Writer's ■: Swarming Locusts
An Experiment in Storytelling, Activism, and Alternate Reality Games
I’m Aireus, and this is Writer’s ■.
i. Writer’s ■
Writer’s ■ [Writer’s Block] is a menace. It’s the midnight toe-stub of all creative pursuits. But, for this reason—I will not let it exist. It will not be a void to scream into. Instead, it will be an aether to pull from.
Thinking about the words, ‘Writer’s’ and ‘block’, I enacted some wordplay, allowing me to redefine my interpretation of the affliction, instead turning it into a building block in my creative pursuits, rather than a roadblock.
A block is a piece of a greater whole, a representation of a smaller space; within a larger space. It is such, that Writer’s ■ will be a space where I allocate time to breaking down the logic behind the projects I’m developing.
Specifically, this Writer’s ■ will be tackling one of my earliest projects: A fiction-ARG crossover called Swarming Locusts.
ii. Swarming Locusts
This year I was blessed with the opportunity to become a published author through Coffee People Zine’s final, award-winning1, issue; FUTURE.
The story takes place in a world defined by Swarming Locusts2, a grassroots organization that the story is centered around. However, the story exists outside of its own world. In addition to the manuscript, I developed an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) that seeks to blend the narrative of Swarming Locusts with the real world through SMS-based interactions.
What is an ARG?
ARGs are not traditional ‘games’. They are interactive experiences that tell stories across a variety of mediums (transmedia). By turning audience members into participants that become an integral part of the story’s progression, which is often gated by cyphers, puzzles, and the like. With this project, I wished to explore how this format could inspire-real world action, and foster dialogue across issues such as corporate control, climate change, and grassroots movements for sustainability and worker’s rights.
The World of Swarming Locusts
The concept of Swarming Locusts started with the world—not the story. As the world-narrative touched on themes that were too verbose and too urgent to remain confined to the pages of a zine. I wanted it to grow into an experience where readers could step into a developing-world, and become part of its gradual evolution—much like ArenaNet’s Living World, featured in the MMORPG3, Guild Wars 2.
For Swarming Locusts, the ARG format was a natural fit. The ‘core’ story explored issues that mirrored real-world challenges, and by making participants part of a fictional resistance, I would hope that the ARG would invite the audience to reflect on their responsibility in shaping the [real] world around them.
Initially was to write the story of Swarming Locusts from the perspective of three main characters, to-which each rendition would be published in a different magazine. Unfortunately, plans fell through — and I transitioned into a solo story + ARG Experience.
This multi-POV storytelling drew inspiration from the film Vantage Point (2008), where a single event unfolds through the perspectives of multiple characters. Each viewpoint reveals new details, creating a richer understanding of the story. Instead of telling the perspective of multiple characters, Swarming Locusts gives expose through various platforms, perspectives, and mediums; each adding a layer of depth to the overarching experience.
iii. Characters & Cliches
Stories are like Ogres, which are like onions4, and Swarming Locusts is no exception. The nature of developing a story within an alternate-future allowed me to explore uncomfortable, boundary-pushing themes while remaining grounded in the familiarity of our own reality.
Vietnam:
If I was going to write a story where a massive, covid-like blight wipes out most of Vietnam’s agriculture.. I needed to pay respect to Vietnam, and turn it into a character with its own arc of devastation, resistance, and recovery.
I wouldn’t let it be a ‘backdrop’ for which everything else occurs.
But why Vietnam?
I chose Vietnam for several reasons, each rooted in real-world politics that amplified the story’s speculative elements.
First, Vietnam is a the second-largest coffee exporter globally, just behind Brazil. However, while Brazil dominates in Arabica production, Vietnam is the world’s leading exporter of Robusta—a hardier, more bitter variety of coffee commonly used in instant coffee and blends.
Since climate change wiped out most Arabica, Vietnam’s existing expertise in cultivating Robusta places it at the center of a global coffee supply chain crisis, making it the target for exploitation and destabilization.
Historical Parallels
Vietnam’s history with the United States includes the usage of biochemical warfare, such was the widespread usage of Agent Orange, a herbicide and defoliant produced by Monsanto, during the Vietnam War.
A parallel is then drawn between Monsanto and Verdantis, both of which are companies with similar roots that destabilized Vietnam for profit.
Since the story draws on these historical atrocities, I wanted to make it very clear that I did not wish to exploit the suffering of a nation and its peoples’ for dramatic effect. Instead, I wanted Swarming Locusts to be a revisionist exploration of resistance.
It is such, that Vietnam becomes a key-figure in overcoming global corporate exploitation, leading the charge in redefining global power dynamics between corporations and individuals.
Avoiding the Western-Savior Complex
Admittedly, I wanted to use Swarming Locust to convey a criticism of writing; trauma should not define a character, a peoples, or a nation5. Certainly, the story begins with the blight—but it does not linger on Vietnam’s victim-hood.
