"Skins Out!"

“He’s out there right now, lurking in the shadows between the faulty neon of the SENOI Psilocybin Omelette House and the pretzel seller’s cart with the misspelt ‘pretzle’ sign on the corner of Chin Chew Street. He’s even making bit-part appearances in my Dreams.” Excerpt – Tocsin Bray’s Softdiary entry: 25/12/293; 07:40.

“Skins Out!” is a visceral, life-or-death pursuit through the roti bars, malls and the wet market of a dystopian Singapore. In a twist on existing notions of xenophobia, Riefenstahl, a replicant, obsesses over the ‘skin’ (human) he has under surveillance while increasingly missing all those qualities that conspire to make him less than human.

“Skins Out!” was first published in England’s Sierra Heaven, issue 2. It subsequently appeared as ‘The Dream Virus’ in Canada’s TransVersions, issue 7.