maeve wanted to hurt Mab. Maybe Justine wanted to be more than a near vegetable?