Hello-hello, we are a team working to bring you our narrative podcast "Road to Moscow". It's been three years since the pre-production has started and even more years since the idea first appeared. We aren't ready to announce a release date, but hopefully the first episode will come out this year. Meanwhile, check out our tiktok @variable.worlds and our instagram @variable_worlds
Art by @valerij-worlds except for the cover art
We are new to intentionally running social media but seems we sort of have a content plan now🤯
I am happy to announce that the script for Road to Moscow season 1 is finished!
I still have a hard time comprehending this huge stage is over. I've started writing it almost 3 years ago and came up with the first concepts 5-6 years ago. I was such a narrative podcast nerd, and now I'm here, doing my own thing. That is crazy to me.
However, a lot of editing has to be done before we start recording.
Meanwhile, I've started seriously working on the soundtrack. I'm not planning to share a lot of it before the season comes out, but I want to share this one because I find it symbolic
[A cartoonish digital drawing of an exhausted Valerij Worlds surrounded by his characters Vlas, Zhivago and Chanel.
Valerij is a young person with light skin and shoulder-length dark hair. He's wearing a brown hoodie. His head is thrown back, his eyes are blank and he has an equally exhausted cartoonish ghost flying up out of his mouth.
Vlas is a broad guy with brown skin, long black hair and some facial hair. He's wearing a green t-shirt. He's raising a thumbs-up with a blank expression.
Zhivago is a thin young person with dark purple hair and lilac skin. He's wearing a beige button up. She's saying "not bad" with a snobbish look.
Chanel is a fat guy with light freckled skin and short blond hair. He has a wild look on his face and is yelling out, with the "aaa" of his yell taking up the entire background of the drawing.]
Hi! Valerij Worlds here. This is just a quick post to show we are still here. There haven't been a lot of updates from us. However, there surely have been a lot of work behind the scenes. Right now, 28 out of 29 episodes of Road to Moscow season 1 are written. Once I finish, I have to edit the season before we start recording it, so the release date is not set yet. I'm working as hard as I can to make this show the best version of itself. Apart from that, I've started writing the soundtrack!
We'll try our best to post more updates🙏
Also, here's a quick sketch of Vlas by yours truly @valerij-worlds
Pretty Pretty Please I Don't Want to be a Magical Girl
While I’d want this concept to mostly be a lighthearted comedy, since that’s more my forte, the north star (heh) of this premise would be the loss of passion for something you once loved, feeling the pressure/expectations of sticking with something that you’re “a prodigy” at and the subsequent burnout. How hard do you fight for an old passion or at what point do you just let it go? Is it even okay to give up when so many people are counting on you?
Sounds bleak but I promise I’m an optimist and that will always reflect in my work :)
1) Vaping is confirmed to cause cancer. Vaping coats the lungs with toxic substances, such as heavy metals and benzene, which are known to cause cancer
2) Many vapes contain diacetyl, which, when inhaled causes popcorn lung, or scarring of the lung
3) Ultrafine particles, when being inhaled, can be lodged in the trachea (not good!)
4) Ultrafine particles can also constrict the arteries in the lungs potentially causing A HEART ATTACK
5) Vaping is relatively new. Not much studies have been done in comparison to tobacco. Plus, the vaping companies are powerful people. There is a large chance that they are purposely downplaying and even burying any evidence that vaping is harmful - just like the tobacco companies before them. They do not care about you, or your health, or the truth. They only care for money
We didn’t make it in time for the pride month, but any time is a good time for queerness!
💖The main cast of "Road to Moscow" is here to show their colors and wish you lots of queer joy💖
Image description under cut:
[A semi-realistic digital drawing of Chanel Bojko, Vlas Danchenko and Zhivago Vita Oberon, showing all of them from the chest up, looking at the viewer as if posing for a picture. Vlas is presumably sitting down, with his head around the same level as Chanel and Zhivago's shoulders.
Chanel is a short, fat young man with freckled light skin, blond shoulder-length hair cut in layers and grey eyes. He is wearing a light pink dress with a trans flag trim, big acrylic earrings with pink, yellow and blue hearts, a pearl necklace and a chain necklace with a hot pink infinity heart. He is smiling mischievously.
Vlas is a tall, broad young man with brown skin, long curly black hair, dark brown eyes and some facial hair. He's wearing a washed out dark green t-shirt with a gay man flag button, and a red and blue infinity heart pin. His expression is almost neutral, with a very slight but genuine smile.
Zhivago is a tall, thin young person with lilac skin, long wavy purple hair, red eyes and pointy ears. She is wearing a white button up, a striped blazer in light shades of blue, pink and purple, a bigender flag neck ribbon, a gold pi letter earring, and cat eye glasses with dark pink to blue gradient lenses. He has a condescending look on his face.
