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 .
Ok, I didn't comment on it for whatever reason I can't remember the last turn, but the lack of rollover on socials is killing me. Is there a reason I missed for why you're not allowing overflow for socials but do for training skills and such? I may be missing something obvious 'cause I'm spitting this out quick before getting some sleep I should've got hours ago, but yeah.
Rollover was something I only added for Training Skills because you need to be able to cascade more than one of those in a single action.

Everything else lacks rollover because I want it to feel like a series of sequential victories, rather than one long continuous process, and I think rollover creates too much of a feeling of continuity. It also avoid situations like, say, reaching a threshold because of a Friend's action or an off-action increase (as with Mami's Social), and having a situation where the value is overflowing the max, but you've not actually upgraded the social link/advanced the Mystery.
 
(Seductive Englishwoman)

Oh dear, I forgot we had that.

  • Development DC: 100
  • Special Prerequisite: Medical 75

Well, seems like we have a long way ahead of us.


Anyway, interaction with Okabe was everything I hoped for. Now, I guess it's time for our trip to England, meaning this turn should probably be about settling a couple of things before we leave. We probably want to keep working on Akemi Madness and False Memories (though I'm almost afraid of completing False Memories just before leaving).

Mami seems like the obvious target for a social action right now. Home action... more of the same? Perhaps supplementing our training with another SAO session.

For our training actions, I'm thinking our Social isn't completely hopeless anymore, so maybe we can go for a Development + Medical Expertise combo and start on the long road to reach the prerequisites we need. There's got to be an easier way to raise medical expertise somewhere, though. And I guess there's an argument to be had in favour of one more round of Social, given where we're going.

For the Research action, not too sure. The easy way would be to go back on working on the Yamamto, but I'm tempted to try to get the blueprint for a couple more magical projects, see what we should aim for. Maybe something to improve Time Stop's efficiency?

And finally, mission should be the visit. Not too sure about bringing Ruki - and she'd probably want to work on the Yamato rather than spend several days abroad - but Oriko should be a decent choice. Maybe Snow?

Anyway, thoughts?
 
Oh dear, I forgot we had that.



Well, seems like we have a long way ahead of us.
Consider prototyping a Working sometime.

Anyway, interaction with Okabe was everything I hoped for.
Did he come across right? I went back and watched a good chunk of the dub in an attempt to get a grasp on his voice and thought processes, but I do sometimes struggle to stay true to source characterization.
 
Did he come across right? I went back and watched a good chunk of the dub in an attempt to get a grasp on his voice and thought processes, but I do sometimes struggle to stay true to source characterization.

As far as I can tell. He's not an easy character to write, but I think you did a good job of it.
 
That Welsh woman had a brother--that's nothing new, she did before, too. Yet, his life has changed. Where he once seemed to disappear from history, now he remains prominent, until eventually his children intermarry with House Britannia.
Oh gods. We're related to Lelouch vi Britannia! Just how distantly related are we? Just how far back did this Welsh Noblewoman enter the Akemi bloodline and just how recently did her brother's enter the Britannia line?
the Akemi myth of the True Clock
This has peaked my interest for some reason. Of course the Akemi's would have a myth about a clock. Now, I want to know the details of this clock. Tell me, does Homura know this myth? Is the Homumind willing to share said myth with the playerbase?
In the end, someone found me and saved my life, and we became friends,
I'm curious who this friend was. My first instinct is to say Junko, but the woman has to have other friends than Madoka's parents. And Junko can't be the only source of heroism in the previous generation.
[ ] Mami (200/200) (Link Up Ready!)
Welp, guess I know what I will be voting for on the Social Action now.
Maybe something to improve Time Stop's efficiency?
I'm down with that.

Now, who are we going to have join us on this trip to Britain to meet Artoria? That's the big question right now.
 
Oh gods. We're related to Lelouch vi Britannia! Just how distantly related are we? Just how far back did this Welsh Noblewoman enter the Akemi bloodline and just how recently did her brother's enter the Britannia line?
Homumind says she entered the Akemi bloodline in 543 AD, based on the family records.

This has peaked my interest for some reason. Of course the Akemi's would have a myth about a clock. Now, I want to know the details of this clock. Tell me, does Homura know this myth? Is the Homumind willing to share said myth with the playerbase?
Homumind's gonna hold off until I write the myth verbatim and drop it in an update. Suffice it to say it's an important focus of the Akemi family's traditions.
 
Ok, here's a possible first draft.

