Wip Wednesday

June of Doom: Day 1 "You don't want to do that" -locked door

Each step echoed against the cool cobble concrete walls of the dungeon. Kyrie clutched her necklace tighter the deeper she went, walking past empty cells on both sides. 

It was chaos less than a day ago. Nero had gifted Kyrie the necklace after her performance for the ceremony then his arm flashed blue and a man in red fell from the ceiling. Said man killed Pope Sanctus and some of the guards only to be halted by Nero's intervention. The man in Red escaped while Nero… was detained.

Why, she wondered as she turned into a darker hallway. 

Nero committed no crime save for some property damage which,  given the already dire situation, was of little matter. It was not Credo that ordered for Nero's arrest but his colleague: Agnus. 

What was that blue flash, she thought, Why did the man in Red look so much like Nero?

Kyrie demanded  that Credo tell her where Nero was held and what crime he commited for such treatment. Her usually stern and eloquent brother stuttered while answering as if he was also shocked. The dungeons at Fortuna Castle,  he said, Agnus said that no visitors are allowed.  

Like that would stop me,  Kyrie thought bitterly.  Nero was really rubbing off on her. 

She heard the rattle of chains at the furthest cell in the dimly lit hallway. Picking up her pace she walked towards the cell and peered inside only to see Nero, blindfolded, shackled, and collared to the floor of what it seems to be a pentagram glowing an amber colour. When she called his name, Nero perked up his head to the direction of where she was standing outside his locked cell. 

"Kyr-" he started, only for him to suddenly jolt and convulse on the floor, opening his mouth as if to scream but with no sound coming out. 

"You don't want to do that," came a distant voice. Kyrie turned her head to see Sanctus, alive and well. She held in her shock as he strolled up beside her, watching Nero wither in pain for the following minute. To Kyrie, it felt like hours. 

"Young Nero is unwell, " Sanctus explained as he watched Nero take in his breaths, "his fight against Dante cursed him to have that arm. "

Krie knew that was a lie. Nero's arm had been in a cast for the past weeks. Dante is a recent development.  With a poker face,  she asked,  "Then why the chains and collar? Nero is no dog or criminal,  he's a human."

Sanctus turned to her and smiled. Something that she once knew to be warm felt cold and evil. "Nero is possessed by Dante's demonic minions. All those… accessories are merely for Nero and our safety." 

Lies.

"Agnus will cure him soon." She needed to get Nero out of there. 

"For Nero's health, " he turned and started walking down the hallway,  gesturing for Kyrie to follow, "let us go upstairs and pray to the Saviour."

She glanced at Nero,  all chained and sweaty, and silently promised to come back for him after figuring out a plan quickly following after the old man. She heard the chains shake but if Nero said something,  she was too far away to hear it. 

She saw,  however, a flash of Red quickly pass one of the dungeon windows. 

2 minutes no looking at pictures of The Character

so who else gets irrationally afraid and embarrassed about their interests being known to people in real life

my roman empire is the fact that dr. ratio couldn't get into the genius society because of how much he cares for others. my roman empire is the fact that the way that he loves and has too much empathy will be his own downfall. my roman empire is the fact that he spent so long thinking that he was enough only to be hit with the reality that the world and life is cruel and his heart is too soft for the universe he was born into.

my roman empire is that dr. ratio cares. he cares so damn much. he loved too much that it held him back from his ultimate goal.

dr. ratio they could never make me hate you.

this is the funniest thing I’ve read in my LIFE

thinking about how when you punch a mirror so that it cracks and fractures into multiple shards reflecting your own visage back at you, you're really just ironically surrounding yourself with more of the self you loathe in your quest to attain self-destruction. the grotesque reproductive quality of gouging pieces from yourself in order to lessen the burden of existence, and in the process only proliferating more individual aspects of You, shedding them as you go. much to consider.

normally i wouldn’t make a post like this, but i hope at least some people will see it:

from this NYT article

from this WSJ article

just so everyone has the information.

this is the biggest pokemon leak weve ever seen. holy fuck.

ive been here for multiple beta leaks since the spaceworld gold demo in 2018 and the diamond and pearl beta leak somewhere after that. this is by far the most intensive leak of beta pokemon stuff ive seen.

source code and beta builds for gens 3, 4, 5, and later 6 and 7. it is MASSIVE.

there is so fucking much and you can see coverage here

this document from junichi masuda made in 2005 is the highlight for me, the symbol used in the hgss arceus event. it seems the legendaries are like a greek pantheon of deities

but we got more

internal development and discussion. universe creation lore, character profiles (e.g. skyla is a sexy latina pilot inspired by jennifer lopez and isabella fontana), never before seen designs, seen-before designs (latiken had a fucking sprite!), concept art, gen 3 had some darker looking discarded designs. WHAT IS THIS IT RULES

here are compiled beta sprites from gens 3, 4, 5

AI disturbance overlays for those who don't have Ibis paint premium. found them on tiktok