Story #11 - Skin Pockets

And now for something completely different!

This week, I officiated the wedding of my cousin Brin to my new cousin-in-law Keerthan, and what an occasion it was! Finally all vaccinated and gathering again, it was a truly auspicious day, full of joy and laughter and genuine sentimentality.

And then, at one point, my aunt, Lorraine Manning, mother of the bride, found a moment to blurt out to me: “Hey! You know your sci fi thing? I’ve got an idea for you! Skin pockets! Like pockets in your skin? How about that?” She then walked off, leaving me to contemplate, well, what about that?

So here it is! I do a lot of pretty serious stories for this project, that have profound ambitions and grand themes. This isn’t necessarily one of them. But it sure was fun to write, so I hope you enjoy and thanks Lorraine for the inspiration!

Skin Pockets

“Skin Pockets?”

“Skin Pockets.

“Skin pockets?!”

“Totally. Skin Pockets. Exactly what it sounds like.”

“It doesn’t sound like a thing that exists or should exist.”

“It’s about to be.”

“Skin pockets.”

“It’s gonna be amazing. I’ve done a bunch of searching online and nobody else has done this yet.”

“You don’t say.”

“Come on, get on board with this.”

“On board with skin pockets?”

“This is gonna be the thing that makes the channel blow up. Skin pockets is the most viral idea I’ve ever heard of in my life.”

“Can they reverse it afterwards?”

“If they could, would we really be having this conversation about it? No, we wouldn’t, I would have just done it.” 

“You’re really going to do this.”

“In ten years, when everybody on earth has skin pockets, I’m going to post this conversation for those sweet, sweet likes and you’re gonna look like a dinosaur.”

“In the sense that dinosaurs did not have skin pockets, yes, I will look like a dinosaur.”

“I can’t believe nobody else has done skin pockets yet, it’s such a good idea!”

“You have to stop saying skin pockets.”

“No, you have to get used to it, because I’m never gonna stop saying skin pockets.”

“There is no sigh deep enough to express what I’m feeling right now.”

“I’m going to buy us a mansion in the shape of a skin pocket.”

“Dios mio.”

“Tell me you love me.”

“I love you, but if you get skin pockets, I will love you a little bit less.”

“You know what, that’s fair. I can live with that.”

**********

“Hey to all my new viewers, really happy you’re here, don’t forget to like and more importantly subscribe to the channel. I know a lot of people came from the Amazon story feed, welcome to the journey! A little about me, I’ve been on LivePub since ’33, I’m twenty-eight years old, I’m from Tacoma, Washington, I have two dogs, here, let me—

“This is Scooter and the other one is Go-Kart, he’s out in the backyard right now I think. They’re both Lab mutts I found in various and sundry places. I have— Oh, chat wants to know what ‘sundry’ means, it means like ‘different types of’. No, it’s not— It’s doesn’t mean ‘dried in the sun’. Anyway, another thing about me is I use too many weird words that derail my channel, but if you hang around long enough it becomes part of the charm. Anyway— I live here in Seattle with my husband, he’s a big part of the channel too, if you’re new you’ll meet him and Go-Kart eventually.

“So on to the main point of this stream. I got my first treatments! They’re doing gene therapy, which is really complicated and I don’t totally understand it, but basically it’s to make my body able to accept the pockets, and actually make them part of me, where my body will repair the pocket with its own tissue. 

“Chat’s asking if they pockets will be made from someone else at first. First off, ew— like I’m the guy who’s getting skin pockets and that still creeps me out. The pocket will start out made of stem cells, but it’ll fuse at the opening seams, and ultimately all the way back into the pocket where it terminates near my hip bone. It will literally become a part of me, and my body will recognize it as such.

“No, it’s not self-cleaning, what on your body is self-cleaning? That’s not even a thing. But it’s simple to clean with soap and water, like I’m a clean person overall, it’s not gonna— Let’s see, what else does the chat wanna know— It won’t close with like a zipper or anything of course. We’ll have to see how much give there is at the opening and see if it’s even a problem. We’ve discussed the possibility of piercings on both sides that can hold a sort of cover in place, but I’d rather not have anything that’s not part of my actual flesh if I don’t have to. Let’s see— I don’t have other piercings but I do have tattoos. I had a pierced eyebrow during a Sclye phase in college, but then I broke up with the guy who got me into Sclye and realized how stupid it looked.”

