>>21379404The most surprising thing about their physiology is that their nervous system is entirely contained within their bones and many of their internal organs appear connected to their skeletal structure. A white calcified protective layer sheathes many of the internal organs. This, combined with the density of their bones leaves them with an incredibly well protected nervous system. Some academics have suggested that the flesh is in fact more of a puppet that the skeleton controls. Thus, the old deadbeat saying: “There is a deadbeat inside all of us”. The scientific community rejects this hypothesis, though that may be due to its controversial nature. This leads to deadbeats being able to survive grievous injury, the level of which would normally kill say a hooman from blood loss, as well as maintain functionality so long as the bone is not significantly damaged. Heavy injuries to the head are still fatal, as are heavy wounds to the upper chest. These characteristics may explain why even when thrown into some of the most suicidal military operations, deadbeat squads may find victory in operations intended to be diversions. They suffer terrible losses and injuries, but can keep pressing forward thanks to their unique physiology.
The actual cause of those adaptations remains a hot topic for study, but correlational studies are informative in this regard. Deadbeat-like adaptations are universally linked to exposure to Mori-attuned chuubanite. In fact, people from other countries will see themselves take on those characteristics (migration of the nervous system into the skeleton, goethite synthesis in osteoblasts, calcification of tissues and cardiovascular adaptations) slowly if exposed to high concentrations for years. A lifetime would result in measurable changes, and the offspring of the immigrant would have complete deadbeat adaptations within two to three generations of /morig/ island residence.
This is most clearly observed in the Goddess Faithful priestesses. Renowned for their beauty and voluptuousness compared to other inhabitants of the island, it is a common misconception that the religious class does not display deadbeat characteristics. This is incorrect; they display them more strongly than any demographic, likely because of their extreme exposure to high chuubanite concentrations near Mont Mori. Those exposures would destroy the mind of most, but for the strongly-minded individuals able to handle this strain, the result is an exacerbation of all the characteristics described above. The more “normal” volume of soft tissue is actually an accumulation of even higher amounts of densified deadbeat muscle, explaining remarkable power of the priestesses; they effectively have two to three times the muscle mass found in a deadbeat of normal strength. All this added calcified tissue leads to priestesses of average height and seemingly normal build commonly weighing up to three hundred pounds or more.
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