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Renascence: A Homura Quest

Honorifics or Western-style Titles? I've used both before, which is bothersomely inconsistent

  • Japanese Honorifics (-san, -sama, -dono, -chan, -kun, -senpai, etcetera)

    Votes: 12 33.3%

  • Western Titles (Mister, Miss, job titles, Lord, Lady, etcetera)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Use whichever works better for a given sentence.

    Votes: 24 66.7%
  • Total voters
    36
  • Poll closed .
Reader mode
Ah, the roll explains the dangerous part. For those not in the know, Fate-verse magecraft is very hostile to its wielder in more modern times. I believe it was mentioned in quest by Sayaka herself as an off hand surprised mumble but every magus worth their salt subscribes to one truth above all others.

"To be a Magus is to Walk With Death"

Might not be the exact wording, but it's close enough for the purpose. In essence, if you don't have what you're doing planned out to the absolute tiniest detail, you'll die. And everything in Fate is trying to kill you on top of that. Hell, there's a chance that even a 100% safe plan can get you killed because that's just the kind of world that place is.

So... yeah let's ax any Trace plans, very high chance we'll lose Sayaka if we do. As for what to do, Spi.Guyver did bring up a good point in that it's not necessarily a violent action, we're making a call before we have the chance to ascertain that (admittedly under some very fair paranoia).

I will admit I'm partially entranced by the tantalizing prospect of rescuing Matoko even from beyond the edge what with the connection and Gertrud's sudden form change. And I don't quite want to throw the possibility out if it is in fact there. If we had a Memento Meguca close to Matoko we might've had more options but... hell's bells we haven't had that system for nearly long enough to have had that chance.

I almost wonder if Kyoko can work something out. Unlikely, admittedly, since I'm thinking of the time she fought Oktavia and... we know how that went.
 
The fact that there's a possible connection between Gertrude and a Memento!Matoko makes me think that Memento stuff would work in some way here. And, if we need to end up taking down Gertrude, then we'll likely need something with Conceptual qualities... Like Heartstopper. Striking into the past seems pretty conceptual to me.
Main issue is, how do we connect to a most likely insane alternate version of the Matoko that Homura knew?
 
So we managed to beat phase 1 of Gertrud with some damage from Kirika and a single enchanted rocket. We have 19 more of those in stock, and 5 recharges worth of grief seeds. I'm leaning towards the "Abuse timestop to do everything" option. The only concerns I have are that whatever the hell Gertrud is now might not be fully affected by timestop, or that the interaction between Gertrud and the Mementos is enough to qualify as "touching Homura".

Higure said:
Hmm...I should point out that "Trace On" is an option, but does not include a write-in slot for details. Homura is not aware of the details of Sayaka's abilities, and cannot readily direct her use of them.

Unlike Shirou, Sayaka's Tracing requires her to "learn" new Phantasms. Trying to use one without first learning it means making a roll to force it; this is extremely dangerous, considering how this is working on her end.

If "Trace On" is selected, Sayaka will attempt to turn the tide. How she will do this or what it might involve is not something Homura knows.
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Sayaka's lack of self-preservation instincts leave me...concerned about choosing Trace On here to say the least. Not sure what to have her do. Ideally she won't need to do any of the actions and Homura just wrecks the witch via timestop. I'm tempted to choose "Save Kirika" just to make sure nothing slips through, but Sayaka's track record and the info that it'll be difficult to save everyone makes me leery of it.


AzureGhidorah said:
As for what to do, Spi.Guyver did bring up a good point in that it's not necessarily a violent action, we're making a call before we have the chance to ascertain that (admittedly under some very fair paranoia).

I will admit I'm partially entranced by the tantalizing prospect of rescuing Matoko even from beyond the edge what with the connection and Gertrud's sudden form change. And I don't quite want to throw the possibility out if it is in fact there. If we had a Memento Meguca close to Matoko we might've had more options but... hell's bells we haven't had that system for nearly long enough to have had that chance.
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I mean she can still control the familiars, which are manifestations of a Witches Grief/mental issues/self-hatred, so that doesn't bode well. If she didn't have hostile intentions I doubt she'd be motioning her familiars towards a target. Even if there's a small chance that she can be saved, it's absolutely not worth the risk. Sayaka's still a non-meguca rookie, we only tangentially know this Oriko and Kirika, and our weapon supply is limited. On top of that, it doesn't matter what timeline it is, a constant is that if Kirika dies, Oriko isn't far behind and vice versa. Also I don't want to imagine the impact losing this Sayaka might have on Homura.
 
catDreaming said:
The fact that there's a possible connection between Gertrude and a Memento!Matoko makes me think that Memento stuff would work in some way here. And, if we need to end up taking down Gertrude, then we'll likely need something with Conceptual qualities... Like Heartstopper. Striking into the past seems pretty conceptual to me.
Main issue is, how do we connect to a most likely insane alternate version of the Matoko that Homura knew?
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Its not just a connection though, by all rights it looks like she's tearing Makoto out of our Soul and/or trying to consume her.

