#my choices of test colors are not indicative of any personal ships or headcanons

[gamebunny-advance]

Oh yeah, the Punnet Squares

I never did tell y'all what that was about.

I mostly gave up on it after I realized that I didn't know wtf I was doing, but maybe y'all can run with it anyway.

Basically, I was trying to map out how skin color might be inherited in the NSR universe. I'll put the full document I wrote below the cut, but I don't necessarily believe anything in it at this time.

NSR Genes Headcanon

Skin color -Primary colors (reds, yellows, blues) are dominant over secondary colors (oranges, greens, purples). However, the gene which causes the specific hue is caused by something else, and no specific hue appears to have dominance over the other outside the primary and secondary split.

Unsaturated skin tones (black, white, and grays) are usually actually just tints and shades of a saturated color, and purely unsaturated skin is very rare and tends to be caused by a mutation.

However, primary color skin actually have incomplete dominant genes, so it is possible for people who have heterozygous genotypes to result in secondary or tertiary color children.

So, a child from like-color parents are most likely to also be a like color, but depending on the parents' genetics, it is possible for the child to have different colored skin.

For example, two green parents are likely to have a green child no matter what their genes are, but a yellow or blue child is possible if one or both of parents have heterozygous genes.

If both parents have recessive traits and at least one of them has heterozygous genotypes, then the child has the possibility of sharing either parent's skin color, or the primary color shared between both parents.

For example, the child of a purple and green parent as a chance of being blue.

This is vice versa if both parents have dominant traits.

For example, the child of a red and yellow parent has a chance of being orange.

If the parents are complimentary colors (red and green, blue and orange, yellow and purple), then depending on the parents' genes, the child could potentially be any color.

For example, if a Red parent with a Green partner both have heterozygous genotypes (Hh x Hh) or both have homozygous genotypes (HH x hh), then the child could be any color due to every combination being possible, and every color having an equal chance of appearing against each other.

- But, if the Red parent has heterozygous genotypes while the Green partner has Homozygous recessive genotypes (Hh x hh), then the child could be either red or green. Remember that the gene only determines the likelihood of the color being primary or secondary. The hue is independently determined by other factors. So, in this case since red and green are complimentary and thus cannot mix into a primary or secondary color, if the child gets the Hh gene, it can only be red or green.

Mutations -Very rarely, a child may be born with split-color skin (Example: Nadia/Eve). It is more common to see this when the parents have different skin colors, but it is possible for it to appear even when the parents have the same skin color.

Children of mix-color parents also have a higher chance of developing birthmarks in any other color possible in their genes.

Hair color

Hair color works a little differently than skin color: rather than being determined by the color of their parent's hair, hair color is determined by skin color.

It is dominant for the hair color to be similar or analogous to skin color, while it is recessive to be complimentary.

For example, it is more common for a red person to have red hair, and an orange person to have yellow hair, but it is less common for a red person to have green hair and a purple person to have yellow hair.

Skin Color: Alternate Explanation

Children tend to share their parents' skin tone. If both parents have similarly colored skin, then the child is likely to have the same color.

If both parents have differently colored skin, then the child could have either parents' skin color, or a mix. -For example, a red parent with a yellow partner could have a red, yellow, or orange child.

If the parents are analogous colors, then the child has a chance of being a tertiary color. -For example, a blue parent with a purple partner could have blue, purple, or blue-purple child.

If the parents are both different secondary colors (orange, green, or purple), then the child also has a chance of being the primary color shared between both parents. -For example, an orange parent with a purple partner could have a red child just as well as orange or purple.

If the parents are complimentary colors (red and green, yellow and purple, or blue and orange), then the child could potentially be any color, but is much more likely to share either parent's color.

Unsaturated skin colors (black, white, and grays) are also possible but are extremely rare due to these skin colors being recessive to every other color. It is more likely for a person to actually be a shade or tint of a saturated color than it is to be truly unsaturated.

In general, birthmarks/freckles tend to appear as a shade or tint of a person's skin color, but they can appear in completely different colors too. The latter is more common in people with mixed parents, where the birthmark can be either parents' color or the parents' mixed or shared color. For example, the child of red and yellow parents could have an orange birthmark and the child of a green and purple parent could have a blue birthmark. Rarely, a birthmark can be a color not outwardly present in either parent. For example, the red child of two red parents could have a blue birthmark due to one or both of the parents having genes for blue skin. Split color skin is just another form of birthmark, though it is much more rare than smaller birthmarks.