#Aegis Shield

[agre-sora]

⚔️𝕯𝖊𝖘𝖕𝖊𝖗𝖙𝖆 𝖋𝖊𝖗𝖗𝖔⚔️

I'm honored that I'd participate in @fraldariuszine as creator of TTRPG cards. I hope you could find it so catching and fantastic as the rest of the amazing art in this zine.

I hope you can get it as well my 🌹botanic🌹spotlights inside.

[madcat-world]

Nature’s Aegis - Zara Alfonso

[tera-starstorm]

the unending reign of hop topic continues

[hermesmoly]

could you write something for zeus? anything will do 🙂

Thank you for asking me this nonnie 🫶🤍 I’ve written a little something for Zeus and Amaltheia (+Hera) Everything is under the cut!

——————————🐐⚡️🪷———————————

The rain poured heavy on Mount Ida that night, almost like the sky was in a fit of rage, or containing a dangerous heartbreak. The cave quaked and loosened its pebbles as thunder roared outside, leaving a young boy inside to quiver under his blanket, the cold wind seeping through his back.

“It’s okay, you’re okay Zeus,” Amalthea soothed, nuzzling one of his ears. The boy’s head rested on her stomach, serving as his pillow. The boy huddled closer to his mother, his blue eyes gently peeking out to match hers. “The sky is angry again.”

“It is, sweet one,” she said, her voice soft among the sound of rain. “The sky is vast and endless, but it too has its limit. It weeps for what it cannot hold,” -and screams for what it cannot be. Her mind finished.

“Hm,” Zeus eloquently replied, sitting up to rub his eyes. Shifting back into her nymph form, tender hands scooped him close. Looking at him now, his golden curls now covering his eyes, the passage of time almost startled her. She still remembered him as a babe, aching for the milk she supplied in the absence of his true mother.

She knew she didn’t have enough time. Enough time with him. But as she held the weight of a small king on her shoulder, fighting his way to a good night's sleep, the nurse of Zeus could not care less. There was no point in wailing about the nature of things, so she would treasure each moment while on this Earth. Just as Gaia intended.

You will one day rule the sky, or the sea, or Tartarus itself, she whispered, kissing his forehead. His hair still damp from the bath she had given him earlier. You will learn to be friends with the rain. You are a fountain of possibilities, my sweet one. An averter of evil. A gardener of change.

Wherever I’ll be, I’ll be watching you.

——————

“It’s okay, I’m okay,” Zeus muttered to himself, in a lonely cave.

Hera was at the entrance, just out of his peripheral view, conflicted if she would go in or not. She checked to see Zeus laying his head on his curled-up knees, her eyes then landing where his were, on the cave drawings his former self had drawn. A smiling stick figure and a goat. Zeus reached to trace the lines, giving with a faint smile, almost broken.

Hera drew back. It felt like intruding on a deeply personal moment. Crete is a foreign place, but it is my brother’s home, she reminded herself.

Willing herself, she goes into the cave. Zeus spots her and tucks his head to the other side, embarrassed. His forehead had bore a scar from what had happened.

“Can I… sit here?”

Seeing his slow nod, she sat gently, leaving space between the two of them.

After a moment of thought, she spoke.

“I’ve always been curious about how and where you grew up. I thought it would be nice to see your old home, a chance to get to know you better, seeing how often we don’t see eye to eye. I also thought by going here it could also help me understand our mother better.”

Her eyes crunched up, voice increasing indignation. “But then you kept avoiding the topic of your home, no matter how hard we tried. Mother won’t look you in the eye. Your goat-shield goes missing, and you act as if Kronos also ate you as a babe. You yelled at Prometheus for offering to make you a new one, accusing a random giant of stealing your shield without proof. And then you tried to mess with that giant by yourself, And then you lied to us about it!”

Each sentence left Zeus more and more ashamed, his eyes now focused on the cave ground. Hera opted to speak softer, her anger dissipated. “You’ve been acting strange all day. I can’t help if I do not know what is wrong. Does it… have something to do with this cave?”

What’s wrong cannot be fixed, Zeus wanted to retort, before stopping himself. She’s right, almost always is. “You’re right. I wasn’t thinking straight.”