Again she has a Black butterfly on her face, Nyarlathotep's symbol in the SMT/Persona-verse, who stands opposite of Philemon, the one who set up the Velvet Room and is represented by Blue butterfly.

By all clues so far this connection is a wholly negative thing and Homura has nowhere near the knowledge to use the connection to hack her way into getting Makoto back if such a thing is even possible.

And if we lose Memento Makoto we might just lose her permanently.
 
... crap that WOULD explain the whole "pain that can't be turned off" thing, Homura can only turn off pain to her physical body but this implies soul-deep pain. How'd I not notice that earlier? Although I'd like to point out that neither the butterfly face, nor her wings were strictly stated to be "black". The only "Black" I can find is in her chains. Still, black and butterflies, even unrelated, on a single individual would be cause for concern where The Crawling Chaos is concerned.

[X][Sayaka] Save Kirika

[X][Homura] Abuse Time Stop to do everything you can.
-[X][Homura] Rain as much firepower as possible down on Gertrud, with maximum Power and Damage Enchantment.

I don't think Gertrud, potentially, trying to nom Memento!Matoko is enough of a connection to count as 'touching Homura'. I admit I have no reason to think it's not enough, but also have no reason this think it is. If we had awakened Memento!Matoko already, I would be much more concerned. This is... quite the thing though, so if someone has a better idea by all means speak up. Admittedly even this isn't strictly my idea, I just made the vote first.
 
I mean...

Gertrud trying to nom Memento!Matoko is enough of a connection to count as 'touching Homura'.
 
Spectral Waltz said:
I mean...

Gertrud trying to nom Memento!Matoko is enough of a connection to count as 'touching Homura'.
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I will not answer that at this time.

ShadowAngelBeta said:
Point, but we can blue ask. The color wasn't mentioned at all either when it was her heart or her face. I... kinda would guess black because Grief even if I hadn't made that mistake.
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This is the butterfly from the last form. The new one's looks similar.

ShadowAngelBeta said:
*Raises finger*


*Lowers finger* Damn.

Still almost worth it. I don't remember the consequences for our sanity crashing like that though.
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Sanity hitting 0 leads to Witchout.
 
Yeah I thought about Bargaining too. But even if we had the resources to burn on it, I'm willing to bet that "undoing a Witchout" wholesale without enough information would've been beyond its ability anyway. It mentions only doing slight distortions so we would need to know not just the core reason that consumed Matoko but the exact action/result/whatever that finally pushed her over the edge.

At least that is my understanding of Bargaining. If you don't know what exactly you're Bargaining for, you can't Bargain accurately and may get screwed over and not get what you want. Without the right information we could've burned 500 SAN and Grief to just slightly delay her witchout, rather then averting it.
 
AzureGhidorah said:
Yeah I thought about Bargaining too. But even if we had the resources to burn on it, I'm willing to bet that "undoing a Witchout" wholesale without enough information would've been beyond its ability anyway. It mentions only doing slight distortions so we would need to know not just the core reason that consumed Matoko but the exact action/result/whatever that finally pushed her over the edge.

At least that is my understanding of Bargaining. If you don't know what exactly you're Bargaining for, you can't Bargain accurately and may get screwed over and not get what you want. Without the right information we could've burned 500 SAN and Grief to just slightly delay her witchout, rather then averting it.
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I was thinking twisting time's arm a little since that's our specialty anyway.

Bargain to find Matoko Before she Witched out instead of After.
 
So, to briefly summarize our musings, we've decided that Sayaka shouldn't Trace On, and that losing Sayaka would be really bad for Homura.
If we assume that the pain that Homura can't turn off is coming from Gertrude drawing on power/memories/soul-stuff from Memento!Matoko, then our courses of action are either:
Disconnect Gertrude from Memento!Matoko and/or Destroy Gertrude.

We definitely can't use Bargaining, instant witch-out feels just a bit permanent to me. Here's my vote, but I'm open to arguments for other action.

