application for subnautica

[reversing]

OOC INFORMATION
NAME: Xander
AGE: 23
PREFERRED CONTACT: walpurgisnacht
CHARACTERS IN GAME: N/A

IC INFORMATION
NAME: Homura Akemi
AGE: 14 + nearly 100 repeats of one month
CANON: Puella Magi Madoka Magica
CANON POINT: Following Kyoko sacrificing herself to stop Oktavia von Seckendorrf.
CANON INFORMATION: Here is a wikilink!

PERSONALITY:

"Madoka Kaname, do you treasure the life you currently live? And do you consider your family and your friends precious?"
Homura Akemi's first appearance in the series is wrapped up in mystery; she desperately calls out to Madoka despite the fact she's falling, clearly losing a fight - and then Madoka's dream ends. The new girl in her school looks strikingly like the girl in her dream, but she carries an aloof, independent air. She speaks curtly, never saying more than necessary, and her blunt honesty is sharper than a knife. This is the girl Homura has built herself up to be: She does not rely on other people, does not give people space to enter her life and isolates herself further and further from those who might have been a help to her in the past. In essence, she can come off as awkward or creepy, clearly knowing more than she lets on, but unwilling to divulge.

This outer shell is who she presents to the world, a necessary coping mechanism to deal with the trauma she's endured. Thanks to her magical abilities, she has endured the same month long time loop of constant despair approaching one hundred times. Her existence revolves around this length of time, and it shows; she cares little for anyone or anything that isn't Madoka, the girl she vowed to protect. Her only and best friend, Madoka is the person Homura is most devoted to, the person she'd willingly cast the world into darkness for. Her dedication to Madoka displays, too, that Homura is a deeply selfish person; in the past, she asks Madoka to become a witch with her and lay waste to the world that was, in her own words, "awful." Considering the fact that Homura had found out the hard way what the fate of all Puella Magi is - to turn into the witches that they hunt - it's not surprise she harbors a sort of anger and hurt towards the world at large. She has no family, no friends, and she is ill with a heart condition. To her, this world was never entirely worth saving. What was worth saving is Madoka, the only person who saw worth in a girl who contemplated suicide because she felt so useless.

"Are you really okay with me? I'm... gloomy, after all."

Homura feels a level of self-hatred for herself, to the point the Clara Dolls, the lost children inside her Witch's Barrier, openly call her "good for nothing." This hatred is displayed when present Homura smashes past Homura beneath her fist in a fit of rage and hurt after Madoka disappears beyond her grasp. She feels useless, and resents herself. She doesn't mince words; she is true and honest when she says that she will atone for her sins, of which she believes she's commited many. As a person, she doesn't feel as though she's worth much, but she uses herself to protect Madoka. She announces that she'd go through this time loop again and again, no matter how long she has to, and has little care for the person she might become. Killing Madoka is what gets her to snap - the promise she makes Madoka is the one salvation Homura can see, and the fact she continues to fail, and fail, and fail brings her anger and grief. No matter how hard Homura tries, it seems that she's fated to watch Madoka contract with Kyubey and then fall during her fight with Walpurgisnacht. Alternatively, Homura is unable to overcome Walpurgisnacht, meaning that Madoka will contract to save the world, fall into despair through the strain of her abilities, and doom the world, anyway.

From this stems her one track minded determination. She will stop at nothing to achieve her goal: Protect Madoka Kaname. It doesn't matter how many times she's seen Mami die and it doesn't matter how she seems to the other Puella Magi - to Homura, she's doing what she has to in order to progress and save Madoka. In reality, her actions seem unnecessarily hostile, and it's no surprise that Mami, Sayaka and Kyoko view her as unpredictable and difficult: They don't have the information Homura does, but convincing them of it takes too much time and even if they do know, Madoka will be forced to watch them die or pick each other apart. Upon finding out that they're destined to turn into witches, Mami shoots Kyoko, destroying her soul gem and thus killing her. She then turns the gun on Homura, but Madoka saves her at the cost of killing Mami. During this scene, Homura hurriedly convinces Madoka that they can take on Walpurgisnacht on their own.

This scene subtly displays Homura's dedication to Madoka and how she is willing to disregard everyone else for her. Sayaka is dead, Kyoko is dead and Madoka has killed Mami after she attempted to kill Homura. While this loop did affect Homura, she quickly puts the situation aside to comfort Madoka. Homura doesn't give the situation more thought than necessary, for Madoka's sake; her goal is simply to keep Madoka going, to save her, to keep her alive and happy. That's all she wants, at the cost of the other Puella Magi's life, if that's what necessary.