Hera did not respond, waiting for him to gather his thoughts. He turned to face her, forming a sentence with his mind but his mouth faltered. After a while, he found the words.

“That shield, it’s called an aegis. It may look like a normal ‘goat-shield’, but it’s important to me…

It’s my mom.”

“Your.. mom?” Instead of providing answers, this just opened up more questions.

Zeus nodded, looking a bit amused at Hera’s confused face. Any other day she would retaliate, but she decided to let it slide for now.

“I don’t talk about it because it happened a while ago, but… before Mother Rhea found me, I had a different mom. Her name was Amalthea.” His eyes land on the drawing again, before tracing at the goat.

“That was her?” Zeus confirmed with a nod. “At first I had three nurses entrusted by Mother Rhea, and Amalthea was just the goat who nursed me. But the threat of Kronos meant they could not stay in Crete for long, so they would not be found out as traitors. Rhea appointed the Kouretes to make noise to drown out my cries… and Gaia, she-

“She gave Amalthea a nymph form. A body that allowed her to switch from goat to nymph, whatever form I needed as my nurse. Gaia gave her a new life, a sound mind, a greater form of sentience and- she- I used to sleep on her stomach all the time. One day, when I was still little, I broke one of her horns by accident and cried so loud, the Kouretes were making noises loud enough to block out the noise of the whole Mountain.“ Zeus laughed.

“I was a wreck. I thought she’d be angry and leave me. But she didn’t. She changed herself to her nymph form, showing me she was okay, and held me tight. She filled that horn with fresh herbs and fruit, and said “Even broken things can hold something beautiful.” Zeus smiled fondly at the memory. Hera listened intently, her eyes mirroring his fondness.

“She gave up everything she was for me. Gaia didn’t grant her a purpose outside of raising me, so she never made her immortal. I begged Gaia, begged her to ask Gaia immortality, but neither would agree to it. Said nature can’t be changed. I don’t understand it. I can’t understand why,” Zeus drew his knees, unable to look anywhere other than the ground, tears forming.

“She told me that when she dies, she wanted me to use her skin as part of my shield. So that she’ll always be with me, to protect me. But now she’s not with me. Someone or something took her from me and… I don’t know what to do,” His voice broke.

“..And then Mother Rhea told me we’d travel to Crete to plan, I didn't know how to face the Kouretes again. They kept her horn in case I was ready. I thought I was, but I was wrong. I can’t go back there yet. It was stupid of me to throw myself at that giant. I don’t know if I was angry or just needed a distraction. I’m sorry, for lying and making you all worry.” He buried his head in his arms, feeling a comforting hand on his shoulder.

Hera’s head felt clearer than before. She prompted Zeus to look at her. “From what you told me, I think she loved you deeply. A part of her will is alive, because you keep her memory alive. Wherever she is, she’s watching you.” Hera then stood up, lending a hand to Zeus, who accepted it. She turned to leave the cave, still holding his hand.

“Where are we going?” Zeus asked, still lightheaded from the crying.

Hera turned to give him a soft smile. “First, for you to apologize to our siblings. Then, we leave. That shield won’t find itself now, will it?”

——————

Years later, a new King of The Gods was appointed. The King drew a gentle goat, his cherished nurse, and immortalized her the way she would have liked, into the tapestry of stars. “I think I’ll miss you forever,” he whispered above. From there he feels a drop of rain on his head, and welcomes it.

[balladetto]

     He doesn't realise how long it's been since he's seen his reflection in full until it happens.

     Link catches glimpses, sometimes. Has been catching more of them the less hard it becomes to connect a thought to an act: in the cups of tea he's beginning to hold again, along the polished edges of Granny Thera's plates when she guides his fingers around spoon handles, outlined by the fixed shadow he casts when Verley sits the both of them down by the hearth. On the days where Link's head doesn't feel so much like a sheet of glass all fogged up, he can see these flashes of what must be him in everyone's eyes, too. It's an image he's been trying to piece together longer than anyone knows.

     Peering back at him from the sun-washed waters of the village pond, marred by endless ripples, it's an image he finds he can't recognise.