[X][Homura] Save Kirika
- [X][Homura] Focus on defense. If the familiars are still hostile, then taking the offensive will be necessary.
[X][Sayaka] Protect Homura
 
[X][Homura] Save Kirika
- [X][Homura] Focus on defense. If the familiars are still hostile, then taking the offensive will be necessary.
[X][Sayaka] Protect Homura
 
[X][Sayaka] Save Kirika

[X][Homura] Abuse Time Stop to do everything you can.
-[X][Homura] Rain as much firepower as possible down on Gertrud, with maximum Power and Damage Enchantment.

I'm sure somewhere out there in this setting there's a very nice meguca that has powers that makes her look like a horrifying amalgamation of a meguca and a witch.

That being said sometimes a book that looks like it's cover was bound in human flesh, is in fact, bound in human flesh.
 
So, whether its accurate or not, I just thought of something that could potentially explain the "Memento!Matoko isn't 'touching' Homura" I'm running with

Each of the Memento Meguca, while technically present at all times, by their very methodology require an item keyed to them. Kyouko's Cross, Homura's Glasses, etc.

We don't have Matoko's Key Item which we would have to hold/wear/whatever to change into her. Without that item Memento!Matoko was completely unknown to us until this arc and as such, like Memento!Kyouko prior to waking her up, effectively did not exist.

Also, at this point, do we have the time to consider defense? I'm stealing this line from a dead RP I was in (and it may have been taken from somewhere else) but I seriously think we need to consider the unrestrained response. If Beta's right about their guesses of what's going on, this might be the only turn we have before irreparable damage is done.
 
Hm.... @Higure Do you watch the anime adaption of Magia Recrod?

And since my gut is going against evidence in the post:

Gertrude's directions for her minions at the end of the most recent story post are indeed hostile.
 
[X][Sayaka] Save Kirika

[X][Homura] Abuse Time Stop to do everything you can.
-[X][Homura] Rain as much firepower as possible down on Gertrud, with maximum Power and Damage Enchantment.

We don't have time (yes, I know, sue me) to play defense.
 
Spi.Guyver said:
Hm.... @Higure Do you watch the anime adaption of Magia Recrod?

And since my gut is going against evidence in the post:

Gertrude's directions for her minions at the end of the most recent story post are indeed hostile.
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I haven't yet, but plan to sometime.

Gertrude's directions for her minions at the end of the most recent story post are indeed hostile.
 
I won't get better at phrasing for blue truths without trying, and this seems like a good opportunity.

Homura Akemi, Sayaka Miki, Oriko, and Kirika refer to the characters labeled as such in the most recent story post for the purposes of this truth.
Gertrude's directions for her minions at the end of the most recent story post are hostile in particular towards some or all of the following: Homura Akemi, Sayaka Miki, Oriko, Kirika.
 
catDreaming said:
I won't get better at phrasing for blue truths without trying, and this seems like a good opportunity.

Homura Akemi, Sayaka Miki, Oriko, and Kirika refer to the characters labeled as such in the most recent story post for the purposes of this truth.
Gertrude's directions for her minions at the end of the most recent story post are hostile in particular towards some or all of the following: Homura Akemi, Sayaka Miki, Oriko, Kirika.
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Gotta say, that was a great way to handle identifying them.

Homura Akemi, Sayaka Miki, Oriko, and Kirika refer to the characters labeled as such in the most recent story post for the purposes of this truth.
Gertrude's directions for her minions at the end of the most recent story post are hostile in particular towards some or all of the following: Homura Akemi, Sayaka Miki, Oriko, Kirika.
 
I'm now swayed away from defensive actions, but I don't feel like completely abandoning defensive action for our allies is the right way to go. Will edit in change to vote if that happens.

[X][Sayaka] Save Kirika

[X][Homura] Abuse Time Stop to do everything you can.
-[X][Homura] Rain as much firepower as possible down on Gertrud, with maximum Power and Damage Enchantment.
 
My reasoning is basically this, escape is unlikely without coming under heavy assault, and we might get our focus broken by Gertrud's attack on Memento!Matoko. Any lapse in focus will undo our progress on eacaping.

And defensive focus is untenable while we are unable to determine how to sever Gertrud's connection, meaning the Witch holds all the cards at the moment.

Get Kirika out of there, and rain hell on Gertrud makes the most sense.
 
If we do get out of this relatively intact, I think consulting Memento!Kyoko or Kyoko for extra spear training could help a lot with making use of Heartstopper. I don't like leaving part of our arsenal unused.
 
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