I subvert this cliche by ensuring that Vietnam’s own recovery was driven by its people, not external saviors. Too often, Western narratives frame countries like Vietnam as victims awaiting rescue—a trope that perpetuates harmful stereotypes and reinforces the so-called “Global Safety Police” role of the United States.
Once we get to our other characters, we’ll see that they exist as supporting figures rather than heroes. Yes, they play important roles, but none of those roles are as important as the one held by Mai Nguyễn and her grassroots efforts. In the story, Mai works directly with farmers globally, spreading knowledge and fostering collaboration to overcome the struggles her country is facing.
Even though the first glimpse we see into the Swarming Locust World comes from Elias’ perspective, it is just one piece of a much larger fight that revolves around Mai. Their approach to the problem is also very different. Elias works methodically, working around the United States’ Government, while Mai is on the ground, igniting a resistance that eventually inspires similar movements across the globe.
Huỳnh Nguyễn Mai
Mai Nguyễn is a coffee farmer from Gia Lai, Vietnam. From the get-go, her family’s coffee farm is among the first to be devastated by the blight. Mai’s character arc is rooted in the idea of activism and the resistance of colonialism. After narrowly escaping prosecution in her home country at the hands of Verndatis, she flees to Africa and the Middle East, learning traditional agricultural practices, in-hopes of finding a way to stop the blight.
Traveling into regions yet untouched by the blight, she combats xenophobia and misinformation regarding the state of Vietnam, which plays into the theme of corporate-controlled propaganda. Many view Mai [an asian woman] as a carrier of the disease, as she’s quickly deemed a fugitive. This leads to her being referred to as Locust of the East.
Later in the story, she reclaims this title through the farmer-driven movement, Châu Chấu Bay (Rough Translation: Swarming Locusts).
Elias Walker:
Elias Walker is an undergraduate researcher at UC Davis’s Coffee Research Center. The ‘article’ published in Coffee People Zine is written by him—and is a reveal of his work, and the ethical dilemmas he faced while trying to be a whistleblower in a profit-driven system.
[REDACTED]:
The final perspective in Swarming Locusts comes from a Brazilian coffee importer. For the sake of not spoiling future plans, I’ve chosen to keep this character anonymous, for their invisible hand tolls with coincidence, pushing the plot forward as the binding agent that causes Elias and Mai to meet.
Verdantis:
At the center of Swarming Locusts is a reflection of our reality: Verdantis. Verdantis is the fictional manifestation of unchecked corporate greed operating on a global scale. Through their work, Verdantis sucks the soil dry of resources, depriving crops of the vital minerals they need to survive.
Monopolizing Problems, Engineering Solutions
As before-mentioned, Verdantis is heavily inspired by Monsanto, who had a history of developing genetically modified crops and chemical agents that were used in war.
Being the architect of the blight, Verdantis also ‘solved’ it by developing genetically modified seeds. These seeds however, forced farmers to become dependent on Verdantis’ blight-resistant seeds, further consolidating Verdantis’ control over an already fragile coffee supply chain.
Cliches
Swarming Locust explores xenophobia as a general theme. Within the story, the World Health Organization (WHO) designates the coffee blight as the "Southeast Asian Agricultural Pathogen" (SAAP), a name that immediately shifts blame onto Vietnam and its farmers. This verbiage mirrors real-world dynamics, particularly the rise of xenophobic, racist, rhetoric during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic (“china flu”).
This designation as a Southeast Asian Agricultural Pathogen also serves as a convenient distraction for the media, which diverts attention from Verdantis, instead focusing on the further marginalization of SAAP’s victims.
iv. Meta Elements
Designing the Cover Page(s)
The story begins not with a sentence, but with two cover-pages that were designed to be the replica of cover pages that appear on classified documents6 held by the U.S. Government. These designs include bold, almost comical headers, stamped insignias, and various subtext that convey a myriad of information to internal agencies.
I wanted to incorporate these same elements into my own story to build-upon the universe, drawing the audience into the world of Swarming Locusts before they even turned a page.
Albeit, my favorite part of the cover-page is from the third line:
"THIS IS NOT A WORK OF FICTION. ANY SIMILARITY TO ACTUAL PERSONS, LIVING OR DEAD, OR ACTUAL EVENTS, IS INTENTIONAL."
The phrase was intended as an homage to the TV series Swarm7, which used the same wording to blur the boundaries of reality and fiction. In Swarming Locusts, I wanted to make the reader double-take, and confront the real-world parallels that are embedded in the story.