     This should bother him, some faded, isolated part of him thinks. Then the idea twists into something that feels easier to touch: should this bother him? Link traces the blank face coloured paler than he thinks he's ever remembered it, observes the dull flatness of the overgrown hair. There are hollows in the water where those eyes have sunken in. Those narrow shoulders are hunched lower than he feels they are. Beside this mess of pieces stands Granny Thera's reflection, gently holding its hand.

     Something within his chest aches, suddenly; sharp, and cold, and distantly familiar.

     It knocks him back into her side with a choked gasp, fingers squeezing tight and eyes snapping shut. The shape lingers on his eyelids, warping at the seams, and he compulsively pushes a palm against them in an attempt to chase it away. A whimper rolls in his throat because it hurts, and it keeps hurting even when Granny Thera tugs that hand off to pull him into a hug.

     "Oh, dearie," she frets. "Dearie, what's the matter?"

     Link shakes his head against her collarbone and grabs fistfuls of her shawl. Nothing. Everything. I don't know. I don't know who that is. The awful feeling beneath his sternum builds and builds and builds: the words sit somewhere he can't reach them, somewhere he can't reach any of them, the way memories of the experienced Before have been slipping through his grasp. I don't know who that is. I don't know who that is.

     Suspended as he is, he doesn't register moving. Isn't aware of stumbling along Granny Thera's shuffling steps as she leads him back the way they came. He is following a thread his body can't remember how to put down, afloat in that crushing current — then the quiet of his home, thick and stagnant, cuts through the echo of the pond's purling. The sun leaves. The smell of something staler than everything beyond these walls returns. Link swallows, and feels the work that takes.

     The thread snaps.

     Here, where he can only see himself mirrored in half-fractions, the calm is muffling. Thoughts of things lost, of things taken, of things he can't comprehend — the overwhelming too much of it all wanes against the soft comfort of apathy that blankets him once more.

     "We'll try again next time," Granny Thera murmurs as she runs a tender hand through his hair, patting a rhythm that he breathes to on his back. She carefully sits them on his bed.

     Link leans his head on her shoulder. He closes his eyes.

     He wants, with all that is still able to want, to apologise.

[ideas-on-paper]

Real Boy ending, Golden Lie & NG+ death counter

(Nothing special, just a few final comments on my NG+ playthrough)

[MAJOR Spoilers for Lies of P]

When Geppetto calls Pino a puppet after you give him the heart:

It was at this moment that Pino knew: He fucked up.

(It does confirm that Geppetto sees P merely as a puppet though - when he is talking to "his son", he is really talking to Carlo's heart.)

But hey! I finished my second Lies of P playthrough! Wohooo!!!

It's a bit of a bummer that I wasn't able to get the Golden Lie in this playthrough either though, despite technically having more humanity points than the last time. (Also, if I ever do a third run, I'm gonna go for the Free from the Puppet String ending, so I won't get it then either.)

However, I think I may have an idea what the reason for this is: As far as I can tell, the pop-up message "Your heart is pounding" only is displayed after you gave Sophia peace. I only got it two times in my first playthrough, after listening to the last two records, which wasn't quite enough to unlock the Golden Lie. However, even at the point when I long should've exceeded the humanity points necessary for it, I only got "You feel warmth" in my second playthrough. This is because I chose to let Sophia live the second time around, for roleplaying reasons. I was playing a Pinocchio who lied on every possible occasion, but who didn't have the heart to kill any person he was close to. (The cruel irony being, due to his inability to see any evil in his beloved father, he ultimately ended up killing all the people he cared about.)

So, if you want to get the Golden Lie, you have to give Sophia peace. I thought the choice with Sophia only affected the ending, but apparently not.

As a result, I had never seen the description of the Golden Lie before, so I googled it. And, as with so many items, it actually contains lore-relevant information:

"There are two kinds of lies. Yours is the lie that makes your nose long." The boy loved the fairy tale about the wooden puppet's adventure. At least the wooden puppet's father was kind.

Since I wasn't aware of this, I had assumed the fairy tale of Pinocchio being Carlo's favorite book was just a really good fan theory, but this pretty much confirms it. Also, judging by the wistful remark "at least the wooden puppet's father was kind", I think Carlo's heartfelt wish was just that Geppetto would love and appreciate him, deep down.

