Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
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InCryptid Q&A, Part VI: Breeding.

So remember when I said that I would answer ten questions about the InCryptid universe? I'm still taking questions, and actively need questions that follow the "big, about the world" model as described in the original post, but here's your sixth answer!

rianax asks...

"If they can't interbreed with humanity, how to these different species met up and have children in the modern world? Is there a cryptid Cupid.com?"

Yay, cryptid breeding! We're going to restrict ourselves to a very anthrocentric approach, for the sake of answering the question as posed: we're only looking at cryptids that can, for one reason or another, live in human settlements. The ones who can "pass," in other words. They're both the ones who are most likely to have issues with humans seeming attractive, and the ones who will have the most "I need to know your species before we can hook up" problems.

Some of these cryptids get around the "accidentally dating humans" issue by not being mammals. For the most part, humans smell "wrong" to them, and are hence not attractive. You do get occasional perverts who like mammal boys or insect girls instead of sticking with good, honest reptile people like their siblings, but for the most part, people are attracted to things they have half a chance of being biologically compatible with. (Science supports me on this.)

A few species of cryptid are cross-fertile with humans. A very few species, and most of them will still choose not to crossbreed, because there's a very good chance their offspring will be infertile, which doesn't help keep the family line going. Lilu, which includes both incubi and succubi, are cross-fertile, and their offspring have a fifty percent chance of being infertile. Fertile crossbreeds will usually have children that are indistinguishable from the species of their mate. So if Elsie, who is half-succubus, were to visit a sperm bank and get some human sperm, she would have a baby who was effectively a very sexy human, rather than a succubus crossbreed. Jinks and leprechauns are similar, and many family links have a little jink or leprechaun blood.

Tanuki are the only known species of therianthrope to be cross-fertile outside of other therianthropes, and they manage this partially by having lots and lots of tanuki babies. As with certain types of frog (no, seriously, science again), they have evolved extremely dominant DNA. If Ryan were to mate with Istas, you wouldn't get half-waheela babies, you'd get unusually colored tanuki. Even when there were more of them, they would often seek out-species mates to get hybrid vigor back into the community. Sorry about what that does for your family line, dearest.

There are dating services for some species of cryptid, ranging from the very communal "let me introduce you, he's a nice boy" social dances of the bogeymen to the more formal courting rituals of the gorgons. There are very few true solitaries, and almost everyone knows where everyone else is. And yes, some of this happens on the internet, although it has to be very carefully masked and monitored; the Covenant can log on, too.
Tags: a few facts, common questions, incryptid, midnight bluelight special
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  • 12 comments
What is a Jink? I don't think I've ever heard of those...I like the Tanuki mating strategy - it explains how they've managed to adapt, and it reminds me a bit of the Asari from Mass Effect (and what kind of frog is the super-dominant genes one? I'm really curious about that!).

Are there such things as arranged marriages between cryptids? Either for more genetic diversity, or for other reasons? *chinhands* This is a fascinating topic - thanks for telling us about it!
True, you haven't!

Yes, some species arrange marriages.
I really love how extensively you've thought through all of this stuff. In someone else's hands, this sort of universe might just be entertainingly cracktacular; in yours, it's occasionally cracky (in awesome ways -- viz. SINGING RELIGIOUS MICE) but it's also really thoughtful and wholly-fleshed-out. <3
Thank you. :)
I have say, you do some of the best world building in fantasy/scifi. Zombie viruses, fae courts, the mice (everyone loves the mice). Thank you for answering these questions, and for the nifty worlds you let us look into.
Aw, thank you.
I am constantly fascinated and blown away by the level of detail in your world-building. The amount visible in your books is just right to make everything plausible without drowning the reader in trivia.

Do you actually ever sleep, or are there several Seanan clones working around the clock, or what?
I do sleep. Just not nearly enough.
I accidentally dropped my copy of "Discount Armageddon" in the train station last week. I've ordered another copy, to come with its sequel early next month when the sequel comes out. Which means I can't read any more of it until...early next month. Sigh.
Eep!

Fertile crossbreeds will usually have children that are indistinguishable from the species of their mate.

How does that work? Extra chromosomes that get dropped instead of matching up? Non-nuclear DNA (perhaps from a mitochondrion-like organelle) making the difference between a succubus and a human? Or perhaps it's like one case I know of:

My late uncle George once had a cat who he said was one quarter bobcat, from his parents’ farm. Flyer was a big fluffy grey tabby with tufts like a lynx and a long fluffy tail. (Sadly, George never got to meet Yeti; I'm sure he would have done a double take.) He was left a tom, and could sire kittens with housecats, but they were never viable. I talked with a biologist about this, and she said that made sense: with hybrids, if you have a gene on one chromosome that depends on being teamed up with a gene on another chromosome, and you start shuffling decks with another species that doesn't have that gene, you can wind up with nonviable offspring when bobcat chromosome N, on important developmental duty, expects to find a copy of bobcat chromosome M but fails because it ran into two copies of domestic tabby chromosome M instead.

So if that's how it works for the interfertile cryptids, there's a chance that a half-succubus could have kids that aren’t effectively pure human, by having just the right pick of chromosomes in the lucky egg, but the odds are really poor.

Have any humans ever accidentally wound up on cryptid dating sites? (“Wait— those were just tattoos in his profile pic?” “You can see how I made the mistake!”) And did it end well for them?
Sometimes humans wind up on the cryptid sites. Most of them are dissuaded politely. Some are eaten. It's a bad scene.