Coffee People Zine as Canon
Within the universe of Swarming Locusts, Coffee People Zine is integral to the narrative. In the story’s universe, the zine itself serves as the publication of the exposé.
v. Easter Eggs
Nods to Coffee Culture
Swarming Locusts is full of tongue-in-cheek references to the Specialty Coffee Industry. For example, Swarming Locusts critiques the often-performative nature of mission trips in the industry, while simultaneously weaving them into the core of the story’s narrative.
In the story, Verdantis conducts corporate “mission trips”, promoting clean water initiatives and farming workshops. These trips however, act as a Trojan horse, which only furthers their intentional spread of the blight across previously ‘unaffected’ regions.
In the real world, these mission trips tend to prioritize ‘feel-good’ optics over genuine impacts, as trips rarely address the systematic issues of coffee-producing regions, such as inequitable trade and corporate control of resources.
For those familiar with the dynamics of mission trips in the coffee world, Swarming Locusts deliberately critiques the performative nature of these initiatives while weaving them into the story’s narrative of exploitation.
vi. The Critical Role of Technology
Through a backend built on Twilio and Flask, I developed a setup that allows participants to receive personalized messages and engage with the story further through SMS. This section predominately explores the technical aspects of the project, detailing how Flask, Heroku, SQLAlchemy and Twilio come together to power the ‘interactive’ portion of Swarming Locusts.
The Tech Stack
1. Flask
As mentioned earlier, Flask is one of the backbones for Swarming Locusts, as it provides a flexible, lightweight framework for handling API Requests and managing Player Interactions.
Key functionalities:
Endpoints for Engagement: Endpoints handle enrollment, updates, and mass messaging to players.
Request Validation: [REDACTED[ ensures all requests, especially those originating from Twilio, are authentic and secure.
Error Handling: Flask’s built-in mechanisms allow graceful error management, preserving user experience even when technical hiccups occur (I built this from a point of zero-knowledge, so hiccups occur often.)
2. Database Management with SQLAlchemy
I wanted to track player engagement, and obtain (optional) user data such as email,and personal names. To do this, I used Postgre through Heroku, combined with SQLAlchemy to manage and log participant data.
Key functionalities:
Participant Records: Each player’s phone number, name, email, and status are stored to enable personalized communication.
Dynamic Updates: Players can modify their details, ensuring their involvement in the ARG remains relevant and up-to-date.
Efficient Queries: SQLAlchemy’s ORM capabilities streamline the retrieval of participant data for use in missions, broadcasts, and analytics.
3. Twilio as the Interactive Gateway
Twilio’s messaging API is the primary medium through which players engage with Swarming Locusts.
Key functionalities:
Enrollment & Interaction: Players join the ARG by texting keywords like “SWARM,” initiating their digital step into the narrative.
Broadcasts: Mass updates are sent via SMS to keep players informed of story developments or call them to action regarding events.
Twilio Signature Validation: Requests are verified to ensure they originate from Twilio, blocking unauthorized access.
Environment Variables: Sensitive information like API keys and database credentials are stored in a secure
.envfile, outside of the GitHub Repository.
Player Interaction and Engagement
Joining the Swarm
The entry point begins the moment players text one of several specific keyword such as “SWARM” to a designated phone number provided by Twilio. This initial interaction serves both an onboarding process and a narrative hook into the story.
Keyword-Driven Enrollment: Keywords like “SWARM” trigger the enrollment endpoint, storing participant data in the database and initiating their journey in the ARG.
Personalized Experience: Players are asked for their name and email (or can choose to skip), creating opportunities for tailored communication while keeping the process optional and unobtrusive.
Immediate Engagement: Upon joining, players receive a welcome message introducing them to the resistance.
Missions and Player Agency [In-Development]
One of the most exciting aspects of Swarming Locusts is how it leverages interactive storytelling to give players agency to move the story forward. Interactions are designed as branching narratives that adapt based on player choices.
Puzzles and Clues: Missions often involve solving cryptic messages, deciphering codes, or finding hidden information within the narrative. These challenges are tailored to create a sense of discovery and collaboration.
Real-World Actions: The goal is to have tasks that encourage players to take action beyond their screens, such as finding physical locations, engaging with social media, or even contributing real-world community/mutual aid programs.
Consequences of Choice: Player responses shape the overall experience, with certain actions unlocking exclusive story-lines or impacting the overarching narrative.
Winning a Sprudgie is like winning the grammys prior to the Kendrick Lamar vs. Macklemore fiasco of 2014.
Châu Chấu Bay in Vietnamese (Rough Translation)
Massive Multiplayer Online Role-playing Game
They have layers.
In storytelling, characters—and nations—should not be remembered solely for their trauma. They must be remembered for their triumphs. If at the end of the story, they are still only remembered for what they went through, and not how they overcame it… You’re a shit writer.
Be remembered for the triumph, not the trauma.
As of writing this, I just realized the coincidence of Swarm and “Swarming Locusts”