Last but not least, I'm pretty proud of myself that I finished the game with just 16 deaths in total, 9 of which were from boss fights - discounting the Nameless Puppet of course, since I didn't fight it in my second run. (Once again, I did the boss fights without Specter for my own fun, since they're a bit too easy for my taste otherwise.)

I'm actually sort of curious: Has anyone else managed to beat the game with less than 20 deaths? (I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if there are pro gamers who can finish the game with below 10 deaths, but just out of curiosity. ^^)

[titanomancy]

New year, new campaign. My group is going hard into Epic Legions Imperialis and, with the addition of a Bambu P1P to the toolbox, we're expanding our collection of very small scenery with 3d printed parts from Grimdark Terrain.

The end result was really impressive. I had written off filament deposition printing for miniatures when the higher resolution resin printers started being able to compete with store-bought a few years ago, but the level of detail with this extruded PLA is really something else. Some of the undercuts are a little ugly, but you won't be able to see them in the course of regular play.

Conceptually, this piece is a city sector-wide void shield projector akin to the palace aegis network described in Siege of Terra. The massive discharge of exotic energies originate from the elevated dish creating a toroidal field pattern - so you can't just shoot at it from the ground, necessitating its capture by infantry forces if you wish to bring it down. A much more cinematic objective marker than a spare die or token.

If you want to build your own, the list of parts can be found past the break - Rudolf at GDT does some pretty impressive scenery and deserves your support.

Titanomantic Aegis Void Shield Network Projector

#AG-059 - Argos - Megabunker Connection Peg x 8 #AG-063 - Argos - Pavaise VS Projector Coils x 4 #AG-064 - Argos - Pavaise VS Projector Dish x 1 #AG-068 - Argos - Mega Bunker Side Pipes x 4 #AG-070 - Argos - Air Control Tower Base x 1 #AG-072 - Argos - Air Control Tower Top Connector x 1 #AG-073 - Argos - Air Control Tower Circular Balcony x 1 #AG-080 - Argos - Recessed Shield Coil x 4 #AG-083 - Argos - Makro-Bunker Base x 1 #AG-085 - Argos - Makro-Bunker Base Wall 2 x 4 #AG-091 - Argos - Makro-Bunker Pillar 1 x 4

This build utilizes parts from three separate Grimdark Terrain .STL packages; July 2021, February 2022 and November 2022. July and November are critical components for the major assemblies, but if you're stingy you can substitute the Recessed Shield Coils from February by doubling the number of #AG-063 Pavaise VS Projector Coils.

[topios]

Definitely my favorite look for Aegis. I only organic'ed it up ever so slightly. Chaos is after all all about the organic shapes.

[msmc-796-official]

Conversely, what about least favorite mechs

// You didn't specify whether to do them from all manufacturers or just one, so we're gonna interpret this as least favorite mech overall.

To answer that question for myself - the SSC Death's Head. RA almighty that thing is hideous. They took a perfectly good superheavy-mount sniper and ruined it. Look at it, it has those creepy-ass human feet and everything. Disgusting. What a waste of a good frame name; if the Death's Head had been literally anything else, it would have been cool.

+ easy answer here as well. can't fucking stand barbarossas. "ooh look at my giant apocalypse rail I'm gonna nuke you from orbit in four turns" shut the fuck up. we already know your dick is minuscule; you're male-bodied and pilot a HA frame, for RA's sake. bite my shiny metal ass and get jammed, you walking size 4 scrapheap

> My initial answer was going to be a HORUS frame of some variety. I do not like HORUS mechs. However, for reasons that I trust are entirely understandable to anyone remotely familiar with the events of the Fireman Saga, I am changing my answer to the HA Genghis. (The exact variant matters not; the only difference between the Mk. 1 "Worldkiller" and the Mk. 2 "Genghis" is the number of warcrimes its pilot wishes to commit against civilians at a given time.)

-- Angel, Slipshod, & Lockbreaker

[koroart]

Rodrigue WIP to cool down for the evening ( definitely gonna color this one soon ~ )

[bi-leth-eisner]

Annette would definitely have Garudyne and Wind Boost & Amp and Matarukaja and Felix would definitely have Brave Blade and Auto-Rakukaja and Apt Pupil

[huntersulamaka]

I really love drawing Medusa's head on Aegis, the snakes and the scale texture were so much fun to draw even though the yellow marker covered them up quite a lot. Might make another one with clearer scales idk yet. It also low-key makes me want to try my hand at drawing Medusa herself.

