Oktober
is a web novel by Vak Beacon that follows the misadventures of four 'criminals' as they make their way across the US in a vintage car called Katie. Each chapter is told four times from the point of view of each character, which tends to lead to some bizarre deviations. For instance, each one of them says that Katie is a different model car (Nick says its a Studebaker Avanti, Matthias says its a Jaguar E-type, etc.) Additionally, each character's take on various events differ slightly. Every character has a special color associated with them, Orange for Nick, Blue for Smith, Red for Natasha, and Green for Matthias. Every time the letter "k" pops up in the text, it is colored a different color depending on who is telling the story. This work was completed, but has since been taken down.
This web novel provides examples of:
- Arc Words: "I've seen how this ends" seems to be cropping up a lot.
- Bilingual Bonus: "Le Cafe de Nourriture" that Matthias is fond of translates to "The Cafe of Food".
- Color-Coded Characters: Each character's color is prominently displayed on the page when they are narrating.
- Cool Car: Depending on who you ask, Katie is either a Studebaker Avanti, Jaguar E-Type, or 1964 Mustang. All of which are pretty awesome cars. Also, apparently you're not allowed in the trunk.
- Mind Screw: Bascially
all of Natasha's entriesthe entire thing.- Specifically, every one of Natasha's entries are mindbending. Chapter 5 deserves special mention though. Then there is the Labyrinth chapter, during which each character is trapped in some sort of bizarre nightmare world. Additionally, Katie's trunk, which is a secret up until Chapter 6. You assume that there is money or drugs in there, but then it's a portal to some alternate universe. And after Nick gets out of the labyrinth and starts talking to the reader, well...
- Painting the Medium: In addition to the varying colors of the "k"s, each character has a special 'theme' that the site uses.
- "Oh, huh. See I always thought you used American speech patterns cause of lazy writing."
- "Rashomon"-Style: Each character recounts the events in varying ways, see Unreliable Narrator below.
- Secret Police: Natasha is Ex-KGB, it's not been revealed exactly what she did in the KGB, nor why she left. Presumably she was a low-level field agent, without much important knowledge, or else she wouldn't have been let go easily (unless she ran away).
