If you ever want to drop a line, you can go to the About Us page over at the Clark's World

magazine website and has our email addresses there. Let me know how you're

listening. How long you've been a listener? Why you listen? We'd love to get

that feedback from our audience and it helps us propel us forward to bring you

these wonderful stories each and every month. As always, thank you for

taking the time to subscribe to the magazine or to show your support on

patreon.com for his Lash Clark's World. Our story today is titled To Be and is

by Ahmed Asi. Ahmed Asi is a PhD candidate at UC Santa Barbara where he studies

role-playing games as community-based performance. He holds degrees in

theater and dance and a diploma in classical acting. When he isn't all but

disartating or teaching, he can be found sketching and experimenting with

writing fiction. This is his first published story. So welcome in, Ahmed. And to

you, dear listener, help you can sit back, relax, and let me tell you a story.

Rasa steps downstage using the warmth of the lights on his synthetic skin

to find a spot. Waiting in the wings, he had tuned his M-bodd units still

unfamiliar receptors for this moment. Turned up touch until light and shadow

were tactile pools of warmth and cool. Turned down sound as Eric exited stage

left, leaving the empty space solemn, softened. The video feed from his visual

receptors was out of focus even as he stepped to the edge of the stage. He had

always found it easier to act when the audience was a blur. He would perform

without his spectacles, without the smart lenses most of their ensemble war.

Now he calibrated the visual feedback in his M-bodd to recreate the same

...