[X] Plan Last-Minute Laundry List
[Investigative Actions: 2]

-[ ] Friends? (598/2000) [Madoka]
-[ ] Akemi Madness (199/500)
--[ ] with Houhouin Kyouma
[Social Actions: 1]
-[ ] Mami (200/200) (Link Up Ready!)
[Home Actions: 2]
-[ ] Special: Play SAO with Sayaka and Miho Miki
-[ ] Training: Melee
--[ ] With Miho Miki (Bonus: Sword Specialist Training)
[Mission Actions: 1]
-[ ] A Royal Invitation (Will involve leaving Mitakihara for several days. The crown is providing a private jet.)
--[ ] Oriko Mikuni
[Creative Actions: 1]
-[ ] Research a Theoretical Magical Working
--[ ] Find ways to improve Time Stop
[Training Actions: 1]
-[ ] Train a Skill
--[ ] Social
---[ ] with Oriko
[Sleep Actions: 4]
-[ ] Sleep
-[ ] Sleep
-[ ] Sleep
-[ ] Train a Skill
--[ ] Development

I purposefully picked two Investigative actions that won't finish immediately (but with some work already underway) so we can fly for England with a clear mind. Obvious Social pick is Obvious, and Home Actions are mostly more of the same - we're actually going to be pretty good in melee at this rate. Mission Action because it's time and nothing is on fire yet - only frustrating part is that we'll almost certainly miss the Pathfinder session Sunday.

EDIT: thinking about it, I also want to trying investigating Akemi Madness with Okabe. We know he's curious about it himself, we got a good rapport from the get-go, and an outside PoV on it might be interesting.

Decided to follow Higure's suggestion and go for a Magical Working this time, see what it looks like. Case could be made that we might make a Research specifically on healing our Heart and see what differences with a Magical Spell come up. No matter what, we're going to need the development stat up pronto, so that's what we'll do instead of sleeping. And after thinking about it, I decided that one more round of Social wouldn't hurt before talking to royals.

Now, as to picking a travelling companion, I think Oriko might be our best bet. Ruki seems like an odd pick (beside flexing our senpai status), and she might not be thrilled to leave to begin with. Oriko is likely to be a good pick for navigating Camelot's politics, and it's also a good social opportunity with her. That's also why I chose her for the Social training, might as well review British etiquette together.

Thoughts?
 
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Time for another update of other character's skill ranks! Except, well, there's nothing really to update.

Sayaka: Magecraft 13, Melee 52+?, Social 25
Ruki: Engineering 20
Oriko: Magical Theory 30+
Kyouko: Investigation 10, Socialize 13
Madoka: Socialize 40
Mami: Socialize 15
Miho Miki: Melee 53+


Homura has currently got five more book charges for her current Skill level in Medical Expertise, so that's anywhere from 255 to 750 progress on it over her next five training actions on it if her only aids are the books. That would put her in the range of 27 to 31 afterwards. As far as Mysteries that we can settle this turn, we have Azumi (courtesy of Madoka) and False Memories. Since Azumi can be done while abroad, that can wait for next turn. I'm using the plan Macros posted since I started typing this post, with a few revisions.
Those revisions are:
- Inviting Snow along. While Ruki is probably a bit odd, I had forgotten to consider Snow as an option. This is a good chance to advance her Social Link as well, and maybe find out more about her. To parallel Macros plan, I'm also proposing them training Social together. Finally, if Snow comes along, there's a chance we could handle her Favor while in London. Would keep things simple, if we could.
- Researching another new Spell for a more efficient Time Stop. With a more vague prompt, this could potentially give us any number of things from the Prototype, depending on how Homura pursues it.
- Finally, taking a moment to train Clocksmithing in addition to Development. Until we discover another Mission, repairing the Akemi Clocktower Workshop will the option other than Witch Hunting, Shopping, or Thieving upon our return. She has a guaranteed Teacher for Clocksmithing up through Rank 30 from the Memories of Jii-San trait, and has several books (some of which are written by the Akemi) for Clocksmithing as well.

I'm also putting in a version of this plan brings along Oriko, because there are enough differences at this point for it to be worth considering.

