Ask Ms. Jessica Issue 19 – No eyes, no face, no problem! (Patreon)

(The content for Ask Ms. Jessica comes from real questions from real people sent to AskMsJessica@gmail.com)

How do the mutants who have no visible face (eyes mouth, nose) function, breathe, see and eat? How do they communicate or live regular lives?

A very good question. I always love answering questions about level 4 mutations like this.

First, let’s tackle communication. It’s worth noting that speaking isn’t the only method of communication. Many deaf people who cannot hear communication via sign language. Many mutants without a mouth do the same. They can also use technology to communicate as well. Everyone has a smartphone these days and smartphones can talk for you if you don’t have a mouth, and hear for you can’t hear.

That’s not to say that mutants without ears cannot hear. On the contrary. “Hearing” is just the ability to sense vibrations in the air. People with ears can sense this through their eardrum, while mutants without ears tend to sense vibrations through their skin, or perhaps another mutated sensory organ. They may not “hear” as we do, but they are certainly aware of air pressure waves around them, and can interpret them as speech just fine.

In fact, this is how they “see” too. While they cannot process visual information, converting photons into brain wave patterns, they can “feel” people around them. Every person who is walking creates a vibration in the ground, for example, and they can feel that. Every person who moves creates a vibration in the air, and they can feel that. For that matter, when these mutants walk and move they create vibrations in the air and ground which then bounce back to them. They can use this as a sort of echolocation to produce fairly vivid pictures of the world around themselves. 

Finally there is the matter of eating and breathing. For the most part “faceless” mutants still have an opening somewhere that can take in air and food. It might not be a mouth as you know it, and in fact they may have two openings in two different areas for breathing and food intake, but it usually exists. As I said before, mutations generally “improve” upon the body in some way, and removing the ability to get oxygen or nutrients is simply not an improvement. It is a mutation that would be fought off by the immune system.

That being said, there are some workarounds that some mutants have found. For example, some level 3 and 4 mutants can take in oxygen through their skin and pores. This also results in increased blood flow to their skin, so it might take on a reddish or pinkish hue. There are also mutants that can create food through photosynthesis like plants. These mutants would have a greenish hue to their skin, due to the chlorophyll found in their cells. These are mutations that can occur in any mutant, not just faceless ones, but variations of these systems can be used to allow a faceless mutant to breathe and eat without actually having a mouth to take in air or food.

I think the best way to answer your question, however, is that humans are adaptable. Well before mutations became commonplace, humans figured out how to deal with missing eyes or limbs due to injury or malformation before birth. We are a resilient species that knows how to survive. As I said before, most mutations are beneficial, so if we were able to survive before them, we should be able to survive even easier after them.

No mutation is a handicap.

Dr. Jessica Park

AskMsJessica@gmail.com