Varya, 28, Russian surviving in fascist country, queer, they/them, multifandom blog. Somewhat active gamer, writer; lately Rusty Quill Gaming fan first, everything else second. There's NSFW content in the likes! Be careful. icon art by @barrysmullet, header by @lxdymaria, music on desktop is by @jonfreaknvegan, Griffin McElroy and Carly Rae Jepsen
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You guys are all cops. Biggest crime in years and you lot dig up this guy's entire life for a few internet points. Cops don't need to do any investigation into his background with you lot on the case, you've broken down his entire life and commodified it for entertainment and a laugh while he's looking at life in prison. Really, it would be disgusting even if you weren't all playing amateur sleuth for the cops, how quickly and easily you turn into panopticon guards.
#way too true#current events#and the guy could just be a scapegoat for the police!!#you all found EVERYTHING for them to smear his entire life for murder he might've not even committed#and if he did. STILL. you ghouls couldn't think for one damn minute about another man's life while writing stuff#text post#definitely remember how our actions were slathered across Russian social media#and like 2/3 of my friends were temporarily in jail bc of it#and I only escaped the scrutiny because I'm paranoid as all hell and have literal scraps of info on runet
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Ancient Rome Sidequest Mapping
here's a post of something interesting I've found ages back, and posted on (X)Twitter, concerning the Ancient Rome Sidequest. needed to save this because I am nuking/closing my accounts there.
this is following Sasha and Grizzop's path step by step, and how, back then, the GM mastery made my jaw drop.
when describing the room (or more like a hall) in RQG126, it's mentioned being lit by braziers, and that Zop and Sasha fall down onto a mosaic floor, the same one which is broken in present time. the closest imagined restoration of the Ancient Rome including intricate mosaic? Domus Transitoria. It was Nero's first palace, which, according to Seutonius, spanned all the way from the Palatine to the Esquiline, and according to historians had floor and wall mosaics, and in these times mosaics were restricted to only being on walls and floors. when the palace was replaced by Domus Aurea, mosaics were instead placed onto the vaulted ceilings, changing the art of future and partially influencing future mosaic art. there is also a 'gardened avenue' towards temples, which fits the path Sasha and Grizzop take. not to mention that Templo di Apollo lies *very close* to Domus Transitoria (the previous statements are backed up by following articles, in Italian, because I couldn't find English ones that didn't butcher the things I wanted to show)
romanoimpero.com/2020/05/domus-transitoria-di-nerone.html https://romanoimpero.com/2010/09/tempio
they get into a temple district (temple of Diana and then down the Palatium towards Aventinus, with actual real life temples somewhat applicable to the ones we hear about in the podcast), and that's how they figure out that there are still corresponding gods in Rome. the distance between the temples described? that they 'don’t have any sort of distance between them, next to each other on the streets', unlike the modern ones; which makes sense as Palatine Hill is very... compact in the building placement, even in ancient times.
there isn't much left from the actual temples except from preserved ruins by Italian archelogists, but there are skilful, artful depictions of how temples could've looked like in ancient times, for example temples of Apollo and Cybele in Palatine:
then we get to see the untouched Servian wall, which is then magicked by whoever is in charge (I don't think we get to know if that's just the Mars people, or several sources, or something else) to protect the city.
(Servian wall is in black here)
Servian wall is the first defence of the city of Rome, constructed around it in the early 4th century BCE. later on it would be succeeded by superior Aurelian walls; but by that moment in history (late 3rd century AD) in RQG that city did NOT exist as a bastion anymore. then, after they visit the temples of 'Pluto' (meet Cicero) and Mars, all three of them through the districts with human population, which corresponds to the parts close to Forum Romanum, also where, coincidentally, real life Cicero resided for some time!
and then, Cicero takes Grizzop and Sasha down into the sewers, which makes perfect sense because that district is where the Cloaca Maxima goes through!! there are several historical suggestions about how the system was formed, from an open air canal into underground sewers. BUT! that isn't what is interesting to us! what is interesting is that the passage partially connects the temples, which makes sense, because in this case temples are also in need of water system for the non-godly treatment of their residents and patients.
