Immersion
A Xuya universe story
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 way diminished—a stranger, a distant memory that has ceased to have any meaning.
Winner, Locus Award, 2012
Winner, Nebula Award, 2012
Shortlisted for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, 2012
Shortlisted for a Hugo Award, 2012
Shortlisted for a British Science Fiction Association Award, 2012
