Commission: Gagging for Gadusol (MerMay 2023)

A belated MerMay commission for a client on Discord 🧜‍♂️

We all know how annoying it is to apply and reapply sunscreen all summer long, but did you know that some fish produce their own sunscreen? Indeed, they release a chemical called gadusol that protects their scales from harmful burns. When this discovery was made, dermatologists raced to create a sunblock for humans that only had to be applied once. Some prototypes, however, were leaked before being tested on human subjects and, well, the humans who did use it found themselves a little less human than before! (Later tests did reveal that these half-humans—merfolk, as they came to be known—did in fact begin to produce gadusol on their own the same way fish do! So that's good, I guess.)