During this loop, Homura is forced to kill Madoka. It's her last wish, because despite Homura's offer, she doesn't want to become a witch and destroy the world. To offset Homura's crushing cynicism and how she only sees the world as a means to be with Madoka, the other girl sees the world as being made up of good things along with the bad things. She's optimistic and sweet, and her last act of kindness is to request that Homura shoot her gem, preventing the cycle from continuing in that loop.

"No one will believe me about the future. No one will accept the truth about the future. I know what to do now. I won't rely on anyone anymore. I don't care if no one understands."

When she jumps back in time, Homura's tactic changes and this perfectly displays the sheer determination she is capable of. When her abilities aren't obvious, she is incredibly powerful, even moreso than the rest of the girls; it's difficult to break down her powers and predict what she'll do. She uses her power to it's full potential: upon awakening, Homura heals her heart condition, fixes her eyesight and then goes on a witch hunt. In this loop, Homura kills every witch possible, determinedly hunting them down and destroying them in increasingly explosive ways. She's brutal and desperate, resulting in the girl you see today: aloof, difficult, and cold.

That said, she's not above using people, too. Homura asks Kyoko to help her fight Walpurgisnacht. During their partnership, Homura openly chides Kyoko at times, bluntly deriding her irrational and fiery ways. In fact, the only jokes Homura cracks during the series is when she's telling Kyoko she disapproves of her actions. When Kyoko and Sayaka fight, Homura intervenes and tells Kyoko that if Sayaka truly won't back off from a fight, then Homura will handle it. Kyoko then retorts that she only gets the amount of time it takes her to eat a stick of pocky. Homura doesn't miss a beat, stating that it's "plenty of time."

She only puts forth an effort for other people because she doesn't want Madoka to suffer; Homura openly tells Sayaka that she doesn't care if she dies. All she cares about is Madoka, and she states if Madoka saw Sayaka die, then Madoka would experience sadness. Homura will go through great lengths for Madoka and only Madoka, because it has become increasingly clear that only her promise to Madoka matters. In fact, Homura speaks down to Madoka a few times, trying to intimidate her into backing off from contracting with Kyubey. She refers to her as a fool and speaks coldly - all because her only goal is to make sure Madoka does not become a magical girl.

This does not, however, mean that Homura was ever incapable of creating bonds with other people. She seems genuinely distressed over the rest of the Holy Quintet's fate prior to the mercy kill she enacted, and during the last loop, Homura seems to be concerned about Mami, Sayaka and Kyoko to some genuine extent. When Kyoko makes the decision to stay behind and handle Oktavia von Seckendorff, Sayaka's witch form, Homura looks back at her with worry and hurt clear on her face. When she leaves the barrier, and the witch is killed, Homura utters Kyoko's name only once. There was no reason for her to show this kind of emotion; Madoka was asleep in Homura's arms. It seems this was a genuine regret for Homura. Homura also seems to be genuinely hurt over Mami's fate. When she explains it to Madoka, her expression is stoic, but her eyes are emotional

Simply put, Homura has distanced herself from everyone in an attempt to make achieving her promise to Madoka possible. When she trusts people, it backfires on her, the stress of the situation causing more and more pain, or she loses her friends in fights. This stress also affects Homura, who must keep her soul gem in check. As a result of this coping mechanism, she comes off as a cold, stoic, and difficult person.

The truth is, she's just really desperate, and lost. Homura admits at one point that she lost herself in all the iterations of time she's gone through, that she no longer knows who she is. She openly explains that she feels more and more isolated and distant from everyone with each loop, likely owed to the fact that she's gone through more and more traumatic situations with each loop. At one point, Homura Akemi was a teenager with a nervous disposition. She was awkward and didn't get along with the other kids in class, feeling that she was useless and a burden to people. It's true; she was gloomy and sad, too jittery to be able to get along with people, and her heart condition made it even more difficult for her to find her way through life.

To overcome this, Homura wishes for strength - strength to protect Madoka, who she considers her only and truest friend. Madoka is the one human connection that Homura has made, the only person who believed in her. Rather than feeling like she was a burden to Madoka, Homura sought her out, joining Madoka and Mami on their witch hunts. Above all else, she prizes strength; she wants to protect, but she has no problem with destroying, too. What Homura really wants, in a way, is to prove herself, to be truly independent and, perhaps, normal. When Madoka defeats Homulily, Homura sobs out that she's sorry she's weak; she isn't sorry for what she's become or what she's put people through. She regrets the fact she wasn't strong enough to stop any of it.

