Authentic Arctic Thrillers
Deeper
© Christoffer Petersen, 2021
Then, into the stink of it,
Black fingers poised to knit
Into the earth, parting soil flesh
Past the dewed and fresh
stems of grass wet with dawn –
Onwards to finger the devil spawn
of the multi-legged carapace
rippling ribbed armour plates
distracting me from the fever
as I dig deep, deeper and deeper.
Notes…
Like lots of people I rediscovered the garden during the height of the pandemic. And, through the garden, I got that bit closer to nature.
And there I was, ported into my favourite video game…
Actually, that’s not so very far from the truth. Unfortunately, the pandemic created a weird pseudo reality for me (and the whole world), as I was forced to wear a mask when venturing outside the house. I have no problem wearing a mask for health reasons. But between you and me, it was also fun – at least in the beginning – as I saw similarities between the real world and my favourite waste of time: a video game called The Division, set in the midst of a pandemic.
I can’t say I was living the dream, but the two worlds did collide, and even more so when the shops refused to take cash. Dollar bills were used to spread the “virus” in the video game.
Okay, still with me? I’ll get to the point …
Even before I played The Division, I was fascinated by it, and even wrote fanfiction set in the video game world as light relief when writing The Ice Star for my final dissertation for my Masters. Yes, I wrote as a distraction from writing. If that isn’t a little strange, well … it is strange.
LitRPG short for Literary Role Playing Game is also a little strange.
It’s a genre combining computer RPGs with science fiction and fantasy novels. Yes, I took that straight from Wikipedia. I’ve read a little in this genre, and think it is fun and refreshing. I’ve even contemplated writing some. But those pesky algorithms ensured I didn’t dare write LitRPG under the name Christoffer Petersen. However, no one knows who Bran Nicholls is, and so, if you think this sounds like a terribly bad idea, and you’re still curious, then you might want to grab a free LitRPG story written by me, as Bran Nicholls, from BookFunnel.
I’ve created a page for the short story on this site too, just for fun.
We’ve stopped wearing masks in Denmark, but we haven’t put the spares too far away. While I sincerely hope we figure this pandemic out, I know there are plenty more fictional ones to be explored, and, sadly, many more to be expected in the real world too.
Top book tip: Spillover by David Quammen. In my opinion, it is the book about how we ended up here. Fascinating reading, if you can stomach it.