[X] Plan: Day Of Departure (side Snow)
Investigative Actions: 2
-[X] Friends (598/2000) [Madoka]
-[X] Akemi Madness (199/500)
Social Actions: 1
-[X] Mami (200/200) (Link Up Ready!)
Home Actions: 2
-[X] Train Melee
--[X] With Miho Miki (Bonus: Sword Specialist Training)
-[X] Special: Play SAO with Sayaka and Miho Miki
Mission Actions: 1
-[X] A Royal Invitation (Will involve leaving Mitakihara for several days. The crown is providing a private jet.)
--[X] Snow
Creative Actions: 1
-[X] Research A Theoretical Magical Working
--[X] Cure Homura's heart condition, without need for reapplication or ongoing maintenance unless reset by Time Loop.
Training Actions: 1
-[X] Train A Skill
--[X] Social
---[X] Request - Snow
Sleep Actions: 4
-[X] Sleep
-[X] Sleep
-[X] Train A Skill
--[X] Development
-[X] Train A Skill
--[X] Clocksmithing

[X] Plan: Day Of Departure (side Oriko)
Investigative Actions: 2
-[X] Friends (598/2000) [Madoka]
-[X] Akemi Madness (199/500)
Social Actions: 1
-[X] Mami (200/200) (Link Up Ready!)
Home Actions: 2
-[X] Train Melee
--[X] With Miho Miki (Bonus: Sword Specialist Training)
-[X] Special: Play SAO with Sayaka and Miho Miki
Mission Actions: 1
-[X] A Royal Invitation (Will involve leaving Mitakihara for several days. The crown is providing a private jet.)
--[X] Oriko
Creative Actions: 1
-[X] Research A Theoretical Magical Working
--[X] Cure Homura's heart condition, without need for reapplication or ongoing maintenance unless reset by Time Loop.
Training Actions: 1
-[X] Train A Skill
--[X] Social
---[X] Request - Oriko
Sleep Actions: 4
-[X] Sleep
-[X] Sleep
-[X] Train A Skill
--[X] Development
-[X] Train A Skill
--[X] Clocksmithing
 
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Yeah, Snow is also a good choice, I think. I'd be fine with either her or Oriko, really.

I kind of want to try out Magical Working for this round and see what differences we can notice with Magical Spell, but fair enough.
 
I agree with Macros on trying a Magical Working this time around. We don't want a spell to increase the effectiveness of another spell. We want a permanent increase in the spell's effectiveness.

For those that don't understand, let's pretend Time Stop uses 5 MP to cast. We create a spell to bring it down to 3 MP to use but that spell costs 2 MP. We still spend 5 MP to use Time Stop, 2 MP to cast the efficiency spell and 3 to cast Time Stop. I know the counter argument will be it's 5 MP per tic so if we spend 3 tics in Time Stop that's goes from 15 MP spent to 11 MP (3 MP per tic for three tics is 9 MP plus 2 MP for the efficiency spell) but we have no guarantee it won't cost 2 MP per tic just like Time Stop, bringing us back up to 15 MP total.

On the subject of bringing Snow, we do gain some better insight in character into the culture of Britain as she is European. However, if I'm not mistaken she's German, not British so her knowledge isn't going to be as great. We also lose the advantage of having a precog on our side, and thus lose the ability to muddy any opposing precog's ability to predict our actions. So it comes down to which risk do we want to take?

Also, something occurred to me while I was at work...

Homumind says she entered the Akemi bloodline in 543 AD, based on the family records.
If I remember correctly, this is roughly around the later parts of King Arthur's reign. Interesting.
There are stories that claim our family descends from King Arthur
This is Clovis talking about his family here. Essentially, House Britannia believe they descend from Arthur Pendragon.
That Welsh woman had a brother--that's nothing new, she did before, too. Yet, his life has changed. Where he once seemed to disappear from history, now he remains prominent, until eventually his children intermarry with House Britannia.
This is from the latest story post. That Welsh noblewoman Homrua is descended from apparently had a brother whose children married into House Britannia.

This all leads me to wonder, was this Welsh noblewoman related to Arthur? I'll even go one further and see what a Blue Truth can get me.

The Welsh noblewoman that was Homura's ancestor is Morgan le Fay.
The Welsh noblewoman that was Homura's ancestor is the daughter of Morgan le Fay.
The Welsh noblewoman that was Homura's ancestor was King Arthur's daughter.
The Welsh noblewoman that was Homura's ancestor is a sister of King Arthur.
The Welsh noblewoman that was Homura's ancestor is a niece of King Arthur.
 