“There’s a bunch of really great stuff out there about gene therapy and what’s possible, I’d recommend you go and read it if you want to know more, there’s a reading list on my web site, link is in stream info. I hate it when streamers read half an article and pretend they’ve got a PhD, so I’m not gonna do that. For me personally, I saw what they did to that guy with the horns and it opened my eyes to where the science was, even if I couldn’t understand it or envision the full possibilities yet.

**********

“I just don’t understand, David. Why do you feel you have to do this?”

“I don’t have to, I want to.”

“But why would you want to?”

“First of all, Mom, it’s honestly going to be convenient. I’ve already told you this, but I don’t really know any way to explain it. I have weird anxiety about holding things in regular pockets because I used to lose things so much. I keep having to check over and over, and it’s very distracting, and even though I’ve worked on it a lot in therapy, it just doesn’t really go away. But if important things are literally inside my body, hopefully I won’t feel that way!”

“Don’t make me feel guilty about this too, that’ll only make it worse.”

“Feel guilty? Who’s making you feel guilty?”

“I’m sure you talk to that therapist about how you have to do this because your mother used to yell at you for losing things.

“Mom, that’s literally not something I’ve ever said.”

“Jackets were expensive, David! We didn’t have a lot of money!”

“Then why did you keep buying me new jackets? Actually, never mind, I don’t care.”

“You think I’m going to send my son to school in a T-shirt in the middle of winter, so the teachers and the other parents can think we don’t take care of you like some kind of ragamuffin?”

“Okay, forget I said it was convenient. The real reason is I want to push the boundaries of this new science. I’m going to be part of something, Mom! I’m literally going to be the first person to do this.”

“You’re going to be the only person to do this, David. Then what? What will people think of my son with the purse where his behind should be?”

“I’ve gotten fifty thousand new subscribers since I announced this. There’s a huge body-modification community online, and they’re very interested. I’m absolutely not going to be the only one.”

“Pretty fancy name for adding and subtracting pieces of what God gave you.”

“Don’t start in with the God stuff, Mom, can’t we just enjoy lunch?”

“Enjoy lunch? My son’s getting a butt-purse! I may never eat again!”

“Ugh, Mom!”

**********

“Good evening, welcome to King 5, I’m Jimmer Stone. My interview tonight is with David Weatherly, a twenty-eight year old Podcaster and LivePub Personality who has undergone a surgery that is the first of its kind—he’s had pockets inserted into his own flesh, and they’re made out of skin. He joins us tonight from his home in Washington State. David, are you there?”

“I’m here, Jimmer, thanks for having me. I’d just like to start by reminding your audience that if they want to see a whole lot more content about my journey and about body modification in general, they can follow me on LivePub, I’m at-David-Weatherly, and from there they can find all my relevant social media and my web site.”

“Welcome, David, and I’ll say that my audience should check you out, I spent my hour before showtime absolutely glued to your channel. But let me ask you the obvious question first—Why skin pockets?”

“Well Jimmer, my hands were really cold one day and I went, ‘what if this never happened again?’—No, I’m kidding, of course. Actually the idea came to me in a dream. This was before I knew it was possible, mind you. But the dream stayed with me. And then about a week later, I read a story about gene therapies and body modification, and it just went from there.”

“And where are you in the process now?”

“I just had my surgery two days ago. It’s going to take a couple of weeks to heal and for the stem cells to graft to the tissue that was already there, and until that happens, I have quite a bit of work to do stretching and cleaning and making sure nothing goes wrong in that process. So at this point I’m feeling anxious to be over that and just using my new pockets on a daily basis, but I’ll get there soon enough.”

“And what sort of stuff do you plan to keep in your pockets?”

“Sky’s the limit, Jimmer! Imagine the possibilities.”