and then the three of them move towards the underground part/inner workings of temple of Jupiter, which, in fact, completely corresponds with position of the temple of Jupiter Stator!
depicted here in yellow, information of it referenced per this article
per "Rambles in Rome", the temple of Jupiter Stator, vowed by Romulus when his army was fleeing before the Sabines, if Jupiter would stay their flight; hence the name. "Romulus built a temple to Jupiter near the Porta Mugonia" (Dionysius, ii. 30). It was restored by Scipio, A.U.C. 459 (Livy, x. 37). It was in this temple that Cicero made his first oration against Catiline (Plutarch). Cicero says that here the goods of Pompey were offered for sale.
Rambles in Rome, as referenced
and the temple of Jupiter Stator like a light walk away from where the Colosseum would stand. only there is no Colosseum. there is the domed hall in which the big Mars vs Jupiter battle happens, the other part of which they can't even see, being underground and so far away. then, as dragons escape and Sasha and Ciciero are free to go, they trace their steps back out the Cloaca Maxima until they reach dead end and have to reach outside to gatehouse near Pons Subilicus (the temporary bridge dated ~1AD), just outside Forum Boarium
and that's why when they get out of the sewers they can 1) see the destruction of the walls 2) see the destruction of the palace in which Grizzop and Sasha were dropped 3) be only steps away from going away from inner city, while also technically being on Rome territory.
they have also, in my opinion, crossed Tiber afterwards and started going Northwest, because after some time it's mentioned that people flocking to necropolis, which, at that point, were on Trans Tiberim/more North and closer to Vatican/Campus Vaticanus, ergo, on the other side of Tiber.
"The Vaticanum, or Campus Vaticanus was originally a level area between the Vaticanus Mons and the Tiber. During the Republican era, it was an unwholesome site frequented by the destitute. Caligula and Nero used the area for chariot exercises, and renewal was encouraged by the building of the Circus of Nero, also known as the Circus Vaticanus or simply the Vaticanum. The location of tombs near the Circus Vaticanus is mentioned in a few late sources."
I am not in any way shape or form the One and True source on this, and will gladly take critique from people more versed in the topic than I am; this was made originally for my personal use, and then I figured out hey, this is really interesting! and also I wanted to save this for everyone else who used this for their musings/fics.
#Rusty Quill Gaming#RQG#RQG Ancient Rome Sidequest#RQ Gaming#Sasha Rackett#Grizzop drik acht Amsterdam#Ancient Rome Sidequest#RQG Cicero#text post#Varya rambles#long post
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V for Vendetta (2005) dir. James McTeigue
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hey. still not dead. still busy with work. but I worked so hard I got a promotion and a raise of my wage by 20%. so like. fuckin doin something right, hopefully.
hey you all. been busy with work (got an actual physical job instead of my usual freelance from home), fandom works (old and new) and playing No Man's Sky when not working on either of previous two, but maybe I'll finally come back to social media now that I'm not an intern on the stable job and have a bit more actual free time.
a lot of you will probably unsubscribe when I start posting about my current main fandom, but that's a risk I am willing to take. if it's holding my mental health together, it goes on the fucking blog that I am doing for myself.
anyway. hope the lot of you are doing well.
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hullo everyone, unfortunately for everyone involved, I've been tagged with the full transcript of the... Magnus Protocol Fluff episode. and it is worse. so much worse than just aforementioned snippet.
...
there are so many things wrong here that I just can't even muster the usual rage, or even tiredness. there's just a sense of What The Fuck.
one of the two worst parts of all this is definitely 'eating the rich is important, but so is self-care' - you can almost hear this being a segway into a BetterHelp ad.
but the punctuality joke is very funny to me, specifically, considering the company's own punctuality in recent years has been atrocious while I was still following them, and reportedly remains such from the sources I have that still follow the podcasts. it is incredibly funny considering the previous issues with RQG dice, which had taken from preorder to shipping about 18 months, and the current problems they're having with TMA/Magnus Protocol dice. you just need to add a word about communicating, and, toe to tip, this is the Rusty Quill quality and care of today.