🔥 We are alive! We've been crawling through our finals, but the production is still rolling!🔥
Anyway, here's a silly little picture of Vlas and Chanel for you
Image description under cut:
[A stylized, cartoonish digital drawing of Vlas Danchenko and Chanel Boijko. The piece is done in warm tones. Vlas is tall and broad, with brown skin, long curly black hair and some facial and body hair, and he's wearing a muted green t-shirt with a rocket print. Chanel is short and fat, with light freckled skin and shoulder-length wavy blond hair, and he's wearing a simple dark pink dress with a white shirt collar and a thin bow on his neck and pink heart earrings. The only distinct feature on both of their faces is the eyes, both looking at the viewer, with Vlas's being dark brown and relaxed with star sparkles in them, and Chanel's being light grey and wide open. There's text above them that reads "most gorgeous big brown eyes you've even seen" for Vlas and "staring into your soul" for Chanel. They're also holding hands. The background is a light desaturated reddish color.]
Felt like sharing this Laughing Jack doll I made for a friend's birthday!! I don't really go there but I thought the Creepypasta crowd would appreciate him :3
It's funny, realizing your narrator is literally The Gold Standard Podcast Narrator halfway through preproduction. We swear it wasn't on purpose. Vlas, buddy, welcome to the weird eye powers club🎉
Redraw by @valerijworlds
Image description:
A redraw of the Spider Men pointing at each other meme, with Vlas Danchenko and Jonathan Sims in place of the Spider Men. Vlas is a tall, broad young man with brown skin, long curly black hair, eyebags, some facial hair, prominent body hair, numerous moles over his face and body, and some scars on his arms and his left hand. He's wearing a muted green t-shirt with a rocket print on it, grey shorts and red sneakers. Jon is a tall, slim man with brown skin, long wavy greying black hair, eyebags, facial hair, and dotted scars over his face and body. He's wearing eyeglasses, a muted green sweater over a white button up, grey pants and black shoes. Vlas has a cluster of bright red eyes behind him, and behind Jon there's a halo of bright green eyes. The car in the background has also been redrawn to be a purple sedan.
Our podcast is currently in an active preproduction state. The episodes are being written, the team is being formed, the unbearable animal fear of telling the story to more than two people which feels like holding the whole world on your shoulders like a titan but you are a proud spaghetti-handed fella and are standing on the nails of your own expectations– is being spread slowly... And all the other joys of the creative process! So, to lighten the mood, here's a small list of media we take inspiration from and why:
– Camp here & there
One of our biggest inspirations dialogue-wise. Blue Mayfield once said that one of the hardest things, while creating a podcast, is to make people sound like... people! And we totally agree with that! We look up to Mayfield&Co. and hope to reach the level of writing brilliance which is "Camp here & there".
Art done by @vranart
– La La Land (2016)
"Here's to the fools who dream" – we say. "Road to Moscow" is a lot of things and it is definitely a story about love and dreams, and about how one can harm the other. We could spend hours talking about the artistic genius of "La La Land"! While our budget, unlike the uppermentioned, is an astounding zero of money, it doesn’t stop us from dreaming big.
Art done by @jewishgayrat
– BoJack Horseman
We'd love to be able to talk about serious matters like this show did. Although we also hope to bring more diversity to it. So, BoJack Horseman, but with a lower age rating (note: "Road to Moscow" is aged for audiences sixteen and up) and queer! Like extremely queer! Like.. Everyone Is Queer!
Art done by @valerijworlds
Image description:
1. A digital drawing of Vlas Danchenko depicting him from the waist up. The piece is done in colder, muted colors. Vlas is a tall, broad young man with brown skin, long curly black hair, dark brown eyes, some facial hair, visible body hair, a dark scar on his palm and numerous scars on his wrist and forearm. He is wearing a dark blue t-shirt with the Camp Here and There logo on it: a teal hourglass with white sand, a yellow crescent moon in the top half of it, and a yellow forest landscape in the bottom half. He is looking to the side with a neutral expression and holding up a tape recorder with his left hand, seeming to speak into it. The background is solid grey with a white dotted line circle behind Vlas's head.
2. A stylized ink and pencil drawing of Zhivago Vita Oberon depicting him from the waist up. Zhivago is a thin young person with lilac skin, wavy purple hair that goes slightly past her collarbones, red eyes, fangs and pointy ears. He is wearing an oversized white t-shirt. Zhivago is disheveled and wide-eyed, raising one of her hands, aggravated as he says, "what do you mean you don't like jazz?", the text written in messy cursive handwriting.
3. A cartoonish digital drawing of Chanel Bojko depicting him in side view from the chest up. Chanel is a fat young man with freckled light skin and blond shoulder-length hair cut in layers. He is wearing a light green off-the-shoulder top and silver infinity sign earrings. He is pressing a bottle of space-looking liquid to his lips, throwing his head back with his eyes closed as he drinks from it.
Chanel himself is colored in soft, slightly pinkish hues, while the background is a vivid halo of orange, purple and teal.