“Ha, okay David. How is your husband reacting to all this?”

“He’s fantastic. He makes fun of me all the time but never lets anybody else make fun of me. Exactly what I need.”

“Would you tell other people to get skin pockets?”

“Too early to tell exactly how successful the surgery and concept have been, but truthfully, Jimmer, I don’t have to tell anybody anything. I’m told that the clinic where I had my surgery and gene therapy done is already fielding calls on a daily basis from interested parties. I predict that someone else will have skin pockets inside of six months, and we’ll have a skin-pocket convention somewhere in the US within three years.”

“Wow, that would be something. Do you worry at all? About something going wrong? Infection? Anything like that?”

“There’s no glory without risk, Jimmer. People have done more dangerous things for a whole lot less reason.”

**********

“This is so weird. Like I’m sorry, I’m not trying to make you cry, but I’m trying to get turned on and all I can think about is the words ‘skin pockets’.”

“I get it. It’ll get easier. You’ll get used to it.”

“God, honestly it would be easier if you just gave me shit about it.”

“Sorry, wanna do some exposure therapy and just stick your dick in my skin pocket?”

“Ewwwwwwww!”

“This is what you asked for!”

“I take it back, be nice again!”

“Too late. It’s my skin pocket or nothing.”

“David!”

“Take it or leave it.”

“Pretty clear already that I was leaving it!”

“You’ll give in.”

“I literally will not.”

“Give innnnn to the pooooooower of my skiiiiiin pooooo—“

“David shut up! My goodness. I’ll never get a boner again.”

“You’re right, I’m sorry.”

“Thank you.”

“Just know, if it would help make up to you for what I’ve done, you have unfettered skin pocket access.”

“I hate you right now.”

“You can use them both at once if you want. to do a double pocket position.”

“I hate you in general.”

“This is what you wanted!”

“I took it back!”

“Tell me you love me.”

“I refuse.”

“I’ll say it again if you don’t.”

“Ugh, fine, I love you!”

“I love you too.”

“You had damn well better, David.”

**********

“Okay, this question is from ‘puppiesandkitties11’, they ask: ‘What’s it like to go from two hundred k subs to three million subs in two weeks?’”

“It’s awesome. For example, you get to do Reddit Ask Me Anythings and people actually leave you questions and comment on the answers.”

“Okay, next— ‘slagslayer-420-69’ says: ‘What do you find yourself carrying in your skin pockets most often?’”

“Small stuff that I’d be worried about losing otherwise. The key to my bike lock pretty much lives in my right pocket. The really cool thing is that I’ve already learned to identify different things in my pocket by how they feel, like I can feel the shape inside the pocket, so I know I’ve never lost anything as soon as I even think to wonder if I still have it.”

“Next is from ‘joebidensbuttcheeks’, and he says— or I guess they say, but this feels like a guy’s screen name. He says: ‘do people look at you weird when you walk in your neighborhood because they know who you’re the guy with skin pockets? Let’s see, I don’t even need you for this one. ‘They already did look at him weird, because he would prance around in tiny shorts and no shirt and play in sprinklers on the front lawn where he knew the next door neighbor’s wife could see, because he knew that his unavailability drove her crazy.”

“Don’t you dare.”

“I get to have fun with this too, David!”

“Guh, fine, post it.”

“Already did!”

**********

“I don’t think I’m the right person to talk to about this. This isn’t really about body modification, it sounds like a family problem.”

“No it’s about body mod, it’s just my family won’t let me do what I need to even though I have the money! They just don’t get it, for me it’s not something silly, it’s who I am. I had to call you cause I knew you’d understand.”

“This isn’t what my consultations are about. I’ll return your money, it’s just that if you’re only sixteen there’s—

“I don’t want my money back, I want your help!”

“I want to help you but I don’t know if I can.”

“You can.”

“Do you want me to talk to your family? Try to help them understand? It’s not really what I do, but—“

“Nah, that ain’t gonna help, nothing’s gonna convince them. I just need to do it and they’ll get used to it.”

