Escape Pod, episode 745. Summer Flashback

Immersion by Elliot de Bodd I'm goingistair, your host and for the

last three months we've been looking at how different authors approach the massive ideas

and concepts of science fiction in different ways. Last week the Magnificent Octavia Butler got

this month rolling and our big concept this month is identity. That began as I

say with the evening the morning and the night and its exploration of class, race,

illness and creativity as elements of that identity.

This week it's Aliet de Bodar's turn with Immersion.

Immersion was originally released through a skate pod in 2013 and read by Amy Robinson

with Norm Sherman hosting and Matt Weller on audio.

It was released a second time in 2016 with the same team to

commemorate the story's presence on the UG Award finalist list for that year and

returns here today with additional audio production

done by the Amazing Adam Pract and the hosting duties being carried out by me.

So without further ado it's story time.

Immersion by Elliot de Bodard.

In the morning, you're no longer quite sure who you are. You stand in front of the mirror. It shifts and trembles, reflecting only what you want to see. Eyes that feel too wide, skin that feels too pale, an odd distant smell wafting from the compartment's

ambient system that is neither incense nor garlic, but something else, something elusive that

you once knew. You're dressed already, not on your skin, but outside, where it matters.

Your avatar sporting blue and black and gold, the stylish clothes of a well-traveled, well-connected woman.

For a moment, as you turn away from the mirror, the glass shimmers out of focus, and another woman

in a dull silk gown stares back at you, smaller, squatter, and in every

...