Okay, so I had an idea of speculating what a Bug Facer would look like without the facial plates, and came up with some fanon lore:
As others have speculated, Bug Facers do not have facial plates as infants, instead having a softer, rubbery face, sort of like a platypus. This lets them suckle, and eventually the calcium from the milk face hardens into a beak.
But what if it didn’t? That would lead to a case nicknamed Rubber Facers, due to maintaining the platypus like softer bill into adulthood. This is often caused by a lack of proper nutrition in an infant, and is often the case in poorer nations.
This deformity can be life threatening for many reasons. Firstly, without the harder beak, all but the softest bugs become unable to be eaten. With the invention of the mortar and pestle, however, this problem was solved early in history. The larger problem arises from infection— sometimes due to the rubbery skin not growing fast enough, or due to insect bites tearing it open, the face can gain deep cuts, or cuts that continue to split and crack instead of closing. Before modern day, this almost guaranteed death via infection.
…
One thing that is much, much rarer than Rubber Faces are Flesh Faces. This is an exceedingly rare mutation, where the facial plates fail to form at all during gestation. 90% of the time, this spells death for the infant, considering it is similar to being born without the skin on your face. Many made it to childhood before their weak skin tears and gets infected. In fact, so few survive to adulthood that it is theorized that during their equivalent to “modern day”, there were as few as 6 or 7 adults on the entire planet living with this mutation.
In the past, and even now, those with this mutations and even some Rubber Faces, are shunned due to looking different and/or requiring more care for their illness.
The mutation is also linked to others, such as a lack of keratin, making their usually standing-up hair fall to their sides due to lack of internal support.
(SIDE NOTE: can we talk about how little fan art there is of Bug Facers with the crazy paintbrush hair??? The creature in the middle from the “Subjects” page is literally a male Bug Facer, and he has giant crazy hair [and two phalluses], and no one talks about it!)
TLDR; Bug Facers can have a mutation that makes them look closer to normal humans, but that hate it and find it gross/terrifying since it usually leads to death.
Thank you for the replies! Yeah, the hair has always fascinated me. It’s not like curly hair humans, where it makes some sort of Afro. Their hair literally looks like dried grass, like it’s all straight, but sticking up, so I assumed there was some extra component keeping it stiff.
I’m not sure if just the males have it, or it’s just exaggerated in them (or both sexes have it). It’s possible the crazy hair was a sort of sexual display in their non-sapient ancestors, or a threat display for rival males. Or maybe it just evolved to disperse heat or something.
That’s definitely a possibility— the idea of hats just draped over your stiff hair is a pretty funny concept.
Honestly I myself believe we as a fandom have sort of been duped by the image. Sort of like how the Snake Person image made the fandom think they’re all chill all the time (I have a post on what I think about that), or how the Asymmetic image leaves out their clothes, the OG Bug Facer image may actually display a female with a shaved head. Mostly my reasoning is that she has no “sideburns” like the male image, nor does her hair stick out diagonally, or at/below eye level.
I just assumed, for whatever reason, bald heads may be attractive in Bug Facers (maybe it’s “exotic”?), and she has that hairstyle plus a fashionable hat, which leads to her hotness level rising. (She is a supermodel after all).
Or even if she’s not bald, she would have some sort of a “Mohawk” equivalent, with the only hair being on top of the head, which just so happens to be hidden under her hat.
Also totally different tangent, but the art in the book makes it look like the neck connects to the head just below where the facial plating starts. I might have made it too high on my drawing, but the idea of (mildly) long neck Bug Facers is not impossible.
Even if their necks aren’t long, their faces certainly are.
Okay, so I had an idea of speculating what a Bug Facer would look like without the facial plates, and came up with some fanon lore:
As others have speculated, Bug Facers do not have facial plates as infants, instead having a softer, rubbery face, sort of like a platypus. This lets them suckle, and eventually the calcium from the milk face hardens into a beak.
But what if it didn’t? That would lead to a case nicknamed Rubber Facers, due to maintaining the platypus like softer bill into adulthood. This is often caused by a lack of proper nutrition in an infant, and is often the case in poorer nations.
This deformity can be life threatening for many reasons. Firstly, without the harder beak, all but the softest bugs become unable to be eaten. With the invention of the mortar and pestle, however, this problem was solved early in history. The larger problem arises from infection— sometimes due to the rubbery skin not growing fast enough, or due to insect bites tearing it open, the face can gain deep cuts, or cuts that continue to split and crack instead of closing. Before modern day, this almost guaranteed death via infection.
…
One thing that is much, much rarer than Rubber Faces are Flesh Faces. This is an exceedingly rare mutation, where the facial plates fail to form at all during gestation. 90% of the time, this spells death for the infant, considering it is similar to being born without the skin on your face. Many made it to childhood before their weak skin tears and gets infected. In fact, so few survive to adulthood that it is theorized that during their equivalent to “modern day”, there were as few as 6 or 7 adults on the entire planet living with this mutation.
In the past, and even now, those with this mutations and even some Rubber Faces, are shunned due to looking different and/or requiring more care for their illness.
The mutation is also linked to others, such as a lack of keratin, making their usually standing-up hair fall to their sides due to lack of internal support.
(SIDE NOTE: can we talk about how little fan art there is of Bug Facers with the crazy paintbrush hair??? The creature in the middle from the “Subjects” page is literally a male Bug Facer, and he has giant crazy hair [and two phalluses], and no one talks about it!)
TLDR; Bug Facers can have a mutation that makes them look closer to normal humans, but that hate it and find it gross/terrifying since it usually leads to death.
bro i flinched at that number of folk alive with this disease, chill out
anyways awesome concept, i never really questioned the crazy hair, the extra keratin is a neat idea
Thank you for the replies! Yeah, the hair has always fascinated me. It’s not like curly hair humans, where it makes some sort of Afro. Their hair literally looks like dried grass, like it’s all straight, but sticking up, so I assumed there was some extra component keeping it stiff.
I’m not sure if just the males have it, or it’s just exaggerated in them (or both sexes have it). It’s possible the crazy hair was a sort of sexual display in their non-sapient ancestors, or a threat display for rival males. Or maybe it just evolved to disperse heat or something.
well the woman in the OG bug facer image’s hat is also kinda shaped like this, perhaps its a species wide thing that’s exaggerated in males
That’s definitely a possibility— the idea of hats just draped over your stiff hair is a pretty funny concept.
Honestly I myself believe we as a fandom have sort of been duped by the image. Sort of like how the Snake Person image made the fandom think they’re all chill all the time (I have a post on what I think about that), or how the Asymmetic image leaves out their clothes, the OG Bug Facer image may actually display a female with a shaved head. Mostly my reasoning is that she has no “sideburns” like the male image, nor does her hair stick out diagonally, or at/below eye level.
I just assumed, for whatever reason, bald heads may be attractive in Bug Facers (maybe it’s “exotic”?), and she has that hairstyle plus a fashionable hat, which leads to her hotness level rising. (She is a supermodel after all).
Or even if she’s not bald, she would have some sort of a “Mohawk” equivalent, with the only hair being on top of the head, which just so happens to be hidden under her hat.
Also totally different tangent, but the art in the book makes it look like the neck connects to the head just below where the facial plating starts. I might have made it too high on my drawing, but the idea of (mildly) long neck Bug Facers is not impossible.
Even if their necks aren’t long, their faces certainly are.