“Well now I just really don’t understand what you want me to—“

“There’s gotta be places that would help me.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like places that’d give me skin pockets.”

“Without your parents’ permission, you mean?”

“Right.”

“Look—“

“Don’t tell me no like that! Don’t I deserve to do what I want with my own body?!”

“Or course, but—“

“You can’t just put this shit out there for people to think about when they can’t have it! All I do is watch your channel and the other body mod streams. I need this, you gotta help me!”

“Even if I wanted to, I don’t know any places that would do that for you without your parents’ permission. They’d be taking a huge legal risk, and—“

“You don’t know what it’s like! My parents and my brothers all know, and they treat me like a freak, and I don’t even get to actually have my pockets yet and I still gotta deal with all that! You did this to me!”

“I’m so sorry, but you’re going to have to wait two years. It’s that simple. If this is something that’s really a part of you, then you’ll still want it then.”

“You’re just like them! I thought you’d get it! I thought you’d understand me!”

**********

“Welcome back to the podcast. My guest today is David Weatherly, originator of the Skin Pockets trend and the founder of skin-pockets-dot-com, a full-service resource for people considering this form of body modification. David, continuing where we left off, what’s been the biggest surprise for you about having skin pockets? What did you not expect?”

“That’s a hard question, I think. I’ve come so far on this journey, and I’ve had really different expectations at different times. I guess the biggest surprise for me has been how ordinary it seems. There was so much buildup, so much effort, so much science and tech and knowledge that came together to allow this to happen, but now that it’s worked, my pockets are a part of me, and it’s just this matter-of-fact thing, every moment of my life. It’s like a phone, or the cloud, or a lot of things—before you get it it seems almost useless, or more trouble than it’s worth, but then afterwards, it’s hard to imagine that it wasn’t always there. That’s how I feel. I have brown hair, and green eyes, and skin pockets. My husband has black hair, and brown eyes, and no skin pockets. I’m really glad to be here with you today, and I’m so happy to have a career helping people achieve the same kind of body modification that I have, but the truth is, the fact of having skin pockets is no longer the most important fact about my life. That’s the real success—not to get what you want in a noisy and emphatic way that sticks in your attention all the time, but in a way where it just becomes a part of you, like my pockets are.

**********

“Let me put my hands in your pockets.”

“No they’re too cold!”

“That’s why I need your pockets, David!”

“First say you were wrong to ever say they were a turn-off.”

“Ew, no way, they totally were. But, you were right, I got used to them. That’s pretty good, right?”

“I suppose.”

“Good, now let me put my cold hands in your warm pockets!”

“God, ugh, fine, do it. Oh God— they’re so cold!”

“You’re so warm!”

“How have your hands not frozen solid and broken off by now?!”

“Shut up, they’ll be warm in a minute.”

“I should never have gotten these, you take advantage shamelessly.”

“Too late now!”

“No, but honestly, I’m so so glad you’ve gotten used to them. Your support through all this… it’s been everything.”

“I’m just glad I was able to talk you out of the skin-pocket-shaped-house idea.”

“It would have been beautiful!”

“It would have been an abomination, David.”

“To-may-to, To-mah-to.”

“Honestly, David, I admire your vision. You saw what this could be.”

“Honestly, I just wanted skin pockets. But it worked!”

“Do you ever worry something will happen?”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. I’ve been having dreams where you get cancer in your skin pocket.”

“Don’t even say that.”

“I don’t think you will, but it just seems like— it’s maybe worked, too well, you know? Like should we really be getting away with this?”

“Nobody’s getting away with anything.”

“You know what I mean.”

“I do, and I disagree. Single-minded commitment to a strange idea and total ownership if it works out is the most American thing I’ve heard, give or take. This country has been rewarding selected weirdos for a long time.”

“That’s self-serving.”

“Yes, exactly.”

“You’re terrible.”

“Tell me you love me.”

“I love you.”

“Tell me you love my skin pockets.”

“Never, you weirdo.”

END

Well, that’s that, whatever that was! :) Have a great week, and CONGRATULATIONS BRIN AND KEERTHAN!