While I was at work, and contemplating the difference between Spells and Workings, I realized that a Magical Working might actually be better for fixing Homura's heart than a spell. I realized that, to reference Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition, Spells versus Workings can be compared to casting a spell normally and casting it as a Ritual.
Casting a Spell normally takes a spell slot, needs material components, and uses the normal casting time. A Ritual doesn't take a spell slot, doesn't always need material components, and drastically longer than casting the spell normally. Rituals tend to have lasting effects on an area, or can be used to complete very precise and/or involved tasks, whereas Spells are more one-and-done. You don't perform an hours long ritual to throw a lance of power at some random guy, you do that on the spot. But, to create a magic detecting field that binds air elementals to gather and stare at anyone who performs Magic without certain qualifications within an area defined by the recent presence of people who are qualified to do so, you will need an hours long ritual.
The lance of power would be a Spell, whereas the latter construction would be a Working. And since Higure's description mentioned that the efforts were similar to surgery, I suspect that it might work better as a Magical Working. Hence, I am updating both of my plans to research a Magical Working for the Heartmaker effect in place of researching a more efficient version of Time Stop.

The fact that this also gives us a sample for the Research DCs for Prototyping Working is also useful.
 
The Welsh noblewoman that was Homura's ancestor is not Morgan le Fay.
The Welsh noblewoman that was Homura's ancestor is not the daughter of Morgan le Fay.
The Welsh noblewoman that was Homura's ancestor was not King Arthur's daughter.
The Welsh noblewoman that was Homura's ancestor is not a sister of King Arthur.
The Welsh noblewoman that was Homura's ancestor is not a niece of King Arthur.
The Welsh noblewoman that was Homura's ancestor is not Morgan le Fay.
I will not answer at this time.
The Welsh noblewoman that was Homura's ancestor was not King Arthur's daughter.
The Welsh noblewoman that was Homura's ancestor is not a sister of King Arthur.

I will not answer at this time.
 
The Welsh noblewoman that was Homura's ancestor is not Morgan le Fay.
I will not answer at this time.
The Welsh noblewoman that was Homura's ancestor was not King Arthur's daughter.
The Welsh noblewoman that was Homura's ancestor is not a sister of King Arthur.

I will not answer at this time.
Huh. To be honest I was expecting that you'd shoot down even the daughter of le Fay and niece options. So, until we are given evidence to the contrary it is now my head canon that Renascence Homura is descended from either Morgan le Fay or Artoria.

As for the vote...I would hope to see some more discussion on the merits and demerits of taking Snow with us. So far everyone that has voted Snow has more or less just gone "Oh yeah, we have that email asking us to talk to her when we leave, let's bring her with us," without really going over the cons or pros of such an idea and why they think bringing Snow is a better idea than Oriko.
 
Thinking on it, it might not be remiss for you to make an ordered list of candidates, in case your first option for plus one refuses.

Not required, but avoids mid-week emergency votes
 
Hmm. Tempted to go 1 Oriko 2 Snow and 3... Kyoko? I mean it seems like an horrible idea, but she's arguably the most reliable ally Homura has, tends to have good instincts and if an Arturia-expy is currently on the throne, she might actually be more receptive to someone like Kyoko than a more well-manered escort (or she gets reminded of Mordred, and then all hell breaks lose, which... is also kind of tempting in its own right).

As for the vote...I would hope to see some more discussion on the merits and demerits of taking Snow with us. So far everyone that has voted Snow has more or less just gone "Oh yeah, we have that email asking us to talk to her when we leave, let's bring her with us," without really going over the cons or pros of such an idea and why they think bringing Snow is a better idea than Oriko.

Keeping in mind that Oriko remains for now my number 1 pick, I can see an argument in favour of Snow given the fact that she's possibly more familiar with the various British actors than anyone else available, it's a good occasion to bond with someone who seems to be a staunch ally, yet one that we don't actually know that much about, and she seems well-suited for the expected level of decorum of the circumstance.
 
Huh. To be honest I was expecting that you'd shoot down even the daughter of le Fay and niece options. So, until we are given evidence to the contrary it is now my head canon that Renascence Homura is descended from either Morgan le Fay or Artoria.

As for the vote...I would hope to see some more discussion on the merits and demerits of taking Snow with us. So far everyone that has voted Snow has more or less just gone "Oh yeah, we have that email asking us to talk to her when we leave, let's bring her with us," without really going over the cons or pros of such an idea and why they think bringing Snow is a better idea than Oriko.