Lacking people skills since the beginning, she was always just trying her best to be happy, and when given the chance at friendship, she took it eagerly. To Homura, Madoka was her best friend, her only true friend, and she's clung to her because of that. She's lonely, an orphan who was never adopted, and tries to keep the one person she thinks was okay with her by her side. The bottom line is this: Homura Akemi is a lonely little girl.

"I'll do it over, no matter how many times it takes. I'll re live it over and over again. I will find a way out. The one path that will save you from this destiny of despair."

ABILITIES:

Homura is a magical girl, and while this sounds sweet and innocent, it's actually led her to become an OP powerhouse. I'm cool with nerfing of any of these as well as capping any of her abilities, as a note.

◆ Time Manipulation:In Puella Magi Madoka Magica, your wish shapes your abilities as a Puella Magi and this wish leads to Homura's foremost ability. Homura is capable of freezing time and rewinding it via her shield. Due to the fact that her wish was to protect Madoka, her abilities are defensive rather than offensive, resulting in the shield in question. It seems to have a gear activated sand timer in it that Homura can use to trigger her time manipulation. If the flow of the sand is stopped, so is the flow of time. It is possible for Homura to run out of sand; in this case, she needs to tip the timer so that the sand will flow backwards. By doing this, Homura rewinds time a month back. This is in direct reference to the fact she had only just known Madoka for a month before she died fighting Walpurgisnacht. It is possible for her to go further back, but it is not known how far back Homura can jump. The furthest that has been canonly confirmed is a day before meeting Madoka.

Due to her abilities being defensive rather than offensive, Homura uses her time stopping abilities to imitate flashstepping - she isn't actually flashstepping. What she's doing is stopping time for a few seconds at the most, running forward at her usual pace and then unlocking the sand in her timer, allowing time to flow again. Homura's ability is hidden well in tactics like this; Kyoko actually refers to Homura's abilities as "funky" and is unable to figure out what Homura's magical power is.

◆Soul Gem Magic: When a magical girl is born through contract with an Incubator, her soul is ripped out of her body. It is then placed in a soul gem, which is exactly what it sounds: A gem with a soul in it. It can take many forms, but the faberge egg form is pretty much the iconic one for the series. When she's in her magical girl form, her soul gem is embedded on the back of her left hand, and when she's a civilian, it's a stone in a ring on her finger. The soul is removed from the body to make fighting witches easier on magical girls; without doing so, their souls would be able to feel the pain their bodies are actually put through, rather than make it tolerable. Removing the link between body and soul means that Homura can detach herself from her body to an extent that allows her to not feel any pain. She is capable of having a skyscraper slammed into her, and putting a bullet through her skull with little repercussion aside from some wounds. What this means is her endurance is above average. Additionally, she has healing capabilities: Homura once had a heart condition and needed glasses to see, but she healed both of these things following the timeline where she mercy killed Madoka.

Due to the state of her existence as a magical girl, Homura must keep a close eye on her soul gem. If it is removed from her body outside of a hundred meter radius, her body will collapse and she will be, physically, dead. Additionally, her soul gem can become tainted, and the only way to purify it is via a grief seed. Grief seeds are a witch's egg, and it'll suck up the despair and curses that accumulate in a soul gem. A soul gem can become tainted in many ways - using her magic will taint her soul, as well as experiencing negative emotions such as sadness, grief, and anger. Simply existing uses up magic, as well, so avoiding using her magic and only ever being happy won't keep her from having to hunt down witches for their grief seeds. Homura is not invincible; a magical girl's body can be destroyed (as seen in the case of Mami, who is eaten alive) and if her soul becomes fully corrupted, she will become a witch. Witches are eventually hunted down and killed by a magical girl. Finally, if her soul gem is destroyed, she will die.

◆ Shield: Homura's wish produced a shield, and it functions as you would expect a shield to, as well a sand timer and clock, and a hammerspace. Homura's time related abilities have been detailed above, as well as how her shield reverses time. In essence, Homura's shield resembles the insides of a clock. As long as the clock is running, a sand timer inside her shield will run. Homura can stop the gears, halting the sand, and freezing time itself. When she does this, the world turns grey, and everything stops. It is possible for her to run out of sand, and this would force her to tip the sand timer. When this happens, Homura returns back to a month ago.

