Red Strings
The Red Strings, or as they're more commonly known the Red String of Fate, are a new youma type introduced in the A Stitch In Time TinyPlot. Red Strings are exactly what they sound like, the literal magical manifestation of the Red String of Fate, that mysterious and mythological connection and relationships between two or more people.
Fated romances, fated friends, powerful parental and familial bonds, mentorships that change both parties forever and more, these are all things that create bonds so powerful that words like fate and destiny are not out of place. People that share the Red String of Fate will always find each other. In every incarnation, in every timeloop, in every reset invoked by Homura's Shield or Queen Serenity's Wish this bond will exist eternal. These relationships are among the most powerful forces in the world and the fabric they weave together is reality itself-- or at least that's one possible interpretation.
This sounds like a terrible thing to want to fight, but though the Red Strings are a literal manifestation of these concepts, the actual minions seen are not made of any specific strings. Destroying them isn't really destroying them, but banishing them back out of sight and to the invisible dimensions around reality beyond space and time where they belong.
Red Strings come in two forms but are very similar in most ways, Minor Strings and Major Strings.
All Red Strings
- Are a dark red in color and made up of immense scribble tangles of tiny red string.
- Appear jittery and jerky, their stringy internal forms constantly shifting. (The signature SHAFT style of animation. Think Witch Labyrinths.)
- Are impossible to visually fully focus upon. They can be seen, but they neither shed nor reflect light, nor do they cast shadows of any kind. They are figments of the magic of reality that should not exist within it, and so can be unsettling to look upon, especially as these discrepancies are noticed.
- Have no attack other than contacting a person.
- Upon touching someone Gives intense, rapidly flashing visions of an Important Relationship; a vision of one of their very own Red Strings of Fate.
- These Relationships can be friends or family! They can be, but do not need to be romantic in nature.
- Alternately: Gives intense, rapidly flashing visions of their former lives in the previous 150 timeloops Homura has created by resetting time.
- Immune to all forms of Time Magic
Minor Strings
- Are simply shaped; long and thin. Snakes, worms, string, yarn, ribbon.
- Tend to dive in and out of visible sight/reality through rippling portals, like a fish jumping above the surface of water and back again, or a worm burrowing above ground and back down again.
- Are relatively simple, weak, and easy to dispatch.
Major Strings
- Are shaped like Flying Things: Birds, butterflies, bats, kites, paper airplanes, real airplanes.
- Move quickly and sporadically, making much greater use of the third dimension of height.
- Are tougher and more actively threatening.
A Minor String
A Major String
Running Red Strings
Initially Red Strings should not be run until the A Stitch In Time TP advances as at the beginning only appear within stopped time. Once generally available players should ask staff before running Red Strings and should only experience Important Relationship flashes upon contact unless the Previous Timeloop memory is okayed ahead of time by staff.
As Red Strings are not especially powerful or aggressive opponents consider using them alongside other enemies as an additional element or as light combat before social RP.