once again. reiterating that this is not a funny ironic joke dropped for us all to laugh together. since you can see how much longer and drawn out it is, you can also understand that this was researched, scripted, put together for fans to repost as 'haha Alex did a funey' on their blogs and give the podcast traction. and in a different way, it would've worked, if it wasn't seeping with dark irony and talking down to the audience.
the second worst part is the implication that 'eating the rich' is a joke within the community, and not an active call to action, even for the smallest ones you can do in this capitalist hellhole of Earth with fascistic tendencies. 'Amazon Basics Guillotine', as if the people listening to this podcasts are purely consumers who act against the rich and powerful only as a fad. like that's a 'punk' kid buying a 140$ studded vest off a fashion brand that's abusing wage slaves in, say, Pakistan. that's how this 'joke' reads.
I am appalled and glad that I no longer listen to their podcasts. but I am so fucking sad on behalf of everyone who still chooses to stick around right now.
did not want to negatively interact with the OP from whom I got this image, but this threw me into a fit of such incandescent fury that I had to talk about it, and I do not want to make others feel like they're at fault about something AJN said, about the implication (or outright possibility) of them being used for clout, or my own reaction to this. and I also will say, this is not an objective opinion. this is me, tired of this bullshit that keeps appearing in my life despite me repeatedly trying to move on.
what a fucking horrifying quote. this does not read as someone awkwardly relating to their audience to me. this is a rehearsed, researched 'funny guy' moment, scripted specifically to pander to people who would quote and reshare this moment, and it doesn't have the care or emotional attachment to the audience that many would ascribe it. this is a marketing strategy.
Alexander James Newall and his podcasting company have repeatedly in the past worked with companies like, for example, BetterHelp. in their case, Rusty Quill have been keeping the partnership and advertising it even after the FTC officially forced said company into paying settlement for breaking privacy agreements and selling customer data to third party services (such as pharmaceutical companies and other interest groups like Facebook/Meta), then the reveal of overcharging patients for subpar service, and repeated ethical violations within the company. you cannot say that this is an uninformed choice, since as a creative interacting with their fanbase via internet, especially as a multimedia practice (podcasting, youtube video creating, streaming etc), you simply cannot not learn about the scumminess and the actual legal issues of such a company. and it's not even 'oh, they did it only once' - people repeatedly complained about getting ads from AI training software companies, other 'mental health' help companies that turned out to also have AI training software, and on some notable occasions, a Noom app ad read, which is a weight loss app that 1) had also been in court reaching a settlement for tricking its customers, but for 'free trial' payments instead of selling their data, 2) had repeatedly been in hot water with health professionals about their diet practices.
and this is the company the face of which AJN presents. he is not a quirky fellow creative struggling for podcast space; he's a businessman running a company that is manipulating its audience with relatability, and it is working. he is not with you against the rich; he is the rich. and from what I am hearing and seeing, currently producing the main running show, the successor of The Magnus Archives, of a show that got critical acclaim and over 700 thousand pounds in kickstarter money to produce the 'sequel', only for that show to barely ever appear on anyone's radar outside of former TMA fans, to be quietly discussed as not being quite as coherent as its predecessor, and even outright criticised for the voice acting and issues with audio, where even interesting conversations turn into mumbled, inconsistent messes people can't really listen to without transcripts.
We Care What We Put Name To, in-fuckin-deed.
#Rusty Quill critical#RQ vent#Varya RANTS#you also gotta love that Magnus Protocol isn't even ADVERTISED on RQ's main page. I had to go to their website for the transcripts#and have laughed myself silly over noticing this. also found some of the old mistakes I pointed out in what... '22?#but i wanna just drop this feeling onto this post and be done with it. so there. see for yourselves how bad it is.