The hammerspace function of Homura's shield works very simply - she can carry anything within it. The size of this thing doesn't seem to matter, and the amount of things also does not matter. It seems she is capable of pulling whatever she wants out of it, provided she already has it in there. Homura generally stores weaponry in her hammerspace, but it's not out of the question for her to keep something as simple as a coat in it, she just tries to utilize it as well as she can.

It is also a simple shield and can block attacks.

◆ Weapon Experience: Homura can make homemade pipebombs. This is something she learned to do one timeline to make up for the fact she only had a shield with time stopping abilities. While it's a powerful ability, Homura's defensive ability was, she was told, more of a hindrance than a help, so she equipped herself with as many weapons as she could. Following learning how to make bombs in her bedroom, she raided the yakuza's weapons lockers, taking what she could. She then taught herself to use the guns she stole. During one timeline, Homura repeats this on a larger scale and lifts military grade weaponry from the Japanese Army. By the end of the series, it seems that she has proficiency with a bow and arrow, as well.

◆ Homulily: If Homura's gem is fully corrupted, it will crack and release Homulily AKA the Nutcracker Witch, her witch form. Witches cast barriers, magical spaces that can only be inhabited by people who know where to look for them. They lure civilians down into despair via a Witch's Kiss, a mark upon their necks. Often, the Witch's Kiss will lead a person to suicide, causing more despair through out the world. Homura's witch form's goal is to act out the march to her execution in her barrier. It is her last wish, after all. In this form, Homura exists as a remnant of herself inside the witch's head, and Homulily's minions refer to her as a good for nothing. The bow upon on her back are a pair of hands that reach out and destroy everything in their path if Homulily is attacked - otherwise, they will cling to the ground and try to keep the witch from reaching the guillotine. Her nature is noted as "self-sufficient." As a note, Homulily would likely not be touched upon in game, and if she were, it would be done with mod permission - after all, killing Homulily means that either Homura becomes evil itself, or dies.

INVENTORY: Her shield and soul gem. Her shield is full of weapons that Homura has lifted from various sources, but upon arrival, they'll be ejected from her shield. In turn, Homura will be picking up ten items from her arsenal, since that's the limit allotted for hammerspaces. None of these items are larger than herself, also! Please let me know if she cannot retain any of these or not all of them.

◆ Homemade Pipebombx2
◆ M26 Grenade
◆ Beretta 92FS
◆ Remington Model 870
◆ FN Minimi
◆ RPG-7
◆ Howa Type 89
◆ Desert Eagle Mark XIX
◆ 9mm ammunition

It should be noted that if Homura's allowed to, she'll consistently be restocking from the pile of weapons she brings with her, though most likely that'll be in the form of bombs. She likes things that are most efficient.

MEMORY ALTERATION: Homura, carrying Madoka, steps out of Oktavia von Seckendorff's barrier. As she does, however, Madoka is suddenly gone, and Homura's in Iindae instead of the industrial buidling Sayaka's witch had landed in. Whoops?

SAMPLE:

Does she need a suit? She isn't sure, but she decides not to risk it. Her body is strange, and she does not consider herself human, but she still tastes and smells, she still feels and bleeds. She might as well not test the limitations of her body's breathing. It would only serve to slow her down, and she recognizes this plainly. Homura remembers Kyoko's last words to her, and she decides that, yes. It's true. She only need protect what's most important -

But what's most important isn't here, which means that Homura isn't protecting her. She needs to quickly do what's necessary to fix the fact she isn't capable of that, and the best way to do that is to do what's asked of her, of the people here. She takes it upon herself to do as necessary and no more than that by making her way into the water. As long as there's something to do, she'll do it, and as quickly and efficiently as possible. This wasn't easy in the beginning, because swimming wasn't exactly something Homura was adept at; it came easily, she assumes, to those who hadn't spent so much time in a hospital bed. Quietly, she curses herself for being spineless. She quickly decides to forget that. She cannot carry more than is necessary, and she'll won't come up with excuses. Away with it, that emotion; she tosses it aside, leaves it behind her in the ocean.

There's a school of fish that need guidance, because they've been scattered thanks to a predator. Now, it has been asked of them to lead them back to their families, and Homura decides that this is something Madoka would want done, so she does it based on that and only that. There will be more to do, she's sure of it. There is always more to do. Somehow, though, this feels like the thing Madoka would most expect of a magical girl, and that's what pulls her toward this in particular. She can see well, her eyesight repaired, and with her heart no longer straining to keep up with her body, she can pull off an elegant sort of form. She can do this.

