I went to post this on this Inkscape forums since that's what I'm working in, but since I'm a new member my post has to be approved my a moderator, which will take who knows how long, so I'll try you guys here.

I have no idea how to properly explain what it is I'm trying to do (if there's a proper name for it, please tell me!). So I'll try and explain it with a picture that someone else made that illustrates what I'm trying to do:

[attachment=15132:1273713-220453-.jpg]

(I just noticed it's kind of hard to read the blue text. The top line says "And curls up 'into' the object" and the bottom line says "While also continuing the outline here")

In that picture, the outline of the paw curls up and "into" the object, while also continuing the outline of the paw. How is that kind of effect achieved in vector graphics?

Quick and easy way to do that: they're actually two different segments. Since they're of the same color and one slightly overlaps the other so you don't see its hard edge, they look like a single outline; The fact they're separate allows you to make that kind of structure (forking it). Doesn't matter which one is layered on top of which anyway.

Yep. One trick for getting the overlapping part to line up perfectly - copy, paste in place, then edit one copy to the second shape you want, while leaving the overlapping part alone. Note, you will want to remove the fill attribute from whichever is interior to the other (in the example, the line between toes).