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did not want to negatively interact with the OP from whom I got this image, but this threw me into a fit of such incandescent fury that I had to talk about it, and I do not want to make others feel like they're at fault about something AJN said, about the implication (or outright possibility) of them being used for clout, or my own reaction to this. and I also will say, this is not an objective opinion. this is me, tired of this bullshit that keeps appearing in my life despite me repeatedly trying to move on.
what a fucking horrifying quote. this does not read as someone awkwardly relating to their audience to me. this is a rehearsed, researched 'funny guy' moment, scripted specifically to pander to people who would quote and reshare this moment, and it doesn't have the care or emotional attachment to the audience that many would ascribe it. this is a marketing strategy.
Alexander James Newall and his podcasting company have repeatedly in the past worked with companies like, for example, BetterHelp. in their case, Rusty Quill have been keeping the partnership and advertising it even after the FTC officially forced said company into paying settlement for breaking privacy agreements and selling customer data to third party services (such as pharmaceutical companies and other interest groups like Facebook/Meta), then the reveal of overcharging patients for subpar service, and repeated ethical violations within the company. you cannot say that this is an uninformed choice, since as a creative interacting with their fanbase via internet, especially as a multimedia practice (podcasting, youtube video creating, streaming etc), you simply cannot not learn about the scumminess and the actual legal issues of such a company. and it's not even 'oh, they did it only once' - people repeatedly complained about getting ads from AI training software companies, other 'mental health' help companies that turned out to also have AI training software, and on some notable occasions, a Noom app ad read, which is a weight loss app that 1) had also been in court reaching a settlement for tricking its customers, but for 'free trial' payments instead of selling their data, 2) had repeatedly been in hot water with health professionals about their diet practices.
and this is the company the face of which AJN presents. he is not a quirky fellow creative struggling for podcast space; he's a businessman running a company that is manipulating its audience with relatability, and it is working. he is not with you against the rich; he is the rich. and from what I am hearing and seeing, currently producing the main running show, the successor of The Magnus Archives, of a show that got critical acclaim and over 700 thousand pounds in kickstarter money to produce the 'sequel', only for that show to barely ever appear on anyone's radar outside of former TMA fans, to be quietly discussed as not being quite as coherent as its predecessor, and even outright criticised for the voice acting and issues with audio, where even interesting conversations turn into mumbled, inconsistent messes people can't really listen to without transcripts.
We Care What We Put Name To, in-fuckin-deed.
#Rusty Quill critical#RQ vent#THIS is what I come back on Tumblr to? jfc. can't wait for people to defend an adult grownass man to me in DMs or inbox#maybe I am more opinionated by the fact that he ruined RQG for me. but dammit he just keeps getting worse OUTSIDE of that beef we have#AND THE RQG TRANSCRIPTS ARE STILL FUCKIN HORRIBLE. AND RQG 25 IS MISSING. IT HAS BEEN AS LONG AS RUSSIA HAD BEEN INVADING UKRAINE AJN
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hey you all. been busy with work (got an actual physical job instead of my usual freelance from home), fandom works (old and new) and playing No Man's Sky when not working on either of previous two, but maybe I'll finally come back to social media now that I'm not an intern on the stable job and have a bit more actual free time.
a lot of you will probably unsubscribe when I start posting about my current main fandom, but that's a risk I am willing to take. if it's holding my mental health together, it goes on the fucking blog that I am doing for myself.
anyway. hope the lot of you are doing well.
#Varya rambles#might fuck around and officially change my legal name this winter btw#part of the Reason I am currently trying to make dough that's more than freelance jobs#text post
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Inspired by the USA states poll I just reblogged! Take this quiz to see how many European countries you can name in 8 minutes :^)
#european#spent the last three minutes remembering how to spell Liechtenstein and forgot Andorra with San Marino 😭 so 45/47#polls#quizzes
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Happy 10 years in the ball pit
#coming out of my seclusion in fuckin. hellaverse fic reading and bg3 playthrough and real life to reblog this#happy birthday dashcon. what the fuck.#tumblr
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✶ If you'd like to help us you can donate -> here <- (via Buy Me a Coffee)
✶ OR you can commission me!
Here's the link to my Price List
✶ Even just reblogging will help us a lot! Thank you!!
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I'm Nour Alanqar, and reaching out to you during a time of unimaginable hardship. I am 26 years old, married to Ashraf Ismail, who is 32, and together we have three beautiful children: Hussein, 6, Rajaa, 5, and Youssef, just 10 months old. Our lives have been turned upside down by the devastating war in Gaza, and we desperately need your help.
