Years ago, virtual reality MMORPG SiltSea took the gaming world by storm. With its incredible life-like simulated feedback, players could explore a vast ocean, duel rival factions, parley with pirates, and combat the corruption threatening to destroy Bathing Bay's fragile ecosystem.
Today, the game is on its last leg.
An adrift laborer escapes his acrid world as the character Delta, falling into a race to confront the penultimate boss when SiltSea shuts down at the year's close. But the competition is far from a game. There is gold to be plundered in these final days, social capital, online fame, and real money. Logging into his gaming group’s former home flares up old wounds and creates new enemies. Delta and his friends must navigate their growing anxieties as adults, and the end of their shared world.
This is an entrant under [The End is Now] prompt!
Immediately upon reading the prompt I was struck by the idea of an emotional world's end and connected that to the idea of third spaces, those places we go that aren't school or work. For many years, my "third space" was on the internet playing different games with friends and family, especially during lockdown. Last year, my goal was to find a new third space, which ended up being a tabletop game shop where I made new friends for the first time in years. As my anxieties with work increased, I had to leave that shop prematurely, and I miss having those game nights sorely.
I think a lot of that sadness bled into this story, along with the stress and hectic pace of our tenuous times. I don't know where this novel will land as I discover it for the contest. One thing the players of SiltSea will find is that no matter how immersive, games are a pocket of reality, dark and closed away, but subject to all life's systems and limits.
This is an entrant under [The End is Now] prompt!
Immediately upon reading the prompt I was struck by the idea of an emotional world's end and connected that to the idea of third spaces, those places we go that aren't school or work. For many years, my "third spa...
