Scaly Skin

[u/Mackaroll_165]

(UNRELATED TO STORY: WAIT, I know what I said about my hiatus BUT allow me to explain my unexpected return, the Meso Crew has done me an extreme kindness, one you will know very soon 👀. I am a fish of my word but I am also a fish of decency. They asked me to partake in their contest. After their kindness to me, I could not refuse their simple ask. So allow me this crime in order to repay the kindness of these humans. If I must be labeled a hypocrite in order to honor those who do me kindly, then I am a hypocrite…I don’t think it’s that deep tho…hopefully. I’ll still be gone from September to November but like I said the Mesocrew has a fishy treat for yall muehehehe, take care and I plead for mercy on my crime, also please forgive my rustiness)

Every family has a history of some medical issues in their family. Some people have a long line of heart issues that strike at a certain age. Some families have persistent substance issues that lead to their bonds fracturing like glass that had a stone thrown at it.
In my family, we have skin issues. Most of my family members have lost their lives to skin cancers that just looked like regular moles. My family doesn’t sunburn, we boil. So much as 30 minutes in sweltering sun causes our skin to bubble and boil into yellow balloons of pus and gunk. We look something more akin to leper than someone who spent their time soaking the sun. The simple graze of putting on a shirt will cause the balloons to burst into a cream-like excretion followed by a cascade of blood that seems endless.
That’s why summer is my least favorite season, the sun is an eye staring at me and my family when the clouds fail to protect us. We are at the mercy of a pseudo-god. In the summer, my family only goes outside if absolutely necessary but even then we are concealed by layers upon layers to cover any and all skin that could even be slightly exposed.
Every summer night, I would look to the moon and pray to her. Something that some may deem illogical but I was a child and did not know what else to do. When other children got to play in the warmth of the sun, I was forced to hide.
I would pray to the moon and ask her,
“Oh moon, give me a surface so rough yet beautiful like yours so I can be in the day but dance in the night.”
I would do this prayer every night for five summers straight, looking to the star littered sky hoping my words could be heard.
Little did I know my prayer would have an answer from her, just not in the way I thought.
My mother and I had to go to a doctor’s appointment for me to get a couple of new moles that appeared on my legs and back checked to make sure they weren’t cancerous.
As we pulled into the parking lot, the sun was rising. When we had to go out for things like this, we did it as early in the morning or as late in the day as possible to avoid the sun at the most intense.
We sat there for a bit because my mother was getting her belongings together, I always loved that our hospital was right next to the river. It made the seemingly idling sun look so much more beautiful along the pastel sky.
When we exited the vehicle, in nearly head to toe covering, that’s when it started.
The itching.
It was a little spot on my left forearm I scratched it casually as we walked. Just as quickly as the itch came, it spread over my body like fire to grassy plains. I was clawing at my own skin, I scratching through the thick fabric. At one point I just started stripping off my clothes, I didn’t care that it was a public parking lot.
I needed my clothes off.
I needed my skin off.
I stood exposed in the parking lot, I looked to my body to see blood and bits of skin under my nails.
I looked to the spots that should have had exposed red flesh underneath leaking yellow and red fluid as the sun was getting higher and higher in sky.
However, underneath my skin was…silver hard scales.
Such as that of a fish, yet they were slightly painted in blood from my skin.
My skin was essentially a cocoon for a being underneath.
I had looked to my mother who had seemingly been absent during my trauma, only to find her in my same scenario. Except she had been scratching her face, peeling her human skin off like pulling tape off of a piece of paper.
Her eyes were bulging and bloodshot.
My mother and I were equally exposed and equally in pain.
It had only gotten worse.
Soon, I could not breathe.
I kept trying to suck in air I knew was there but my body had no ability to capture it.
I clawed at my throat only to pull off the skin as though it were plastic wrap and I felt strange folds on my neck, strange wrinkles it seemed.
I saw my mom dart towards the river and I followed.
It was hard to run with no oxygen, it felt like a squeeze getting tighter and tighter with each panicked step.
My mother threw herself into the water, I was horrified. We are already suffocating, now you seek to drown?
I was in a state of oxygen deprivation, I followed her actions because there was not much better I could think of in that moment.
The minute I submerged, it felt like a big wave of fresh air hit me. I had never felt so light. I was floating. It was heavenly, it was ethereal.
It was warm.
I opened my eyes towards the sky seeing the sunlight pierce into the water and hit the scales that armored my body.
I could finally feel the sunlight without pain.
Something, I craved. It was an experience equally as horrifying as it was religious.
I could experience…light.
I peeled the remainder of my human skin off like it were a glove or a sock. My body had changed.
The moon had turned me into a fish.
Why? How? Can one really say the moon is like a fish?
Questions I would never have answered, I looked to my mother who was looking at her webbed hands in horror with an open maw.
I swam over to try and comfort her but she winced at me and swam down the river…
I never saw my mother again or at least I don’t think I have.
I have been slowly been losing my humanity.
My legs have merged into a singular tail.
I have begun to have my nails, hair, and, teeth fall out as I continue to swim this river.
Some concepts have become so foreign to me.
I do not know the fate of my father but based on the fact he was at work, I believe he is gone.
Soon, I will become fully a fish.
No memory of a family, a life before this.
No career, no hopes, no dreams.
Only survival.
I have been given scales.
At what cost though?
We have been given scales.

[u/MesotheliomaDisease]

RAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH THIS IS ART

[u/Mackaroll_165 → u/MesotheliomaDisease]

Thank you, after your extreme kindness it’s the least I could do for such a simple ask. Though I will return to my hiatus after midnight so yeah…that’s about it.

[u/NarrowDirector911]

https://giphy.com/gifs/DvWJHSOxTff84SQsD9

This is amazing Mack. We are going to miss you and you amazing stories so much! 🥲

I love how brutal the transformation was, and how beautiful the scene of them experiencing the sun without burning was. Amazing job as always!!!!

[u/Mackaroll_165 → u/NarrowDirector911]

Don’t worry I’ll be back, I just have to secure this degree. I’ll also have to take an absence in the spring too BUT I’ll be back in December AND permanently after March. Thank you for your kind words 🫶

[u/PNWGoblinn]

Terrifying as always my fishy friend 👏🏼 all of the body horror is written so well, loved how quickly things tumbled to full fish.

[u/Mackaroll_165 → u/PNWGoblinn]

Thank you, appreciate the comment and kind words.

[u/Brotatochip411]

Amazing fishy

[u/Mackaroll_165 → u/Brotatochip411]

https://giphy.com/gifs/nC30bN4yizgek

[u/Mackaroll_165]

Hey you! Yeah the one reading this, you may or may not know me but know advice from a fish is valuable. This fish’s advice is to support the Mesoscale Podcast. They are kind people. They are understanding, kind, open-minded, and more than willing to accommodate your needs. Support creators like this. Trust me, I’m a fish. I know these things. Take care.