#suoma

Other forms of bleed-through syndrome include animal ears, claws, horns, antlers, crests, scales, whatever have you! Besides Karleeen, there’s not very many examples in my cast who have it. Bertta Romero the Jaiko field agent cervitaur has a form of bleed-through syndrome that gives her ears and antlers of a white-tailed deer — it’s not something that all mammalian taurs get! Karleeen’s mother also has bleed-through syndrome, it’s a bit like how Karleeen has it (fur) but lower on her body and shorter. And! Of course, Stephen Stone the Sirpaverse OC by @thatonegaycactus has bat ears on occasion :3

There’s not too much to say about bleed-through syndrome, fur growth is the most common form and animal ears are the second most common form. Many types can occur in tandem with one another. They can be very minor and sometimes even “fixable” via spells — or if you want something permanent, surgery — but sometimes the effects are more severe or caused by a different mutation than the ones that have spell treatments. Different cause, same results, you know? There may even be an inherent danger to treating something if the methods aren’t tried and tested!

Notably, when people with bleed-through syndrome change form, they still retain the same bled-through features that they have normally. Karleeen still has a furry chest as a merm, Bertta would still have antlers and ears as a faun or as a merm, harpy, whatever. They’re in there deep as a part of their body.

Bleed-through syndrome is similar, but distinctly different, to satyrism and good old “hybrids”! Satyrism is a condition where a human is “stuck” in an in-between state of two “taur/faun types”, for example, a centaur and a faun or a merm and a harpy. People with satyrism often have traits similar to bleed-through, like fur and animal ears or crests or horns, but they don’t and can’t have a “pure” form because the magic-that-makes-you-a-[whatever] doesn’t read their genes right. Suoma Rintie the Jaiko field agent and Tintti Rintie the children’s show performer are two characters I have with satyrism, but you don’t know them. “Hybridism” (I need to come up with a name for it) meanwhile is a genetic mutation where someone’s various forms are a mix of their parents’ forms. Sirpa Kartanen the full-time commander and part-time mermaid is an example of a hybrid! She has faun traits and faun-shaped merm traits, and her mermaid form’s tail is a pretty even zander-porpoise mix. Hybrids can and do have various “forms”, and despite their nature as a mix of their parents’ phenotypes, they don’t have animal traits on their human upper body. Unless they have bleed-through as well. Then they do.