My daughter Rajaa is a radiant beam of sunshine, bringing boundless joy, warmth, and love to everyone she meets.
On a dark night at the beginning of the war, our area was subjected to massive bombing. The explosions reached our home, forcing us to flee into the night, running amidst periodic explosions and searching for survival. We made our way to southern Gaza by morning, seeking refuge in Rafah.
This is our home, filled with our memories and moments of joy and happiness, now reduced to rubble. Its destruction shattered our hearts.
In Rafah, we found shelter in a crowded warehouse filled with strangers, all of us struggling to find basic necessities like food, water, safety, and cleanliness. Despite these challenges, we were again hit by direct bombardment. My husband was injured in the shoulder, and the scene around us was filled with blood and corpses. The cries of my children in those moments still echo in my head.
A fragment of what it once was, and now, what it has become.
We moved several times to places described as safe, only to face new tragedies. During this period, my precious daughter Raja contracted hepatitis, adding to our suffering.
It was incredibly difficult for me to endure these disasters, especially as I was in the process of giving birth. Youssef was deprived of proper breastfeeding and the necessary nutrition for his age. Hussein's right to education and a safe childhood have been cruelly taken from him.
My baby Youssef, whom I clung to throughout the war, running with him through the rubble of shattered homes to escape.
At an age when Hussein should have been enjoying his childhood, all his rights were taken away from him.
Our situation is dire, and we need your support to rebuild our lives and provide a future for our children. Your kindness and generosity can make a profound difference. Your contributions will help us secure safe shelter, access to medical care, and the basic necessities of life.
Please, consider helping us during this critical time. Every donation, no matter the size, brings us one step closer to safety, stability, and a chance to rebuild our lives.
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I wish you a very GET FUCKED, Adobe.
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Considering the recent targeted terminations against blogs run by transfems in the last couple of days (angel-athetos, fungalfaggot, coyote-roadkill, hound-mother, corpse-of-omelas-ageplayer and my previous blog, zebrabyopn3), some close friends and myself worked on a google form where users can make submissions for their terminated blogs. Too many of us have lost our blogs and everything in them, yet there's no existing record of blogs that have been terminated, so we want to change that. If you're not a transfem you can also answer, as we want data about all deleted blogs in general, like: the name of the banned blog, date of termination, and if there was a reason given or warning for the deletion (or not)
The form consists of 8 questions and takes around 3-5 minutes to answer. We'd appreciate sharing this with anyone that has been unfairly terminated, so we can create a record, so those blogs and their names can be remembered
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so matt's absolutely giving scorched earth orders behind the scenes right. Not only are publically visible transfems dropping like flies, but every third person who musters up the audacity to comment negatively on Staff or Matt about this vanishes fucking instantly
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right, Dragon Age fandom, how we feeling about the fact that the gameplay prologue played out as if Solas and Varric were in a romance with each other in DAI, huh?
#Varya rambles#text post#that's all I've got#also i hope that symbolic death of Bianca means Varric can finally step back and NOT DIE
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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 7/∞
Falkreath Forest
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an artist is a director of audience reaction, not its dictator. if you know your craft well, you can make most of your cues hit, but in the end, interpretation of art is up to the viewer. you cannot guarantee that everyone viewing your work will react as you are trying to make them react. a good artist knows that this is what allows works to breathe. by definition, you cannot have art where the viewer brings nothing to the table. you do have to respect both the generative and interpretive ends of the process if you want your art to mean anything.
this is why you have to let go of the urge to plainly state in-text exactly how you think the work should be interpreted. that desire for control conveys disrespect for audience. if you have developed your storytelling skills well enough, the audience will understand what you are trying to communicate without needing you to intercede as authorial voice. sure, some won't get it, but it's better to be misinterpreted sometimes than to talk down to your audience. you won't even gain any control that way; people will still develop their opinions no matter what you do. just find a way to communicate your ideas and hope that it comes across well to your audience at some point
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