Arcadian Rhyhmms: Red Wheelbarrow

“People are all just people, right?
When it gets down to it, everyone’s the same. They love something.
They want something. They fear something. Specifics help, but
specifics don’t change the way that everyone is vulnerable. It just
changes the way that we access those vulnerabilities.”

Entitled Red Wheelbarrow, this HTML-based Twine story is a spinoff visual novella of sorts set in the world of Arcadian Rhythms (some moment in time toward the end of 'Season 1'). You can read more about the overall project's concept here.

Taking place from the point of view of Olivia 'Sombra' Calomar, Red Wheelbarrow is a chat-based, hacker-themed mini story I made to experiment with the Twine format. It serves as a side story for AR readers but also functions as an introduction to the multi-work AU the story is set in.

Arcadian Rhythms is a very involved fiction project I've been working on for the past year now. A supernatural crime-drama that's sort of like The Wolf Among Us (only with video game characters instead of fairy tales), it is set in an original world that blends elements from a variety of different video games, specifically more modern ones.
I have quite a good chunk of it written and in the early new year, I plan on rolling out 'Season 1,' distributing each new 'episode' on a weekly schedule. The story is written in such a way that one with no knowledge of any franchise represented will still be able to follow along, but knowledge of the source material will create potentially interesting side-effects.

If you want to support me, a donation of $2 will give you access to the first three "episodes" of the written prose story in their current "beta-reader" form. (but the actual Twine program is completely free to download, and I am not in any way selling a product)

In case you want an idea of what you're getting into with this Twine story,
Red Wheelbarrow features AU interpretations of:

Olivia (La_Sombra) Calomar from Overwatch.
Alma (xX-Alice_Rabbit-Xx) Armas from VA-11 HALL-A.
Itaru (Barrel_Titor_003) Hashida from Steins;Gate.
Sandra (The_Unseeing_Sister) from Pyre.
Futaba (Oracle-Alibaba) Sakura from Persona 5.
Marine (DJ_Hyperfresh) Iida from Splatoon 2
(and guest appearances! ;D )

You can follow updates on this project on its official Tumblr blog, @Arcadian-Rhythms. I intend to produce an entire 'season' of episodes before I publish them on a regular weekly schedule. You can follow those updates on the blog, on my Twitter, or on our Patreon.

If you'd like to be a beta-reader for this project, you can support my fiancee and I on our Patreon, Team Turtleducks. I am currently unemployed, so you can also commission fiction or any kind of writing work from me. Message me for details.

Thanks for taking the time to give this experimental story a try.

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(poster image by my amazing fiancee, mollifiable)