And it begins with groups, she notices. Some stood together, some drifted apart. They look frightened, she thinks, but she isn't sure if that's because of how they scatter when they first see Homura. It could be in the way they approach her nervously when she gestures, reaching out slowly and gently. She isn't sure how to be understood anymore, and it's a complicated process, making sure she doesn't shove her hand out to point them forward so she can scour the area for similar looking, larger fish. By the fifth one, she understands how to mimic a sweet, knowing gesture well enough that it seems like they understand.

It takes hours, but she doesn't care. She stops time only when they need to pass by something large and imposing, slipping past the creature without it noticing. Homura has to be clever about this, because fish don't actually stay in your arms very well, and especially not multiple fish. Thankfully, with time frozen, they're forced to stay where she leaves them until she unleashes the gear, letting the sand pile up inside her shield.

It takes hours, but it doesn't show in her stamina. Endurance is her strong suit, of course. Eventually, she feels like she's led at least a dozen tiny little fish back to their schools, back to their families, a strange mess of shapes and colors that she's only seen in a witch's barrier before now. This time, however, everyone can see this; the surreal way that these things are built together, the strange way light reflects on them. It's weird, but it's somehow even more real because of that. To Homura, strange is just what she knows. It's not a witch's barrier, but it's happening.

It's over in the evening, when the acidic flora glow a green that she feels like she knows but has never seen before now. It's always new, it's always different, and she's making her way back to the base, not dissatisfied but not fulfilled. The color is bright. It's heavy. She doesn't experience bright colors as easily as she used to, when she thought that burning up passionately was something she could become. No, instead, she sees that striking green and thinks that the world is dyed a monotonous green. Green as far as she can see.

It's over, but she rounds a corner and sees a speck of red, or maybe it's pink. Homura turns and floats, staring back at the speck.

A lone fish, small and nonthreatening. If it wanted to attack her, it would have by now. She recognizes it, with a slow blink; it must have been in the last group she delivered to the school of fish. The way green bounces off its scales, turning red (or perhaps pink) a fluorescent shade of blue, it reminds her of an orchestra that plays eternally for a boy Homura only vaguely knows of. She raises a hand.

What are you doing?

It floats and -- she thinks it's staring back. Curious, she waves her hand. I will lead you back, and she swims beyond it. She cuts through the water smoothly, quickly, for a few moments. It strikes her, then, to look behind her, and the cyan bathed fish is nowhere to be seen.

She stops.

She slips back to where she'd been, only a few meters from the base. She has a hunch that's confirmed when she comes close enough - it hasn't moved. The tiny fish swims in a circle, waiting for her. Again, Homura raises a hand, and her agitation is growing more and more as she does. Hadn't she just taken you to where you belonged? Were you saying you didn't want that? Her brows furrow, just a touch.

Are you following me?

Of course, it can't answer her thoughts. She waves behind her again. Come on, let's go back. She repeats the process twice more, and twice more, it doesn't follow, only waiting for her to continue her way back. Eventually, she decides that if the thing wants to be a fool, she will let it. It isn't her fault, and it's clearly a completed mission. If it's capable of making a decision on it's own like this, it can fend for itself out here. Homura slips past it, smoothly, zipping back to the base quickly.

When Homura reenters the base, it cannot follow. She makes no attempt to let it in, and she doesn't think she should. If it stays, it stays. If it goes, it goes. She won't be responsible for it - she thinks of the blue of Oktavia's skin, the blue of her helmet, the blue the fish's scale reflected, and she thinks about Kyoko's words. Holding yourself down, protect only what's most important.

From her side, a drone pipes up in the form of a song: "All you're ever gonna be is mean, why you gotta be so mean?"

She's used to that, the sarcastic, demanding quips and the way people don't understand, though the fact it's coming from a floating drone gets her to stop, to stare. She considers for a moment whether she even wants to respond. Is it worth it to try and communicate her agitation? (It's not agitation, she reminds herself, she doesn't need to be understood.)

"Consider keeping your thoughts to yourself. If they're a waste of time, most people won't want to hear them."

As it floats away, the tune still plays. However, it drops in volume, and Homura could almost swear that it has, in fact, understood her words. Running a dry hand through her long black hair, she flips it, and then takes long strides deeper into the base.

Nailed that interaction, in her opinion.