Maybe I'll give it a shot

[jinmalos]

has anyone talked about how the aegises are referred to as holy grails (or at least, thats what their japanese titles translate more accurately to) yet. no clue what to say about it but i was just wondering if anyone's analyzed that yet

[tera-starstorm]

hey guys it's me mr. oc x canon gay rivals with a little oc x canon gay rival compare/contrast for you. Long winded infodump incoming

by now you may be aware that hop and yasuta have known each other since they were like 8 years old. ever since they met the two of them have sort of just hung off of each other all the time like. hop's always just been a very physically affectionate person and yasuta latched onto him (quite literally) because he was a very anxious child and trusted hop as a sort of "anchor". so as they get older they continue kinda just being Like That yknow. and as they start developing feelings for each other they don't really... Realize? the line between platonic and romantic is just so blurred for them and the process happened so slowly and gradually neither of them realized. there is no very distinct "oh shit i think i'm in love with him" moment for either of them. like there was of course a realization for both of them but it was sort of just "oh wait huh. that makes sense" and they're both pretty comfortable with the idea of being in love with each other. like the realization perhaps isn't as nerve-wracking as you would think it might be. sure there's some nervousness in the form of "would anything change if i told him" (mostly on yasuta's part tbh) but the IDEA of loving the other feels very natural and like. i think the best way i can put it is that it doesn't feel foreign to them because of the way it was built up SO slowly over time and how they've always behaved around each other.

now on the flip side. yuki and kieran did not meet that long ago. by the end of mochi mayhem and after yuki's uh. Little Plan. it's been a couple of months. kieran obviously fell for yuki fast and hard but i think until end end of indigo disk it was largely infatuation. it gets Very real after ID though. and like... he Knows how he feels about yuki and is having a lot of trouble figuring out how to deal with it. obviously he doesn't wanna fuck up their friendship and figures yuki does not and never will feel the same. kieran doesn't even really feel like he deserves the second chance at friendship he got and the fact that he feels the way he does kinda scares him! he sort of bounces between moments of boldness in which he strongly tries to make gestures that imply how he feels and moments of getting really nervous and being like "what am i doing i have to stop before i scare him away he would never feel the same"

and yuki. So yuki i think did develop a little bit of a crush on kieran in teal mask but it was not like. on the same level of kieran's infatuation with him. and i also don't think he like... Realized he had even DEVELOPED that little crush in the first place. much like his brother before him he just goes "i feel a little differently about him than my other friends. how quaint!" and moves on without thinking about it further. weirdly enough i think it was during ID where those feelings started getting a lot stronger as his worry for kieran grew. and at somepoint between ID and MM he has a very distinct "i think i'm in love with him" moment.

so. that's the big thing i think. unlike hop and yasuta, yuki and kieran did not grow up together and sort of have time to grow into those feelings so that they didn't seem so scary. when yuki realizes this it is SCARY because it's such an unfamiliar thing and like. it also requires him to think about himself which he doesn't like doing. nevermind the fact that he was a disaster between ID and MM so this stacked on top of all of that did not do him any favors emotionally. but even after those other things are resolved it still makes him SOOO fucking nervous. i mentioned it earlier but it literally makes him so nervous he gets nauseous over it sometimes. and it's unusual because yuki is typically very headstrong and just Goes For Shit and nothing makes him this visibly nervous. but like i said this requires him to consider his own feelings and i do not think he likes that ❤️ this isn't even to mention that he is somehow FULLY UNAWARE OF THE FACT THAT KIERAN LIKES HIM AS WELL AS IF IT WASN'T THE MOST OBVIOUS THING ON PLANET FUCKING EARTH. he's still working on distancing himself from the idea that he's not a burden and deserves to live and feel and this whole situation is really putting that to the test i think

[currentlyonstandbi]

took down Laxasia on NG+2 first go lmao

[balladetto]

this is definitely not what they intended when they said "the name link is engraved on [the sword]" but this video put the image directly into my head and i cannot stop thinking about it lsfkdjlf