Keeping in mind that Oriko remains for now my number 1 pick, I can see an argument in favour of Snow given the fact that she's possibly more familiar with the various British actors than anyone else available, it's a good occasion to bond with someone who seems to be a staunch ally, yet one that we don't actually know that much about, and she seems well-suited for the expected level of decorum of the circumstance.
On the inherent hand she is the head of a different organization, her affiliations are political and would send a different message about Homuras allegiance or vice-versa.

It's something to consider, people would expect Snow being there as a political statement and expect her to plot to further her agenda rather than thinking Homura as an independent.
 
It's something to consider, people would expect Snow being there as a political statement and expect her to plot to further her agenda rather than thinking Homura as an independent.

To be fair, a similar thing could be said about Oriko.

... maybe we should just say "screw it", bring Kyoko and watch the ensuing chaos.
 
It's something to consider, people would expect Snow being there as a political statement and expect her to plot to further her agenda rather than thinking Homura as an independent.
Yeah, that's not something I had considered but is right up there with concerns. We would get similar problems with Mami, as she's considered to be Mitakihara's Ruler. So if we stick to girls that wouldn't give ideas of Homura as someone's political tool, we are limited to Oriko, Kirika, Ruki, Yuuma, Kyouko and if she's contracted by now Nagisa.

On that list, Nagisa is unknown where to find her so she's out or at least way way down my list of preferences.

Kyouko I hesitate to vote for simply because we have Arcana Kyouko to get her insights, and we will have to never use Arcana Kyouko during this trip if we bring present Kyouko. If we do not bring current timeline Kyouko, then we can get some minor element of surprise with having a "third" Puella Magi in play the court will not have had too much prior knowledge of. Doubly so if we bring Oriko and she's able to muddy the foresight ability of a hypothetical precog in Artoria's court. Though if we do use Arcana Kyouko in such a situation we do run some risk of offending the King by going around her "one contract escort" invitation, which brings Kyouko back up higher in the listing.

Macros thinks Oriko would send a similar message to using Snow (or Mami based on my earlier comment in this post), but I'm not really seeing how. Yes she's independent of Homura technically, but her actions are in support of Homura's goals, so unless you know Oriko well enough to get that information from her and know she's not playing you she should appear to be either a friend of Homura's or one of the Homu's subordinates. Especially if Oriko can and is willing to give some indication to Homura that any sudden actions she takes are part of her precog abilities so it looks like Homura is in charge. Really, Oriko's availability is the big question I see here on this one. Last we saw her she was helping Yuuma recover from being abused, contracting and apparent sudden memories of previous loops. But it has been a couple days so the healer may be up and ready now.

Yuuma's limitations are the same as mentioned with Oriko, plus Homura is unsure of her own relation with the greenette. For this I would put her very far down the list of candidates.

That leaves us with Ruki and Kirika to consider and think of where we prefer them. Ruki is a healer and has Homura flexing "Senpai muscles." But Ruki is inexperienced at Magical Girling in general and I would presume even less so at politicalling.

Kirika would likely be openly defiant whenever Homura isn't asking for something in-line with the girl's own desires and thoughts, unless given specific instructions by Oriko ahead of time.

So, for me, I think the list of preferences is something like this:
Oriko > Ruki > Kyouko/Kirika > Mami/Snow > Yuuma
 
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Yeah, if we were talking personality, taking anyone other than Yuuma or Ruki would result in them thinking Homura's escort is there for their own agenda instead of making Homura appear independent.

Since we are talking less personality and more the "who's who in Magical Girl politics" Snow comes across as we're her agent. Similar with Mami due to the blond being considered a Ruler somehow.

Actually, thinking on that, since Mami is considered to be Ruler level, and Homura can at least hold her own against the veteran Magical Girl, does that mean Homura is powerful enough to be considered a Ruler if anyone actually knew about her? If so, was there ever any loops where she did gain that title, however brief?
 
Actually, thinking on that, since Mami is considered to be Ruler level, and Homura can at least hold her own against the veteran Magical Girl, does that mean Homura is powerful enough to be considered a Ruler if anyone actually knew about her? If so, was there ever any loops where she did gain that title, however brief?
She has the firepower, but ultimately it's a function of territory control.

Mami successfully held Mitakihara and enforced her rules upon it in the face of an invasion force of 36 Magical Girls, entirely on her own.

Arthur literally rules Great Britain in all but the public's knowledge.

Catherine has every single girl in Moscow under her thumb.

The loop's too short for Homura to earn such a reputation, even if she usurped Mami.
 
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